March 9th, 2008 Heather
This week we really got down to some primitive skills, the nitty gritty of wilderness survival. Out in a riverside cedar grove we became a primitive village united by our central fire. We used coals from the fire to burn out logs to use as bowls, then used rocks heated in the fire to boil and thus purify river water for drinking. We also experimented with several primitive cooking methods including building stone and clay ovens from scratch, using a steam pit, boiling food in rock-heated water, and cooking over open flames. These days involved some good hard work as well as quality time spent as a tribe by the roaring fire. The water and food we took in may have been a little dirty, sooty, under or overcooked, but the time, effort and laughter that went into it made it all worth it.
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March 2nd, 2008 Heather
I’ve spoken a lot about feeling fully alive in this program, and I’d like to expand on that a bit. A recent discussion with our founder, Jon Young, helped me understand why so much of this program evokes this feeling in us. According to one theory, new brain patterns are formed through four main inputs. These include sensory inputs, curiosity (related to creativity and inspiration), adrenaline (excitement, fear, or “edge”), and mind focus (using mind’s eye and meditative mind states). Therefore, those who are fully aware, awake, and alive are those who have honed all four of these areas. A good tracker or naturalist would fall into this category, and everything about our residential training program reflects this. To be fully alive is to be expanding our minds, forming new brain patterns, making connections. This is true education.
With that rather wordy introduction, I will attempt to share some of our experience over the past couple weeks on our extended trip to California. I won’t attempt to summarize and won’t be able to give you a full picture of our journey, but only snapshots of an epic adventure that was chock full of aliveness.
In Sunol Regional Wilderness, east of the bay area, we found green rolling hills, fragrant Bay Laurels, Giant Coast Live Oaks, a Prickly Pear forest, singing frogs, mating newts, a hunting bobcat, whistling screech owls, and laughing Acorn Woodpeckers. We faced driving rain and cold as well as clear blue skies and warm sun. We shared our research of other California species, and spent a good deal of time exploring, taking it all in.
At Quail Springs permaculture farm in Cuyama, east of Santa Barbara, we discovered a community making magic in the desert. In the arid high desert sagebrush hills these inspirational people are creating gardens, building natural materials dwellings, and caretaking the land to not only live sustainably but to restore and improve biodiversity in their home. We were honored to be able to learn from them and help them a bit- through gardening, plastering straw bale walls, and making cob building materials. We also got to do our own exploring through small mammals tracking, birding, stalking/scouting adventures, and general wandering. Some powerful memories include desert wind and rainstorms, rainbows, chattering California Quail, grandmother pines and junipers, Dusky-footed Woodrat nests, yucca wounds, singing with new friends, and a night sky full of stars.
At the Regenerative Design Institute at Commonweal Gardens in Bolinas we were back to green rolling hills, this time with the persistent sound of crashing ocean waves. Eucalyptus trees, ancient cypress trees, coyote brush, and purple irises dotted the landscape. Another inspirational community greeted us there in an elaborate welcoming ceremony consisting of powerful songs traded across the gate. This was our sister school and these were students in a program similar to ours; we finally got to meet in person. During our visit we explored the landscape with the resident community, spent valuable time learning from Jon Young, and learned more about permaculture from other inspirational teachers. We were immersed in the sounds of spring, fresh smells of garden plants, and a good dose of the California sunshine which had evaded us.
Although it was difficult for some of us to leave these new lands and all our new friends, it was time to return to the northwest. For all of us now comes the time of reflection as we integrate our experiences into our lives. Twelve days of new sensory input, fresh curiosity, excitement, and mind focus has left us all charged and fully alive.
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February 15th, 2008 Heather
This week was a change of pace from recent weeks of mainly concrete skills learning. We spent time with the more subtle elements of our program, which are usually difficult to put into words but are always very rewarding. One rainy cold day found us off in the foothills in a rainy cedar grove, wandering in our clans without words, practicing slow movement, and honing our intuitions. The highlight and low point of the day came simultaneously for me. We were scattered in a landscape of rough terrain, blindfolded, many of us barefoot, trying to find our way to an apprentice beating a drum in an undisclosed location. As I stumbled shivering through blackberry brambles and vine maple mazes, aching bare feet not knowing what had hit them, I decided I must be nuts to go through with this. The sound of the drum played through the dense forest in such a way that I was sure they were playing tricks on us with multiple drums and multiple locations. Finally, as I gingerly circumambulated a large holly plant with then numb feet to reach the drum beater and finally take my blindfold off, I decided that we’re all a little nuts, and that’s ok. This was yet another of those experiences that I hope to never again repeat, but I’m oh so glad I completed it. I realize that might be difficult to understand unless you’ve had this experience yourselves. And unless you’ve been through this program, I doubt you have. But trust me on this one. That day, out there in the rainy cedar grove, I was fully ALIVE in every sense of the word.
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February 13th, 2008 michael
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February 8th, 2008 Heather
This was by far my most challenging week yet. We spent three long days engaged in an activity that I had never wanted to do in the first place, and which was the most physically challenging and energetically grueling of anything we’ve done so far. But, as I’ve reminded myself before, I got myself into this program and it’s up to me to get out of it as much as I can. Hide tanning is tough work- messy, stinky, exhausting work, particularly with three solid days of rain and sometimes snow. In order to get through it I had to leave my bad attitude at home and just throw myself into it, all of it. And I did- I myself became messy, stinky, and exhausted but I learned so much.
Day one we braved not only the cold winter rain but the mess and stench of deer skins purchased from a local butcher. Our task that day was to scrape off layers of hair, epidermis, remaining flesh, and epidermis from the underlying deer skins. It takes a lot of muscle and yet gentle care to take just the right amount off, all of this made more difficult with cold wet hands. We also made sure to show respect for these animals whom we see regularly. It was a powerful process for many of us who’ve never been involved in the work of killing our own food or making our own clothes. I valued this experience all the more for these reasons.
After a night of soaking our hides we faced day two with pieces of material that more resembled giant gobs of bread dough than anything once living. Just in case day one wasn’t grueling or gross enough, we spent a good part of the day alternately wringing out our wet hides and soaking them in pork brains. This process prepared the way for the drying, softening, and stretching that consumed the rest of the long day. In an uncharacteristic situation for us, we spent the afternoon in an unventilated room so hot we could barely think straight- pulling, rubbing, pulling some more- so that the hide would be as soft and pliable as possible when it dried. By the end of the day we’d seen our bread dough become soft white buckskin.
Day three was finally a little less arduous. We sewed a couple hides together and placed them over buckets of smoky coals to finally and officially tan them. Huddled under a tarp with the rain spattering loudly above us, we watched closely to make sure the smoke was sufficient to tan the hides but didn’t burst into flame and ruin all our hard work. By Friday afternoon an exhausted but jubilant group of residential students had beautiful pieces of tanned buckskin.
After having completed this week, I can’t say if I will tan another hide. If I do, it definitely won’t be in February. I can say that I am so glad I had this opportunity to learn and experience this process, and now have yet another new creation to show for it.
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