Into the Civilized World
Penny and I moved back to Portland. It’s funny because she gave me so much shit for wanting to live in Portland, and I gave her shit about living in the country. Now the roles are reversed. I didn’t want to move back for the same reasons she wanted to leave, and she wanted to move back for the same reasons I wanted to stay.
I’ve been working in television production again and having a good time. In a sense, the production is not dissimilar to a hunting party. Everyone has a role and the one who puts the “hunt” together gets the biggest piece. Not as egalitarian as I would like, but whatever. It also has me thinking on my toes. I love the creative problem solving aspect of the job; it’s my specialty.
Now, I know there is nothing anti-civilization in what I do there. And I don’t mean to demean the authenticity of indigenous hunter-gatherers by comparing what I do to their lives. Obviously they are not really alike at all. But the job provides me with daily critical thinking and challenges that demand creative problem solving. Something we all know rewilding presents us with. Although it has nothing to do with anti-civilization (in fact I sometimes feel like I’m a soldier in civilizations propaganda army!) I actually really love my job and I’m really good at it. Plus it sometimes provides me with enough doe to do some self-rewilding on the side. I also enjoy the diversity of the things I do; one day I might be operating a fog machine, the next driving a giant, plush motorhome, the day after that dangling a champagne glass on a fishing line. It’s insane. And that keeps me sane!
My focus on my days off since I moved back to Portland has been to collect as many material as I can for winter craft projects. I’ve gathered mullien, willow, hazelnut and indian plum to experiment as hand-drill spindles. I’ve set up a knapping pit on the balcony of my apartment. I’ve gathered a ton of nettles for making cordage. Native Blackberry for baskets. English Ivy for baskets. I have a giant list of things to gather now that it’s the dying season. As soon as the sap goes down I plan to harvest some vine maple and make a better bow, some Ocean Spray to make arrow shafts. The list goes on and on.
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Welcome back officially to Portland, Herr Scout. So good to know you live so close…walking that edge of urbia and sylvatica.
And also, fuck everyone in Portland for not signing up for Rewild 101. Wait a second, that might actually get ’em to come. 😉
It’s my fault for trying to pull it together in 3 weeks. I’ll do another in a few months instead, giving myself plenty of time to market that shit.
Hey good luck Scout.. being happy is the most important thing, rewilding is more difficult if youre miserable and hungry..
how interesting! My auntie just moved back from kalamath falls. Was also hungry, miserable… welcome back! / hope ta see ya around!
uhhhhhhh don’t click on the website thing in my name that was the magic of firefox auto populate srry!
wow, that was fun! You know I had to click on the link in deedeedeegee’s name. At work. Good times for everyone!!
Scout, I’d like to hear about making nettle cordage on a larger scale than I’ve done. I’ve made short lengths, mostly just to teach folks how it’s done. I have a bunch of fireweed and nettle and I’m thinking of trying to process it the way they used to process flax into linen (adds a lot more steps, but makes a way softer finished project). Basically, you rot it slightly so that the inner bark falls away from the outer fibers really easily and then you comb the fibers a bunch.