Authors

Hello!  My name is Elijah Cairo.  I am the main author and owner of this blog/website. I have a passion for all things natural and the beings which dwell within. I am a self-taught outdoorsman.  I have taught myself how to (roughly) flint knap, fish, hunt and garden.  I have been fishing for most of my life and from the age of four recall always owning a fishing pole despite no one in my immediate family fishing. Out of all my skills fishing is my strongest (especially in the field of freshwater catfishing). I only recently started gaining an interest in hunting/trapping when I first discovered Steven Rinella’s television show Meateater  during my freshman year of my undergraduate degree. Like many who have discovered the show,  I became deeply infatuated with the sheer beauty  and humility of the discipline. I somehow convinced both myself and my girlfriend of the time to take our state’s online hunters education and the rest is history.

Since then, I have learned numerous invaluable lessons that adult hunters may find useful regarding, scouting, blind location, wild forage identification, ideal cover, and weather adaption for whitetail deer. Since graduating college I am now making more time to go out into the woods and observe. Observation is what makes us human. Our ability to watch someone create something or do something teaches us in and of itself. I have used this skill in all avenues of my life as almost all of our issues are human derived and can be fixed or reduced through observation, especially in the field of gardening.

I learned how to garden the way most people do. I spent time in my grandmother’s backyard with my hands in the dirt playing with worms as my grandma transplants her seedlings she bought from the store. I recall observing her use of fertilizers and pesticides/herbicides to keep the hungry insect pests and weeds from stealing from our garden beds and her lawn. Since then I have learned how to raise my own seeds from scratch and how to garden without the use of nasty chemicals and artificial fertilizers through my time studying gardening/permacuture. Once you realize that the issues we are facing in our garden are nature’s ways of saying “something isn’t right here” and you start trying to emulate what you observe in the forest or prairie remnants does nature begin to work with you rather than against you.

While fishing I found the artifacts (seen above in the banner photo)  and began to grow interested in the history of using rocks as tools and the art that it is. It interested me so much that  I began researching how to flint knap and the tools I needed as well as the technique to producing flakes. This is my most recent endeavor but  I have learned so much from knapping  that translates to all of my hobbies/disciplines. I also enjoy the idea that the issues I am running into were happening to humans thousands of years ago (i.e. step fractures, breaking a piece, turtle backs, improper heat treating, finding knappable material, etc.). 

 Academically I have achieved two bachelor degrees in the field of ecology/conservation biology from the University of Kansas. I am eager to learn about new topics and share what  I have to offer. I do not claim to be a master at any of these skills, but wish to voice my passions and maybe inspire a few to do the same!