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Finding Hope in the Winter Forest

Stepping outside into the entrance of the forest near my home dominated by cedar, oak and tulip poplar I see bare branches -a mix of grey and brown trees reaching tall towards the white fluffy clouds and grey skies above me, and their roots hidden in the white blanket of covered earth below me. The snow feels fluffy beneath my feet and as I look down I see a flurry of fresh animal tracks as if the forest creatures had a party here last night 🙂 I see clear squirrel prints going every which way, deer prints walking in a straight line and even fox prints too. It makes me wonder what was happening around here? As I walk a little further out, a herd of about 30 deer stop in their tracks and we both stare at each other. A few turn away from me ready to flee with their white tails up in the air. As I continue to walk they stay and I can feel them watching me. The life in the forest is alive and well despite the freezing temperatures and naked tree branches awaiting new foliage. As I round a corner I almost walk on top of a holly tree sprout. The first green I have seen in this forest today. It immediately makes me smile.

The holly tree is a very sacred tree in Celtic mythology, representing peace, hope and goodwill. Holly leaves resist lightning and they used to be planted near peoples homes to protect them from lightening strikes! Because of their spiked leaves it is a wonderful abode for birds to protect them from predators and when their flowers bloom in the springtime their scent is beloved by the bees and butterflies 🙂 As an evergreen, no matter how dire it feels some days to me out in the bare bones of a winter forest the life represented in those green leaves bring me immediate warmth and joy. It is a good reminder that the leaves on all the trees will sprout again, flowers will bloom, and we will soon hear the buzzing of pollinators.

Seeing this little sprout of the holly tree peek through the snow reminds me of the opening circle we held during one of our homeschool programs. We had asked the kids what they most loved about Nature. A handful of those students who had been with us for a while thoughtfully answered in various ways that ‘being out in nature was very calming for them, it was peaceful, and made them happy.’ I think one of the special things about our programs is the sheer amount of time in Nature – something that doesn’t seem to happen too often (without intentionally carving out the time to do so) in our society these days. These very heartfelt answers gave me a lot of hope for our future – just like that little sprout of the holly tree. When children feel the impact and beauty inherent in the natural world it can create ripples of hope for our future on this planet far wider than we may realize.

– Laura Rose, Field Instructor

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Tracking: A Story Waiting to be Read

“Tracks occur where the sky touches the earth” The Tracker – Tom Brown Jr

I have this vivid memory of taking a cardboard box, some string and a carrot into the woods across the street from my house.  As seen in the cartoons, I found a stick, tied the string to it and propped up the box with the stick and put the carrot underneath.  With the opposite end of the string in my hand, I laid in the brush several feet, watching, waiting.  I don’t remember how long I laid there, but I had nothing better to do, so it was quite a while. I was feeling good about this attempt as cartoons made it very clear that carrots were a rabbits preferred food, not to mention I would always see rabbits along the edge of the woods. I was hoping one would come along and go for the carrot at which point I would pull the string and trap it under the box.  To my surprise, and disappointment, nothing came and I didn’t understand why.

If only my grandfather, or even my “great” “great” grandfather had been taught the old ways of their “great” “great” grandfathers, so that my father could pass them onto me.  But unfortunately, that is not my history.  However I had this deep passion to learn the old ways at a very young age. 

Life went on, time passed, and thanks to the skills my father possessed and could pass on, I learned the ways of being a successful “modern” man, modern awareness and how spot the predators of the city and suburbs.  Then one day, thirty years ago, I read a book changed my life.

I was given a copy of The Tracker written by Tom Brown Jr. I couldn’t put the book down. Next thing I knew read his next 5 books and had a more questions about who I was and what is our purpose as humans on this earth.  At the end of each book there was a note in the back saying something along the lines of “if you’re interested in learning more about these skills, contact the Tracker School…”

Without telling the long version of the story, I ended attending the Standard class (a level 1 class) at the tracker school.  There I learned, with 125 others, the sacred order of survival and our basic needs to live; shelter, water, fire, and food.

During the standard Tom taught hours and hours of animal tracking, down loading enough information to fill a college credit course.  I couldn’t believe how much information was stored in a single track on the ground. Throughout the week It became very clear Toms passion was tracking and he was a tracker.

