A couple BCEs called me out this week for not keeping the blog up. Fair enough! Sometimes I wonder if anyone’s reading along, and shift my focus to other things. If you like reading about these adventures, leave me a comment and it will encourage me to keep it up.
Three weeks ago we had record low attendance due to illness and family trips- there were only four of us! Also, the day was spectacularly sunny and warm. My plan was to start building a new trail, The Trail of Giants. We started with some tool maintenance: sharpening the long handled loppers.
Those who got into it did great work, which made our next task easier.
Turns out if you make a trail under the tall trees, these kids will climb them. Especially Rheah!
We clipped our way to a new area. I was excited to be under old oak trees, but these three found the bouncy vine maples more entertaining. There was a lot of jumping, laying on, and falling off these little trees which created a joyful sound.
After some prodding they finally explored the an older oak that hangs over Bear Creek and apparently makes a decent slide.
After all that hard work and play we had lunch in the meadow. When we finished eating an incredible calm swept over us. We quickly reached consensus on a 10-minute nap before the next activity. I set a timer and we all laid down in the grass. There’s nothing quite like resting in the warm sun in the middle of winter.
After nap time, we started brainstorming about the group shelter. Making mock-ups from sticks felt worthwhile.
We built two, but this one was the favorite.
The next week was all about finding and establishing Plot #5.
We saw some beautiful lichen-covered old stumps as we explored this new part of the forest.
This team is quite efficient when it comes to creating a 1/30 hectare square plot. We had the corners laid out before lunch.
After lunch it was (apparently) time to work out. Terran (apparently) is a perfect weight for both bench pressing and squats. Well… actually the squats didn’t go so well.
Banana slugs were abundant.
We were inspired by all the lush varieties of moss in this part of the forest, and decided to collect some for a moss garden.
I loved the energy back at main camp that afternoon, just before we went home. Terran and Ru took the initiative to create the moss garden, including a log-lined pathway.
While Bella and Simon updated their field notebooks with the day’s achievements…
… without being asked!
This week started with the creation of eight individual Mico-Wildernesses in the meadow. The task was to use a length of twine and four stakes to define the boundary of an area to observe during sit-spot time throughout the spring.
The required parameters were: not in the road or archery range, at least some disturbed soil, one cover object (bark), and at least one other natural thing.
Ruani created a micro-wilderness with lots of structure, but every one of them was unique and interesting. It will be fun to observe changes as spring arrives.
This week was the first time since… January?… that we had a full crew. It’s great to have everyone, but the energy seems to increase exponentially with each extra person. Walking through the woods isn’t often a quiet, tranquil experience. But then someone found a newt, and for a few moments, all was still.
My favorite part about this moment is, we find newts all the time, and yet little guy enchanted the whole group.
It was time to start actually building our group shelter, and first we had to find the spot. Then, we had to start gathering wood. Luckily our forest has a lot of dead standing pole-sized Doug-firs suppressed by lack of light but not yet rotten. With a sharp saw or axe, often the hardest part is getting them to fall.
Using physics can help. Nothing like leverage to move a heavy object.
When this tree finally came free it fell exactly on top of the stump it was cut from!
Logs were carried to the shelter spot where they were stripped of branches and sometimes bark.
A team of us planned out the poles for the ridge-line and got some of them tied to trees with paracord. The excitement about our progress was palatable, including calls to stay late and keep working.
Maybe I don’t need a hire loggers to thin the forest after all… I’ll just hand out axes and saws to this amazing crew!
I love getting to see what I miss when I get sick!