volunteers

today i traded on my enormous popularity at camp and went and asked for a small detail of volunteers to CLEAN THE OUTHOUSE.

they were all like "ME! ME!!!"

so i took four of them and taught them how to use a broom properly. i taught them how to scrub a sink.

the actual toilet cleaning part had to be done by me because according to policy, only adults may clean toilets (because pathogens and imperfect handwashing in children?) and for some reason they wanted to watch me clean the toilets.

"what do you do to do that?" they asked.
"you can come see.  it's not a secret."

and so a small group of tourists followed me from stall to stall.

and then when we got back to main camp girls were coming up to me asking if i will let them be on outhouse detail tomorrow.

HIGH-larious.

the sensible explanation is that i have no actual supervisory duties. i don't have to line them up or get them from place to place. i just come and instruct all the fun things. and often i am taking a small group and teaching them something new, or just in general paying attention on a small scale to them.

my theory here is that no matter the chore, it is individual attention and personalized instruction and they like that.

plus they got to come to flag circle at the end of day and report that they cleaned the outhouse and they VOLUNTEERED, so they got to take pride in being good citizens.

tea paty

i don't have any pictures (because policy) but this is what i did yesterday:

i took six small parties of girls (a half dozen in each, maybe?) to the various habitats on the camp property and we gathered all manner of edible leaves and twigs and berries.

we looked at animal sign. we talked about foraging guidelines.we learned how to crush up plantain, mullein and jewleweed and use the juice to ease bug bite discomfort.

we sorted out our leaves and berries and with help from one girl who was quick to volunteer, i set up a camp stove to boil water.

i poured tea. the counselors helped the girls make little finger sandwiches with gathered leaves on brown bread with cream cheese. popular sandwich fixin': mustard greens.

after the tea was poured, i cut up and fried some milkweed pods, which blew some girls' minds.

and now i am tired.

i wish the campers knew

that i will learn that they do not like cucumber and that their mom does not know this way before i learn their names.

that when i ask them if they have ever done a skill, there's no shame in saying "no". it just tells me to start instruction at the beginning.

that in discussions about behavior, i have more respect for an admission of a behavior that may need changing than i do for wide eyed passivity.

this happened.

i came home from camping with the girl scouts from the resident camp and came home to unpack and unwind and then i had a meeting monday with a nice lady from the council and now suddenly it appears i am in charge of things over at the day camp, like instruction with cutting tools (mostly knife instruction) and flag ceremonies.

because teaching little children proper flag etiquette takes TIME and the actual counselors are busy with supervisory duties.

when you are working with very young children you are faced with having to seriously discuss that the color guard does not wear cat masks and may not carry that special stick and pinecone combination no matter how much they love the stick and pinecone.

yes, the color guard includes that little girl wearing a sparkly princess dress.

but by golly, she can fold a flag.

gear review: anker powerport solar lite

first up: i do not receive products from manufacturers nor any other compensation for my reviews.

ok, so last december my stepmother got me one of these things as a gift. i've seen a solar charger or two, but those mostly only worked as a trickle charger you had to charge up in an outlet anyway.

i am heavy on device use when camping: i like to keep abreast of the weather forecast (because even though i can read the weather pretty well, modern forecasting gives you much more detailed information that can really help you plan your day with regard to safety and shelter.)

and i love apps that help me identify plants and critters, and apps that help me report on biodiversity. i'm a big fan of citizen science and it turns out that biologists are making great use of apps like ebird and inaturalist to gather information about species range, which changes too fast these days for printed guides to keep up with.

you used to have to be a bona fide scientist to do this science, but now anybody who can use a field guide and has a phone can help do real science, which is cool.

and i am now off topic, which will not surprise you if you have ever read anything by me.

so anyway, i am a heavy device user. my phone seriously cuts down on the number of actual books i have to carry with me while camping. so i need to keep it charged.

i have some very fine battery packs, but they have their limitations and they do run out.

enter the powerport solar lite. i used mine for the first time this week, on days when there was strong sun for only part of the day. i was able to get full charges on two devices, which goes a long way.

i'm very pleased with it. it has a sturdy, durable feel, and you can leave it out or even tie it to your pack (tiedown loops provided).

and it just works.

2018 venture vermont: take a swimming lesson

i thought i wasn't going to get this one, because i know how to swim.

but recently (you know this unless you just walked in) i took lifeguard training, and i think that counts as a swim lesson.

i learned to swim to a distressed swimmer for rescue. i learned how to swim while towing another person. i learned how to escape a distressed swimmer who tries to grab onto you.

i think that all counts as a swimming lesson.

there are no pictures of it, but i can furnish my brand new shiny lifeguard card upon request.

tab time

my browser is clogged with things i saw and want to share with you.

the world is terrible:

bullied students told to stop being part of the problem, as if they do not already wish to be involved in this problem.

it sucks that we even need this.

and rape jokes, are still a thing, but for the time being you can watch cameron esposito's show of that name for free. you should totally do it. i promise you will not regret it.

but also the world is amazing:

there have always been awesome people. read about one woman here.

and there's this. (full disclosure: the wrier of that post is a friend of mine)

and besides libraries, there's architecture.



and candy.




and music.


isn't that lovely?

