When fall begins to flash its crimson colors across the valley hillsides, my internal clock begins to pull me out of bed just a little earlier each morning. This seems contrary to the “pull the covers over your head” reflex that most experience when daybreak comes later with each passing day.

A woman once wrote a letter to the editor with her ideas about how to stop all wildfires in our forest. Her first idea was to construct agriculture water sprinklers in all 745 million acres of our national forests. Her second, to prohibit all campfires and cooking in those same forests.