Morning time on the eastern side of Camanche Iowa one can be easily be awaken to the sound of a thousand honks that seem never ending. An outsider at first would be astonished at all the different variety's and immense sounds, and honks created by these elegant creatures. But on the otherside of the spectrum a native would be able to tell you the truth, that these sounds are actually a cruel, annoying way of nature making sure we have to get out of bed in the morning. I could describe these sounds to you as non stop mating of a couple creating the most annoying sound know to man. So next time you here the sound of geese tooting away, make sure and think of what harm they are actually causing to other people.

O'Brien relates to his environment in many different aspects in life. Like a lot of the other authors read in class, O'Brien bases his lifestyle around nature and his heard of buffalo. This is how he makes his living and gets bye in life, and when there seems to be no hope and giving up on his dreams and land, is the best option, O'Brien manages to find a way to get another job and somehow keep his land and heard alive. O'Brien could use his land more efficiently to try and replenish the land that is knocked over and killed by the herd. He does the best he can it said but there has to be other options like trying to plant crops that don't need sufficient nutrients to grow.

Over spring break I traveled to Galveston Texas. Most of my time was spent on the beach hanging out with old friends and drinking beer. The weather was warm and it felt good to dig my toes into the fine grain sand. Gulf waves would come crashing in creating a whooshing sound which gave me a sense of comfort, pelicans would then fly overhead making unison turns starting with the leader all the way back to the last pelican. This movement of the pelicans reminded me of a slinky and it seemed like the pelicans were having a lot of fun showing off there magical movements.

Abbey

Abbey grabbed my attention right away as a reader. He uses a weird dry sense of humor such as I like my job, and I might even say munificent pay at 1.95 per hour. Abbey then goes on to say that the joy of nature is his incentive for what he does. I think the point that Edward was trying to make was that even though people create large National Parks and think of these places and natural untouched preserves, there is still a touch of grey to every park brought by tourism and industrialism. Edward wants to bring attention to the public that there not yet ruining nature at any means to this extent, but to bring awareness to the point that near future destruction could happen.

In Theodore Roosevelt's speech at Grand Canyon I think the intended audience is people who have a feeling and touch with nature but who just needed a little more inspiration to get out there and do something. His intention of the speech was to draw attention to the way of the Indians way of life and how they used every resource they could. We tend to waste a lot of garbage and don't give a shit what we throw away or recycle. Roosevelt saw this a long time ago and felt it needed to be brought to everyones attention.

In Scott Momaday's writing "A First Views of His Land the message he is trying to give to the audience is the one of respect for the beauty of nature. He says "The earth is our mother. The sky is our father." Momaday believes strongly in Indians way of life. They used nature to its fullest and didn't waste resources. Momaday then goes on to write that in our society as a whole we conceive of the land in terms of ownership and use. This sense of belief is no different then our views on our cars and appliances. Momaday wishes people would learn to respect the land and nature and preserve the earth and life upon it.

After this reading Walden I found the views of both Thoreau and McCandless to be very similar in many ways. Both are individuals that feel something is wrong with the way people live their lives today and seek freedom by reverting to nature. Thoreau states on pg. 19 "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately , to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." McCandell's and Thoreau both wanted to live with nature and what it offered to them. Another thing that struck me was the fact that both knew that they still had human needs such as shelter. Thoreau built his shelter out of trees and constructed a house, while McCandless found a bus that hes used for shelter. I feel McCandless was more of a visual and comprehensive learner than Thoreau and found his knowledge by reading materials and information given to him by others. While on the other hand Thoreau learned through experience and was a doer and learned by mistake.

Wildness Symposium

I attended the last scheduled event on the schedule and the speaker was to be Rick Bass. So far I had enjoyed the reading from Rick so was more excited than I thought I would be. I had never been to such an event before so I had no clue what to expect. So I went into the sun room with and open mind. It was also my first time sitting in the sunroom. The sunroom is very cozy and perfect for such events.

First up there was a young lady who is a student at ISU and she was giving Rick's introduction. She did a wonderful job and there were quite a few people there but she showed to nervousness. Then Rick took the stage.

