life and limbs

life and limbs

Richard Reames arrives on the Nashville stage with pruners, a knife, stretch tape and a few long pieces of 2 x 2. A huge plastic pot is already center stage, under the lights, with three metal bars on the ground next to it. Inside the pot are several tree saplings, about six feet tall. They’re … Read More

a family with pull

a family with pull

writer | designer | photographer the story Click here to read page design photo gallery  

cowboy gospel

cowboy gospel

writer | photographer the story Click here to read photo gallery  

fire man

fire man

writer | designer | photographer page design the story It has been raining steadily in rural Indiana for twelve hours, and it shows between the rows of Jim Campbell’s 6,500 chile pepper plants. He stomps and slogs through the mud, pausing occasionally to point out a favorite variety, and then wrenching his boot out of … Read More

tomatoes out of time

tomatoes out of time

writer | designer | photographer page design photo gallery the story Cynthia Sandberg talks a lot about destiny, and time, and the past. She talks about ancestors who worked the land and passed down to us a “biological urge” to get our hands in the dirt. Maybe that’s why she loves antiques. Not the kind … Read More

home again

home again

writer | photographer photo gallery the story There was a little something different about breakfast with Mike and Sally Gale at Chileno Valley Ranch. After spending a night in the house Sally’s great-great-grandfather built, my wife Charissa and I sat down for a breakfast he likely would have appreciated. What a spread—fresh fruit from vines … Read More

best places to live in rural america

best places to live in rural america

This is by far the oldest project in any portfolio or gallery on my site, but it was such a big part of my work that I couldn’t leave it out, and it’s fun to see this stuff all these years later (for me, anyway). For several years in the mid-2000s, The Progressive Farmer made … Read More