Posted by Tony Deis on Jan 29, 2010 in Team & Collaborative Skills
What we do is powered by the seasons. How we live can be more than a pandering philosophy, it can follow the ebb and flow of life around us.
Saying we value the seasonal rounds is different then truly getting our hands dirty in the Earth while planting a garden. It's not the same as harvesting to feed your family with stinging nettles. It cannot match the explosive and ecstatic chaos of birds nesting in the Spring.
Better to have a April rainstorm place you in the cycle of life and rebirth than to have a teacher tell you what to feel. Being drenched and the smell of wet Earth is so much more interesting.
Enough of theory in permaculture or traditional wisdom. Start feeding, clothing and sheltering your family now, while cultivating a village that makes all those vital needs truly sustainable.
Upcoming Terms and Courses...
Spring Term for TrackersTEAMS Immersion Permaculture, wild edible plants and tracking by the secret language of the birds. Plus, the complete Spring syllabus is now available for you to upload.
Jungle Marine Scouts Immersion In Costa Rica, sailing, building boats, training jungle survival and performing vital permaculture installations with local people.
Posted by Tony Deis on Oct 23, 2009 in Tracking
Many people start start out looking for animal tracks in sand or mud. Its absolutely critical that a tracker move beyond that simple substrate, finding sign not only in clear ground but through salmonberry, oak leaves, hemlock needles and meadows.
Its easy to attune your eye to perceive patterns over moss, leaf debris and other more common ground. Now I'm not talking about some magical sight that causes the concrete to radiate a fox print like some fairy touched glowing golden compass. Training your vision takes a long time, hard work and literally getting to know one square patch of ground like it was your best friend (literally your best friend).
I once had a student do the following exercise as part of a monthly tracking course. After one class he went home and proceeded to diligently practice this in his lawn. 4-weeks later, at the next class he shocked everyone including himself. No one could keep up as he not only chased hard deer hoofprints through the meadow but seemed to find and correctly identify every soft footed animal from raccoon to skunk. He didn't develop some magic superpower overnight, it actually stemmed from directed study and focus.
Here's how you do it...
- Find a type of ground that you really want to see tracks in
- Outline a box with sticks about 1 foot by 2 feet
- Make a column of 3 marks in the ground with your thumb
- Record the weather with diligently drawing some of your marks in a journal
- Make a new column of marks each day for 2 weeks. Compare and contrast all your marks
See if you can find the column you made the day before. If not, you might want to note each column and row with more sticks.
When I first tell folks that's what it takes, they often can't fathom how. Why can't I just give them some kind of trick or new piece of wisdom that instantly changes how they see the world? Well, in tracking there are no tricks, there are only ever evolving relationships.
Tracking is understanding and moving through the natural world in an intimate way. Its building a deft connection with that one piece of earth. Its like your courting dirt. Its saying, "I give you my time. I sit down and really see who you are." Maybe this sounds goofy to talk about leaves and grass as friends but the ramifications are profound. Tracking is always embracing the world by turning off judgment, hopes and wishes to always be cultivating healthy perception of needs. It means starting by simply seeing.
BTW, this exercise is great for also learning how to age tracks.
Free taster days...
Learn more about our full-time immersion programs. Join us for a day with Tracker instructors.
TrackersTEAM Immersion Taster October 25 Ride the Umiak on the river and learn about our TEAMS Immersion or Master Degree Program.
Trackers Permaculture Taster November 1
Work with author Toby Hemenway and designer Leonard Barrett to learn
more about the winter garden and our 1-year program beginning in
January.
Posted by Tony Deis on Sep 25, 2009 in Bushcraft & Survival
I spent the past two weeks teaching fire by friction and survival shelters to our fall-term, full time immersion program. They relied on these new skills for the 3-day shelter overnight they just completed (to great success I may add). While they've done other grand things, I'm particularly proud that in their first 3-weeks in the program, everyone has now slept in a handmade survival shelter with no sleeping bag.
I find it relevant because these are the basics. For wilderness skills program they should be covered right correctly and promptly. Yet this vital knowledge is often taught by people with little experience.
