Shopping update. Exploring ads. Vision.

I got out to get some good exercise yesterday, then came back and:

Shopping

I stayed up all night browsing around and finally spent money on:

• The mosquito netting + can openers. $26 (I'm not sure if I'll bring a can opener. . . but decided to spend the $2 in case I want to)
  
• A small memory stick usb reader. $7 (to replace a 4oz multi-card reader I'd carry otherwise)
  
• A small usb mini to usb connector. $4 (to replace a 1+ oz cable)
  
• A nokia 3mm to 2mm adapter. $2.50 (I cancelled the $15 order for the Solio adapter. . . I knew there was a better way)
  

Tried to get some Fiskars scissors as recommended in Jardine's sewing tips, but didn't win that auction. I may be able to borrow some decent scissors. The ray-way order shipped nearly immediately. The rainsuit today. Haven't yet heard about the E62. But I spent more time researching that--and some of the problems with it and solutions. Looking at the endless amount of stuff you can order from China took up a bit of time. Mindlessly browsing, but learning something perhaps.

I have some odd issues when it comes to spending money--it takes me a long time. I use it as an excuse to endlessly browse looking at the millions of options. But, finally, it is over.

Selling

I did get the Ebay listing for the violin posted!

Ads?

Spending money gets me thinking about how not to run out of money. Inspired by Hobo Traveler, who reminded me of Michael Bluejay, I'm looking into having Google ads on this blog.

My current plan is to keep the full feed free, so you can read posts in your feed reader ad-free, and to only display ads on the sub-pages, not on the main page. Currently there is some error preventing me from editing the template to implement that feature, but eventually the ads should be off the main page.

I'm adding ads partly because it interests me: what ads will show up? And eventually the ads may raise enough money to pay for postage when I write letters.

I'll continue to make the site something that I like: I like full feeds. I'd like no ads on the main page. So we'll see!

Coming up: not much left to do but to get ready to go. This means getting rid of remaining stuff. Going over what I will take with me. And getting rid of the bamboo construction I set up in the back yard. When the ray-way order comes I'll look into sewing that. I'll probably wait to post on ic.org once I'm on my way. I never believe it until I am.

Vision

The basic tentative plan is to get out of here within the next three weeks. Go north. Spend some time with the LA originers/primitivists. Go into Los Padres NF near Santa Barbara. Every two weeks come out and resupply. Perhaps go to the permaculture gathering at Quail Springs in August. Go somewhere warmer for the winter. Find ways to pay for what needs paying for along the way. Repeat?

Peace,

Shopping update; Ultralight; Returning to the land of the living

Since last post, I've been researching bug net shelters, tarps, and ultralight backpacking in general. I got to looking into what are the heaviest things I've been carrying, and the old bivy + sleeping bag combo are among the heaviest items (bivy: 1.4lbs, bag: 2.8lbs. I've cut the zippers out of these and have been using the bag as a quilt since the end of last summer.). Seeing advertisements of ~1lb 40-degree bags for near $100 (Kelty Pounder, I think), I got to looking into best use of money to carry less weight.

Along the way I explored websites of the ultralight community. Brawny and Rainmaker's site stands out. Dirtbagger's Deluxe I remember. & Backpacking Light. My del.icio tag shelter shows some of link trail.

Finally I returned to the Shakespeares of ultralight, Ray and Jenny Jardine.

Where I am now: I have called my Point Loma grandma about a sewing machine she had mentioned I could borrow, and I submitted the following order to Ray-Way:

Quant.	Item	Each	Amount
1	Bomber Hat Kit-L	$21.95	$21.95
1	Pkg2 (tarp book tarp kit) white	$70.90	$70.90
1	Long Option for Q1P	$12.95	$12.95
1	Quilt-kit 1P Deluxe gold	$74.95	$74.95
1	Free Siku	$0.00	$0.00
1	Thread Pro	$6.49	$6.49
Shipping	Priority		$13.62
Total			$200.86

Nearly within the $200 budget there, but I had to leave out the net-tent. All that anyway is probably enough of an intro to sewing stuff. And I expect I'll order the

• Two person mosquito net from campmoor & their GI can opener

which will add $25 to the total spent.

