October 10, 2009: The Next Earth Skills Correspondence Course Weekend Event

It's coming. October 10, 2009. Yep, it's the next Correspondence Course Weekend. Come on Friday evening, stay overnight, then spend the day with me and my students/staff, practicing skills, talking about the course and other relevant topics, explore the land at Hawk Circle and get answers to your skills and philosophy questions....

It's free. (Bring your own food!)

You don't even need a tent! (We have cabins!)

You won't be given a guilt trip if you haven't been working on the course. We can just hang out and get some new inspiration.

If it rains, we have a great workshop room, heated by woodstove. Come learn, sharpen your knife, make hand drill fires, bark containers, grass mats, or whatever else you want to work on! I will even bring some venison to share around the campfire...

There is the great town of Cooperstown, or Cherry Valley, if you want to bring your family and they want to explore the museums or the lake or the hills. They can stay in the cabins too, and be around while we do our thing. (I am very laid back!)

Save the date, and send me an E-mail if you can make it. Let me know what you would like to study or work on, and it will help me plan!
Thanks, everyone and have a great fall!

P.S. The pics are from last spring's Skills Retreat, with Brad and EW. Man, that was a great day!

Finding Time

We are all busy. Unbelievably so, in many cases. Here at Hawk Circle, we seem to go in waves. Summer camp staff training starting=Super Busy. Camp is Underway=Slightly Less Busy. Adirondack Expedition Packing/Prep=Super Busy. Camp ends=Slightly Less Busy. Assembling a Timber Frame Cabin=Super Busy..... well, you get the idea!

When it is so busy, well, it does make it hard to work our jobs, get our yard/house work/chores done, hang out and have family or relationship time in and then rest and relax. Where do we get the time to actually practice skills or learn new skills? How do we find time without having to invent a time machine?

This fall, it is just Trista and myself running Hawk Circle, with a small crew of apprentices, and we are going to be flat out all season. On top of that, I am timberframing cabins, cutting firewood, getting the camp and cabins ready for the winter, teaching several workshops, leading four afterschool programs each week and trying to write my book. When am I going to have time to go Bowhunting? Well, that's the great thing about finding time. You just have to make it happen. You just have to GO!

Each fall, I am so busy that there is no way I will have time, and yet, somehow, I find the time. I just go. Sometimes, I go early in the morning and get back in time for Trista to take Jesse into school in Cooperstown. It isn't a full morning hunt, but it is better than nothing. Other times, I just go in the afternoon, when a school cancels their program, or on weekends or holidays. I go every chance I get.

As the season goes, I somehow find more and more time to get out. It is a great feeling, sitting in a tree stand, or leaning against a big pine and listening to the wind in the trees and the squirrels chasing each other fighting for apples. I seem to settle into a deeper place, almost a sacred place, and though I only have a few hours, it can feel like an eternity.

This fall I am running a workshop called The Sacred Hunt, and if you are a new hunter or just want to get together with a group of us and learn to hunt in a respectful and honorable manner, please feel free to check it out and join us. Looking back on last year, some of the most powerful lessons and skills I learned all year happened during the hunting season, for myself as a man, as a teacher, as a parent and a husband. I learned and I grew and it was good.

Somehow, I managed to get everything done that I needed to do, and the things I didn't get done, well, the world didn't end, either. (It almost did, though! See: Recession!)

The bottom line is, sometimes you have to make a stand. Not against anything, but for yourself, for your own inner knowing, for your own soul to grow and shine. Sometimes you have to do it for the good of the whole, even if it is something that might seem like it is an inconvenience or whatever. You have to trust your instincts.

I know that there are lots of things I would like to do, like go fishing, or visit friends or catch up on my emails or letters, or whatever, but I have my priorities! I know when to push and when to stay home and get my other work done....

The biggest point of this post is to say that even if I, or you, get all of your 'work' done, you still need to find ways to grow, personally, spiritually, and intellectually, or take a retreat to renew yourself or recharge so you can be there, fully present, for the people you love and care about. It seems almost counter intuitive, but life is sometimes like that, isn't it? If you have a personal approach to finding time, to taking care of yourself and your own growth and development, please post and share!

