Blog #7: Sharpening Our Skills

“Sun Dance”

“Giant twirling spheres

Magnificent dancers swinging through the solar system ballroom

Gas, rock

Ice, fire

The earth- she has her eyes

On one dancer

Who stands apart from the rest.

Just watching, warming

Holding strength in all his fiery glory.

The earth, she circles round and round him

Eyes fixed on his endless bright being.

Round and round,

She is in awe, and in a moment

Of courage and faith,

She says to the sun,

‘May I have this dance?’”

~

Hello people of planet earth, I am Savannah and I shall be the scribe for this coming springtime adventure! I am so excited to bring you all along on our journey and share the beautiful work of the 2016 Kroka Vermont Semester.

~

It’s spring!

We have all left our winter Big Jobs behind and taken on new roles for the coming months. We have all worked hard to embody our Big Jobs and while some were sad to let go of their roles, many were excited for the tasks that lay ahead. Here are the Big Jobs for the spring:

Tanner Bogner~ Boat/Bike manager

Hailey White~ Kitchen manager

Sam Trowbridge ~ Food manager

Kendal Pittman~ Food manager

Adam Mekki~ Water manager

Julian Lindholm Fiske~ Land Gear and Tools manager

Sebi Crocetti~ Medic/Hygiene manager

Bea Bittenbender~ Bureaucrat

Claudia Danford~ Navigator

Caleb Kennedy~ Navigator

Rory Wade~ Water gear, Vehicle, and Trailer manager

Finn Anderson~ Energy

And myself~ The Scribe and Sewing manager 

~

We have spent the past ten days at Koviashuvik Local Living School in Temple, Maine. Chris and Ashirah Knapp run the school together and welcomed us with open arms. They just finished a beautiful classroom that took two years to build. Our semester was the first group to really inhabit the space and we were lucky enough to find this as our home for the time we were there.

We arrived on the sunny day of April 5^th where we met Chris and Ashirah who would be working with Hannah Billian to teach a variety of skills during our time there. After meeting their wonderful family and having a tour of Koviashuvik we ate a delicious dinner of leftover PB&J from lunch and cheesy, pesto-y bread. Throughout our time at Koviashuvik we started a seemingly never-ending leftover trend, which became an almost daily routine. The longest time we revisited our leftovers for was four consecutive days! I will say there was definitely a creative streak in our food that we had never experienced before.

Bonnie Bee and Owen, Chris and Ashirah’s children- getting excited about some radishes from the root cellar!

Our morning routine was to start our day with chores or a run. Daily chores consisted of two cooks, bringing firewood in, getting spring water to drink and pond water for washing, and various jobs for Chris such as stacking wood or sorting apples for applesauce! Some days we would run in the morning and then do necessary chores when we got back. Right after chores we would go and do sit spots where we observed the weather and the world around us. Then at last breakfast would commence! After breakfast we would have time to write down our weather observations and daily logs. We also had a prompt everyday where we would reflect and share. Our prompts came from a variety of different things we had learned throughout the week.

            

One of the first things that Chris really brought to us was the idea that everything is a gift. To use this gift in the best way we can, there is a process:

CAPTURE

STORE

TRANSFORM

An example of CAPTURE/STORE/TRANSFORM is solar energy. You capture the gift by collecting the sunlight, store it in a battery, and then transform it into energy.

We live on this beautiful earth in constant dependence of the earth’s gifts. Some humans have come to the point where they no longer see these gifts, but if we look at our lives we can see our dependence of Her. We love and cherish food as a culture, and this ability to grow food to sustain us is an ever-giving gift.

                        -Bea Bittenbender

 ~

While at Koviashuvik we did a variety of crafts and projects that filled our days with learning. Here are some of the crafts we did:

Acorns

Processing acorns can be quite the task, but they are well worth the time and energy put in. We learned a lot about processing acorns while we were there, and our finished projects were loaves of acorn bread, acorn cookies, and acorn patties!

The first couple of steps in the acorn process are to harvest them and then put them through the Dave built, a grinding machine for de-shelling acorns. Next comes the water separation where you put the acorns in the water to separate them from their shells and then let them dry. After that you can grind them into either a grits texture or into fine flour. After sifting the acorns you leach them. Leaching is a process in which you place them in a stream so that water is running over them and around them. This results in all the tannins washing away, leaving the acorns no longer bitter. After that you let them dry once again and make some delicious food!