I forgot to add that I also ordered

• An old Frogg Togg rainsuit for $18.

This should let me leave the green jacket I have been wearing behind (comparatively heavy and no longer water-resistant) and give me some good, light, though maybe not very tough, rain, wind, & bug-resistant pants.

So that's probably it. The only remaining money-involving Internet project is to get the violin listed on ebay.

All that equipment should let me leave behind / retire: my old bag, my bivy, my blue ground tarp. The blue tarp is nice though because it's cheap and tough. My only ground cover now will probably be two trashbags I carry along. Plus I can put the mosquito mesh (and maybe the tarp) under me if I don't have it up. I haven't been using a sleeping pad, which I find to be fine if I'm out in the forest and away from packed ground.

Using a tarp instead of a bivy signals a change in style for me to focus more on the camp than the journey. The bivy was nice because I could find a spot big enough to fit in, throw it down, crawl in or sleep on top of it, and have some shelter from bugs / moisture. But I can still do that.

The difference will be that I should have decent shelter in significant rain (though maybe there will be no more rain till winter) and what shelter I do carry will weigh less.

I plan to make the two-person size of tarp. So if I have only one visitor, s/he could share bug netting & tarp if bugs or rain were an issue.

Partly because of money I decided to make the 40-degree rather than the 28-degree quilt. But that should help remind me not to linger in areas where it is getting cold--one of my main shelter strategies is to be where the climate the way it is requires less shelter.

I am planning and investing in what will be my home. These things I'll be making will be the only things I'll have and will carry. I will most likely be getting rid of my old gear.

At the same time I can't spend so much on these things that I would be devastated by their loss: my pack or gear could somehow get trashed, lost, or stolen. Different than just buying things, however, I'm taking the opportunity to devote myself to Jardine, to learn from him, to learn to sew and to make these things. So if I lost everything, it would be easier to make more or make something different.

While I haven't seen Brawny mention Jardine, she and many other ultralighters appear to be evolving in their own ways the Jardine example.

In the past I wouldn't futz with all this. I'd grab what would let me get out there: blue tarp, trashbags, old sleeping bag. But now that I'm planning to be out there long term, I have the time and reason to be truly materialistic. I'll have only a few possessions, devoting care to each one.

Example of the Originers: I value remembering Eorsch, the primitivists at Twisp, and others who do the same kind of preparation for a 5-week trek, but do it using primitive/origin materials and technologies. None of the fancy stuff I'm getting or making is really necessary. So . . . am I misleading myself? Or is this a newly helpful synthesis of origin and modern technology?

Life!

So that's it! For three + days now I've nearly ignored the place and body where I am, focused entirely on setting in motion (getting the orders in) what will let me get out of this place where I am. Once I'm gone from here I won't need to walk around suburbia for exercise. I'll walk around the forest, as I was so recently doing.

Brawny's site reminds one of the value of that kind of life!

I doubt these past few days have been all that healthy for me. Had the pools been open early I probably would have exercised more, but their hours are not as good weekends and holidays. And I'm focused on preparing for the time I no longer walk around the city (as I would have to do to get to the pool), but the woods and trails.

Peace,
Colin

The list. Exceedingly mindless

Typing in the to-do list I wrote up on Thursday:

To obtain:

1. Net-tent + other tarp tent
2. phone with more memory & perhaps a camera
3. finer, lighter line for tying up tarp
4. print net-making how-to
5. jardine style water filter?
6. new mesh bag?
7. right number of bottles, non plastic? non Nalgene?
8. bacitracin / antibiotic ointment?
   

