Podcast # 1 no till discussion and Nature Walk

No Till discussion and Nature Walk account from Theodore Scott Heistman on Vimeo.

Cat Biological Survey

Star's pet tabby cat "pickles" is conducting a bio-diversity survey of the local rodent population. She previously applied to conduct and bird survey but was turned down.

Each night she collects samples in the field and brings them onto Star's bed. Usually by early moring.

Then We  examine, identify them measure them, catalogue them and discard them.

The above we identified in the Petersen Guide as an Eastern Jumping mouse.

Species previously identified:

masked shrew
Eastern Bog lemming
Short tailed shrew
meadow vole
pygmy shrew
chipmunk -catch and release(inside the house)

Stay tuned for updates

Living a Life of Abundance without Money

Living a life of abundance without money. I am not ready to make any type of categorical decision, like the guy out in Utah, and vow to live without money. But for the past couple months I've been pretty much living without it and I haven't felt any lack. I mean, I am doing all the same things I would do if I had a shit load of money. If I had a few hundred thousand dollars, I would buy some rural land, basically in the type of location I'm at now. Then I would live in a tipi while I built a cabin and taught myself how to grow, hunt and gather all of my own food. So that's basically what I am doing anyway, except I don't own any of it, and I am not teaching myself everything, rather I am doing an internship. I work 20 hours a week, for room and board.

The “work” is all this cool stuff I am really interested in. I like physical outdoor type work, anyhow. The most fun job, I have ever had so far was working in the Nursery of a Garden Center. So this is right up my alley. I do keep track of my hours though, because it is a job and not everything is pure enjoyment. Like for example edging and weeding is not my favorite thing. But so far I have been building a lot of deer fences and stone walk ways and that has been something I have really enjoyed. The time flies when I am doing that. Usually when I am building a stone walkway and then I catch my breath and wonder what time it is, its usually 4 hours already and it blew by. Conversely its amazing how much weeding and edging I can cram into 4 hours!

But I am becoming more Zen, I think, and becoming more at one with the present moment, so that nothing really sucks. Everything seems to have its own magic and purpose. I've always liked physical work because I feel like I am getting in shape. I think of it like doing exercise or a sport. I've always admired people with strong bodies from doing physical labor rather than from just working out in a gym. Gardening is the kind of work that makes my back and forearms strong, my hands are getting stronger too. Of course I can't guarantee any results for others. Gardeing is not really a macho thing. Star, my mentor, is a 68 year old woman and there is nothing I can do that she can't do. I can pull larger stumps out of the ground maybe but that's not really a major part of the job. Still, though, it feels really good to go to bed tired everyday.

 I learn many new things everyday. Its a lot to absorb, because Star basically knows the latin name for every single plant or weed on her property. Everything she looks at she basically knows what it is. If she doesn't know right off, she becomes fascinated and consults four or five field guides until she solves the mystery. She identifies all these weeds for me as they are sprouting and don't look like anything yet to me. She knows what type of roots they have and how fast they grow and weather or not they will interfere with whatever we are planting in that spot. Often she tells me to leave them. Many are very beneficial, like pigweed and dandelions, which we eat a lot of.

Probably Field guides is another thing I would buy with money. But I can read hers any time I want and she has plenty of them. She consults them constantly. She is always identifying something. She has new one on insect sign that is really cool. Insects leave all these signs of their presence.

So I am getting in shape, spending time outdoors, connecting with nature, learning about plants and animals, eating delicious organic food everyday, building fences, learning how to grow all my own food and building a tipi. Basically at this present moment I don't want anything else at all. My sneakers are wearing out. So may have to buy a new pair of those.

Eventually I want to tan a deer hide from a road killed deer and make moccosins. But for the time being I decided to take a walk barefoot. The experience was delicious. I took a walk just as it was getting dark after a cool rain. The path in the woods was wet and clean. I felt like I could taste the clean water through my feet. There were all these beautiful new ferns sprouting, one species, I recently learned is called an “interrupted fern” buts also many many different species of them and frogs hopping all around. I caught one frog beside the path and it was pretty big and dark brown almost black in the twilight. It was a wood frog, I identified it from the barely perceptible dark patches on the sides of its head, that usually look much more noticeable. But these frogs can vary their color and this one had made its whole body as dark as those two patches.

These woods aren't mine, but I don't see how much more I could possibly enjoy them if they were. All I can experience of them is contained in the present moment walking there barfoot after the rain, feeling the forest with my feet. There is no way to buy that moment even if I had a hundred billion dollars.

