JMB Spring Term Day 29

Date: May 19, 2009
Location: JMB, Masardis, Maine

The "4-hour" bow is taking me quite a bit longer than 4 hours. I spent the whole morning tillering one side of the bow. The afternoon I spent angling down on the river. I didn't catch anything. This was the first fishing I had done in a long time and it was good to review the process.

Accomplishments and Observations:
1) Review angling basics
2) Learned the clinch knot
3) Worked on "4-hour bow"
4) Cooked rice, lentils, and potatoes in sun oven

Initial Reflections:
I am going to take my spokeshave to the bow tomorrow. I really need to be taking off more material. I "almost" caught a trout. We are going fishing again tomorrow so hopefully I will have better luck.

Current Reflections:
Fishing was, and continues to be, an emotionally complicated experience for me. I was a vegetarian for quite a while and rarely ascribe strict moral superiority to humans. I find it difficult to balance what I know, intellectually, to be true (subsistence predation is amoral) with my distaste for taking animal life. I eat meat and am aware of the deep ethical problems with industrial agriculture. I want to hunt and fish because those skills are important, my hypocrisy is irksome, and the experience binds you to the land.