Another Angle

Another Angle

there are many reasons to save the planet, to be an activist. One of those reasons is Archaeology. Another is Medicine.

I will look at both today and share a story  about something that happened to me that has to do with Archaeology.

So, what is archaeology? it is the study of the human past, long dead people cultures. Why do we study it? An innate curiosity inside of us to know what we are really capable of. 

In urban and suburban development lots of possible finds are destroyed, acid rain melts others, earthquakes from human sources tsunamis to, exposure to air or to water can damage some. we cause so much damage intentionally, take the destruction of the museums in syria for example, and even more unintentionally.

Okay now that we know what archaeology is and what it is about, and why we do it, and whats threatening it, lets study medicine.

We all know what medicine is and why we  do it, trying to help out ourselves and our pets, why should we save the planet simply for medicine?

Because most medicine is derived from natural sources such as the Amazon which by the way is being chopped down according to one source  at a rate of 50 acres per minute, another says 120 football fields per minute and one says only 1 acre per minute.

As we destroy the rain forests we kill off the shamans, medicine people and healers, we destroy some of the only people who know how to use the plants, and know which one to use.

A few months ago I was going down the brook near my house with my sisters, in hope that we would find something like we had the day before, when we had found a Keystone fireworks card that I have to this day. We found something a bit more interesting, I found a totally rusted horseshoe, so rusted that I thought it was a rock at first. I have had it in a vinegar  the entire time until today when I took it out and it was easily recognizable as a horseshoe,  barely had any rust on it at all.

Do we want the children of the next generation to never be ever to find anything, be Archaeologists, Or scientists studying the native peoples incredibly complex compounds?

I Do. How about you? 

A cool toy to make from a wooden clothespin

I just found out a Neat toy to make out of a clothespin so I thought I would make this post. 

Things You Will Need

1. Wood Glue

2. Wooden Clothespin

3. Exacto Knife

4. Marker

We all hate this one but lets be safe okay? 5. An Adult

The clothespin has to be a wooden one or else it won't be build able. First, You remove the spring by sliding the clothespin pieces in opposite directions. Save the spring.  Next use a marker and make a little mark about half an inch back from the hole formed when the to pieces are put flat parts together, only put the mark on one piece. Then make an angled mark on the bottom piece pointing forward along the clothespin, make the mark were the little dome like area on the clothespin is. Next open the clothespin and on the bottom piece going back all the way from the notch in the clothespin along the flat in the very center mark an absolutely straight line using a ruler that goes all the way back and off the clothespin piece. Make sure that it is wide enough  that a wooden  match  could slip through easily. Take the top and  repeat only this  time, color in a half inch area going back from the hole following a colored in line. then on the straight and angled areas,where we already made small marks on the clothespin an mark the other sides at exactly the same spot then draw a ruler straight line connecting them.

This is the second part of the process.

Cut out the marks  on the sides following the straight line connecting them and  the long straight marks on each piece so that together they will have enough room to allow the match to slide easily through. Then cut out the flat half inch piece on top so it is flush with the straight barrel portion of the piece. once you have cut out all the marked areas, put the clothespin together on the flat pieces and try sliding a match through the barrel. Adjust if necessary. then put a drop of wood glue on a sheet of paper  and apply evenly to the to pieces so that the barrel is formed. Let the modified clothespin dry for 10 minutes then put the spring on so that on arm of the spring is in the dome that has been modified into a notch and the other is on the barrel of the  clothespin pistol so that when a match is pushed through the barrel it ends up pushing the spring back until it end up in the notch at the back of the barrel and then pull on the spring so it exits the notch and hits the back of the match with a lot of force sending it twenty feet or so.

Spreading The Word

So, You have been hearing all this stuff about saving the planet but then realize, I can do all I want to help the  planet, but I cannot save it by myself, I need to involve other people in the work as well.
How do we involve others in the work of the current crises on the planet?                                                         We spread the word. The key is to get people just angry enough to do something, but not something rash, like eco terrorism. Ideally we would want them to go on rallies, hold sign, and sit in trees, not DAMAGE  PROPERTY wether public, state, federal, corporate or private.

There is this documentary on youtube called If A Tree Falls that is really good. Although I would rate it at least 11 and up as it was a bit intense even for me, it is about the ELF Earth Liberation Front and what it did, and what happend to some of the members after the gang was broken.

Who we need most is networkers to spread the word through blogs and websites, and as many other means as possible.
in every day life it is also possible to spread the word through things like Email Twitter and Facebook.  

Remember, the more people spreading the word the better, even if you don't like them, they could be incredible at something to help the environment.

Eco-Living: the second step

Well, at the start of this blog I wrote "Eco-Living: the first step" So now I am going to write its sequel.

The path that is followed for  living ecologically is a straight and narrow one. You don't just live in quaint  little houses and be a bit, well weird. you actually do stuff, and, by the way, your weirdness level is totally up to you!

The truth is,you can live however you want and incorporate healthy things such as:

Eating less or no meat.

Buying organically grown veggies.

Donating and/or joining good causes.

Protecting natural areas.

Keeping your land clean and healthy.

