The 'About Us' Page...

         Who is KimE?


Dr. Kim Fliegel, PhD., is a Jane of many trades with a hat to match each one.  She is a naturopathic physician (doctor of natural medicine) by main trade, and an instructor in multiple disciplines including health, life coaching, family dynamics, critical thinking and brain hacks, as well as survival & bushcraft, to name a few.  Kim taught Red Cross First Aid classes for several years in the early '90's and other workshops and 12 weeks series on multiple subjects since 1995. 



"In the woods if you call or yell "K-ii-mm", it doesn't sound like anything more than a holler without meaning.  A two syllable name is much easier to discern and I can respond quickly.  My friends call me Kimi or KimiGrace."



KimE is also a musician and a live loop performance artist, with two albums, a semi professional dancer, thespian, public speaker, former host of the Alternatives Today radio show on KHOW 630 in 2003, and appeared several times as a guest speaker on Channel Mom Radio, KRKS 94.7 FM.





KimE was baiting a line as early as 3 and grew up hanging out with her dad in the woods and in the river, waders way too big. Once she felt she was "an adult," KimE ventured off into the woods at every chance she could get and still continues to do so. Besides getting into the woods, KimE enjoys kayaking, both flat and white water and has completed training in swift water rescue.



"My dad use to hang a swisher sweet cigar out of his mouth to keep the mosquitos away while fishing. When I turned nine, he gave me my very first cigar and told me I earned it.  I was so proud. The thought of looking like my dad was short lived, for the first bit of smoke wafted up my nostril and into my eye.  Everything turned to slow motion at that point as both the cigar and the rod fell into the river, in my panic, I soon followed. I didn't really feel the need for the swisher sweet after that.  I think that's about where I started to develop my own style."





       Years in woods



KimE began attending the annual national gatherings of The Rainbow Family of Living Light in 1989. The gatherings started in 1972 in Aspen Colorado... People began to gather in the 10's of thousands to celebrate Independence Day as inter-dependence, as well as exercise our constitutional freedom to gather peaceably on public land.  Each year in the summer, a literal city pops up in the woods where people use the natural resources of the land to build kitchens and other structures, stoves, ovens, medical units, info booths, shelves, Kiddie Village playground complete with teeter totter and swing set, privies, bridges, a theatre, hand wash stations, you name it...  People from all walks of life come together to learn from one another, enjoy community, to play, and to plug in with what ever skills they have.





KimE spent 18 gatherings as one of many focalizers for C.A.L.M. (medical unit), as well as focalized building teams,  served as first responder, search and rescue, naturopath, on HipEVac (hippie evacuation vehicle) on security teams (shanti Sena), night shift fire watch and liaison to Forrest Service. Her usual time on site was 4 - 6 weeks.



"When  you're in the woods trying to help someone traverse extremely dense and difficult terrain, you will be met with a lot of different problems to solve.  The more you know how to improvise with the resources around you, the more empowered you become.  Experience is a great teacher!"



"It is a common thing to be called on for crowd control several times in the beginning of each gathering.  The National Incident Command Team sends their LEO's into the gathering and incites to riot the young people that want to fight the government with sticks and stones.  It's my job to help diffuse a situation and speak peace and reasoning to a crowd of kids that are riled up.  That can literally be a hard as helping a tripping hippie find his way back to his tent in the dark when you have no idea who he is and there's 10's of thousand of people in the camp. But seriously, it's possible." 



"Camped out in the Pennsylvania gathering, in a natural gas field, 750 feet down in the bog with evening deluges and daytime ten foot long diamond back rattlers, tall grass and rivers inhabited by water moccasins, I was huddled under a tarp with my 3 year old daughter and 3 other mama's with babies for 4 nights.  The lightening hit the ground everywhere around us in what seemed like relentless bouts of fury. I often wondered if the tarp was going to stay put. But even more than that, I couldn't help but marvel at the fact that we didn't actually get blown to kingdom come.  Lightening + Natural Gas = Boom!  We stayed warm and dry and thankful! The following three weeks I had a tent with a manageable water channel flowing through the middle of it.  The whole experience was priceless!  My daughter is now 25 years old."





Much of KimE's life has been spent in the woods, making it home, not just a place to camp out for a little while.  She has helped many people learn bush skills and is passionate about teaching.  KimE's teaching style creates a foundation in which to learn as she elicits the deeper part of a person's thought process to accomplish a task. 



"Hands on experience is a great teacher, but when you take what I show you and teach it to another, the neural networks of the brain get formed and engrained.  You've heard that the best way to learn something is to teach it, right?  Don't worry if your not feeling ready to do that.  It just sort of happens spontaneously at just the right moment."





"At the end of the day, I know a lot of things about a lot of things.  But if you ask me a question that I don't know the answer to I will tell you so.  That often opens an opportunity to figure it out together."





Many blessings on your journey!  ~ KimE