Off The Beaten Path I had long felt I was a country boy in a city boy's body. After learning I wasn't going to be drafted for Vietnam, in 1971, I took the opportunity to purchase my uncle Martin Davidson's farm that was for sale in Roseau County, Minnesota. This 160 acre farm of dense woodland and flowing water resides in a township named after my great grandfather on my mother's side named Louis Palm, a Swedish immigrant, the first settler in the area. Owned by my mother's younger sister and her husband, this farm was my favorite place to visit all the summers we came north to see her mother, sister, brothers and cousins throughout my childhood. This farm and the surrounding community embodied the mystery of natural timberland, open fields, creeks and rivers, and wild animals I would never see in Iowa including black bears and timber wolves; one of the best things I remember treasuring about it was that there were so few people there; to me, it was like