Spoon Carving

Caleb, Sebi, Finn and Kendal- working on spoons with draw knives on Chris’s shave horses

Logging

To help Chris and Ashirah out for all the amazing things they have taught us and shared with us we spent multiple days in the woods with Chris doing some logging. The logs we harvested were for their log cabin that they are building as a second story to their current house. We brought saws and axes into the woods and cut down the trees and carried them on our shoulders to the road. This summer they will be putting the cabin together with a class they are teaching about building log cabins. They are both amazing teachers and everyone should take their log cabin class this summer!

Pack Baskets

During our stay at Koviashuvik we all made pack baskets to take home with us. Here is the process:

Step 1~ The Tree

To begin the process we needed to first harvest an ash tree. We cut down a brown ash because they are straight grained and the wood is malleable. We cut down the tree with axes and a bow saw and carried it back to the van. When we got back to Koviashuvik we debarked the five-foot segments.

Step 2~ Pounding

The next step in turning our tree into basket material was pounding. In the spring, ash trees grow wider cells to suck up the influx of water. These cells can be crushed by vigorous pounding, which releases the growth rings in segments of the appropriate thickness. On the log we scored lines down its length so that the wood could come off in narrow sheets. After the pounding was done we sorted the material by thickness-uprights and rims need to be thicker and sturdier and weavers need to be flexible.

Chris' hands

 As we were pounding the ash logs we would sing this song:

Yuwaye hiyo Yuwaye hiyo

Yuwaye hiyo Yuwaye hiyo

Waye hiyah heyo-o

Waye hiyah heyo-o

Yuwaye hiyo waye-yah ha waye-ya hiyo-waye

Bea, Claudia, Kendal and Chris pounding brown ash logs in the sunshine

  

Ode to the Sun.

Praise for the sun

that glorious orb

Whose light we gather, covet and absorb.

We pull in her rays,

her beauty so fair

and feel her warm touch on our faces and hair.

She pulls us all towards her,

Like moths to a flame

She hides her bright face whenever it rains.

We sing of her comfort

Her light and her joy

But if you’re not careful, then sunburn, oh boy!

We worship her warmth

and give thanks for her rays

Oh sun up above, we sing you our praise

~Hailey White

Step 3~ Stripping

After the narrow sheets are separated, they must be split to desired width. For uprights a healthy inch, and for the weavers around half an inch. The rims should be around two inches and the sewers around a quarter inch. When this is done and all the materials are ready, the weaving begins.

Sam pulling apart strips of ash where the growth rings have become separated

Step 3~Weaving starts with a tapered weaver and the basket gradually spirals itself upward in between the uprights. When a fresh weaver is required, it overlaps the old one and then continues the spiral. When the desired height is reached the rim is tied on using this strips of ash to sew it together. After this the straps are made and the basket is done!

*The bottom of the basket is made up of two skids and a board. The uprights are woven together and sandwiched between them.

~

Kendal weaving

On Tuesday we got the opportunity to meet the famous Grandfather Ray. He has been a big part of both Chris and Ashirah’s lives and came to talk to us about both his life and his general philosophies on life. One thing he brought up that really struck a chord in our community was emotions. We had some philosophical discussions on what he said during our regular morning check ins after his visit. We have been really getting deeper into our daily check-in rhythm, as it can be easy to get stuck inside yourself sometimes and we believe that communication is a huge part of what makes this community run.

Drying food with Chris Knapp

 The Koviashuvik Supper

This meal was made of food grown at Koviashuvik and stored in the root cellar.

~Butternut squash and carrot soup

~Parsnips and onions fried in lard (from a friend’s pig)

~Fried acorn crumbles

~Cabbage salad with pickled turnips, pickled green beans, and garlic

~Field bean and kale hummus served with carrots and radishes

~Kimchi (made with daikon radish)

~Acorn cookies with oats, duck eggs, maple syrup, and fried lard

~Recorded by Claudia Danford

            

“The vegetables had that fresh scent of dirt

            -dirt that came right from Her core.

The carrots faded from a yellowish middle to a fiery orange skin

-skin like a sunset.

The parsnips were a golden tan with a tinted white middle

-cut like a heart

The radishes were a painting unto themselves

-magenta pink in patterns of many dancing bees.

