While in the great outdoors of Canada I found myself attempting fire by friction with some new materials previously unavailable to me. Not that I couldn't find them in my area , just that I had not come upon easily accessible materials with the time constraints I have. Normally if you have enough time in the woods you can find the right materials without negatively impacting the area.
I don't like to hurt the trees and so unless I find a deadfall or previously cut wood I am resigned to go without.
The area we were had many lumber company access roads in which they had cut many trees or just plowed them over. So I was able to find large Paper Birch that provided pieces of bark for containers, torches and tinder bundles. Cedar which I used for my Fireboard and Spindle and which inner bark provided a great tinder bundle. I had a rock for the handhold and after scrounging up some rope that was about shoelace thick I began.
After a minute of vigorous passes with the bow an lots of wheezes from being out of breath I had the desired coal smoking. I blew with all the air I had left until it reddened and after which started the tinder bundle I had placed it in. After that I imagine was quite a show for any onlooker.
You would have seen me whooping and hollering in excitement while the tinder bundle was aflame in my hand. After adding it to an awaiting pile of sticks and some Birch bark I had my official first fire by friction! ( I had coals before, just no fire)
I Just Kept whooping in excitement and felt like I had just conquered some great feat. What an invigorating feeling to both feel part of the past and be able to be effective at a skill in the present!
I don't know if my dancing and whoops around the fire were received as a Rain Dance but soon after it started raining which only added to the warmth and comfort of the fire. If only you could've been there...
I have officially begun Fall Semester at College. I am terribly busy again with Organic and General Chemistry as well as a research class. I was eating my lunch outdoors on the edge of the woods when I started to think about if you could study the effects of visiting nature on one's health. ( I have to research something this semester)
That is when I realized that I don't tend to find the woods or my visits to nature very relaxing mentally. I guess I am always noticing things too much for it to be a mental break for me. (The plants, animals, beauty, movements, and sounds.) I do find nature a great clarifier in the sense that it seems to wash away confusion or daily clutter.
I guess I just find this distinction interesting. Previously I would go out to the woods half an hour before a test hoping to just relax but instead finding myself learning new things and seemingly forgetting the test material, for lack of mental space! Maybe I just haven't come to that stage of skill or schedule where I can just Relax AND Clarify through experiencing Nature.
PS. I may be busy but check back because soon I will post about starting a fire by friction! I was able to do this on my Canada trip!
The pict of me with foliage on my back and chest are after stalking the boys in my group(who were trying to find me!). The gray sweater matched the rocky area and the backpack under the ferns on my back is bright red. I had my shoes off and snuck to within about 20 ft of the boys before they saw me! The wolf track is not very apparent but if you look you'll see pad marks from the toes. On a wolf the middle two toe pads look larger than the outside toes whereas on a dog all appear the same size. We stayed in a cabin on the lake shown in most picts. We heard loons and saw groups of up to ten of them. We traveled mostly by four wheeler along powerlines and made it out to some remote rivers and ravines. Lake Superior looked so blue and powerful. I will post more on specifics but the picts go far to show the area and the beauty!
I have no inclination to look up the real date of groudhog day but I thought it interesting to find out that the Groundhog and the Woodchuck ARE THE SAME ANIMAL. I am sure this is not news to many but I always assumed them to be different and never was up close to one to question its identity and habits. At my wife's family reunion, my sister in law Suz, pointed out a large woodchuck running back and forth across the driveway. I was able to investigate and sit out for a while at the rented cottage and see that it lived beneath a woodpile. Fitting for a woodchuck! I was curious however because it's burrow had large holes and a lot of expelled dirt (attributed to groundhogs) just as I had recently been seeing at my university. That is when I associated that the two creatures might be the same. A quick internet search confirmed it. I was able to get a few confused looks from the animal as I sat near it's hole and heard the characteristic whistle of alarm the animals give when it dashed into the safety of it's hole. I was also amazed by how saggy the fur appeared to be as it stood on it's hind legs looking at me. I learned the woodchuck fattens up in the summer so it can hibernate through most of the winter and thus the" If the groundhog comes out of it's den and sees it's shadow..." thing at groundhog day.
It's sort of fun to have a name I can use in the third person! I have been quite inaccessible the last month due to many wonderful events. I have been finishing up Physics classes, attending a two week family gathering, leading a high adventure trip to Ontario Canada, plus working and trying to get out to Lake Michigan whenever possible. Needless to say I have sufficient experiences and lessons to keep me babbling for a long time. My only task is to decide where to start. I don't want to write it all in one sitting so I'll probably just keep a steady (if not daily) stream of posts coming your way.