I'm not going to name names and I definitely won't point to just one school or survival book. This particular blog is not meant to be critical, I want it to be a call to action. I hope to tackle the systemic issue that very poor habits are commonly taught. The bow drill can be an example. You may see bows far to large, people balanced precariously in awkward positions or cordage stung in convoluted ways. Some of the worse memetic errors are found in the debris (sticks and leaves) shelter. Even though very good references and classes frequently offer an explanation of how this really is not a debris "hut", its more like a debris "sleeping bag", when disseminated through various teachers, schools and outdoor education organizations, its form, principles and purpose have fallen victim to a bad game of telephone.
You see, in building a shelter where you can sleep warmly (relative) with no fire (fires can be challenging to tend to when sleeping), you must have the debris as close as you can to your body. More like a "debris bag" than a "debris hut". The entrance to all my "debris bags" are ridiculously small. Though I am a tiny man, you would look my hut and say, "You'll never fit in there." Yet I do, functionally forced to squirm my way in, flexing the debris along my sides. Unfortunately, you'll see "debris huts" with ridge poles and entrances nearly twice or three times the size of the builder's shoulder width. And I've seen it taught this way to both kids and adults by many outdoor education and self-proclaimed wilderness schools.
Now folks may think I'm quibbling because the debris shelter is only a "basic skill". They may rally to discuss the finer points of bow making or cultural development. Yet these are skills where your savvy and intelligence can not only keep you alive but progressively comfortable (notice I say progressively). The time and attention you offer them shapes great art and elegance out of some of the most fundamental needs: shelter, water, fire and food. Basic doesn't mean simplistic, it means vital.
Neglect isn't the greatest reason we see these fundamental skills poorly taught. Its more insidious than that. The simple answer is that the teachers in question may have never actually slept in a debris shelter. The more complex answer is that they didn't question for themselves what they were being taught (if and when they were learning bad information). Whether it be a model for community organization, a soft-awareness skill of tracking or a hard-craft skill where folks earn callouses and cuts, too often the one quality that is most absent is the ability to ask "why". Why am doing this? Is it going to work? Can I listen well and later develop my own way? Can I encourage others to do the same?
The problem with teachers is that everyone has to demonstrate themselves as the authority in order to keep their clout. When people vomit out what they "think" they heard, we simply get progressively worse and worse ideas. We need more intelligent instruction, learning and most of all, experimentation. A conversation that not only encourages fidelity of knowledge, but also an evolution of it. We all should've slept in our debris bags before we go about teaching them.
Program roll...
Taster: Umiak Boat Ride on the River Oct 25
Considering about joining the winter term to build boats and study folk craft winter term? This free taster day will let you know if we're a good match for you. Learn more
Epic: Take the immersion program for a 1-year Start anytime
Our Fall Term in basic survival skills, wildlife tracking and bushcraft has already started yet you can still jump on in winter. Until December 1, 2009 we will offer Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall 2010 for 2009 tuition rates. Learn more http://trackersteams.com/outdoor-adventure-school/one-year.php
Focus: Take the 3-month term studying what want, when you want
4 -Seasons Permaculture Design Jan 2010-Sept 2010
Winter Term: Boat Building & Folk Craft Full Time
Spring Term: Edible Plants and Homesteading Full Time
Summer Term: Expedition Survival Training Full Time
Fall Term: Wilderness Survival & Bushcraft Full Time
Posted by Tony Deis on Sep 16, 2009 in Tracking
Frank Herbert wrote his famous sci-fi novel Dune after researching an article about the ecological wonder of the Oregon Dunes. The piece was never published, yet the book it inspired was a hit.
While the 80's movie version did have Patrick Stewart (aka Captain Jean-Luc Picard) as Gurney Halleck, it never came close to the novel in scale and intelligence. This may only be the rantings of a sci-fi fanboy, yet I'll still attest to the many layers of awareness to be gleaned from Dune's text.
