one tree, one year

so i made this.

i hope you like it.

an abomnination

i have no picture of this, because even though it looked delicious, well, reason. i'll get to it later.

but i bought myself a cast iron pan for camping, which is a departure from my usual. in my younger days, i was all about backpacking equipment, and cast iron pan does not fit into that category.

you can get away with one for canoe camping and certainly for car camping or even pulk camping, which i'm now getting into.

a pulk, by the way, is a sled that's outfitted to pull behind you when you hike. winter gear is generally heavier than summer gear and why NOT bring the heavy gear if you can load it in a sled?

anyway, i'd been seeing friends and acquaintances cook things on campfires that would make your toes curl they're so good, plus sometimes i get it in my head to make things in a dutch oven so i decided i could get myself a piece of cast iron to use for camp but then i didn't know: frypan? griddle? dutch oven?

and then lodge made it easy. it turns out they have a 3 liter combo cooker that's two frypans, one shallow and one deep, that fit together so you can use the shallow one as a lid to make them into a dutch oven and it was on sale at REI last week, so how could i not?

i used it camping to roast chestnuts on an open fire and i came home and because my guests didn't eat much of the groceries i'd brought (i don't know. you can't figure some folk) i have a lot of camp things i wouldn't normally eat at home but need to get used up so yesterday i too some packaged biscuit doughs, split and lined the greased pan with them and layered in sliced turkey, tater tots, gravy, cheese, and topped it with the other halves of the biscuit doughs and baked the whole mess until it was golden brown.

not something i'm proud of, and it was kind of an abomination, but yet oddly delicious.

and i was looking at it and realized it would make a nice picture for you and that's when i grabbed the handle of the pan to get a better angle.

yeah, the CAST IRON PAN. because i'm not used to cooking in cast iron, and certainly not indoors so my first time out with indoor cast iron forgot the HANDLE STAYS HOT.

so no picture.

my hand is ok. the burns weren't too bad. it was ouchy for a while and i didn't get any pictures, but lesson cheaply learned.

out in the cold

i keep running into a phenomenon when i am out with people winter camping and the people maybe aren't that experienced camping in winter, because winter makes a big and important difference.

i don't blame them for not understanding, because i didn't really understand how to live in cold weather either.

i tell people not to let themselves get cold.

don't let your hands get cold, don't let your feet get cold. don't let your ass get cold. if you feel chilly, move. get up and do things. do not sit with a blanket near the fire, because that fire is not putting out enough heat to keep you warm.

i tell them this over and over and they act like they understand, but their versions of not getting too cold is very much the not getting cold of people who plan to be indoors having a hot shower and spending the evening with central heat.

because how cold you can get and still have a safe and comfortable night is very different if you go out into the cold and get a little chilly and then you come inside and warm up. you can get WAY COLDER and still end up safe and comfortable.

but if you're staying outside, you absolutely cannot hang around until you feel too cold and then sit with a blanket around you until you warm up because you're not going to warm up.

you have to get your muscles moving. you have to eat hot food with a lot of calories. you have to remember to eat and drink and pee because you NEED your body to be working.

if you go to bed cold, without a hot shower or time inside, you're going to have a cold uncomfortable night while your body catches up, and your body can't afford to catch up like that too often.

if you're out with me and i tell you you need to have a hot beverage, i'm not being polite. i'm thinking of your safety.

eggplant jerky

first, imma say that i eat meat. i think that's important because i want to stress that i do not consider this a substitute for regular meat jerky. so while i enjoy good meat jerky and even mediocre meat jerky, there's only so much dried meat my system can handle AND i like to try to eat more vegetables.

plus the more kinds of jerky you have to put in your lunch, the better off you are.

one word, my friends: EGGPLANT. if you have a mandoline slicer and a dehydrator (both things i recommend), your active prep time is about ten minutes for a batch.

