From the Rock River Times

By Don Miller, Education Director, Severson Dells Nature Center Print this page

I was cleaning out an old drawer at the house recently, and I came across a picture of one of our old former farm dogs. Not more than an hour before, I had just finished reading a great book (for any dog owner anyway), Merle, the Dog. Those two happenings made me think about the following piece I wrote in June 1999.

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About the same time I was deciding that when I grew up I wanted to be a biology teacher, I was introduced to a book by Edwin Way Teale titled, A Naturalist Buys An Old Farm. The year was 1974; about 15 years later, I would become a “naturalist.” (The biology teacher thing never quite panned out.) However, within five years, my wife and I were buying an old farm house.

Now, some 20 years have passed, and enough miles have been logged on the old farm to have walked from Rockford to Portland, Ore. I have once again picked up Teal’s book. This time, I read it from the perspective of being a trained naturalist and an owner of an old farm.

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