In the meantime, enjoy the last of the summer blackberries and I will leave you with these words:

"There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth...not going all the way, and not starting. ” - Buddha

Ricardo

Finding Time

We are all busy. Unbelievably so, in many cases. Here at Hawk Circle, we seem to go in waves. Summer camp staff training starting=Super Busy. Camp is Underway=Slightly Less Busy. Adirondack Expedition Packing/Prep=Super Busy. Camp ends=Slightly Less Busy. Assembling a Timber Frame Cabin=Super Busy..... well, you get the idea!

When it is so busy, well, it does make it hard to work our jobs, get our yard/house work/chores done, hang out and have family or relationship time in and then rest and relax. Where do we get the time to actually practice skills or learn new skills? How do we find time without having to invent a time machine?

This fall, it is just Trista and myself running Hawk Circle, with a small crew of apprentices, and we are going to be flat out all season. On top of that, I am timberframing cabins, cutting firewood, getting the camp and cabins ready for the winter, teaching several workshops, leading four afterschool programs each week and trying to write my book. When am I going to have time to go Bowhunting? Well, that's the great thing about finding time. You just have to make it happen. You just have to GO!

Each fall, I am so busy that there is no way I will have time, and yet, somehow, I find the time. I just go. Sometimes, I go early in the morning and get back in time for Trista to take Jesse into school in Cooperstown. It isn't a full morning hunt, but it is better than nothing. Other times, I just go in the afternoon, when a school cancels their program, or on weekends or holidays. I go every chance I get.

As the season goes, I somehow find more and more time to get out. It is a great feeling, sitting in a tree stand, or leaning against a big pine and listening to the wind in the trees and the squirrels chasing each other fighting for apples. I seem to settle into a deeper place, almost a sacred place, and though I only have a few hours, it can feel like an eternity.

This fall I am running a workshop called The Sacred Hunt, and if you are a new hunter or just want to get together with a group of us and learn to hunt in a respectful and honorable manner, please feel free to check it out and join us. Looking back on last year, some of the most powerful lessons and skills I learned all year happened during the hunting season, for myself as a man, as a teacher, as a parent and a husband. I learned and I grew and it was good.

Somehow, I managed to get everything done that I needed to do, and the things I didn't get done, well, the world didn't end, either. (It almost did, though! See: Recession!)

The bottom line is, sometimes you have to make a stand. Not against anything, but for yourself, for your own inner knowing, for your own soul to grow and shine. Sometimes you have to do it for the good of the whole, even if it is something that might seem like it is an inconvenience or whatever. You have to trust your instincts.

I know that there are lots of things I would like to do, like go fishing, or visit friends or catch up on my emails or letters, or whatever, but I have my priorities! I know when to push and when to stay home and get my other work done....

The biggest point of this post is to say that even if I, or you, get all of your 'work' done, you still need to find ways to grow, personally, spiritually, and intellectually, or take a retreat to renew yourself or recharge so you can be there, fully present, for the people you love and care about. It seems almost counter intuitive, but life is sometimes like that, isn't it? If you have a personal approach to finding time, to taking care of yourself and your own growth and development, please post and share!

In the meantime, enjoy the last of the summer blackberries and I will leave you with these words:

"There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth...not going all the way, and not starting. ” - Buddha

Ricardo

The Earth Skills Correspondence Course Skills Weekends!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to send you a quick note to let you know the dates of the 2009 Earth Skills Correspondence Course weekends. They are as follows:

May 30th July 18th October 10th

These weekends/dates are for any student of the Earth Skills Correspondence Course who wants to learn or practice skills in person here at Hawk Circle, in Cherry Valley, with Ricardo (me!) and any of my staff or semester students, as a benefit to being in the program. We want to support you in your pursuit of learning and give you a chance to learn first hand, rather than through distance learning, so here is your chance! (If you are not a current student of the Earth Skills Correspondence Course, just apply and sign up and you can join us for a great time!)

You can come on Friday evening, if you wish, to camp out, or stay in one of our cabins or the Adirondack lean-to or just sleep on the couch in the barn workshop room. We will start our group gathering on Saturday morning, finding out what everyone wants to work on, and then do some hands on crafts or skills while we get to know each other, connect and network....

It should be a lot of fun. Feel free to bring family members if they want to wander the camp on their own, or hang out by the campfire, or explore the woods around Hawk Circle. They can even head in to Cooperstown for a walk around the village, if they want to.

Food is on your own, so bring easy to prepare meals, or something you can cook over the campfire, or we can all just go in on getting pizza in Cherry Valley or Cooperstown, after a good day of working on skills. So it is pretty easy and laid back.