2018 Venture Vermont: visit a (state) park that is new to you

whoa.

i was thinking that i would have a look at the park finder and pick one i'd never been to, but i was up on thetford hill and apparently there's a state park there.

i did not even know that was a thing.

so i went.

thetford hill state park.

who knew?

ze frank

recently i watched this video:



maybe you're already a fan of ze frank; maybe not. i am. i have run across his games and videos and projects of different sorts from a lot of corners of the internets.

then last month i saw his 2010 TED talk, which i recommend you watch right to the end.

so

so then because he talked about it in his TED talk, i went back to his website and played with some of his toys. here are some of the ones i like especially:

animated kaleidoscope
string spin
memory game

and if you like, here's his whole catalog. go ahead, dive deep.

are you sure you're registered?

i'm generally a fan of the supremes, but sometimes their latest thing is a flop.

like that whole "states can go ahead and purge voter rolls of people they wish weren't registered" thing.

there's a piece of crap.

do yourself a favor. do me a favor. do the whole planet a solid: check if you are registered to vote. you cannot count on being registered even if you OUGHT to be. you can use this tool if you don't mind them sending you emails.

me, i LOVE being on political mailing lists, because it gives me great pleasure to ask democratic leaning organizations to take me off of their lists because as a progressive i'm not having any of their neo-liberal shit, but that's just me.

lifeguard

ok, so my scout troop decided in the spring that in early summer we should go on a two night campout. TWO NIGHTS! this is a big deal in the life of a scout troop.

the campground we chose has a pool. the girls were SO EXCITED ABOUT THAT.

but it is a swim at your own risk pool.

concurrently, i started going to trainings because even though i have a boatload of outdoor skills and knowledge, i lacked appropriate certifications to take girl scouts out to do things because someone at the council has to put a stamp of approval on you which i do not think is a bad thing.

when leaders just make up safety stuff, you get wide variations and conflicting procedures and that's just begging for trouble.

anyway, if you have a lot of skills, the training are more of a skill check and a making sure you're on the same procedural page.

but there is a little bit of a bottleneck since the MERGER (nope, not going into it here) and there are not enough opportunities for adult training in my area which is a problem because nobody ever starts taking a hatful of outdoor trainings to get certified to take scouts out on activities they haven't asked to do yet.

what is more likely to happen is the girls learn that a thing is possible, ask to do it, the adults check into the needed certifications, and then learn that not only do they not have the requisite training, but they can't get it right away.

and i was at one of these trainings shooting my mouth off about this training bottleneck, and there are two kinds of people who complain: people who complain about things, and people who complain and offer to be part of the solution.

so all of a sudden i'm piling on certs which can be expensive, but if you're an INSTRUCTOR at a week of training you can take any courses being offered for free in return for your work, which is how i could afford to become a lifeguard just because my troop wanted to go swimming.

it was mentally and physically taxing and i came away from the in pool training with the worst sunburn i have had since my youth on account of usually i swim in long sleeves and long pants and SHOES because i get sunburned through clothes but you can't afford to be wearing all that much stuff during your lifeguard training.

and then during our camping trip everybody could go in the pool except me, because why yes, that would have required a lifeguard and i was the only one.

ten year olds do not really have an appreciation for what you go through so they can have an awesome weekend.

totally worth it.

totally.

bourdain

i keep crying a little over anthony bourdain.

i'm not sure why. i am not usually this sad over celebrity deaths, even celebrity suicides.

i wasn't even that huge a fan; i don't watch much teevee anymore but i used to like to watch him sometimes.

you've probably seen a lot of travel shows and food shows and food travel shows, just like i have. there was a trend for a while of being kind of snarky, and bourdain certainly had snark. he sort of WAS snark.

but when he was offered hospitality, when people made him food or showed him their lives, he was grateful and respectful.

world class restaurants, holes in the wall, waffle house.

he loved what he loved.

the world is sadder and poorer without him.

current events

in  a couple of weeks i'm going to try to be lifeguard certified.

i've always been a strong swimmer, if not a stylish one.

so i thought tonight i would go down and swim in the river against the current for a little while. first off, that water is COLD. it might be uncomfortably warm out, but the river is still cold.

also, the water has been high even though may was a little drier than usual.

and tonight there were scattered heavy rains.

none fell on me, but in the hour i was in the river i felt definite fluctuations of current strength.

near the end i became frightened because it was too strong to maintain footing against, and then i got out and then when i could see up the road i could see a locally heavy downpour maybe a half mile upstream.

grackle crisis

today i was trying to sit on my porch to work on a carving, but there was a grackle crisis.

it seems there is a grackle nest in the tree in front of my house.

because a little one, not yet ready to fly, seems to have stepped out of the nest and was hiding in my bushes.

and crying piteously for food.

