FREE CAMPING - 7/30
Last weekend at the sand bar the new TeePee was vandalized. The TeePee was intended to me a community kitchen. Free to all. According to tribal campers, three huts were destroyed over the course of last summer. “Whoever is doing this needs to stop now, before we decide to show our real strength,†one member said proudly. Personally, I hope whoever is destroying these huts realizes if we all work together we will be even stronger. People put hard work into building theses structures and they relied apron for shelter. This is no laughing matter.This weekend the TeePee will be repaired and the kitchen reopened.
Wilber
FREE CAMPING
Friday July 18th, 19th and, 20th, Shantii Productions is hosting a gathering of friends, friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends. So you’re invited, invite some friends and tell your friends to invite some friends. Then we’ll all have a great time.It’s important someone brings lots of beer and watermelons. We’ll need to eat, so bring some food. Drums, tents, tarps and other camping supplies will help a lot.
Activates should include, live music, hiking, horseback riding, fishing, tubing, survival skill expo, nature walks, environmental debates, drum circles and stories around the campfire.
We will be camping at the party bar, out side of Dallas Center. If you don’t know where that is, just ask one of you’re your friends, they should know. The spot is an easy drive to west des monies so feel free to camp as long as you want, go to town, work, whatever, and come back with more friends, Beer and watermelons.
There is no cost, everything is ALWAYS FREE.
~Wilber
The story behind Shantii Productions is one of many pitfalls and fallacies. No, I did not burn down a Hobos shantii. And no, a man-eating catfish did not eat the hobo.
Rick was a hobo that lived deep in the wood. He built a shantii along side the Raccoon River. It was built with salvaged items. A trash can and drainpipe constructed the fireplace. The most memorable feature was a blue tarp that completely wrapped the shantii. At night when the fire was burning, the shantii illumined a vibrant blue glow.
The shantii was not just Rick's home, it was also his headquarters. As I knew him, Rick's entire life was consumed by the hunt of the elusive man eating catfish. Day after day Rick would travel up and down the river, searching. He taught Tyler and I many methods of fishing, a few of which are illegal. Tyler and I once saw him snorkel under a logjam and pull catfish out by hand.
Rick believed the man-eater was a catfish species know as the Tapah. According to the Department of Fish and Game, Tapahs do not exist in North America. However Rick had found a fossil that an archeologist indemnified as a Tapah. Proving they once lived in the Raccoon River. Rick also told a story about a scuba diver who was send down to inspect the columns of a bridge in Adel. He returned to surface terrified of the giant fish he had seen. The man-eater has slipped thought Rick's finger a dozen times. Each time the fish grew smarter.
Rick was convinced; he would one day catch the man-eater. He would condor up new methods until he brought the fish to the surface. "When that day comes I will hang up my fishing poll and never fish again" he said. "I will leave the river never to return, but until that day I FISH!" Tyler and I figured that he would fish until he died of old age or drowned. Over the course of the summer we learned a lot form Rick. We showed Rick several of the movies we had made. He laughed. He thought we should one day make a major motion picture. At the time we did not take him seriously. We went to school in the fall and stopped going to see Rick.
At then end of September we took a trip back out to the shantii. When we arrived all the remained was a smoldering pile ash and a blue tarp flaping in the wind. The shantii had brunt down. In the center of the ash was a wooden post that somehow resisted the flames. On top the post was Rick's hat. " I got it" Tyler said while put on the hat. "we'll call ourselves Shantii Productions.
~Wilbur