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Ruby McConnell
Visions of Dry Country (from a work in progress)
By the time they reached the Humboldt Sink, the cattle were nearly dead. The Sink, the western edge of what was called the ‘40-mile...
Ruby McConnell
Thoughts on a World on Fire
When people ask me about the record heat we experienced here in the Pacific Northwest this summer, I find I want to talk to them about...
Ruby McConnell
Let Them Eat GORP
One of my goals for A Girl’s Guide to the Wild was to create activities that could be completed successfully with as little help or...
Ruby McConnell
Send the Kids Outside
These days, it goes without saying that the kids have never needed to go outside more, so for a few weeks I’m sharing content from the...
Ruby McConnell
The Bear Myth
“Every time we set up in bear country, some guy would go on and on about how none of the women had better be menstruating because he did...
Ruby McConnell
The Dirt
“I think that the deeply ingrained message that we are not supposed to get dirty ranks high among the reasons for the particularly large...
Ruby McConnell
Summer Project: Build Solar-Powered Mason Jar Lanterns
“Camp lanterns are usually designed for maximum illumination, which is great if you’re trying to cook or set up camp after dark, but not...
Ruby McConnell
The Pink Oompa-Loompa
“Outdoor gear manufacturers are under the mistaken impression that grown women, like four-year-old girls, loved to be swathed almost...
Ruby McConnell
The Nature Journal
Last year, at the beginning of the pandemic, I released the sister book to the Girl’s Guide, a full volume of activities, logs, and...
Ruby McConnell
Five Years of A Woman's Guide to the Wild
This spring marks the fifth anniversary of the publication of A Woman’s Guide to the Wild. I’ve been honored, over the last five years,...
Ruby McConnell
The Way Forward
I write this to you from the now time, a time of angst and strife and struggle and chaos in which none of us knows what things shall come...
Ruby McConnell
We Called Them Polar Bears- Part 2
In truth, my inner worry for the polar bears had begun to intersect with my external self and was quietly boiling over into a sustained...
Ruby McConnell
We Called Them Polar Bears- Part 4
Three years after camp, at the mid-point of the Great Recession, I broke. I quit teaching and my consulting job, which I had only managed...
Ruby McConnell
We Called Them Polar Bears- Part 3
By 2006 it was already clear that the erosion of the American wild, while driven by development and resource extraction, was primarily a...
Ruby McConnell
We Called Them Polar Bears- Part 1
In 2006 at the age of twenty-six, I became worried about the polar bears. Really worried. This was the year that Al Gore’s An...
Ruby McConnell
A Poem of Persistence
In April, I had the great pleasure of speaking with Sarah Neilson from Seventh Wave Magazine about Ground Truth and what the geosciences...
Ruby McConnell
Simple Resistance- Part 2
If you are just arriving to the resistance, welcome. Some actions to take: Read Black authors including Angela Davis, Bell Hooks, Maya...
Ruby McConnell
Coming April 7th! A Girl's Guide Nature Journal and Activity Book
This little volume is a love song to a younger self and any young person that is excited by exploring, watching, listening, playing,...
Ruby McConnell
Simple Resistance
As climate change, political upheaval, addiction, mental and physical health concerns, and hate threaten to overwhelm us, resistance has...
Ruby McConnell
The Simplest of Things
One of the things I rarely mention about the Girl’s and Woman’s Guides to the Wild are the projects, the hands-on crafts and games and...
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