Depending on the kindness of strangers

An open letter to all of the strangers in the world.

Some projects with you work out better than others.

Perhaps it's because I'm a literal person, but when somebody says they're going to do something or be somewhere at a certain time, I tend to believe them. (Alien abductions and natural disasters aside.)

Recently I've been involved with two projects, both with people fairly new to me and I'm amazed at how differently the two have worked out.

The first project was designing a melon trellis for the Trellis About It competition. The competition was put on by the same people who do Backyard Harvest - to design a melon trellis suited for small spaces in cramped urban backyards. (Yes, you can grow melons and even all sorts of squash on a trellis. The only thing to be careful of is to make sure you support the fruit when it begins to develop.)

Things with my partner and I didn't end up working out. I won't go in to details about that here because this is a public post, after all. And everyone has a bad week now and again. But since our design didn't get a fair shake in competition I thought I'd talk it up here. Here is the final version of the model.

The black pipes are meant to be filled with water, which accomplishes two things. Clay pots at the bottom of the black pipes slowly release the water into the soil - watering automatically and gradually. And the water stores the solar energy during the daytime and releases heat at night, similar to the system of water-filled black barrels that line the southern walls of many solar greenhouses. The rectangles of fabric represent burlap, which would be tied to structure to support the fruit on the vines. The lack of support for individual fruits is a weakness, I think, in most of the trellis designs I've seen.

As a side note, this project was a dangerous sort of validation for my packrat tendencies since the little black plastic tubes I've been saving from Bella's doggie bag rolls and the small clay pots I found at a garage sale somewhere turned out to be ideal materials for the model.

The second project has worked out swimmingly and I can't say enough good things about Critique Circle. I've been looking for a good way to get some feedback on my writing without adding yet another weekly meeting to my schedule, so despite my trepidations I decided to try it out. Fellow writers will need no explanation for the why this website would make someone nervous but for those strangers who don't write, here's why. Getting critiques of your writing is like handing someone a large sharp knife, laying down in front of them and closing your eyes. It requires a great deal of trust, and finding someone who is good at critiquing your work is as difficult as finding a good friend. The person critiquing your work needs to understand a little bit about your style, find some interest in your work, and be talented enough to tell you what you're doing wrong in a tactful constructive way.

I don't think I can pin down what Critique Circle has done so well that makes their system work. It could be that the critiques you give others are rated so that you get feedback on how helpful you are. It could be that you have to critique others' work in order to post your own, so there's always enough work to go around. It could be that their community has grown large enough that there's always something to critique in the forums that fits your style (and always someone who fits your style to critique you). But whatever it is, I can recommend Critique Circle to aspiring writers everywhere.

And I haven't given up on the kindness of strangers.

Jay Cooke State Park: A Park for All Seasons

An open letter to anyone who hasn't visiting Jay Cooke State Park:

You should go. I've now been to Jay Cooke in the fall and winter and I honestly can't choose which one was more beautiful.

If you're not into hiking, just drive to the park headquarters and take the short walk to the swinging bridge. So go already. :)

Gruesome Things I Now Know

To all the people who might be out in the wilderness with me at some point -

It never occurred to me before I heard about this wilderness first aid course that I should have taken some first aid courses before leading trips, but once I heard about it I had to go. So last weekend I spent 16 hours learning all sorts of gruesome facts about how to deal with injuries in the wilderness.

Wilderness first aid courses are a bit different from normal first aid courses. In the city, if someone has a serious fall and might have hurt their back you call 911 and wait for the paramedics to arrive. In the back country, there are more difficult decisions to make. You are farther from help so those in need of first aid need to be stabilized for longer periods of time, and you may be moving people who you would leave in place if an ambulance were going to arrive in 20 minutes.

Here are some gruesome things you might to know if you're heading on a trip soon:

If you get partial thickness or full thickness frostbite in the back country, do not attempt to thaw the frozen part of the body where you are unless:
1) you are more than eight hours from help
or
2) you are sure that you can keep the part thawed until you reach assistance.
The second freeze does more damage than the first, so you want to avoid thawing a part just to have it refreeze. Also, once thawed the part will be extremely painful and may impair evacuation. If you are less than 8 hours from help, it is better to have the victim walk out on a frozen foot, than to thaw the foot, have to carry them out, and then have the foot refreeze.

Fractures of the femur can often cause the large muscles in the area to spasm. This causes the ends of the break to rub together and can lead to more internal damage You can treat fractures of the femur with a traction splint, that pulls down on the leg at the same time it holds it straight. (Please don't learn how to do a traction splint from just anyone - if you're interested take a class!)

If you have to treat a large gaping wound, pack the wound open with clean gauze and evacuate immediately. Large wounds are difficult to clean well, and closing an improperly cleaned wound can cause infection. According to Wilderness First Aid, the wound can be sutured 2 to 3 days later.

I'd recommend taking the basic class to most anyone who regularly spends time doing outdoor trips.

Also, if I'm trying to help you and you see me pull me out a little field guide, don't be alarmed. You probably want me to have a crib sheet anyway.

Please don't follow this advice.

WCCO ran a story a couple of nights ago that suggested in order to not let Facebook destroy your marriage you need to share your password with your partner.

I don't know why people treat communication over the Internet as something that is completely foreign from other methods of communication.

If your partner must absolutely be able to see all of your communications on Facebook, set the privacy settings so your partner can read every post and see every friend. But don't share your password.

The fact is, if you really think you need your partner's Facebook password, you probably also need to get a few other things setup. Like recordings of all your partner's phone calls. And recordings of all of your partner's face to face conversations. While you're at it, you'll probably want access to their email as well. And you should probably make sure to read the entries in their journal every once in a while.

The story reminded me of all of those weekday talk shows where they do lie detector tests to determine if one partner has cheated on the other. Both situations come down to trust. If you feel like you need a lie detector test to determine if your partner is telling you the truth, then your relationship has issues beyond whether or not there was cheating.

So, in conclusion, don't share personal account passwords, Facebook or otherwise, with anyone. Ever.

This isn't the first time that people have mistakenly assumed that Facebook is so dangerous that they're entitled to someone else's password. In 2007, a high school cheerleading coach demanded the usernames and passwords of her students, eventually leading to an incident in 2009 where a student's private messages were read. In June 2009, the city of Bozeman in Montana was asking all employees to give up their facebook and myspace passwords.

I guess if you look hard enough, you can find boogeymen anywhere.

Winter, Frosted

Winter is always beautiful, but there are some times when it just takes my breath away. Last night we had fog and the conditions were just right to frost every branch, leaf, and twig in the neighborhood.

I got up early this morning (even though we were up late) to make sure I was able to get pictures of the frosting before the morning sun burned it away.

Thumbnails below (click on them to see the full photo):

Sled dogs are adorable

Full album here.

This weekend I got to see two wonderful things. The first was the start of the Apostle Island Sled Dog Races. I've never seen so many excited dogs in one place. And watching them run was delicious fun. And two - while we missed hiking along the ice to the sea caves because it was too warm, I took a beautiful walk along a trail in the Apostle Island National Lakeshore and saw the sea caves from above.

Here's my favorite picture of the dog, Meyer's Beach, and the sea caves.

Go enjoy the snow wherever you are!

Oh, poetry, my poetry

Every once in a while you discover a wonderful book simply by wandering through the library and finding something that calls out to you.

Hand Work is one of those books.

If you enjoy poetry, check it out, you won't be disappointed.

Here's a short section from Quantum by Mary Logue.

We tumble through the world, holding
onto ourselves as if some day

we will go missing. In rare instances,
perceived in the right light,

we shine.