Fun with trees

Making a Garden Gate Threshold from old Bricks

Step One Collect a bunch of old bricks that have been laying around the Homestead for 50+ years.

Step Two Dig a hole about three inches deep in the area you want to lay the bricks

Step Three Level it out and place the felt.

Step Four Get distracted and take a photo of a wood frog you spot in the garden:

Step Five Lay down a one inch layer of sand:

Step Six Arrange Bricks into a pleasing pattern:

Next Step: Get some more sand to fill in the cracks! (I ran out)

"Of Wolves and Men" Book review by Ron Frye

 Here is a book review of Of Wolves and Men by my soon to be Step Dad Ron Frye, a musician, and speech teacher at Madison Area Technical College in Madison, WI. Its funny because he did the same thing I did, when I read it, over 20 years ago, as a kid, read a chapter or two, get really excited about some cool facts or lines from the book and then excitedly share it with my Mother. Its a testament to Lopez' quality as a writer, I think.

I starting reading the book just as there were news stories that Wisconsin is considering allowing wolf hunting again. This was in startling contrast to information in the book that there were no more wolves in Wisconsin and most of the US. This highlighted for me the 2 things I was to gain from the book. First, I learned about wolves. Secondly, I learned about Barry Lopez as a persuasive writer. Most people’s best learning comes when they can connect the new information with what they already hold in their mind. The connections to me are of ethos or credibility. I remember being stunned while reading, that Lopez details the limits of his own knowledge about wolves and also does a good job of describing the various points of view available. In the introduction he told of dog-killing incidents in Goldstream Valley, Alaska. He describes strong emotions elicited by wolves. He describes reactions of biologists, Eskimos, dog owners, and all of us. This is classic stuff that makes up persuasive people. It is also the basis for his book. Persuaders can tell you their own limits and they can accurately describe the positions of those that disagree with the thesis presented. To me, this is some of the roots of his power to create long-lasting change. Ethos sets the stage. Being trustworthy makes other people move to more flexible positions and better ability to consider what they haven’t been able to see. The shift over 35 years from no wolves to consideration of wolf hunting is proof of his impact. I plan to keep the book and reread it. For me the latter chapters about fables, gods and literature got tedious, but they do prove the thoroughness of Lopez's research. Then wham, he comes in with the epilogue and his open experience raising 2 wolves. More ethos and a power closing. Thanks for helping get me connected to this book and author. Ron

Dandelion salad

My favorite dish to eat here has become dandelion salad so Star had me make some.

I took about a two gallon bag full of dandelion greens, washed them with three washes of water and let them drain and then placed them in a big wooden bowl and chopped them up along with an onion and some wild leeks. Star has this cool knife she let me use that is like an ulu eskimo knife except it has a rounded blade it fits really well in the bowl. Its some type of traditional New Egland made knife.

So Then I cut it up fairly fine like cole slaw and add about a cup of plain yogurt and a cup of Mayo:

Then I mix it in with a spoon and spread it evenly and its ready to serve:

Here is a cool link on the nutritional info: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2441/2 Apparently its really good for me!

My wife and I are doing a summer internship organic Gardening, here in the Adirondack Mountains for an organic gardener/homesteader and Childrens author named Star Livingstone. She is retired and grows most of her own food on 2 acres. He husband, Jeff is a boat builder/carpenter and works seasonally in Cape Cod. I decided to start this blog to share with others. I work four hours a day on the farm and I have a writing room set up for me for nature writing. I try to write for four hours a day until lunch and then work in the afternoon. My goal is to write nature articles and get them published in localutdoor publications. These first few entries might seem a little disjointed because today I just posted a bunch of my journal entries over the last month or so. So its not in sequence but they are here for anyone who wants to read them. Today's Journal entry:

I find that if I go a day without writing I become overcome with dispair. I feel like there is a lot of pressure on me. I can't create wonderful things under stress. Nature writing is not something you can schedule really tightly. Its relationship based. Its based on a relationship with nature. Relationships take time. Possibly I could do travel writing on a tight schedule. Fly in, hike, canoe, bike, eat, look at art, etc. Fly out, write, send, publish, get paid, bingo blammo. I feel like I am settling in still and haven't gotten into a rythmn totally yet. Plus I am writing about stupid shit about my marriage. I haven't journalled all that much about what I am doing here.

