Victor Davis Hanson 4. The Shooter. Two years ago, during record rainfall and snow melt, the ponds were full, the grass was lush, and the once-ossified cottonwood trees abruptly came back to life as they always do after the end of a drought. Ducks and geese were everywhere. Herons flew in regularly. Bullfrogs croaked all night. […]

Victor Davis Hanson Here are my top ten encounters of a strange kind over the last decade in what used to be the safest, most wonderful rural space in the world. 1. The Tragic Dead. Two years ago, I came upon a parked abandoned Volkswagen with a deceased person in it. This was a real tragedy

Victor Davis Hanson The second incident was last week. I heard a bullet whiz through the almond orchard’s lower limbs. It sounded like it traveled 3 feet off the ground, about 20 yards from me. I could see that it came from a parked car about ¼ mile away. Two men from a dry pond

Victor Davis Hanson For the first 50 years of my rural existence, I don’t think I encountered more than 10 trespassing cars parked in the orchards or vineyards (one a decade)—aside from the intoxicated drivers who left the main road, veered off the pavement, destroyed several trees or vines, and abandoned their automobiles or trucks