Welcome to my blog. I started this blog with the idea of sharing information about backpacking and camping with kids, and let’s be honest, selling my books, CAMPING WITH KIDS (Wilderness Press) and BACKPACKING WITH BABIES AND SMALL CHILDREN (newly rescued from being out-of-print by the Authors Guild Back In Print program with iUniverse). Then I realized that I lead a very interesting life. There is so much more to Goldie Gendler Silverman than those two books. So I will report on my Wednesday Walkie Talkie hiking group, and my writers groups (the Monday critique group and the monthly meetings of Seattle Free Lances), and my work with victims of domestic violence and with the homeless, and on my interesting travels, and my fantastic family, and anything else that strikes the fancy of an elderly Jewish grandmother who would rather find herself on the side of a mountain than almost any other place on earth. And one more thing–there will be something to learn in every single post!
20
Oct 09
Hello!
08
Mar 10
More About My Favorite Namibian
Goldie modeling Priscilla's sarong
It was the last morning of our stay in Namibia, the second stop in Overseas Adventure Travel’s fabulous five-week tour, Out of Africa. We gathered in the lodge after breakfast for a lecture on women’s lives. Priscilla talked to us about education, marriage, childbirth, work. She called me forward to demonstrate the woman’s traditional garment, a sarong that she could wrap around her waist like a skirt , or drape around her shoulders as a shawl, or wrap around her body as a baby carrier. Her sarong was black and white, with a print of giraffes. Then it was time to leave. The staff of the Lianshulu Bush Lodge sang a farewell, and we boarded the passenger boat that would take us down the Kwando River to our landing in Botswana. At the same time, the staff loaded our bags on a much faster boat, Priscilla at the helm with the giraffe sarong wrapped around her shoulders. Their boat raced ahead of us to get our bags unloaded before we arrived. When we reached the Botswana checkpoint, Priscilla told me that the wind had blown her shawl away, and it was lost in the river. I asked her how much it had cost, and she said $7. I thought at the time, I wish I could buy her a new length of cotton, but of course there was no place to shop on that isolated river bank.
Botswana’s Okavango Delta was our next stop, and then Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. No place anywhere to buy a new sarong. Our last stop in this first half of the trip was the city of Victoria Falls. We stayed in a real hotel, not a camp, but around the corner was an enormous crafts market. There is little work in Zimbabwe beyond tourism; very hungry people begged us to buy their wood carvings, their beadwork, their baskets, but I was already loaded down with crafts of three countries. Finally I saw what I was looking for: on a raised platform I saw heaps and piles of fabric. As I approached the women unfolded their wares and held them up for me, bright prints in every color you can imagine, but I was firm. “I want giraffes,” I kept repeating, “I want giraffes.” I didn’t hope to find black and white giraffes, I thought any giraffe print would do, but then I saw it! The very same black and white print that Priscilla and I had worn in Namibia. The negotiations began. This kind of back-and-forth bargaining is customary in many countries, but I hate it. Still I know it is expected. The seller started with an exorbitant price, $12. (Zimbabwe’s money system is non-existent. All commerce is done in US dollars or South African rand.) I countered with $4. She came down and I went up. We were at $7 and I thought she would come down to $6, but then I remembered what Priscilla had told me and I decided that $7 was the right price to pay.
The new sarong for Priscilla
Back at the hotel, I had Don take a picture of me modeling the new sarong. I asked our guide, Abiot, if he would take a new sarong to Priscilla if I bought one, and he said he would be going back to Lianshulu Bush Lodge on his next trip and would be happy to take it. “I knew you would say that!” I told him. “I already bought it!” That was on October 30. On December 2 I had an email from Nadja, the other manager of the lodge. “Priscilla has asked me to reply on her behalf. She has just received the letter and Sarong you sent for her with Abiot. Thank you so much for your kind thoughts and she cannot begin to express how much she appreciates it!”
01
Mar 10
My Best Photo from Africa: A Rainbow in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
My Best Photo from Africa: Ngorongoro Crater
It was raining when we reached our hotel on the edge of Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. The crater was full of mist. Everyone in our group went off to their rooms to read, rest, write in their journals or do laundry. Only Don and I remained in the mist on the big deck overlooking the crater. I had never carried a camera on our previous trips, but I was tired of always having to poke Don and say, “Take that one! Take that one!” For this trip I asked for a camera easy to use, and Don chose for me a Nikon coolpix L20. My grandson set it up for easy auto mode, and one of the guides in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe showed me how to access sixteen other modes, including landscape. That’s how I had it set that afternoon on the edge of the crater, waiting for the mist to clear. Finally we began to see the bottom of the crater, where there was a small pond. The sun came out, and there was this rainbow, cutting through the mist and reflected in the pond. This was my best picture in traveling for five weeks in the fall of 2009 on the Out of Africa trip with Overseas Adventure Travel.