So here is what I do. My wife and I, are staying in a little cabin Star built or had Jeff build. She calls it “the Chapel. Its about 10X10 feet maybe, maybe 8X8. And has a couple narrow windows on the roof and one in the back to let the light in. The front is mostly glass except for the doors. The doors are wooden, from old boards, really well weathered and handles of natural branches in the “Adirondack rustic” style. On the back wall she has a little wood burning of a lion. And across from it on the same wall is a little palm folded into a cross like people get on palm sunday. She goes to a Presbyterian church, so she probably got it there. I remember getting these when I was a kid at the Episcopalian church I grew up in. Its a thing Liturgical churches do, Catholic and mainline protestant. I don't remember getting palms at Baptist churches. I like the kind of understated spiritual ambiance of the place. It's set up to be a little retreat or meditation room. It has a wooden bunk, nailed to the floor, that is the size of a double bed, with a foam mattress on it. Also there is a really warm down comforter on it. I mean really cozy. When we got here in early April, it got down to below freezing at night and we were really snug and warm. Except for our noses! Thats a wonderful feeling I always thought, the sense of being warm and just a little bit cold at the same time. It makes you really appreciate the warmth. There is a little propane heater in there as well.

 We aren't using it much now as its gotten warmer, but we used turn it on for ten minutes or so in order to get dressed. There is a little desk in there and a chair on one end of the bead, just a little to the side of it, The bed is almost as long as the cabin. At the foot of the bed is a chest. On the chest Linda has placed this plastic tubs to store our clothes. She has three and I have one. She uses the desk in the morning to have her daily Bible study.

The Chapel overlooks the garden, Star calls the back garden or the perennial garden. Its a flower Garden basically. I don't really know my flowers. So I can't comment on it much. But its really nice. Its shaded by some big trees and such as a big cherry and some big white pines.The Cherry growing right next to the chappel has ivy growing up it. The Garden is surrounded by a bamboo fence with chicken wire to keep the deer out. Repairing the deer fence has been one of my jobs. I replaced some of the bamboo with maple saplings I cut down from their land. She showed me the process of how to pick them. She wanted me to pick tall saplings that are growing too close to more mature healthy trees. These trees are unlikely to survive and so I am simply thining the forest and allowing other trees to grow healthy. Also Maple isn't happy in this area because the soil is slightly acidic. They don't do well. Earlier this spring Star put out some lime so her lawn wouldn't turn into moss instead of grass.

In the perennial garden. There are some brick paths Star has built from bricks she fould on her land here left by the farmer he mother bought the place from over 40 years ago. These are old bricks. She made a circular path around a flower bed. And another along an asparagus bed. She works sand into the cracks between the bricks to keep them easy to weed. She maintains other paths with Pine needles from white pines. One day we visited a neighbor, who has several big pines. We collected 4 big bags full with a rake to spread on the path. It smells nice, its a nice rusty color and feels soft under foot. Other paths are composed of stone.

 Star and Jeff go to a place in Tug Hill called “flat rock creek” and collect flat river stones. They drive down there and bring an inflatable raft. And float it along and collect flat stones. I have never gone but would really like to go. They have been there twice since we've been here. So they bring a carload back and some of them have little fossils in them. Some of them look like they are nothing but fossils, mostly mollusk shells, reminiscent of scallops, but also, some little shapes like snail shells and very occasionally other little creatures. So what I do is a dig a shallow, depression, the shape of the path I am to make and make it as flat and level as possible. We eyeball everything here. This isn't professional masonry work. Its in keeping with the natural perma culture style of the place. So when its dug out and fairly level I put down this black felt like cloth she has. Its a barrier for weeds. So I put that down and either fold it or cut it to fit. The I place a layer of sand. They get tubs of sand from some local road, that gets heavily sanded in the winter. Making do, with found objects on their land and easily obtainable local materials is a theme for them. So I put the sand down and then I lay the stones down. I try to do it like a jigsaw puzzle. Its really fun! I get kind of obsessive about it. I put them down and replace them and switch them around over and over again, until I get a pleasing pattern. They brought back some really nize triangular stones that fit really well. So after I lay them out I fill in the cracks with more sand than if a stone tips when you walk on it, I dig out the sand in the center and put it around the edges intil it stays flat. Its tips with it sits on a lump of sand and acts like a see saw. So eventually I get them all to lay flat more or less. After a couple good rains they usually settle in really well. The results have been pretty pleasing. I made a couple new paths this spring and Star and Jeff made a couple. They look really nicw with these gates Jeff makes, using intertwinging branches, screwed together to a wooden frame. There is something about the natural wood and the stone together that is really pleasing to the eye. Feng Shui or something. Star has taken classes in ikebana