To do:

1. In three weeks be in Los Padres National Forest
2. Sell Violin (post on ebay)
3. Ship/get rid of remaining stuff
4. Change Address, etc to Locust St, perhaps
5. ic.org posting about 'socal forest community'
6. detail gear + 2 week food list + rationale
7. Bring machete + file , loppers for trail work?
8. check SB/WYP CC work, maybe (later)
9. how best to prepare, eat dried mushrooms?
10. Arrange to spend time with LA primitivists / originers before going further north.
11. Remove Bamboo--
    

Leave behind

1. Umbrella?
2. pda KB?
3. heavy line

Books to look into (added 2008-05-26):

• Medicine for Mountaineering. Wilkerson. (from Beyond Backpacking's "Select Bibliography")
  
• Wilderness Medicine ; Beyond First Aid. Forgey. (from Beyond Backpacking's "Select Bibliography")
• Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter. Kahn. (Crow, 3rd time PCT thru-hiker, recommended the Perpetual Camping zine referenced herein)
• Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills. Mountaineers. (from BB)
  

I've spent most of yesterday and all of today working on #3 under obtain. I finally put, I hope, a stop to this process by spending $90 for a used Nokia E62 + $15 for the necessary Solio solar charger adapter plug. I may have done better to get a Samsung Blackjack i607 for the same amount--it has a decent camera built in, is newer, has 3G, (and can charge via USB--my existing adapter might work with it), etc. But that's already done, and I'm reasonably content with it. The drawback is I'll still be carrying around my Logitech Pocket Digital 130 (and can only post photos here once I go into the library in town or borrow someone's computer at Quail Springs), and that the E62 is on the heavier end. I will probably be leaving my Sony Clié Stowaway keyboard behind. . . so will save weight there--but I'll still carry the Clié PDA + the E62 + the camera. The E62 has a 1G memory card. It could hold all my ebooks as plain html files easily, I guess, but I don't know if I'll like reading on it-- as the screen has less resolution than the old Clié, and the Clié's monochrome is great to read in the sun or with a 1-led book light headlamp.

So that's what's going on here. But I've been laying here all day. Scratching poison oak rash on occasion, eating stuff there's no need to eat. Tomorrow I may be returning to the land of the living, aware, and caring for body, mind, awareness, etc.

It would be nice to get the finer line, net-tent, better tarp shopping taken care of now too--and it looks like these can definitely be taken care of for $200 or less.

Some rambles: On this past trip, I never used my pda keyboard - I found it more compelling to write what I can post immediately. If I wanted to do some great writing projects. . . well, if that becomes a strong need, I can get a bluetooth keyboard for the E62. But when I'm in the woods. . . there may be no rush to be writing more words faster.

The shelter--during the rain and the cold, no doubt there were a lot of uncomfortable PCT hikers out there. There often is at least one serious cold rainy storm in May, even in SoCal. One way to survive those in more comfort should be to have an expansive tarp shelter with enough overhang to reduce blown-in rain. Another issue--as I learned from this past trip, is to have some good relief from the bugs. And this will be an issue in Mexico, should I head that way.

I'm not going out there to be a super-long distance ultralight hiker (yet), but to be able to be comfortable staying still in places for a while given storms and bugs. I may be able to cut my shelter weight by leaving the old bivy I've been bringing--just carrying instead the tarp and net.

This time I should be able to do a detailed pack list by weight, so getting a better understanding of why my base pack weight is 20+ lbs and the ultralighters' is less than 10 should be easier.

Itch, itch. No more bushwhacking. Or at least turn around at first sight of poison oak, because it may just get much much worse.

I started a friendfeed, which should provide updates on all of my various online activity that might be worth sharing: photos, blog posts, links, tweets. But there seems to be a huge lag on the links!

I'm hoping that with the E62, I should be able to bootstrap myself up to fancier, newer devices when the time comes--using it to order on ebay & research if necessary. And no longer need to return to this lair to do my internet shopping/research.

In following this post's link to the Nokia product page, I see the E62 (and all Nokia products since 2001) has an Eco Declaration. Many large corporations these days have corporate social responsibility statements (Samsung, Microsoft).

That's what's going on. Peace.

At Scissors Crossing

EV took this photo with his iPhone and emailed it to me.

Eat flies?

Grammie writes: "I want to know, do you really eat flies?"

Yes! They sort of taste better than ladybugs, and I'm pretty sure they don't grow on anything that spreads disease (out here at least). I was at Earthaven when Caelin ate washed soldier fly maggots from the composting toilet. Not that I would do that. See also eatbug.com.

