erwinbuskephotography

This story is bittersweet.. But it shows Val's beautiful true soul without the the Hollywood glam and tabloids.. It was shared on one of the Facebook pages.. Unfortunately I've had it for a while I don't remember which.

I didn't have any pics of the event so I picked one with his beautiful daughter Mercedes to fit the vibe.

Apricots and Huckleberries

huckleberries & a lil field mousie

Another great huckleberry haul this year 💕

Vegan Huckleberry Strawberry Pie

This is the correct ratio of huckleberries to pancake

Sonntag seiben

1. September in the PNW means harvesting and putting in things for the winter that give hope that, at some point, we will see the sun again and taste the sweet goodness of the gifts of nature. This year is special because another generation of our family gets to decide their fate as either pickers or non-pickers. I've always been a picker since I was probably a bit older than Henry; My grandmere and I would dutifully pick the tiny delicious huckleberries right on the border of Idaho and Montana, and one of our favourite patches was yards away from where one of her relatives surveyed in the state lines of Montana(plot twist: it's backwards). My mom, on the other hand, was born a non-picker who often loved finding a nice shady spot with a book. Thankfully, as she and I were both raised as only children, she has become a picker because berries won't pick themselves and blackberries are awful to pick. And Buggy was such a trooper: he started off picking berries but then he just wanted to eat berries even double fisting them. Tradition can be so delicious.

2. I finished my 2 weeks at Medline on Saturday, and they were absolutely good people for whom to work. And on Tuesday, I start with a municipal organization in emergency mitigation services, which should be a good job. Its a serious pay cut from Cosmo, but I cant wait any longer. And with graduation looming for me at CWU and my MBA application submitted, my options are expanding by the day. I refuse to be blind to the silver lining to my loss of my job at Cosmo, and I am open to the lessons that the universe is teaching me.

3. So for a long time I couldn't wrap my head around affirmations, but now that I'm doing them, I feel different. I think maybe, just maybe, the reset has begun and I'm looking at how I reclaim grace. To all who helped: much love.

4. To all of you who do online tutoring, what do you think of it? I have some expertise, and I think I could parlay it into a little more income and use it for the benefit of others. Thoughts?

5. We find out this week what sort of pre-k/transitional kindergarten programme Buggy will be in this fall. And, cool thing: H was also accepted into our local college and is going to be finishing her degree in Chemical dependency counseling. Her sobriety not withstanding, she is so smart and if she wouldn't have had her oldest son so young she could have done anything. She was studying to become a nurse when "life" and a few other things got in the way, and I think how much of a loss it was, truly. So having her go back to school is truly making sure the smartest person in this house gets to use that amazing brain for good of others and not just making good stuff like the boule in the picture.

6. Jimmy Buffet and Bill Richardson, on the same day? I got to meet Bill and hear him speak, and he was truly a champion for the forgotten and unjustly imprisoned. And Jimmy... I heard so many stories of him playing the Elbow room in Dutch Harbour and Tony's in Kodiak that, turns out were all true. While he might have been seen as a brand, some of his lyrics really hit my old broken down ass self pretty hard. And like his lyric said,

"I hope you're enjoying the scenery

I know that it's pretty up there

We can go hiking on Tuesday

With you I'd walk anywhere

California has worn me quite thin

I just can't wait to see you again"

Peace be with them...

7. The agates and the quartz glass are from a local beach, and 3 generations of hands have touched them. 3...Somewhere, my father figure is proud and glad it took(and that his great grandson loves rocks and getting dirty, just like him).

If you are still reading this, don't labour tomorrow. Rest. Relax. It's been a hard 9 months, and judging by our mountain ash bushes here, it's going to be a long miserable winter. Many blessings yall, and be kind to yourselves and take a moment. If my stubborn ass can finally say, and mean it, "I love the person I am becoming", you can too.

Much love!!!!

