River of Industry

1. Recap the past. Introduce the president. The eagle represents a great and powerful nation. It seems to be grounded from flight though. The freedom to create, invent, invest, produce and secure our families is the reason behind our wars. And our restful peaceful times when freedom really flourished seem too distant now. Take the 80's, for example, when Reaganomics ruled. We were so free that the only bad decisions made were somewhere in the dichotomy of fashion trends between Don Johnson and Depeche Mode.

Ahh, if those were our only troubles now.

As one who was able to formulate an idea for industry and start an empire from some odds and ends of tools and material in my garage, and now sit back and document it, I can only say thank you to the eagle and let others know that anything is still possible in this nation.

The Presidency is not a job I would request- making a few of the coolest driftboats on earth at a premium dollar, and fishing with interesting people is a fine way to make a living I must say. But if I were the Commander in Chief I would assume that my State of the Union address would take place live from the campfire along a riverbank and the gist of it would be "Americans, thank you for working so hard. I will continue to make sure you have a nice place to do so." And then I would have to discuss a few of the potent topics like healthcare, crime, etc. and talk about some accomplishments and some things in the pipe. But for the most part it would be a speech commending the Americans making our nation great... the people like me who have spent time in their garage or office fixing, rebuilding and dreaming a better future for themselves.

Since the Oval Office is not mine I have this book in your hands as a reason and as a way to thank the stars of the Discovery documentary "Ax Men". Forestry is such a controversial topic in my homewaters of the Pacific NorthWest. But even the hippies use paper. We have to get over ourselves. It's a renewable resource - for crying in the rain. As President, I would just make sure we didn't cut the good places- the watersheds et al.- leave the riverbanks alone. Start aways away from the edge of the stream and then just thin accordingly. It's not that difficult, people.



Exploiting natural resources for monetary gain is always a difficult task to manage. I think it was for that reason that I have always had a problem being a fishing guide. The Natural Resource is my passion for the flyfishing, but as soon as I took money, I realized I was putting a price on that passion. So I figured out other means to make money and still get plenty of river-time in... build drift-boats and produce the first ever "entertaining" fishing show- something that intelligent people would want to watch even if another show that was good was on as well. It was a tall order, and not many believed it could be accomplished. Even I had my doubts several times. But the premise wasn't fishing at all and that was the saving grace. The show became a Cross between David Letterman and Larry King, but instead of sitting at a desk the show took place on a river bank or traveling to it. The start-up was a covert operation of sorts. and I knew I had to go to the top to get the money that I didn't have. Luckily, it was a time when the left-hand of our country was flooding increased tax dollars into anything green in an effort to stimulate jobs. Of course that caused cutbacks in the not-so-green areas. Give money to windmill makers and the power needs are taken away from coal, nuclear, and hydro-electric. Jobs were lost in those areas. But it did set up a foundation for the future and brought down a few dams in the process.

Anyway, I wrote to a somewhat conservative Senator in a state that wasn't my own (since there arent any conservatives elected in Oregon) and told him that I wanted to generate an outdoor pulpit for him and others like him through the medium of flyfishing and use a Vegetable oil diesel truck to do it. I asked him to locate the money that is being dished out so lavishly in wacky places and well, it wasn't hard to do.

2.

3. Much of this book was written before the show was even syndicated.