We recently crossed into March and memories of years past suggests we should see hints of spring through frequent downpours. But this year, winter’s power is unrelenting, and I see no such signs. We woke up this morning to a white winter wonderland, and each week seems to bring at least some snow and hail. The sun pokes out now and then, but usually not for long.
One sunny Wednesday the kids in broadcast media brought a very fancy TNW video camera to shoot some footage.
Sierra was the camera woman while Gabriel split some oak with a maul. They were hoping for the perfect shot, but of course, it never goes according to plan when someone’s pointing a camera at you.
Such a tease that day: we could sit in the meadow in the sun for lunch and almost be warm. I’ve been reading aloud from Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
The next week, snow!
And plenty of ice. This formation was from water pooled in a tarp.
What can I say- if there’s snow and the kids want to build, we always make time for it. The older they get the more important I think this kind of play is! Seriously- time better spent than on any rigorous academic pursuit.
Murder is the theme lately… so this tragic snow scene was to be expected.
We worked on knots…
and reworked the stakes for the tarps.
There was an attack by a blob monster at the end of the day, which was hilarious.
And the next week… more snow! It had melted in between, then returned. After sit spots, they wanted to build another snow person.
This dude was ripped and looked a little angry.
We explored new areas, looking for signs of wildlife.
Read more of our book around the fire.
We worked on knife skills. Sam reminded us all what can happen if you’re holding a knife and make a quick motion to flick a bug from your face. It was a little scary with all the blood dripping from his nose, but we soon realized it wasn’t deep and thankfully he missed his eye. He handled it really well and returned to making a feather stick after the bleeding stopped.
Ani’s grandmother came for the day to visit- three generations!
Some impressive feather sticks.
Oh… and then there was the torch-making. That was good for a laugh! I didn’t really know what I was doing and had no idea if it would work. On our first attempt, we burned up all the pitch. But then we started to get the hang of it… and I decided to film our final attempt. The result amused us enough to post the two-minute clip on YouTube.
We made a few extras for a rainy day.
Here’s hoping that my next post is filled with wildflowers!