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Published: March 18th 2008
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Phoenix Tattoo
This tattoo was done by Evil Dave at Incision Tattoo in Glendale, AZ I flew home in February to attend the Winter Count primitive skills conference in Maricopa, Arizona. I had an amazing time, sleeping in my tent in a warm Arizona winter, 65 degrees is heaven compared to the average at work of 20 degrees during the day.
I had a few co-workers to keep me company at Winter Count, but I wouldn't have been lonely had they not been there. Everyone at Winter Count was very friendly. Friendly and usually a bit eccentric in one way or another. There are people like me, Wilderness Instructors, from various programs around the West. Anthropologists who are interested in how ancient man hunted, ate, slept, made/used tools, etc. The doom and gloom crowd who thinks moderns civilization is going to end and know they want to be able to survive. Straight up survivalists who live off the grid completely. And anyone else who wants to be close to the land. Everyone was respectful and it was a great little village of people to live in for a week. I'll definitely be going to Wintercoun and Rabbitstick (something similar in September) every year I can make it.
Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I
don't have any pictures.
While I was there I made a bow, learned to make arrows, flintknapp obsidian to make arrow heads, I made a mask and put native art on it, made a knife sheath out of cat-tail reed, made a knife, made cat-tail sun visor, learned a little about Escrima (a philipino stick fighting style), bought a drum, and had a thousand interesting conversations with down to earth people.
Ugh..I was just typing more and the website went down! Eh...
So...I stayed at home about a week after WC and just hung out with friends and saw family. Oh yeah....and I got another tattoo. I got the symbol for the City of Phoenix, but had Evil Dave at Incision make it cool. Dave is an amazing artist and I gave him full latitude to do what he wanted. I think it came out great. As usual, while I was sitting on the table I just kept thinking about what other tattoos I want. I've got a list of a few rolling around my head.
Once to work the first week was pretty average, no great breakthroughs or blowups. The second week I had two
kids run on three separate occasions. The first ran with only one shoe on due to an ace bandage he had on (from a faked ankle injury earlier in the day) that prevented him from putting his boot on. We didn't notice he was missing for about 45 minutes but I was on his trail! I ran after that kid for about two miles. I was relieved by Ben who continued on the tracks while I spotted with Dennis on a quad. We eventually found him another two miles further just before dark. His foot was pretty torn up from not having a boot on. The arch was completely raw along with the bottoms of his toes on the same foot. It was pretty gruesome. But he was back in the group the same night.
The next day we hiked 2.5 miles and he kept up ok. In the afternoon he tried to walk away, but we saw him and I followed. We walked a couple miles, but between his field sup (therapist) over the radio and I we got him to turn around to read a letter his parents sent him about remaining at the program where I
work. Many kids realize it's hopeless to run home if their parents want them there and that's what happened with this kid. After that day he's been much more commited to he program.
I almost forgot to mention! The snow is melting. While I was there we were able to sleep outside the second week and there were runoff creeks all over the lowlands. Hiking wasn't too muddy, but it's getting pretty soupy out there in the lowlands. We hiked 2.5 miles with packs and the students carried group gear for the first time (previously they had been dragging it around on a sled). Alot of them struggled because they've only pulled it and didn't know carrying was an option. Hopefulyy this three weeks I have off will allow all the snow to melt and dry out a bit before I get back.
I had a student on my trip in February and then again in March. I had a lot in common with him...past times and troubles. It was really great to be able to have so many talks with a student who knew I knew what I was talking about. It creates such a rapport. He should be graduating while I'm off and I'm going to head back to base to watch him graduate and meet his family.
For this time off (I have three weeks off) I'm just hanging out in Boise. I want to keep it low-key and just get a few things done. I want to get in as much Aikido as I can. My Sensei has been on vacation but comes back in a couple days. I've had several other instructors interested in trying Aikido, so I think we're going to get some instructor only classes going.
I'm also working on a website for a friend who I work with. I punched out the basics of the website in about two days. I've been feeling much more creative lately. I have two ideas for books rolling around in my head. I've been writing down ideas, still brainstorming, but they're coming. Plus the other day I went to Tandy Leather and bought about $175 worth of leather and tools. I am going to make two leather sheaths for my knives, a leather "possibles"bag to carry food/gear at work, and a leather skills bag to carry my fire-making kit and trap stuff for work.
I've been hanging out with a bunch of co-workers and have seen JW and the Billygoats play a couple times. In the picture, Jonathan Warren is playing the harmonica, with Ty on the steel guitar (another instructor), Billy on the upright bass, and Jay playing drums (not pictured).
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