It started with a bucksaw. Just a saw blade on an "H" shaped wood frame. During my barefoot boyhood every homestead in Oregon had one of these contraptions hanging on the front porch along with a 'dinner bell', a few rusty traps, and a horseshoe tacked over the door for good luck.

Every boy knew too well what a bucksaw was used for. I remember. Yet, reminiscing one evening to my children around the dinner table of our two horse Californio ranchero I forgot what this superb, muscle propelled wood cutter was called.

Sawbuck. That was the word still in my mind. I could explain to my son, "Just like a sawbuck pack saddle, only larger, and used to support a log while you wailed away with the previously described, but momentarily unnamed predecessor of the chain saw." Chain saws and pack saddles he understood.

How could a family-time discussion lead to an epic horse journey from Mexico to Canada? Maybe I should explain that we were dinnertime adventurers. We didn't own a TV set at the time, and consequently had become quite good at producing our own "mental-visions." Tuning in on a subject, or a thought, we often would spend the whole evening saying, "Remember; did you know: tell me; show me; why not?"

I am going back many years to recall this evening, but even then Barry Jr., at twelve years old, contributed much from the very adult books he read for enjoyment. Always the scholar in his own interests, as Western History—his family-time "Do you knows" ended up in projects such as building a hidden shelter cabin in the woods that surrounded our horse pasture, or recreating Indian fashions in leather as shown in Charlie Russell paintings.

Bernadette, ten years of age, blond and blue-eyed, was our actress. Quick to play any role, she could cry on demand, but smiled more often. Her "Show me's" ran to portrayals from Laura Ingalls Wielder's "Little House" series of books. That was long before the television program based on these stories, and I feel my daughter captured the feeling of an old fashioned family sharing happiness, sorrow, defeat, and success, better than Hollywood's best.

Colette was rather young, only eight, but even so she had a determination not to be outdone, or left out. She had been riding a pony named Twinkletoes and was ready to graduate to a horse. She picked up on 'pack saddles' and demanded a "Tell me" that led the conversation farther.