My dad makes his living picking seasonal berries and mushrooms. He travels around and knows what time of year and which areas to find specific sought after berries like huckleberries, where and when to find mushrooms that are considered delicacies like morels, chanterelles, and others. He lives in one area for some of the time, but travels across the whole northwest.

My dad has never really fit with society, partly due to his connection with nature, and partly due to mental illness and trauma. But this is something he can do, and something he loves, and humans will always want wild berries and mushrooms, and need food. So many people today do not know how to find these things, though they used to provide for our whole way of life.

A lot of people feel trapped in the framework our species and cultures have built, and see that the way the job market works is to suck the life out of you, but to keep you working while it does. Yeah you'll always have to work for your living, that's just how life is. You gotta put something in to get anything out. But, we have to consider, what do we want to get out of it? My country has written in it's constitution that people have a right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This is a little bit vague, so vague, that we haven't recognized this right being slowly eroded away. Now we find ourselves pushed to the edge, we're told how lucky we are, while we scramble to find something, something we can do that our society deems worthwhile, and worth money, just so we can live to work the next week, month, year, and afford to pay for our media subscriptions, car, mortgage, rent, gas, food. We'll always have to work for our food, our home, our family, and our health. That's not the problem. The problem is, we aren't working for this. Because most of us, can put as much energy and work as we can into doing something we're not completely suited for, just to live, but still have trouble achieving the basics for life, let alone liberty and happiness. The work that so many are doing, doesn't return to them. We aren't working for our life, liberty, and happiness. Sure, it's why we're working, but the work we are doing doesn't fulfill that pursuit. We should expect that if we do good work, we will see the returns. If you farm your land, and care for the plants and the soil and the animals, you will see the return in abundance. If you build for your communities, your communities will flourish, and you will too. Some of us have found ways to work within this parasitic market system that allow us to still do this, but the power of monopolistic global industry is still felt, and this power strangles the life and liberty of the people, to squeeze out a hoarded profit. People are not machines though, we feel the pain. Our world feels the pain. The ecosystems that have provided all of our bounty, and sustained life on this planet, are suffering from neglect and abuse, just as people suffer from indenture and alienation.

Some of us have been led to believe that there is no way out. This is a lie. Some of us have been led to believe our connection to nature is severed. This is a lie. Some of us have been led to believe that we cannot continue forward and advance humanity while keeping our ties to nature. This is a lie.

What is truth then?

We live, and have always lived, through nature. Earth is a part of us, as we are a part of Earth, and we thrive and fall in the same measure. There is still time for us. Everything will change, as everything always changes. We will change too. We can change, it is how we have come to be here, and how we will continue on. Harmony with Earth is not only possible, but is also the requisite for humanity's own flourishing, and the source of our natural way of being.

But what does this mean for us now? What does this mean for me, who knows how to do only the things society has taught are important? What do I do, who know how to obey, to follow direction, to communicate and to sell things, to write and to read and to drive, but know not how to create tools, to cultivate food, to search for and identify the bounties of nature, to live from what the Earth gives us, and to do so in a way that gives back to that source? Wbat do we do? We learn!

The sources of our life, our liberty, and our happiness are not as far from us as we would be made to think. It may seem overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. You can start with one thing. Learn about a native edible plant or berry or mushroom near you, learn its season and what habitat it grows in, and learn where you might find it. It is August. In the Northwestern United States there are many berries in season right now. In the coastal areas are blackberries and huckleberries and salal, inland there are huckleberries, grapes in some places, and elderberries, (which must be cooked to be edible but are high in vitamins A and C, and are used for a cold remedy as syrup). You can pick what you need for yourself and freeze it for winter, saving you money on frozen fruit in the dark months, and you can also pick more than you need and give some to friends or family, or sell it for a little supplemental income if you pick enough. Remember though to do your harvesting with respect for the environment, for this is the environment that is sustaining you. Protect it, give back to it, pick up your trash, and learn to be firesafe.

