Welcome! My name is Vally Mulford. Thanks for stopping by to visit my website!  

Here’s what happened—not long after graduating college and getting married, I accepted a position, somewhat unexpectedly, as hog farm manager at Loa Yorkshire Farms, a commercial hog farm near where I grew up.  How I ever made that crazy decision, I have no idea, because I look back now, and scratch my head. Accepting the job meant that I would be separated from my new wife, and I’d be accepting a job for which I had minimal qualifications.

Over the years that followed, the story of that experience began to slowly emerge---a thought here and a paragraph there.  I started writing things down as they came to me on scraps of paper, and I stuffed them all into a folder. Eventually, the folder grew until it became clear that the time had come to organize all those memories into a book. What followed was the story of that experience, and my first book, Tales from the Mud Hole, Why Pigs are my Friends.  It’s available on Amazon. 

I thought that my writing career had begun and then ended with that book. Years later, I was eating lunch with one of my sisters. We were lamenting the fact that the wonderful story of the lives of our parents would gradually fade with each generation and eventually be completely lost. Right there, mid-bite, eating a french fry, I committed myself to writing their story. Now, a couple years later, that story, my 2nd book, has recently been published on Amazon. It’s called, 40 Miles to Happy, the Love Story of a Rancher and his Wife. 

Several readers had mentioned that they would like to see photos of the hog farm, and so, I dug through some old photo albums and located a few photographs.  They are a bit faded (sorry) and I'm happy to share them on this website. Go take a look!  I've also added photos from places, people, and events described in the book about my parents, Denny and Della.  The book already contains some photographs, but you can find additional photos at this website.

Thank you for joining me on these journeys. After all, a ship isn't constructed simply to sit in a harbor, and stories are meant to be told. Thank you for letting me share these stories with you!

By the way, symptoms from the bite of the literary bug apparently take quite some time to dissipate, and while I'm recovering from the effects, I'm working on another book. It's a story about my adopted home state of New Mexico.  Stay tuned!