The website now has an active comments section at the below right of each post heading and should be at the bottom of the each article page. The contact page is also now up and running. I had to remove the sales page in order to have a disclaimer menu heading for legalities.
The more knowledge you accumulate the more you see things differently. Most people walk through the bush and see nothing, notice nothing just green if that. They look but don’t see, hear but don’t listen.
Short story long. When your first told your terminal they make you write a list of what you’d like to accomplish when you become healthy. Pretty much all of my list turned into , whats the politically correct term. A cluster fuk.
I fell into bushcraft and it took root and from doing bushcraft courses has gotten me through a lot of sickness, rehab and pain. Helped to focus my mind. A mate said to me I have probably achieved a level of resilientness that most people can only dream about.
I read a book called Celestine Prophecy, The author is probably a nut job but the book says that when we go to the celestial plane we choose the life were to reincarnate into in order to learn life’s lessons. I came away with two things from that. One I stopped being angry with what was happening to me (the important one) and second looking back on it I was probably a dumbarse for putting myself through all this BS.
However I’m now on a path that I wouldn’t have been on otherwise. Ironically I would have been dead long ago if I hadn’t become sick.
I first learned about mindfulness through martial arts. Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one’s attention to the present-moment experience without evaluation
Through mindful awareness we can realize an engaged life for ourselves. Engaged living is about being aware of our choice to connect to our own Truth, live in harmony and in gratitude for every moment of our lives.
Mindfulness and engaged living will inevitably overlap. One who practices mindfulness turns their everyday life into an art.
Awareness. We first have to be aware in order to decide how to live differently. Mindfulness practice is an ideal way of generating awareness in life. In mindfulness practice, every action we take is done with awareness
Engaged living relates to the actions behind the awareness, in both large and small things. Though it’s difficult to practice mindfulness all the time, by making choices to live an engaged life, the structure of one’s life changes. And as the structure changes, mindfulness flows.
The last maybe fifteen years I have studied everything from botany to history. When I walk a trail now I see differently I also don’t just focus with my eyes when I can also listen, smell, taste and feel.
I look around me and know the trees are Yellow Box gum trees and that they’re good for honey, which part of the country Im in, its good for firewood and building.
That the clouds are Cumulus and are less than 2000 meters in altitude. The different sizes of cumulus clouds have four differing types. If the cloud you’re looking at is wider than it is tall, then it’s a cumulus humilis. If it’s as wide as it is tall, then it’s a cumulus mediocris. But when a cumulus cloud is taller than it is wide, known as cumulus congestus, If cumulus congestus clouds continue their vertical growth, they’re capable of producing rain, and can eventually morph into a cumulonimbus cloud, or thunderstorm.
On the ground plantain is growing ,the seeds are called Psyllium and can be used as a porridge, the leaves can be eaten in salads, soups and stews or sautéd and contain vitamin C, E and K.
I can recognize a dandelion is one of the most nutritious leafy greens to eat. This plant contains vitamin A, C and K, calcium and iron. The young leaves and yellow flower petals of the dandelion plant can be used in a salad, sandwiches, go well with egg dishes, added to soups and stews, or cooked like spinach. The dandelion root can be used as a coffee substitute.
Im still learning about the medicinal virtues of plants. Bird language has recently interested me. Australian birds have 10 vocal expressions/categories, Alarm, ground predator alarm, aerial predator alarm, annoyance , territorial, courtship, mimicry, aggression , begging, contact calling, pain , joy. Bird species overseas have more likely five vocalizations, song, companion call, territorial aggression, begging and alarm.
I look at everything differently now.
Found the next course Id be interested in doing.
Bird language with Andrew Turbill
Australian birds have 10 vocal expressions/categories
Alarm, ground predator alarm, aerial predator alarm, annoyance , territorial, courtship, mimicry, aggression , begging, contact calling, pain , joy.
Week 1: Bird language – gateway drug for Nature Connection
Learning bird language is first and foremost about reprogramming your brain so that your sensory system engages with the world around you in ways that, once learned cannot easily be unlearned.