...which nobody would bring it because i was sitting there.

so the parents and assorted other grackles sat in trees making a racket and the little baby sat in my bushes wailing and the other fledglings in the nest heard their sibling and also set to wailing so i decided today was not my day to sit on the porch and apparently now the little one is being fed under my bushes and only occasionally cries to be fed.

that little guy is now MOTIVATED to learn to fly.

hope is that thing with feathers.

stuff to play with

i am done with my sewing project. these days i am also practicing guitar, which is a thing i have not done in a long time.

here's a thing i spent a while playing with this morning. i hope you will like it. headphones recommended, or at least good speakers.

then i wasted some more time taking some intelligence tests. i turns out i'm moderately smart.

and for no particular reason, this:

day twelve

today is day twelve of Sewing The Jacket. it's going to be nice, though, and i will probably not have to do a large scale jacket sewing for the rest of my life. i'm planning on making some adjustments here and there as i may acquire new patches that i like better or are more important, but for the most part, i am not looking to get a lot more patches.


these two are my most recent additons:

they're earned from adult training. i think older scouts can also earn these but the real importance is for adults because you have to be certified in these things to take your scouts camping.

well. that was a nice little break. i have to return to the sewing.

duct tape thimble

i don't own a thimble.

and today is day nine of the sewing project. and by "day nine",  i mean it is my primary activity. this is partly because the fabric is stiff and the patches are hard and partly because i'm fussy and need to do everything so it goes on straight and partly because i am sucky at sewing so it takes me a long time to do simple tasks.

these days i have also been doing laundry, picking up after myself, cooking meals, and doing dishes. also cleaning up after the monumental mess i left myself in the month of april.

and also working out a little.

in short, i am trying to get my stuff together.

and then i will go camping.

and here is my thimble.

closing tabs. again

i was going to write you a real post today, but i just have too many tabs open.

i will tell you that i am on day seven of a sewing project that i mean to tell you about later, but it's camping season, holy honk, so we'll see how that goes.

anyway, while i'm sitting here sewing, i am looking at a lot of interwebs.

and now i have tabs i want to close.

i'm a musician by training and trade, and more specifically a composer, so how we translate different ideas into music is always of interest to me. here's an interesting concept where a guy does this with maps.




i was sick for the month of april and at some point i just needed food i could unwrap and eat without getting out of my hammock. enter bars. there are a lot of bars on the market, but someone gave me an Rx bar and i was like WOW. this thing totally makes me feel like i have eaten food and yet it's not too much trouble to eat and i don't feel sick afterward.

but they're expensive. so i was interested to see a recipe for a facsimile thereof. i haven't tried them yet, but it's on my list, especially because camping food.

i think this here video of what goes on backstage at the met is cool.




here's a map that explains a lot of the hostility for education in red states.

and while we're at it, take a look at an interactive explainer/simulator on the challenges of getting a child an appropriate education in the chicago public schools.


you probably need to be cheered up now.




and if that didn't work, try this:

do. not. yield.

stuff, stuff, and more stuff.

my house looks like some untidy person has been living here but not picking up after themselves. if you look carefully the untidy person can't be bothered to load the dishwasher or pick up random food wrappers, but yet all the camping gear is neatly maintained and stowed.

my excuse of course is that even in my month of sickness i managed to prepare for scout meetings and go camping because dammit, one is a responsibility and the other, well, if all i'm going to do is lie in a hammock and read and cough, i may as well be in a nice quiet forest.

i volunteered to do some girl scout trainings because we need more opportunities for girl scout trainings but that means i have to get some certifications and stuff and all sudden i'm going to be in places where one wears a patch jacket.

this is a thing where as your badges and stuff go out of date on your uniform, you still have attachment to them so you put them on a jacket and wear them around only i am not ever going to fit into the jacket i was wearing in 1976 so i bought a new jacket and am transferring all my badges and patches. even though my badges are all 1963 style, i have decided to place them on my jacket in a way reminiscent of the 1927 uniform, which i think is a cool look.

basically i'm a walking museum of girl scout memorabilia of my era.

i have a patch from the camp i'll be at in june that is older than the camp director. by a significant amount.

it's a lot of sewing, and activity i am not historically good at.

meanwhile, i was catching up on my rss feed today, and i read this thing, which i think you also should read.

amen and amen.