Doing all sorts of humanitarian things.

Camping.

These are all good and healthy things that you could do all on your own, and in some cases, helpful to those around and far away from you.

The reason that this blog was started after all, was to give out ideas and raise environmental awareness for everyone. 

Things You can Do

There are many smart things that you can do to reduce your own carbon footprint. Here are some good ones:


1. Stop eating cow, I mean in 2006, there was at least 2 studies done that said that rearing cattle caused                       more greenhouse gasses than cars. Plus, lamb tastes  better.

2. Carpool whenever possible, why not spend a little extra time if it helps the environment?

3. If the heating doesn't  really need to be on, then don't have it on and vise versa (for AC as well).

Do some of these as well as other things just to be good to the earth.

What is Saving the Environment Really About?

Today's post gives us a vital question: "What is all the work that we put into the environment really for?"

I mean, we spend so much time on spreading the word. Reducing our carbon footprint, donating to environmental fundraisers. I believe that we do it for multiple reasons.


We do it because we care, because we love the beautiful outdoors.
Who wants in a few decades to be faced with the responsibility of having to admit to the children of tomorrow that the reason that they cannot go outside is because we didn't try hard enough to save the planet from looking like this?:

That is why we do all this work to protect the planet, it's population, and all that reside here.

So, I ask you all to join me in its protection, and our own.

What are your ideas?

I have been given you lots of different things about the outdoors, but I would also immensely enjoy hearing your own ideas. Please give me lots of ideas, and the ones that I think would do the most good and/or be the most popular will be published in a post later on.

I will also set up a post solely for making votes on which ideas to use and which not to.

Why Fast Food restraunts are bad

We all know that fast food restraunts are bad, but do we know why?

Well, for instance, we now that the stuff that is in sausages and hot dogs are bad, but why? well there is all the bad stuff in them, the intestines, the butt of, as with most hot dogs and sausages, a pig. Gross right? there is a hole lot of that and stuff thats worse.

Guess what is in a chicken nugget? The hole chicken, and I mean everything all of it is just  ground together into something called pink slime, it is crawling with bacteria, so they wash it with ammonia and then it tastes and smells absolutely horrid. So they flavor it and disguise its smell and all that so that it is presentable.

And of course, the Hamburger. It is only 2%-14% meat normally, and the rest is all the bad stuff, the cartilage and the rest.

That is why you should cook at home and not go to a restraunt.

After you have established your shelter...

Once you have constructed your shelter, some things that may prove to be vital are:

A Bow, to be explained later.

Fishhooks.

And a hole lot more!!!




Okay, what is it with fishhooks? I can't smelt metal and make fishhooks! Your right. You can't make metal fishhooks, but, you can make them many different ways and types. One easy way is: find a thorny plant that has small to medium sized thorns. Cut of a piece and take it back to your camp. Then cut off a section of it with a stem and single thorn, make sure that the barb's sharp tip is pointing up the stem. than fix your string to the stem in the most effective way that you can do, (I say it this way because the way you do depends on who you are)  you now have your fishing hook. I would advise you to make more than one at a time as you may lose one or to and it would be no fun to return empty handed.

There are many different ways and styles of making bows and I cannot explain them all, but I will tell a simple one:
first select a piece of supple wood and mark out where your hand will go. Next, hack down to arms to about halfway down. Then taper the ends and remove the rest of the bark. Then, carve the notches for the string to be looped onto and attach the string and you are done.


TO MAKE ARROWS...

by this point, you have made your bow, but have no arrows for hunting with.

To make arrows, you need to simply find some big feathers and a few straight sticks. slice the feathers in half with a knife and trim them into triangles. Then,  tie them to the arrow leaving at least half an inch at the back. Then sharpen the tip and put a notch in the bak and it in ready.

Outdoor Survival

Have you ever wondered what it would be like instead of going camping in a tent and cabin to actually rough it?

To only take matches or even better a flint and steel? String, you will need string. And dental floss? Dental floss is perfect, use it as string and then cover your oral hygiene after eating the fish that you caught with it.

Here are some things that I would make sure to do:

The big three in survival=food, water, shelter

The rule of thumb is that you can survive for three weeks without food, while only three days without water. So make water your priority.

You will need shelter to rough the elements. There are many different styles of constructing or finding shelters. Here are some of the best:

1. Find a nature shelter. Go for the cave. But sing while you enter it so you won't surprise a large four-legged friend.

2. Lean-to is a good and easy one to make, but not as awesome as the former.

3. I really do enjoy building small forts outside, and I've been trying to get to the point I can build a treehouse fort on a survival show. That fort would be the way to go if you happened to have the supplies. So if you are carrying power chord around with you or a lot of fishing line you could make a go at it.

4. Then there is a debris structure. This one makes you feel like you are really safe and living like a furred one.

5. And Just because my mom is crazy about geodesic domes, I have to include this one for those wilderness junkies like myself who would like some architectural flair in their survival zone.

These photos are really good structural examples for survival. My tow favorite are the geodesic and the treehouse.