Reading that book, finding the Tracker School, and attending that class filled a void within my being that I had no idea existed.  Everything about my childhood started to make sense.  My passions, how I learned, the things that made me feel alive all came together within my being and I began to feel complete, with a drive to learn more about who I am and what my purpose was through learning the “old ways”. 

Tom said, “tracking is like reading a book, there is a story that is being told with each track being a word, The trail a paragraph, and the story ends when you find the final track.” He also said “when you’re tracking an animal, you become the animal and begin to “see through their eyes,” living their story.”

With each track you can learn so much. How fast they were moving, which way were they looking, if they were comfortable or on alert, hungry or satiated and so much more. The more you more you track, the more questions you ask, the more you ask more becomes apparent, sentences, and paragraphs of the story would become clearer. If only I was taught how to read tracks at the same time, I was introduced to the written word… if only.

Bill Kaczor – Director/Co-founder

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How our Ancient Traditions can help us Today

While most people may think of primitive skills/bushcraft in purely practical terms (e.g. making a shelter to stay dry, firemaking to cook and keep warm), an often overlooked aspect of learning and practicing these skills, is the community and sense of empowerment that comes from being in nature.

When I began working at the Wood Wise summer camps, the bulk of my nature experiences, like most people from cities and suburbia, came from yearly camping trips with my family. I remember our tried and true method of making a fire: drive to the camp site’s store, buy firewood and then douse it in lighter fluid and light in the fire pit. Fire in addition to being one of humanity’s earliest and most important discoveries is also a community builder. Most can attest to the comradery and familiarity that a camp fire brings.

When I started working at Wood Wise Camps, I was introduced to Bow Drill:
Bow Drill is one of the oldest fire making tools, consisting of a wooden bow, tied with some form of cordage, a hearth board, a handhold, and a spindle. It has been used by people from North America to Egypt. The Egyptian style of Bow Drill has been used since around 2000 BCE, The Egyptian bow drill differs from other styles by tying the spindle to the string using a clove hitch and then wrapping the excess cord around it.

One of the activities we did at camp, was group bow drill. Seeing a group of around six people, pushing and pulling a rope, easily working in tandem to reach our goal of fire, reminded me of something I think we’ve lost in modern society, community. For most of our history, people lived in smaller, more connected communities with every person having a role to play in it. I think by practicing these skills and getting back to nature, we not only gain survival skills but a direct link to how our ancestors lived.


I would consider myself to be a fairly shy and withdrawn person, but being able to connect with this small pocket of community and to act as a Mentor with these skills, has grown my confidence. I have seen this same transformation take place in the kids I’ve taught, children have come to programs shy and timid but upon getting into the woods, building debris shelters and experiencing nature, they come alive.

Today, it’s important to engage in a community that encourages cooperation and sharing of ideas and technique, especially as trends show every subsequent generation growing more isolated than the last. I can not think of a better way to connect with others and your environment than to learn and practice the skills that our ancestors used to survive and thrive.

By Ben Kamm (Field Instructor in Training)

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Awareness and returning to “baseline”

What does the word awareness bring to mind for most people?

Maybe…Time management skills, a good sense of social etiquette, quick reaction time while driving?

The demands of our busy lives may give us a different idea of the “aware” human, but try to think of instinct, on more animal terms. In the forest, we have a chance to practice these skills away from the disruptions of other humans and the busy, modern world, and to carry them out into that world with us. Listening to the subtle cues in the language of the forest and creatures can help restore our sensitivity and perception.

How do most humans move through the city?

We tend to look straight ahead, our vision fixed on our destination, walking with firm and quick steps in sensation muffling , foot compressing shoes.

When moving through nature, we can learn to roll our foot in a way that minimizes sound when we walk, feeling every obstacle before we have a chance to break it, “fox walking” through the woods. This is done best barefoot, or in thin soled shoes/moccasins but can be achieved in almost any footwear. If you’d like to try, start barefoot. Walk with relaxed, slightly bent knees. Place the blade of your foot upon the earth first, and roll towards the center, your heal landing last. This allows you to adjust your movement if you feel something like a rock or stick that could snap. Some find a kind of walking meditation in this exercise, and with continued use, it may start to come naturally to you. There is more intention in this way of walking, you may find that it forces you to observe the present rather than dwell in your thoughts.

Where do we tend to focus our gaze when navigating the city?