26
Feb 10
Choking Accidents in Children and Risky Foods
Recently I read that the American Academy of Pediatrics wants parents to know that choking is one of the leading causes of injury and death in children, especially those under three years of age, and aspirated food is the most dangerous threat to children’s airways. In the second edition of Backpacking With Babies and Small Children, and in each subsequent edition including the most recent Authors Guild Backinprint.com Edition, I wrote:
“When you plan your menus for your hiking trips, be sure the foods you take are age-appropriate for your family. According to surveys conducted by Johns Hopkins University, the following foods were most often involved in fatal choking episodes in children under age five:
- Hot dogs, sausages
- Round candy
- Peanuts, nuts
- Grapes
- Hard cookies, biscuits
- Meat chunks or slices
- Raw carrot slices or sticks
- Peanut butter, peanut butter sandwiches
- Apple chunks or slices
- Popcorn”
In the third edition of Backpacking With Babies and Small Children, I added: “All of these are foods you might take with you when you hike. If you do, be sure your children are seated, not walking around, when they eat them. Cut the food into pieces small enough for your child to handle. Don’t introduce new solids on this list to your infant on a camping trip.” On the same page I wrote: “A child hiking along with a piece of hard candy in her mouth could easily choke on it. A mouthful of any food is a danger while walking, and candy on a stick is particularly perilous.”
12
Feb 10
Backpacking With Babies And Small Children is back in print
Backpacking With Babies And Small Children, which has been out of print for many years, has been re-issued as An Authors Guild Backinprint.com Edition by iUniverse. Look for it from iUniverse, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble. Like Camping With Kids (Wilderness Press), which is still available, Backpacking With Babies contains the wisdom of many, many camping and backpacking families. The phone numbers and URLs may be no longer viable, but the information on How To Backpack and Camp and keep the whole family safe and happy is ageless and universal. The new edition is an exact replica of the third edition, except for the new cover and new photo opposite the title page.
Backpacking With Babies And Small Children was first published in 1975 by Signpost Publications, the book division of Signpost, the news magazine for hikers in the Northwest that later evolved into Washington Trails Association. The idea for the book came from Louise Marshall, the founder of both Signpost and WTA. When that first edition went out of print, the book was taken over by Wilderness Press of Berkeley, CA, which brought out both the second edition (1986, re-printed in ‘88, ‘91, and ‘94) and the third edition (1998). Then it went out of print until rescued as An Authors Guild Backinprint.com Edition.
08
Feb 10
The Diaper Dilemma: Cloth or Disposable? Part 3
So here you are, readying the family for a camping trip, and you are still undecided: which kind of diapers to pack? Here are the reports of conversations with parents who offered their experience to me when I was researching CAMPING WITH KIDS:
Disposable diapers are less of a hassle, they said. Just toss the big package into the car.
I had to argue with them, and they admitted, it’s true disposables take up lots of space. And how disposable are they? I asked. Leaving them in the trash at a campground is not good camping behavior. Parks these days have limited services; garbage pick-up is sometimes infrequent. It’s not unusual to see stacks of garbage bags outside of overly full garbage containers. And tossing used diapers into the vault of a pit toilet? That’s a real no-no. The diapers won’t biodegrade for years, and meanwhile the pit will fill and will require a replacement in a short time. Same with a chemical porta-potty; diapers in the vault will necessitate more frequent, and costly, emptying. My argument continued: If you’re thinking about burning the diapers in your campfire, think again! Do you really want to release the fumes from a burning diaper into the air of your campsite? What if you plan to cook there? For people who choose to take disposable diapers on a camping trip, the most ecologically sound method of disposal is to pack them up and take them home. Then dispose of them there as you usually do. (And by the way, the same goes for the rest of the garbage.)
Taking them home is what most parents do who take cloth diapers when they camp. A supply for a whole weekend can be crammed into available spaces left between pots and pans, toys, and other camping equipment. A diaper pail with a tight lid, or a double plastic bag with a tight seal, holds the used diapers. (The bag takes up much less space than the pail.) Families that go out for more than a weekend told me that some campgrounds have laundry facilities, or they visit a laundromat in a nearby town when they drive in to replenish groceries. When they unpack at the end of the trip, the used diapers are laundered just as they always are at home.
I was surprised to learn, from a man who told me they always take cloth diapers on camping trips, that they wash diapers in camp! Even camping in our damp Olympic National Park, he said, they washed diapers. They carry only twelve diapers on each trip. They carry a wash basin which they use for bathing the baby, washing dishes, and also washing diapers. They rinse the diapers first, wash them in hot water heated on their propane stove, and then rinse again. Then, this is the neat part, the parents get almost all of the water out of the diaper by standing opposite each other, each holding one end of the diaper, twisting it as tightly as they can. The slightly damp diapers are spread out on shrubs around the campsite or hung up on a clothesline, preferably in sunshine, where they dry very quickly. Even on damp days, my correspondent assured me, the diapers dry under a rain fly.