Everything on the little Farmstead has an interesting story about it. Bordering the Perenial garden is an old shack that's falling down Star calls “poor soul” more on that later. So then as I was writing this I walked down to get a coffee refil and Star showed me some work for me to do later (I write mornings and work afternoons.) said she had a surprise for me. So she showed me some stuff she wanted me to grub out and a place she wanted me to put the chicken tractor. Then in a bed she had been edging around a Crab apple tree, she showed me a morel poking out of the soil. Pretty cool. She is going to identify it now. She has a whole library of field guides. I had walked over to her to tell her that yesturday, I saw the Phoebe. She had been worried about these migratory birds because they feed on flying insects. They came in the spring and enjoyed some unseasonally warm weather only to have temperatures plunge for a couple weeks of sleet and snow and freezing over night. Insects don't fly in snowstorms. So Star feared they had starved. I thought I saw a couple in the woods hunting on the ground, when I was out cutting fir saplings for tipi poles, but they turned out to be hermit thrushes, a similar looking bird, but with brown speckles on the throat which phoebes don't have. So yesturday, on a rainy day when Star was out at a meeting, I saw what looked like a Phoebe in one of her gardens hunting along the ground, It then flew up to a fence post and I confirmed its identity with binoculars. Its good to know they do hunt along the ground when the inscets aren't flying on a cold rainy day. So I guess these birds are tough enough to make it here after all.

A big part of life here at the homestead is identifying plants, animals, birds etc. Its one of Star's favorite past times. She has a couple, three, big shelves full of field guides. Birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, mush roomes, wild flowers, wild herbs, shrubs, weeds, you name it. She identifies every rodent her two cats bring in. Its usually a part of everyday breakfast conversation. There are a surprising number of enemic rodents, three species of shrews, possibly five, red backed voles, deer mice, door mice, a lemming. Some look quite similar, like deer mice and door mice I think. I should confirm this later. The deer mice has a morph that makes it look a lot like a species of deer mouse here. Her yearling female cat, a vigourous, shiny grey tabby named pickles, is the best mouser. She is always catching things and bringing them on to Star's bed in the loft either alive or dead. She brought a live chipmunk in the house once that managed to evade capyure for several months. Its actually mating season, or was not too long ago for the short tailed shrew, so the carnage began to pile up as Pickles caught her daily tally of wandering amorous shrews ionto the house. We all have coffee, free trade coffee, Star buys, and eat eggs, has browns, or oatmeal. The running joke is that Linda never eats normal breakfast food, but always eats the left overs from the night before.

I am probably eating far healthier lately than at amy previous point in my life, up to now. My diet is composed entirely of locally grown, fresh produce, organic whole grains like lentils, home grown corn, and organic usually free range meat like free range pork, and chicken, free range eggs. My favorite thing to eat is this Slaw Star makes from dandilion greens growing on her lawn. Right now before they bloomed they are pretty sweet with just a slight bit of bitterness. I really like them. So I have decided to start a Blog called the “Adirondack Homestead Journal” and start writing articles. That way I can stay in the present moment, in the here and now. Articles to consider: The ruffed grous I ate Building a Tipi The cats Local bird life Sweet cicely. Today I ran. I ran three days a week this week like I said I would, even though I was really tired this morning and ankles were sore. I was also depressed from not writing the day before and not working due to rain and not getting along with Linda.

So I ran for about 20 minutes and thaen sat down by a stream near a beaver dam and looked at all the old stumps chewed down by beavers years ago and listened to the peepers. I needed to take some time to meditate. It was refreshing. I really think beavers are amazing. They have some amazing type of collective intelligence. Stored somewhere in the ether in their morphogenetic field no doubt. I think Sheldrake is right. Its not in their little rodent brains. It can't be.

Journal Entries from first few days

We arrived in Woodgate on April 4 after a 22 hour drive straight through from Madison, WI. Yesturday after We unpacked and slept, the next day I took a hike out to Gull lake. I started out feeling really crappy. I had an athsma attack the night before, I slept in late and when I woke up everyone was gone. So I rode my bike down “Bear Creek Road” and parked it in the parking area and hiked four miles through the woods to the Gull lake lean to.

Just before I got there I heard a loud noise like big rocks being thrown. Bigfoot warning signal? When I got the the lean to I was greeted by loonsong. The pair of loons were right there in front of the lean to not thirty feet away. They dove and swam around together in the lake as I sat there resting. There was a log in the lean to going back to 2010. people wrote entries of their adventures there. There used to be a hammock and a canoe apparently. No sight of either one. There was no on e around on this weekday afternoon April. It sleeted briefly and stopped and then began to rain slightly. I found a big patch wintergreen leaves and chewed a bunch of them and then picked a bunch for later to make some tea.