Once you start down this road it will change you permanently, you will be cursed to notice things that remain silent and invisible to most. You will begin to notice “what is really there”, removing sensory filters which previously interrupted your direct and full experience of natural environments
Being aware of bird language is not so much about knowing everything that birds are saying to each other, but rather about active listening to the world, so that you become alive to the lives of non-human others
Week 2: Gondwanan Origins & Relating Anatomy to Ecology
Songbird ancestors that survived the Chicxulub meteorite detonation were ground nesting / dwelling birds and possibly were able to use torpor as a strategy to survive. We still find these qualities in birds alive today
Songbird ancestors survived in Australia after Antarctica froze over, acting as a safe haven for the further evolution of songbird lineages which then spread to the rest of the world as late as 20mya
Birds that look similar across the world are not generally closely related but rather the product of concurrent evolution where birds occupy similar habitat niches, leading to similar specializations
A bird’s job description determines the tools of its trade so observation of bird anatomy tells us much about their lifestyle and ecology
Week 3: Fundamentals of Understanding Bird Language for Nature Connection
Introduction to bird language
Soundscapes – learning to re-associate bird song as sound rather than noise
Unique voices, including alarm, bickering, territorial song, begging, hurting, contact calls, mating calls and more
Why learning bird language is like watching a foreign film without subtitles
Re-patterning your brain to an older way of being in the world
Learning how to isolate solitary voices in the crowd using Binocular ears
Week 4: Bird Alarm – Introduction & tracking “invisible” predators across the landscape
Types of alarm
Ground versus aerial predators
Learning how to “go dark” so the source of alarm isn’t always you
Nature News and Concentric Rings of Disturbance
Experience the “baseline” state of an environment for the first time
The basis for tracking predators through the landscape or around your gardens is through becoming an active listener to alarm
Ground alarm versus aerial alarm – recognizing each and knowing where to look for predators
Trickery and coercion – thornbills and lyrebirds
How predators make a living from killing, despite sophisticated alarm systems
Week 5: Wild Trust
Wild animals have no reason to trust us, so how can we develop relationships of trust and respect?
Learning to recognize an invitation for wild trust and how to accept
On becoming humble
Noticing the hidden boundaries of bird territory and anxiety
Why being a practitioner of wild trust can extend your life
Week 6: Keeping a field diary and making Seasonal Calendars
Some birds seem to appear from out of nowhere, stay a while and just as suddenly disappear. Keeping a field diary can help to make sense of these seemingly random bird movements
Many songbirds reserve certain calls for particular times of the year. To track these changing voices we can create a seasonal calendar and learn how characteristic calls correspond with changes in annual climate and ecosystem cycles
Keeping field records takes us well beyond just listening to birds. To truly make sense of bird language we need to become all-round naturalist observers
Ive been watching the following clip a lot lately. One bite at a time. Its the only way to get through long term rehab with injuries. Jarred my knee so back on the heavy meds and a week behind on stretching it out. At the moment I have a sick staffy and Im up at 4am with her. I must have turned on and off the computer three or four times before even beginning to start typing. I look at what Im working on and it over whelms me and I think ONE BITE AT A TIME and I just start working on one little piece.
I think this is update 5 ? I have been going a little stir crazy after three months and have been looking for projects that I can do within a 200 meter walk or should I say hobble.
In the last 6 months Ive had a heart problem they now believe may have been an allergy to ginger. Cancer removed from my throat, cancer removed from my right shoulder twice. Both caught early enough that I didn’t require Kemo. A nice 80mm scar to add to the ever growing collection.
Severed my left quad tendon and had it reattached. They firstly said two months in a brace then three now Im in a brace until I can support the knee and looking at a year of rehab before Im back to 100 %. Another 200mm scar, haha. Its taken me a week but I can now light my leg three inches for a couple of seconds.
Also had my third scan on my pancreas from a lump they found four years ago.Lucked out there too, no growth. one more scan in two years due to my previous history with immune suppression. Its been a busy few months.
So every little job Ive put off Im now trying to get done. Watching way too much you-tube and doing as many online training courses as I can afford on disability.
Im now hassling smokers for old Bic lighters I can smash and fix. Catching up on all my text books on wilderness medicine and plant study, mushroom ID etc.
Getting a lot of writing and research done at least. Between the rehab exercises and off all the morphine and endone, so I can concentrate a little more. Still getting pain but managing it better.
Its going to take at least six months of intense training before I can go back to in person training courses, Ive lost 10 kilo in muscle.
I wanted to say thank you to my friends for helping me out over the past few months.
One inch tubular webbing, I started an article on wilderness medical kits and decided to do a stand alone section on this product that not many people have ever heard about.
I have 50 meters folded in half, tied with a re-enforced water knot and daisy chained with a crab (carabiner). This can be used as a drag system when you cant lift a person and they have to be removed from a dangerous situation in a hurry, harnesses, pulley system, lowering device, ladder, stretcher. There are ten you-tube links below on how to make and use. Awesome stuff to carry Ron Hood put me onto this years ago.
