Friday 17 February 2012

Flashlight Friday

The dogs and I are just back from the bush...
Did you know its friday again?
 Well you flashlight fans...here is a rare opportunity...
A peek into part of my "Flashlight hall of fame"...
Yes there are more flashlights in the "overflow vault"!
enjoy!


I am hoping spring comes soon and the garage sales begin
so that I can continue to add to the collection and be able to feature new lights regularly.
As always vintage donations are gratefully accepted...

-Martin



Friday 10 February 2012

My Walden

This mornings reflection is about  what Henry David Thoreau referred to as living a "deliberate life "...
 Thoreau moved to the woods to explore the idea of living self sufficiently in the 1800's
was the result of this personal journey....




Published in 1854 many of its lessons still apply to life today
Have you read it?

Do you have a Walden of your own?

Here is a glimpse of my own Walden....



-Martin

Thursday 9 February 2012

Life Decisions




So what is this blog about anyhow?
Well if you have read the "about me" in the blog you know it's about meaning and purpose...


For a month or so now I have been reading a blog called 

I guess I have been interested in it because they are very interested in meaning and purpose too...
Their lives and lifestyle remind me of my life and many of the choices I have made over the years.
Flashlights and Arrows has roots that come from living a self-sufficient life....


I don't usually post about about other blogs but today I would like to share this blog with my own readership.
Here is a link to a post they did and a comment I wrote...


Andrew
I have been mulling over how to respond to this post...
Firstly I respect your decision to enrol your child in school.
It was a difficult decision I had to make over 20 years ago for my son and a few years later reconsider for my daughter too.
Both of my children have been homeschooled all their lives. They learned to read and write at the kitchen table...we lived deep in the forest.... How did we make the choice that we did?
Yes there was the school bus issue for us too...it's a long drive for a kid every day when you live at what would have been the far end of their run... but also there was the school system itself. We were very influenced at the time by books written by John Holt, John Taylor Gatto and Wendy Preisnetz.
What about the socialization issue?
I think this question was first asked by school boards concerned about losing students to the home school movement along with the head tax that each student present in the system generates. To be frank the socialization issue is a myth.
What about the driving?
Get ready to become the "Gooderham Taxi Service". School or no school once your kids get out there they will develop a desire/need to get to clubs, friends, birthday parties, events....you won't believe how long and almost endless this list of places to drive becomes. Don't worry it only lasts until they are 16 when they start to drive themselves!
How does homeschooling work?
Well there are as many answers to this question as there are homeschooling families out there. Basically it reduces down to parents helping their children become numerate and literate with parents assuming the role of teacher and then the role of the parent switches to that of a facilitator, facilitating the interests of the children. The children will teach themselves through their own interests. It's true!
What happened to my children?
My son at an early age became interested in community radio and then worked at a professional radio station for a few years around the age of 15 until he began a career in the car industry. Now at 20 he is living quite successfully on his own selling Jaguars and Land Rovers in Toronto (just having moved from selling Audi's). He did this on his own. I see vehicles in the light of utility where as he sees them as art. His fascination with vehicles developed at an early age and now it is a career.
My daughter has become a very well followed artist/photographer.
What do we think now after having been through the whole process?
We were "homesteaders" before anyone popularized the term. It's been a hard go. "Homesteading is a hard life" and "Homeschooling" is equally so. The two activities certainly compliment one and other. We are happy we did both and for our kids it was well worth it.
Should everyone homeschool?
Certainly not. It would be wrong to say so...life is a complicated thing...people make choices...what works for some doesn't for others
This is what I did.
Martin



Life is certainly full of complicated decisions ...
It is about "... Hunting for meaning.  Hunting for vision.  Hunting for happiness and purpose.  
We are all hunters if you think about it..."

Live to Hunt....Hunt to live!

-Martin

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Winter Doldrums

Season can have a lot to do with the spirit....
Anyone who has lived in the woods for a while 
will agree...


It's February  ....
The weather has been overcast and cold for weeks now ...
Work, for many in my area, has disappeared until the temperature warms up and the snow melts....
Finances are tight...
Suddenly there is endless time to occupy and "nothing to do"
Yesterday a friend came over for a welcome visit.
We spent the afternoon sitting around the table drinking endless cups of tea and talking....
Optimistic plans for the future...
Later we went outside and figured out a system for firing a rope line into the the trees with bow and arrow for my friends arbourist business. 
An old fiberglass bow... a few old slightly out of true arrows...a little fabrication in the shop and some light line stored in a pail.....perfect....

