Of fairydiddles and Wilderness

A fairydiddle is a type of flying squirrel with hairy tufts in its ears and wilderness, well that is self explanatory.

The opportunity to actually live ones dreams is a genuinely American Dream, though people all over the world all share the dream of actually living their dreams. I was one of the lucky ones to actually live one of my life long dreams.

You may have heard of movies that I would call "Wilderness family Alaska". Well, my family and I starting in 1980 began our dream of "Wilderness family California". Now, to most of you worldwide, California is just Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and maybe Sacramento and Yosemite national Park with mountains, ocean and desert thrown in.
Well, for those of you who haven't physically explored the state like me, the state is somewhere between 600 to 800 miles north to south(depending from what two points you measure from) and I would have to guess 150 to 200 miles wide West to East. Within the state are an incredible array of Wilderness areas, even near to Los Angeles, that people wouldn't expect from other areas of earth.

I was introduced to the Mt. Shasta, California area by my parents within the first 2 months of my life in June 1948. And since this area was one of the headquarters for their religion I spent at least 2 weeks a year there from age 5 on through age 21. So it is no surprise that I looked for my personal amazing wilderness area in the vicinity of Mt. Shasta.

In 1980 my wife, 2 stepkids(a son and daughter) and my son from my first marriage bought land (2 1/2 acres) on the side of Mt. Shasta bordering a wilderness area. There was no electricity available but there was a spring and a septic tank9on opposite ends of the land and a toilet house already installed on the property. The porcupines gnawed the insides of the toilet house after they ate through the walls.(they like the glue of plywood) so after I built my A-frame I would be woken up in the middle of the night with incessant gnawing. I would run down and scare them away or just throw a rock or boot at the small structure and they would leave or just be quiet for a while. Though I don't like them eating my toilet room I tend to like porcupines except when they do that or harm a dog I'm friends with. Anyway, my neighbor was also bothered by the porcupine and finally shot it. I like animals I don't shoot them unless they are a physical threat to me or my family. Also, this was the early 1980s.

Homeschooling our children there 6 to 8 months a year was a really great experience. First, home schooled children tend not to become (anti-adult adult haters) like most public school children do. Also, they tend to be very self directed and well liked by most adults because they tend to love and respect adults and actually listen to them to learn everything they can from them. So home schooled children are mostly like A student teachers pets because they are really happy not being tortured by being beat up in school by kids who don't want to be there.

However, remember in regard to educating your child that the only real reason to put your child in any school is socialization. If it weren't for that EVERY child would be better off home schooled or charter schooled.

It has been found that left to their own devices chidren tend to eventually educate themselves(if they are around people who have been educated at least through high school). Also, if parents have been to college this is also a good influence on children.

It is very unfortunate that most public schools in big cities and other places are more a place of baby sitting and no longer actually places of education unless one wants to learn about bad behavior, drugs, sex and partying from other kids. This is an unfortunate truth about public schools nationwide. I remember a college Logics professor talking to the class about how public schools had become "babysitting reformatories" and harmed kids more than helped them in 1990.

I should tell the "fairydiddle" story now before I get any further off on some tangent or other. One day it was overcast and very quiet at the land.(By the way, the land was 10 miles from the nearest gas station, 3 miles from the nearest paved road etc.)I took a walk and walked off my land onto an adjoining public green belt area. As I was walking all of a sudden I heard a scolding chirping sort of sound. It was extremely loud and I couldn't believe this amazingly loud raucous sound came from a flying squirrel. The squirrel was standing on the side of a 4 foot through cedar tree well over 100 feet high in the forest of:(pine, fir, oak and cedar trees all wild).

I started to laugh when I saw the source of the loud sounds because the squirrel was upside down with his head toward the ground about 12 feet up the tree and I realized this flying squirrel was making this racket so I would leave. It was so incongruous to me that I must have laughed in surprise and glee and the absurdity of the whole experience. So when I was walking my dogs through the ferns and pines and oaks of where I now live on the Northern California Coast I thought of the fairydiddle scolding me and laughed and decided to share this amazing experience with you.
Oh, by the way, another reason this was so funny was that not only was the squirrel upside down on the 4 foot wide 100 foot plus tall Cedar tree at about 12 feet up, the squirrel jumped up and down the tree with each loud "chirp" that almost broke ones eardrums like fingernails across a blackboard. Because it was so completely unexpected as well as unfathomable at first it typifies the amazing things one can encounter when out in the wilderness over time.

By the way, there were no phones, no cell phones, no police, no firemen, no help (except neighbors) within 10 to 15 miles of here. So this was not a place to be if one had health problems and needed a hospital in an emergency. The nearest full hospital was 20 to 30 miles away in the City of Mt. Shasta.

I look upon 1980 to 1985 when we lived 6 to 8 months a year this remote on our land and one of the happiest eras of my life. Between 1980 and 1989 I got to live most of my young man's dreams. I lived in the wilderness and home schooled my kids. Then In 1985 I went to Thailand, India and Nepal for 4 months. We had 6 months available but 4 out of the 5 of us got ghiardia(protazoa in large intestines) by the beginning of the 4th month. Though one doesn't usually die of this one gets very skinny.

The last young man's dream I lived was soloing in a Cessna 152(a two passenger airplane) many times in 1989. Though I have other dreams and many others have been fulfilled my young man's dreams were amazing to live in real time in real life from 1980 to 1989.