Wondering

Visions of the Rewilding Renaissance Grief & Praise
#1

so i had another good day, a bbq at my place with some good friends, put in another wiki page. and this morning went out early to harvest a juniper tree in order to season it and make some bow staves. about an hour from moab there are some juniperus deppeana’s that make good bows. i saw a great specimen, tall, straight and big enough for 4 or 5 staves. i couldn’t chop it down. i started wondering how old this tree is. no clue, but way older than i am. this thing may have been a sapling when some natives collected a nearby cousin.
i’ve made one bow so far. ONE! i didn’t think i was ready yet to take this tree and probably ruin 4 out of 5 staves. now i kinda regret leaving and kinda feel good that i left it. some friends at the bbq understood this dilemma, some just stared.
anyone else ever feel things similar, put the cart in front of the horse?

Gratitude will make you brave.

#2

Mostly i just get people that stare and jump to conclusions, make up something and call what I’m doing out of name instead of just getting up the courage to ask me “what are you doing”…they are off in their own world so to speak. Yeah I get what your talking about. I’ve heard people say “Hey you!!! You don’t supposed to be off the trail” and I’ve heard others say something like “awesome how was it out there, find anything new.”

#3

Once at a college party my friend Jessica took me to and I had a little to much to drink and started talking about the roadkill dump and what a thousand maggots eating at once sounds like and the various smells of dead flesh, how newly dead flesh has a distinctive smell which is different from rotting flesh… anyhow I thought I had screwed up royally but Jessica told me later that all of her friends really liked me!

#4

I remember you telling me that story penny.

Animalhands!,

I’ve often gone to pick something… and felt that it was not the proper time, or not the proper plant. Some really old ones like the one your talking about, may have a certain grandfather energy… a kind of energy that says, “No you don’t, this land still needs me for other things.”

Having the ability to hear that I think, seperates the Mountain Man from the true Native. I commend and honor your choice, and I empathize with the part of you that longs for bow-making materials. I haven’t even started on mine yet, or watched the video I got. You have some great photos of the bow on your myspace. Can you add an entry on bow-making in the field guide?