Tracker of Plants

Beat it Brad Pitt, Scout and I are back together. Thanks to everyone who offered their condolences. He was just having a poseur-hipster-douchebag moment…kidding, darling, kidding. I really am getting my own trailer though. Anybody got a place I can park it? Or a truck to move it?

I’ve been here since July 17th. Eight weeks now! Some people have asked what my everyday life is like? Well, it’s different from week to week. I guess I never really mentioned that Scout and I moved out of his apartment and onto the mean streets. Okay, actually we live in Willem’s backyard. Okay, actually we mostly hang out inside his house. We spent about one week moving out of the old house and distributing our junk…storage is a huge problem right now. Then we’ve spent the last week prepping for Rabbitstick (a giant primtive skills gathering in Idaho) by perfecting our buckskin short shorts, tuning up the car, etc. In between? Who knows. I’ve been swimming at the river with Lisa, camping with Meghan, hot springing with Urban Scout, out to kids camps with Tony, gathering with Christy, and picking blueberries at Ernie and Erica’s to name a few. Throw in blogging, a movie here or there, naps, grocery shopping, walks, and that’s my life.

a few hour’s harvest

Cutie McCuddlepants picking blueberries

I suppose I’m ready to admit that I’ve moved to Oregon…and that I’m in love, but I don’t see myself staying in Portland forever. I still hate it. I want out. I want a place to live and grow roots. I feel so fucking ungrounded right now. I have zero sense of place. I hate driving in the city. I follow Urban Scout everywhere and never have to look at a map to figure out where I am going, so it’s taken me forever to get a good understanding of where things are. Basically I can make it to a grocery store and taco joint, and a couple of our friend’s houses. I could probably find my way to the archery range after a few wrong turns.

But this isn’t just a matter of being able to navigate. Back in Pennsylvania I prided myself on my exceptional knowledge of place. I know where secret bat caves in the forest are, and the locations of at least two dozen rock outcroppings. I know of bogs full of cranberries and the rare creeping snowberry, swamps full of highbush blueberries and mad dog skullcap. I know this tree where on a bike ride when I was ten my dad found a chicken mushroom growing and the tree has fallen down hill now and been cut up into logs but the chicken mushrooms still fruit off of it. All that stored knowledge gone to waste. Here I have no idea how many kinds of cedars or firs there or what kinds of squirrels live in them. I realize I probably still know more plants than most people who have lived here their whole lives, but I find it really disconcerting that I don’t know them all.

At the same time I’ve been resistant to leaning the Western plants since I got here. It’s been too overwhelming for me to think about. Yesterday represented a minor breakthrough. Urban Scout and I went on a hike and I finally cracked open a field guide. I realized the plants aren’t so different after all. Very few are the exact same species but many are simply western counterparts to my familiar eastern species. Tsuga heterophylla vs. Tsuga canadensis, Clintonia uniflora vs. Clintonia borealis, Trillum ovatum vs. Trillium grandiflorum etc. I’m pretty confident now that I could learn all the important ones in a year.

I long for a more permanent base camp from which to explore. I’ve been looking at land and houses in Oregon, but it’s all really expensive. Well, anywhere within an hour or two of Portland. Southeastern Oregon is cheap. Montana is pretty decent too. See, moving to Montana is a tracker school thing. Tom Brown Jr. claims that when the shit hits the fan the Rockies will be the only safe place to hide. So sometimes we all talk about moving to Missoula. Although Bozeman, where Billy McConnell one of Tom Brown’s former students started his own school is pretty tempting also. I don’t really care if the red sky prophecy is true, but I’d love to get out of this godforsaken city and I think a town in Montana would be more manageable. Plus, it’d be kinda nice all being transplants. I wouldn’t be so sad.

Now how to afford it? Soon the money I made working earlier this summer will run out. Then I’ll have to get a job or put a lot more effort into scavenging food and bartering. I’ve applied to be an egg donor. They pay $5,000 for the first one. Go ahead and raise your eyebrows but I’m cool with having little Penny Scouts running around out there. Unfortunately so far no bites. I think about going to grad school. I’m not interested in studying anything or getting another degree but academic stuff is a piece of cake for me and I could use my student loan to buy a house. Plus there’s totally a thesis somewhere in the Urban Scout/Penny Scout project.

