Inevitably those-who-rewild will find themselves attacked as hypocrites by those who don’t understand rewilding: “If you hate civilization so much, why don’t you go live in the woods?” “You hate technology, but there you sit waiting for people to comment on your latest facebook status update.” “You want to live like a hunter-gatherer but you buy all your food at the grocery store!” “You talk shit on mainstream media, but you watch television!” And on, and on and on.

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This week I decided to go back to the basics of Urban Scout, remind myself why and where I came from and do some performance art! So I camo’d up, grabbed my trusty bow-drill and headed out to the Last Thursday event on Alberta Street.

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Adam from Radio Active Lunch interview me a few weeks back about my book. I really enjoyed the conversation. Thanks Adam!

Listen here.

Rats have invaded our compost bin. They have chewed holes through the plastic and have a network of tunnels that now spread beyond the compost. I don’t really mind much. It seems that the Squirrel likes the rat hole, because while it can’t fit through it entirely, it can pull out scraps or eat the bugs attracted to the pile. The cat used to catch lots of mice before the rats moved in, and rats have a strength too great for most domestic cats. At times the rat, the squirrel and the cat have all hung out in the backyard together like they all decided to have an accord of neutrality. It looks so cute to see them all sitting there curiously looking at each other!

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I moved back to Portland some time ago now. I don’t really like living in Portland, but all of my friends live here, and all the cultural rewilding opportunities happen here, blah blah blah you’ve heard it all before. Lately, I really feel the weight of toxicity in the city (perhaps all those wi-fi signals have finally got to my brain!?) and don’t want to stay here much longer. I keep telling myself, “just a little longer”. I plan to eventually move back to Molalla, or at least out to the woods somewhere near Portland. I want to find land out there to live on or perhaps just travel around the cascades in a gypsy wagon. But alas, for now I must work and toil in the confines of urban civilization.

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This year I’ve really felt inspired to work on baskets. The key to building fluency with any skill starts with a good “setup”. Aside from having the materials to make a basket, you need a soaking pool to make them soft and moveable again after drying. Since I don’t live near a natural body of water, I built this soaking-pool in my backyard with old pallets that I pulled apart, a few screws, my screw gun/drill and a big tarp. It doubles as a mosquito incubation chamber. Fun!

I came across these two cool blogs this week.

Paleotool

The Oko Box

After a year long experiment with a new rewild.info, I have decided to bring back the old rewild.info with a few new changes that you probably won’t notice. I did a little reorganizing and changed the banner. That’s pretty much it. It feels kind of weird, like finding an old favorite article of clothing that you forgot you had. Does it still fit? Am I still the same person? Can I integrate it back into my life? Can we move forward in a new way? I sure hope so. Thanks to all who had the patience to try out the new forum. And thanks for all the voices who pushed the old one to make its comeback. Check it out here:

www.rewild.info

Dear Internet,

I think it’s time for me to have a wikipedia entry, no? Please make it so.

Thanks,

Urban Scout

Doug from Diet Soap interviewed me last week for a podcast. Check it out:
Diet Soap Podcast Supplement: Ideology and Nature

Great review of my book by Keith Farnish on CultureChange.org. Thanks Keith!