Finding Friends in Frontiersmen

It's been another busy month since my last post! September 10th I helped with the "Outhouse Ride," a combined event for the Friends of Green River Lake and the Back Country Horsemen. Following that I took a stroll through the Harvest Festival at Homeplace just a couple of miles from my house.  It was there that I met Ken Hill, former police officer and current Executive Director for the Kentucky Board of Auctioneers...at least, that's what he does for "work". For "play" he likes to dress up as a Long Hunter re-enactor from the late 1700's, a period otherwise known as "The Westward Expansion"! Ken was so engaging with his "Plum Granny" melons and his, intent, grey-green eyes peering over his period wire-rimmed spectacles, that I was compelled to sit for a while, and hear more about his experiences along with his 12-year-old son Jake as a members of the "Wilderness Road Primitive Riflemen".

That encounter led me to realize the potential benefit of getting involved with this group myself. Although about 200+ years more recent on the timeline from pre-contact Native Americans, there's still a great emphasis on learning hands-on skills in both textile/clothing/accessory manufacture, hunting and trapping, as well as iron and metal work. Furthermore, there's still a place for understanding wild edible plants and medicinals, as well as knowing how to find or create shelter and fire in the woods. In other words, there's a strong emphasis on self-sufficiency.

Ken Hill center with friends before the "Siege of Ft. Boonesboro".

Consequently, as I continue to develop my primitive survival skills, I am also pursuing more in depth historical research for my local area of Kentucky. Although there were not many Native Americans who lived here over long periods, many tribes - Shawnee, Cherokee, Iroquois, etc., - did travel here to hunt, and were also involved on one side or the other of several wars and battles in the region along with the French, British, and Frontiersmen. As most are aware, things did not go well for the Native Americans across this continent, and much of their culture was lost. We are actually lucky to have access to knowledge of their primitive skills through places like Tom Brown Jr's Tracker School and other primitive survival schools that are growing throughout the country.

From my point of view, the accuracy and authenticity expected of re-enactors, at least the one's I've met so far in this group, lends itself to thorough research and respect for the various characters that people choose to portray. I already have it in mind that my character will be Native American, even though I can't claim any blood association. It is my intention to "do my homework"well so that I can embody such a character as accurately and respectfully as possible. And, again, it gives me that much more motivation to develop my knowledge of primitive skills within a much broader historical and geographical context.

Finally, as I am perusing library shelves and gathering resources, I have noted that there does not seem to be a single book that "covers all the bases", so to speak. As a "newbie" I have the perfect perspective to compile such a book by simply documenting my own learning along the way. I expect this to take quite some time, but then, I just set-up my "Six Year Calendar" so I can plan...at least that far out if I want to!

Apart from that though, I can feel this endeavor - becoming thoroughly knowledgeable about local history and geography, as well as mastering primitive skills - could take up a considerable part of the rest of my life, maybe even all of it...and I'm okay with that. There is so much to learn and as neuroscientists are teaching us - learning new skills as we age is key to keeping our brains healthy as well as our bodies. So I have so many new things to look forward to learning now, and I am very excited about that!

Which brings me to the "Reader Challenge" for this New Moon: Look into your local area and see if there are any re-enactment groups that you can associate with and learn from. This "Westward Expansion" period - mid to late 18th century - was a very dynamic time in the history of our country. You might find listening to this lecture by Gordon S. Wood to be enlightening as well. (Skip the intro and start at 18:16.) It really speaks to the unique circumstances that surrounded our Founding Fathers as they created our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

So until the next New Moon...Happy Hunting!

Learning More About Wild Edible Plants

The weather continues to be hot and humid here in Campbellsville, Kentucky. There's been plenty of rain so the trees and grass are all green and thick, but the humidity has definitely been a bit of a deterrent from going outdoors much. Nevertheless, I did take one day to explore a couple of the trails around Green River Lake. I started from the marina at the southern end of the park and hiked the Cabin and Lodge Trails looping from and back to the Marina-Main Trail.

Because of the rain, it made for frequent muddy spots - but that also meant an opportunity to find well-made tracks like these from a raccoon.

I hope to hike all of the currently mapped trails as time goes by with the commitment to learn everything I can from my immediate environment before branching out into other territories.

For those of you who are interested, there's a new place to get topo maps that can be printed on standard 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper. I took advantage of the site the other day to print maps for my local area. The site is run by National Geographic and you can find it here. I was able to roughly match the park map with one of the quads from the NatGeo website.

In addition to continuing to familiarize myself with the local area, I've also been reading another book, Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate, by John Kallas, PhD.

I really appreciate the level of detail that the author goes into for each plant he describes. He is true to the title in that he gives pictures for the smallest seedlings to fully mature plants, as well as best gathering and preparing methods.  As a consequence of studying this material, I have come to appreciate how important it is to know when to find plants as well as where in order to harvest the best quality.

Thus far, I'm still harvesting most of my "wild greens" from the patch of Lamb's Quarters that I have cultivated under the bird feeders.

Hopefully, as more species put on fruits this fall, I'll be able to find them as well, that is ... once the weather cools down a bit to make "hunting and gathering" a little more enjoyable!

So if you're up for this New Moon Challenge - I encourage you to either find some wild edible resources at your local library to read and/or find one or more of the plants described in your local environment. Feel free to share your experiences in a comment below.

Otherwise, wherever you are, enjoy what the Natural World has to offer!

And Until Next Time...

Happy Trails!