Housing has already been covered, and you can bring any of your course material with you for review, too, if you want. We will wrap up Saturday evening, and you are welcome to stay over on Sunday, practice on your own, go off for a hike or gathering walk, etc. If I am free, I will try to connect with you again on Sunday, but my schedule may or may not be free so I can't promise anything! Things are never dull around Hawk Circle, that's for sure.

And, just to let you know, I was successful in fishing on the second day of the season, as my pic can attest! Great day on the water, and we did get in some tracking, too. Otter tracks? Fisher tracks? What is your guess?!!!

Please RSVP about the upcoming weekends so I can plan how many will be coming out. Let me know what you want to work on while you are here, as well as how many are coming with you, and when you think you will be arriving. That will help me plan for a great weekend!

Opening Day: Trout Season, 2009

Opening Day. Have you ever been? Okay, for the first day of trout season, it is the opposite of deer season. Cold. Usually damp, with high, fast moving water that make it challenging and tough to catch fish.

We headed out today to try our hands, the Earth Skills Spring Semester students and I, to wet our lines and see if we could beat the odds! The end result: Nothing, although we did donate some hooks and worms to the great fish gods in the waters....

But it was nice to be out. Slowly growing skunk cabbage. Cautious ruffed grouse walking around. Muskrat tracks, raccoon tracks, mink tracks, etc. Beaver chewed twigs and sticks. The smell of rain on dead grass and river silt.

We started at the headwaters of the Susquehanna River, and moved around, to green swirling pools and rushing fast water over gravel. It was really fun and we had a great time....

Can't wait to head down to the East Branch of the Delaware River soon, when we can go all day.

Hope you enjoy the pics of some of our past fish catches here at Hawk Circle over the past few years. Ice fishing, and fish from creeks and rivers from around here too. Good times, and amazing fish. Beautiful fish. Sweet water. Bright red oosier dogwood. Good people and even an eagle or two.

Awesome!

We didn't get any bites even, but that's why they call it fishing, not catching, right?

Anyway, it's interesting to think of how frustrated I would be if I lost any of my hand made bone hooks instead of the modern ones. I can imagine how native peoples would feel getting their hard made tackle lost in the branches, roots, grass and weeds in the rivers!

This last pic is one of me, about fifteen or sixteen, after going out on a boat in the Pacific, fishing for silver salmon or coho salmon.... It was a great day, spent with my dad, and I didn't even get seasick!

Enjoy!

If you can get outside to go fishing, wander along a green water river, or track in fresh sandy silt, by all means, go! It will do wonders for your soul, and you will wonder why you even bother going in to work day after day.... Okay, I am just kidding about the last part, but isn't it fun to imagine hunting or fishing as your only job? Making your weapons, tackle, string, weights, arrows, etc?

Now that's what I'm talkin' about!

Sorry, I won't do that again!

Starting your Own Wilderness Program-An Article Reprint from 2002

This is a reprint of an article that I wrote which was published by the Bulletin of Primitive Technology in 2002. Our school is celebrating our 20th year this year, (our first camp was in the summer of 1989) so the years are a bit off, but overall, the rest is pretty good in terms of content, and seemed timely way back then! Enjoy and I hope to post more of my archived articles on my website's media page later this winter.....


Starting Your Own Wilderness Program Words of Advice and Warnings!

So, you've run a few workshops and day programs in primitive living skills for a few years, but you're still working at that pesky full-time carpentry job (or whatever). You'd love to just make the switch from work to teaching skills full time. Hey, then you could spend all your time in the woods and teaching, doing what you love to do! Right? Not so fast, Buckskin Boy (or Girl)! Slow down! Take a deep breath and think this through...

I was once in your position, learning, teaching and working. I couldn't wait to make it to the big time, with my own school, camp or program. I was most familiar with summer camps and at the time there were virtually no “kid” programs around, so I thought it was the perfect way to teach and be in nature all summer long. Besides, I might make some good money too! It was a nice theory, but reality was a bit different. I found there was a price I paid for starting a full time program. I just spent the last three weeks chained to a computer working on a 50-page health & safety manual as required by the New York State Department of Health. I pretty much know the Sanitation Code for children's camps and food service by heart! Been in the woods lately? Man, from my window, it sure looks great...