i'm going to experiment later today with a different recipe, but here's more or less what i've been cranking through my kitchen ahead of thanksgiving camp:

ingredients:
1 large eggplant, washed
 about 1/3 cup oil, more or less. i like olive oil.
something salty- a couple tablespoons of either soy sauce or liquid aminos works great
an acid to brighten it up. i'm using a tablespoon or two of balsamic vinegar
a sweetener. i'm using as much maple syrup as i think i can get away with.
spices. however much and which kind you like. i'm enjoying a little smoked paprika, some black pepper, and a tiny bit of allspice.

slice up the eggplant. i run it down the mandoline into big slices about 3/8 of an inch thick (that's 7mm in civilized units) and then slice those lengthwise which gives you a slice about as big as a thick slice of bacon.

mix up all the other stuff in either a bowl or a ziploc bag, and dump in the eggplant. make sure the liquid gets to all the slices. there. toss it in the fridge for a couple of hours. turn it occasionally if you like to make sure the liquid is absorbing evenly.

then lay out the slices on your dehydrator at about 115°F (46°C) and forget about it for 12 to 15 hours. if you take it out earlier than later it will be more chewy than crunchy, but it's up to you how you want it.

mmmm delicious.

fish bits

last week i made some salmon jerky.

or rather, i overdried a batch of salmon jerky, so what i have is a big bag of delicious crispy salmon crumbs.

and you know what? you can use that stuff in any application where you might use bacon bits. i mean, you have to like the taste of salmon, because it's never going to not taste like fish, but the idea of some salty crunchies to go on your food and give you a protein kick still translates.

i may do that on purpose now sometimes.

down to URth

a long time ago, i used to play a game called glitch.

unless you just met me you know that i live on this world as if i am at home in it, and that i love trees and plants and animals and rocks and i have a strong sense of place, and glitch was a game where you got ahead by being kind to the plants and animals and other players and you had to know your rocks and how to cook garden and build and it paid you to be kind to others.

it was also a game with stunningly beautiful graphics and sound. just as an example, here's me playing the quest "last pilgrimage of esquibeth".





i mentioned to you some time ago that there were two projects trying to recreate the game from its public domain assets, eleven and children of ur.

CoU isn't as fully functional as eleven, but anyone can go in and wander around. i recommend you do. also, zhoen, you should probably apply to get into eleven if you can. i imagine you will love tending your flowers there, and wandering around peaceful streets with nice music.

2019 venture vermont: now i wait

i totaled my points and checked my documentation.

i sent off my form yesterday.

soon, i hope, i will receive my new medal.

hopping up and down on one foot

2019 venture vermont: Carve a spoon.

it's weird, but i was sure to get this one because spoon carving is a thing i do.

and yet this was hard, because there were other things i had to carve, and for some reason i insist on carving spoons out of applewood, which is hard and has irregular grain.

this spoon isn't finished, but it's pretty obviously a spoon.

i'm going to remove some material yet on the handle, and make it more graceful.

this summer i was working on another spoon and some kids were watching and one of them asked me if i thought it was a good spoon. i said i thought it wasn't yet, because it needed a lot of work still but that it was clearly a spoon. all the kids in that immediate area seemed relieved that i wasn't calling it done; it was almost like it was a test of my own perception and ability.

i sort of felt like if i'd said i thought it was a fine spoon they would have stopped trusting my opinion.

2019 venture vermont:Learn a tongue twister and say it as fast as you can.

i found a tonge twister that i like: "how can a clam cram in a clean cream can?" and in the course of learning to say it, i came up with this little ditty.

2019 venture vermont: Hike in a VT state park. also, firetower.

i love me some vermont state parks, so "Hike in a VT state park" isn't super hard for me to complete.

the tricky bit these days is finding an easy enough hike and hitting it on a relatively pain-free day.

so i was on my way to ricker pond state park...

this isn't a joke.

ricker pond state park is about an hour from my house, and allis state park is about an hour from my house and allis state park is about an hour from ricker pond state park, so of course i decided to go to allis state park ON THE WAY to ricker pond state park.

news flash: you can't get there from here.

why, you may ask, did i do this thing?

because i had the time. and the weather was nice. and i was feeling good.

