Author Archives: Teaching Drum Outdoor School

Going up, Going down, and Stayin’ up Front!

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Guardian Yearlong blog post originally posted 10/11/13

Leaves are falling like snow flakes in the maple woods, the ash trees lost their since quite sometime ago already….Now when us guardians find some choke cherries we all rush with excitment, as they become more and more scarce. We knocked down the last five apples from the apple tree on the way over to the support centre, were I have come in for another visit to the shinny screen and plastic buttons to update you all on what we’ve been up too!

For one of the last three moons we were scouting out one of the big bogs of the headwater wilderness area, more specificly the bogs and creeks that feeds Pine River. Learning about the diffrent types of bogs here, alder bogs, cedar bog, ash bog, spruce bog etc, and why these plants grow were they grow. How to travel smoothly and quickly if needed through a big bog, and how the diffrent animals run their trails…Solving riddles of how a creek can run into a cedar bog and dissapear and come out again on the other side. Discovering how river is formed, the springs that feed them. Feeling the ancient beuty that rests in the bogs which have never before been logged. We’ve worked hard at mapping out every whitepine, small trickle of water, spring hole and every big or small detail or this bog, and making a map out of it in our camp. A creative map consisting of stick, stones and bark. Every other sun we have added more details and changed the proportions of the map, it has been quite a project!

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Doing the bog scouting I’ve climb trees like I never have before! Wonderfull being so close to the sky, and still grounded to the earth! It is an amazing opportunity I discoverved, not just to see the world from a diffrent perspective, but also for quickly gaining perspective on the landscape around me and finding what I am looking for over a huge area by just climbing one tall tree! This discovery certainly has open up many new doors (although we dont have doors out in the woods).
Now we just go for a stroll somewhere and it comes natural to send one of us up a tree,just to check the area =)

Now we have moved our canoes over the bog, and paddled up the river to set camp up by one of the big meadows. Our tarps, set up as lean-toos with only sticks (no cordage), are spread out over the meadow. Each tarp has it’s own charachter, a charachter that fits well with the person who set it up!
We’re now working on getting the hide tanning area together, and scouting out the beaver activity on the creek, we’ve located 9-10 beaver lodges close to us, and we are looking forward to building a realtionship with them, and getting to know them better! This is probably were our focus will be the next moon or soo. We also got some rice to process by hand that we keept from the quarter moon that were we harvesting wild rice awhile ago.
There is all kind of things happning, and still everyday is the same, in a beutifull way. We wake up at dawn, and then live, learn, learn experience, run in circles or run straight, stumble and fumble or stay balanced, in either case we usually fall asleep in the evening, and do it all over in the morning. =)

We’ve also been experminting alot with fire making…. Everyone in our group have now made fires…
We dont have any matches out here, so we make all our fires by friction using the bow drill thechnique, and using no tool in making our kits, no knifes or tomahawks… It is a whole world to discover we see! Now we are leaving our fire kits out in the rain for many suns, or soak them in water and make fires, or not using any fireboards, but just drilling in the logs around camp, making cordage from roots and wood and using other things than tinder to start a fire: there is so much to play with!
The practical skill of being able to do and learn these things is great and fun, but there is an even deeper learning we are gaining for doing what we do with fire. We’ve decided that every fire we make will be one were we are on our frontier, meaning that we will not settle for “just making a fire” a “quicky fire” doing what we already know and works just to get that fire so we can have dinner, we are always learning new things, just in our every day lives! I see that by applying this attitude towards fire making I learn much faster than I would other wise, but what would life be like if you apply this to all the things you do in life? Were the way becomes to goal. To become that curious child again that we once were, and still are. And to still be that child even when you are cold, tiered, hungry and irritated. Now this is what we’re learning!

Reflections from Early Bird’s Sister

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Guardian Yearlong blog post originally posted on 9/8/13

Visiting the Scouting Camp

Meanwhile my mosquito bites are getting dark red and purple. Time to start writing my post, before the memories are fading.

I’m still struck by the experiences, although the daily routine has started again at home. My family and I visited the Scouting Camp near the Headwater bog, to stay with the guardians for one whole week in August. Curiosity is what I brought with me to Wisconsin and curiosity I kept the whole week.