Many concepts in Dune just seemed to click with me and my buddy David Jacobson as we explored the world of (wildlife) Tracking in our formative years at The Evergreen State College. Ironically this was the same town of Olympia, Washington where Frank Herbert rooted himself to write his epic opus. Dune was populated by characters that practiced nerve-muscle control, minutiae awareness and even poignant tribes of hunter-gatherers to whom every moment was about survival in concert with a seemingly barren yet diverse landscape.
Still, the guild of characters that seemed to most resonant with our own meditative practice of tracking was a group of strategists called Mentats. Mentats were people who seemed to flow through information and systems awareness like they were sailing the ocean and its winds. The author was a layman expressing concepts we believed were unique to us wilderness skills nerds. In tracking, you don't "think" through things, nor do you rely on a false sense of ESP or intuition. Instead you soak up the world around you as layered details. Your memory and thoughts become a sense, absorbing every bit of possible data.
Though this description may sound like some human calculator, I assure you the experience is wholly organic and even ecstatic. Your perceptions and awareness add to an ever refining map of the world around you. Once you see, no feel the synthesis of the interlocking and moving relationships, the invisible parts take on a shadow-like form, eventually revealing themselves in even more detail. The gaps in the map naturally fill in. Then, in another seemingly thoughtless moment, vital wisdom reveals itself congruent to the evolving questions you have about the world around you. The book calls this ah-ha moment "prime projection". I still jokingly use the term when I teach tracking.
Its important to understand that this way of "surfing your world map" may have results that seem magically guided but they are definitively rooted in real boots-on-the-ground experience. Unfortunately this aspect of nature awareness is often confused with whatever is fashionable in dogma or spiritual questing; philosophical paint by numbers that require little effort and care. Its like the scene in fight club when the leader of a support group has people meditating in some convention hall for their spirit animal and all Edward Norton ends up with is a penguin. By letting gurus or books interpret our connection to what's wild we often get irrelevant, ungrounded results. Instead tracking is an art, craft and relationship of articulate intimacy with the world.
We find connection by actually feeling the sinuous curve of a cougar
track, appreciating the shear weight of an bear, watching a squirrel
build a winter nest, lazily sitting in the ferns watching deer feed and
even becoming entranced by the office worker on a break who grinds
their cigarette into the sidewalk. The goal is to see everything as
both an individual and a player in a greater moving puzzle.
Synthesis with nature and the world comes from actually being out in it. A Tracker doesn't arrive at relationships through leaps in judgment, because a book told her what wolf medicine means or by formulaic technique (now sweeping the tracking world). A true tracker actually lets discernment find her as she casts herself out across the ocean of life. It was the backwoods of Olympia following red fox where David and I refined this quality, yet reading Dune taught me that this awareness is innately human.
The next blog will be about what wisdom we gained while eating pizza and watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer in lieu of working on our independent study projects during our last year at Evergreen.
Featured Course...
The Water Village: Full-Time Winter Term January 3-March 20, 2010 Learn the ancient art of skin-on-frame boat building, crafting both a grand and epic 26-foot sailing vessel with batwing shaped sails, then hew your own seafaring kayak. We also go beyond bushcraft, elevating all our work to fine folk craft. This is the term we work with our hands, creating function, beauty and value from local materials.
Take 9 months to 1 year Begin any season Experience full-immersion and save per term
Also on the Calendar...
4-Seasons Permaculture Design Certification January 15-September 23, 2010, every Friday Taught by the best in the Pacific Northwest Toby Hemenway, Marisha Auerbach, Leonard Barrett & more.
The Earth Village: Full-Time Spring Term March 28-June 12, 2010 Receive your 2-week Permaculture Design Certification. Apply it to in-depth study of tracking and wild edible and medicinal plants.
The Fire Village: Full-Time Summer Term June 13-August 21, 2010 Our 10-weeks of overnight expeditions and intensive training will change your life forever.
