Archive for the ‘Wild Nature’ Category
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
When you are out in the wilderness, it is helpful to know the signs of the cougar, which might tell you that the cat has been by recently, and could still be in the area. This information can be helpful for self-protection, but it is also interesting for its own ...
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Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Just kidding! A little hubris was creeping in there...
Even if the chances of a cougar encounter are very remote, and the likelihood of an attack even slimmer, we must all be aware that the possibility exists, and prepare ourselves with a plan for what to do.
Children: Remember, most cougar attacks ...
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Sunday, November 9th, 2008
There is a saying, "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." This is concerned with our mind's tendency to latch onto ideas and use them to fit our experience into preconceived shapes. Such as, for instance, the idea of how to become enlightened through emulating the life ...
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Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
As I mentioned earlier, when I first moved to Monkey Valley I did some research to find out about cougars, consulting my handy Mammals of British Columbia. But recently I came across a great pamphlet put out by the BC Ministry of Environment, Land and Parks and the BC Ministry ...
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Monday, October 27th, 2008
I'm not sure now where the idea of a cattle prod came from. It probably came to me when I was out on a run, dodging Douglas Lake cows and hoping the bull wouldn't charge me. I looked at how big the cattle are, and thought they are actually much ...
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Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
Prior to moving to Monkey Valley I had little exposure to guns. My dad taught me and my sister Kim to shoot a rifle one summer at the family cabin on Knouff Lake. It was fun, shooting at cans on a log. Learning to watch for the kick. But since ...
Posted in About Monkey Valley, Running, Wild Nature | 3 Comments »
Monday, October 20th, 2008
When I told people I was moving to Monkey Valley, they inevitably thought I needed a man, a truck, a dog, and a gun. In fact, when I first bought the place, I had the man, Hugh McMillan, and we were getting along pretty good. I bought a pickup truck—a ...
Posted in About Monkey Valley, Wild Nature | 2 Comments »
Sunday, October 19th, 2008
When I first moved to Monkey Valley, my biggest fears were attack by cougars, bears, and humans. I've already documented some of the encounters with humans. Pretty innocuous, and nothing like my late-night imaginings of a Charles Manson-like gang bent on my murder.
So it is with cougars. Due to my ...
Posted in About Monkey Valley, Running, Wild Nature | 1 Comment »
Saturday, October 18th, 2008
The other night I was wakened from a peaceful sleep by a crinkling sound. It's not the first time this has ever happened, but it's been a while. I replayed the sound in my head, and figured it wasn't a human intruder—the sound was too small. It could be a ...
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Thursday, October 16th, 2008
On Thanksgiving Day, which is also the US Columbus Day and Indigenous People's Day, I looked out the bathroom window and saw a large white blob on the top of a tree. Was it snow? But no, none of the other trees had white blobs on them.
So I went across ...
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