What if? Nasty pets.

The title sounds strange but its the best I could come up with. Over the years I have had a few snakes as a hobby. They were corn snakes, Elaphe guttata guttata. They're well know for their good disposition and make great beginner snakes. The one pictured at the top is from Google Images and is representative of the species. Breeders have made quite a few interesting varieties such as albino, amelenistic and so on. The beautiful patterns being bred are amazing.
I have been to a lot of reptile shows and there's something that down right scares me. If you ask the right people in the right way, you will enter the world of back room dealing, usually a motel room near the show or even a van in the parking lot. These places are sometimes called the "hot zone" because what you find are deadly, poisonous and usually illegal reptiles. These are called "hot herps" and most of the time there are more than reptiles available for the right money. A few of my herp friends have told me stories about the great buy on Russel's viper babies, spectacled cobra babies and other insane purchases. Most of these creatures were illegally imported (smuggled) into the US. One fellow I knew bragged about bringing a dozen Australian tiger snake babies home on an airliner in his carry on bag. This was before 911 but it should have been found none the less. Another ran his mouth off about how he had a group of juvenile pit vipers (I don't remember the species, but they were from Africa) that struck so fast they terrorized him and he could only feed them pinkies (newborn mice) with a pair of long tongs. One wackbag had the misfortune of having a box of newborn, newly captured Mojave rattlesnake's ( the deadliest species in North America) turnover in his van on the way to a meet in Los Angles. That must have made for some exciting driving on I-10! Another friend told me the story of a collector from Indonesia who brought a box of funnel spiders (deadly and very aggressive) from Australia to a show for back room dealing. There is a lot of money to be made.
Now, here's what really bothers me. Scenario: there is a major earthquake, riots, economic collapse, name your poison. The collector who owns these deadly creatures has released them because he's A-crazy B-can't afford to take care of them C-he's dead and unknowing looters have let the wee beasties loose. Now we have a real big problem. These things will breed if they are in the right environment and your troubles have multiplied. Its not really a major threat and doesn't rank up there with lack of water, food, shelter and civility. But, it compounds the survival problem and adds an unnecessary concern to the already mind boggling situation. There may  be some anti-venom for native fauna available-maybe-but, for exotics, I don't think there is a chance of having any. Plus, having to deal with an animal who's habits and actions you know nothing about really sucks.Having to deal with exotic deadly creatures just adds more chaos into the mix.

The Pocket Cooker

I had a chance to fire up the pocket cooker. I used some scraps of seasoned hardwood, species unknown, but just about everything grows here in central California so it could be anything. (I make it a habit to pick up any small pieces of hardwood, 24" or less long, in my travels. Its amazing how much is wasted when folks cut down the trees in their yards ). Any way, I got the stove burning good, no sweat, and after it was eating the big stuff (about 4" long and 1" diameter) I set my Zebra pot (model 14CM) on with about 32oz. of water. 4 minutes and I had a rolling boil. Outside weather conditions, light rain, cloudy, no wind and 45F. I give it an A+. Tom Sciacca, who owns Campingsurvival.com (where I bought this one at a very good price) said he would like to see a titanium version of this stove. Since the steel one like mine weighs 2 pounds a titanium model would be sweet. Probably weigh about 8 to 10 oz.? I used to make lots of coffee can stoves and this one works on the same basis, but being made of much thicker steel it will last a very long time provided a person treats it good. My coffee can stoves rarely made it through a summer without major rust out/ burn out.

Location and resources

These photos were taken at Hospital Rock in Sequoia National Park. This area was a favorite haunt of the local tribes such as the Yokuts and the Tubatulabal. There is still an abundance of food in this area. Black bear, deer, and several species of small game are found here. I wouldn't doubt grizzly bears were frequent visitors to the local river and streams. At one time salmon and trout as well as other fish were abundant in the nearby waters. The first three photos show ancient pictographs or rock drawings made by tribes who lived in the area. Obviously they considered this area very important. Near the drawings are several acorn grinding mortars carved into solid granite.





This next photo shows an interpretive sign near the mortar holes. Left click on it to enlarge. It explains quite a bit about the use of these mortars.

This is a photo of part of the rock showing several mortars.


Here's a closeup of some of the mortar holes.

This photo shows a pair of ground squirrels on a nearby boulder. These would be trapped or hunted with bows and arrows or rabbit sticks.

In this next photo you can see a variety of trees that would supply materials and food. The purple trees are Western Redbud. It was used extensively for basket making. Other valuable trees are Oak and California Buckeye. Obviously Oak supplied the acorns (I identified 4 species of Oak in the immediate area) and California Buckeye was used for fishing in the nearby streams. The buckeyes were ground up and added to the water in a still area or a place that was dammed temporarily. The alkaloids in the buckeye seeds stunned the fish causing them to float to the surface where they were easily gathered. California Buckeye was also used as "starvation food" as a last resort. The seeds were buried in mud until they turned black. This leached the poison out of them making them safe to eat. Also growing amongst the trees is Mountain Mahogany, currants, gooseberries and several other species of edible and useful plants.

If you left click on this photo you'll see several tall stalks, especially on the hillside on the right. These are the flower stalks of Yucca. The stalks themselves were used for many different objects such as arrow quivers, musical instruments and hearth boards for fire making. The fresh seed pods are edible and the leaves contain strong fibers for cordage making.

This last photo gives you an idea of the abundance of fresh water found here. For further information on the Indian tribes who lived here there are several books available. My favorite is Paul Campbell's "Survival Skills of the Native Californians". Do an Amazon search for California Indians to see other books available.

Tule reed boat building

I saw this article in the Fresno Bee newspaper about some Indian children building a tule reed boat like their ancestors. Very cool! Here's a link to the article:

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/sv/v-printerfriendly/story/783811.html

Anyone familiar with Paul Campbells book "Survival Skills of Native California" will remember his writing about tule use's. Margaret Wheat also covers Tule use in her book "Survival Arts of the Primitive Paiutes". Both are very good books and are available on Amazon.