Week 58,59,60: Wilderness Oasis

Thanks for your generous tips Ariel and Ian! These last couple of weeks I spent having a cold, playing in the woods, gardening in my yard and mostly finishing up my seasonal job at One Green World. I have taken the role as a lead instructor for the teen programs and will work on this summers “A-Team Camp.”

The weather heated up really fast so I had to walk around and water all the new plants. I took a lot of photos to give you a tour of my garden in progress.

The Camas Penny bought me doesn’t look so great… But it already flowered so I think it will live. I keep seeing wild camas all over the place now. Penny and I even found a gigantic field of it, with one Death Camas in the middle.

The cattails seem okay. They’ve dried out a bit though and I worry that it will get to dry soon.

My mom planted the arctic raspberries and they seem fine. A little dry…

The little nettles I planted have finally started to grow a little big. The large nettles Penny planted have mostly died back.

Penny compost-dived these plants from her job at the Oregon Garden.

Peppermint and spearmint, respectively.

Male arctic kiwi on the left, female on the right.

Mothers herb garden.

A volunteer cherry tree growing in last years garden.

The pear I planted to pollinate the one in the background.

Three little salmon berries, sitting in the dirt…

My step dad and I built these boxes for the strawberries, eventually. We had so many in the regular garden already flowering that we don’t want to disturb them. Instead we’ll transplant them later and garden around them.

The un-weeded garden. Mostly dandelion, clover, dead nettle and winter cress.

While exploring more of the corridor Penny Scout and I spotted an Aplodontia (also known as the “mountain beaver”) who wouldn’t pose for a photo while cutely collecting a bushel of sorrel to take back to its den. We also found a spring which I dug out and filled our water bottles with the delicious, cool mountain water. I also drank from some streams up there. Hope I don’t get “mountain beaver fever!” I snapped some photos of Penny next to an ant mound where she collected ants for her famous ant bars. We found a huckleberry that some evil faeries turned into an evil faerie fortress:

Seriously, if you know what the fuck happened to this poor huckleberry, please enlighten me.

Aside from traipsing through the woods I spent some time writing more of my book, working on several different pieces that I will post eventually. I have currently titled them; “Pacifism Vs. Rewilding,” “Denial Vs. Rewilding,” and “Everything Vs. Rewilding.” I’d like to at least feel finished with the first draft of the book by mid-summer.

I’ve made some plans with my friends to slaughter a goat and use the whole animal. I’ve used all the different parts here and there, but I’ve never worked all the way through with a group of people and I feel very excited about this.  Although I’ve processed the parts individually, I have yet to go through the process all at once before I run a class about it. I’ll take lots of photos and things, so no worries!

I received a call from the History channel and they want to interview me for a show on modern perspectives of the apocalypse. I’ll only partially believe it when they show up to film, and then fully believe it when I see the show. Even if they shoot you, that doesn’t guarantee the editor/producer won’t cut your segment short or altogether! Stay tuned for details.

PSU has a student-made literary magazine called Pathos and this issue has the theme “apocalypse.” Guess who they asked to do a quick speech at the release party? Yeah, me. I feel very flattered and have started writing a fun apocalyptic speech. Stay tuned for details on that!

Filmmaking brought me to this place, this blog. I love writing, but I love filmmaking so much more. Lately I have felt cravings to make some films. If you’ve perused my “video” section, you’ve probably noticed that the Derrick Jensen interview marks the last video I made that didn’t include a silly rant or public speech. Before that, the Urban Scout movie, which I shot in 2004. The rest I shot from 2002-2003. Needless to say, I’ve got plenty of fun ideas and I need a little break from writing here so I plan to shoot a few little silly shorts. Up next, Urban Scout’s Crib.

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