AND ALLIS STATE PARK HAS A FIRETOWER.

"but flask", you are probably not saying, "but flask- isn't there a firetower on spruce mountain in the LR Jones state forest, which is contiguous with the groton state forest and reasonably close by?"

why, yes. yes there is. the thing about that, though, is that i typically only hike to that firetower in the winter months because some hikes are just easier for me with snow on the ground. and gile mountain is far away and hard. ditto belvidere. mt. olga isn't that bad, but it's a LONG drive. ever been to the fire tower on glastenbury mountain? yeah, that's a two day project.

what i'm saying here is even if it's off-season and you have to go up from below the gate like i did, the tower on bear hill in allis state park offers a gentle hike i can do on nearly any day. plus it has fantastic views.

so i went.

then later in the day after i pitched camp i went for a drive and i didn't mean to but i went up owls head and i wouldn't have called that a firetower, but apparently the stone lookout functioned as a firetower when it was built in 1935, so it could also count, i guess.

and then for good measure i hiked up owls head again on saturday afternoon because my friend barb likes a view.

self portrait with tower

2019 venture vermont: Camp in a tent at a VT state park.

from the files of "i wasn't expecting to get this one": a little while ago i was on my adventure day with my friend barb and we were looking at the campgrounds in and around moosalamoo and we made plans to go out for a one night backpacking trip so i could ding "Go on an overnight backpacking trip with everything you need in your backpack" but then barb broke her collarbone and i was all like oh, noooo.

she thought she'd try and feel better in another week and maybe go, but i've HAD a broken collarbone and no. just no. nope, nope, nope. you don't have to give up your fall camping weekend just because you broke a collarbone. we'll go car camping and i'll get us a lovely site near some water and we'll take it nice and easy so i made a reservation at ricker pond state park and that was lovely.

here's a picture of the table in the site, and if you know me pretty well, a lot of the things in the photo identify this as uniquely MY campsite: my walking stick, my beloved luci lantern, my ubiquitous nature journal, and a mushroom field guide the size of my head.

it was perfect weather, and i'd never been to ricker pond state park so bonus delights.

2019 venture vermont: Identify each of these three types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.

i live in an area where the rocks are mostly metamorphic; i live near the spine of the Green Mountains, which have been raised and pushed and pressed so many times and in them you can see the folds and almost imagine days when they were plastic.

but to my west there are sedimentary rocks, the sandstones and shales of the Champlain Valley, and to my east are the granites of Barre and the northeast.

i went down into the bed of the Huntington River to look over some glacial till, because there you can usually find a lot of kinds of rocks.

i found this sandstone.

and this lovely banded gneiss.

and i thought maybe this was a granite, but it's not. it WAS a granite before it was metamorphosed, but now it's also gneiss.

so no big deal, right? if you can't find igneous rocks in the state of vermont, you are clearly not near barre, and not in the Northeast Kingdom. the geology of a lot of the state involves the Green Mountains, but west of that range are the Taconics (southwest corner) and just east of it are the great volcanic plumes of the Northeast Kingdom and the granite beds of Barre.

so, yanno. all you really have to do to find igneous rocks is head east of the Green Mountains and look for granite mountains or granite quarries, or really, you could just look for any modern cemetery or city edifice built of granite...

uh, anyway. up on owl's head in Groton State Forest are piles and piles of granites.

2019 venture vermont: Ride your bike or go for a run on a rail trail.

i didn't think i was going to get this one; often i am riding a rail trail for some other reason and just get this one by accident, but this weekend a short trip to groton state forest fell into my lap and my friend barb and i went for a little jaunt up the rail trail from ricker pond to the sign on the north side of stillwater road.

it was hard riding for me. i'm struggling a lot this year with increased pain and increased fatigue, but we did it.

then on the way back were were thinking that we wanted some cold sodas, but had't brought any.

but then it dawned on us: we are GROWNUPS with CARS and MONEY. so we went to the general store and they have moxie.

life is good.

