W47: Porcupine Palace Palooza!
This week I mostly did odd jobs, had meetings with grant foundations, volunteered. But the rewild camp at Porcupine Palace definitely high-lighted my week!
My Laundry List for Week 47:
1. Finish Wapato Blog.
I didn’t work on the Wapato Blog at all… I think I will actually wait until it grows again here and I can snap a picture of the flowers. So, for now I will take that off the list.
2. Work on the horticulture blog.
I worked more on this, though I think that it looks more like an additional section to my Agriculture Vs. Rewilding article. I also realized that this will take me quite some time to figure out and write about.
3. I don’t fucking know. I have little inspiration for particular things right now… Give me some ideas people! Tell me what you want to see me do! All I can think about right now involves finding work! Give me something to take my mind off that.
I only got a few ideas, of which I have already tried. Any more?
I had such a great time at the Rewild Camp at the Porcupine Palace. Many workshops took place, including but not limited too; flint-knapping, hide-tanning, bow-drilling, spiritual herbalizing, natural child-birthing and much more. So many cool people doing cool things, treating each other with respect, accepting people for themselves and care-taking the land. I felt very safe and cared for by all. In fact, looking around the campfire at all of the outcasts of civilization, I felt right at home… Like coming home to my people after searching for years. Those people who civilization does not tolerate have the easiest time rewilding because they have no choice. I felt honored to sit in the company of such visionaries.
Top five moments of the weekend (in no particular hierarchical order).
1. Someone found the mythical chocolate dumpster in Seattle and brought tons of chocolate for everyone to eat. At one point, as I grabbed a handful of broken chocolate pieces from a bag I asked if anyone wanted any. At that point people felt real sick of chocolate and responded with a collective, “Nooooo!”
2. Just sitting around the campfire with everyone chatting about rewilding.
3. Teaching my workshop on kinesthetic animal tracking basics. I haven’t taught animal tracking in a long time and it felt so good, and so many people had interest. That felt really compelling to me.
4. Talking with David and Quintin about hunting/gathering/restoration. They had some really cool experiences and stories they shared about living in the woods that I found very inspirational.
5. Watching people roast a deer heart over the fire on a stick, passing it around occasionally to take a bite out of it (I declined… Still to scared of eating some body parts)
I will say that the whole weekend showed me how important it feels for me to find land to live on and care take. The problem of loosing a social life when moving to the woods seems irrelevant with the advent of the rewild camps. Buy land, tend it, bring people to it and share your skills. The weekend felt more like a party than a skill share. That kind of feeling make my heart sing. A special thanks to David, Devin, Quintin, Kestrel (and brothers)! You’ve really made me happy in a way I haven’t felt in quite some time. I can’t wait to come up there again!
Weekly Laundry List for Week 48:
1. Teach rewilding to teenagers at the Pacific Crest Community School.
2. Hike Multnomah Falls.
3. Work on horticulture article.
4. Look for work (and apartment/house/land) in the country outside of Portland. (Rural Scout?)
5. Have someone donate 100 million dollars to me, buy land, horticulture it, stockpile weapons, survive collapse, thrive in a hunter-gatherer-horticulture tribe. (Have I set myself up for a feral failure here?)
“I only got a few ideas, of which I have already tried. Any more?”
This reminds me of when I was a kid, and I would have the following conversation with my mom:
Me: I’m boooored.
Mom: You could help me with the dishes.
Me: That’s boring.
Mom: You could call a friend to see if they want to play.
Me: I already tried. Nobody’s home.
Mom: You could go for a walk.
Me: That’s boring.
Mom: You could steal a car and drive to Las Vegas.
Me: (gives a look that clearly says how totally stupid I think it is that you are joking about the fact that I am about to DIE from boredom and you don’t even care, and in order to make you feel even worse about how you don’t care about me I am going to stand here silently in the same room with you and sigh loudly for the next 15 minutes)
In retrospect, there was absolutely nothing in the world that she could have said that would have sounded good. You’ve got to figure out for your ownself what sounds interesting. As readers, we find your blog compelling because you write about things that you find interesting. But just in case the stealing a car and driving to Vegas idea resonated with you, I’m here to say that I would love to read about that.
Also, it’s about to be springtime…have you figured out what you will be planting/tending/horticulting in your parents’ garden this year? I’d like to hear about that.
Hahahaha. Yeah, you got me. I think I just feel bored from the winter malaise. Plus, having to worry about money takes up most of my time right now. I spend more time worrying than I do thinking about fun things to do. I’ll get more inspired when I have an income I think. Penny Scout just got a job near my moms, so we’ll be staying there for a while and probably start gardening her yard. So, things seem like they are coming together. Just not at an interesting pace to write about…
Is there a non-religious homeless shelter near you? I worked at one for a while years ago. There’s generally a high turn-over rate, so they’re usually hiring. It doesn’t pay well, but it’s got some hidden perks. In my experience, a significant percentage of the folks staying at the shelter were guys age 18-25 who didn’t know how to deal with civilization and didn’t have any idea that there were other options.
There’s also a rather large percentage of people who were there because the couldn’t/wouldn’t/didn’t deal with their addiction problems, and those are the people who burned me out quickly. If you felt like you could deal with all the bullshit that comes with working with the homeless population (mostly the beaurocracy that goes with social services), you’d have an amazing mentorship opportunity.
When I worked security at the shelter in Boise, the number one qualification was that you have some personal experience with homelessness, so I’d say you are qualified.
Well you could do more projects on your caravan! I love seeing you work on them, and all the photos you took. I enjoyed that. And another idea, is you guys can do edible mushroom hunting, and sell them for extra cash. Or whatever edible forrest edibles you can use and sell them by roadside in the spring. Like farmer’s market sort.
come on
this stuff has existed for millions of years
pull yur boot straps up
a wild human would be dumpstering right now
*if not stealing from the grocery store*
skin that coyote and take the brains at least
eat it (look for a bullet wound, if none, be skeptical)
eat that deer heart come on man how the hell are you going to eat eyeballs and brains and marrow to stay alive if you can’t eat a heart
lets do this
Haha. Thanks for your words of encouragement! Sometimes I need a friendly slap in the face.
it a8n’t a slap in the face
more like
family!
obviously desire exists beyond family
fuck other people
desires exist beyond a slap in the face
we are surviving
fuck it all
goose luck
fuck it all civiliziazion sux
pleasure
hey, whatever happened to the pictures you took at the skill share?
Well, I took a few and than I got lazy and felt awkward because a few people didn’t want their pictures taken, and I felt weird asking all the time. So I just didn’t take very many and than I didn’t post the ones I took…
Hallo!
Have you heard if the Palace is having another skill share this year? I went to last year’s one in the summer, it was a blast. Nice to see that there are other folks who enjoyed those kids company too.