I woke up, on schedule, at 4:14 in the morning, rolled over and switched off the alarm before it chimed. At 4:15, the phone buzzed.

“Good morning, Nephew!” said Aunt Fanny.  “You up?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” I said, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and slipping my feet into the cool fleece of the moccasins on the floor.

“You pick up your mail yesterday?” asked Aunt Fanny.

“No, Ma’am,” I responded while standing up.

“Didn’t think so,” said Aunt Fanny. “I was expecting a call that didn’t come.”  Then she hung up.

Curious, I pulled on a pair of jeans and sweatshirt to walk outside.  Inside the mailbox, I found a padded envelope.  Back in the house, I started the coffee pot and sat down at the kitchen table.  Inside the envelope was a book with a yellow sticky note.  The sticky note included a message in Aunt Fanny’s clear handwriting that said:

Behold my book, Nephew!  
And thanks for letting me take your picture.  
Love, Aunt Fanny

The book, “Aunt Fanny Learns Forestry: Managing Timberland as an Investment”, featured a picture of her forest on the over and a picture of me on the back walking through the woods.  When did she pull out a camera?  Once again, Aunt Fanny caught me by surprise…

About the Book

“Aunt Fanny Learns Forestry” has three sections.  In the first, Aunt Fanny gets to know her forest and learns forest investment concepts.  In the second, Aunty Fanny implements a forest management plan.  In the third section, Aunt Fanny considers another forest investment. The book includes supplementary resources, checklists, and recommended articles and websites that offer additional information on related topics. The book serves any investor, from individual to institution, interested in a tight and entertaining tutorial for prioritizing what matters and what does not when managing their timber assets as an investment.

This is Brooks Mendell’s sixth book. His grandmother, the late Frances Collat Mendell, inspired the character of Aunt Fanny. She is sharp, loves salty jokes, wants to learn and enjoys making a little money. However, her recently inherited forestland remains a bit of a mystery to her. This brief book, with drawings by forester and taxidermist Max Lang, follows Aunt Fanny through her learning of the key concepts and ideas needed to manage her forest as an investment.