2019 venture vermont: Photograph and identify three different kinds of pine cones

i have been recklessly and prolifically photographing the cones of assorted conifers across vermont and new hampshire with the intent to collect three good photos and post them together to satisfy this item.

and i always hesitate when talking about "pinecones", because are we talking about the cones of all conifers? or just the actual pines? i have white pines that grow near my house and some red pines, which are the result of reforestation in the late '20s, but i think past that i'd have to go to what i think is some pitch pines i met this summer but then i think that for the purposes of this challenge it's probably ok to use the cones of spruces or firs or even -heaven help us- northern white cedar.

so i think what i've settled on- and let me stress that me decision about which cones to use for the challenge is as much informed by which photos i could find all at one time the soonest as any other factor- i present to you the red pine, red spruce, and tamarack.

the red pine is from a tree that appears to be an escape or maybe a volunteer descendant of a reforestation in richmond. the forest around it is mostly white pine, hemlock, and yellow birch. there are two other red pines in this area.

 this red spruce cone is from a tree on bear hill in allis state park.

 this tamarack is located at the nature center in groton state forest. tamaracks are unique in the world of north american conifers because they are deciduous.

2019 venture vermont: Make a tin can telephone.

i haven't done this since i was a child!

and i did it so authentically this time, too, because i didn't have any empty cans at my house SO I ASKED MY MOM FOR SOME.

i made my telephone while in the groton state forest hanging out near ricker pond.

what a blast.

2019 venture vermont: Try a new technique when building a campfire.

i always get worried that i'll run out of new things to try.

but recently i was at an event (teaching firebuilding) and this guy asked me if i'd ever built an upside-down fire. i hadn't, because my favorite fire lay is the Unholy Mess, but i'd seen some cool vids about them and this guy i was talking to me said it was really worth my time.

so recently i found myself camping with a friend at ricker pond state park and we bought a load of firewood and while we were out exploring we picked up some good tinder and kindling and i decided to try lighting the whole thing with a ferro rod and charcloth, because i've never been able to successfully blow up a spark ignition into flame.

to be sure, i have sparked an accelerant and that's pretty spiffy, but i had never yet successfully used the charcloth with spark, so i decided to try that on top of my upside down fire because either way i will have used a new technique and let's face it: even if i had failed, i still would have TRIED.

anyway.




the upside-down fire, by the way, works a charm. if you lay it right, it burns right down to a fabulous bed of coals with nearly zero maintenance, which is a big plus. would do again.

2019 venture vermont: Learn how to tell time without a clock

i'm a big fan of all the map / compass / clock skills.

if you can find true north, you can then use that knowledge to make a sundial.

there are a lot of ways to make a sundial with varying degrees of accuracy. the trick is that you either need to plant it in one place and construct it to be accurate for its place and season, or you need to angle and orient it whenever you use it to have the hours line up properly.

i like this little number from sky & telescope because it has an easy to use printout page that you can use to build an easy and pretty accurate sundial. you have to face it to true north (or south, if you live in the souther hemisphere), but if you've folded it to match your correct latitude, it's pretty accurate. you have to adjust for daylight savings on your own, but it works.

sweet.

2019 venture vermont: Clean up trash from one of your favorite areas and send us a before and after photo.

hahahahahahah.

HAhahaha.

omg.

*wipes tears from eyes*

ok, i know you guys were hoping for a dramatic before / after photo but there just isn't one.

i know what the department of forest, parks, and recreation had in mind was a one-time trash cleanup that we could all point to and say "there. doesn't that look nicer?"

but instead (either cheating or overachieving) this month i accepted a two-year term as one of the land stewards of the Sara Holbrook Floodplain Forest, which means not only have i agreed to go down there and regularly pick up trash, but i have agreed to monitor the parcel usage, the health of our forest and riverbank, help develop a management plan for the parcel, and engage in community education and discussion about conservation on the parcel.

last week when i went down there all i got was two beer cans, but this last time i had a meeting with a team from the UVM NR206 course, in which students engaged in a capstone project will help the town of bolton develop a management plan.

so yeah, let's just say i picked up some trash and call it good, ok?

