On the Lookout for Teaching Materials: The life of a wilderness skills instructor.

This milkweed grew it's whole, six
month life in view of this country road.
Now it will live in our barn for a while
and then maybe for a few years
as a necklace or bracelet for a young
person's first natural fiber cordage.

 So, last week, I was driving down some back roads through the Catskill mountains, on my way to teach cordage with natural fibers to about 25 fourth graders, when I noticed some long, white plants clustered in clumps along a guard rail.   There was a good shoulder and room to pull over, so I did.

I put my flashers on and hopped out to take a look.   The plants were milkweed, and they had been dead since November, and slowly decaying and going back to the soil.   The surrounding grasses and plants had also died, and the little snow that we had this winter had pushed it down close to the ground, but the milkweed's white stalks had many that were still standing.   This is due mostly to the strong fibers contained in the bark of the stalk, that helps keep them upright through all kinds of weather throughout the plant's short life.   It also makes the plant valuable to anyone in a wilderness survival situation, or who loves natural fibers!

The whiteness of the milkweed stalks stand out
from the browns and tans of the other
roadside vegetation, even at highway speeds,
if you are on the lookout for them!

I collected as many as I could, gathering the ones that were upright or laying sideways but not directly on the ground, as the ones on the ground are usually too far decayed to be used for cordage.  Also, stalks with large dark grey splotches, or black ones, are almost always rotted under the bark to the point where the fibers just crumble and break.   One of my instructors, Tim Brown, told me that he only gathered the white stalks because they were be best, most silky fibers of any milkweed he gathered, and he stopped wasting time on the grey ones because it just saved time sorting.   I think he is right, because it's the same thing that Sam Thayer says about gathering acorns.   You don't want to just gather every single acorn that you see and then have to sort them later, but instead sort as you gather, so you save that extra step and can then process only the best!   It makes sense, doesn't it?

The back of my car, with assorted timber framing
and program gear, now with my collection
of several roadside stops of milkweed.

I got as many as I could carry and put them in the back of my car, and continued on my way.   They were a little wet, so I had to make sure that they were dried out when I got home and spread them apart to dry in the barn.  I have bundled them up too soon in the past, when they were a little wet, and the whole bundle got really moldy and were ruined, wasting all of that time, effort and fibers!

Once they are dried, I usually bundle them in clusters of thirty stalks or so, enough to give each kid a couple of stalks to make a necklace or bracelet as they are learning to process and twist the fibers into a nice reverse wrap.

Drying the stalks in the barn so they don't get moldy.

(Note:   Be sure to take the seed pod heads off of the stalks if you can, because they will explode in silky seed whiteness everywhere if they stay in the back of your car and dry out because your car gets hot.   I have come back to my car to find it covered in fluff that is very hard to get out because it clings to everything, and the silk filaments break easily and are not good to breathe.   Don't learn the hard way like me!   Also, in these photos, the stalks and pods were wet from rain, so I didn't have to worry about that, but you might not realize that in the photos, hence this important tip!)

Close-up of my milkweed stalks.

As I was gathering at my next stop, I thought about the time needed to gather and prepare all of these materials for our programs.   It adds up!   We gather dogbane, arrow shafts, atlatl dart shafts, mullein stalks, goldenrod, horseweed and even some swamp milkweed from time to time, all through the fall, winter and early spring.   We gather certain grasses for tinder, or for insulation demonstrations, and grass mats.   We clean, bundle and prepare them, storing them in our barn or staff cabins so we can run programs all year round.

It doesn't stop there, though.  We also look out for cedar, poplar, cottonwood or basswood logs for spoon blanks, bow drill sets, coal burned bowls, hand drill fire boards or animal carving.   These we have to select the straightest sections without knots, and cut them to the right lengths, as well as split them into smaller sections and then dry them both in the sun and wind, and then place them up in the high spots in the barn to fully season and dry.   It takes a long time to cut up 100 bow drill sets in rough sections!

My milkweed bundles, all tied up
and a random bundle of dogbane!

The silky silver white fibers of milkweed!

One of the main reasons I wanted to post about this topic is to point out to instructors and mentors that these gatherings take time, and unfortunately, you can't just go out and buy cordage fibers or bundles of milkweed at the store, and you have to do it at the right time and plan ahead...   There is a value to these things that you have to be sure to add to your fees as you work, and make sure you understand this as you build your business, so you don't work for free and get burned out.   It seems simple to understand, but if you aren't familiar with running a business, it is easy to forget or let it slip through the cracks.   Likewise, it sometimes is the business manager who gets 20 classes signed up, but unfortunately forgets to make sure that you actually have enough milkweed/dogbane/bow drill kits, etc to run the program!   In those times, you have to scramble and think fast, and do what you can to make do, but in the long run, to preserve sanity, you have to make sure you plan that time in your seasonal schedule for that kind of gathering!

When you find the seed pods on the stalks, be sure
to scatter them around sothey can find a good home
and grow more milkweed!

Remember also, that kids are going to be doing the carving or processing, and we want to have good results, so be sure to discard the junky stuff so you don't make a third grader try carving a spoon out of a piece of wood with six knots in it!   Save those pieces for your staff!   (Ha ha, just kidding!)   The survivalist part of myself always thinks that someone will be able to make something cool out of interesting materials, but unfortunately, it often means you will have a box of mostly un-useable chunks in a year or two.  Throw them in the fire and move on to the good stuff, people!   I have a story one time where I was going to a home school group to teach cordage and fire making, and my staff assured me they had plenty of wood and bundles of milkweed for the class, and when we got there, you guessed it!   We had three bundles of crumbly fibers that were useless, and the box of cedar wood for bow drill sets was pure Knot City.   Bad for carving bow drills and fireboards.   Very bad.


So, we were lucky to go to a local feed store/landscaping supplies, and bought a cedar fence post that had almost no knots.   We sawed it up, and it worked out.  We had to pay about $30 or so, but it was worth it to pull the workshop off!

My bundles, safely stored in our barn until
we need them for our school programs,
summer camps or apprentice program.

The cordage was harder.   We found some raffia fibers at a craft store (Michael's, I think it was) and used that, but we also were able to strip off some green tree fibers from some basswood shoots that were growing on a roadside tree, and we cut a few off and brought them to the camp and let the kids peel their own and then twist it up, and they loved it.   However, while I can celebrate the fact that we made do and were successful, it it is also true that I was sweating bullets and working hard to solve the problem, rather than spending that time connecting to kids and parents and relaxing before the program and getting our group plan together.   It is good to have things run smooth, and good preparation will help your programs have less stress, less effort and great results.

It's all about the details, right?   If we take care of the little things, we will be on our way!

Anyway, with this warmer winter and less snow, you should be able to see the roadside weeds pretty easy in some places, and you can be on the lookout for milkweed and other plants for your own practice, crafts and programs.   Good luck and happy gathering!