Columns

Let’s get out of our comfort zone when training. Many of us associate training as a chore or we need motivation to workout. Many of us stay in our comfort zone because it’s where we feel safe. Living in our comfort zone helps us...

September is a month that signals change in the garden. You can feel the weather shifting. Days are not always quite so hot and the nights are longer and cooler. Some plants are at their prime, while others are winding down for the season. I...

I teach the lesson of humility;Overstretched snaps the bow,The usefulness of futility;The advantage of laying low. —Laozi Laozi once left eternal wisdom with a border guard as he wandered off into forests unknown. This paraplegic author outlined his hiking injuries in the Press Banner article,...

Many years ago, I took a group of high school students who belonged to the Interact Club, a Rotary sponsored volunteer group of 14-18-year-olds, to a local community care center to distribute the Christmas gifts each student had purchased with their own money and...

At the end of last month’s column, I wrote that “2023 would no doubt bring new challenges and opportunities.” What none of us could have imagined was how quickly those challenges would present themselves in the new year. The series of atmospheric rivers that pounded...

If you see a recurring theme in my columns about growing successfully in a shady garden, it’s because my last three houses have all had a lot of shade. You’d think I’d have so much experience by now that all my plants would bloom...

My neighbor Sue answered her door sneezing and coughing with puffy eyes and a red runny nose that Rudolph would envy. We live among redwoods and it’s their mating season. Pollen.com predicts pollen levels will increase as alder, juniper and birch release their pollen....

The calendar says summer starts next Wednesday, June 21, at 7:57am. To say it’s been a strange year weather-wise would be an understatement. I, for one, put away the flannel sheets and sweaters a little too soon.  But one of these days or weeks our...

The wisteria blooming now are spectacular. I almost forget about them during the dormant  season as I’m not fortunate to have one in my garden, but once they start to flower they seem to be everywhere, even growing up into the redwoods in many...

Summer is here. The kids might be looking forward to lazy days, sleeping in and not having to worry about homework, projects or tests, but that’s not always the best strategy for a successful summer. It is known that all kids do better with a...