ROOTS School

Flint knapping with the Youth

2009-07-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

Sitting down in the knapping pit with an excited group of 7-10 year olds, I had a moment of wondering if I was crazy. I have taught flint knapping to children before, but usually one on one. After years of teaching adults and knowing how hard the concepts can be to get across, I wondered if I was up to the challenge. I must say I was pleasantly surprised by both the aptitude of the students and with what I was to learn.

At both of the Roots Clovis Camps and at Jumping Mouse camp I was able to get time in the pit flint knapping with quite a few children ages 7-13. I learned to scale back my descriptions of the concepts, and focus on how to strike, hold to support, and how to not get cut. In this reworking of the basic skills and techniques I found new ways to communicate tricky aspects of the skill. The experience found me learning as much, if not more, than them.

Everyone learned percussion techniques on small flakes using hammer stones. When each student was ready, meaning consistently moving flakes, we would sit together and talk through taking bigger flakes, on a bigger core, looking for good useful tools. Each student got their turn. We used some Normanskill Chert collected a few hours from here, and the results were awesome.

We took the flakes and taught them a basic survival hafting technique involving scoring and snapping out a void for the flake, and then pitched them with survival glue or lashed them with spruce roots, or both. It was not long upon seeing the children with their primitive knives in hand that we realized sheaths were in order and set to work creating birch bark ones to protect the children and their knives.

The next day they tried out their new tools using them to free the bark from a white pine, which they made into water baskets. They also applied them to various carving jobs, plant harvesting, and cordage cutting. Seeing ten year olds using stone tools they made with their own two hands certainly left me excited and looking forward to my next opportunity to pass on flint knapping to the youth.

Spring Delectibles

2009-05-07T11:48:00.000-07:00

As is the case every spring, I feel the rush of new plant growth emerging. It is a fleeting time for many of the spring edibles, rich leafy greens to rejuvenate, sweet burdock to cleanse, and peppery primrose to throw into the saute pan along with wild carrot, leeks, nettles, and those good for you bitter dandelion greens. I hope some of you caught the short season of clintonia/blue bead lily greens. I am still picking leeks (leek pesto on potatoes is easy and delicious), and the fiddle heads are out from their tight enclosure. If you like horseradish, and don't yet know toothwort; go and find some!

This past weekend with WSIP we were able to collect and eat a variety of plants. There was wild ginger, toothwort, fiddleheads, and burdock all taking advantage of the open canopy of an old waterlogged logging trail. Out at the beaver bog (technically I believe it is a fen for the particular) we chomped the tender cattail shoots, and nibbled pennslyvania bittercress. I have yet to find the elusive cuckoo flower/lady's smock (Cardamine pratensis).

Ancient Living Skills

2009-04-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

Roots just finished its first Ancient Living skills course, and Nick, Sarah, and I are impressed once again with our students passion and the power of natural materials to teach and inspire awe. We made the decision to start all processes from the beginning, making stone and bone tools a part of each project we worked on. Testing the limitations of stone and bone tools, noting which worked well and which did not students and instructors continued to hone their understanding of working natural materials with natural materials.

For once I got to sit back and relax a little at a class, as Nick taught the rawhide burden baskets and pine bark canteens, and Sarah taught advanced fibers, assisted spindles, and some basic weaving. Both of them laid down hard to find knowledge and hard earned experience about processes and materials. This left me with bone knives, soap stone carving, and stone tools. I was pleased with how the students pushed themselves to use the stone tools, scoring and splitting their cannon bones for knives, using flakes to cut rawhide lashings, and using their bones knives to cut the bark for their pine bark canteens.

I also had time to do some personal work and put together this red eared slider shell tackle box...kind of a mouthful, but a lot of fun to make. I used only stone and bone tools for this project and enlisted the help of Laura to do some of the rawhide work because my hands are way to big to do anything but reach in and out of the shell. Coming up with a project like this one out of nowhere is a good challenge and I enjoyed immensely working this new material of turtle shell with stone tools and incorporating it with buckskin and rawhide was sweet.

Owl Kill

2009-02-18T12:23:00.000-08:00

Last weekend while doing some cottontail hunting in the Champlain Valley I witnessed an amazing tracking scene. It was a perfect day for tracking, a hard crust of snow with about a half inch of powder on top. As we moved through the forest we stopped to check out the tracks of various animals taking advantage of the new found mobility the crust afforded. Story after story unfolding.

After moving through a densely wooded hillside we came across something of unusual. The first thing that caught my eye was the amount of disturbance, marks and push downs, and drags... and the lack of tracks. Then two tracks flared out at me...Owl....and just on the top of the inside toe on the right foot....is that hair....

It all became clear. The landing, the scuffle and kill...and the tracks to show the story. I have seen substrate carry over in tracks, but never hair...a story of hunting and feeding unfolded. And as each piece of the story came together and I asked questions far outside of my ability to answer. I realized once again, I love tracking.