Water-of-the-Woods

The only deeper thought of the day: do I do anything more than enjoy my freedom? The only tentative response: do this, share about it--other possibilities may follow. Sunday, 1830. Low on food, so won't do lots of exertion. Currently, I'm in the wild mile of canyon between Water-of-the-Woods and Noble Canyon. My tonsils/throat still make swallowing somewhat painful.

Beautiful day, discoveries. I may study more about Mt Laguna. Check/subscribe to the twitter feed for the rest of the story. There may be no more reception till I get near old hwy 80.

Birdsong audio post?

The second part of the refrain seems cause noise cancelling to kick in. If this works, what bird is this? The only bird I saw near it looked like a chickadee. AMR format on phone may not be useful on web.

(1 of 2) Hacking; flies; beautiful day; future

The project today turned out to be using Opera Mini on this Nokia 2610 to look at many of the feeds I have in google reader. And to mark some of the items shared. I spend much of my time looking around me as I reload the browser after a memory crash, or as I wait for a page to load. The fruit of my effort:

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/09924010917790795361

Unfortunateley, one item I wanted to share got marked read and not marked shared due to browser oddness. So help me, I can find no way to view the item again in G reader to mark it shared given the memory limits of this phone. To find out about the May 31 bike tour of north county SD gardens, try:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/SdFoodNotLawnsEvents

Doing all this -- I'm not sure what to make of it. I like it out here a lot. Being the weekend, there are a few more people around. I moved around a few times, too, due to fly, reception, and battery issues. I don't really want to go back to the city. But food will get low.

(2 of 2) Hacking; flies; beautiful day; future

[MMS messages had a limit of 1000 characters per text section. Blogger only used one text section of the MMS message I sent it]

I did not see much good to eat in the store. When I go back, I may put a post on the ic.org site. It could be good to have other low-key--and maybe 'unambitious' is the word--people to do nothing in particular with in remote areas. Here, one can stay away from the main paths and trouble no one by how little one does. Equally important, most of the people who do things are making a ruckus elsewhere.

I may also get a better device when I go back. $40-$100, perhaps. May look into TMobile prepaid too.

The two ways into greater activity I might go from here: a monastery - Deer Park, possibly, or the primitive/origin skills scene. Mike has the contacts in LA for that; it also rages in the northwest. I'm leaning to continuing this path, though. The next big challenge is figuring out how to do this further south in the colder months. There will be a few and occasional companions along the way; that may be enough.

Peace,
Colin

This is a post via mms. Better formatting than by text email?

Twitter, mms set up

Set up twitter: http://twitter.com/forestdweller . This is also a test of posting using mms. If I go where there is no data connection, twitter should still work, and maybe mms.

No LA; twitter? Other updates.

Barring a miracle, no LA for me. I was restless-needed exercise (did full kata)-and may camp elsewhere for a change. I may also pay for more texting so I can play with twitter and post when there is no data connection.

A deer is walking by-first I've seen.

Yesterday, the air was very still. Many bird sounds, no human. I sat, moved slow, ate many greens, finished _Owen Meany_. OM is ok, but not as expanding for me as other texts. Looking forward to the sci-fi I brought.

Wednesday, I did full kata-first time out here, took a long time-then worked on making net. Failed, emailed for help, ended up using $20 of the prepaid to get unlimited data for a month. Browsed net for help without success, spent hours fiddling with phone and Opera Mini. Went back to camp and figured out a way to make a net! Later found Stace had sent a link to a diagram of the more refined way-primitiveways.com/pomo_netting.html - and spent more time seeing if I could view it on this phone, but no.

Oh-I've still been recovering from a sickness. Only bit of soreness left on tonsils, and a high-pitched sound in right ear, if I focus on it. Saturday night that ear was aching, from unrelieved pressure I think -- 6000 feet. Sinus clogging and occasional cough may finally be gone. With cool, dry air, wind, no pool, no oranges, healing has been slow. On the plus side: good air, water, greens, rose hips, relaxing help me adapt.