Most people tend to look straight ahead, as previously stated. They may miss things above or below them. People who have a sense of hyper-awareness may use a form of wide angle vision already, watching others from the corner of their eye, when their guard is high.  We can learn to open our vision, widening the boundaries of our sight, until we can watch all that is moving around us, versus one fixed point.

An exercise in “Wide Angle Vision”, or “Owl Eyes”:

Stand with your arms a bit wider than your body. Wiggle your fingers and stare straight ahead. Slowly bring your hands out as far as you can, until the motion of your fingers is on the very edge of your range of vision. Keep looking straight ahead while watching this motion. This can make it easier to slip into Wide Angle Vision, with practice.

How do we listen, vs the animals we observe?

Our ear dish is rather small, compared to a deer or a dog. You’ve probably seen these animals swivel their ears in order to pinpoint a sound. We can mimic this larger, more effective ear dish, with our hands. We can also create a more pinpointed sound, by swiveling our cupped hands, or turning them around, to listen behind us. We can open our ears to more, creating the dish with our hands for the sound to bounce off of, angling forward and back, as the deer do.

  Think of the forest as a watery surface, each disruption you cause, through sound or movement, sends out a ripple that we call a concentric ring. This concentric ring consists of alarm calls from birds and squirrels, and warnings from fleeing creatures, warning of your presence, traveling through the area. When the ripples you cause have calmed, the forest has returned to “baseline”. These concentric rings create anywhere from a 20 minute to a 40 minute disruption in the baseline. We use Sit Spot as a tool to increase our awareness and practice this return to stillness. As we learn to walk silently, to listen and to see, we can sit in this quiet state for hours. We start to see things as they are, no longer only experiencing human disruption.

If you find the time, take a pause this week. Sit beneath a tree, open your deer ears, and let things be still.

By Eden Cornelius (Program Coordinator and Field Instructor)

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Ancestral Knowledge Receives 2022 Best of Greenbelt Award!

Ancestral Knowledge Receives 2022 Best of Greenbelt Award

Greenbelt Award Program Honors the Achievement

GREENBELT October 19, 2022 — Ancestral Knowledge has been selected for the 2022 Best of Greenbelt Award in the School category by the Greenbelt Award Program.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2022 Greenbelt Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Greenbelt Award Program and data provided by third parties.

Each year, the Greenbelt Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Greenbelt area a great place to live, work and play.

About Greenbelt Award Program

The Greenbelt Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Greenbelt area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.

The Greenbelt Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to recognize the small business community’s contributions to the U.S. economy.

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Barbie is Dead!

“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”

Nature empowers females (Notice that we call her Mother Earth, not Father Earth.). Although there are certainly laws of nature that must be “obeyed,” we generally don’t think of the planet in paternalistic terms. It’s difficult to behold the abundance of life brimming forth from every nook and cranny of this bizarre space rock and not feel the power of the womb, and realize that the forces at play are the maternalistic ones of nurturing, caring, and giving.

Every time a parent gives us feedback about how their daughters come home from our programs more animated, capable, and confident from climbing over rocks and roots, getting dirty, carving with knives, making things with their hands, learning about plants, and all the other things we do out in the woods, it is a truly heartwarming experience. We live to receive emails like this:

“So proud of my daughter, Sophia. She started off the week not sure if she wanted to go to Ancestral Knowledge Wood Wise I Camp, anxious at first that she was the only girl until a few more girls showed up. She came home every day with a layer of dirt and a smile on her face. Today she was so proud that she had earned her bead for going out in the woods alone, sitting quietly for half an hour, and observing animals. I’m grateful to the young women who were her role models as counselors this week. Sophia seems stronger and more confident. Ancestral Knowledge Camp seems to be an effective counter to princess culture. (See https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/06/24/princess-culture-is-bad-for-girls-now-theres-proof/) Let’s hope she carries these lessons with her. Wood Wise II is next week! She is on her way to becoming a strong young woman. Thank you!”

All that being said, it’s important to keep a balanced perspective and remember that our young men face plenty of their own challenges in the modern world. In an age where the masculinity of our young people is pathologized, criminalized, and medicated out of existence, time in nature is more important than ever for all our children, regardless of gender. Just like our daughters need Mother Earth to bring forth their strengths and cure them of timidity, our sons need Her to teach them lessons of empathy and connectedness.  Wild nature is the perfect antidote for Ken, too. Plastic people don’t seem to fare too well out there, and good riddance.

