The Job Search

            So I said when I started this narcissistic indulgence I call a blog that one of my goals was to find a better job. I believe I gave myself until the end of April to have found on. Well, I've found plenty of jobs between then and now. Unfortunately none have hired me. All the employers are probably trying to figure out the answer to that age old question: what do you do with a BA in English? If someone knows please tell me.

            It's rather unfortunate that I didn't know what I wanted to do until I had graduated. If I had I certainly would have changed majors. Not that many of the classes I had would have done me much good in switching majors. Not outside the basic classes. But that's not important right now.

            I don't have much more to say, but there's where I stand at the moment.

Mile Markers

As Americans, we really like to memorialize things. It certainly seems like if anything of even minimal historical significance happens somewhere or if there's a house or other object that's stood since the 1800's it will end up with a plaque on it sooner or later. Not that that's a bad thing by any means, but sometimes it seems a little strange.

            Here's an example of what I mean. Between Fremont and Rossford, Ohio, along the north side of Rt. 20 is a series of square stone pillars, each one with different number on it. They're fairly easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention. I must have driven that stretch of road dozens of times but I didn't notice them until last weekend. It didn't take long for me to realize they are old mile markers, from before they started marking miles at county lines.

            While I drove I kept an eye out for each one. I was on a long drive with nothing better to do, so why not? Driving West, the numbers on the markers counted down. But when going through Woodville, still watching out for each one, I spotted the sixteen mile marker in front of one of the storefronts downtown. This marker seemed to sprout from the middle of the sidewalk and right next to it on a post all of its own was a plaque. Of course I had to stop.

            The plaque offered as much information about the mile markers as it could I suppose. It certainly offered more than I asked for. I found the whole situation amusing. Just the fact that memorializing a mile marker seems silly, but at the same time it had piqued my interest enough to get me to turn around and stop. What was most surprising was that most of the mile markers were still there. Some had obviously been moved, but were still visible from the road.

            That’s just one example, but it’s one of those things that if you kind of stumble upon. It allows you to learn about things, but at the same time gives you a sense of discovery and exploration. Maybe that’s why we like to memorialize things in this way. People discover something interesting, then share the information in such a way that the rest of us can get that same feeling. 

Making a Few Changes

I've decided that doing one post a week is a bit much for me, especially this week when I've got such a nasty cold. That said, I will be alternating between larger posts and smaller posts each week.

750 plus words is also a bit much, so instead I'm going to strive towards having a much more precise word economy. It should help keep posts much more focused and to the point. Plus it won't look like a massive wall of text.

In other news: IT BEGINS.

A Nation of Wolves

Ever since the unfortunate killing of Echo, the first wolf to been seen in the Grand Canyon, my inbox has been bombarded with emails asking for my support to “save the wolves.” Don't get me wrong, I would love to see wolves return to the US. They can be a driving force of change within an ecosystem. But there needs to be a serious discussion about the problems they cause.

 It’s assumed that when reintroduced, wolves will primarily hunt the other natural wildlife. I'm sure they would take rabbit or deer if they got the chance, but there’s a reason that the wolves numbers are the way they are.

Humans have worked long and hard to ensure there are as few predators as possible that pose a significant threat to livestock. Because of that quite a few people are left scratching their heads as to why we should reintroduce wolves. Suppose we effectively eliminated mosquitoes, what kind of resistance would their reintroduction face? It's really hard to see the positive effects when the downsides are so immediately apparent.

Most issue surrounds livestock. Wolves taking livestock is certainly the biggest hurdle anyways. Wolves do pose a threat to humans but in general they avoid us as much as possible. I won’t claim that they are a non-issue, but unless they are starving it’s unlikely they would attack an adult. But livestock are a different matter. They're the biggest reason why wolves were hunted to the numbers they are at now.

I can understand why most farmers don't want an active wolf population in their backyards. To farmers, reintroducing wolves means introducing a predator that could potentially kill their livestock. Each animal in the herd represents a significant investment of time and money. Losing one of those animals can be a massive loss. It's only natural that farmers would want to protect their investment.

For a reintroduction to be successful, wolf deterrent methods have to involve the farmers in a positive way. When over hunting threatened deer and other favored wildlife, hunters were the ones called upon to support the conservation efforts. Now the license fees they pay comprise the largest chunk of funds.