Tamarack adviGuardian_Yearlong_260813_mittags_4-300x200sed us guests to observe closely. I tried to follow this advice, although I sometimes had difficulties to restrain myself. I’d rather had joined all discussions and processing among the group. As we joined them, the group of guardians had had a hard time. They didn’t ignore any dysfunctional behaviour (according to the group), but pointed it out and were discussing it. In between long phases of silence – with me amongst them full of thirst for action. It took almost all week long until I adopted to my role as being guest.

The three of us participated in everyday life as much as possible: picking apples and walking on a road (absolutely no-go), cooked twice a day at the fire and ate breakfast and dinner, collected firewood and washed ourselves in the bog. Unfortunately we didn’t go scouting. Though we explored the area around us: the bog, the islands, meadows with berries, the bathing-creek and bear traps.

None of my anticipated fears came true, though I got to know other boundaries in me. Physically being in the camp took a lot out of me, although we even weren’t scouting. My positive impression is nurtured by the awareness being only guest for a short visit, for the coping with the conditions in the camp and simultaneously being active – e.g. by exploring the surrounding area – seems to me really hard. And time is always short.

Leaving a lasting impression is the way the guardians deal with each other. The mutual interest, the listening to each other without interrupting; over and over again the attempt to act as a group, not separating. We hardly spoke about our life beforehand or after the yearlong and spent only this short time with each other. Still I feel very close toeveryone. It was so hard to say goodbye. The more I’m interested in the developments and proceedings in the camp.

Katharina

Perspective on Life in the Woods after their First Moon – by Big Eyes

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Guardian Yearlong blog post originally posted on 8/20/13Dropping our names has been very fun. I have experimented a lot with nicknames, and some have stuck. Scratch-Eye, Big Laugh, Long Hair, Blonde, Fire Beard, Early Bird, and I am often referred to as “Big Glasses”. We also will use things like “Standing Man” and “Nut Cracker” and similar names that only make sense in context. For time-frames we improve: “Short walk to Julia Creek” or “Robin Song”, etc. It’s a great mental exercise that keeps me creative and on my toes. We have similar-purposed physical exercises – like wolf walking. We walk through the woods, the leader steps carefully, crouching, even crawling, weaving to touch as little as possible branches, trunks, etc and the group follows, each person shadowing the person before them and synching their footsteps. It’s fun to walk the woods like an obstacle course and gives me a new perspective. Sometimes it seems as though we are traveling on the paths of small animals like rabbits! I really enjoy that. It has been about one moon cycle now and so much is happening. I have come to recognize some of my patterns. I have had some healing experiences. Once on a walk, I saw a cottonwood tree and was overwhelmed with sadness. I cried it out sitting next to the trunk and gave my thanks. I didn’t fully understand the sadness, and didn’t have to. After I gained perspective on how amazing it is that we are here and every sun we eat delicious food around a fire and we talk and laugh and confront issues and work on projects and learn so much. There are many challenges and it can be hard. I want to find more ways to empower myself. Soon we leave this camp and begin hiking-camping-traveling. I am really excited – sometimes I look forward to it so much that I forget to enjoy my time here. I’m amazed by my classmates every sun. Everyone is different and brings something unique to the group.

Down the Trail

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Guardian Yearlong blog post originally posted on 8/18/13

Down the Trail:

We are going down the trail

Through brush and bog

Crossing meadows climbing hills

We are going somewhere!

Northwest with canoe

East with packframes

South to the fishing lake

And west for that is where

The river leads up north again.

Back were we started or finished

Or back were we shall once again return

On the trail that is.

Climbing the hill of fear

Swimming in the lake of surrender

Lost in a bog of confusion

Caved and trapped in our own minds

We’re walking in circles!

I’m reversing, backing up; returning.

Stumbling over some roots

Face first to the earth I hit my head

Lose conscious for a moment

Aho! These are my roots! Our roots.

Wandering from dawn to dusk in the big bog to the north

Through Alder, Cedar, Spruce, Balsams and Tamarack.

And up on a little bog island where bunch berries grow in abundance.

I lay down on this soft forest floor of sphagnum moss

Just for a while

Join the seemingly enternity of ancients

“Ah! I wonder what is for dinner!?”

I dip my fire making stick, that I made without tools, in water

And still manage to make a fire.

It is an achievement!

I rip my trousers on some raspberries

and go for a long nap.

Nothing was accomplished

In my mind

We are all walking

It is the thought that we are going somewhere

That keeps us sane.

“We make the path by walking

You walker there are no roads

Only wind trails on the sea” – Antonio Machado

Ask me what I am doing, and I’ll say, “This is what I’m doing.”

