International Rewilding Discussion Forum

Now, I'm also hearing stirs of a primitive skills community right here in NW Arkansas.  At best, when I moved here, I had hoped for someone to kayak or hike with.  Now I might have someone to track and tribe with.

My world is growing, and it is growing wild.

I'm bumping this because this phrase in itself is sort of a synchronicity for me!

My dad's dad left the family when he was 2; there is little knowledge my dad has about half of his family. A few months ago I posted on a geneology forum looking for info on some Youngbloods based on what little I knew. A week ago, I got a response from someone in Texas who gave me some info about his Youngbloods and to make a long story short, it's basically the same family. The same family, which originated and some of them still live in Northwest Arkansas, the Yell county area (what a fitting name place for people of my family too, haha).

I'd been getting increasingly more into the idea of rewilding (and civ collapse preps) in the last couple months but it's difficult to find a whole lot of people into it in Nebraska or Kansas. I have a few friends who are also interested, but none of us have any real experience (I have some herbal knowledge, but that's the gist of it...), and have been considering relocating anyway since KS isn't exactly known for its wildlife. Southern Missouri/North Arkansas have been one of the locations I'd been toying with relocating to for a bit, though, even before getting this tidbit about my family, and only now read this. It's encouraging to know there are people (fairly) nearby already workin' on it, especially in an area I was already considering. A place where my ancestors lived, no less!


Hmph, for someone who writes as a favorite pasttime, I sure do suck at articulation! Did that make sense to anyone?

Yeah yeah! the water cooperating and collaborating and transforming herself into part of the "team" of anything she encounters blows me away.

A few years ago, while trying to understand biodynamic planting schedules (based on the moon and other off-planet events), I discovered the connection between the moon and the "tide" of the water soaking into the kernel of the seeds and bursting out of their shell with the help of the moon's pull--so fantastic. I tried this out--f you watch when you plant seeds, they can often germinate in 2-3 days instead of 3 weeks (hmmm, when the moon starts coming around again. . .)

Wow, that's pretty nifty, I'm definately going to try this over the Spring. I love how every little element works together like clockwork to maintain the cycles of life and death. It's really breathtaking and beautiful to watch!

I have never felt balance or as if I belonged anywhere until I began learning more about the natural world. It has given me the understanding I need for how life works. At least an agreeable idea of how. I don't think anyone can truly know it all. Or should, for that matter!

I went from quite a wrecked state of mind to feeling quite at peace with (most) everything once I began looking toward Nature instead of toward man-made Structure. Instead of wondering "Why?" I don't even bother with wondering; I look for "how." How does the tree get through winter okay? Maybe I can learn a lesson from that, for example.

I think there's something to be said for psychological changes; Supposedly I should be on a psych cocktail, but 5 years later without the drugs I'm more stable than several I know who have never had a diagnosis such as mine, or who are on these same pills.

To me Nature teaches all the valuable life lessons one needs to know and gives one a place of belonging if s/he'll have it; it also cuts back on stress.

that's one of many positivities for me!

Hello. I prefer to give my real last name on the interweb over my first name because it's simply how I roll. So you can call me Youngblood I currently live in my hometown of Omaha, NE and am moving back to my adopted home, Lawrence, KS in May, where I can bike or bus to nature instead of have to rely on someone's car to get there.

I spent 20 years in NE and only 4 in KS, but due to the fact that my dad has bad memories of the 'Nam and my friends in KS adore camping, I'm far more familiar with KS. Despite my dad's aversion to these memories he has agreed to teach me some useful skills, such as trapping, skinning and cooking snake and making bows and arrows from the materials nature provides.

I've decided it's time to get to know the land. I've been interested and studied herbal medicine for years now, but I've never actually gotten out and collected, though I've been wanting to for ages.

While I may have had some disconnect with land-nature (I lived urban and then in a suburb for a spell my whole life), I've always revered and immersed myself in the atmosphere, sky, and weather. I can often tell a storm coming even if  I've been away from windows and inside all day and away from any weather reports. It has a unique charge. The energy isn't anything I can articulate. I've seen a room full of relaxed people get exciteable all at the same time, only for a window-shaking boom of thunder to follow--the first signal of storm. I've also found it absolutely impossible to be depressed during that sort of weather, even in my darkest moments. I told my mother I wanted to be a gypsy when I grew up when I was 8 or 9 but that was only because it's physically impossible to become a cloud...

The first time I felt totally bewitched by a plant was when I looked up and realized a flower was looking down at me once while taking a walk in Lawrence. I saw its shadow on the ground from the streetlight above first. In Omaha you can't grow wildflowers (not even native ones!) so it was a force to be reckoned with. Never before had I seen in person a flower taller than me! It was nearing the end of summer, and the flower was weathered and aged like an old wise woman, I liken it to the mythic Baba Yaga of slavic folklore. Nothing like the picturesque sunflowers that I'd seen in pictures or off the side of the road during a roadtrip. Ever since I've had a deep respect for sunflowers. Hence my chosen alias. To this day, I've wanted to know more and more about all flora and fauna.

yep, that's my story.