I figure this post is already long enough so I'll just pose a question. Has anyone been able to see or smell the flower of milkweed? I was at lake Michigan early in the summer and as I returned to the van noticed a very sweet fragrance. The flower looked almost as a lilac but positioned differently on the plant. I think if I remember right it was even purplish. I had always liked Milkweed for the butterflies it attracts but now will look forward to its summer blossoms!
I wanted to simply direct any readers who are interested in the Green Building topic to check out Kaleb's comment under the pictures post and follow his links. Very worthwhile.
I use Google Reader to keep updated on a few different topics. A new feed that came my way yesterday was about houses and buildings made of strawbales. Yep the kind you see driving down the country roads! I found a further search on Google quite interesting about how to build these high efficiency homes out of material that is both practical and easy to come by. Here's sort of a new twist on an old method of house building. Wikiups and other shelters were often made out of straw or woven grasses. We have all seen or heard of thatch roofs. So why not strawbale homes? Check it out! Unfortunately children's books have shed a bad light on this building style (poor little pig) but I am sure there are no wolves huffing and puffing these days.
All the pictures above show houses that are built in this fashion. Notice the stucco look? Pretty cool.
Today was a lot of fun. Fun for me is not always fun to someone else. Like today I tore off an old shingled roof (Took 8 hrs.). To me that was fun. Sort of like when I go running up and down the dunes and through the woods chasing deer or simply exploring. Some might call that grueling, or say it sounds too much like exercise to be any fun, but I enjoy it immensely.
I did today something that pretty much everyone could call fun though. As you could guess from the title it was to go to the beach for a barbecue swimming and volleyball. Best of all it was with my family and some good friends. we had a lot of fun just talking, playing around and enjoying the beautiful weather. I kept grabbing wild blueberries and raspberries from the plants which flourished in the area. I was a little disappointed to not find any peas this year as last year there were quite a few plants which gave many seed podslast summer. The park had mowed over the area where they were to preserve beach I am sure because all the plants have grown in and closed up most of the once sandy beach. Anyways, the water was wonderful, and nature provided a wonderful playground for us. I am just so grateful to live in such a wonderful area and see the hand of God so prevalent in my life!
This evening I was able to to see the truth to; "Many hands make for light work". I work with the Boy Scouts and Young Men organization through my local church. They are a fun group and had decided to do a service project for the weekly activity. The scouts lacked a project so I volunteered to come up with one. I had in mind a park (and wild area behind it) and made the plans. It was great to see the clean-up and the difference that followed the plans.
I had expected about 20 persons but it turned out to be about 30! The whole clean-up took about 1 hour and we got rid of a lot of junk and refuse. I had been out there before with my wife and we had personally cleaned up about two large trash bags of litter. I had planned on spending a little time here and there until I could clean it all up someday so as you can imagine this project has freed up some play time out there instead of work time which I am excited about.
I love this wild area and park because it has lakefront bordering the wild area which I would guess to be about 4 acres, and it has a large park about the same dimensions. I have eaten mulberries, blackberries, raspberries and dewberries from its trees and bushes. It also has carrots, strawberries, grapes and plenty of cattails for eating. Some sugar pines offer a soft place to nap during the summer and the birds play among the thorns. I want to give anyone who reads this blog a challenge: Next time you go on a walk or to the park take a bag with you and at any time your feet or eyes cross paths with trash just put it in the bag and dispose of it.
You can do it! Let me know how it turns out!
I had the pleasure of going to John Ball Park Zoo today with my family. I was expecting to see many wonderful animals and figured the kids short leg span would set the pace for our day. I realized right away that I was going to be the one holding us back because I wanted to learn names and habits of all the interesting animals. I have to say I am quite impressed with the Zoo and my family. The Kids did really well and when I asked Emma what her favorite animal was she said the Flamingo. She didn't explain why, but my guess is because Flamingos are pink.
The zoo had an exhibit of Brazilian rain forest animals and some artifacts such as oars and a boat carved from a whole tree trunk. I had seen many of these boats before and reaffirmed a nearly 6 year old promise to build one of these boats one day. I lived among the Brazilian people for two years in Sao Paulo as a missionary. Brazil has such a rich and wonderful culture and I brought back many wonderfull memories and aspirations. I had determined to build a boat and also oars after seeing fishermen build some in a remote village on the island of Sao Sebastiao.