The meal was art,

This art was a gift,

A gift from Mother Earth”

~

I thoroughly enjoyed our ten days at Koviashuvik. It was really interesting to learn about Chris and Ashirah’s simple and meaningful lifestyle. I had a great time carving spoons and making baskets, learning how to sharpen tools, harvesting big trees all by hand, observing weather changes throughout the day and learning to predict what’s next, and all of the other numerous things we did. As I bid farewell to the land at Koviashuvik, I knew it would continue to live, grow, and change just as I do. I’ve gained an understanding, appreciation and admiration for the natural world and all of the gifts and knowledge it has to offer.

~Claudia Danford

The group with our newly made brown ash pack baskets!

 ~

 On our drive home we stopped at Kevin and Polly’s who guide canoe and sled dog trips as owners of Mahoosuc Guide Service. We were lucky enough to spend the day with their thirty-nine beautiful huskies, doing service work in their dog yard and spending ample time petting the dogs.

Finn gets in some cuddle time with one of Kevin and Polly’s oldest dogs!

All in all it was a very special ten days in the great state of Maine. Although we thoroughly enjoyed our time there, we are happy to be back at our northern basecamp, swimming in the cool Northwoods pond, working on our spring big jobs and academic work, and listening to the wood frogs as they sing out into the night. We are spending as much time as possible running, playing Frisbee, and being out in the sunshine as the season seems to have finally turned! We are looking forward to seeing you all in a few short days at parent weekend. Until then, enjoy the coming of spring!

Blog #6: Ending the Winter Leg

Front row: Savannah, Tanner, Kendal, Bea, Claudia
Second row: Hailey, Adam, Julian, Sam, Rory, Caleb, Finn, Sebi

On the morning of March 30, as we packed up our final winter trail campsite on a spit of the southern bank of the Willoughby River, the sun rose into the piercing clarity of an orange and pink sky that faded into blue. After days of rain, the clouds had blown out, leaving us to soak in the warmth of the sunlight as we walked our final 20 kilometers to our northern basecamp. We walked through the meadows, fields, bogs, and settlements of the Northeast Kingdom, and finally crossed the Clyde River, where we will eventually put our canoes in the water to begin our paddling expedition. We took a swim, dried our bodies in the sunlight, and, with songs in accompaniment, completed the final kilometer to Northwoods Stewardship Center. We lined our backpacks up for a last time at the stoop of the Center, set our long-term camp, and now we rest, study, celebrate, and turn our thoughts to spring.

The following is a story of our lives on the final leg of winter expedition.

Leg 3, Day 1: We left our layover at noon. The weather was ugly, and there was an inch of melting slush underneath us as we set out once more, northward bound on the Catamount Trail. A light drizzle was falling in the just-above-freezing weather. It was a short day of just 3km, and we set camp just north of Finn Basin.

“When we are done with camp set-up, we come inside to the open space of our warm candlelit tent. The everlasting scent of spruce needles covers the floor, and a big pot of food is awaiting us. To find these comforts is a luxury, but to have created this luxury is an accomplishment.”

-Savannah Clancy

Day 2: Today, the sun shone brightly as we broke camp and began to walk. It was a relaxed, easygoing day, filled with smiles and jokes. No one felt like rushing the nine kilometers that we had to walk today, so no one did. We meandered across many little hills and rushing streams, with breaks to drink from sweet springs. That evening, we set camp southeast of Burnt Rock Mountain, along the gurgling Cobb Brook, which had many fine swimming holes among its rocky banks.

Day 3: An unexpected rain poured down overnight and it continued to drizzle into the morning. That was somewhat of a predicament, as we had set camp in the middle of a depression in the land. After our soggy camp, we had a 15km walk to our next camp, which took us across little dirt roads and wooded trail, through sunny fields and shady hardwood forests.  The walk, while uncomfortable from the added weight of the water accumulated on some of our gear, was balanced out by the glow of the warm sun. In true New England fashion, around noon a thunderstorm rushed in out of the north, raged for around 15 minutes, and was rapidly replaced by the warm sun once more. We reached our final destination as the sun dipped down over the western horizon. It was a little glen called Honey Hollow, surrounded by mountains, the largest of which was Camel’s Hump, looming tall to the north.