Electronic deterrent systems, such as lights and even sirens, can be effective. Some of these can even activate when they detect a signal from a wolf's radio collar. If it has a radio collar. Fencing can help stave off wolves, but that alone won't keep wolves from livestock.

The best methods are the ones that have been in place for thousands of years. Shepherds used to watch over their flocks night and day in order to protect them. Large dogs are also a good deterrent. Using these with other deterrents increases the chances that wolves will avoid livestock. These methods are highly effective for both livestock and wolves if defenders.org is to be believed.

But I’m a realist when it comes to getting farmers to agree. Each one of these methods requires an increase in a farmer’s time, money, and effort against a predator that right now does not exist in most places. If wolves are going to be reestablished in the US, farmers will have to help. Or at least see some benefits.

So what good can wolves bring? They would hunt weak and sick animals which creates a healthier ecosystem. With wolves culling those animals there would be less of a risk of disease spreading to livestock like sheep and cattle. And whether you believe that the benefits in this video are real or not, wolves do have at least some effect on the grazing behaviors of deer and elk.

            I would like to see wolves return for all those reasons, but most of all because it would be putting things right. There’s something alluring about that. It’s the same kind of thinking that led to the creation of our national parks. But we have a long way to go before the wolves’ future is certain.

Deadlines Wooshing By

The post for this week is taking a bit longer than I anticipated. I'm having a bit of trouble finding a consistent structure for it, so I'm going to put it off until next week. It's already over 900 words and I don't think I'm close to being done with it.
It's going to need some heavy editing to get it to somewhere manageable.
On the plus side, Woot.com is selling Sawyer mini water filters and it should get here sometime next week. IT'S HAPPENING.
I'm starting to get excited. See you next week.

Taking Stock

Ohio doesn't have much in the way of a true backpacking experience. Most of our state parks only have campsites that have relatively close car access and group everyone close to one another. It's nice if you want to meet other people that share your love of the outdoors, but it can make it difficult if you want solitude. Having campsites with all the basic amenities is nice for families, but it isn't the kind of trip that I want to take. I want to do something more challenging.

The first thing I did to prepare was I took stock of all my gear. Having never actually been on a strictly back packing trip, you can imagine just how under equipped I am.

My current back pack is old. It might be as old as or older than me. It's an old external frame backpack that’s seen a ton of abuse. It has a massive tear in the top compartment. A lot of the straps are broken or been torn off completely. I picked it up at an auction over ten years ago, and since then it's been on most of my camp outs with the Boy scouts. It's pretty clear that I will need a suitable replacement.

I have one of those orange two pole tents, and I know for a fact that it’s older than me. All the waterproofing has gone out of it. The one time I did use it dew soaked almost everything. Most trips I've been on have been with friends and they normally had a family tent or a two person dome tent.

 I've already determined to pick up a Eureka brand solitaire tent. It sleeps one, is lightweight, and has overwhelmingly positive reviews. The only downside is that it doesn't have any space for gear, so I'll have to make sure that whatever back pack I get also has a rain cover.

            My sleeping bag is in good condition but it has no stuff bag. They sell stuff bags on Amazon, but I’m not quite sure of the size. I also have one of those blue foam mats for a floor barrier, so no issue there. I don't think it would be worth it to look into some kind of bag for that too, but it might be nice to have one.

My current mess kit is an old aluminum one and it's high time that it gets retired for something a bit more sturdy and compact. I also need a portable camp stove. I wrestled back and forth for a while between a white gas or a butane/propane stove, but the efficiency and low effort of a compressed gas stove finally won out. White gas won't heat food as fast and also requires pumping and priming. Since the only downsides to a canister stove is potential failure in the cold and the inability to determine exactly how much fuel is left, the choice was obvious.

I have a good flashlight, It's a tiny little Smith and Wesson LED light. It's pretty lightweight and it can poke a beam out there a pretty good distance. Still, I've heard that it's a good idea to have a headlamp for situations where I need both hands. Like if I needed to setup my tent after dark, or even just for cooking in the dark.

From previous experience, it’s generally a good idea to have some kind of lightweight rope or cord, because you never know when you'll need it.

I plan to pick up a personal first aid kit. I'm the kind of guy that could make do with some Kleenex and duct tape, but out in the middle of the woods I would rather not improvise that kind of thing.