To LA on Saturday?

I may find a way to get to LA by early Sat. By hitching from the MT Laguna store/PO? Mike has informed me of a skills gathering there Sat.

Also, I currently have unlimited data on this phone, but no money for calls or texting. As long as there's a data connection, I can get email. I think txt to email and vice-versa works with most phones.

I'll probably want to re-add money to the phone side of things soon, but for now, I only get email.

Peace,

Nettles, rose hips, PCT hikers, EWIIAAPAAYP reservation, wind quiets, Kwaaymii trail & bedrock mortars

Jasmine,
thanks for the good comment and for the note about the snake we saw. I
saw a much bigger one not long after I got the message.

I was up till early this AM reading _A Prayer for Owen Meany_. A bad
habit, but neat to see my tech setup enables that. There was cold
wind--calming, finally, by the time the moon set. Yesterday I walked
further north to town; today, just around the meadow to the south.

Being near the PCT, there is opportunity for good company. Mark from
Chicago was camped near the spring this AM. He was happy to learn/meet
watercress, miner's lettuce. He helped me realize those really are
nettles by the spring. Asking what all I might do out here for so
long, he was curious about how I got into sitting, what it meant. He
noticed he had lost his drum sticks earlier on the trail.

Peace,
Colin

Come visit! Laguna Mts - camping & perhaps net-weaving

Directions are at fo-rest.blogspot.com -- the post for May 11.

Among the abundant edible plants are violets, miner's lettuce, watercress.

I found an extra sleeping bag, but bring blankets & warm clothes. The
ground where we camp is soft.

If you want to take the bus (888/894) and not hitch-hike, we'll need
to meet in a different spot - let me know.

I'll probably be out here until the 23rd.

Peace, Colin

First post from the forest. Finding water, winnowing amaranth, crocheting, knot-tying, resting, rambling re meditation, exploring, and what else?

If you'd like to visit, send me an email. Our spot is less than a
two-mile hike from the Laguna Mtn Observatory / Morris Ranch parking
lot, within an hour's drive of SD & Escondido. From SD, take I-8 to S1
(Sunrise Byway). Take S1 north. After you get near the top, and turn
to the SE and back to the east, the turnoff is to the right. There is
a sign for the Observatory / Morris Ranch. The short (<0.2mi) road to
the lot is paved. I'll meet you at the lot--and I have Adventure
Passes for two cars.

There is also a dirt road nearby you can drive in on and camp along.
Access is probably from the next turnout to the right along S1. You
may not need a pass for that.

There's good cell phone & GSM reception from many spots out here
(thanks to a tower at the observatory?)

What can we do? Why don't you bring some string and print out some
instructions for net-making? I'll be working on remembering what I
learned earlier.

Mostly, I've been resting. For weeks now, I have not cared for myself
well. I am leaving my old rut in SD partly to get away from conditions
that enabled harmful habits. In addition, there are damaging aspects
of SoCal urban living. Every time I go near a road, there is at least
some fear in me. Every time I get a breath of exhaust, my vitality
suffers. The inland SD air quality is generally poor. Here, only the
flies are sometimes annoying. I (so far) believe the unfiltered water
out here is better for me to drink. I am more at peace shitting
outdoors than in piped-in drinking water. No helicopters buzz this
place. No deep mufflers, bass, car alarms, amplified sound, or endless
drone or background roar and scent of leaf-blowers, mowers, and car
traffic. Just wind, voices of visitors.

Many are helping improve urban conditions. I'm dependent on the city
for food, occasional work, and visitors. I want to help us improve,
not to inspire despair. So I won't say more about what many of us may
have to continue to cope with, at least for another few years. [To be
continued--I've reached a character limit.]

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

http://purl.org/j9k/sig/

New post @ sdperm

From Jay @ the linkery: help us help

Could I have put this off? I doubt it.

Foods + Maybe a more graceful departure

It would be easy enough to take a picture of what I'm posting about. . . but this is meant to be quick.

In the past when I've left on these trips, I've rushed.

This time--well, I'm still procrastinating and rushing. But I'm managing to get some different food along.

