Greetings from the wild side! Just some quick thoughts to keep y’all posted on how goes it in project “Livin’ Wild, Livin’ Free.” In a word: busy busy busy. You’d think it’d be just the opposite going from a civilized life to a relatively “primitive” one but despite its incessant demand for increased labor, market-based [...]
Nature: 4, Rostenko: Big Fat 0. Well, one batch of snow melted, the ground dried, and then the rain started. So I put things off another day or two and then decided “Screw it, rain or shine, this project starts tomorrow.” Tomorrow was yet another day in a trend of moisture that just doesn’t happen [...]
Hey remember me? I’m the guy who was gonna’ start up that big “living outside” project on the first of May. I’ve neglected the blog for the past month due in large part to a near fatal flare-up of procrastinitis as well as half-hearted efforts to tie up loose ends, get prepared, etc. Turns out [...]
I’m not ready to lay out the details of this mysterious “project” I keep alluding to, primarily because I haven’t worked them out yet. But here’s the basic core of it so that we have a context for understanding what the heck I’m prattling on about: I’m gonna’ be living outside, livin’ wild, livin’ dirty, [...]
i wonder if trees delight of the wind’s caress… their limbs, their flesh liberated for moments in the breeze, dreams of locomotion fulfilled. do they thrill of dance, arms stretched, trunks swaying forth and back? vigilant stillness, now gifted by the wind: a moment to connect, to touch a brother near.
So… about my getting away from civilization… let’s clarify a few points and define some terms as, judging from comments and inquiries I’ve heard since, my last post generated some dubious assumptions and presumptions. What say we generate a few more, shall we? First off, let’s tackle the primary source of misunderstanding by defining the [...]
Not quite autumn, not quite summer, the high-desert flows in perpetual flux. No longer a stranger here, I’ve come to know this place; I feel its pulse beneath my feet, I hear its breath at night. The subtleties are more prominent now, the unnamed and unnoticed: the spaces between the leaves, the silence between the [...]
I remember my first hike far into the Rockies fourteen years ago, lugging a 45-pound backpack full of mostly nothing I really needed. I’d seen the commercials, read the slick, glossy magazines, done my research: the most direct route to fulfilling outdoor adventure was from the bank to the gear shop. Subtly, even diabolically, the [...]
I like to go out “stalking” for a couple hours in the evening… in pursuit of nothing in particular, just moving slowly and quietly through the woods, approaching as closely as possible any wildlife blessing my awareness. The other night a cottontail resting under a bushy juniper caught my eye, but not before I caught [...]
If you will stay close to nature, to its simplicity, to the small things hardly noticeable, those things can unexpectedly become great and immeasurable. — Rainer Maria Rilke I’ve always known there are coyotes out here although I’ve never heard so much as a yip out of ‘em. Maybe it’s the topography; my cabin rests [...]