I have good enough pocket knives, but I could certainly do with a better multi-tool.

Then there's the toilet situation. There aren’t that many restrooms out in the middle of the woods so I'll need a small trowel to dig a cat hole and plastic bags to carry soiled toilet paper out. Gross. Speaking of which, I wonder if they make TP just for hikers.

I'm not sure what to do about food yet. Pasta seems to be the favorite when it comes to back packing meals. Pasta and peanut butter. Hell, I could do an entire post on just food. At some point I probably will. I haven't quite figured out what to do about the water situation just yet either. To take the trip I want to, I will need some method of filtering water. Water will probably be the heaviest thing I have to carry, so finding ways to minimize that weight would be great.

I’ve been putting some money aside each week to afford all the new gear I need. Now the biggest challenge I’m facing is getting to an actual store to do some shopping. Sometime in April or May I want to have a short weekend trip to test out new gear. It's important to familiarize myself with new gear and identify potential problems.

            That seems like enough for a good start. It’s exciting to have a project to work on and the prospect of being able to get away from everything is refreshing. Next week I’ll be working out the budget and logistics of getting to where I want to go.

Strange Madness

          Hello and welcome to By the Pine. I am Wodewose; poet, philosopher, pretentious loser, nature enthusiast. This is my own attempt to get out of the house and start doing something semi-productive again. Playing videogames and watching Netflix is fine, but when it became routine to spend almost a quarter of my day doing nothing else I felt it was high time to re-evaluate my priorities. It's not exactly the healthiest of lifestyles. Anywho, I had to get out of my room and back into the habit of writing (Have to put that English degree to use somehow). So now I sit in a coffee shop and write. I’m just one MacBook away from being that guy. Before you know it I’ll be wearing a scarf and skinny jeans while adjusting my black rimmed glasses with condescension. Welcome to By the Pine, an ongoing effort to get out and get better.

            My intention for By the Pine is to produce a post once a week about anything related to the outdoors and to document the planning and preparation for a backpacking trip I want to take sometime this October. To accomplish this I've set for myself a few lofty goals:

            - By the end of March I need to have a better job. The two part time jobs I have right now are doing their best to kill me. Spam and ramen can only keep you alive for so long before you start to die inside. My bowels aren't giving me any thanks either. Second and third shift hours suck pretty hard and it’s really begun to eat away at me. Having waking hours from 1:00 pm to 6:00 am tends to turn you into a soulless husk cut into other aspects of your life.

            - I need to start writing on a schedule again at least five days a week. I know that if I don't take this seriously I'll just fall back into Netflix mode. I also want to be writing around 750 edited words a week. That is a bit subjective, but I really want to try and stick to that. I eventually want do more, but considering my current schedule this seems entirely reasonable. Creative writing may happen sometimes, but I doubt any of that will end up here.

            - As I said before, I want to plan and execute a backpacking trip for sometime this fall. Ideally, the trip would be in October to avoid crowds, give me time to plan properly, and mostly just because I love autumn. I have an idea of where I want to go and for how long, but I already have a few other ideas if for some reason the first option falls through. I want to be able to go somewhere outside of Ohio. Not that there’s anything wrong with Ohio, it’s just well, you know, Ohio. We don’t have that much going on.

            - Criticism. I've never really been the best at handling criticism. Part of me right now is screaming “IF I DON’T POST IT THEY WON’T KNOW HOW DUMB I AM!” It would take me a week to get into the right mindset to read critiques from my professors and peers (verbal criticism I’m strangely okay with). Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad, but at times it felt like it. I'm hoping that by opening myself to the deluge of critics that is the internet I can break down that mental barrier. I have to develop that thick skin sooner or later and since sooner has long since passed, later will have to do. Please, don’t be a major douche canoe.

            - I want to have most posts planned in advance and get a good backlog going. This will help get me into the routine and stay on track. It should also allow me to do adequate quality control and editing. Should.

            Now that I've bored you enough with my own shortcomings, I'll see you next week where I'll go into more detail about my preparation for my backpacking trip. Until then here's a quote one of my roommates put on our whiteboard:

"Rejection just means you're pushing the upper limits of what's possible. Unfortunately, some people have extraordinarily low upper limits."

-          Anonymous