I think I found the secret to great photography. Spend the day helping out a mate in the bush collecting firewood and get half toasted on 2 different pain killers for back ,legs and shoulders. Then stumble around in the bush finding your way back by the sound of the chainsaw. Taking pictures of anything you think is pretty in a half dazed state. Works for me. Must have taken over 80 photos. Im on a bit of a photography kick lately.
Dont worry mushroom season will be over shortly no more pictures. These were on old cypress stumps. They were in a biodiversity area and I had to ask permission to gain access. Gymnopilus junonius or Laughing Jinns
Out taking pictures of mushrooms, trees and streams and seeing how the lighting and different angles work. Its very relaxing taking pictures of mushrooms, almost meditation like.
Must have taken over 50 photos. Some work and some dont. Some just really appeal and hit the spot. I dont know what half these mushrooms are but its fun, taking the pictures, then researching later to try and identify them.
I haven’t been posting much. Since my stay in hospital a few weeks ago. I have had a CT of my neck and a camera down my throat where they have found a lesion and I have to go back in a couple of weeks for a biopsy. A MRI on my pancreas, waiting for the report. A heart monitor, waiting for report. Had an eco-cardigram cancelled on me for not having the adequate required ventilation system for a high risk patient and need to find another hospital to have it done. A melanoma removed from my shoulder leaving me with a 60mm scar and may have to be referred to a surgeon to have more taken out. Lots of ideas for articles but getting more and more run down and no energy. It seems like Im spending more time in hospitals and doctors surgery’s than at home. By the time Ive helped a mate out with driving to keep his business afloat. I eat takeaway and am in bed by 5pm. Hoping everything will settle down in the next few weeks or Ill be spending even more time in hospitals. Getting lots of pictures of mushrooms I have never seen before but no energy to even try and figure identifying what they are. Xrays of the knees show no arthritis, physio seems to think its some sort of tendonitis.Havent had this many pain killers in a long time I feel like Im perpetually unfocused.
I have a few theories, I would like to share that I havent seem implemented. One was introducing Kali (Stick fighting) into physical rehab. Your twirling a stick around. Its not only great as a passive physical means of rehabilitation for uppe body but also helps to fix the mind when yourve had such mental anguish its difficult to make your mind work and concentrate. The other is to use bushcraft to help with Anxiety and Depression by being outdoors and learning new skills and keeping your hands working all the time. Theres no time to think too much. The third is involving more disabled into bushcraft.
Bushcraft is one thing that no matter what level of disability you have its something you can do and push yourself to be around people and participate in life it boosts self-esteem, helps one feel in control, more confident, create relationships, release endorphins, and feel more independent.
A conversation I had a few days ago with one of my instructors. He said he knew why I did these courses. I replied Im not giving up otherwise Id be sitting around drinking piss all day.
Yourve got to get out there, participate, be part of life, meet people ,learn!
https://bushwalkthegong.com/2017/09/26/depression-anxiety-and-the-outdoors/
Three of my favorite things Trees, History and Jo staffs all combined in the one video by Tom Langhorne on the Fandabi Dozi channel. I usually watch Tom for his insights into staff Fighting something Ive trained in for several years however I also have an interest in history especially Celtic being part mongrel I guess 43% England and Northwestern Europe, 22% Scotland, 22% Ireland, 7% Germanic Europe and 6% Other Regions which would be Spanish among them.
In this video he delves into Celtic history of trees and their uses. The reason Im posting this apart from being an interesting video is that Tom has purchased a 7 acre woodland and is trying to raise funds for it by raffling three handmade Staffs made from Ash, Hazel and Birch.
Fandabi Dozi
Fund Raising till the 25th of the 4th 2022
I have always hanged around special forces types, bikers etc so it might surprise you to hear that the toughest person I ever met was a 14 year old girl.
Around this time of year is a time I start to remember friends Ive lost. June is when I had my first set of lungs put in and I met some great people in hospital who became great friends who have since left us. One person I met was a young girl called Kylie.We had become friends and both had hoses in out throats and talked using white boards.
Before I go too far a little background to help you understand. The first time I had lungs in I was in ICU for 38 days. Some people come out after a week walking talking etc. I wasnt one of those. I was still incubated and my lungs didnt start working after being weaned down on off machines. I had weighed 85 kilo before going in and 60 after woods, It took me all my time just to walk to the door of my room.
I had my respirator blown up on me and had to breath on my own for seven and a half minutes, they were about to start bagging me when they managed to hook me up to the next respirator. I wasnt able to have an epidural due to me back, so I was on a lot of morphine and in daylight for that 38 days. Lets just say I wasnt able to turn off a light for 6 months and had lots of PTSD from my experiences.
The second set I was in ICU for 58 days and was knocked out for most of that thankfully. I came out weighing 50 kilo and took four people to lift me out of bed and couldnt raise my head by myself. I had lost that much muscle. When I finally escaped hospital It took me 2 endone and a six pack of beer to walk the dog around the block. When people say I should write about my experiences this is why I dont and Im leaving a lot out.
So when I say the toughest person I ever met was a 14 year old girl youll now understand when I say it. Kylie spent 9 months in hospital. She had a double lung transplant and was up a week later walking trying to get off a portable respirator. She then had a stroke and was partially paralyzed and was a up a week later walking around trying to get that hose out of her neck. Her kidneys then failed and she had a second transplant from another donor for a kidney and was up a week later exercising her lungs.