I'm attempting to not use grains as much. (Garden of Eating Cookbook has rationale -- & recommends against legumes too.)

And I'm bringing along new foods.

• Dried potatoes
• rasins
• prunes
• tapioca--same as yuca? kraft tapioca -- $6/lb- 8oz box
  
• parmesan
• dry coconut
• besan / gram flour --
• lentils, favas
• doritos ruedas -- wheat (and who knows--I don't have a full ingredient list)
  
• garlic
• almonds in the shell
• dried apricot paste
• some odd (to me) Mexican form of sugar
  

Tomorrow AM I need to get to World Foods and get some seaweed and dried mushrooms and see what other good dried stuff I might find there.

I think I'll get some butter or some sort of oil too.

I've spent $40 on food + a little led light. $35 on Adventure Passes.

And I'll still have along some white rice.

Peace,

Update Re: Origin skills and technomad forest gathering in SD County: Fri May 9 - Mon May 12 and beyond

I sent this to the sifter list:

I'm new to the sifter list, and I hope this is a good way to introduce myself! I found out about this list through Garrett Lisi's page. I'm organizing these trips to help me and others spend more time in unpaved areas resting, sharing, learning.

Briefly: A hour drive from SD, up to a three-mile hike from the trailhead, (bring your own supplies) and no other plans than that with Jasmine, Christine, & Colin, who in March organized a primitive skills gathering.

This is short notice for this trip, but if it sounds interesting please let me know. I am tentatively planning to be out there for two weeks and I could meet you at a trailhead anytime in that period. Or we could plan an entirely different outing.
The details are here:

Origin skills and technomad forest gathering in SD County: Fri May 9 - Mon May 12 and beyond
( or, shorter: http://is.gd/cYW )

The updates to that earlier post are:

• We'll be leaving at 9 or 10am on Friday from a spot near SDSU. (Earlier than that from Escondido)
  
• I'll have Adventure Passes for two cars. There's one more tight space in Jasmine's truck.
• Here's more on the technomad nature of the trip.
• The forest service says: No open flames. (Portable solar ovens??)
• J & Christine may be returning Sunday PM.
  

We may head to a spot along the PCT north of the 8 and south of S1 in the Laguna Mountains.

Jasmine, Christine, and I met through sdfoodnotlawns.com.

I'll announce other trips at fo-rest.blogspot.com -- so I may not email the sifter list for another three months, if then.

Peace,
Colin

--
http://purl.org/j9k/sig/

BarCamp San Diego 3; The evolving network and whole-system health

Posted at SDTJDPH.

My bike has a new home & I'm headed to Barcamp 3 this weekend in la jolla

My bike has a new home (and is getting some much-needed love and investment):

Hi Colin

I stayed up till 4:30 this morning cleaning the bike. After I adjusted the seat for my height the rack no longer reached. I will most likely put it on later. I am happy with how well the bike cleaned up.

My friend Joe accompanied me as I took the bike on its first ride. Joe rode his Reynolds T-Bone. I brought my camera. We asked a woman pushing a stroller to take our picture along the North Fork Bike trail. When my sons were younger we called this the bicycle super highway. You would be happy to know that it connects the area with a dense Spanish speaking population to the areas of town with restaurants. Many of my Latino brothers use this route to commute by bicycle to work.

I am very pleased with how well the bike rides. I only fell off once (on a tight turn) but otherwise was very comfortable riding it. This afternoon I took the bike to a recumbent bike shop in Van Nuys. They will replace the rims for me and do a tuneup.

Thanks again.
Dave

And I'm catching the trolley & bus to barcamp pretty soon:

https://barcamp.pbwiki.com/BarCampSanDiego

This was from:
http://www.startupsd.net/

There are already a few pc/food-related speakers there, e.g.:
http://jedsundwall.com/2008/05/01/barcamp-san-diego-3/

This is a way of conference organizing I'm very interested in--
this style of organizing, I believe, was behind the permaculture gatherings in the east I loved so much.

If you go to add you name, look for the code at the bottom of the page.

Peace,
Colin