 Fuck, I'm tired. I should write in the morning. Anyway I saw two wood duck on the way back a couple grouse, on bear creek road I saw some turkeys at one house feeding in the back yard, at another house chickens, and geese, mostly rhode island reds and a couple black hens which I later fround out were black Australorps. Good laying hens, very gentle with children and adapted to cold weather. 4/5 Today I got a list of things to do for Star. I had to turn a fire pit into a squash bed. I moved the stones out and put them over to where the new fire pit is to be. Then I dug some dirt from the new pit and mixed it with equal parts manure and compost and built the squash bed. This is going to be so freaking amazing! Living here. The squash bed is going to have stones on it going up hill forming a spiral. She already has a strawberry bed like that, already built and planted. So I built that and while I was doing that in between loads I turned over the compost pile. Next I made bean brush for three rows of beans. They are like bean poles only more brushy. They are twigs with overlapping branches for the beans to climb. With that done I had lunch and hung out with Jeff and had some excellent cold lentil salad.

Then I went to the Library and visited with Bill the librarian and used the internet and e-mailed Anne Stolte and told her I was back in Woodgate and pitched a story suggesting a profile piece on the Livingstones and asked for suggestions for stories. Star is pretty well connected in the community. She goes to church with the Diresctor of the Adirondack preservation society. She also has some leads for me on how I might do some radio reporting. There are at least a couple magazines and also two local papers here. So there is a lot of opportunity for free lance writing. Lots of local stories that can be expanded into national stories as well. That's what I'd ultimately like to do, be an outdoor writer. Ultimately I would like to get a nature column and write about the same area changing through the seasons. I also have a lot of art ideas about changes through seasons. Another idea is to create a species list of the Livingstones land. Catalogue every known species of animal and plant, wild and domestic, including insects and fungi. Birds, rodents, weeds. Biological survey an amateur, biological survey. I'm going to try for national magazines as well. I just discovered this magazine “ODE for intelligent optimists.” looks up my alley. I am sitting in a converted silo made into a study. I am on the top floor here with windows all around. I am feeling tired and satisfied from doing physical labor and eating a hearty home cooked meal. My hand has a new blister and my cheeks are windburned I have this delicious feeling of well earned fatigue. I will sleep well tonight. Linda took a bike ride today and did a similar route as I did yesturday. She saw a mink. She thought it was a weasel at first because of its shape but as she described its behavior of swimming in the water and catching a fish, I suspected it was a mink. My hunch was confirmed when she identified it from a field guide.

I want to see wildlife!

Future goals. I want to maximize my chances of viewing wildlife in my walks in the woods. I went on an eight mile hike the other day and only saw one loon way out in the middle of the lake and some nondescript tiny birds flitting around in the woods. I mean sure it was a nice sunny day and a pleasant walk, but I want to see big flashy “sexy” animals, like Moose, black bears, coyotes...a bald eagle would be nice.

I am jealous of my wife. She saw a mink on her hike, even though she thought it was a weasel. From her description I determnined it was a mink, smallish tube shaped animal, dark brown coat, jumping in the lake and coming up chewing on a small animal or a fish or something.

“sounds like a mink” I said I showed her a picture in a field guide.

“Yep that's it!” she said

You, see, I read field guides. Religiously. My wife doesn't but she always sees everything and I don't. I spend all my time looking for animals and never find any or walk right by them without seeing them and my wife spots them every time. I think its her approach. She takes a quiet meditative approach to the woods. One of her favorite things to do is sit quietly by a stream. I try to sit with her somethimes but can't do it for very long and end up driving her nuts, with my squirming and fidgeting around. I like to get from point A to point B. I have map in hand and I will get to the end of the trail come Hell or high water.

With Linda its more about the process. She actually does have a competitive streak when it comes to games, but in the woods, she likes to open herself up to the experience, without expectations. If she sees some animals, great! If not she has a pleasant invigorating walk. She recharges her batteries just by being there. With me wild life viewing is like the watched pot that never boils. Even so I plan watch that pot even more closely. Next time I plan to bring binoculars.

  Many animals are crepsucular, meaing most active at dawn and dusk, the twilight hours of early morning and early evening. Also they are attracted to water and open areas. So I plan to frequent the edge of a bog every evening before sundown and sit from a high vantage point and wait and try to be still. So I did this for a week.

Nothing.

