Short, funny anecdotes from a natural born recycler, do-it-yourselfer, tinkerer and pack rat all rolled into one. They start during the Depression, when young Caplette learned how to make a perfect slingshot and go after gophers in South Battleford, Saskatchewan. They follow him down the road when he gets the bright idea to ride his bicycle to the West Coast, and keep following him through the Cariboo and the Okanagan until he seules down in North Vancouver. Meanwhile, meet some of the people in Caplette's life: a visiting Newfie fiddler ("Kin ya card a gitar bye?"), a guy who thinks he can fool BC Hydro, Leon and his pet skunk, and some buddies who have the nerve to steal Caplette's own little chunk of Ripple Rock.

Jim Caplette was born on a Saskatchewan dairy farm in 1924. His great-grandfather Charlie Bremner was once imprisoned in a cell next to Louis Riel, on a trumped-up charge of treason for siding with the Indians during the rebellion. The tables were turned when Jim's great-grandfather in turn sued the Canadian government and that old thief General Middleton for stealing four of his Red River carts fully loaded with furs. The case, which was resolved fifteen years later, led to Middleton's resigning in disgrace. Jim headed for Vancouver when he was sixteen. After working at Burrard Shipyards and serving in the army, he took a course in auto mechanics and worked at several large auto dealerships. For the past twenty years he has run his own small trucking business in North Vancouver. In 1990, he sort of retired. That is, he now works twice as hard as ever, and spends a lot of time helping his friend Al Brown work on a fishing boat to be donated to the poverty-stricken fishermen in Nicaragua. His hobbies include working with red or yellow cedar, and with driftwood, which he transforms into strange and wonderful objets d`art. And he sings and plays trumpet, guitar and tub base every week or two in hotels and pubs with his buddy Gary Comeau, a professional musician. His other passions are writing, politics and bullshitting, not necessarily in that order. Philosophically speaking, he only ever gives two pieces of advice: "Don't walk on green logs, and don't step on the ants."

Jim Caplette's profile page