Correspondence Course Weekend Retreats 2009

It's almost 2009, and as the year winds down, I am already planning the coming year and beyond. I got the deer processed and hide fleshed and salted, and the skull and horns are being cleaned to be used in councils for Red Deer Camp or men's lodges here at Hawk Circle in the Earth Skills Trainings. It feels good to have meat to offer to my students to share by the fire, or have Trista make an awesome stew or chili. Thank you, deer.

Which brings me to this post. I am thinking of planning three Earth Skills Correspondence Course Weekend Retreats, where students of the course can come here for a weekend, bring their own food, set up a tent or stay in a cabin, and study the skills, have me look over their coursework and give hands-on instruction during the weekend for a few hours on Saturday and a few hours on Sunday. No charge. What do you all think of that?

We get really busy in the spring, because of the Tracking Expedition, the Advanced Bird Language Intensive, the Spring Survival Trek, all kinds of school groups and then camp preparation, staff training and the camps themselves start rolling in June-August. However, I would love to find a way to schedule something in for you all to attend and get some attention and move further in your course. Would something in July work for any of you? How about October or September? I don't like to get too into the late fall because of deer season (archery) but we could also plan something for the last week of November or something too. April might work, if you can make it.

What works for you, people? I can throw out some dates, and see what sticks, but I really don't want to tie up my weekends if no one is actually going to show up. So I need to hear from you! Otherwise, I will work on my timberframing, or cutting firewood, or helping gather wild foods, or plant the garden or any number of gathering, teaching, or building chores that need to get done around here.

The weekends are pretty laid back, with use of our barn room, heated with a wood stove, as well as the tipi, for teaching and practicing skills, and the whole property for gathering and making grass mats, or making stone tools, or gathering wood and making fire from scratch, to cooking, or building a shelter or rock boiling or any number of other cool things that we can work on. And we can hang out, carve by the fire, tell stories and I can share whatever it is you need help with, from mentoring to professional marketing to earth philosophy and more. Basically, it is up to you, in a lot of ways. If there is a way for me to do it, I will teach and share what I can to help you get better.

If you haven't gotten the course yet, this might be a good time, too. It's $450 if you pay in full, until January 15th, and you get the full course, open ended, with no time limit to finish, plus mentoring support, as well as access to me for questions and troubleshooting, and you even get three weekend retreats here at Hawk Circle, to pick my brain and get hands-on skills teaching and advice. How can you go wrong?

Anyway, make a comment on this blog and let me know if you have a preference for a weekend or time of year, and we will move forward on getting the dates rolling!