My son worked on the old farm when he was 13

This is my son Eugene, age 13, when we lived on the old farm in Washington State. It was forty acres of brush and over-grown pasture, not much good for anything but blackberries and firewood -- plenty of both. Here is Eugene posed upon a pile of logs. There had been a giant fir tree near the house and we cut it down -- and then split it and stacked it, and used it to keep the old farmhouse warm in the winter.

It was a drafty old house with poor insulation, and the wood stove barely kept us warm, only to sit near it and toast your feet against it -- that was all right.

This photo was taken in 1990. Eugene is 35 now. He lives in Venice and he works as a librarian. You might see him around town -- say hello.