This is how tough this kid was and I dont know many adults that could have gone though what she had. So every time I get slack or too tired or in pain I think of her and get off my backside and push myself harder.
When I was stuck in hospital for a month with pneumonia and was too tired to get out of bed I would think of her strength and push myself and do laps of the hallways in my walking frame. Every time I was dragging my arse around with no muscle in my legs from months in ICU I would think of her. When I was on 15 litres of oxygen, I would get the nurses every hour on the hour to turn the oxygen down quarter of a turn to wean myself down and it felt like I was being bagged with a plastic bag over my head for 15 minutes. I would think of Kylie and push myself through it.
So I wanted to share kylies story and maybe it would help someone else to push through their limits of strength as she did for me.
What happened to kylie? A nurse over dosed her on warfarin and she clotted into her lungs and never got back out of ICU. She passed not 30 feet from me. For the 14 short years she spent in this world her strength has carried me through the past 20 years. I dont like letting my friends be forgotten.
There are some days where I just cant think of things to write about and then others just from random conversations that make it so I cant stop writing. I had two such conversations in the last few days. The first was with a mushroom lover. Which made me get off my backside.
I forget what started us talking, but it got around to mushrooms and the woman in question said she would never have told anyone about her hobby for taking pictures of mushrooms for fear or being laughed at and it was a death in the family that made her question how she was living her life.
I thought taking pictures of mushrooms was a great hobby and went on to share the courses I knew of that were local involving mushroom ID and growing mushys at home. Besides I can talk about staffys all day long and she used to have a staffy. I think i was in the shop for 45 minutes chatting.
Im leaving out a lot of details because it was a private conversation but it reinforced what I should be doing with my life. Every now and again I get off track.
The second conversation was with a mate who questioned if I was up to doing my level 2 bushcraft course. Mainly because Ive just gotten over two bouts of pneumonia and lost ten kilo of body weight.
My response was . Well for a start good points I was feeling like crap but then again when I got out of my second double lung transplant. Four months in hospital before going home I weighed 50 kilo and was dragging my arse around in a gutter frame. Three months after getting home i started training in three martial arts and it took two years to tell anyone I was going home after training and still using a walking frame then taking an endone and two beers I was in so much pain for the first four months.
Then just beause I am who I am I did a four day stint at the Australian Institute of Sport training with Paul Kale in Kinetic Fighting. Granted I was taking three endone a day to get through it. I think I was about 6 months of of hospital at that time.
So I think at last count I have a screwed left knee, 28 % nerve in my left leg from my back injury, four crushed discs, 15% nerve damage in my right leg from scar tissue in my right groin from having a 90 litre blood transfusion and a 12 inch blood clot, a screwed left shoulder (bone on bone grating), chronic pain from the back shoulder and groin, side effects from my meds to do with my hands, a broken sternum, 65% lung capacity, half my diaphragm doesnt work, been told Ive been terminal more times than I care to count and waiting for my third MRI to clear me from pancreatic cancer. So far Ive spent four years in a wheel chair and 12 years dragging around an oxygen bottle and have a lowered immune system limiting where I can go. Who can forget diabetic from the meds too.
Some days are good and I over do it and love working and spend three days recovering and totally exhausted. Some days I’m flat, some days are great, some days I’m on two different pain killers and a shit load of beer.
Point is “Don’t let shit get in your way of life”.
The Bibbulmun Track is a long-distance walking trail in Western Australia. It runs from Kalamunda in the east of Perth to Albany, and is approximately 1,000 kilometers long.
When your first told your terminal they make you write out a list of things yourd like to do if you make it through the other end. One of my items was to walk the Bibbulmun Track in WA. I still haven’t gotten there, my health goes up and down like a yo-yo every time I get a bug and most of my training courses have been on the east coast.
It was researching the thousand kilometer trek that made me realize how futile bugging out would be. Dont get me wrong I believe in having a 1 day bag, a 3 day bag and a 10 day bag for emergencies but to rely on a knapsack to live out of just wont happen.
To trek a thousand kilometers you require food drops and a minimal calorie intake of 3000 calories a day to keep up a 10 to 15 kilometer distance per day. Bugging out is great if you have some where to go that is already set up but with out some where to go you’ll require enough food to last three months with a calorie intake to start a garden and set up adequate shelter. The Alone television show is a good example. They haven’t succeeded in setting up a sustainable system with enough food, its about who takes the longest to starve.
I’m dedicating this year to finishing off training courses and trying to put back on the ten kilo Ive lost in the past year. Then using the next year to get back into rehab and train for the hike. Id like to try and organize sponsors so I’m not only hiking a track but also raising awareness for Transplant Donation and maybe raise money for depression.
Well that’s my goal for two years time.
https://thelongwaysbetter.blogspot.com/p/the-bibbulmun-track.html
https://www.womenwantadventure.com.au/article/an-adventurers-guide-to-the-bibbulmun-track
https://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Perth/blog-941988.html
I mostly travel following courses. So I’m starting to plan ahead after finishing Level 2 Bushcraft, Mushroom ID, Pig Butchery. I’m looking for any short term training hobby type courses in Bee Keeping, Soap Making, Candle Making, Poultry Raising, recommendations for Permaculture Design, Soft Cheese Making, etc. Please email through through the contact page. Cheers
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