Back to the Zoo... I was surprized to see how fast Wolverines walk around having always assumed them to be burly and not overly agile which was dead wrong. Also the claws on the bears were much longer than I had imagined. I have seen only black bears in the wild and it makes sense why Grizzly and Brown Bear inspire so much fear to those who only see them or hear stories about them. I intend to learn more about Bear and and understand them for what they really are. For the "real" details of our trip I would suggest Caity's Blog as she will post picts and other comments.
Hello again! I have been thinking a lot these past weeks about my love for the outdoors and my love for medicine. I have wondered how to combine the two and figure on making medicine my career and primitive skills my pastime. My sister-in-law has joked about me doing my own show and so one of my brainstorms that came rolling in during the night a few days ago was to do a show called "Medicine Man" or "The Witch Doctor". I figured I would put myself in outdoor situation having some sort of medical emergency or need and show how to both do primitive skills and what natural remedies are out there, how to prepare them and such or simply things like making stretchers, splints and or hypothermia intervention. What do you think? I better not quit my dayjob right? As an interesting side note... Did you know that since more than 2500 years ago people have been chewing willow bark to alleviate pain and reduce inflammation. Hippocrates a greek physician reccommended extracts of willowbark to alleviate pain from childbirth. So what is in willow bark that is so special?... Acetylsalisilic acid ... otherwise known as Aspirin! Yep! Bayer began marketing the stuff in 1899 and the rest is history! Speaking of history... Happy Fourth of July!
The latest pictures of my attempts at making arrowheads, string from bark, and a little fishing with my children. The "Finished" arrowheads are actually a knife blade and an arrowhead, both made of glass. Tanner helped me make cordage (ropes, lines, and string) out of the inner bark of an old tree, and helped eat the berries out of my birchbark and leaf container. The picture of us fishing with Emma is from the "Weekend Wonders" post weekend.
I finished my physics course!!! As a celebration of my new-found mental freedom (instead have having to study), today I shot my compound bow and the recurves my stepdad loaned me. I was keeping track of my accuracy and precision by marking down points earned by getting the arrows into a circle about 7-8 inches in diameter. I had a few great shots and did well for so little experience. My goal is to one day make my own long bow and recurve bow and arrows. I just love being outside and feeling like I am developing a skill. Maybe someday it'll come in handy or maybe not, but at least I am learning right? I also was able to practice making arrowheads out of glass. Glass chips much the same as obsidian or flint. (the typical rocks used for arrowheads) Plus it's easy to find in a survival situation because without fail you can find littered bottles or old junked TV's that people have irresponsibly taken care of. I feel good to find these sites and be able to make good (learning or a tool) come out of the hurt it caused to Mother Nature. The glass I have been using came out of a riverbed near college dorms where students have thrown old TVs, computers and other items off a bridge for the joy of seeing it break over the rocks. Little do they think about the harmful chemicals and dusts that are inside the components and tubes of these things and the harm it causes to the water and life down river. I wish I could do more to teach these people but reallize it starts with me and my attitudes and hopefully one by one a difference can be made. I feel I have to give credit to my wife who has helped me think more in tune with the earth and who has supported my endeavors to understand Nature and her wonders and in this case the threats she faces.
This weekend was by far one of the best I have had in a while. I didn't have to work and had no real plans which made for an opportunity to be spontaneous and carefree. Caity and I went to lake Michigan and took our first plunge. It proved to be very cold yet very fun and invigorating. The wind was pushing in large waves and so it made for a fun time running in and out with the tides. Emma and Tanner were there and had an enjoyable time even for how windy and cold their feet got. I also was able to go fishing both with my family and with Drew my brother-in-law. We had a great time and got plenty wet in the lake near my home. Carp were in the cattails and rushes so we chased them around and tried grabbing them which didn't work out well but proved exciting. On Sunday after a great church service we napped and then went for a walk down to the lake. We had roast waiting in the crock pot so I decided it might finally be the day to try cattail as a side dish. I showed Caity the edible parts and we ate fresh cattail heart (the inner soft core) on the lakeside. They were great! I had heard they tasted a bit like cucumber and can agree with the rumors. Caity enjoyed them too! We brought some of the green hot dog looking cattail heads home and steamed them and ate them as a vegetable side dish which proved very good and interesting. I would say if your an asparagus and corn fan you had better run down to your local cattail hotspot and get harvesting! I knew the cattails were a keeper because Caity and Emma asked for seconds!
