It's been a long time since I have taken the time to write down my thoughts. I have had very bad luck with the local creatures. The drought has them very hungry and the squirrels and other small creatures dined heartily on my plantings wiping out even the oats! Only onion and garlic seem to not be on the menu.....
For the past 6 or 7 years we (the kids and I) have had an annual backpack trip into the wilderness. Almost every year we pack up and drive to the trail head and hike in to find snow or rain or other impediments to a otherwise beautiful experience. This year we waited until the snow season was over. With a dry forecast for what has been months we thought we would have a fantastic time. We set out on a 6 day trip. The first day was a hard hike to the top of Santa Fe Baldy, at 12,632 feet the views and the wildflowers were spectacular. We spent the night at the lake below the peak and set off the next day for another lake a little farther north where I know the fishing is good. We had almost reached the saddle along the ridge where we were to descend to the lake when my son turned to snap a photo and saw smoke rising in the distance. We knew it could be a bad sign. We made our way down to the lake and looking back in the direction of the smoke saw that the fire was growing. The smoke was however traveling far to the south of us and it did not seem to be growing too terribly fast. We had a wonderful afternoon and evening, fishing and lounging about our camp at the lake.
I rose early to great the sunrise and the skies were clear there was no plume of smoke in the direction of the fire from the day before and with the air traffic we had heard we thought the fire had been contained. We spent the day fishing and enjoying the beauty of the wilderness.
Everything changed at about 4:00 in the afternoon..... First the wind began to gather strength. Then I noticed the column of smoke rising high in the air. The wind shifted and the smoke began to filter over the ridge above the lake. In less then 20 minutes the sky was black and orange. We packed in great haste and hit the trail down the mountain in the opposite direction we had come, and away from the approaching fire. The forest was very silent, the smoke muting everything except for the far off sound almost like a jumbo jet at high altitude, but constant and not drifting off into the distance like the sound normally would......
We tied bandanas and t-shirts around our faces and hiked fast as the dark orange brown smoke engulfed the forest and blacked out the sun. Breathing was difficult and seeing the trail was difficult through the eye burning haze. We were hiking at almost a run with our full packs, heavy, not even halfway through our supplies. We managed to escape down to less smoke filled air as we descended rapidly toward the valley. Twelve miles down hill in 4 hours, we arrived at the trail head miles away from our truck, exhausted, with all and everyone safe. The other people we marched out with, who were camped in the area by the lake, were kind and gave us a ride out and back to civilization..........nearly 9 hours after the smoke loomed overhead and began to descend on us, we were home safe.
Thankfully, the ordeal is now another tale to tell to children and grand children. Another trial in the wilderness to add to the many, many others I and my backpacking companions have from a nearly lifetime of wilderness experiences.
It worries me if the number of people and groups of people who had signed the trail logs are all safe. I did contact the Forest Service and asked if everyone on the log was accounted for and was told yes..... I do not know how they could truly account for everyone but I certainly hope no one was caught in the smoke or fire.
The fire that still rages through the area where we were has for my lifetime and perhaps even my grand children's lifetime changed the beauty of the forest where I and my companions had so many adventures. It will be many years before the tall forest reclaims the areas charred by this fire, or the many other areas charred by fires that are raging throughout the west this season. I fear that the many fires and the kind of total forest devastation will continue. It need not be total devastation by the crown fires which kill all the trees and undergrowth and even become so hot they burn the soil. The forest management strategy needs to change. From the look of some areas of the forest we have attempted to suppress the forest fires too long. There are areas where there are more standing dead and dried out trees than live ones. Areas where the drought has weakened the trees and beetles have ravaged them. We have attempted to control so much when we perhaps truly need to step back and allow some of the violent change that moves the planet. We need to allow the natural cycles that help to create a healthy environment. We also need to protect our selves and try to protect our homes and families but the forest has been saved for too long. The fuel has been stacking up for a hundred years and it will go up in flames, flames which will become more and more difficult to restrain if the management practices we presently use in our wilderness areas are not modified.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Time seems to have passed too quickly and Spring planting is here
Time has slipped away again and I have not been as attentive to posting the activities of the spring as I would have liked.....
