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What are you reading?

Douglas-fir is not a true fir, whose members belong to the genus Abies. At least that was the case when I was still working professionally. Rather, the genus for Douglas-fir is Pseudotsuga. That’s why its common name should be hyphenated. At least that was the case when I was still working professionally. Interestingly, Pseudotsuga means false hemlock. So not a fir and not a hemlock, but likely a fine monoecious parent, nevertheless.
 
Although she did not mention this, but forests have evolved over hundreds of millions of years. Maybe, just maybe, they are more complex than we give them credit for.

Like I said, I really hesitated to read the book. Much of her material has undergone extensive peer review. I did learn something.
Forest ecosystems are exceedingly complex, and I give them lots of credit for being that way.
 
sweetfancy moses makes an excellent point. For person with a doctorate in Forestry, she is making a huge blunder in talking about conifers as mother trees. They all have male and female cones on the same tree. Her right brain, feeling, empathetic brain function is dominating her left brain, reality, science trained brain. That is a cardinal sin. Anthropomorphism is unacceptable.
 
In my youth, we always sought out the "mother tree" (and all of her mature progeny) as they produced more board feet per tankful in the old Husqvarna.

I've known many people who treat animals as if they are capable of human thoughts/emotions (often to the detriment of both human & animal) but this is the first that I've seen someone project their personal traumas onto a plant. I feel badly for whatever events in her life prompted such silliness (as she alludes to in the video) but the local terminology is for that behavior is bat(crap) crazy.

Back to topic, I'm reading the FAA's study guide for a commercial drone pilot's license. It's certainly not Tom Clancy, Louis L'Amour or John Grisham.
Anyone that doubts the emotions and thought processes of animals, has never lived with a Border Collie or worked with mules. They have strong emotions, , sensitivities, and thought processes. They are intuitive. I learn from them every day.
 
“Beyond the Paddle
A Canoeists’ Guide to Expedition Skills: Poling, Portaging and Maneuvering through Ice” by Garret Conover

It’s a great read… many sections are being read multiple times. His “A SnowWalkers’ Companion” co-authored by his wife Alexandra has been fun to read even without much snow this winter

Stay warm!
 
E-town is on the east side of the continental divide so that's not a "wholly flatboat" trip; especially as it that predates the PA canal by 1/2 dozen years... West branch of the Susquehanna to Emporium and then portage to Port Allegheny (maybe still called "Canoe place" at that time)? That would be an awesome trip. Even today, much of the northern tier is pretty wild (at least by eastern standards).
 
E-town is on the east side of the continental divide so that's not a "wholly flatboat" trip; especially as it that predates the PA canal by 1/2 dozen years... West branch of the Susquehanna to Emporium and then portage to Port Allegheny (maybe still called "Canoe place" at that time)? That would be an awesome trip. Even today, much of the northern tier is pretty wild (at least by eastern standards).
The flatboat journey was made in recent years.. Not in 1820.. It was a modern day journey and illustrates the difference between then and now.. The book is 400 pages chock full of history. Unsanitized history. There are so many differences in the journey now and 200 years ago. I got it from my public library.
 
Conover's book is brilliant. It inspired me to try poling which is a lot of fun.
I was just given a hard copy of "Life on the Mississippi" by a close friend. It is next up.

Buck's book about the Oregon Trail is spectacular. I have read it twice. Forty years ago I had great inspirations to take a wagon across the OT across the State of Wyoming. Logistically it is very difficult. I have been on some overnight wagon trips. Very relaxing and enlightening.
 
Life on the Mississippi by Rinker Buck
Journey by flatboat from Elizabethtown PA all the way to New Orleans. Lots of references to the importance of canoes in the hey day of flatboats in the 1820's.
I really enjoyed this one and his book about the Oregon Trail. This book made me want to do a canoe trip on the Ohio, but definitely not on the Mississippi!
 
“Beyond the Paddle
A Canoeists’ Guide to Expedition Skills: Poling, Portaging and Maneuvering through Ice” by Garret Conover

It’s a great read… many sections are being read multiple times. His “A SnowWalkers’ Companion” co-authored by his wife Alexandra has been fun to read even without much snow this winter

Stay warm!
Seconding this! Great read!
 
I just got through reading this one:

Still Upright & Headed Downstream: Collected River Writing

By John Lane, a local writer with a dozen or so books of prose and poetry, a professor or English and Environmental Studies at Wofford College and a close observer of the environment which he chronicles with fluidity and grace. Some of his titles include "Waist Deep in Black Water", "My Paddle to the Sea", "Chattooga: Descending into the Myth of Deliverance River" and "Seven Days on the Santee Delta".
All good reads.
 
Thrill of the Paddle by Paul Mason and Mark Scrivner.

I don't intend to get anywhere close to what these guys are doing, but the text and graphics are great. For me anyway, seeing how it is done in heavy pushy water clarifies the process for me.
 
this forum.! Dropped out for a while.
But I recently stumbled across a beautiful piece of writing in Granta magazine called "Silt', by Robert MacFarlane. (Granta Magazine Issue 119: Spring 2012) About a place called The Broomway on the Essex coast in England- "'the deadliest' path in Britain and certainly the unearthliest path I have ever walked".
People have disappeared traveling along this ghost road where the sky meets the water and the soil.
Slightly obsessed with this.

Also, read Kingdom of Ice and Stone, by Buddy Levy. Amazing story, excellently written.

cheers.
 
Brad Dimock, Sunk Without a Sound: The Tragic Colorado River Honeymoon of Glen and Bessie Hyde. In 1928, recently married Glen and Bessie Hyde set out on a trip down the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. Their boat was a crudely constructed wooden scow, with sweep oars bow and stern. Glen had previously run this type of craft successfully on rivers in Idaho. The Hydes hoped to win fame and fortune on this trip. Few people had successfully run the Colorado previously, and Bessie would have been the first woman. Their trip began auspiciously, and they checked in for supplies part way down the Canyon. Shortly after resupplying, the Hydes disappeared. Their scow was found along the river, partly swamped but with its cargo intact. Extensive searches over the next several years found no sign of Glen and Bessie, leaving their fate unknown. Brad Dimock, a professional raft guide, took his own wife on a re-enactment of the Hydes' trip, in a similar scow but accompanied by modern safety boats. The book is thoroughly researched and is profusely illustrated with period photographs.

De Anne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook, They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War. Uncounted dozens of women disguised themselves as men and served in both the Union and Confederate armies during the war. This book details their motives and their means of evading detection. It also describes the various ways in which their true identities were revealed, for example when female soldiers delivered babies in camp. This book is a fascinating look from a different angle into the adventures and personalities of Civil War soldiers.
 
E-town is on the east side of the continental divide so that's not a "wholly flatboat" trip; especially as it that predates the PA canal by 1/2 dozen years... West branch of the Susquehanna to Emporium and then portage to Port Allegheny (maybe still called "Canoe place" at that time)? That would be an awesome trip. Even today, much of the northern tier is pretty wild (at least by eastern standards).
Rinker put in at Elizabeth, PA, a few miles south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela River. Back then it wa known as Elizabethtown. Modern day Elizabethtown is in eastern Pa as Gamma1214 says.
 
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