Our Story
Darby & Sharon Checketts
After Darby's corporate career, we operated a consulting business for 27 years. He authored several well-known business books including Customer Astonishment and Positive Conflict. Then, we took to the highway across the natural wonderland that is Utah. We wrote The Utah Cure (2017) to help readers discover the curative, rejuvenating, and inspirational effects of being in the great outdoors. It is about 40 magical destinations among the forests and canyons of Utah where we love to go with family and friends. Discover Darby's NEW book: Forest Is The Tree Word for Family. And there is a children's book: Jubilant June: The Juniper Tree. Most of Darby's 19 books are available in one format or another at Amazon.com...or please contact us.
our Purpose
Trees: Our Most Essential Partners
LOVE: We love many things: God, Family, Friends, and Country. Next in line would be "trees." In an age of threatening climate change, there are no more essential partners than trees in sustaining life on our planet gem. Trees are the beloved royalty of the Plant Kingdom. We live part time with 90+ Juniper trees, Gambel Oak trees, and various species of Pine trees in the Manti-La Sal Forest of Sanpete County, Utah. To sustain the outdoor connection with our children, we created our family's "Owl's Nest." This story really began with our Mother Tree as you can read in Darby's new book, Forest Is the Tree Word for Family,
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN. The succinct photo gallery below tells of the most interesting and fun features of our family recreational campsite.
OUR Thesis
THESIS: Ours is a wondrous existence of humans living on a planet gem--delicately balanced among the stars--within a forest family of trees. - Darby Checketts
That is me (DC) having a conversation with a majestic Cottonwood tree at Fruita, Utah. I talk to the trees and they listen to me. They may not have a voice. I give them one. I get impressions about what the existence of trees is all about. Here are questions worth pondering upon...
- Does a tree have memory?
- Is a tree aware of its own presence and environment?
- Does a tree have feelings? Does it sense human presence?
- Does a tree communicate with other trees and plants?
- Can a tree communicate with a human outwardly? Perhaps or probably not.
- If not outwardly, what might a tree want us to know?
- Have you reached out to a tree to say, "thank you," or just give it a hug?
- What was the result? Did your outreach help you make friends with the tree?
- What are the gifts that trees make to us humans and their forest friends?
- What have you learned from a tree?
Owl's Nest Photo Gallery