To catch up a bit - The new area for grain is ready for tilling and the manure has been spread over most of it. More hauling and spreading - then the tiller for a day or two....... The hops root starts have finally arrived and are now in the ground. Both the hops and the berry bush starts are planted but I'm still awaiting for some signs of growth. The vines are not showing any activity with the exception of the clematis on the front porch post. The willow is covered with catkins and the cherry is just beginning to have leaf buds open.
The garden is cleared and is ready for planting. It would be nice to have the wind cooperate in order to burn the piles of leaf refuse, weeds,corn stalks and raking that has been piling up. Only if I could mulch it! but it's way too dry and even if I mix it with manure from the animals I would need to water it and cover it with tarps to get any avtivity enough to mulch it, and barrel mulching is too small a scale for the quantity I have. I wish I could just char it and turn the carbon into the soil instead of reducing it to ash... Hummm something to see about perhaps...
I'm hoping this next week to get many things done and many things planted. I'm needing a larger place to start more plants in flats. The present glass panel lean-to is going to have to be moved and rebuilt double the size with another 4 glass panels in the next few days. The block I need to make a base to support the additional glass panels I have, will need to be brought out to the garden and set. I need to begin sprouting as soon as possible. But it's been so windy!
The spring winds have been roaring through and with gusts in excess of 50mph! I was told some gusts in the area were over 70mph..... The amount of wind erosion to the animal pen has been substantial. The roof on the house, barn, and chicken coop seem to have all withstood the gale over the last three days without any issues
As a result of the erosion I have been, and will be, hauling in a great deal of gravel to hopefully create a base that will not end up in Texas when the winds are howling again. Now if we could get a nice calm day or two or three and perhaps a gentle soaking rain over a day or two I think the growing season would be off to a great start.
To catch up a bit - The new area for grain is ready for tilling and the manure has been spread over most of it. More hauling and spreading - then the tiller for a day or two....... The hops root starts have finally arrived and are now in the ground. Both the hops and the berry bush starts are planted but I'm still awaiting for some signs of growth. The vines are not showing any activity with the exception of the clematis on the front porch post. The willow is covered with catkins and the cherry is just beginning to have leaf buds open.
The garden is cleared and is ready for planting. It would be nice to have the wind cooperate in order to burn the piles of leaf refuse, weeds,corn stalks and raking that has been piling up. Only if I could mulch it! but it's way too dry and even if I mix it with manure from the animals I would need to water it and cover it with tarps to get any avtivity enough to mulch it, and barrel mulching is too small a scale for the quantity I have. I wish I could just char it and turn the carbon into the soil instead of reducing it to ash... Hummm something to see about perhaps...
I'm hoping this next week to get many things done and many things planted. I'm needing a larger place to start more plants in flats. The present glass panel lean-to is going to have to be moved and rebuilt double the size with another 4 glass panels in the next few days. The block I need to make a base to support the additional glass panels I have, will need to be brought out to the garden and set. I need to begin sprouting as soon as possible. But it's been so windy!
The spring winds have been roaring through and with gusts in excess of 50mph! I was told some gusts in the area were over 70mph..... The amount of wind erosion to the animal pen has been substantial. The roof on the house, barn, and chicken coop seem to have all withstood the gale over the last three days without any issues
As a result of the erosion I have been, and will be, hauling in a great deal of gravel to hopefully create a base that will not end up in Texas when the winds are howling again. Now if we could get a nice calm day or two or three and perhaps a gentle soaking rain over a day or two I think the growing season would be off to a great start.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Time to prepare for another spring
I have as usual been busy gathering together the information I need to begin to make an attempt at further self sufficiency. With spring and warmer days still a while off, I am gathering books and asking questions and plotting the new garden(s) and considering when and how to sprout and cold frame the first of this years plantings.....But planting and rotations and sprouting times are not the most of the long winter nights thoughts............