Bow Building

2009-02-12T07:42:00.000-08:00

Roots has been holding Bow building classes for a number of years now, and as I look towards the upcoming class and talk to those who are interested, I find myself thinking about all those who have already built one, some who have come back to build two, even three. They have taken the time out of their lives to sit with a single piece of wood, working it for days o as to leave with a beautiful, functional, and effective bow. There is no defining reason as to why people have come. There have been students that have hunted their whole lives, there have been students who have never hunted before, and a number of vegetarians who are looking to explore a new approach to meat in their diet, or are just looking for the dynamic mediation of building and shooting their own bow. No bow comes out the same, and it affects the individual as much as he or she does working the wood. Here are some pictures of previous students working hard and loving it.

Perception, Intuition, and Instinct

2009-02-10T08:34:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we held the first Perception, Intuition, and Instinct course. I must say that I had a blast putting the class together and watching students learn and push their awareness skills. The first day of the course was a full battery of sensory exercises including vision acuity looking for hidden partners and objects in the forest, hearing tests which required you to dodge moving objects based on sound, scent identifying trees, tasting traces of alkaloids, salts, sugars, acids, and lipids in water, and transmuting touch into vision. We ended the day by hunting each other with blowguns, blindfolded, and using our senses to reach out. Sunday was filled with using awareness and visualization to learn and build new skills, more of the dart game but with hearing protection to up the stakes, and finished with some mind blowing intuition exercises that shocked the whole Roots staff when we witness a 100 percent student success rate in sensing someone while blindfolded!

Looking forward to running this course again and trying to plot more awareness courses for 2009...

New 2009 Schedule!

2008-12-03T12:03:00.000-08:00

The 2009 schedule is now available! It is a full schedule, both with classes we have run before as well as some new classes, such as Perception, Intuition, and Instinct, Winter Survival, Instinctual Awareness and Self Defense, and Advanced Fire. Teen Classes! This fall began the first year of a long term teen program, and this summer we are excited to lead teen programs. Visit our website for more information.

Our upcoming class is Pathways to Awareness, December 13-14. This is a class we don't always get to teach, and it will be the first to happen in the newly erected yurt. It will be looking at old and new techniques for expanding and applying awareness. We will focus in on reaching and maintaining levels of consciousness that allow for the heightened sensory awareness our ancestors possessed. We will learn basic techniques for stilling the mind and apply them in a series of intense exercises designed to open new paths into ourselves and the forests around us. This class will be very hands on and touch on a great many subjects, increasing student's ability to move invisibly throughout the forest and to take in more of the complex and variable world around them. A practice approach to extrasensory awareness through practices that achieve results is the ultimate goal of the course.
Pathways to Awareness
Date: December 13-14 (2008)
Cost: $150-lunch included

The 2009 Schedule!

Enjoy and let us know what you are interested in, and as always, please help us spread the word...

**Roots 2009 Adult Class Schedule**

Pathways to
Awareness, 2008 December 13-14 $150

Winter Tracking January 24-25 $200

Perception, Intuition,
and Instinct January 31-Feb. 1 $200

Ancient Living Skills February 7-10 $500

Winter Survival February 14-16 $350

Bow Class March 7-10 $450

Flint Knapping March 11-13 $200

Arrows March 14-15 $200

Primitive Weapons April 18-19 $200

Tracking
& Awareness May 9-10 $200

Primitive Fishing May 16-17 $200

Roots Core Skills l May 24-30 $650

Spring Fling June 13-14 $20/day

Instinctual Awareness
and & Self Defense June 20-21 $200

Basketry June 27-28 $150

Felting July 11-12 $150

Roots Core Skills l July 12-18 $650

Ancient Scout August 9-15 $650

Tracking
& Awareness September 10-11 $200

Advanced Tracking
& Awareness September 12-13 $200

Flint Knapping September 19-20 $200

Flint Knapping II September 21-22 $200

Rendezvous September 25-27 TBA

Hide Tanning October 3-5 $400

Basketry October 24-25 $150

Advanced Fire November 14-15 $200

Pathways to
*Awareness December 12-13 $200

*_Roots 2009 Teen Class Schedule_*

*Tracking and Awareness *April 25-26

*Wilderness Survival *July 26-August 1

*Scout *August 18-22

ROOTS Rendezvous Ride Share

2008-09-27T11:11:00.001-07:00

Need a ride? Have one to offer?

Use our blog and reply to this post with a comment if you want to share a ride.

ROOTS Rendezvous

2008-09-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

Yeah ROOTS Rendezvous!
OCTOBER 24, Friday 4 PM - Sunday 26 4 PM

Celebrate primitive skills and get a taste of what we teach at ROOTS.