Winter Village Skills Share: Boat Building and Folk Craft January 4-8, 2010 9am-6pm 5-days of boat building and sharing traditional skills. $20 per day or $80 for the entire week
Posted by Tony Deis on Sep 09, 2009 in Bushcraft & Survival
Very rarely do we visit with masters of any craft in our world. They may be famous, oft quoted in magazines, featured in documentaries or authors of categorical tomes. Yet they're no longer our neighbors, let alone our uncles and aunties, our mothers and fathers.
Our culture often has people moving from place to place, job to job, learning hobbies or ways to earn cash. While self-branded artists are phenomenal they suggest a form of more personal expression. Masters are those who labor to animate, bring alive their craft and materials into new forms of usefulness and grace for the full village (usefulness and grace are not mutually exclusive). True mastery requires more then simply a professional accord, more then simply diligence and patience, it requires great love.
How is what I offer a service? How does it protect and care for my family? How does it inspire? How does it feed the people around me?
To often we see primitive skills as the cartoon of what our culture expects survival to be. When true bushcraft is synonymous with fine folk craft. Natural craft is sinuous, powerful and highly functional. This bow pierces food for the village as its an eloquent extension of my arm. This boat hunts while its lines express my love and passion for the fish that feeds my family. This basket is fashioned of resiliency and color, reminding all of us of the bounty it carries home.
It is time to take back mastery for our village where eloquence, sweat and blood become the vital ingredients for artful livelihood that enriches us all.
Rebuilding the village with fine craft...
Winter's Nature of the Village: Umiak Building and Folk Craft skill share
January 4-8, 2010 Join us at the TrackersHQ for 5-days of boat building and sharing skills. In the heart of Sellwood and honoring Trackers urban DIY roots, this is a unique and affordable skillshare you can bus, bike or walk to. Every day we come together lending a hand to rebuild a grand sailing vessel that seems to arise from the mysts of an ancient past. And in Open Space style, we share many primitive and fine folk craft. From fire by friction to leather crafting and sewing, from tracking to winter tinctures and teas, this is the place where community comes together, bringing to life to a new vessel of the sea and teaching one another the skills vital rebuilding the village. $20 per day or $80 for the all 5 days. Learn more here
Also you can attend...
4-Seasons Permaculture Design Certification Immerse yourself in the study for Permaculture: Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall
Winter Term: The Water Village for the full or part-time immersion program. Learn all the above skills in depth and in sync with the seasons...
Full-time Immersion 3-days a week plus several overnights (Winter's Nature of the Village included)
Part-time immersion 1-weekend overnight a month for 3-months
Plus...
Spring Term: The Earth Village Permculture, wild plants and tracking
Summer Term: The Fire Village Expeditions in the unknown and ancient arts and skills
Posted by Tony Deis on Sep 02, 2009 in Program Info
I thought folks might find it fun to see our immersion calendar for the fall term (below). If you've been on the fence, its not to late to join us;)
To learn more about the fall term, visit The Wind Village: Wilderness Survival an Bushcraft
To learn more about gong the entire year visit 1 year of Wilderness Immersion
Or you can start out in winter term and go into Fall 2010. Visit The Water Village: Boat Building and Fine Folk Craft
and without further adieu...
Winter Village: TrackersTEAMS Fall 2009 Term Schedule
Locations...
TrackersHQ is directly across from a 140 acre wildlife refuge only 8 minutes from downtown Portland. It features a 2900 sq ft studio space with 2 other adjunct classrooms. We also have access to a high end wood working shop and metal welding and forging facilities. It is easily accessible by bike or bus. Most excursions leave from TrackersHQ in our vans, so you don't have to own a car, you can live by pedal and two wheels.
Trackers Homestead is our cabin on a private 400 acre wildlife refuge at the edge of the Mt Hood National forest. It features a pioneer orchard with 130 year old fruit trees and 2.8 acres of land dedicated to the design and restoration aspect of this course. While in class and during breaks, you find yourself on the edge of seemingly untouched wild lands with the chance to wander one of the most beautiful and epic landscapes on Earth.
