1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,359
Speaker 1: Hey, when it comes to podcasts listening, are you like me?

2
00:00:02,799 --> 00:00:05,559
I mean, it's like television surfing. You're like all over

3
00:00:05,559 --> 00:00:07,440
the place looking for that one thing that you can

4
00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:10,439
add to your moment of now. Be it fest stories,

5
00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:13,560
be it rockstar stories, talking with a chef, whatever you're

6
00:00:13,560 --> 00:00:16,879
looking for. That's what ero dot net is all about.

7
00:00:17,199 --> 00:00:20,879
Arrooe dot net. The searching is over. It's all in

8
00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:25,359
one place. Enjoy the exploration. Hey, thanks for being a

9
00:00:25,359 --> 00:00:28,879
part of the conversation. Welcome to foest Stories, a series

10
00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:32,079
of short winded adventures within a collection of skyscraping trees,

11
00:00:32,119 --> 00:00:34,719
stuck feet First and Georgia Clay right here in Carolina.

12
00:00:35,439 --> 00:00:37,320
It's been a huge part of my daily journey for

13
00:00:37,359 --> 00:00:40,240
over thirty three years. I Am the Poet in the Forest,

14
00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:43,600
a children's series written and recorded in the nineteen nineties.

15
00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:47,399
Speaker 2: It's grown into multiple podcasts that now reach around the world,

16
00:00:47,719 --> 00:00:49,840
and none of it would be possible without this forest

17
00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:52,799
right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina, at the base

18
00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:56,920
of Heartbreak Hills. It's a sign that reads Rainbow Forest. Well,

19
00:00:56,920 --> 00:00:59,759
it's time you get to meet what's inspired several generations

20
00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:03,880
long before the paved paths decorated with colorful homes colonized

21
00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:07,359
around this beautiful lake, slow moving stream, flatland swamps and

22
00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:10,840
array of natural animals. There were families and business owners

23
00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:13,040
who are said to have raced into this area for

24
00:01:13,079 --> 00:01:16,560
the beauty of the land, wild roses, migratory birds, and

25
00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:20,400
wild grapevines. Those before me either forgot to write about

26
00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:24,560
it or it's buried somewhere inside their family tree. Hey,

27
00:01:24,599 --> 00:01:26,519
thanks for being a part of the conversation.

28
00:01:28,799 --> 00:01:33,359
Speaker 3: Welcome back to the forest. It is a cold, rainy

29
00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:37,640
day inside this forest today. It's one of those where

30
00:01:37,719 --> 00:01:39,840
you can't help but wonder what Mother nature is up to.

31
00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:42,680
She can't decide if it's a spring day or if

32
00:01:42,719 --> 00:01:44,519
it's a winter day. Oh, by the way, let me

33
00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:46,760
just kind of cloud things up a bit, put some

34
00:01:46,879 --> 00:01:48,680
rain in there, and then you'll forget what kind of

35
00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:51,920
day it really is. No, you can't, especially for me,

36
00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:55,079
because I just spent three days in a different forest.

37
00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:57,959
It was the Lake Norman State Forest. And you know,

38
00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,200
it's one of those things where you learned a long, long,

39
00:02:01,319 --> 00:02:03,280
long time ago. If you're a tree hugger like me,

40
00:02:03,879 --> 00:02:07,200
there's no such thing as two forests the same. I

41
00:02:07,239 --> 00:02:11,400
cannot compare this force to Lake Norman, the Yori forest,

42
00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:14,599
or a forest in the Cascades out there in Washington State.

43
00:02:14,840 --> 00:02:17,240
He can't compare them. They all have their own personality.

44
00:02:17,479 --> 00:02:20,719
But what you can do with your force in life

45
00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:24,199
is that you can observe the nature around them and

46
00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:29,479
accept all living things. That includes the weeds. Oh my god,

47
00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:32,039
I wish more people would fall in love with the

48
00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:34,719
weeds on their forest floor like I do. I mean,

49
00:02:34,759 --> 00:02:37,879
it's like the tiniest little creations, and I will be

50
00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,360
inspired like a three year old kid discovering his first

51
00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:45,719
Tonka truck just by a weed, especially when it's raining

52
00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:48,599
like this, because that weed is doing one thing. It's

53
00:02:48,639 --> 00:02:53,479
got a job to do, collect water for the roots. WHOA, Well,

54
00:02:53,479 --> 00:02:55,360
that seems like a simple job, and then you go,

55
00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:58,639
is it? Especially since the state of North Carolina declared

56
00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:01,199
today that this is the first time since the eighties

57
00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:06,080
that we are in a drought, a hardcore drought. So

58
00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:09,759
what does that mean for this forest? Well, you got

59
00:03:09,759 --> 00:03:11,199
to keep an eye on it, and you got to

60
00:03:11,240 --> 00:03:13,080
be out here on days such as this where it

61
00:03:13,159 --> 00:03:15,960
is raining, and you study the path, you study the

62
00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:19,599
pattern of what's going on with the erosion. As a

63
00:03:19,639 --> 00:03:21,719
human being, you can do everything you can to help

64
00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:24,479
try to kind of like circumvent what's going on with

65
00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:27,800
the erosion, but you're not ever You're never gonna stop it.

