Geeking-out

DICLAIMER: This entry is super long and geeks out periodically. Will not take offense to skimming. :-)
          Wow, what a week! "School" is really like a dream-come-true. Tuesday was our first day of official class, and we kicked it off with friction fire. We all got an introduction to the spiritual side of fire and its greater importance and significance within our lives. I got a little nervous then, as I realized that we would be carving bowdrill kits for the day. Nervous because I've done it like 100 times, and I had really hoped that this school would push my skills. But, needless to say from my spazzy introduction, it turned out perfect. They straight up asked up how many coals we had gotten and had us split ourselves up into groups based on our levels of experience. The newbies used the provided wood (western red cedar) and p-chord, some people harvested their kits from the land and used p-chord for their bow string, some of us harvested the whole kit, including the cord, from the land, and some people tried the whole deal from the land without aid of a knife. It was so awesome to have all of these different levels of skill so that we all could teach and learn from one another.
          My kit was from black cottonwood--a tree limb snag up high with good southern sun expose. I used the branch for the baseboard and spindle. Then my handhold was semi-punky vine maple and my cord was the rootlets from western red cedar. The cordage was by far my favorite part and definitely the most successful. I used three small rootlets, stripped a little bit of the bark off, and then reverse wrapped them together. It was super sturdy and lasted a really long time. I used the bowing technique where the end of the bowstring nearest you is not attached and you're pinching it as you bow to adjust tension and such. The only problem with my cord was that little bits of the leftover bark started peeling up and becoming fibrous, which then started to tangle and weaken the cord, in turn making it harder to bow smoothly. Though I did not get a coal (I think my baseboard was too small and pithy) the whole ordeal ended up being a real success. Other cordages people tried were nettle, cattail, human hair, and blackberry. I think I may have impressed the pants off some of the people here too. Haha. The youngest girl from NY bringing up the rear... didn't see that coming, aye? I love feeling like I'm in my element. Okay I'm done geeking out on bowdrill. For those of you who that was practically Spanish, my apologies.
          We also spent some of the day going over basic animal taxonomy and track characteristics. Some of it was familiar, but most of it I was like... "Hmm... I definitely knew this at one time... I think I took a test on this once..." Apparently this is what I'm paying an arm and a leg for at University. >:-(
          On Wednesday we took a trip to Bob Heirman park to go tracking. It was a beautiful hike that passed through a bunch of different ecosystems: steep rocky ridges into long, dry praries into swampy wetlands into deep forests into gravel beaches into winding salmon-filled rivers. I actually rememebered my camera this time too, but of course, didn't realize it was out of batteries until I got there. Sorry. :-( So first, we made a fire on the beach and learned the basics on how to approach tracking and why tracking is important. Then we broke up in groups and rotated throughout "stations" where the instructors had found some cool tracks. In the stations we saw great blue heron tracks, beaver drags and tracks, coyote tracks, and some sort of lagomorph tracks (aka. bunny). It was exciting to be excited about tracking. It has always been something I wanted to want to learn, but never really had that draw until now.
Now's probably a good time to mention that Monday morning at 6am we're leaving for... drum-role... the Oregon dunes! An entire week of intense tracking and animal identification! Soooo pumped. And I promise I'm going to bring a charged camera and come back with plenty of pictures to share. I'm super-crazy pumped.
          Thursday was the busiest day I've had in a long time. I woke up at 5:45am so I could get to my sit-spot before dawn. I was there until after 7am, greeted by a beautiful chorus of morning bird songs. Then, appropriately, class that day was centered around bird language. We discussed the five basic bird calls: song, companion call, male/male aggression, and alarm. We also studied call, identification, behavior, etc. of the five most helpful birds for bird language in this area: the american robin, song sparrow, rufous-sided towhee, dark-eyed junco, and pacific wren. All these birds are common to the area, mostly ground dwelling, and have pretty distinguishable calls. The groups were then split and led in bird sits and song/visual identification walks. Unfortunately, we didn't see or hear much other than excited kids because we share the land with a number of different school camps on Thursdays, plus it started raining. Birding is one of those skills that I find so overwhelming. It's great feeling like I finally have a base to start building upon. I wake up every morning and play calls from The Top 5 and then play them again before I go to bed. Hopefully as I get those down, I can keep adding more locals from the area. After class, Michelle and I spent a few hours scrubbing down the inside of our yurt to conquer the mold before the winter wetness comes. Then immediately after, we grabbed some food and headed back up to Cedar Lodge for a showing of The Great Dance. If you ever want to get pumped about tracking, watch that movie. Actually watch it anyways... it's stellar. Theeeennnn there was a great jam sesh after the movie. And theeennnnn we had an amazing dinner with the help of friend and fellow student Canoe Trevor. He brought some fresh caught, self-canned halibut from a 100lb fish he caught in Alaska. MMMMmmmm soooo incredibly good.
          I woke up early again on Friday for my first day of work! All I have to say is, "Wow." I am so insanely happy with it. I fell into my role like I was back at home again. So much of the camp is similar to Primitive Pursuits, but more so of PP in it's early stages. My group of kids are ages 8-13 and though most of them are newbies, some have been coming to the programs for like 5 or 6 years. On one hand it's so awesome that they all have such a great base for learning, on the other hand it's freakin' terrifying. For example, we were sitting around the fire giving brief introductions and a bird silouette zipped over head. One of the 8-year-olds jumps up and points, "Look! What is that? Definitely a woodpecker... is that a piliated or a hairy? Hmm I think thats a piliated. Yeah definitely..." and then sits back down. Dude. He's 8. Hahaha I'm going to learn so much this year. Later that day I asked one of the 13-year-old girls her favorite insect and she replied, "Umm... though I have a general detest for all bugs, I'd probably say the black-nosed snout weevil." Oh boy. ANYWAYS, it was really refreshing to be in a place where the kids are treated like people and not things. These kids are given so much responsibility, respect, and love. I'm so happy to be a part of this organization.
          Okay well I need to go do some homework now to prepare for next week. I probably won't be able to write again until next weekend so until then... I wish you all the best. Love you all dearly!