This season for me is all about effort...
It takes effort to rally the spirit...
Sometimes it takes effort to stay optimistic...
To challenge the mind with the details of future projects....
To rediscover simple things around you and find activities that don't involve money...
To put on a coat and hat and go for a crisp walk in the bush....

-Martin







Friday 3 February 2012

Flashlight Friday

Well....
Wouldn't you know.....it's Friday
Flashlight Friday!
I guess some of you may be wondering where all those flashlights have been as of late.
Yes there are still flashlights in the "flashlight vault" that have yet to be featured here 
(I am going to need some new ones soon though) 
but it's cold in "the vault" so I haven't been going there very often.

Here though is a beauty that just needs to be shared! 
Its an Ecolite railway lantern produced by the Economy Electric Lantern Company
of Milwaukee
enjoy!








-Martin

Thursday 2 February 2012

Groundhog Day

It's Groundhog Day today...
Predictions are being made today about whether the winter weather will linger or the spring is just around the corner.
How do you go about making such a prediction?
By finding a famous groundhog like Wireton Willie or Shubenacadie Sam
and waiting for him to emerge from his burrow and see if his shadow scares him back down his hole.
How accurate is a prediction like this?
Well I guess there is a fifty percent chance or being right or wrong because there are only two outcomes to the question.
Todays general consensus from the groundhogs seems to be that spring is near....
With the thoughts of spring in the air today I thought I would share this photograph I took.....


"Spring Bush camp canoe in by train drop...Peterbell Ont."

Its a comfort to know that whether spring comes sooner or later...sooner or later it is coming!

-Martin

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Lost

This morning I have begun a regimen of morning reflections. 
The idea of a daily reflection comes to me from a good friend of mine who is an Anglican Priest who does this daily.
It seems a nice peacful, introspective way to start the day.....

Todays thoughts are about an incident that happened to me last fall....

I found myself lost in the woods....

This reflection is about this experience and a simple plastic whistle....
What follows is an excerpt from a letter I wrote a few weeks afterwords....

"I am just home from a two week archery moose hunt in Quebec. It was a tough go because we were hunting a new, very remote, area unfamiliar to us and the weather was warm so the moose were not rutting. Warm weather for moose hunters requires more proactive measures to locate and harvest animals. In my case that meant going farther into unknown territory and into areas that were particularly congested with alder thickets, almost unpassable.
In our second week away I located an area holding some moose but because of the heat they were only moving early in the morning and near dark at night. Almost 1 mile into the bush with no trails I hunted this particular area, which I had to literally climb into, over, and through tag alders and blown down trees, waiting for a late day opportunity. Shortly before dusk two moose got out of their beds. This looked like my chance and despite the fact it was getting dark fast I decided to stay and see if I could call these animals to me for a shot. 
The sun set and I was alone in the dark.  The moose moved but the wind didn't cooperate that night, it happens.  That night was overcast and there was no light from the moon.  I started back to camp with my GPS on but soon found myself walking through patches of bush that were blocking GPS reception. At that point I switched to my compass. The terrain and congestion of thick brush forced me to continually change my direction . It was very difficult to walk a bearing because of all the cutbacks I was taking. 
It was two hours walking and I had made it half the way back to camp but I only had a vague idea where I was at that point. 
From the moment I leave on a hunt to the moment I return I always wear my orange whistle. It was a habit I picked up from an old trapper friend. A whistle in the bush can be a handy thing. You can call a dog that has wandered too far. Alert the rest of a hunting party that an animal is down and of course you can signal for help.
That night I was happy to have my whistle on a string around my neck. I used it in the woods to signal the camp that I was turned around. The boys were alert to the fact I was late coming back at that point and were out looking and listening. After a few signals in the forest I made my way to a waterway where I new that the sound of the whistle would carry better and caught the attention of a friend who had taken a boat out figuring that I might poke out of the bush for just that reason.
Not only is having a whistle around your neck when you get lost a practical thing but its a comfort too.
I spend a lot of time in the bush. I trap and hunt for much of the food I eat...I am a traditional bowhunter.  Anyone that tells you that they will never get lost in the bush is a liar. It happens and if you spend a lot of time in the woods it's going to happen sooner or later. The best time to prepare for that moment is before you ever go out. Learn how to use a compass and GPS, how to light a fire, and buy yourself a good whistle....tie it to a string and wear it around your neck!"




Here is my whistle. 
It's a simple thing that helped me out that day....
Everyone at some point in their lives will find themselves lost....
 physically or spiritually it's a rite of passage we all take.
Maybe we should all try to carry a whistle....

-Martin