Kings Canyon

I just accepted a job at Kings Canyon National Park, in the southern Sierra Nevadas. I’ll be there mid-June till mid-September.

The work is through SCA, which was recommended to me by a friend at the WFR course. It only pays $60 a week – enough for groceries, I think – but the housing is free. From what I’ve been told, it’s more-or-less impossible to get a real, actually-paying job with the Forest/Park service before you’ve done some sort of volunteer or internship thing with them. So at least this way I’m getting payed something.

The idea is, if I like the work, I can get a job as a seasonal Ranger. Work the summer and bum around the rest of the year.

Dates will be posted when I know them. I’ll be driving, so some of you California people will have to offer to put me up for the night. (And then you should come visit me in the park.)

A Work of Fiction

It seems Iran is complaining about their depiction in 300.

It seeks to tell people that Iran, which is in the Axis of Evil now, has for long been the source of evil and modern Iranians' ancestors are the ugly murderous dumb savages you see in 300.

I must have missed something because, when I saw the film, the Spartans were clearly depicted as savage, inhuman barbarians.

The film-makers even drew a direct correlation between the Spartans and Timur, with their wall of corpses. If Timur wasn’t a war-mongering ass-hat, I don’t know who was.

I Am So Confused

So I was sitting here, at work, doing work stuff, when a reminder popped up. “Work in 14 minutes”. “Wait a second,” I thought “I’m already at work.” I check the calendar. I’m not supposed to be at work till 3. My (atomic) watch said it was 2:47. Time.gov agreed with it.

I’m supposed to be in class 2-3 – but I went to that class. The professor was there, my friends were there.

Was the entire class an hour early?

Will I be late to my next class?

What time is it?

Tune in next week…

Time is Overrated

I was late to my next class.

I think I need to take tomorrow off.

Living Earth Herbs

Paid a visit to Living Earth Herbs today.

They just moved up from Eugene.

I now have an Alfalfa infusion brewing on the stove.

herb, review, survival, bushcraft

Edible and Medicinal Plants

I’ve signed up for Wilderness Awareness School‘s Edible and Medicinal Plants course. It’s taught by John Gallagher, of Learning Herbs.

Have you ever wanted to know the plants that grow all around you? Would you like to learn how wild plants, even in cities, can both feed you and take care of your health? This informative and hands on weekend experience introduces participants to the most common and useful plants of our area through direct experiences of touching, eating, cooking, and making meals and medicines. The nature of this weekend offers a new relationship with plants--whether found in urban yards or vast wilderness--that intimately connects us to their lives while enhancing the nourishment, nutrition, and health of our own. Skills include:
  • Plant identification to confidence and safety
  • Herbal oils and salves for most minor first aid situations
  • Tincture making with wild plants for cold & flus
  • Herbal teas and infusions
  • Herbal nourishment for better daily health
  • Mineral vinegars: the ULTIMATE "vitamin"
  • Making a wild foods meal that is nutritious AND delicious
  • Poisonous plant identification
  • Herbal first aid so you can treat yourself naturally
  • AND lots of other fun herbal surprises
We will weave all these skills into a way for you to bring wild herbs into your life to enhance your health. What is seen by many as an overwhelming subject will be presented in a simple way, so you can easily access herbal wisdom on your own. There will be a good balance between class time and herbal activities. Students will go home with herbal remedies for their home first aid kits. Students will also go home with a free copy of Wild Foods for Every Table, an amazing 100 page wild foods books with delicious recipes such as sorrel soup, creamy nettle soup and spiced wildberry jelly.

For signing up early, John sent me the Herbal Remedy and Vitamin/Mineral wall charts. I recommend the Herbal Remedy chart – it’s been useful to me already.

review, books

Poets on the Peaks

John Suiter’s Poets on the Peaks: Gary Snyder, Phillip Whalen & Jack Kerouac in the North Cascades is a biographical account of these Beat Bards, with emphasis placed on their wilderness outings and spiritual explorations, painting them as 20th century Thoreaus.

This book – the images, the text, the characters – are beautiful. It renews the magic of this place.

A portrait of mountains and rivers and Buddha and zen and trees and poetry. America.

Backcountry Boo-Boos

Abby, one of my WFR classmates, has had a short article on the class published on page 13 of the latest issue of Cascadia Weekly.