I have also been spending a great deal of time considering some of the implications of the industrial education system (I favor the term "industrial" as a better descriptor than "public") and considering our present educational dilemma of decreasing graduation rates, a perceived lowering of the level of the content and a reduction in quality (as anecdotal evidence from educators), and our ever slipping rankings as compared to other nations of the world. I have looked back at what the educational landscape was like just before the country began the astronomical rise to a pinnacle of education that has perhaps never been achieved before. There is a definite continued educational ranking decrease of our country beginning in the late 1960's and continuing till today as we are now ranked far down on the lists http://www.geographic.org/country_ranks/educational_score_performance_country_ranks_2009_oecd.html world wide on the quality of our education as a nation. I still see some interesting possibilities in the way and the timing we have been using for the last hundred years or so to educate our children.
We began with a type of system very natural to the ways of life that I assume people had in a closer more tribal setting by educating all ages and levels in the same room at the same time. This has an effect on the youngest, and the oldest, that rises the levels of the younger, and bolsters the lessons taught to the older by having the younger kids ask questions and utilize the older children to tutor and assist answering questions about lessons well beyond where they would be in a "modern" school setting. The effect of raising the level of education through teaching the higher level along with the lower I believe will raise the interest of advanced students and will bring the less advanced along if the older peer group is coached and given the task of assisting the younger and less advanced students. There is also another lesson in this approach I think needed and missed in today's school environment - compassion - Encouraging a culture of helping to bring others along and assistance when needed, can teach compassion and understanding and encourage social consciousness. These ideas seem entirely missing in today's educational system. I will need to look further into any studies which support these ideas and see if there would be a way to employ some of this thought in our present system and help in raising the standards while heping all kids to move forward at a pace which meets their individual needs.
I as an outsider parent looking in, with memories of my time in school, seem to think there may even be a more simple way to begin to achieve a higher standard and promote a better educational ethic with parents and children. Coaching. Not coaching at school but at home. I think that all kids should be read to as infants and that a "reading at bedtime" image needs a "Norman Rockwell", "American as apple pie" campaign. New parents need to be encouraged to read to and with their kids early and often. If books are needed there should be an effort to promote our libraries and if needed perhaps at birth books could be offered as a birth gift to the new parents.
I know if our children are read to the next thing they want to do is to read the book themselves. Wanting to learn to read could be encouraged at an earlier age so that when a child reaches grade school there is no need to teach the fundamentals of reading. By this simple change in culture our entire educational system may move forward several grades in reading. There has been a great deal of emphasis placed on early childhood education. However the follow through with kids in day care centers has been abysmal. We somehow need to fascinate our three, four and five year old's and spark that desire to read, count, and explore - to do what we human beings do with our minds - explore and question, learn and discover.
Another thought is to raise the grade level by teaching the second grade curricula in first grade etc. Simply sliding the "already in place" standards and moving the process one year earlier. This could be done on an experimental basis easily to see if ther is any merit to the idea and as I know there is much done to assess students ability and some remedial work done to begin each new school year so to introduce slightly more advanced material could be done as a grade k-6 experiment... But perhaps this has been attempted too....
I'm aghast at the level of education we are promoting (and paying dearly for) which does not even begin to adequately prepare children for post secondary schooling. Especially when the minimum job requirements for an income adequate to comfortably support a family call out a need for a college degree. A High School Diploma alone is not enough to make a living as our workforce becomes more and more technology focused. A Degree "two year", or "four year" has become a necessity, and this necessity is moving toward the need for a Masters or Phd. as our workforce changes and becomes more and more technological.
Although I find the idea that we are in a global competition for economic development and that the world economy will grow indefinitely is bunk. We still must have an educated population in order to understand issues and avoid the propaganda pitfalls which will be part of a voting people governing a republic. Without education and a body of understanding there is an ever present danger that the wolves will be herding sheep!