Let's talk about the things you'll need to run a successful wilderness school, camp or program:
#1. First, you'll need to determine if your local area has enough of a population that is interested in what you're teaching. Is there a large urban or suburban area nearby? What is your plan for getting the word out that you exist to your target audience? How much money do you have for marketing and advertising? What kind of a brochure or flyer are you planning on creating? How much do you estimate this will cost? All of these things will require a plan and lots of time to organize. It will involve weighing pros and cons and possibly taking some risks. (Not to mention start-up money.)

#2. Now, you'll need a location. Where are you going to run your programs? If it is public land, have you checked into what you'll need to know/do in order to run your program there? Have you reviewed the requirements or restrictions on that land? (i.e., can you legally harvest plants, make shelters, etc.?) If you're planning to use private land, have you checked with your local zoning ordinances? Called your neighbors to find out if they'll mind 25 dread locked, loin cloth-wearing, yucca beatin', grasshopper eatin' savages wandering around on your place in full view of their family reunion? It is always better to take a good look at this issue before moving on to the next one.

#3 is...Insurance! Do you have any liability insurance to protect you in the event someone sues you because you didn't give them all the names of the edible plants in the bio-region or because they got too many black fly bites? Do you have medical/accident insurance in case a student needs to go to the Emergency Room to get 12 stitches for a cut made while carving? (Don't laugh, it will happen!) Do you have any first aid or medical training to handle emergencies in the field? These are very important questions too.

#4. We also have the issue of safety. Have you made a plan to deal with any and all possible hazards or situations that may arise? How well trained are all of your instructors and staff, (even if it's just you and your best friend)? Have you contacted your local permit-issuing official before going ahead with plans? (You don't want to have them show up in the middle of your program to close your doors for failure to comply with state/local ordinances!) What governmental agencies handle your type of program and set forth guidelines for safety? Is your building/facility up to "code" in your state? Do you have enough water/septic capacity to handle the number of students you are planning to have attend? Does your cook have the appropriate food service training if you plan to serve food? Who will buy or prepare your supplies? Who will clean and cook during your program? Who handles your phone, mail and basic administration? Who will make sure the van is full of gas, oil checked and all gear safely stowed (including food!)? If your answer to all of the above is "I'll do it!", then you probably should think long and hard before making the jump to the next level. I know from personal experience that you can do it all for a few years, but your program and personal life may suffer if you insist on doing it that way. In the end, you may find that you can't do it all, as each area of responsibility gets increasingly complex and involved. Personal woods time really takes a nose-dive and you may find you're pressured all the time without getting anywhere! It is also helpful to find out if your spouse or partner shares in your desire to put in long hours for free and also to lose family and relationship time to your personal dream and vision. (Better to know now and deal with it than to wait until he/she has the bags packed to go live with the parents!) All of these things are vitally important to the long term success of your school or program

OK, so have I scared you a bit? Good! It is better to enjoy a cold splash of spring water in the face now than to invest time and money into something that you'll abandon three years later from exhaustion and stress! My hope is that what you start as a program will be a success, and that you will know what you are getting into and be able to prepare properly for the challenges that lie ahead.

I have run my camp for eight years now, and taught skills and workshops for over 15 years. I have learned a lot the hard way. I know joys and sorrows from my blood, sweat and tears visionary project. Some days I wouldn’t trade it for anything, (other days, well....make me an offer!) I don't want those of you out there to be discouraged. I am more concerned that you are realistic about what you might be undertaking. There are a lot of opportunities and great projects out there waiting for someone to do. If you are inspired to teach wilderness skills don't let me stop you! Go for it! My main point is to get you to stop and think for a while to consider if you're truly ready to commit to the whole vision and reality, not just the fun stuff like campfires and mud camouflaging. (Chances are, you won't be leading that every night -- you'll be on the phone)!

Here is some personal advice: Take your time. Get some good research and training in every area outlined above. Enjoy being small time and having less administration details to deal with. You might try working in various programs for a while where you won't make as much money but you'll have more fun and “woods” time. It might even be better to just stay small and privately mentor local kids where you are, in your free time. Think of everything, and if you are still passionate and ready to commit, then begin the process. If you can, assemble a team/tribe and work together to make it happen. (That is an educational experience too!) And if all else fails, go into the wilderness, practice one skill for ten years and then come out and write a book. Then start your school. Your chances of being a success will be much higher! In many ways that might be the best advice of all!