One inch tubular Webbing uses
Vital Survival taught by Craig Caudill
I’m always wary of online courses, some have been excellent and others have burned me. I sit here on a cold wet day after almost three months in a leg brace and walking frame going a little stir crazy after running out of books and decided to give Vital Survival a go.
The course covered the basics of gear essentials, personal assessment and mindset development, personal and group security, individual first aid kits, sheltering in place and sheltering on the move, water procurement, food procurement, communication and critical decision making, along with practice vs training, included are intro to edible and medicinal plants and knots.
I went through most of the course in a day and a half however Im sitting here with no other entertainment other than my staffy harassing me for attention. For someone that works and has little spare time most of the sessions last between 10 to 20 minutes and can be covered one or two a night. Therefore the $99 USD or $140AUD yearly subscription would be worth it. I paid the monthly or $15AUD rate.
Ive done a lot of training so much of the material I had done before including the edible and medicinal plants section which is a stand alone course on the Outdoor Core website. However i still found it entertaining and lots of material was covered. To someone that hadn’t done any outdoor training I would highly recommend it and it is one of the cheapest courses that I have found on the net.
If I learn just one thing from a course that I haven’t seen before I’m happy. However Craig has set me on another path that I wasn’t interested in previously to doing Vital Survival and that is more along the lines of Outdoor Leadership. Several sections of the course involved talking about critical decision making and self development. Which I found very interesting.
I’m now on a path of looking more into mindset and growth patterns in terms of advice such as read, study, learn, continue to grow. Its also interesting seeing teaching methods from other wilderness instructors.
“Its just a thing” Dealing with stress techniques that I came away with, that hit me the most. I’m also looking into a book Called Left of Bang. See link below. So Ive spent six hours and came away looking into a different part of Bushcraft that never interested me before. That is something that excites me!
I look forward to seeing what additions are made to the courses in the future.
“This life will never be without storms. Stop fearing the storm. Build your inner shelter”.
Yasmin Mogahed
I was watching Brooke Whipple on the Girl in the Woods YouTube channel where she recommended the book One Second After by William R Forstchen. When ever anyone says to me this book will change your life. I at-least have to look it up. The Glass Bead Game and The Celestine Prophecy were two other such books.
One Second After arrived yesterday so I wanted to write this down and see if in fact it altered my perceptions in some way when I started reading it.
In 2009, Forstchen’s latest work, One Second After, was released. Based upon several years of intensive research and interviews, it examines what might happen in a “typical” American town in the wake of an attack on the United States with “electro-magnetic pulse” (EMP) weapons. Similar in plotting to books such as On the Beach and Alas Babylon, One Second After, is set in a small college town in western North Carolina and is a cautionary tale of the collapse of social order in the wake of an EMP strike.
Postscript 03/AUG
It took me three days to finish the book and it was indeed a life changer. If I mention specific parts of the book it will ruin it for others. You realize just how fragile our system is and without an ongoing supply of meds most of the population wouldnt last two months. Ive lived in some pretty feral area and i still predict more than ever that the middle class would turn within a week being optimistic more like three days without food. In all honesty I really wonder how many people would actually work together anymore after what I saw at the beginning of covid. Disease on top of food and you saw how peoples attitudes changed and paranoia reigned. I probably wont read the next two novels, they go more into the military side but A Good Read.
As I was reading this book I am reliant on 25 meds a day. I had one day left of dog food before I can get it delivered at the end of the week not counting dry food. I always try and stay ahead with my own and my staffys meds. A book like this brings home a lot of realities. If an EMP hit today Im in a walking frame and brace with atleast another 3 months of rehab to stretch and strengthen the knee.
An EMP wont do damage, you dont have to invade, or you have to do is sit back and let the targeted populace destroy itself.
When I first tore my quad tendon I txted a few instructors to let them know I would have to put off training for a few months. That has become till after summer now. First day at rehab and I couldnt bend the knee as far as I would have liked.
I had arranged to do a few days of primitive fire lighting with Rick J Peterson and the first thing he said to me was look after your mental health first. I thought a few months in a brace and walking frame peace of piss Ive been through worse but after a while or the amount of pain trying to hobble around and just not getting anything done eats at you.
I talked to a doctor once after some other surgery and was asked how do you deal with stress? Beer! How do you deal with pain? Beer! How do you deal with depression? Beer! but the thing is i dont like drinking anymore.
I came across something on my youtube feed I kept going past and finally in a moment of boredom clicked on and wanted to share by Shawn Boland. The fucking bluff Creek Chronicles, however under that link youll find some great stuff on mental health. Enjoy.
Rick J Peterson
Bluff Creek Chronicles
Mental Health
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