And just to mention something on survival. Sometimes people think we need to save ourselves from the wolves or the wildfires when we are out in nature. For me survival is escaping from the crazy boo hoo of modernized life. These places are ways to escape the craziness of requirements and no bird song. Happy building.

Outdoor Resources

My mom recently bought me a book called the Trapper's Bible. It has a lot of traps including my favorite, the no kill deer trap. The same principle can be used for moose, elk, reindeer, and fox.

It has cool survival traps that can be triggered without you being there to shoot. And many other traps.

I, myself, am not interested in traps that kill things, but I think it is really cool to make traps that don't kill things.

That is why I have recently bought a no kill mouse trap. My mom is really environmentally friendly, but I had to convince her on the no kill traps for the mice running around the kitchen.

It never caught anything, but very shortly after we set it up we never saw mice again.

The Earth's Cycle

We are all used to the constant, unending cycle  of the earth: Spring, Summer, Fall and of course, my favorite, Winter.

We all know what happens in spring:

the flowers bloom, deer get their antlers back, bigger than the ones they had the year before. Happiness all around. Summer. Hot.

Perfect time for the pool, time to go camping. all that fun stuff. Fall.

Well, the leaves fall making the fertilizer for the next year with their decomposition that will help heal the earth and help the plant and animal growth. Winter.

 The snow comes in much of the upper and lower parts of the planet, the earth rests and the cycle begins anew again.

Did you catch that part about leaves decomposing and leaving fertilizer for the next year (totally free fertilizer! and you don't even have to have it shipped in)?

I mean, isn't that a much better scenario than having people come and paying them a lot of money to blow the leaves off and then getting them to douse some grass green in a bottle to make your lawn look healthy, although it is not healthy.

You aren't even allowed to go and play in it, it is so not healthy.

Now, if you add it all up. It is a huge number. With all of the people having their lawns blown, all of the CO2 produced by those leaf blowers. And then all of the people who are working this back breaking job and getting menial pay. They could be planting trees instead, planting gardens, growing vegetables in greenhouses for the long cozy winter. They could be collecting acorns for pancakes or collecting seeds from all of the pods instead of walking around blowing those leaves.

I think this is a better idea. Here are some images about the decomposition cycle of leaves.

You see those mushrooms? Don't pick them and eat them, but they are literally a form of fungi. They, like worms, digest and eat the leaves and broken limbs. Once it is all eaten then disappear and so has all of the dead leaves. Think of it. If leaves didn't disappear on their own all of our wild forest lands would have 5,000 feet of leaves. But all they have is barely last year's cover. No green grass douse. Just leaves.

Great business operation.

Instead of paying money to the leaf blowers this year, spend it on seedlings and starting gardens. It might not be good for 3-4 months, but in a year or two you will be getting a good deal of your food from your garden. AND the leaves that fall from these trees will make your grass beautiful naturally.

This is my favorite nursery to order trees from. They are incredible, and have a giant variety of edible landscape options. Why just plant a tree when you can plant a tree that makes you dinner?

Oikos Tree Crops!

Fun things to do outside

I myself love spending time outside, and some fun things that I enjoy are:

Camping. This is a great family thing to do, but, it can be done alone as well.

Setting and Building Traps. ever wondered what fun it would be to catch pets? this is a great way to do it.

Playing. There are many different things that are enjoyable in the Great Outdoors.

Building Bows. and other original weapons.

Even if you are not a camper, or the idea of spending time on traps just doesn't appeal to you you, there is something in this world that will, I have not put down even a speck of sand in comparison to all that there is to do outside and encourage you to be creative and enjoy your time outside. I hope that the Great Outdoors is as as appealing to you as it is to me, and that you enjoyment of it never ends.

Sound Pollution

We've all sat in our cars blasting music as along as we can, never thinking about the sort of consequences that can be caused to the environment.

Imagine that you are in your car sitting in a woodland setting. Your windows rolled down to let in the cool breeze, blasting music. So what happens there?

For one, you scare away the squirrels from gathering food. The birds will fly the un-coop. The deer will take another path. All in all, you are driving away insects, animals, changing the biosphere.

But none of this is really what I want to talk about, because I like to play the radio loud too, sometimes that is.

Have you ever heard that sharp, piercing squeal? I have. That is what some types of tech will sometimes do, if that hurts us, then imagine what that would do to animals with more sensitive hearing,  I like my tech, how about you? lets find out just what causes that and how to fix that together. 

Things to do that are especially helpful in your area

Volunteer for cleaning up the parks and for tree planting

Engage in environmentally supportive conversations with friends. Say things that you see need to happen in your own community that would make the area a healthier, more beautiful, and happier place to live

Do what you talked about in those conversations

Change the laws through local action that are undermining a healthy place to live

Protect the areas that are already beautiful (you may have to look for them as they are around you every day you may not realize how incredible they are) such as guarding woodlands from logging, littering, or other means of injuring its beauty. Yesterday, for example, I was out with a friend and we were playing in a spot by a stream that we go to often. We forgot to take our water bottles in. Today I will fix that and take a bag along with me to grab any other trash. The rain has been coming down and so I might get some trash that flows to us from upstream.