This natural world I fell into off three-inch high heels is a school of infinite learning. Sharing my knowledge and experience of forestry and arboriculture is very fulfilling. Having finally grown up in the Missouri forest, the desire to complete my adventure despite challenges with employers, doctors and a chronic disabling disease has led me to writing and blogging (under Female Forester Forever or Our Little Urban Arboretum). When forced to return to the city, I bought my family home and turned its less-than-a-third-of-an-acre lot into an arboretum. Volunteering as a master gardener I learned that the Ozark foothills down to the St. Louis riverfront is more than just an oak-hickory forest, and a forest community is more than just trees or even just plants. This book can only paint a miniscule picture of the forest on the head of a needle, and is as dull and boring as a broken, discarded bit compared to ten minutes standing naked in a creek, staring up into a towering tree or down at a leaf. Tomorrow is already here; experience trees. As the venerable Professor Al Shigo has said, "Touch trees."