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Mountain View News May 9, 2026


LOVE ICE CREAM?

Every week you see one of our beautiful adoptable cats here — 
and because Lifeline for Pets is a no-kill rescue, if they aren’t 
adopted, we continue to love and care for them for life, or 
until they finally find their forever home. To help cover the 
ongoing costs of food, medical care, and shelter, we’re having 
an Ice Cream Fundraiser this Saturday, May 23, at Carmela 
Ice Cream in Altadena! Please stop by, enjoy a sweet treat, and 
be sure to say you’re there to support Lifeline for Pets. 

Every scoop helps save lives!

CHRISTOPHER Nyerges 

[Nyerges is the author of “Guide to Wild Foods” “Foraging 
California,”and other books. He can be reached at Box 41834, 
Eagle Rock, CA 90041, or www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com]

 CONSIDERING THOREAU

A black and white dog with a rainbow heart.
Description generated by AI
During a year and a half period, beginning in 1977, I lived as a squatter 
in a small cinder block house, whose ownership was being held up in probate court. It was 
on a large plot of land, and because it was at the end of a dead-end street, neighbors were 
barely aware that the place was there.

 

I wrote about that period of my life in my book, “Squatter in Los Angeles: Life on the Edge,” 
which can be obtained from Amazon as a Kindle book, or ordered as a hard copy book.

 

During that period of my life, I derived great pleasure from experimenting and learning 
all the ways I could provide for my daily needs, and even my wants, using things that I 
made, grew, found on the property, or obtained from discards. I had two “roommates,” and 
though our lives intersected, I was free to try things and experiment and live a very simple 
life. Simple, but not easy, and basic, but not without its challenges.

 

I read Thoreau’s Walden Pond for the first time during this period, and found my state 
of mind frequently resonating with the basics themes in the book. Remember, Thoreau 
wasn’t a bum, or a drop-out, or an alcoholic. Actually, for that matter, he was no squatter 
either, for the land where he was given permission to do his “experiment” was owned by 
fellow writer and friend Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thoreau built for himself a little house (a 
“shack” by most accounts), and did a lot of his writing there. He stayed there by himself, 
probably realizing even back then that many commercial interests in our society vie for our 
time and money, finding ever-more clever ways to convince us that we need objects which 
previous millennia of humans survived without. 

 

It would be accurate to say that Thoreau – like me – was profoundly interested in the very 
meaning of life and wanted to discover the point of all the rushing about to get somewhere. 
Unable to discover these answers in his town, Thoreau built and moved into his little 
shack in the woods and learned how to grow the food that he ate, and found it nourishing 
and satisfying. He also ate purslane, an import from the old world, which even then was 
common throughout the eastern United States in tilled soil. He wrote “I learned that a 
man may use as simple a diet as the animals, and yet retain health and strength. I have 
made a satisfactory dinner off a dish of purslane which I gathered and boiled. Yet men 
have come to such a pass that they frequently starve, not from want of necessities, but for 
want of luxuries.” Indians and trappers would visit and talk, and somehow through this 
unprejudiced intercourse, he found that all people were more alike than different, and a life 
lived for purely material reasons is a life wasted.

 

I found myself in a similar setting, though it wasn’t in the woods but a ruralish part of 
Los Angeles. There was purslane and chickweed growing right outside my door. I had 
no pond nearby, but I did manage to get over the Arroyo Seco which was as close to my 
personal Walden Pond as I felt I would get.

 

At night, thinking over the day’s classes and studies, typing up my notes and insights, I 
often ruminated over how life should be lived, and wondered why we take up so much time 
and waste so much of life on trivial pursuits. I felt that it was important to live simply, to 
grow food, to discover nature’s secrets, and to find answers through thinking and through 
research. I wondered why others did not think like me. And with the purslane growing 
right in my yard, I could eat it for lunch in my salad and fancy myself some sort of urban 
Thoreau as I thought over these ideas.

 

I did learn some years later when Thoreau was mentioned by the academics he was regarded 
as a brilliant intellectual who discovered the simple reality that was right in front of 
everyone. Be here now. Imagine. The kingdom is within. Which is why I naturally assumed 
that his own peers would have regarded him as a saint and savior. Wrong! I have actually 
spoken to descendants of Thoreau’s peers and they said that in the day, Thoreau was by no 
means universally respected. Rather, many regarded him as a bum, an outsider, someone 
who had rejected society to hang out with the Indians in the woods. I was starting to see 
that there were more parallels with me and Thoreau than were originally apparent.

 

So I did my best – though not always successfully – to not be seen as a freeloading bum 
who chose not to work and who just sat around listening to the birds and who saw secret 
messages in the clouds. Regardless of appearances, I found that I was acutely involved in 
working to understand the mysteries of life, and to live life the best I was able.+


Pet of the Week


Looking for a goofy pool-loving adventure buddy? 
Meet Cheeto! 

This 1-year-old Labrador and Shar-Pei mix at Pasadena 
Humane is full of silly energy and loves bouncing between 
splashing in the kiddie pool, sniffing around for treats, 
carrying toys, and soaking up attention from anyone 
nearby. He’s great on walks, loves a good foster field trip, 
and knows how to settle himself after playtime, happily 
taking breaks for pets and relaxation. Cheeto is curious, 
sweet, and wonderfully expressive—the kind of dog who 
keeps you laughing just by being himself.

From now through May 24th, adult dog adoption fees are 
waived during the “May I Go Home With You” adoption 
promo at Pasadena Humane, making adopting Cheeto 
easier than ever.

The adoption fee for dogs is $150. All dog adoptions include spay or neuter, microchip, and age-
appropriate vaccines. 

Walk-in adoptions are available every day from 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. View photos of adoptable pets 
at pasadenahumane.org.

New adopters will receive a complimentary health-and-wellness exam from VCA Animal 
Hospitals, as well as a goody bag filled with information about how to care for your pet.

Pets may not be available for adoption and cannot be held for potential adopters by phone calls 
or email.


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com