Not near as glamorous as most of you other folks. I am just a poor hill hick that loves the area (not the state) where he lives and finds a way to make it.

Started making money to buy school clothes at about 10
At 12 ½ started working legally moving irrigation pipe in beet fields in the summer and worked in a restaurant as a bus boy/dishwasher during the winter.

At 15 mom divorced my step dad and remarried, moved to the city (Bakersfield CA) and started doing a little body fender work with my new step dad (that didn’t last long)

Moved to St Simons Island GA at 16 and worked in two of the high class resorts there, mostly cooking (Sea Palms and Cloister Hotel) and went to school in Brunswick at Glen Academy

After that I moved back to CA to finish high school (GA was WAY ahead of CA in public school, and other reasons)

Skipping the next 2-3 years
Moved to where I am now at 20, made the decision to work where I live instead of live where I work.

Worked in saw mills for the next 10 +- years pulling planer chain, green chain, pile green chain, fork lift truck, up to 988 loaders, stacker operator …..

Saw mills got run out of the area between environmentalists and the big saw mill companies.

Started in gold exploration and worked away from home most of the time. I worked my way up the ladder in the gold industry to site foreman/reclamation supervisor and that ended.

Went back to school and got my license to prepare income taxes and qualified for accounting assistant and lived off that for a while.

Got a job with the Forest Service as a Minerals Administrator and I am still doing that, until this job gets outsourced (might happen in the next few years) and still do income taxes as a home business.

I was a single parent from the time my son was 1 ½ years to when he moved to TX at 20.

Since I was 12 ½ (at that time you could get a work permit at that age so you could pay taxes) I have paid taxes all but 2 years ….. time to retire, if only I could afford it

Now you folks know more about me than most people that live around here!