That said, I’m not too concerned with getting out of Portland just yet. For the moment I would like to focus on building a strong personal foundation. A psychic lady told me I ought to get one of those years ago so I went to Wal-Mart but I couldn’t find one. “Giving the Penny Hope and Purpose.” That’s what it says on these billboards around here. These guys joke about it, but it’s true. Being in Portland has in some ways given me hope and purpose. I wasn’t joking when I said I feel like I’ve been adopted by a tribe of gypsies. Have I been accepted just because I’m Scout’s girl? Yeah, but it’s more than that. Urban Scout and his friends speak a certain language. A blend of Quinnian/Jensonian/Wilderness Awareness School/Tracker School/Chinook/ pop-culture jargon. I know just enough to fit in.

I think a social network is an important part of a strong foundation and apparently so do these people:

“According to psychologist Professor Ed Diener there is no one key to happiness but a set of ingredients that are vital. First, family and friends are crucial – the wider and deeper the relationships with those around you the better. It is even suggested that friendship can ward off germs. Our brains control many of the mechanisms in our bodies which are responsible for disease. Just as stress can trigger ill health, it is thought that friendship and happiness can have a protective effect. According to happiness research, friendship has a much bigger effect on average on happiness than a typical person’s income itself.One economist, Professor Oswald at Warwick University, has a formula to work out how much extra cash we would need to make up for not having friends. The answer is £50,000.“

Though sometimes I wonder exactly what my purpose is (other than snuggle concubine to the wise and egomaniacal tribe leader Urban Scout). Tracker of plants? Is that really my role? I’m fairly confident in my edible plant knowledge but I have sort of a mental block about practicing herbalism. It’s so much less exacting than “will I die if I eat this?” One plant can be alterative, expectorant, purgative, diuretic, and that’s not even to mention different doses, methods of preparation, and parts. The mass of knowledge is just so overwhelming, and contradictory there are so many traditions to chose from. I don’t even have a clear personal view on what causes disease.

I’d like to learn more herbs, but I feel like I need some guidance, some reining in, and even though there are quite a few practicing herbalists in the Cascades I have yet to really be inspired by anyone. I want to work with someone who a) uses native wildcrafted plants, not stuff from China and the Amazon. b) uses them mostly in primitive ways; teas and salves, not so much as tinctures and definitely not as pills. c) I want to work with someone who actually cures people, not just someone who can give a plant walk and quote field guides. I can already do that. I’m tired of saying, “It’s supposed to be good for ____.” I’m tired of things not doing what they are “supposed” to do. Ideally I would apprentice with someone who treats people and see the results for myself. How else can I trust the knowledge? It’d also be great to work with an intuitive herbalist. I mean, if civilization collapses there might be no other way to attain plant knowledge d) I don’t really want to pay.

The Elderberry School in Portland doesn’t look too bad and has a work-study position, but take a look at the faculty. Where are the elders? I mean hell, I’ve been studying plants for 10 years. I know these are pretty lofty demands so if anyone has any ideas let me know.

Maybe I should forget this whole crass material world plant medicine thing and go with some high vibration energy healing. After all I’m trained in Reiki I and II (a laying on of hands method) and would like to get into the practice again. I have this fantasy where I’ve got my massage table set up in my trailer with some cheesy pseudo shaman knick knacks on the shelf ala John Redcorn on King of the Hill.

I think a large part of this block about herbalism is my own unresolved health struggles. I have a chronic backache that taints every minute of the day, and suffer from anxiety and mental confusion and so far these problems haven’t been budged by conventional or alternative medicine. This is the number one reason why I do not feel I have a strong personal foundation. A point in favor of me staying is that my diet has improved I hope to improve my health further by giving the body ecology diet a try. That’s for another blog, but suffice to say I would never be able to stick to it if I leave, whereas since the people I’m hanging out with here are already on it, it’s actually more difficult NOT to eat that way.

Well, that’s what’s going on with me. Those are my current schemes and dreams. Any tips on how to make things happen would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime I’m off to the Rabbitstick Rendezvous!