i originally found this essay at surviving within civilization so my thanks goes to that blog’s author, curt.

jack forbes’ book columbus and other cannibals: the wetiko disease of exploitation, imperialism, and terrorism will be coming back into print this year (february/march) via seven stories press. derrick jensen wrote the introduction to this printing. i’m incredibly excited for it.

-endgame volume 1: the problem of civilization by derrick jensen
-endgame volume 2: resistance by derrick jensen
-promiscuities by naomi wolf
-the secret world of terijian by crimethinc northstar
-how to get your lawn off grass by carole rubin
-walking on water: reading, writing, and revolution by derrick jensen
-peak oil survival: preparation for life after gridcrash by aric mcbay
-thought to exist in the wild: awakening from the nightmare of zoos by derrick jensen
-the forager’s harvest by samuel thayer
-desert quartet by terry tempest williams
-ishmael by daniel quinn
-the birchbark house by louise erdrich
-seedfolks by paul fleischman
-paddle whispers by douglas wood (reread for the millionth time!)
-into the forest by jean hegland
-unremembered country by susan griffin
-as the world burns: 50 simple things you can do to stay in denial by derrick jensen and stephanie mcmillan

me and other people (not sure who, although one of them seemed to be mumia abu-jamal) are driving down the highway in a car that is falling apart. we pull over because we notice that on the side of the highway they are setting up a stage for anais mitchell and joanna newsom to perform a concert together. my mom is there and she seems to already know everything about the concert and i’m curious why she didn’t tell me before. we continue on and big car pieces are falling off as we drive. we quickly pull over and are all running away from it as fast as we can- we think the car is about to explode. we run to a grassy hill on the side of the highway. the gurl i’m with says she needs to go pee but that there aren’t any bathrooms around here. so i teach her how to pee by squatting on the grass. i notice that in the grass are a great diversity of plants. i go over to some of them and find that the hill is made up mostly of wild leeks. i harvest some. most of my dream was spent looking at the leeks, holding them in my hands, feeling their texture, admiring them. i notice some shrubs and go over to them and find someone has stored their food in a crate there- its filled with leeks and cucumbers and tomatoes. its very cold in the crate, like a refrigerator, but its just a box with food inside it. i keep thinking that i want to meet the persyn who made it and ask them how they made it so cold without electricity.

the end.

this blog feels naked without pictures!
here’s some from this summer:

deer:

cecropia moth:

monarch butterfly:

purple coneflower:

wild fruits:

lambs quarters:

purslane

digging sticks:

and this fall:

chicken-of-the-woods/sulfur shelf mushroom:

yellow fly agaric:

hawthorn:

from november 23, 2007:

we awoke at the same time
this morning
the sun and i.
cold air,
a frozen forest
of blades
underfoot.
the sky is
wild aquilegia
monarda
jewelweed
and indian paintbrush.

i have been living in my knit winter hat and long johns and tons of other layers. will you still love me even though i can’t remember when the last time i took a shower was? the house is already so cold (we have the thermostat down way low) and its not even winter yet. anybody got low-tech / free ways to insulate windows? i know of putting blankets over windows at night… but do you just tack them up there? or is there a better way? i miss the warmth of a wood stove- having grown up in a house heated only by wood, the warm air that comes out of walls just doesn’t cut it.
to stay warm i’ve been drinking plenty of herbal tea, sometimes yerba mate, dancing around a lot, and playing games as much as possible- rummikub, checkers, mancala, and the like. i want to learn more though. are there any card games that one person can play alone other than solitaire? (real card games, not computer card games)

we’ve been going hiking quite a bit. there are only a few mushrooms left- mostly dried shells of puffballs, the cattails are mostly fluff, and the fauna looks a bit more round than usual:) other than the conifers, for the most part the only green things left around here are the non-natives: burdock, garlic mustard, and european buckthorn. it was beautiful: last week the ground was covered with bright orange and yellow leaves, then it started to rain and it looked like the whole ground was ablaze. it snowed here yesterday though so i’m having fun walking around on snow and leaves- crunch crunch crunch.

i read into the forest by jean hegland the other day and loved it. its a novel about two sisters who have to learn to live with each other and with the earth to survive after the collapse. i don’t read much fiction, but this one was definitely a good pick. right now i’m reading unremembered country by susan griffin and i’m impatiently waiting from work (the library) for: creating a life together by diana leafe christian (a book about community, something i’m sorely lacking), the mushroom cultivator by paul stamets, and some hopefully great music cds.

i want to:
-learn more deeply about permaculture and forest gardening and mushrooms and wild edibles
-get rid of most of what i own
-build bat houses

i leave you with a picture of cat, hanging out in the broken ceiling of the basement:

from october 23, 2007:

AFFINITY

so many things that i want to share. i wish you were here, sitting with me and we could chat for hours about… everything. and we could cuddle or something. i think most friends don’t cuddle enough.

i daydream a lot when i’m at work. how the hell did i end up working somewhere INSIDE? if i have to have a job it should be something outside, even if its cold. i grew up in winters that sometimes got to negative 45 degrees fahrenheit, plus i love wearing layers. more layers please! i daydream of great blue herons on the shore and of eating warm white earth wild rice or homemade (and homegrown!) chili and of the stars at night where i was born… i need to get back there, i lay awake at night in bed listening to the land calling to me “come home, come home” and i am both soothed and pained by that. i daydream about mushrooms, especially yellow fly agaric and giant puffballs, and of wild edible plants and of being in my canoe and of rescuing chickens and of the collapse of civilization (oh how i think about that one!) and tamarack cones and cattails and and and….

i think i feel more of an affinity towards the native flora and fauna of my bioregion than i do towards most people.

p.s. i’ve gotten my family to talk about peak oil and the shit-hitting-the-fan! excellent!