WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR OCTOBER 2020

I will never understand fully why I had a desire to live in the mountains and live primitive. I can’t explain my obsession with reading every book about the American Indians and Western mountain people the library had to offer. I read every book about wilderness survival I could find. I wasn’t running away from anything or defying modern society. I wasn’t anti-establishment or rebelling against social injustice. I wasn’t off on some enlightened spiritual journey, many of which were gaining popularity in those days. Stories of Indian and pioneer women had a special appeal to me.

My grandparents passed down so many stories to me and at puberty, I had many questions that my Great Grandma from American Indian and German Sinti heritage answered without hesitation. She was not one to sugarcoat or dance around a question. She had zero sense of humor. She was direct and used as few words as possible to answer questions. Nearing seventy trips around old sol and I still don’t know when to shut up. I am a good listener but do love my time to exercise my jaws in a rapid manner. I remember my Grandma that was teaching me to prune fruit trees saying, “Faetta honey, if we could just hook that saw up to your jaws there would branch flying everywhere.” Learning to shut the hell up is on my bucket list, howbeit near the bottom.

Over the years when I have talked with interested women about my life, it is the years in the mountains as a solo female that seem to spur the most interest and questions. When I shared stories of my wilderness survival, there were many questions that I was asked by a few brave women who let curiosity overrule their finishing school manners.

The most common question is what did you do during your period to replace female absorbent sanitation products? The simple answer is tree moss. Yes, that green stuff that grows on trees in the western USA is very effective in soaking up blood and easily disposed of by burning, leaving no blood smell that might attract carnivores. Bears especially can be a problem. The moss is held in place by a leather pouch that has strings for tying. This predecessor of the thong or G string could be reused by hanging high over the campfire to smoke which destroyed any blood smell. It was only worn during periods. I wanted to experience mountain life just as my great grandmothers had.

What did I do in other non-menstruation times for panties while on my survival trips in the woods while wearing my homemade buckskin skirt? I didn’t wear any. It was really easy to remove my skirt and wade out in a stream pool and clean up. Sometimes I left my buckskin crop top on, sometimes not. Sometimes I celebrated being female by dancing around nude in a high mountain pasture among the wildflowers. Spring and fall were my favorite times for such female empowerment.

The next common question from women was and is, “Living alone and being young and hormonal, how did you deal with urges of a hormonal kind?” My answer is short and simple. Like so much of my life during those days, whether building, repairing, cooking, gardening, sewing, tanning hides, etc., I took matters into my own hands.