Think of the many articles one can find every year in the Wall Street Journal describing some entrepreneur or businessmen as being a “pioneer” or a “maverick” or a “cowboy.” Think of the many times these ambitious modern men are described as “staking their claim” or boldly pushing themselves “beyond the frontier” or even “riding into the sunset.” We still use these words today to describe our boldest citizens, but it’s really a code now, because these guys aren’t actually pioneers; they are talented computer programmers, biogenetic researchers, politicians, or media mongrels making a big splash in a fast modern economy.

But when Eustace Conway talks about staking a claim, the guy is literally talking about staking a goddam claim.

- Elizabeth Gilbert, The Last American Man

Her’s some video of Eustace Conway speaking at Earthskills Rendezvous. After reading The Last American Man it’s easy to dismiss Eustace Conway as a delusional disgruntled survivalist turned homesteader turned mad man in the woods louring prospective wifes to his work farm. Such is the fallout when you let a coyote ugly bartender chick (who now that she’s a mom and been to India and all should probably be referred to as “woman”, or as Eustace Conway would probably say “female”) write what would appear to be your biography.

dawn at rivercane earthskills gathering

Spent the last week of April attending the earthskills rendezvous. These folks actually do two gatherings, the Spring gathering is known as the Rivercane Rendezvous and the Fall gathering is the Falling Leafs Rendezvous. Information for both events can be found at Earthskills Rendezvous.com.

The 25th Rivercane anniversary attracted about 250 participants making this years gathering the largest in the the organizations history. Darry Wood described the first ever Rivrcane gathering as “5 guys standing around a dead deer” (for more history see the Earthskills website).

Two of the Rivercane Rendezvous original founders Darry Wood and Snow Bear.

Article on starting a fire using the bow drill including a video of Aaron Wolf demonstrating how to use a bow drill.

The bow drill apparatus consists of four parts: bow, handhold, spindle, and fire board.

Around dusk looking up towards overcast skies I felt cretin the end was near. It was defiantly going to rain. Looking up at my cattail roof – weeks in the making – I could see long leaves bundled tightly enough on the top and bottom edges of the roof, but in the middle of the mats I was looking through my roof at thin, almost transparent cattails leaves silhouetted by a darkening overcast sky. As I lay there looking up at the not so distant storm clouds I did wonder some about what I could have done differently so that I could be sitting in my earth shelter in confidence feeling protected from the rain. For whatever reason my first set of cattail mats did not seem to have the shingling effect I had read about and hoped for and judging by their appearance had no hope of protecting me from the rain.

I tried to take advantage by relaxing as much as I could before the storm hit. I wondered how much longer before the rain and how cold it might get, even becoming impatient. Although my cattail mat roof experiment seemed an imminent and cretin disaster I was determined to spend at least one cold rainy night getting soaked in my failed shelter even if only to shiver and wonder what exactly had gone so terribly wrong with my life that it had come down to this, wasting weeks making a cattail mat roof which was about to leave me shivering in darkness, rain water and mucus dripping off my blue lips and mashed between shivering teeth then washing away with it and sending off on some cool breeze in the night all the pride of one who imagines himself capable of such things. Washing away all the denial that such an ill conceived project could possibly come together in some positive way. I figured before the week is over I’d be living in the post office which, incidentally, it turns out a 24-hour access PO box is as legal a place as any to spend the night – it’s like paying for a post office box and getting rent for free.

Looingk up at my cattail mat roof, looks nice in the fire light.

Then it happened. About 45 minutes before dark, a light drizzle then a slow steady rain and within few hours a down poor. Despite all known universal physics, my empirical observations and analysis, something completely unexpected happened. My holey cattail mats somehow were keeping the rain out except for during the heaviest of squalls. Somehow even the most scrappily made cattail mat can keep you dry and warm. A moment of imminent disaster turned into a pleasant, if not cozy, evening in the rain. All I can really say about it is there’s magic in traditional cattail mats and intention is among the most powerful forces in the natural universe.