30
Jan 10
Guide To Literary Agents Blog
What we writers won’t do to get published! Here is a requirement for a contest sponsored by the Guide to Literary Agents Blog: that I mention the blog and also the contest on my blog. No kidding. But since I enjoy reading the messages from GLA, it’s no big deal to tell others about their contest. In fact, the only downside to letting others know about the contests that I may enter, is that there will be more competition. I’m bigger than that! So go to www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog to check out a series of writing contests. Good luck!
30
Jan 10
The Diaper Dilemma: Cloth or Disposable? Part 2
When I started to write about backpacking with babies and camping with kids, I carried a prejudice against disposable diapers. I assumed that disposables used up precious resources—wood fibers for the absorbent inner lining and fossil fuels for the plastic coverings. In addition, my experiences with early disposables had not been happy ones; the absorbent layers leaked and the sides of the diapers did not fit well. I thought cloth diapers were more absorbent, fit better, and didn’t waste resources. That was a long time ago. Since then disposable diapers have improved; they fit very nicely around a baby’s legs and they are much more absorbent. Also I have learned a lot more about what constitutes precious resources. My current thinking on the cloth vs. disposable debate: it all depends on where you live.
Here in the Northwest, where I live, water is abundant, hydro-electric power is abundant, and our forests need protection, so I still vote for cloth diapers here. However, a correspondent living in a Southwestern state pointed out that where he lives, water is their most precious resource, not to be wasted washing diapers. Furthermore, in his community, he said, coal-burning electric plants are being phased out, to be replaced by garbage-burning plants fitted with scrubbers that clean the exhaust. Less coal, cleaner air, an argument for disposable diapers.
Next question: what does that mean for diapers in camp? Look for Part 3.
30
Jan 10
The Diaper Dilemma: Cloth or Disposable? Part 1
I wrote the following response to the word GARBOLOGY which appeared in AWAD (A.Word. A. Day) in April 2006; my response was included in the April 30 Compendium (now there’s a word) of Feedback on the W ords in AWAD.
I’d never heard of garbology, but when I was researching my book, Backpacking
with Babies and Small Children (Wilderness Press, Berkeley, CA), I came
across the Garbage Project of the Bureau of Applied Research, Department
of Anthropology, University of Arizona. Beginning in the 1980s, these
researchers dug up landfills in different parts of the country. Up until
that time, no one had really studied what happens in landfills. Assumptions
were based on models that assumed that biodegradable materials would degrade
with time. The investigations showed that as the landfills aged and the
oxygen in the first two or three feet was used up, decomposition stopped.
At the bottom of the landfills, they found 40-year-old newspapers that were
still legible. Surprisingly to me, as a writer trying to discourage parents
from using disposable diapers, it was not the diapers that were filling up
the landfills–most of the intact material was newspapers.
More to come.
18
Jan 10
Reserve Your Summer Campsite NOW
Helping set up the tent.
Two of my favorite places to camp are salt-water beach state parks, Deception Pass State Park in Washington State and Jesse M. Honeyman State Park in Oregon. These two parks, like other very popular camping parks, fill up very quickly. It’s not too soon to think about making reservations for the park you plan to camp in next summer. Both Washington and Oregon parks take reservations up to nine months in advance. Are you planning your vacation for July or August of 2010? Do the math. Your camp is already filling up. The situation in other states is probably similar. Go to the website of the state where you plan to camp and find out what the restrictions are for advance reservations (e.g., how do they treat no-shows and cancellations) and how to make a reservation.
Are you not sure where you want to camp next summer? Now is the time to start your research. Contact the tourism office of the states you are considering visiting (every state has an office of tourism, it’s big business) and have them send you information on camping in their state. Better yet, have them send it to your kids. Let the kids read the material or look at the pictures, and help choose the place for your next vacation. There’s lots of detailed advice for planning in CAMPING WITH KIDS. Happy Camping!
08
Jan 10
My favorite Namibian
One of my favorite people from my wonderful Out of Africa trip with Overseas Adventure Travel in October and November 2009 was Priscilla. In the Lianshulu Bush Lodge in Namibia, we were given the hut farthest from the main lodge but with the most luxurious bathroom. In addition to the big stall shower, it had a deep soaking tub. I thought it would be great to soak at night with soft music–well, there was no radio, and the generators turned off at 9, so I asked Priscilla, one of the managers of the lodge, for a candle lantern like the ones that appeared on our dinner table. She looked at me suspiciously. “Do you know how to use these?” she asked, showing me a box of matches and the candle. I assured her that I could light matches. “Show me,” she said. So I struck a match and it lit at first try (often at home I have to try several times.) “All right, then,” she said, “I’ll send the lantern to your room tonight.”
“Priscilla,” I said, “do you know that I am Jewish, and that we Jews observe our Sabbath from Friday at sundown to Saturday sundown. It’s our tradition to begin the Sabbath every Friday night by saying a special blessing and lighting candles, so I have been striking matches for many years.”
And Priscilla said, “I always learn so much from our guests.”