Category: General Blog
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Reality Check
(Note: Urban Scout wanted me to title this post “Man vs. Wild vs. Rewilding”, but I no longer let him call the shots around here!) Dear Reality Television Casting Directors, I have received enough e-mails and phone calls from you over the years that I thought I should just write this form letter so that…
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A Rewilder’s Guide for Living Off the Grid
Miles Olson is an inspirational rewilder who lives and breathes the mechanics of rewilding. He has lived on the fringes of civilization for a decade. His stories have been inspiring me ever since I had the pleasure to sit around the same campfire with him some years ago. He has finally written a book that…
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On the Path Toward Living Wild
One of the most inspiring people teaching ancestral skills is Lynx Vilden and her school the Living Wild School. This is my review of her program.
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Green Dawn
“The west has fiscalised its basic power relationships through a web of contracts, loans, shareholdings, bank holdings and so on. In such an environment it is easy for speech to be “free” because a change in political will rarely leads to any change in these basic instruments. Western speech, as something that rarely has any…
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Monsters Are Real
Up until a few days ago I believed that all humans had a conscience. That even the most disturbed, murderous psychopaths had figured out how to shut down their ability to feel remorse and guilt perhaps because of some awful childhood trauma, and given the right circumstance, they might still receive some kind of healing.…
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Project Ready
Today was my evaluation for the project. Basically Lynx goes through all your gear and then asks you about your physical and social status, things like, “Are you feeling well enough?” and “How are you getting along with everyone in the group?” I’ve felt really good about my health and about everyone in the group…
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Moose Hide Sandals
Here are my sandals. I made these to save the soles of my moccasins. I’ll be going barefoot mostly, but the sandals will give my feet and shoes a relief.
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My Clay Cooking Pot
Here is my wild harvested, natural clay cooking pot. Thankfully it survived the firing. I didn’t do any temper ratio testing before hand. There are some cracks but they are very small. I’ll cook something thick and starchy in it to season and seal the pot up nicely.
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Raccoon Fur Vest
Here is the bark-tanned raccoon fur vest I made to stay warm on the project. It’s made from 5 roadkill raccoons. The two front panels were from juvenile raccoons during the fall, so their coats were smaller and less thick. The two panels in the back are two adults from the winter. I cut a fifth adult,…
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Modified Salish Side Seam Mocassins
Today I finished my mocassins for the project. There is a floating sole stiched between the shoe and the actual sole, so three layers total. This is a modified version of the pattern in Jim Rigg’s book Blue Mountain Buckskin. Even with three soles, I may wear through pretty quickly out in the woods. Lynx…
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My Buckskin Shirt
I finally finished my buckskin shirt for the project. It started out as a tunic looking thing but I added fringe and sleeves and a colar so I could have it popped and look super cool out in the woods. Here are a few pics: — —
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Reality
I’m half way through the stone age immersion or prehistoric project preparation at Lynx Vilden’s Living Wild School. It’s hard to imagine that I’ve been here this long. I’ve been struggling pretty hard not to run away back to my community in Portland. My girlfriend came up and stayed with us for a few days…