AFTERWORD Most of the places in Big Southern are very real, though their features have been adjusted for the author's convenience. The...

EPILOGUE  2022 Denny Grover dips the loader bucket so its bottom slides along the gravel pit's floor, drives forward until he hits the...

APRIL 2013 The two county drivers wait outside their dump trucks at the new pit site. They're starting just north of the museum and will...

MARCH 2013 DAVID He has packed the truck with his belongings just after dusk, and as if on cue the sky starts to shed a white, dry flaky...

JANUARY 2013 DAVID Winter doesn't get deeper than this. Not here. Thirty-two below, but the sun is shining and the wind is...

2010 JUAN His father, he bets, is proud. But he wouldn't say so, Juan knows. He remembers his first day at the Site job, a year ago...

NOVEMBER 23, 2012 DAVID It's a convergence event. A stationary snowstorm sitting over the Snake River Plain that rotates, two weather...

MID-NOVEMBER, 2012 DAVID AND KALI "Goddammit, answer the door!" It's Sunday, a woman is pounding on the screen. David wasn't going to...

EARLY NOVEMBER 2012 DAVID AND KALI The foot powder at the Pingree store has an expiration date of four years prior. I chuckle, am...

SEPTEMBER 2012 DAVID The County's check has arrived, the farm sale's paperwork is done. "Shouldn't there be one more check?"
 "No. Long...

AUGUST 2012 WULF Wulf is up on the check, adjusting the flow to the Lowline to match the needed water ordered by farmers for use...

DAVID AND GILBERT David is early to town, Furchner won't be in until eleven, so he drives across town to see how Gilbert's truck setup...

AUGUST 2012 DAVID It's time, he thinks. He drives left at the turnoff to the museum, past Springfield and the Lake, takes the first...

AUGUST 2012 DAVID AND KALI "You're not coming?" Gilbert asks. "You'll be fine," David reassures him. "You've got this." He has procured...

KALI, GILBERT, AND DAVID David doesn't imagine his demeanor to be any different upon his return to the museum. He might be slightly...

DAVID David rented the metal detector at the first of the week, tried it out down at the old junkyard to see how effective it was. Like...

JULY 2012 GILBERT AND DAVID I am out back of the museum, arranging lava rock into an aesthetically pleasing randomness, one that...

JULY 2012 DAVID AND KALI I appreciate the deck. Greatly. It's amazing what you can get done if people think it will benefit them. We...

LATE JUNE 2012 DAVID I need to procure a van for the upcoming tour. I make a list of sights to see. Positions, more than sights,...

JUNE 2012 DAVID The marked site has my interest. Of all the things I might think about—my health, for instance, less so the annoyance...