(well, I saw a red squirell and a hairy woodpecker. Heck I can see those anywhere!) My wife tells me. “You'll never guess what I saw on the way to the store.” What? “a little wolf or something.” She said it was about so high, (indicating about 12 inches) and about so long (indicating about three feet” and it was grey and had a long tail and ran across the road. I showed her a picture of a grey fox. “that's it!” she said. Crap! I never see those

Breakfast Conversation, quiet time to write

4/9/12 I haven't written much because I have been adjusting to living here and doing physical work on the farm. I guess this could be an urban farm, because its only on two acres, even though its out in the country on the border of Adirondack State Park.

They live in a converted Barn that even has a silo. I am writing from the top floor of the silo which is made into a study. Its a nice eyrie like round room with three windows spaced evenly around lending a commanding view of the homestead. It has a private entrance up a set of wooden stairs that passes right by Star and Jeff's sleeping loft. So I tried to be quiet when I came up this morning, at 5:45. Its a nice atmosphere for writing up here. The air is more rarified at this high elevation! There is a round table here with a small antique wooden chest on it. Its decvorated with Star's eclectic style. There is framed composition of a sheep, constructed from a segment of a paper wasps hive for the wool and mussel shells for the ears and head and two kernals of indian corn for eyes. Its quite effective from a distance it looks like a small painting. Only on closer inspection do you notice the composite materials. There is a pressed flower of some type also framed on the wall, and a composition of an African woman carrying a large jar on her head wearing a colorful shawl, it too appears to be a painting but on further inspection it turns out to be composed entirely of segemts of butterfly wings. Above me is a large window, composed of triangular panes of glass between ten spokes reminiscent of a wagon wheel, with a small beam about a foot and a half long projecting downward from the center and capped with a carving of an acorn.

It seems familiar somehow. I think I may have seen something very similar inside a yurt. Its seems to carry some type of spiritual signifigance, as is the case, from what I understand with the center of a yurt. Above this window is a weather vane designed as a giant monarch butterfly. So its from this perch here that I will do most of my writing while employed on this internship. I can't help but wonder about the alchemical signifigance of this. I will be down in the dirt engaged in very literally “earthy” pursuits and then I will cleanse myself with water and ascend into this tower and transmute my experiences and labors below into prose.

One interesting feature though is that I can't see forever into vanishing horizons from this perch. The windows aren't actually high enough, they are set rather low in the walls just below the dome. So mostly what I see is the farm below. So probably what I will see most are my mistakes! A tool left out, something neglected or a row I hoed crooked. Of course I can also admire what I have contributed. Its intersting that the view fom this tower is well contained in the microcosm of the farm. Surrounding the property are tall trees, the very tops of which, cannont be seen easily from the window. Besides little bits of the road and the neighbors roof all that can be seen from here is the farm. Its the highest view in a self contained universe. This is interesting. Perhaps this will lend focus to my musings, keeping me in the here and now allowing to glean all I can from the experience.

So I just had a quick breakfast with my wife Linda and Star and Jeff, left over oat meal and apple saucce and some english breakfast tea with milk. We saw some tiny birds feeding on fallen bird seed on the ground. Are they little sparrows? Star confirmed that they are siskins. They are only here a little while before heading far up North. We talked about sea glass and I showed them my prized collection, of a piece of a bottle stamped ..EREY CALIF. From Monterey California. She showed me a piece fronm the Atlantic Ocean, that largest piece they had ever found, which she believes was a piece of lighthouse glass. She used it to construct a handle for a drawer. It was smooth, and slightly opaque with a soft glow and fom its shape the circumference of a large cicle could be made out.

My wife showed Star the clothes she had recently purchased from a Thrift Store in Holland Pattent. Star said the best Thrift Stores are near rich neighborhoods “Big Houses, Old money!” “Yeah, big Stone houses...with ivy” I said “and Tennis courts.” she added. “I'd hate to have a tennis court.” I said. “I'd have to rake all the leaves off it all the time” Star said “Who has time for tennis? When would my husband and I have time for that? “right after you come back from horse back riding is usually the best time” Everyone was laughing now. Then my wife chimed in: “That would be your job, Ted, to rake the leaves so Start and Jeff could play tennis. That and take care of the horses. You'd be the groomsman!”

“Yeah, I could shovel out the stables and at night I could hold the latern at the end of the driveway.” Like this” I said holding out my baggy of sea glass like a lantern.

“And you'd have to polish all the silver, and shine the door knobs. That would be your job.” I said to my wife. We had a good laugh at the expense of rich people.

I wondered what it really means to be rich. Jeff and Star were rich in a DIY way. Jeff is a boat builder and has built several sailboats, canoes, kayaks and other vessels. Star sews horse blankets to get horseback riding lessons for her grand daughter at a discount. So you actually could count sailing and horseback riding as their hobbies. They drink fresh ground fair trade coffee in the morning and dine on organic veggies, They don't buy them from Whole Foods, though.