Workshops and demonstrations for the whole family:
Fire by friction
Primitive weapons
Hide tanning
Edible, medicinal & utilitarian plant use
Wildlife tracking
Shelter
Water purification
Flint knapping
Fireside cooking
Natural fibers
Stalking & movement
Awareness

& Guests from our community including
Ninjutsu with Ben Goodrich
Birding with Amy Butler
Ecological communities with Dan Farrell
Primitive physical conditioning with Abdul Mujib of North Country Kettle Bells
Edible plant walks with Annie Mcleary and George Lisi of Wisdom of the Herbs School
Mushrooms with Alan LePage
Medicinal plants with Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism

Doe Camp

2008-07-29T09:07:00.000-07:00

This past June I got to participate at Doe Camp, up in the Northeast Kingdon. This event is sponsored by the Vermont Outdoor Guide Association and Vermont Outdoors Woman, and the summer/fall programs draw more than 100 women of all ages who want to learn fire skills, archery (including the very talented and lovely Christina Bean), marksmanship, tie a fly, forage for wild edibles, and wilderness survival among other outdoor pursuits. I was there for the weekend to instruct on fire/bow drill, cordage, as well as tracking and awareness. Friday for me began with teaching fire skills. Despite the drizzle, there were seven women there and ready to learn fire, one even brought a previously made kit and questions. Even better. Then, to my excitement and surprise, after carving their kits, six of the women busted out coals, and the one who brought her kit got some answers and probably more questions. Dang. It was apparent that the group's attitude was casual, attentive, and really excited about the idea of producing a coal. And it is this, despite the drizzle, their attitude that lent so much to their success. It was a great class to be a part of. The next day was cordage. Note the large heap of elm bark I am emerging from. It was a most beautiful day, warm with a gentle breeze, there in the Northeast Kingdom. We covered a number of wraps and styles, and began a small weaving project. Here is a student about to begin the three-ply wrap reverse wrap. Sunday morning was Tracking and Awareness. Given that was the title, it diverged into a few hours focusing on awareness of ourselves, out surrounding environment, and that interplay. Of our relation to and awareness of our land-base. This was through exercises with our senses and opening them up, questions, and moving slow. In the end it rightly finished up with Moose tracks walking up a muddy corridor.

You can view VOGA's website at http://www.voga.org/vermont_outdoors_woman.htm

I also would like to make a point to mention the skilled tailor, serious hunter, and lovely lady Wendy Butler of Trailfeathers. She provides hunting clothes designed for women. As it is said in her website; "The Trailfeathers' line of clothing is designed to fit a woman's body and to provide her with superior comfort across a full range of activities—from sitting in a tree stand to climbing a windy ridge, and even answering the call of nature." That call of nature? inspiration via her mom for those chilly mornings, her pants come with an extended crotch zipper so that "women no longer need to hang it all out to relieve themselves." Brilliant!
You can check this out at: http://www.trailfeathers.com/

Spring Fling, Traditional Archery Shoot

2008-06-04T20:18:00.000-07:00

Spring Fling

This was the first Spring Fling of many more to come.

May 31, 2008 - This past Saturday ROOTS held a traditional archery shoot for the community. Despite the rain, the event was well attended, with archers of all ages. Through the efforts of a number of committed and creative people we were able to hold space for a 20-shot 3D course, aerial shooting, and instinctive shooting tutorial. A notable mention goes out to G and Oliver who held to the task of fashioning a 'spooked grouse' that flew up into the trees by means of a crafty weighted lever action. That was a pleaser, along with a similar 'running' deer. The day ended at dusk, with a tutorial on making and shooting flaming arrows...which are dangerously fun. see raucous take down of the straw man.

Below: Shooting at aerial targets, people lining up to shoot at stationary targets, an enthusiastic Emmit Avery along with his father Lucian, us walking the course, and the evening of flaming arrows...

To anyone who reads this and thinks they missed a good time. You can catch up and check out the ROOTS Rendezvous this October.

This is ROOTS new blog

2008-02-10T06:52:00.000-08:00

Welcome to ROOTS School's Web log, where you may be able to find fascinating photographs, class notes, journal entries or who knows what!

Our Mission Statement:

The Goals of R.O.O.T.S. - Reclaiming Our Origins through Traditional Skills - are:

To educate people of all ages and backgrounds in:

Traditional Survival Skills
Awareness and Tracking
Indigenous Philosophy

We will facilitate the growth of strong bonds between individuals, communities, and the natural world by:

Inspiring a shift in humanity's perspective of our role as inhabitants of the Earth towards a deeper understanding of our interdependence with all creatures and elements with which we share the planet.
Supporting and teaching skills based on natural materials in order to connect people to the Earth through their artistic process.
Providing ourselves and our work as artisans as a reference for those who wish to learn the ancient ways in which human beings lived as an integral part of the natural community.