a weblog sharing info on outdoor skills and campfire musing by a guy who spends a bunch of time in pursuit of both
CULTURE
WHERE -
TALES ARE TOLD OF
Welcome to Roland Cheek's Weblog
Roland is a gifted writer with a knack for clarifying reality. Looking forward to more of his wisdom
- Carl Hanner e-mail
There can be no living together without understanding, and understanding means compromise. Compromise is not a dirty word, it is the cornerstone of cvilization, just as politics is the art of making civilization work. men do not and cannot and hopefully will never think alike, hence each must yield a little to avoid war, to avoid bickering. men and women meet together and adjust their differences; this is compromise. He who stands unyielding upon a principle is often a fool, and often bigoted, and usually left standing alone with his principle while other men adjust their differences and go on. * Louis L'Amour in Bendigo Shafter / (Pretty sharp, those Western writers.)
To access Roland's weblog and column archives
Tip o' the Day
Cooking baked potatoes in the campfire is easier if you prebake them about three-quarters done at home. Wrap in foil, then finish in campfire coals. The upside is that it won't take as long.
Take along some big plastic bags for camp garbage. Even if you use burlap oat sacks, the plastic bags will keep the throw-aways from oozing.
A good hot weather tip is to cover your ice chest with a sleeping bag or two during the day. No, no -- it's not to keep the chest warm, but to keep it cool -- provided you cover it early in the day, while ambient air temperature is still cool. And keep the chest in the shade.
Jane repackages from jars to plastic as much as possible, or purchases foods already packaged in plastic. There are plastic canisters for peanut butter and squeeze bottles of good-tasting jams and jellies.
She packages individual salads in Seal-A-Meal bags: three-bean, pasta, marinated corn.
And she pre-cooks roasts, hams, and sometimes chicken, packages the meat in zip-lock bags and freezes it to ward off spoilage. All the above saves an unbelievable amount of weight for a float trip, or horseback packtrip.
Years ago we did it differently -- lots of jars and cans and fresh meat, whole potatoes, and store-bought pastries and cookies. Then she tried repackaging from jars and found she could eliminate 35 pounds of glass from one of our eight-person, ten-day hunting trips. By precooking much of the meats, she cut one-quarter of that weight and by packaging in zip-lock and freezing, there was no apparent loss in flavor.
While we were still guiding professionally, Jane baked all our wilderness trip cookies at home -- 320 dozen (3,840) homemade cookies for one season alone! All were baked and packaged for each individual trip, then stored in our freezer for timely use.
Desserts were tasty stir-and-serve pie fillings poured into already prepared cut-and-serve crusts. Or it was a stir-and-bake cake cooked in a Dutch oven.
In those days Jane's efficiency was readily apparent when she put together a hot, tasty, full-course meal ready for a troop of hungry guests, guides and their outfitter only an hour after pulling into some secluded and undeveloped campsite.
Echoes of Vengeance -- A military outpost situated in an isolated region of the Department of the Upper Missouri. An embittered Commandant who believes unkind fate kept him from fame and glory during the recent War of Seccession. A band of starving Blackfeet too riddled with smallpox to withdraw to their reservation. A young mixed-blood army interpreter whose aging parents are with the Blackfeet tries to prevent a massacre-in-the-making; he's beaten and dragged to the guardhouse for the attempt.
Thus the stage is set and principal characters in place for the opening pages of Echoes of Vengeance * Mule Milk News /Official Newsletter of the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association
WHAT PAYS OFF IN THE END
I'm unclear about election day protocol--about whether it's permissable, or even legal, to campaign for or against candidates while the polls are open. So I guess the thing to do is ignore what's socially acceptible, go vote, then come back and write a weblog that skirts around the issue's edges. The issue I'm talking about is this nagging worry that I'm going through the change of life.
If nothing else, it's persistent, this ticking biological clock that is the curse of all who survive to become chronologically disadvantaged. It all began at age twenty when my hair began to thin. Then the skullcap began shedding like tamarack needles during an October wind.
At the time, hair and talent were the only two things separating me from the great athletes of the day. As a result, the hair apparently unilaterally figured out what was Michael Jordan-trendy and adopted the bald look before Jordan was even into puberty. Unfortunately, though the hairline accomplished its objective, the athletic skills failed to follow through.
