Jake grew up on a small ranch outside Cattleman City. His Dad was involved in the Military, and unfortunately, had lost his life in a 'Special Ops.' mission somewhere in the Middle East. His Mom received a good pension from the Military from the loss of her husband, but she worked at the local hospital as an 'R.N.', as she liked working at the hospital and helping the people and patients she cared for.

When Jake was around 5/6 years old, his Mom decided that he was old enough to venture out on his own. Jake was a good-looking boy, and when he started school, he got really good grades and had lots of friends. And his teachers and the school staff were fond of him. A school bus came by to pick him up, and the school bus driver and the kids on the bus liked Jake.

When Jake's Mom came home from the hospital one day and found Jake all covered in mud, she was slightly amused. 'Didn't little boys like playin' in mud puddles ???', she thought. But after the third and fourth time she came home and found Jake all muddy, she wondered why and asked Jake about it. He just said it was fun to do, and his Mom gave up, and told Jake he could do what he wanted, just as long as he didn't track mud in the house.

There was a small creek that ran through the back of the ranch where Jake lived, and occasionally when the creek overflowed, a wonderful patch of deep, silty, creamy mud was created. When Jake first discovered it, he didn't know why, but he just had an 'urge', to walk in it, to splash in it, he just wanted to play in the mud !!! He was too young to understand why he liked doin' these things, it was just something he wanted to do !!! It would be a few years later when Jake was around 9 or 10, when he would start to figure things out......