Nature of the Village Overnight at the Trackers Homestead
September 6, 2009 Orientation to TrackersTEAMS Immersion
Morning Leave and camp setup
Morning Working Agreements and Methods
Afternoon Infrastructure: Locations and Gear
Evening Independent Study and Journal Methods Overview
September 7-9, 2009 Open Space Village Skills
September 10, 2009
Morning Tracking and Awareness primer day for independent study program
Afternoon Improv and theater training with the best in show biz
Evening Basketry Basic and Bark Containers (maybe)
September 11, 2009 Trillium Lake Fishing Expedition
September 12, 2009 Trip home, TrackersHQ Introduction and closing agreements
Regular Course Days
September 15, 2009
8:30am-9:00am Yoga with Melissa
9:00am-12:30pm Fire by friction: Basic to intermediate
-bow drill
-hand drill
-fire building
1:00pm-4:00pm Independent study overview and sit spots
-mapping
4:00pm-4:30pm Debrief
September 16, 2009
8:30am-2:30pm Kayak, Canoe and Umiak fishing trip to North Fork Reservoir on the Clackamas
2:30pm-4:00pm Planning the harvest pantry
-what foods for fall
-what types of preservation
-best place in TrackersHQ
-sharing practices
4:00pm-4:30pm Homework questions and check in
5:30pm-7:30pm Fishing, Wild and Local Foods Potluck
September 17, 2009
8:30am-4:30pm Shelter Building Primer at Hopkins
-location that means diverse and sustainable relationships
-shelter types: long term and short term
-preliminary construction
-collect vine maple for branch bows
-begin branch bows
Shelter and Foraging Survival Overnight at Hopkins
September 22, 2009
Morning-Afternoon Shelter Building
Evening Dinner harvest
Evening Bow drill fire (if fires are allowed on site)
Evening Dinner cooking by campfire (if fires are allowed on site)
Evening "Tracking for the Hunt" primer
-collection for dinner
-plotting your photo "hunting zone" by topo, scouting it in the dark
-definitely begin branch bows
September 23, 2009
Morning Calisthenics and long run/hike conditioning
Morning Scouting/tracking for the photo hunt
-bring camera
Morning Shelter Improvements
Afternoon Medicinal and Edible Plants of the Pacific Northwest Primer
Late Afternoon/Dusk Photo Hunting Sit Spot
-bring camera
Evening Team Bow drill fire made directly from forest materials (if fires are allowed on site)
Evening Dinner cooking by campfire (if fires are allowed on site)
Late Evening Sing for you supper
September 24, 2009
Early Early Morning Photo Hunting Sit Spot
-bring camera
Morning Calisthenics
Morning Tracking Lens Journal
Afternoon Branch bow check
Afternoon Appreciations
Afternoon Journey home
Regular Course Days
September 29, 2009
8:30am-9:00am Yoga with Melissa
9:00am-12:30pm Urban Tree Harvest
-Apples
-Acorns
-Chestnuts
1:00pm-3:00pm Harvest Processing
-Apple cider pressing and fermenting methods
-Acorn leaching
-Chestnut flour
3:00pm-4:00pm Seminar: All Hallows Eve Reading
-reading assignment given prior
4:00pm-4:30pm All Hallows Eve Scout Pit Party Planning
-press release written for webpage and mailing lists
September 30, 2009
8:30am-1:30pm Kayak, Canoe and Umiak fishing trip to Hagg Lake
1:30am-4:00pm Visit Kookoolan Farm and take a tour http://www.kookoolanfarms.com/
October 1, 2009
8:30am-9:00am Trackers Meditation: Conversations with Plants
9am-12:30pm Begin pimp bow-making with Andrew Pinger
-Branch bows
-Bow types
-theory
-various designs
-draw out your bow
-meet your stave
1pm-4pm Plant Tracking: Individual Plant Analysis, plus Teas and Decoctions
4:00pm-4:30pm Journal of the week
October 6, 2009
