February Last Twenty-Thirteen

I have been working out a plan for a modern folk tale. Much like Pinocchio, it would be written in installments. These chapters would bring to life a new wooden boy, a bit like the lead character of the famous folk tale, but in this new incarnation, it would be loosely based on my own experiences as a bioregional boy, a son of the Great Lakes, father of three spirit guides in their own right, grandfather to a third generation of change makers and he who speaks for the trees. The bones of our civilization have been built with the skeletal remains of the forests which once carpeted the Great Lakes Region. I have sheltered amongst those bones for nearly my entire life and have come out of that woodwork to share unique insights that have been born in the crucible of living, borne on hope across vast torrents and tumult.

Like messages in a bottle, my words will be sent out into the digital seas that wash the planet and for those who wish to read my dispatches, I am asking to be paid. What seems odd is that other writers sell out to corporate interests, but I ask those who are interested in a story like mine to subscribe. I'm not exactly sure how to limit access to these writings, but I'm sure it will not be too hard. My goal is to have the stories begin in the fall, when story telling is supposed to take place, after harvest chores are finished and long winter nights come upon us again. If you are interested in receiving my installments, please let me know and I will keep you informed about how to get the whole story.

In other news...

Several interesting properties are available along the shores of Lake Superior and I have gotten assurances from a lawyer friend of mine that he will help establish a land trust to protect as many acres as we can in the headwaters of our greatest lake. Any and all proceeds from my installment book will go toward securing acreage in the Lake Superior Watershed. This land, by decree will only be used as for trace camping, ecological education tours, permaculture, retreats and reforestation projects. Donations to ECO-Tours of Wisconsin earmarked for land acquisition as well as donations for the actual reforestation efforts can flow through Paypal. Conveniently, our email address is the same as our paypal account number, so if you plan to visit or vacation in and around the Wisconin side of either Lake Michigan or Lake Superior, let us know and we can develop an ECO-Tour just for you! tnsaladino42@hotmail.com

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This is a view to the north from our current home base. This yard has been alternately covered with Maypole activities, evening fire pit parties, landscape pots full of trees, bio-char demonstration plots, permacultural plantings and many other propagation efforts. Our burgeoning gardens are in beds made out of reclaimed concrete from ECO-Tours depaving projects.

When we moved here ten years ago, the soil was like a baked earthenware vessel, red and devoid of nearly all life. Today, it is frozen, but not for long. when it thaws, it will be the darkest loam around. The urge to set seeds is growing, but perhaps I will wait a few more days...

All of these blog posts are free, obviously, but please take a moment to consider what three and a half years of writing would be worth if you had to buy it on the open market. Nearly three hundred posts are available to you here and now, with more to come. Even at a dime a piece, that's thirty magic beans worth of writing. At one dollar per post, it would be three hundred magic beans. Believe me, when ECO-Tours of Wisconsin starts getting donations like that, we will be able to buy land the same day. Thousands of readers are out there. We, both readers and myself, just need to step up the efficiency with which we make change happen. I'm sure that my readers share a commitment to healing the planet. If you did not, my words would often be hard to read. Even on the limited budget that we have faced over the past seven years or so, we have continued to plant native trees. It took us over fourteen years to plant our first sixty-thousand  tree seedlings. The second sixty thousand we got planted in just over six years. Now, we have planted over one million tree seeds in a single weekend. Although this revolution is not being televised, we wish you to be part of the healing and to participate in our efforts when you get near North and East Wisconsin. As more people learn about what we do and how we go about it, we are growing exponentially and would like you all to become a more integral part of our efforts.