My Wife is going to Saranac Lake to look for work. She'd like to be a canoe guide. That's where her heart is. I am trying to find a species of flower that only blooms in the Adirondacks, because that would be Linda's flower. I told her when we decided to move back to the Adirondacks, We had to be willing to do things unconventionally, because that very well may be the only way to do it. With gas at four dollars a gallon and climbing for how long would it be practical to commute to Utica or Rome every day? Plus an hour commute is ten hours a week on the road for a full time job. That's ten hours that could be spend canoeing or cross country skiiing or just sitting quietly and meditateively by a stream. So We plan to cobble together a life for ourselves here the best way we can. “There is so much to learn from Star” my wife said and that is one of the things we want to learn: Making a life in the Adirondacks.

Back in the wild

4/10/12 my brain's not firing on all cylinders today. I feel listless. Part of it is I am getting back in shape. Let's face it, besides occasional bike rides, I was pretty sedentary this past winter. One thing I love about the Adirondacks is all the hiking trails. Back in Madison, there wasn't a good enough reasom for me to walk everyday. Its not worth the bother just to walk through commercial and residential areas day after day. As far as parks go there were plenty to choose from but to me, walking from one end of the park to the other is no fun. It just underscores this idea of limitation, whichj ios ever present in civilized areas anyway.

I've come to identify with wild areas. Its something that happened to me early on. So I identify with wild areas and these seem in opposition to civilized urban areas and even cultivated areas like cornfields, wheat fields, etc. So endless sub-divisions, strip malls, highways, buildings, power lines, etc. seem like an alien environment to me. So I seek a park in order to try and breath, regain some inner equilibrium, but then its only so big. Within an hour I can walk from one end of the park to the other, Busy roads and buildings predominate outside the borders so it feels like a cage. Is that the goal really to have a cage? I hear terms like refuge, oasis, to describe places like the Arburetum, in Madison, but to me it just reinforces the idea of limitation. The deep need the Adirondacks satisfies is the need to experience seemingly endless wildspace. To have my senses consumed with the wild, wild smells, wild sounds, wild sights. Trails that seem to go on for ever. It is an illusion, the park does have boundaries, but there is a sense of limitlessness. The park border is 400 miles around. But as far as the eye can see in many spots its wild. One can think in terms of superlatives, for both time and space. Forever Wild. And traversing a trail there are always side trails, one could explore another day. So very soon the realization is reached that it would take a lifetime to explore all the trails, and you probably still would't see every one. So walking for an hour in the Adirondacks is that musch more rejuevenating than walking from one end to the other through an urban park.

I also enjoy solitude. I've gone on several walks so far, a couple more than eight miles where I haven't seen another soul the whole time and that suits me just fine. I came to a lot of these realizations early on and I think the Adirondacks plays a big part in that. I give a lot of signifigance to the tall pines along route 28. My heart would beat faster when My father would cross the bridge by Forest Port and head up the hill and I'd see those tall pines. The official border wasn't for a couple more miles but seeing those pines acted as a border to me. There was something different about them. I didn't see trees quite like that in Binghamton, which had many beautiful wild areas, but there it was mostly deciduous trees. This was the start of the Boreal forest. That's what it meant to me. Looking at them now, I can obviously see that they aren't any think like old growth. They may have even been planted there. But they are impressively tall and were so over 20 years ago when I came up here with my Dad. I would be lulled to a state of semi-sleep on the long car drive through the rolling hills of upstate NY and when I crossed that bridge and saw those trees, something awakened within me.

I began to sense that I was about to encounter something mysterious, something that strangely called to me. We began to pass boggy lakes, ringed not by mowed lawns and boat docks but by beds of sphagnum moss and small spruce trees. I peered intently into the woods as we drove deeper into the park and tried to catch a glimpse of something I couldn't quite put my finger on. This yearning was checked slightly when we reached Old Forge and my sister wanted go on the rides in the enchanted forest. But diplomatically My Father and I also dragged her on hikes in the woods. I think the Adirondacks acts as an examplar for wild areas I have experienced since. Maybe this is why Northern Minnesota seems “too flat” The Colorado Rockies seem “too dry” and the Pacific North West seems “too wet.” All these places have their own magic. (Of course when in Northern Minnesota or Noerthern Wisconsin I never once said “It's too buggy here I wish I was in the Adirondacks!”)