Sure we are setting up tarps with sticks only, using packframes we made out of wood and learning to carry our homes on our backs, making fire by friction without knifes or tools, learning to read the stories of a feather we find, making waterproof birch bark bowls for easy travel, learning tracks and signs of wild animals, to navigate in a big bog, tan hides, and make raw hide containers, learning to have an inner compass and how to run and walk like water flows and see how a river is formed

But really

We are just on the trail.

Storytelling

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Guardian Yearlong Blog originally posted 8/6/13

Tamarack arrives at camp to the Seekers sitting in a circle. He sits down, and this is what was shared…

Tamarack: Well, what’s new?

Firebeard: Everyone made it back alive. But you haven’t heard the story about how.

Tamarack: Whoa. Sounds like a story. A fireside story.

Firebeard: Just sharing it now. We’re on the edges of it.

Tamarack: Continue, please.

Blondie: So, there was this Cedar forest where I slept. When I got there, just as I described before, there was this huge piece of wood, how do you call it again?

Big Eyes: Burl.

Firebeard: Burl.

Blondie: Burl. Right. In the tree. Right about the height where the second green leaves are growing, there’s a huge branch, and then another one, small, which has leaves on it, about this height — it looked like a face was watching me. So I was walking around and gathering a little firewood — it was cloudy and a little rainy, moisture in the air. I set up my tarp,  had a little fire, nice dinner, and went out to explore a little. I walked in a little circle. It was already getting dark, so I decided to cool myself down and relax for a little while. I sat down at this spot — the bottom was shaped with huge, mossy rocks, a lot of sharp edges, and there were also holes in the ground with water from the bog, which was from the river, I guess. So many trees were standing, not straight, but bent, in one direction or the other. Roots wove around the stones and it looked like they were grabbing them.

I sat there for awhile and watched; I recognized how different the Cedar forest is in comparison to this forest here. Somehow the atmosphere was magical.

So I was in my sleeping spot, which was pretty close to the shore, where I had a drink. After that,  there were clouds, and then I was looking over the bog, over the open surface, and I saw these stars, like the stars flying on the ground, like these little—how do you call them again?

Laughs Loud: Shooting stars?

Blondie: No. Fire.

Seeker: Fire Flies.

Laughs Loud: Fire Flies. Oh, wow.

Blondie: And they were all over the bog. I went back into the forest and waited until it was dark, and at the time where it was  dark dark, there were, I don’t know, thousands all over the bog.  It was a great moment. And I was thinking about you guys here and I actually wanted to bring everybody there to see that beauty. And at the same time, I felt comfortable with being there alone.  It is definitely an awesome spot.

It was rainy when I began to turn back, so I waited until the rain was gone and rested for a little while longer until I started the journey back. Must be about high sun, something like that, when I started, and there were a lot of Zagime. I was on the river again. I felt my arms, which were tired from last sun, and I looked around again. I could see dark clouds, and I was looking through the forest for a place to shelter.  I thought, there are actually more places than the sun before, everything’s there. I could see there, or there, that might probably be a good site too; here’s water, I can drink here. I have my shelter with me all the time. All I need is a little food to travel further.

It was just a great feeling. I felt like I was home, and I still feel it. I want to be there, all the time, and I want more opportunities to do that.  I was even thinking about staying there longer, for a quarter moon, maybe. Maybe with someone else, and we can go together.

The way back was so much faster; I would say it took a third of the time I spent to get there.  I saw the tracks of two people. I looked around, and saw, oh, it looks like there were canoes here before. I went closer, and I saw footsteps going through the forest, which was very tight and bushy; it’s not easy to go there. And then I continued. Finally came back here. My mind was here way before I actually got back here with you. I was thinking, hey, is that the shore? Hmm. That might be the shore where they are. I got there…Oh, it’s not the shore. I continued the pattern maybe three or four times. That’s the story. Aho.

Group: Aho.

Tamarack: A couple of observations: This is just what happens when the Guardians come home and tell their stories of what they’ve discovered, what might be there for the clan, what might not be there. And an inspiring story like this is going to get the whole clan excited about going. This is how life is. This is how life used to be, and how life can be again. It is how life is here for you now.

As  you get more adept at this, you’re going to be going out and exploring this and that and that, and all the stories you’re going to come back with, you’re going to assess these stories: “Well, is this good for us? Is that good for us? How about that? And are we ready to go? Let’s prepare.”

