When I first heard about TrackersNW immersion program, I was drawn to what Tony described as a “Wilderness School MBA.” For so many people in the outdoor industries, its hard to make enough money to run your own business, let alone buy health insurance or to take care of “old people and babies” (as Tony would say.) In the Fall, we had some wonderful classes with Mike Rasmussen with goal of making our pursuit of our passions sustainable.
It got me thinking, how can I find a way to work in the outdoors full-time and not have to rely on another job for my income? Part of how I’m doing this is by studying web design and business. I know, I know, I went from an outdoor school where I received survival training and learned primitive skills, to being huddled over a computer messing around with css and xhtml. But I feel like this essential for my development as a small business owner. A web presence is vital whether you are teaching classes, leading groups, or pursuing freelance, as I am. Besides being a good tool for your business, blogs and websites are a way to participate in a dialog about what’s going on in our world and how we want to change it.
For myself, through my website I’m seeking to become my own role model. It sounds cheesy, I know. But I feel like I didn’t have a wealth of strong female examples in my life as a child. I was raised in a church that taught women to go from “the umbrella of protection of the father to the protection of the husband.” This stance is antithetical to raising women who are strong and independent. Now, I want to write things that would have inspired a younger me. I know, or at least I hope, that as I pursue this, I will encourage other women to engage in their passions.
To learn more about starting my own business, I am taking a marketing class right now, and I’ve received some criticism about it. Isn’t marketing evil? Aren’t I, by studying it, supporting a societal dynamic that capitalizes on exploitation? Something that manipulates people into buying things they don’t need or feeling inferior about themselves? My response, and I’m definitely open to feedback on this, is that marketing is a tool, not inherently bad, just harmful in the way some use it. I may disagree with how some organizations have structured themselves and how they choose to advertise, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t like marketing altogether. Marketing is just a tool for getting your message across–it is a tool for me to be able to pursue my dreams.
This may not be the most inspiring way to end a post, with a defense of marketing, but I believe that if people are going to pursue a sustainable career in the outdoors, the use of marketing and technology are essential. We need to learn both how to connect to the earth and how to use efficient accounting practices. We need to be masters of two domains. At very least, there needs to be more of dialog about these issues. As one example, I would never have even heard about TrackersNW if it hadn’t been for their business skills, marketing, and use of technology. And that, my friends, would have cost me something very dear.
Tags: backpacking, business, outdoors, trackersnw, women
Thanks to Tony for letting me borrow his camera!
It’s pretty cheesy and, now that I know more, I think the next one will have a higher quality video. Still, I really enjoyed making this and plan to do it again. This video is part of an application to be a gear tester for backpacker magazine, but if I don’t get that assignment, I’m going to keep making movies for my own site.
We killed a buffalo on a buffalo farm. We skinned it and processed all the meat. In the end this was not about experiencing hunting and gathering, it was more about obtaining meat for the group that didn’t come from a store.
The best part of this process was eating raw still warm buffalo heart.
We kept and used nearly everything. I can list on one hand the items we threw out.
Here’s the short list of what we did with what…
• The heart, liver, tongue, and kidneys was used for making scrabble (so good!).
• The hide we are tanning (in process) for making mukluks later (or something), over half of the skinning process was done with flint knives (which worked better than modern steel ones)
• The bones we cooked and broke open for the marrow, and the rest we saved for bone tool making
• The hooves we saved to make glue out of
• The small intestine we saved for making sausage and primitive condoms
• The stomach we saved for haggis (I’m not sure if this will happen, but either way it’s a valiant attempt)
• The Penis is being made into a walking stick
• The blood was saved for Blood Sausage
• The meat was saved for stew, steaks, sausage and burgers
• The fat was rendered for candles, lube, etc…
There is a lot here that I’m forgetting, but was a really intense experience.
Michelle frames her track with sticks
Fill in track with plaster
The end result
I’m bringing down the maturity level of this blog one post at a time.These are from Marmot cabin.
Krysta has been transformed into a goldfish and I am obviously very upset about it
A Krysta and Ariel sandwhich. I have become so terrified that I've grown a sizable second chin.
I like how if you don't know that this photo is distorted, it looks like Krysta has a freakishly large mouth.
Ending on a high note.
Tags: goofy