The Blackberry Toll Road
The Blackberry Toll Road
|Brent Burkett
The Blackberry Toll Road When summer turns the forest’s most aggressive plant into a roadside snack stand Otto stopped at a place where the trail should have been. He was... Read more...
The Dragonfly Air-Defense System
The Dragonfly Air-Defense System
|Brent Burkett
The Dragonfly Air-Defense System The afternoon had been advertised as peaceful. The pond lay bright and still between the firs. Cattails leaned gently over the shallows, wildflowers crowded the bank... Read more...
The Hummingbird Airspace Incident
The Hummingbird Airspace Incident
|Brent Burkett
The Hummingbird Airspace Incident Summer had settled comfortably over the forest. The lake sparkled between the trees, insects hummed over the garden, and every available patch of sunlight seemed to... Read more...
The Bark Rubbing
The Bark Rubbing
|Brent Burkett
The Bark Rubbing Otto and Echo's Field Notes There are respectable ways to study a tree. You can key out the needles. Measure the diameter at breast height. Note the... Read more...
That is Not a Pine Tree, The Sequel
That is Not a Pine Tree, The Sequel
|Brent Burkett
That Is Not a Pine Tree: The Sequel Field Notes from the Otto & Echo Trail Journal Otto should have known better. After the last incident, there had been progress.... Read more...
Not Every Evergreen is a Pine Tree
Not Every Evergreen is a Pine Tree
|Brent Burkett
Not Every Evergreen Is a Pine Tree Field Notes from the Otto & Echo Trail Journal There is a particular expression Otto makes when someone points at a spruce and... Read more...
The Great Moss Debate
The Great Moss Debate
|Brent Burkett
The Great Moss Debate Field notes: fallen Douglas-fir, west-facing slope, mid-morning. Air damp. Observer enthusiastic. Second observer present under protest. Otto has never met a moss-covered log he was willing... Read more...
The Garden Shift
The Garden Shift
|Brent Burkett
The Garden Shift In which Otto has a perfect morning, Echo has none at all, and the garden turns out to have been extremely busy the entire time There are... Read more...
Lost in the Woods
Lost in the Woods
|Brent Burkett
Lost in the Woods In which Otto discovers that a trail system is not a hallway, and Echo turns out to have been right about the snacks There are two... Read more...
The Heat Advisory
The Heat Advisory
|Brent Burkett
The Heat Advisory In which Otto documents the forest's response to extreme heat, and eventually joins it The forest had gone quiet by ten in the morning. Not the soft... Read more...
The Aphid Dairy
The Aphid Dairy
|Brent Burkett
The Aphid Dairy *In which Otto finds a farm on a flower stem, and Echo finds a business model* Otto had discovered an agricultural operation. It was hidden in plain... Read more...
The Swimming Hole Survey
The Swimming Hole Survey
|Brent Burkett
The Swimming Hole Survey Otto had been talking about the pool for four miles. Not this pool specifically. He had never seen it. But he had a theory about where... Read more...