I have also been spending a great deal of time considering some of the implications of the industrial education system (I favor the term "industrial" as a better descriptor than "public") and considering our present educational dilemma of decreasing graduation rates, a perceived lowering of the level of the content and a reduction in quality (as anecdotal evidence from educators), and our ever slipping rankings as compared to other nations of the world. I have looked back at what the educational landscape was like just before the country began the astronomical rise to a pinnacle of education that has perhaps never been achieved before. There is a definite continued educational ranking decrease of our country beginning in the late 1960's and continuing till today as we are now ranked far down on the lists http://www.geographic.org/country_ranks/educational_score_performance_country_ranks_2009_oecd.html world wide on the quality of our education as a nation. I still see some interesting possibilities in the way and the timing we have been using for the last hundred years or so to educate our children.
We began with a type of system very natural to the ways of life that I assume people had in a closer more tribal setting by educating all ages and levels in the same room at the same time. This has an effect on the youngest, and the oldest, that rises the levels of the younger, and bolsters the lessons taught to the older by having the younger kids ask questions and utilize the older children to tutor and assist answering questions about lessons well beyond where they would be in a "modern" school setting. The effect of raising the level of education through teaching the higher level along with the lower I believe will raise the interest of advanced students and will bring the less advanced along if the older peer group is coached and given the task of assisting the younger and less advanced students. There is also another lesson in this approach I think needed and missed in today's school environment - compassion - Encouraging a culture of helping to bring others along and assistance when needed, can teach compassion and understanding and encourage social consciousness. These ideas seem entirely missing in today's educational system. I will need to look further into any studies which support these ideas and see if there would be a way to employ some of this thought in our present system and help in raising the standards while heping all kids to move forward at a pace which meets their individual needs.
I as an outsider parent looking in, with memories of my time in school, seem to think there may even be a more simple way to begin to achieve a higher standard and promote a better educational ethic with parents and children. Coaching. Not coaching at school but at home. I think that all kids should be read to as infants and that a "reading at bedtime" image needs a "Norman Rockwell", "American as apple pie" campaign. New parents need to be encouraged to read to and with their kids early and often. If books are needed there should be an effort to promote our libraries and if needed perhaps at birth books could be offered as a birth gift to the new parents.
I know if our children are read to the next thing they want to do is to read the book themselves. Wanting to learn to read could be encouraged at an earlier age so that when a child reaches grade school there is no need to teach the fundamentals of reading. By this simple change in culture our entire educational system may move forward several grades in reading. There has been a great deal of emphasis placed on early childhood education. However the follow through with kids in day care centers has been abysmal. We somehow need to fascinate our three, four and five year old's and spark that desire to read, count, and explore - to do what we human beings do with our minds - explore and question, learn and discover.
Another thought is to raise the grade level by teaching the second grade curricula in first grade etc. Simply sliding the "already in place" standards and moving the process one year earlier. This could be done on an experimental basis easily to see if ther is any merit to the idea and as I know there is much done to assess students ability and some remedial work done to begin each new school year so to introduce slightly more advanced material could be done as a grade k-6 experiment... But perhaps this has been attempted too....
I'm aghast at the level of education we are promoting (and paying dearly for) which does not even begin to adequately prepare children for post secondary schooling. Especially when the minimum job requirements for an income adequate to comfortably support a family call out a need for a college degree. A High School Diploma alone is not enough to make a living as our workforce becomes more and more technology focused. A Degree "two year", or "four year" has become a necessity, and this necessity is moving toward the need for a Masters or Phd. as our workforce changes and becomes more and more technological.
Although I find the idea that we are in a global competition for economic development and that the world economy will grow indefinitely is bunk. We still must have an educated population in order to understand issues and avoid the propaganda pitfalls which will be part of a voting people governing a republic. Without education and a body of understanding there is an ever present danger that the wolves will be herding sheep!
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