“The weather is too often described as good or bad, but as far as I can tell any weather and all weather is good weather. I can understand someone’s frustration with the weather. A big storm can do significant damage; even a little rain might change our plans for a day outdoors. However, to say that such incidents are bad seems less than fair. We might grumble about a rainstorm that lasts a day or so but we hardly appreciate the bottomless blue sky when it shows again. And if we should see nothing but blue sky for weeks we might not think anything of it until the grasses begin to brown and the streams and brooks come to a mere trickle. If it goes on long enough, this “good” weather, the plants will begin to die, the crops we rely on for food and wells or springs from which we get our precious water will dry up. Even those who curse the “bad” weather would be begging for the sky to open up and dump rain down upon their heads.”

-Sebi Crocetti

Day 4: This day marks the point at which we have been together for two months. It is incredible how fast these months sped by. But here we are, and it is so nearly spring. Geese fly northward overhead and robins and bluebirds can be heard. We are having a double live-over day, nestled along the rocky Preston Brook which dances down the center of Honey Hollow. We had a restful day, went swimming in the brook, and began to carve wooden spoons.

“If trees communicate, I doubt it is in the same way humans do – full of concrete words and to convey intention. I doubt it is in a manner that humans can perceive with our five, limited senses. I imagine it is softer, quieter, and subtler than what we are used to. It cannot be heard by the finest of ears, seen by the sharpest of eyes, smelt by the keenest of noses, tasted by the most sensitive of tongues, felt by the lightest of touches. It can, however, be felt somewhere deep inside; in a place you never learned the name of in anatomy class. Perhaps it feels like an emotion you know no word for, like a memory you cannot place, like a dream you long forgot. It is likely that we have all heard the trees speaking, at one time or another, but it is also likely that none of us realized. It is hard for us, us humans used to our five concrete senses, to pick up on the subtle language of the trees. It is truly only the trees that comprehend their own language. From the deepest of the roots, the tops of the highest branches, from the roughest of bark to the coolest of wood deep within, the trees feel their language. It reverberates through them, spreading through the trunk and jumping from one to another. Perhaps it is in this manner that trees speak.”

-Kendal Pittman

Day 5: Today, we plotted and executed navigation routes along the valley in small groups of 4 or 5 climbing the mountains surrounding us granting us views north, to the Winooski River and beyond, to the ice covered Mount Mansfield, showing us where we will be in only a few short days.

Day 6: Today we had a whopping trek of 25km ahead of us. We broke camp early and started our way north. We romped 3km down to the Winooski River, where we crossed with the long trail, walked along Route 2 for 2km and trekked back into the mountains on the other side of the lush green valley. When we finally reached camp, we were exhausted, but we swiftly set up our camp, and our large winter tent, which has come to symbolize warmth, comfort and home for all of us, for what may be the final time on semester.

Scratch

Of pens and pencils

Lit up

By the gentle red light

Of a dying headlamp

Intermittent

Chatter

Breaks through our

Pre-dinner

Class time

And a giggle

Sparks

A chain reaction.

-Hailey White

Day 7: It is our final expedition day before our group solos. Today we have the Bolton-Trapp traverse to hike, which would have been gnarly on skis but it is arguably just as gnarly with boots. It was a short yet steep climb up from camp with a long, wintery decent on the other side. The bottom was finally reached and we turned onto a dirt road, which led us to the Trout Club.

Trout Club: We had a day to rest and resupply in a little cabin at the Trout Club, which lay at the shore of Lake Mansfield. We had an eventful day, full of busy packing and planning routes and food and emergency plans for the group solos.

Group Solos, Day 1: Today marks the beginning of group solos. We divided into small groups of three or four, and after hours of preparation, we were ready to go at last. The group solos are our first real chance to test our new skills in the wilderness by ourselves, and get to know our little group even better than we already do. We all have slightly different routes, different campsites, and now the little groups set off, staggered by 30 minutes with our final goal to reconvene for our layover at Heartbeet in four days. We all hiked up over the lands around the Trapp Family Lodge found camp somewhere in the mountains on the other side. Groups traveled anywhere from 12 to 20km.

Why

Do we crave the convenience of

Home life when we find such pleasure,

In the long way around

Why

Do we huddle under a tarp

In the wet

When we all wish for a shower

Why

Do we pretend to know

What it is we write about

When we obviously do not.