66
00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:30,000
You just got to figure out how to create different

67
00:03:30,039 --> 00:03:33,159
paths and go in different directions. And really the true

68
00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:34,719
question is is that how deep do you want to

69
00:03:34,759 --> 00:03:37,000
go with your shovel? I tried to do that man

70
00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:39,159
at the bottom of the hill out there by the

71
00:03:39,159 --> 00:03:43,879
slow moving stream. We had such such erosion that I thought, Okay,

72
00:03:43,919 --> 00:03:47,800
I'm going to create a little diversion here, a little

73
00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:50,360
canal of sorts, and I'm going to take the water

74
00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:53,599
that's moving down that ninety five foot drop, and I'm

75
00:03:53,599 --> 00:03:57,039
gonna put it here. Are you kidding me? Do you

76
00:03:57,159 --> 00:04:00,199
really think that, in all the research that I did

77
00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:02,319
and the people that I talked to, that I could

78
00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:06,560
move that water? Nope, Moses is still the only one

79
00:04:06,599 --> 00:04:10,159
that can move water. And because I couldn't, And it's

80
00:04:10,199 --> 00:04:11,560
just one of those things where you just kind of

81
00:04:11,639 --> 00:04:13,560
raise your arms and you go, you know what, I

82
00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:15,639
did the best that I could. This is the best

83
00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:20,079
I'm going to do, and I can only only hope

84
00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:24,600
that the water damage can find different patterns to move through,

85
00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:28,360
and it doesn't happen that way. So as you allow

86
00:04:28,639 --> 00:04:31,800
the forests that you live within to do their natural thing.

87
00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:34,680
You realize when you walk into a home depot or

88
00:04:34,720 --> 00:04:38,519
a Low's you go, hmm, there's that magazine cover for

89
00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:42,240
you right there. Hey, on your next magazine cover, mister Lowe's, man,

90
00:04:42,759 --> 00:04:44,920
why don't you put a picture of a forest in there,

91
00:04:45,399 --> 00:04:48,800
a city forest, something that has been tattered and torn

92
00:04:48,879 --> 00:04:52,160
by the winds and the rain and the acid that's

93
00:04:52,199 --> 00:04:55,759
in that rain and the drought. That's right, the drought

94
00:04:55,800 --> 00:04:59,199
for the entire state. Because a forest, no matter what,

95
00:05:00,079 --> 00:05:05,000
will survive beyond the humans' intentions. And if the drought

96
00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:07,319
gets just as bad as it is up in Utah,

97
00:05:07,519 --> 00:05:13,000
Montana and Wyoming, then plant wisely. Go and find out

98
00:05:13,199 --> 00:05:16,319
what is natural in your community. Hell, your force could

99
00:05:16,319 --> 00:05:20,120
be your backyard. I'm okay with that. Just have your

100
00:05:20,120 --> 00:05:24,279
place of solitude, peace and an area where you can

101
00:05:24,399 --> 00:05:29,120
just receive, receive what whatever you want. That's the thing

102
00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:32,040
about it. It's like your mom and dad saying, where

103
00:05:32,079 --> 00:05:33,519
do you guys want to go out to eat tonight?

104
00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:35,560
And all of a sudden, it's a free form fall

105
00:05:35,959 --> 00:05:37,879
for wherever we're going to go, and if you end

106
00:05:37,959 --> 00:05:39,959
up at six or seven different restaurants like we used

107
00:05:39,959 --> 00:05:42,319
to do because we had eight kids, then it's like, Okay,

108
00:05:43,079 --> 00:05:46,639
that was an event, that was the adventure. The same

109
00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:49,879
is true about a forest, whether I'm at Lake Norman,

110
00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:53,199
whether I'm here in this forest. There are no two

111
00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:57,000
forests the same, and this one ooh, it's got a

112
00:05:57,079 --> 00:06:00,319
life and song all its own. Thanks to being a

113
00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:01,399
part of the conversation,