There are other options too, if you have the access, you can create a garden to support your food access. The recent pandemic has reminded many of us that we can't always rely on grocery stores and changing prices and the changing value of our money to get what we need, but there are other ways, and these other methods of sustaining ourselves can free us. Learn how to preserve fresh food when it is affordable and save it for when it is scarce. Tomatoes and zucchini may be overabundant in the summer, but they are scarcer in the winter. You can freeze tomatoes whole, and you can shred zucchini and freeze it for winter use in pasta, breads, and stir fries. There also inedible but very useful plants and sources within the forest, which you can use to make things you need or that are useful. Baskets can be so expensive, but weaving only requires a few supplies, an understanding, and your own work. This is just the beginning.

While we ask what we can do to live better on what nature gives us, we also ask what we can do to give back to nature, to keep nature thriving so that we may thank it for its sustenance and also partake in its abundance. Some plants are invasive and harm native plants, and can be removed to make way for plants more in harmony with the ecosystem. When many people travel a natural area, erosion can begin to threaten hillsides and habitats. This can be mitigated by creating better paths and reinforcing eroded areas near them with nature's materials, like fallen logs, branches, and plants like moss, grasses and shrubs which will make the way for trees to take root and further secure the hillside. Sometimes we don't know where our help would be most useful, or how to help, but there are good organizations that dedicate themselves to doing exactly these kinds of things. Mossy Earth is one that provides lovely videos and updates and abundant information on their efforts at habitat restoration and species reintroduction efforts. They're on youtube, and watching their videos is so hope renewing. They also have a subscription service that people may support them through.

You don't have to give up your apartment and live in a tent to renew your connection with nature. You don't have to do all of these things for it to be worthwhile. And you aren't alone in the big projects that seem a little daunting. We're in this together, and there are plenty of little ways we can start to work on our connection with nature, and work on our connection with ourselves, that will immediately benefit our health and happiness, and will further the happiness of our families and communities and home. Because Earth is home. We have to work for home, but if we do good work, we will have everything we need, and be happy with our efforts and their results.

So go pick some berries! Freeze them, eat them, share them! And at the end of it, you will have spent that time in nature, using your body for what it has developed for, and building your strength and your understanding for the future.

Another photo from the PCTA 2022 Photo Contest. Lance Goehring has captured some of the amazing beauty of autumn hiking in Washington. He took this photo of Heather "Metro" Cordin in the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest of Washington with its abundant huckleberry than turn the deep red.

Apparently there's been a discourse about Val's (Iceman) hair color recently .

Boy I've been sleeping under a rock 🤔 so I'd like to put in my two cents.

(This is my opinion so if you don't approve u can imagine it's not there😊)

📌First of all ice's hair has platinum and blonde bleached frosted tips, darker sides and roots. With age the blonde turned into white and grey with the same greying pattern.. Our boy keeps the frosted tips for the longest of time for Mavs eyes.

Second, my Val hair analysis :

📌this picture was posted by Val on ig awhile ago and it looks like it says that he has blonde hair and grey eyes.

📌 I know both of those are a challenge to really determine and have a minor debate among the fans.

📌I feel like Val's hair color is golden black with a reddish hue.. Almost butterscotch brown with some light blonde and platinum accents on the front. But the overall look in most of his movies gives dark blonde with darker sides and roots. And unfortunately we can't look at the brows for reference because I noticed he dyes them according to the hair color.

📌Here's an insight from a person who met Val just for fun and some magic princess hair shots for you guys 😉

As you all can see.. This boy doesn't leave his hair alone..He dyes it all the time.. He still does to this day.

Probably the only natural hair reference we'll ever get

📌Whatever his hair color is we can all agree that we love this man so deeply and he unites us all in one amazing community ❤️

Nice thirsty bonus 😋

Huckleberry Cheesecake This creamy no-bake cheesecake with a graham cracker crust and sweet huckleberry topping will be wiped out by your guests in minutes.

french toast with fresh wild huckleberries, syrup, and homemade raspberry jam

Huckleberry Jam (Vegan)