Rick was going to read two stories for us. He had a glass of what looked like some kind of beer in it. I found myself wondering what kind of beer was Ricks choice, I'd like to think he was drinking budwieser. Rick began reading the first story which was about food and experience. I choose my picture of the owl perched on the car because I though it was a funny picture I had in my head from his story. The first story was good but the story that caught my attention was the second one. I forgot the name of it, but it was about the experience he had when he was young when the freshwater met the saltwater. He talked about how the fish would get stunned and you could catch them. But the message he gave was important to me. He said this was the last one that ever happened. I think the message Rick was trying to get across was a lot bigger than it seemed. He is saying things are happening to the environment from human regularities and action needs to be taken quickly or things will start to disappear.

Free

I lay on my back starring up,

the sun beats down and if it wasn't for these sunglasses I might go blind,

Another advantage of wearing these shades is the fact no one can see my lazy eyes,

I can also check out every babe walking bye in their sexy suits without any notice,

I dig a little hole with my feet pushing the warm sand to the sides,

Little two foot waves move from north to south down the mighty Mississippi,

I feel FREE

Back Home

The first line in this poem, says Everything crawls-the green black walls is good concrete language. It grabbed my attention at first because I could just picture the destruction and how the moldy green and black walls were crawling. Then the poem goes back to using this line in the middle of the poem but this time she says, Everything crawls. The drooped ceiling through soft splintered slats.

Reading this poem made me kind of sad having never been through such a disaster before. I couldn't imagine coming back to your house after a hurricane and seeing everything that has been destroyed. Patricia Smith begs her new history to hold still, she doesn't want to let go of what she had and start over but there is absolutely no choice. Everything is destroyed and time must start again.

Its 1 am. on what was suppose to be a fun night out with the friends, but some people just can't handle being out on an island sitting around a camp fire. These people didn't belong out here and I had no clue how they had got out here. I'm blaming my cousin for driving them to the island. Anyways its my turn to return these wimps back to the mainland. My brain was somewhere else so this could be a dangerous trip. I get everyone in my boat, make it through the back water to the main channel and return every one back safely. Except myself of course, I now had to drive back alone in the pitch black with blurry vision. I made it across the channel without hitting a bouyie or anything but as soon as I made it in the backwaters BOOM! I had hit a submerged tree and was stuck.


Laying on my back I stare up at the sun looking away every two seconds because of the pain. Grunt my yellow lab runs bye me and shakes off the wet drops from hits fur coat, damn dog that was cold. Some good old classic rock plays from the radio and in this moment I am happy.

Questions for Terry Tempest Williams and Rick Bass

Rick Bass in the nine wolves on page 761 you vividly describe how a rabid pack of wolves would mutulate a deer. I was just wondering if this was a in life experience that you actually got to wittness?

Terry Tempest Williams I was just wondering why you would be so concerned with the survival of something like the screeching owl?

Rick Bass if a wolf pack were to venture down south more say into a place such as southern Wisconsin and kill a human being how do you think the public would react?

Hometown

This image is taken from a park in my hometown of Clinton Iowa. This is pool 13 and the widest part of the Mississippi River. This image represents how relaxing and soothing the water can be. When you needed sometime to vent and escape you could go out on a boat or just walk around the river banks listening to nature. On weekends this place usually turns into a zoo of boaters flocking to near by beaches for some fun. The image could be represented differently if blown up to a larger size. It is hard to tell how wide this area of the river really is.

Reading Like a Writer

The specific details that stuck in my head were how upset the young kid was when the burrowing owls were run out of their home. I think that this goes to show that everyone has something that they show great appreciation for that will be taken away sometime in life. It could be a loved one or it could be a field you once visited that is now inhabited by new housing sub divisions. The young kid takes his anger out on the Canadian Goose Hunting club when in the end they were just trying to find their form of an escape too. It just so happens that where they set up took over someone elses escape.

Standing upon this bluff I gaze out over the river and feel one with nature. Sun rays beam down on me while the wind gently blows keeping me cool and comfortable. Gazing down the edge of this 300 ft. bluff suddenly fills my stomache with butterflies, but is quickly replaced by the soothing sounds of the morning birds singing. This is the widest part of the Mississippi River and seems to look more like a monstorous lake than any sort of river. Lillipads cover the edges of the river providing quiet hiding spots for creatures. Nature hows now drawn all my senses into a transe but is then rudely interuppted by friend honking the car yelling it's time to leave. Im snapped back to reality and leave my post but will return someday soon.