After college I returned to the Adirondacks with my young wife and sought to recapture that mysterious feeling of encountering the Wild. Our first trip back I wanted to go to the very deepest wildest part of the park wherever that was. We drove all the way through the park and to the other side and it ended up getting dark before we settled on a place to camp! We came in through Forestport and ended up near Albany! Later a friend from church, back in Binghamton, a black bear hunter, recommended to us the Moose river plains when we inquired as to what he thought was the wildest area we could drive to and camp in from our cars. We immediately fell in love with it and decided we would concentrate our weekend explorations there. Every spare long weekend we spent in the Park, mostly in the Moose River Recreation area. On shorter weekends, we would go to Moss Lake just outside of Inlet and on vacations we ventured further into the parks and climbed mountains, such as Marcy, Giant Mountain etc. I began to wonder at one point, what does it say about our relationship with Binghamton, that as soon as we had the slightest chance we immediately got the hell out of there and drove to the Adirondacks.

That's a sign that We didn't reallylike it there. One beautiful warm fall day on top of a mountain, overlooking the autum leaves of forested hills that seemed to go on forever, my wife and I took a vow. We vowed to live and make our lives in the Wilderness, we weren't sure how we were going to do it but we knew we would. Our story takes a dog leg after this vow. Many things transppired that got in the way of fulfilling our vow, bringing us ever closer but somehow never close enough. First we moved to Minnestota instead of the Adirondacks, where We had made the vow. (if this is to be an article don't talk about MN) The reason was that I wanted to live near wolves. There were reportedly no wolves in the Adirondacks. All through this time I argued back in forth with myself as to wether we should move to Alaska. But now We are back. We are back in order to live out our ideal by tempering our ideal with practicality and thus suceed in being able to actually live it out. The Adirondacks provides the best chance we have to be able to live and work in close proximity to and in intimate relation with the wilderness.

I am manifesting my intention. I am manifesting my intention. What is the goal? To own a piece of land free and clear with a Cabin. To make my living as a writer and to be able to travel, visiting wilderness areas the world over, but also intimately getting to know the adirondacks. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mzIo5AdEEI&feature=player_embedded#!">Woodswoman</a> type lifestyle. I am doing things now. Its good to remember that. Its good to live in the present and not always in the future. I am in the Adirondacks now, earning room and board and being able to write, I am free to hike in the woods. I am learning everyday.

Grouse for lunch

4/12/2012

I had an interesting experience today. There was a ruffed grouse hanging oround the Livingstone property. It may have bonded with Jeff as it had followed him around a few times. He is always working in his shop building a sailboat so perhaps, his hammering and so forth replicated the drumming of a male grouse. Sadly the cat chased it this morning and it flew into the road and was struck by a car and killed. Jeff showed it to me laying at the end of the driveway. He told me to pick it up so I can see how heavy it was. I did and it was really substantial. It must have been around a lb and a half. Now I know why they make so much noise when they take off. That is a lot of weight to get off the ground with for a small bird. I said that maybe we should eat it. Jeff said theres no reason we shouldn't. He felt sad about the bird though so he left it to me. I took a photo of it and then I went to work plucking and cleaning it.

I said a little prayer of thanksgiving for the bird and tried to be respectful of it. The feathers came off easily. It had really delicate skin though and it tore in a few places. I cut the head off and noticed it had a crop stuffed full of green leaves of some kind. It looked almost like grass. It may have been clover. I cleaned the guts out and inside was a fully formed egg about a little less than half the size of a chicken egg. I cut the lower legs off and the wings off, mostly because the wing feathers were tougher to pluck and it looked like not much meat on them. When I had it all cleaned up it looked just like an cornish hen. It was all breast meat though. The legs weren't as meaty as a chicken though. I put it in a pot of water along with a bunch of Jerusalem artichokes and some oregano and poultry seasoning. I brought it to a boil and let it simmer for a couple hours.

Star came home and was saddened about the grouse and couldn't bear to look at it. Later while it was simmering and I saw her out working in the garden she told me a story about when her son was 14 or so and had a friend over who was into outdoor survival skills. A grouse struck the window and he decided to cook it and eat it. She thought it was nice that both times a grouse had been killed there some one was willing to make use of it. I went in and checked on the bird and it was nice and tender an coming off the bone. It tasted like chicken but was really light. I hadn't noticed this before but in comparison to the grouse chicken has kind of a heavy after taste or something or gives a heavy feeling. After eating the grouse I felt like I had just eaten a salad. I'd been earting free range pork here and its way better than factory farmed pork. The grouse I think has a similar dynamic, plus I think I could taste a hint of the wild herbs that make up its diet. I felt really thankful for the bird.