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Teaching Kids to Love the outdoors during Winter time!

 

Teaching Kids to love the winter

Teaching kids to love the winter is not that hard. We at Ancestral knowledge have been guiding children for over ten year in winter camp outs and outdoor activities. Most kids naturally love playing outside no matter what the weather. When given the chance children learn not to fear the cold. Here are some wonderful tips that will help kids learn to love the winter weather:

1. Make it fun
If it not fun and rewarding chances are that they’re not going to be interested. Most all kids love to play on ice puddles, built snow shelters, go sledding, have snow ball fights, play with ice icicles, snowboard and ski.

2. Play with Friends
To help motivate your child it helps to invite a few friends over. They can do all types of fun outdoor activities together that they will enjoy.

3. Appropriate winter clothing
Good winter clothing allows kids to be comfortable. Along with a winter jacket and snow pants I recommend; boots, socks, gloves, scarf and hat to keep kids warm. We encourage all our students to have extra wool socks and gloves and always carry an extra blanket to help warm kids up.

4. Celebrate the fun and excitement at the end of the day
Celebrate the cold and honor your kids for braving the winter weather. It is important to recognize winter conditions can be challenging and you can help them problem solve the challenges of winter weather.

5. Participate in outdoors clubs or outdoor winter programs
Outdoor clubs, winter hikes and wilderness youth programs with expert instructors are a great resource in helping your kids to develop a love for the winter. These outside programs teach kids fun and exciting winter activates that parent don’t often know or have the time to teach.

 

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Are you Prepared to Get Out and Play this Winter?

We encourage everyone to get out and enjoy the outdoors during the winter time.  However everyone responds to cold temperatures differently. Keeping feet, hands, and clothing dry is very important because toes and fingers are most susceptible to damage from the cold. Whenever possible carry an extra pair of socks in case your feet get wet and a couple plastic shopping bags to put over the dry socks to avoid the boots saturating the dry socks. Wet feet, hands, and clothing need to be addressed in a timely fashion because wet clothing will cause you to lose warmth. If you get wet its best to get indoors or change those layers. If that’s not possible build a fire to warm up and dry out those wet clothes.  Being prepared and dressing properly will allow for hours of winter fun and exploration!

The follow descriptions will help you dress for various cold weather conditions.

The Base Layers – The first layer of clothing closest to the skin should be a type of long underwear or base layer. They should be lightweight, comfortable and cozy. Try to avoid cotton because it holds moisture and can become heavy and cold if wet. Wool or synthetic blends of clothing are the best materials. You’ll find long underwear available at various prices and styles. One trick is to use synthetic sweat pants or tights if you don’t have a base layer available.

The Extra Insulation Layers – The insulated layer of clothing is worn over long underwear for extra warmth. Materials such as a fleece jackets or wool sweaters are great. Again avoid cotton if you can because its fibers soak up water and become heavy making you feel wet and cold. During the coldest temperatures multiple layers may be necessary.  The best thing about layering is that you can add or shed a layer depending on your comfort level.

The Outer Layer (Outer winter coats and Snow pants) – The outer layer or shell should be waterproof, providing protection from wind, rain and snow. Waterproof shells typically have minimal insulation so they can be worn over the inner layers without being too balky . You’ll find outer shells in both jackets and pants, making them ideal for a number of cold-weather activities. Your winter coat should have a hood, be wind-resistant, water-repellent and breathable. Down jackets, filled with goose feathers, are excellent for warmth but need to be protected in wet weather with a rain jacket.  Fleece-lined ski jackets are excellent also. One-piece snowsuits might be appropriate for kids who spend all day outdoors in the winter. Snowsuits are highly water-resistant and provide the maximum protection from the wet snow.

Winter Hats, Neck warmers, and Face-masks – Half of your body heat is lost through your head. Traditional scarves, neck warmers, hats and face masks help keep your face and body warmer by stopping valuable heat loss from the head and neck. Wool, synthetic or fur are the preferred materials.

