Adventures of an Imperfect Man In Search of a Handmade Life
“Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary.”Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.
Musicians hitting the road.
Vintage photo found on Tumblr HERE. No other information was supplied. Got the guitar, dog, and stove. Let’s go…
From her ABOUT Page: Nukshi is a documentary and portrait photographer and an artist living and working in Nottinghamshire.
Her sensitivity to situations, culture and people, has allowed her to adapt well to new challenges and environments. She captures her images by getting involved with people, their culture and lifestyle, which motivates her to preserve those times and moments. Knowledge and empathy with her subjects is the key to her image success, especially when intimate portraits are involved.
With an open mind and a quest to explore extreme situations, places, cultures, people and learn from that interaction. She intend to travel more, in doing so broaden her abilities. Often able to impart new skills to individuals in an exchange for their confidence in her, which has allowed her to bond with them easily.
When a friend sent a link to her website I was, of course, immediately interested in the vardo. Looking beyond the structure, there is wonderful documentation of life on the road. An exterior wash stand tripod, pragmatic stairs, cooking tripod, and the ubiquitous tea kettle extend the home.
A homey interior, with an eye for beauty is shown in this “typical” vardo.
A rare site where I live. Nomads and Travellers are not often welcome in the modern world. I’m glad this couple can live as they wish.
More details are documented on her website. I picked a few of my favorites for this post.
And let’s not forget the people who keep this tradition alive. It’s all well to look at the staged “gypsy” wagons across the web, but it’s important to remember that these are truly home, made complete by their inhabitants.
A way to make a living. I still remember the knife grinder who made his way around the city in St. Louis many years ago. His was not quite this flashy but had the housewives scurrying out with handfuls of knives and scissors when he came around. I suspect that’s a rare job in America today.
Many more images from this series and others are viewable on Nukshi’s website. Have a look and read the little story that accompanies the photos.
A while back I came up on a hawk who appeared to have caught something. Then suddenly there was a blur, some thrashing, and here’s what I saw when I got to it. In wrestling, we would call that a reversal. Who’s the boss now? I decided to break it up for the good of the hawk. Both of those guys help keep the rodent population down and the snake couldn’t eat the hawk. It seemed a needless death to me.
This is just a re-visitation of a much older post someone recently asked me to find. Click the photo for the link.
15 August 2013, 1827 MT
Some much needed rain this week in central New Mexico…
I have seen photos from this book around the web for a while now. A fair number of “hippie” Brits are living mobile, a difficult thing to do in the U.S. Iain McKell has done a wonderful job of photo-documenting the unique, beautiful, sometime spartan accommodations used by these folks on the move. If I get back to Britain I will try to track these people down.
I have to admit, I’m mainly in it for the wagons. None of these look like high-speed movers, but who really needs that when it is home?
Most of these clearly appear to be restored (more or less) original horse-drawn wagons. Bow Tops, Open Lots, a Showman or two, but others look to be a bit more home-grown.
A close examination of the photos show some interesting clues to life on the road. I particularly like the “tip out” on the above wagon. I suspect it is for sleeping more people but I can imagine an outside space protected like this for cooking or storage. Hmmm, next project?
In my opinion, wagons like this are a great alternative for the modern nomad, as long as one can find a safe place to settle for the night or week or month. As with the Romani gypsies, modern travelers, living outside the norm of the greater social group are likely always to face fear and suspicion from the mainstream culture. Unfortunately, this will probably always be the way of the world.
I think there will always be some of us who are okay existing outside the “normal”, expected behaviors of our peers. In a case such as this, or other fringe social groups (e.g., the Society of Primitive Technology) we can find kindred spirits who may understand our outlook in ways not found in more mainstream lifestyles.
Please have a look at the art of Iain McKell and be sure to scroll down the left side of links to see more of his photos, including some fine shots of traveler’s wagons.
I was fortunate enough to see an amazing wildlife battle yesterday evening. It was life at its rawest on the Llano Estacado. I wanted to be an impartial observer but, being human, I stepped in and intervened. I live in a rural area with a lot of wildlife including many raptors and snakes. It is not uncommon to see a hawk swoop down and catch a rabbit, rat, mouse, or lizard. I was heading home to eat so I wasn’t too concerned with watching when a large hawk landed hunched over some prey out in the scrub. I went past to check our back gate and came back the same way a minute later. I saw the hawk was hopping around and it looked like it was fighting something. Due to the brush and growing darkness I couldn’t tell what it was fighting with but wanted to have a closer look. There was a split second of frenzied activity and suddenly the hawk was flipped onto its back on the ground. Luckily, I had a camera so I was able to snap off this shot.
She looks shocked! I would have had a hard time believing it had I not seen it. A relatively small snake was all over the hawk and choking the life out of it. It was dark and my initial thought was that it had been bit by a prairie rattler. The hawk’s beak was open, eyes bulging and obviously gasping for air. Closer inspection showed the snake to be a gopher snake, and net even a very big one.
My presence was obviously upsetting everybody and there was more thrashing. The snake was able to hide under the feathers pretty effectively. I wanted to just grab the snake and unwind it but images of being bitten or clawed by a frightened hawk kept me at a little distance. Not sure what to do next I was able to call someone down to give me hand.
Can you see terror in her eyes? At this point I was pretty sure the hawk was done for as the snake had three coils around its neck. So, I could let it die and have one less chicken killer around or save her to help keep down the rodent population.
I grabbed a yucca stalk to help hold the hawk down while I grabbed for the snake and tried to avoid talons. I doubt it would have done much but it was all I had.
Here I am awkwardly pulling snake out with one hand and holding the hawk away with the stick.
She got up, staggered around, shook herself out and flew up into a nearby tree.
This irritated snake actually pursued me, snapping at me until I left. I can’t blame it. That was a traumatic event.
Anyway, it was a wordy story. I have spent a lot of time outdoors and seen many interesting animal behaviors but nothing like this before.
I have returned from Rabbitstick 2009 and will upload some photos of the event. For those who don’t know or just stumbled into this page, this event is a gathering of people who are seriously interested in primitive technology. Its a place to learn, teach, and exchange ideas on subjects not easily found elsewhere. Photos from past Primitive Technology events are posted here.
This is a view of a beautiful skin-on-frame kayak made by Kiliii of Dancing Hawk.
Preindustrial Craftsmanship 