Michael Reith:  

A tumultuous journey through the military and health care professions has ended in Fresno, California, or to be more exact, Pinehurst, California, a mountain village in the nearby Sierra's. I've cast aside traditional life for an occupation of mountain man, getting by in a simple way. The years have seen 37 years of marriage and a son, Ian, and two grandsons. With some regrets, the path led away from Waco at an early age. I returned for a year of work, only to disappear again. I very much miss my younger days there, and I have lost touch with the friends that I had there. Blame on it on a military career and a tendency to be a bit of a hermit. God has been wonderfully faithful to me, sustaining me in my faith through the years. Many lands visited. Too many people met to keep in touch with. I left the a post-military career in the health professions, having reached a point at which I decided to break with a nice income and all the accolades that came with the job. Some call it burn out. Others describe it as a second career. I'm not sure what to call it. There reached a point in my life that I left the trappings of modern life and fell in love with the mountains. Not that there is any financial success in such a life. Maybe I just decided to grow up. The peace and hard work of getting by in a rural setting was too tempting to resist. Studying the flora and fauna, hunting, foraging, and getting to know the simple people of this region seemed to be a natural progression. I've traveled a bit of the world and have had my fill of further travel. A quite evening on the porch, watching the sun go down seem to have been the place I was always looking for. People often ask me what I "do" to make a living. I haven't figured that out yet. I dabble in rural properties, fixing them up a bit and dreaming about turning them for a profit, something that I'm still waiting for. My dear wi...Expand for more