Gloves and Mittens – Cold hands can ruin a day. It best to have water-resistant mittens, which keeps hands warmer than gloves.   Gloves, however allow for more dexterity. In wet snow or rain water resistant material is important. Fleece and wool mittens become useless when wet.  Wet gloves don’t keep hands warm unless you dry them out.  Insulating your wrists aids dramatically in keeping you hands warm. Old wool socks with the toes cut out and a thumb hole added make great wrist gators.  Wearing water proof mittens with a glove liner gives you the ability to have both warmth and mobility when needed.

Socks and Boots – Instead of cotton socks opt for polyester and wool-blended socks that keep toes insulated even when damp with sweat or wet from snow. You want waterproof or resistant boots. Make sure they are not too snug. Go up a size when buying winter boots to compensate for thick wool socks.

REI has a good reference page on layering.

Most of these items can be found at thrift stores. If you wish to purchase new items, REI, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Hudson Outdoor, Gander Mountain, and other outdoor and camping stores all sell these items. Target sells poly-pro long underwear in kids sizes.

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Spirit of the Hunt Apprenticeship

The bow making is underway.  We are running at maximum capacity in both the Spirit of the Hunt Apprenticeship and the upcoming Self Bow Making workshop.

There is a great group of guys in the apprenticeship program who are eager to learn and working really hard at finding and following a single growth ring on their hickory bow staves. Several have moved onto the bow layout and everyone else isn’t too far behind.

We will start to focus on making primitive arrows.  We will start with harvesting arrow shafts and moving into the proper way to straighten each shaft for the truest flight.  In the end each participant should have three arrows in their quiver.

I am looking forward to getting the crew out into the woods and immersing them into the ebb and flow of the natural world. We will be tracking, trailing, and getting to know the deer we will eventually be hunting come the fall.

This is the first year of this program, so far so good.  The Spirit of the Hunt was created after running our pilot apprenticeship in 2010.  Starting in 2012 a youth version called the Hunters Rites of Passage program will be added to the schedule.  I feel this program will help our youth form a mutual respect for life and nature via the spirit of the hunt.  The life lessons found during the hunt are profound and endless.  Each journey into the forest awakens the deep connections we have to the web of life that are embedded in our DNA.

 

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Wilderness Survival Weekend

We just finished our largest ever Wilderness Survival Weekend class, and from my point of view as an instructor it was a resounding success.  Our goal as instructors is always for our students to learn and practice physical skills, but also to find or recover new parts of themselves, and to develop new relationships with other people and the Earth.  On both counts this class was outstanding.

The large size of this group (16 students, 4 instructors) really pushed us to fit everything into the class, but also created a higher level of intensity and a more dynamic learning community.  In the end we covered the primary skills we set out to teach including nature awareness, shelter building and firemaking, and still had time to cover elements of water purification, trapping, hunting, edible wild plants and cordage.

Friday night as we sat around the fire several students asked about skinning and processing animals, and whether they would have the opportunity to learn that skill.  I dutifully scanned the highway for roadkills on the way to class but didn’t find any good ones, so assumed we would not.  Earth Mother, it seems, had other plans, as Saturday afternoon two students in the class discovered a young spike buck dead in the woods, from whom we subsequently harvested a beautiful hide that Hannah and I will be tanning this week.

Every student worked diligently all day Saturday on their debris huts, which were built in threes to share insulation on adjoining walls.  This was the first time most students had tried to build their own shelter and sleep in it, and impressively everyone did.  Shelter may seem like a simple skill, but those who have “slept” in a poorly designed one know otherwise.  Nonetheless, sleeping in your own debris hut is simply one of the most rewarding and empowering things a person can experience, and one of the very best ways to experience truly being close to Earth Mother.  Before bed the instructors shared a few stories of their successes and many failures, prepared some pine needle tea, and the group headed out to greet the night.

Sunday morning we cooked on the fire again and then focused on bow drill.  Quite a few people succeeded in getting a bow drill fire started, including several first timers.  More importantly, everyone learned and got several steps closer to the skill level they desire, which in the end is far better than any specific end result.

Finally, I want to commend the students in this class again on their outstanding attitude and spirit of teamwork and cooperation.  Working in small groups can be challenging, but I saw many friendships started and lots of laughter as I wandered between the debris hut sites.  When you’re used to living in a house with electricity, a toilet and refrigerator, being in the woods can always produce a little discomfort, but this class had an overwhelmingly positive attitude, which always makes for a better experience.  Can’t wait to do it again!