The story just published about Daniel's Pond somehow I made a boo boo and the picture on the right was covered by Dan's pond. Anyway those of you following Daniel's story deserve to have the complete picture, so here are a couple more pictures of Dan and one of his fishing buddies and their "catch". This post is an afterthought because of the goof on Dan's picture so if you will allow me, I'll continue with another vignette about Daniel and the farm life. We had a BIG Charlotte Bull that ruled the ranch. He was very aloof as most bulls are unless you caught his attention and it didn't please him. Daniel was the only person on this earth that he would warm up to. When Dan came to the fence he would walk over to Dan and let him stroke his nose, anyone else came around the fence he would ignore them. It was a very strange bond between Dan and the Bull. The Bulls name? I can't remember, one of these days it'll come to me. We all would get a big kick about Dan and "his" Bull. The farm has many wonderful memories, that hopefully some day I'll recount.

Thanks for listening...

Danny's Pond

This was Daniel's pond on the family ranch. Dan would daily fish the pond and some days would catch 5-7 bass. The pond was over 70 years old and had many size bass. One afternoon Dan was fishing and snagged a " Big " one, he fought and fought to bring it into his dock, but his pole was bending almost in two. He yelled for his dad's help. His dad was on the tractor and couldn't hear him calling. Finally, the fish broke loose and Dan's heart sank. He ran up to his Dad and excitedly told him about the fish! Dad got down from the tractor and sure enough the line was broken. Daniel called the fish "Killer " and everyday he would go to his pond and take his fishing pole and fish for "Killer." The fish in the above picture is NOT "killer" that was a common size bass he usually caught. We'd like to say that they were Killer's babies!
After awhile, Dan started a catch and release fishing style and later in life Dan said he was very glad that he hadn't caught Killer because if he lived that long and was the King of the pond he deserved to live and not be caught.

Later in Daniel's life he became very fond and protective of wild life and wanted to protect all wildlife. He believed that just hunting for the sport of it just didn't make sense. If you or your family needed food, then that was acceptable. Daniel loved his pond and the farm as did the family and we all wished that we would have stayed on the farm and lived the good, hard, way of life that a farm requires. Dan liked San Francisco, but the farm was his love.

Dan's personality

Watch out Big Brother !

One of Dan's personality traits was his ability to enjoy life... He was a very lay-back type of person who never raised his voice, his temperament was calm, his demeanor was always in control. He loved to tease his friends, always playing jokes or tricks. Dan's wit and smile were his trademark. Dan had an ability to think outside the box. Many times in a discussion about a subject, he would bring out a logic that was astounding and would greatly add to the overall topic. Another of Dan's traits was to not let discussions get into arguments. He would let you have your point of view, he would consider all sides and come to his own conclusion, usually it was the correct one.

In all of Daniel's short 24 years, I never saw him mad. Sure, he would get upset, but I never heard him raise his voice in anger, he was always in control. He truly had no prejudices. Dan had the uncommon ability to look at the inner person, not their nationality, social status, physical looks or appearance, but at the real person. He had a dislike for the phony, braggarts or the bully, he could read the real person, it was uncanny. The irony of Daniel's death was that he was attacked and killed by an illegal alien and Dan would have been the first person to be able to see and feel their plight.

By Daniel's smile you would know him.

Thanks for listening.