Answering Your Earth Skills Student Questions

Every so often, I will get questions by email that pertain to the Earth Skills Correspondence Course, and as I answer them, I think to myself 'I bet other students have questions similar to these, too.'    So I thought I would share them so they are available to all of you out there who are into wilderness skills. Feel free to send me your own questions and I will answer them here when I get a chance.

From EW, from the Rochester, NY area (Now relocated to North Carolina):

Question 1:  Weather - I'm having a heck of a time learning clouds - do you have any learning devices that help? I feel I'm just going by rote memory- read the book, look at the sky, and then try to memorize both for later reference - days pass and I'm looking at the sky unable to remember is that a 'this cloud' or a 'that cloud'?! Any thoughts on what to learn first and how?

Okay, this is a good question.  It reminds me a lot of people first learning about trees, and how at first, they all look the same, so it is overwhelming.   However, the key is to divide and conquer.  (Just like learning your trees!)   You want to start with the easy ones, the big ones, and learn those first.   For example, Cirrus clouds are easy.  They are wispy, thin clouds that are high in the atmosphere, made up mostly of ice crystals.  They are also called Mare's Tails, because they look like the long tail hairs of horses.   They appear at the uppermost edges of a new weather front, and often bring a change of weather.  

Barry Keegan prepares a fire for our primitive pottery class, under
a sky of Mare's Tails (Cirrus clouds).  Autumn, 2007

Read about them in your weather resources, or look them up on Wikipedia, or Google them for different images, and then look for them every chance you get.   As you get familiar with Cirrus clouds, you will start seeing them all of the time.   And that will get you going.  Next you can add Cumulous clouds, which are big, white, fluffy, cotton candy type clouds that aren't all that high in the atmosphere. Start researching and checking out pictures and you will see them everywhere too...

Classic Cirrus clouds, or Mare's Tails, over the
Hawk Circle Barn last summer...

A bone harpoon with fluffy Cumulous
clouds in the background.

The basic idea is to start small, and ask yourself questions like, how high up is that cloud or cloud system?   What direction is it coming from?   How fast is it moving?   Does it look like it contains a lot of moisture?   Is there light penetrating or illuminating it from within, or is it dark and thick?   (Usually the darker a cloud, the more dense and moisture filled it is.)

Weather is something that you can learn but it helps to do some journaling and see what happens after you start seeing different clouds.   It is a practice in awareness, and it will aid your skills of tracking, survival and every other skill, because the details of the weather are part of every skill, and the weather changes all the time.   But start slow and take your time with each aspect of understanding.

Cumulous clouds over the
Tablelands at Gros Morne
National Park, Newfoundland

Special Note:   Many times, your sky will have two or three different types of clouds at the same time, in different atmospheric levels, moving in different directions.  So be aware that you might be seeing a number of things going on, and don't get too confused or frustrated about it.   Just go with the flow!

Question 2:  This question was inspired by a post on one of your blogs - snow on a debris shelter in the winter - if you're confident in the shelters strength (good ribbing and ridge pole - lots of leaf matter, etc) -should the snow that falls on the shelter stay or be removed??

Musician and Wilderness Guy Sean Rowe digs through the snow
 to get to his shelter during a snow storm...

If you have a good shelter, with a strong ridge pole, and you know you have good, sturdy sticks as part of your shelter, then having snow covering it will be extra insulation (snow is an excellent insulator) and make your shelter very warm.   Snow will cut out the little leaks and places where the wind pulls warmth from you.   Snow will actually form a shell around it as it grows and thickens, and it will be warm, quiet and snug.   Even two or three feet of snow should still be fine on your shelter.  

One concern would be wet snow, which is very heavy and you could always take some of the snow off if you notice your ribbing or ridgepole getting pushed down or in.

The big concern with adding snow over your shelter is making sure you have some air holes and air flow in your shelter so you don't suffocate.   You need to make sure your door opening has some space to let air in and out...   Be sure to check it if you start getting some snow falling heavy that your doorway air hole is clear and open.

Does this make sense?   Also, if you live in an area with lots of wet snow and freezing rain, the snow might keep your shelter from drying out when the weather gets warmer, so in that case, you might want to scrape off most of it as the weather changes.

Remember that your shelter should be built with strong sticks and brush, a good ridgepole that doesn't flex or has Y-stick supports under it, and about three feet thickness of leaves, ferns, grasses, pine needles or other natural material to insulate it from the elements.   Built properly, you wouldn't even know it snowed outside if you were inside when the storm started...

Stay warm and dry and hope this answered your question.


Question 3:  On cordage - do you have a good resource about the various plants used for cordage and when is a good time, better time and bad time to collect the plant material? Tree bark - good in the fall, okay in the summer? What about nettles? Or cattail leaves? It would be nice if the resource also noted what materials might be good for what projects- cattail (from what I've read) in not as strong as tree bark - How to process each plant would be great too! Too much to ask for from one book?!

Milkweed stalks found by the roadside,
mid February, 2012

This is a great question and I don't think there is a definitive answer to this one.   There are a lot of guides that list wild edibles and when they are best collected for use by season, and I think Tom Brown has a guide to utilitarian plants in the back of his "Living with the Earth" field guide, but I am not sure if they will tell you what season to gather and all that.   In many cases, it is something you have to learn about in your particular area, as you go.   Maybe there are other resources that some readers of this blog or the students in the course can recommend.   Anyone?

Dried milkweed stalks
ready for storage!

I have on my list of books to write these very subjects so all I can say is that they are in the works, and I will try to complete them as I can, and until then, try to learn which plants and trees have cordage fibers in your current location, and if you get those to me, I can tell you how and when to gather and process them for the particular project that you have in mind.   I also did a blog post last winter about gathering materials, which might help a little.

Soft, silky milkweed fibers,
ready for twisting...

And yes, cattail is definitely not as strong as most tree barks or even other plant fibers!   But woven, they are nicely tough if they are treated well, so they are a wonderful source of good, warm fibers!   Makes good mats, bedding and shelter thatching (the leaves, that is).   Good luck and thanks for asking these great questions!

Earth Skills Correspondence Conference Calls: Are you In?

I am about to unveil an important announcement (no, not the snow 'wave' sliding off of our hide shed roof!). It's regarding a new Earth Skills Instructor Certification Training Course I am doing, so stay tuned for that next week, but in the meantime, I have a quick question for those of you taking the Earth Skills Correspondence Course:

Are you interested in being part of a conference call (toll free) of earth skills students, where you send in questions by email and I answer them, as well as provide further mentoring to the group?

The call would be for about an hour long, and probably held sometime in the early evening perhaps in the middle of the week.

I can arrange for the first call to be in mid April if you guys are wanting to try this out and see how it goes. Please let me know and we can take this to the next step and set it up.

Hope you are all well and let me know! Thanks!

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!

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!

Welcome, and Good News for 2008!

Welcome to the Earth Skills Correspondence Course Official Blog!

This is the place where students of the ESCC can post questions, comments, connect and share about the material, process and understanding of wilderness earth skills that the course is all about. It should make things easier to stay connected, motivated and inspired, even. You can see I have high hopes!

One thing I wanted to add about 2008 is the price of the Course. This year, I am offering the course at a low cost of $500, with a discount of $50 if you are paying in full for the whole thing. For those who prefer to pay in installments, the cost is $500 and you can break the payments up into two, or three or even four payments over the first year. So this should make it easier for people to take part in the course.

Check out the Earth Skills Correspondence Course Page for more info.


Thanks all, and have a great end of winter/early spring!

Ricardo