This week was the start of year six for the Bear Creek Explorers, and I was delighted to welcome back all six kids from last year, plus one more. For documenting, my revised intention this year is to capture some highlights of our weekly adventures in the woods, without trying to document everything. Each day I spend with these kids in the woods is filled with many tiny adventures, discoveries, wonder and magic. But telling the whole story from start to finish takes more time than I have. Let’s see if I can capture two or three memories from each week and find a sustainable rhythm.
One major focus this year is going to be on establishing forest plots. Our plots are squares with 60ft sides. Last year these stuents helped collect data in one plot, and label and girle trees on another, but yesterday was our first time setting the boundaries of a new plot. Deep in the pine forest, in the pouring rain, we worked together to stretch four strings attached to a ring in the center to find the corners of the square.
I thought I was quite clever with the tool I’d created for this purpose, and had carefully wound and tied each of the four strings to prevent tangling. But guess what! Once we untied them, they instantly became a tangled mess. I thought the challenge would be weaving through the trees, being guided by someone in the middle holding the compass- but no, the real challenge was the untangling. Pretty soon, someone suggested a solution: we needed spools to wind the strings around, and Ru got to work carving them.
The way this project unfolded was a perfect illustration of what I love about doing science in the field. You head out with a plan and what you think are the right tools. Once you attempt the task, real-world problems show up and you have to think creatively to solve them. In the forest, you work with what you’ve got (in this case, plenty of sticks to carve into spools) and use your bushcraft skills to move the project forward. It took patience, reliance, problem-solving, and in this case, knife skills. We didn’t finish, but we got a good start on plot #3.
The day was rainy and bit a bit chilly, so it was no surprise there was a call for fire after lunch. We headed to the village and they got to work making feather sticks and sparking up their ferrorods. I teased them because as usual no, everyone wants to light a featherstick and one wants to gather firewood.
Despite skipping some important prepatory steps, I must admit I was more that a little proud at how quick they made fire happen! What a difference from the start of last year. They got away with not preparing firewood ahead of time by working as a group to run around and gather once the little flame took hold.
We had a couple of visitors this week, Simon’s grandparents. It was fun to show them around and hear their ideas about what we’re up to. And an added bonus: there was someone to take a group picture of the eight of us together beside our first campfire of the season.
Looking forward to a whole new year of adventures with this crew!