Snowflower's Back

**READ HERE FIRST**
#1

Hi y’all! Hey Peter and Penny - lovely to see you at Rabbitstick! I am finally getting back online and into somewhat circulation again. When I got home from Rabbitstick I was instantly faced with a ton of onions needing harvesting, squash and tomatoes going nuts and potatoes that were crying to be dug out of the ground, plus my grandchildren were way behind in their language arts assignments and we’ve been working overtime getting them caught up (they’re in an online school and I teach the LA part - their mother does the rest.)

Tomorrow a new friend I met at Rabbitstick who lives 20 miles from me will be bringing her three children to visit. I’m excited about possibilities for community.

I was just reading one of the other threads written recently by a woman named Ann who seemed to think everyone on this list was white, urban, privileged, youthful, amerikan and idealistic. I started laughing - I am Indian, as far from urban as you can get (wilderness), living on VERY little money, a grandmother ten times over, I’m American, not Amerikan, and desperately cynical.

So, for those who do not know me, my name is Lua Snowflower, I live in the Colorado Rockies with my husband, Bob, in a small mountain cabin off the grid. We are in the constant process of becoming more and more self-sufficient, learning primitive living skills and learning how to turn our backs on civilization and walk into a wilderness lifestyle.

We’re beginning to understand that we can’t do it solely with a hunting and gathering lifestyle. It might work in another hundred years, after culture collapse and after the earth has had a chance to start recovery, but today we need a combination hunting, gathering, and gardening. The day we got back from Rabbitstick, my son killed a deer, so we had fresh venison. Our currant bushes are ripe and so are the rose hips. I harvested all my herbs before leaving on our trip. We planted native plums this year and will have plenty of plums in about four years. Next spring we’ll be planting service berries (yum - super delicious and somewhat like blueberries), buffalo berries and I have no idea how they taste, nanking cherries, and choke cherries.

I bought some leather (choke - commercially tanned) to make some winter boots. I can tell it’s going to be next summer before Bob gets finished making any brain tanned skins and I really wanted these boots for THIS winter. Bob is being a bit slow right now. He was scheduled for surgery on a melanoma skin cancer right after we got home and they ended up taking a really BIG chunk out of his back. So, we bought firewood. Super ironic - we live in the middle of wilderness and bought firewood? Oh well. Anyway, it saves him from the pressure of getting wood in while he’s recovering.

It is my intention to become active again in Rewilding - it’s the only place that feels like home online right now. Every other list I’m on is becoming more and more separate from my heart because I’m moving further and further away from all things civilized.

Snowflower

#2

Yay! Good to “see” you here again Snowflower. It was really fun meeting and chatting with you. What a syncronicity! Glad you made it home safely.

#3

Welcome back, Snowflower!

Please extend to Bob my wishes for a speedy recovery. My dad has dealt with melanoma for a few years now. I know it can take a lot out of you.

And thanks for sharing with us about your personal rewilding experience. I take a lot of encouragement from stories like yours.

#4

I just got slapped pretty hard on another list for daring to express my belief that there is no hope for salvaging the dominant culture, that billions of people are going to die, and that people need to wake up to the needed changes in their lives asap. I got accused of being “hopeless and negative” that the purpose of that list is to help people cope with the changes in their lives in a positive way, and that the sense of doom is not a proactive way to approach needed changes (the subject was global warming and changing light bulbs to more efficient light bulbs.)

Sigh…

I wrote a letter back about the difference between true hope and false hope, and that pretending that the cities are not death traps is false hope while taking what might be considered insane actions to completely alter the paradigm of their lives offers the only true hope available. I’m pretty sure the letter will fall on deaf ears and there is another list I won’t be going back to much. And I’m a moderator.

So - anyone want to join us on our mountain and live in a tipi?

Snowflower

#5

Well, we got time. It’ll be more obvious the worse it gets. I figure in 5 or 10 years we’ll have all the allies we could ever need, and more besides. I’d love to stay in your mountain teepee retreat for a few seasons, but I need to get back to the city eventually. I mean, someone has clean up this mess.

#6
I mean, someone has clean up this mess.

Why?

#7

Because we made it.

I know, I know, Ma nature will reclaim it all eventually, but I’d like to help speed the process along. I’m fairly sure that before we get to a fully rewilded stage, we’re going to live through the age of scavenging, where for purely selfish and shortsighted reasons, people will dismantle the cities until little remains. That’s my vision, at least.