Then along came Jesse--Ventura, not Helms--and politics turned viable for those with thinning locks. Jesse's pate was, of course, as shiny as a demolition ball swinging from a wrecking crane, and the same comparison could easily be made with what's below. In addition, the man's management talent could also be called into question, so he's a lot like me (and Arnold, too). But what Jesse lacked in managerial skills he more than made up as a showman. Thinking about Jesse (and Arnold), I asked myself about how I might fare in politics?
"How are you at bluster and bombast?" myself returns.
I can do insults, I say, but myself says that's not enough. "Shiny-headed politicos must have a brain that functions like a pin-ball machine, as well as being masters of intimidating size."
I said my wife calls me a hunk-and-a-half and that should mean something, even if she does have her fingers crossed while saying it.
"In order to qualify as an intimidator," myself says, "you'll need to relocate a quarter of your hunk and all your half."
So despite a built-for-speed hairline and the sleek look af a bean-bag chair, both sports and politics seem beyond reach--especially when inexorable tides of biological change washes one upon life's beach.
Age and infirmity precludes becoming a soldier of fortune, too, despite the bullet-head profile. And I'm certainly not known for overt diplomatic skills, another calling that, as witness Adlai Stevenson and George Shultz, is often a pigeonhole for those who've combed too vigorously above their ears.
And alas, financial acumen has eluded me thoughout a lifetime, so becoming a Treasury Secretary (ala Hank Paulson) is beyond people of my ilk. That leaves only an intellectual career--the last refuge of all those who are heavy laden and fast fadin'. But how might my age and experience best be intellectually exploited?
I wondered about becoming a TV pundit, but abandoned the idea as soon as it became clear the profession is laced with couch potatoes. I'm not a frock-jock either, so religious commentary seems beyond my ken. With sports, politics, religion, television, war, and peace all out somewhere in never-never land to someone of my ability, I can do little but wonder what's do-able? I considered journalism, but with the onset of Harry Potter and Star Wars XXXXIV there seems no way I could connect with today's readers.
What's left? Fade into the sunset?
Not on your life! I'm going to stay fit and fiddle in case something (anything!) turns my way. That's why I've become quite active in aerobic meditation and have even taken up cardiovascular contemplation.
Physically, I'm toning muscles by scratching behind the dog's ears, gargling Yukon Jack, and working my way through a good morning bowel movement.
Like Uncle Remus says, "It's what you do with what you got that pays off in the end."
Roland Cheek wrote a syndicated outdoors column (Wild Trails and Tall Tales) for 21 years. The column was carried in 17 daily and weekly newspapers in two states. In addition, he scripted and broadcast a daily radio show (Trails to Outdoor Adventure) that aired on 75 stations from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. He's also written upwards of 200 magazine articles and 12 fiction and nonfiction books. For more on Roland, visit:
www.rolandcheek.com
Recent Weblogs
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
There's a bunch of specific info about Roland's books, columns, archives and radio programs. By clicking on the button to the left, one can see Roland's synopsis of each book, read reviews, and even access the first chapter of each of his titles. With Roland's books, there's no reason to buy a "pig in a poke."
for detailed info about each of Roland's books
Read Reviews
Read their first chapters
For interested educators, this weblog is especially applicable for use in history, economic, and government classes, as well as for journalism students.
Roland, of course, visits schools. For more information on his program alternatives, go to:
NEXT WEEK:
GUN ACCIDENTS -- LEARNING FROM HARD LESSONS
www.campfireculture.com
Roundup Magazine says of The Silver Yoke, the final book in the acclaimed Valediction For Revenge series: This novel has lots of action, a terrific villain you love to hate, the smell of dust and dynamite, and a man sworn to bleed his enemies, not of blood but of money, the only thing they love.
This is another page turner from Cheek with characters that possess all three dimensions and are tough to kill. Any readers who likes action, adventure, and a plot with more twists than a sidewinder will love Gunnar's Mine * Roundup Magazine
Lincoln County, New Mexico, where poor farmers and ranchers are at the mercy of crooked merchants, the military, and a corrupt territorial government run by something called the "Sante Fe Ring," But who are the "good" guys? Billy the Kid? John Chisum?
Book three in the Valediction For Revenge series, the completion of Jethro Spring's adventures in New Mexico
Crisis On the Stinkingwater is Cheek's darkest book. It is also the most realistic. The portrayal of the depth of hatred engendered by the bitter conflict between rancher and homesteader chills the reader * Roundup Magazine
Two books -- one about the people, the second about their place of adventures
For detailed information about Roland's books
source links for additional info
to visit Roland's newspaper columns and weblog archives
to send this weblog to a friend
to tell Roland what you think of his Campfire Culture weblog