8:30am-9:00am Yoga with Melissa
9am-12:30pm Fall Urban Tree Harvest Continues
1pm-4:00pm Fermentation basics and intermediate: kraut and kimchi
4:00pm-4:30pm Debrief
October 7, 2009
8:30am-9am Trackers Meditation: Stealth and Shadow
9am-12:00pm Stealth Adventure Awesome
-Team logistics
1pm--4:00pm Basic Leatherworking: Begin a quiver
4:00pm-4:30pm Homework questions and check in
October 8, 2009
8:30am-9:00am Calisthenics
9am-10:30am Continue pimp bow-making with Andrew Pinger
-Intro to stave
-Begin tillering
10:30am-12:30pm Basic Flintknapping and Stone Tools with Andrew Pinger
1:00pm-3:00pm Tracking with Tony or Gabe: Mapping Oaks Bottom
3:00pm-4:00pm Wildlife Illustration and Journaling
4:00pm-4:30pm Journal of the week
Intermediate Shelter and Fire Overnight at Hopkins
October 13, 2009
Morning Shelter Switch and Improvement (now you stay in someone else's shelter)
Afternoon Fire Review
-Fire by friction: Team Bow Drill with "no-knife"'
-Various "campfire" methods
Afternoon "Tracking for the Hunt" field assessment
-observe new animal movements with focus on the rut
Evening Dinner cooking by campfire
Evening Sing for your supper
Evening "Tracking for the Hunt" dialogue
-tell the story of new animal movements
-plot new "hunting zones" by illustrated story/songline map
October 14, 2009
Early Early Morning Photo Hunting Sit Spot
-bring camera
Morning Photo hunt transitions to free for all human-hunt with foam arrows and branch bows
Morning Shelter Improvements
Afternoon Instrument making
Late Afternoon Photo Hunting Sit Spot (optional)
Evening Shelter journal
Evening Dinner cooking by campfire
Evening Theater Improv of the epic story of morning stealth hunt
October 15, 2009
Early Early Morning Photo Hunting Sit Spot II
-bring camera
Morning Find a deer
Morning Calisthenics
Afternoon Shelter Take Down
Afternoon Appreciations
Afternoon Journey home
Regular Course Days
October 20, 2009
8:30am-9:00am Yoga with Melissa
9:00am-12:00pm Fabric finding for re-purposed clothing
12:30pm-1:30pm Simple Patterning
1:30pm-4:00pm Basic Sewing Skills: Hand and machine
4:00pm-4:30pm Debrief
October 21, 2009 Long day
8:30am-9am Trackers Meditation: Simulflow
9am-12:30pm Canning and other preserving methods
1pm-3pm Glove making begins
3pm-4pm All Hallows Eve Costume and Mask Planning
4:00pm-4:30pm All Hallows Eve Scout Pit Party Planning
4:30pm-5:00pm Homework questions and check in
October 22, 2009
8:30am-9:00am Calisthenics and uphill workouts
9am-12:30pm One page business or life plan with Mike Rasmussen
1:00pm-4:00pm Tincture making: Red Cedar and Oregon Grape
4:00-4:30pm Journal of the week
October 27, 2009
8:30am-9:00am Yoga with Melissa
9am-10:30am Simple plant dyes
10:30am-12:30pm Sewing project check-in
-Gloves
-Costume and mask making
1pm-4:00pm Pickling and fermentation preservation
4:00pm-4:30pm Debrief
October 28, 2009
8:30am-9am Trackers Meditation: Prime projection
9am-1pm Kayak, umiak and canoe morning on the river
1:30pm-3:30pm Tracking with Jason: Blood Trails
3:30pm-4:00pm Homework questions and check in
4:00pm-4:30pm All Hallows Eve Scout Pit Party Planning Final Check-in
October 29, 2009
8:30am-9:00am Calisthenics
9am-11am Continue pimp bow-making with Andrew Pinger
-Bow string, backing, bending and silencers, plus other fancy stuff for you bow
11am-12:30pm Intermediate Flintknapping with Andrew Pinger
1:00pm-4:00pm Plant Tracking: Foraging Strategies
4:00-4:30pm Journal of the week
October 31, 2009
Evening All Hallows Eve Costume Party Extravaganza