2019 venture vermont: attend and support a local event

so as a result of some of my other work a nice lady from service unit #241 called me up to ask if i could come and be an instructor at their fall camping event, and of course i could.

it turns out that if my girl scout troop were registered in the town where i live, that would be my service unit, but we're not, so it's my local community but i don't belong to it administratively.

she hadn't firmed up her list of instructors for the event, so i told her to just have me do whatever she wanted from my skillset.

she ended up asking me to do two sessions of firebuilding and two sessions of music with nature.

i helped with setup and takedown, as well as helping some of the other instructors find their places. f'rinstance the archery instructor is a guy who more habitually teaches archery on our property at camp seawood, and he had never been to our camp so i helped him find the range and open the shed and all that.

also they had a woman come in to do a foraging thing, but i know when i go to a place to do foraging i prefer to have time ahead to wander around and look at what's there so i took her on a walk to show her where we had the plants that were of interest to her.

i don't have pics of that because of course i don't have authorization to photograph the minors present, but there are witnesses. i did the thing.

and i may have gone and got myself committed to do other things.

2019 venture vermont: Write a poem or song about your favorite outdoor space and send it to us

unless you just walked in in the last ten minutes, my favorite outdoor spaces these days are the girl scout camps of the Girl Scouts of the Green and White mountains.

i felt there was a need for one song that spoke of the bond between the camps, because we're all one council, all one movement, and i wanted to frame the camps as friends.

so i wrote this song.

here's a quick and dirty recording of it.

Four Friends

                                    

There were four friends as solid as rocks

A dragon and a turtle and an owl and a fox (1)

Like fingers in gloves or keys in locks, 

They all went out to roam together  

And they all went out to roam.

They danced in a meadow high on a hill

In the green Green Mountains while the summer stood still

But the seasons turned as the seasons will (2)

And they all went out to roam together

And they all went out to roam.

They paddled on a lake both sparkling and sweet

And they went to Seven Gables by their wings and by their feet (3)

But the travel of the friends was not complete 

So they all went out to roam together

And they all went out to roam

They went exploring down by the shore

And they took a trail so far that they could see a dinosaur (4)

All thanks to the Daughter of Appledore (5)

They all went out to roam together

And they all went out to roam.

In Sebbins Pond they swam all around

And Sandy is the other pond and sandy is the ground

An american chestnut tree they found (6)

but they all went  out to roam together 
And they all went out to roam.

But a piece was missing from the fox's heart
She wanted to return to the place she got her start
So to Twin Hills turned and they traveled apart (7)

And she said i love to roam together but i love to be back home.

You know i love to roam together
but Twin Hills is my home.

(1) these are references to the four mascots of the camps: the twin hills fox, the farnsworth owl, the kettleford dragon, and the seawood turtle
(2)this sounds like the least specific of the verses, but it is really a reflection of being in my mid-fifties playing in the same meadow where i played as a child.
(3) seven gables is a place at camp farnsworth
(4) at camp seawood they have a rock called dinosaur rock. it is pretty far out from main camp.
(5) this is an obscure reference. celia thaxter was a prominent 19th century poet and her family donated the land for this camp to the girl scouts. ms. thaxter lived on star island for much of her adult life, but her father was the lighthouse keeper of appledore island and she spent some of her childhood there. it's not the best lyric, but it acknowledges the gift and if fits the rhyme scheme.
(6) camp kettleford borders two ponds, sebbins pond and sandy pond. they have actual american chestnut trees there, which gives me hope for the future. and yes, the soil is very sandy.
(7) the lyrics to this verse and the coda change according to where the song is being sung.