This is our beginning. This is how we are living. It’s how we’re going to continue living.

A Rite of Passage

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Guardian Yearlong post originally published 6/30/13 

I just left the Guardian trainees’ new camp, which is on a wooded bank overlooking upper Eagle River. While I’m here in the wilderness, I’m taking advantage of some time alone in my canoe by voice recording this first blog entry. However, just as I begin, a whirlwind whips the water right in front of me into a fierce lather. At first I can’t make sense of it—all I can imagine is several fish flopping around like crazy. And then I see that some other energy is spinning it in a tight counterclockwise circle, with a sound like a fan on overdrive.

As soon as I realize what it is, it dissipates and transforms into a cool gust of wind that passes over me. And then it is over.

I witness waterspouts when there is magic afoot. And that is surely the case today. It all began in the deep black of the predawn, when I arose, grabbed my drum, and felt my way up the trail to Mashkodens (Little Prairie Camp). Mist rose in soft swirls from the surface of the pond that I skirted quietly by so as not to disturb the nocturnal animals returning home to bed down for the day. As well, the first of the diurnal (daytime) animals might already be stirring.

I arrived at Mashkodens just as a couple of the trainees were waking up. Giving them some time to rouse their comrades and get ready, I walked out on the meadow. The frosty night air had transformed the vegetation into a crystal-covered carpet that shimmered ghostly white in the faint starlight.

It must have been about a mealtime before first light, because Robins and White-Throated Sparrows, the first voices of the dawn chorus, were just warming up. Before that, it was just frogs and the occasional honk of a nervous Goose. Next I heard a Chickadee, and then another and another, spread out around me. From high on a dead branch a Mourning Dove joined in, followed by a Hermit Thrush, a Wood Thrush, and a Veery. Then came the Warblers, and finally a Red-winged Blackbird heralding the first light creeping over the horizon.

But that was hardly the end, for then followed “the bedlam of other singers,” as Aldo Leopold noted in A Sand County Almanac. There was such a plethora of whistles, shrieks, quacks, and assorted voicings that it was impossible to distinguish most of them from each other.

It was cold for a mid-June morning, yet I was warm from the walk and glowing inwardly with anticipation for the coming rite of passage. I passed the time reflecting on how the sequence of birds joining the dawn chorus can vary with time of season, and from one place to another, depending on species composition, geography, and forest type.

Last evening the trainees finished their pack frames—a noteworthy event, as these were no ordinary frames. The Guardian Training is a completely nomadic experience: once the trainees leave Mashkodens, they will not see another camp for the entire time. On those pack frames they will be carrying their shelters, clothing, bedding, tools, and craft supplies—everything they will need for their wandering life. For them, no two days will be the same. They will be in constant training to adapt and adjust to whatever lies around the next turn of the trail. Aware of the significance and symbolism of their pack frames, they turned out some of the best I have seen from any group.

Soon after my arrival, the drum called everybody together and the pungent smell of burnt hair filled the air. Whether it be graceful locks of long blonde hair, wavy shocks black as raven feathers, or sandy colored dreadlocks, they all burned off the same and lay in piles beside heads encrusted in charred stubble. Glowing-hot rocks and coals gripped in wooden tongs were deftly run over heads, along with flaming sticks to set small patches of hair afire. Handfuls of wet moss stood at the ready to immediately snuff out flare-ups. Along with this singeing, they blackened their faces with charcoal.

You may be wondering why such self-defacement. The trainees actually saw it as the opposite: they planned and conducted the ceremony as a symbolic release from their attachment to images of self that were not authentically them. They wanted to consciously break from that past and create space for their essential selves to shine forth.

With faces smudged and hair reduced to bristle, they left Mashkodens in silence, never again to set foot in the camp where they met shared many fond moments while preparing for their wandering turn of the seasons in the wilderness. Hiking to the nearest stream, they took to their canoes, paddled for a mealtime or so, and stopped to wash themselves clean and ready for their awakening.

After having fasted for two days and gotten up in the predawn for the ceremony, they were more than tired when they found a campsite in the early evening. With relish, they roasted fish, greens, and bear fat on an open fire, and then slept soundly under a canopy of stars. The next day, those who needed more rest stayed around camp to gather firewood and forage (escargot was on the dinner menu), while those with passion and energy organized scouting missions to find canoe routes through the wilderness that lied ahead, and to assess the difficulty of upcoming rapids.