-A possibly less wise old man than the other but still pretty close

Day 2: Today, we were to meet back up with the group at noon to visit with the Lepine Sisters, two women pushing 90 who have been farming the land since they were young. We semi successfully met up, after the group of Finn, Savannah and Sebi, made an...accidental 6-mile adjustment to their route. As is the way of the trail: “There is no wrong way, just the long way”. Anyways, we learned much from the Lepine sisters, who shared with us both their incredible stories, and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. After our visit, we continued on to our various camps. On the day we traveled as little as 5km, and as much as 20km.

“For me, navigation is a precise and well-honed tool that allows us to discover and explore. I have always loved exploring the land around me, and discovering whatever I may discover. Perhaps sharing these discoveries is the best part. One morning before breakfast, I went on a walk down an old forest road by a brook. On my right I saw a large complex of old stone walls, depressed a few feet into the ground that might have been the remains of some old buildings foundation. I stopped and thought to myself, “Hmm, that’s pretty neat,” and kept walking. Later after breakfast, we all went and explored further. The conclusion was that this building was once some kind of mill. This and many other discoveries were brought to me by the wonderful powers of navigation. Always have your compass.”

-Julian Lindholm-Fiske

Day 3: Today was a long-anticipated day, yet probably not for the reason you would expect. The little town of Elmore lay along our routes and we had each been given a little bit of money to buy a dinner, a breakfast and a lunch. You seriously have no idea how exited a group of 13 teenagers get over three meals. When we found our respective camps in the evening, we had covered as much as 22km.

“On trail, meals become just about as special as the holidays, if not more special, depending on what the next meal is. On trail, meals are looked forward to like Christmas and Thanksgiving. It seems like forever in between each meal, as it does between these holidays that occur only annually. You feel like you wait so long for a meal and when it is finally time to eat, that is all you can think about, and nothing is more important to you during this time. But it all goes by so quickly; as soon as a meal has begun it seems to have ended as you clean out your bowl with tea, wondering where all the food went, wishing you could have more. This again parallels the holidays. You have such a good time celebrating with family and friends that the day seems to run away from you seemingly ending as soon as it began, wishing you could have more time to celebrate. Soon after a meal is over you immediately think about the next, just as you would begin to plan out the next holiday the day after it has it ended.”

-Tanner Bogner

Day 4: Today was our final day in small groups. Most of us had long days on our way to Heartbeet but we all walked up the dirt road by 6pm. This concluded our group solos, and we all had many fun stories to share with each other.

Heartbeet: For our final layover, we spent a day at Heartbeet. Heartbeet is a Camphill Community, based off of the views of Rudolf Steiner, and is a therapeutic residence where adults with developmental disabilities live alongside the land and people around them. We spent the day living in the wonderful community we were surrounded by. It was Easter, and we joined in with their traditions and ceremonies, and helped with work on the land.

The Final Days: We have reached the final three days of our winter, if you could call it that. Since we left base camp on February 11 (a date that seems like it was just yesterday and eons ago at the same time), it has been phenomenal to witness the growth of our little community. We have greatly strengthened, both individually and as a group, and we have gone from 13 people who barely know each other, to what seems like 13 brothers and sisters. Our last three days of hiking were wet and cold, with the sun only showing itself on the last day. We had three long days to make it to our end goal of Northwoods Stewardship Center, a place that had once seemed so far away. When we finally walked up the road to Northwoods after three 20+km days in a row, we knew our winter was over. We had just hiked 250 miles up the length of Vermont, and looking back on all the memories created, all the smiles shared, and all the thousands of steps taken, I know it is a memory that we will all dearly treasure, as long as we live.

            From here, Semester will travel to Koviashuvik Local Living School in Temple, Maine. We will work with two of the original semester guides: Ashirah and Chris Knapp, on homesteading skills, crafts, and community living before our return to Northwoods and preparation for spring expedition. The journey continues.

  

Life is a journey, not a destination

Finn, Sebi & Savannah

Hailey presenting at Northwoods

Sebi, Caleb, & Julian learning in the Northwoods Library

Misha teaching a class

Enjoying a study break in the warm spring sun

Rory, Julian, and Bea

Sam, Adam, Kendal, and Hailey

Sam gauging which pole to use to set up basecamp

Savannah, Bea, and Tanner setting up basecamp

Sebi splitting wood on trail

Tanner, Caleb, and Claudia

Tanner and an unnamed, but adorable pouch. It kind of looks like Finn's dog!