by I apologize for the lack of posts since Friday. We spent the weekend at the Mother Earth News Expo held at the WNC Ag Center and I was exhausted by it. However, all the walking was good preparation for next week’s NRA Annual Meeting.
Our attendance wasn’t because we are going full granola or anything like that. The Complementary Spouse’s brother and sister-in-law had a booth for her Usborne book business and we helped them out.
Unlike what I would have thought it wasn’t just a bunch of back to nature hippies with dreadlocks. They were there but so were a lot of preppers, homesteaders, farmers, and just everyday people. I even saw a guy with a Sons of Liberty T-shirt who was probably a Threeper.
Larry and I spent a lot of time at the workshops on butchering and sausage making. It is amazing how fast you can cut up a sheep carcass with only a knife and food-grade hacksaw when you know what you are doing. The workshop on butchering a sheep impressed me so much that I bought the book. Of course, the skills translate into butchering deer or other large game animals.
Life has gotten back to normal and I will be co-hosting the Polite Society Podcast tonight. You can listen live, warts and all, by going to the Polite Society Podcast’s YouTube channel.
My sister-in-law called a few months back and asked if she could get me a subscription to Mother Earth News for Christmas. Internally I thought she was off her rocker, but being nice I said, "but of course."
It wasn't until it arrived that I realized what a cool rag it is. They balance between hipster, liberal, granola, conservative, prepper, homesteader and survivalist all within the same pages. Two editions ago they featured an editorial from a liberal who claimed that not having children was a good thing, "Because Earth". The response from the other side of the readership was swift. This issue they are teaching how to take reject concrete septic tanks and turn them into underground bunkers (ahem…"root cellars"). They hunt, fish, grow livestock and generally like solar for the same reasons preppers like living off grid. I have seen pointers to firearms in the short time I have been a subscriber, but it's more along the lines of "this is just some tool that helps you hunt". Sounds good.
It leans left but not too annoyingly. I am not sure if the prepper thing was added to the granola, or the granola was sprinkled on top of the survivalist. Either way, the magazine has something for all crowds interested in growing heritage wheat, raising goats for meat and burying concrete bunkers in their back hillside (now my wife wants one).
We're probably going to hit their fair (same thing you just did) in PA this September.
The Inland Northwest Wildlife Council in Eastern Washington has a great program for people wanting to hone their butchering skills. All you have to do is join their Road Kill Crew. When a motorist reports a hit deer to any agency, they forward the information to the Council who alerts the Road Kill Crew. The nearest available member recovers the carcass (and has a special license to dispatch wounded animals), field-dresses it in the bushes, then takes it to the Council building where they have a cleaning and butchering station. Any salvageable meat is donated to the Union Gospel Mission or other charity shelter. The hide goes to a local tannery that trades a nice pair of work gloves for it. The Crew members get lots of experience skinning and butchering, and the gloves are given to new members of the Council as a symbolic gesture of the expectations of membership – working for wildlife. Nothing teaches like doing, and the INWC is all about doing. They are a great organization with many programs and services. I'd love to see their model copied around the country. Their monthly meetings typically draw around 200 people, and they host a huge annual hunting and outdoor show every year. More info is available at http://www.WildlifeCouncil.com.
So what if you are full of granola? It's delicious! Then again, I attended Humboldt State University, so maybe I'm biased.