November 3, 2009
8:30am-9:30am Yoga with Melissa
9:30am-11:30am Seminar: Culture and history of animal relationships with hunter-gather and horticultural communities
-reading assignment given prior
-honoring and the animal
11:30am-12:30pm Dairy ferments: Methods and practice
1pm-4:00pm Dairy ferments: Make goat cheese and yoghurt
4:00pm-4:30pm Debrief
November 4, 2009
8:30am-9:30am Travel to Trackers Homestead
9:30am-3pm Large animal butchering at Trackers Homestead
Option B 9:30pm-3:00pm Bear Tracking with Tony or Gabe at Trackers Homestead
3:00pm-3:30pm Appreciations
3:30pm-4:30pm Travel Home
November 5, 2009
8:30am-9:30am Travel to Trackers Homestead
9:30pm-3:30pm Traditional Meat Preservation at Trackers Homestead
-Corning
-Sausage
-Drying
-Pemican
-Rendering
-AND Hide racking and prep
Option B 9:30pm-3:30pm Red Fox Tracking with Tony or Gabe at Trackers Homestead
3:30pm-7pm Dinner prep and wildfoods potluck feast and celebration (long day, goes until 7pm, students welcome to overnight at Cabin)
November 10, 2009
8:30am-12:30am Smoking and curing meats continued at the Trackers Homestead
-Basic smoke house
1:00pm-4pm Nutria Trapping on Urban Farms: Lay the bike trapline by bike
4:00pm-4:30pm Debrief
November 11, 2009
8:30am-9am Trackers Meditation: Flow
9am-12pm Nutria Trapping on Urban Farms: Harvest the Nutria by bike
12:30pm-4pm Nutria Trapping on Urban Farms: Skin and butcher
4:00pm-4:30pm Homework questions and check in
5:30pm-7:30pm Nutria Feast/Wild Local Foods Potluck
November 12, 2009
8:30am-9:00am Calisthenics
9am-10:30am Sinew Bow String with Andrew Pinger
10:30am-12:30pm Bone Tools with Andrew Pinger
1pm-4:00pm Basketry Basic and Bark Containers
4:00-4:30pm Bow check-in (to be finished by next week)
Tracking and Nature Awareness Overnight at the Trackers Homestead
November 17, 2009
Morning Tracking Bear Primer
Afternoon Smoking and curing meats continued
Evening Overnight sit on Bear Trail Begins
November 18, 2009
Morning Solo Bear Tracking
Morning Bear Mapping
Afternoon Fire in all conditions
Afternoon Stealth teams into dark with finished bows and foam arrows
Afternoon Feast prep
Evening Team bow drills with stone tools by dark
Evening Feast of Giving Thanks: Smoked or steam pit turkey
Evening Theater Improv of the epic story of Bear and Turkey
November 19, 2009
Morning Bear Spots
Morning Yoga with Melissa
Afternoon Homestead Camp Clean Up
Afternoon Appreciations
Afternoon Journey home
Regular Course Days
November 24, 2009
8:30am-9:00am Yoga with Melissa
9am-12:30pm Business Planning check-in with Mike Rasmussen or Tony
1pm-3:30pm Advanced Fermentation
3:30pm-4:30pm "To Accomplish" list to welcome in the Water Village
-Gifts to the Water Village (Winter Term)
-Projects for year long students
-Skills to revisit for "Winter Welcome" overnight
November 25, 2009
8:30am-4:30pm Invisilbity: The Hall of Mirrors
-Trackers Mediation
-Day long bird language stealth game
November 26, 2009
8:30am-9:00am Calisthenics
9am-12:30pm Root Cellaring
1:00pm-4pm Advanced primitive cooking containers
4:00-4:30pm Journal of the week
Winter Welcome Overnight at the Trackers Homestead
December 1-3, 2009
Day 1 Where have we journeyed?
-Retrospective
-Theater Improv
-Show and tell
Day 2 Where are we now and where are going?
-Open Space
-Stories of the person
-Stories of the Trackers Tribe
-More skills
Final Evening Graduation of the Wind Village with gifts to the Water Village
Final Day Clean the homestead and journey home
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