Rural Delivery

by Michael Hofferber. Copyright © 1997. All rights reserved.
“Next time,” says the author Frank Waters, “by hook or by crook, make sure you’re born with a mountain in the front yard.”
And an acreage out back, I would add.
Waters was born to the Colorado country and wrote several classic books (Masked Gods, The Colorado, Book of [...]

In the dark days that follow the winter solstice, the last of December through the middle of January, I anxiously track the growth of daylight for reassurance that the tide has indeed turned and that winter will eventually give way to the brightening of early spring.
At this latitude of approximately 45 degrees, daylight grows ever [...]

by Michael Hofferber. Copyright © 2009. All rights reserved.
This was another one of those bone-chilling mornings.
The thermometer dropped below zero again and the windows were all frosted with ice around the edges where winter tries to ease its way inside. Only the woodpile and baseboard electric, it seems, are holding back an ice age.
Outside, the [...]

by Michael Hofferber. Copyright © 1992. All rights reserved.
I’ve been clearing away calendars and planting new ones. It’s like digging up the gnarly vines and withered roots of last year’s growth. I turn the pages of days gone past, tilling a bed for new year’s sowing.
Days and months and [...]