Introducing the Speakers from my Summit on Nature Connection

Here are some of the things that people are saying about the Interviews:

"Thanks looking forward to listening Have learned so much so far. Priceless…."

"The whole summit has been amazing, thanks so much!!"

"I liked the part where he said: "Better hurry up before a bear eats me!!!" terrific interview, ordering his book!"

"WOW, what a powerful and inspiring voice for wilderness! Humans like Doug Peacock are truly a gift! Thanks for sharing! Great interview Ricardo Sierra!"

" When Sean Rowe was talking about his favorite wild edibles, my 5 year old lassie piped in (she was listening too while we were making dinner) "Mom, my favorite wild edible is wild raspberries!" "

"There was a LOT I liked about today's interview, especially the 2nd half. I took about 2/3 of a page of notes -- and a friend called me tonight to say she had listened to it after I posted a link to it on my Facebook page."

"Curiosity, Compassion, and Community-- perfect. We need more of the three C's in our world."

"Your message of conservation is an important message that needs heard!!! I will always support the effort to make this world a better place."

"I listened to the Eugene Schwartz interview, now trying to catch up on the others that I've missed. Thanks, and keep up the GREAT WORK!"


Okay, here are the list of Speakers on my Wolverine Way Summit on Nature Connection:

John Griffith, of the California Conservation Corps

Derrick Jensen, author of Deep Green Resistance and A Language Older Than Words

Tom Elpel of Hops Press and Green University, LLC

Kristen Schulte of the Yellowstone Youth Conservation Corps


Sean Rowe, musician, singer songwriter and Anti-Records recording Artist with Magic, 27 and The Salesman & The Shark

Craig Blacklock, acclaimed landscape photographer at Blacklock Gallery

Joe Lau, former Tracker School Head Instructor and founder of the Phyre Dojo wilderness school

Cheryl Charles, director and co-founder of the Children & Nature Network

Brandt Morgan, author of Vision Walk and Sacred Journeys Guide

Charles Saylan, author of The Failure of Environmental Education and director of the Ocean Conservation Society

Mike Douglas, director of the Maine Primitive Skills School


Doug Peacock, naturalist & author of Grizzly Years and In the Shadow of the Sabertooth

Randall Lewis Eaton, author of Hunting as a Rite of Passage

Eugene Schwartz, Waldorf Educator and creator of Millenial Child

Kiva Rose, herbalist and creator of Plant Healer Magazine

 Tom Brown III, founder of the Primitive Arts Collective

Susun Weed, Herbalist, author and founder of the Wise Woman Way

Reese Maxwell, instructor and founder of Dancing Sol, and co-founder of the Whole Earth Nature School

Matthew Bradley, co-founder of the Whole Earth Nature School

Victor Wooten, five time Grammy Winning Recording Artist and author of The Music Lesson

Tom Brown, Jr., founder of the Tracker School and author of over 19 books on Survival, Tracking and Earth Philosophy

Ruth Ann Colby Martin, former Tracker School Instructor & Certified Midwife

Lisa Bonny Berry of Four Elements Earth Education

Wendolyn Bird of Tender Tracks Tails and Trails

Tony Deis, founder of the Trackers Earth Camp and Wilderness School,

Cristina Eisenberg, wildlife biologist and author of The Carnivore Way and The Wolf's Tooth

Laura Zerra, wilderness skills instructor and Reality Show participant on the Discovery Channel's Naked and Afraid

Richard Cleveland, founder of The Earth School

Erik Hoffner, eco-journalist & photographer and editor at Orion Magazine

Special thanks to all of these kind speakers who took time out of their work saving the world to speak to me, and to you, and share their thoughts and ideas and stories with us.

You are all amazing and wonderful!  Thank you!

And if you want to sign up and get access to them, check out The Wolverine Way website!

Hawk Circle 3.0: Transformation, Creation and Renewal

The New Hawk Circle Woodshed, Fall, 2011
We got the firewood stacked even before the roof was up!

So, years ago, Hawk Circle had piles of wood around the Farmhouse, covered in big tarps.   It also had garbage cans, some with lids, some without, just far enough away from the house to eliminate the smell factor, but clearly, needing a more secure location to avoid the raccoon feeding hour!   The firewood would get covered with a large snowfall, and then it would rain, and then freeze, making the tarp a giant convoluted ice cube, leading to intense frustration for whoever's job it was to bring in firewood to keep the house warm.   Sometimes, the tarp would be lifted to get wood, and then forget to put it back over it, and it would all get covered with snow.   Also frustrating.

The Old Woodshed and Trash Shed, Summer, 2011
I know, it's scary, isn't it?

So Simon Mayer, Chris Marx, and possibly Matt Burr, built a trash shed for the trash, out of old silo boards from the old lower barn, which is now gone.   They used nails and screws and hinges and built a two door shed for recycling and trash.   It was on cinder blocks, and kept our trash somewhat secure until it was time to head to the transfer station outside of Cooperstown.   It was pretty old, but still worked.  But it looked pretty funky.

Lucas Kane makes pegs for
new Trash Shed Frame!

Abigail assembles the New Trash
Sill Beams.

The woodshed didn't happen until a few years later.   Eli Martz, another of our early campers turned instructors, built a lean to woodshed, using logs of white ash from up on the hill, sunk into the ground, and covered with corrugated steel.   It was strong, serviceable, and while lacking in diagonal bracing, it kept wood dry, and allowed us to load a lot of firewood, maybe seven or eight full cords in there at one time.   We also stored the splitting mauls, axes, sledge hammers and wedges there, as well as our old wheelbarrow.    When it was full of firewood, it looked pretty good.   When it wasn't full of wood, it quickly became filled with all kinds of wire, an old blacksmithing forge, various lawnmower parts, a snow plow, and other things that looked like if you got scratched in there you would need a tetanus shot!   Barry Keegan installed some boards to brace it along the back, to keep it from falling over, using random planks and some steel lag bolts, which added a number of years to it's redneck life...

The posts are up with braces!

The thing about a shed is that it keeps things out of the weather, and around a camp and farm, there are all sorts of things that are good to keep dry, so it fills quickly.  It also is a place to put things that we don't know what else to do with it, so in the shed it goes.  But with no walls or doors to close, it ends up looking pretty banjo, if you know what I mean!   Which isn't a terribly bad thing in general, unless the woodshed is the first thing you see when you drive up the road to the Farmhouse.   So, the funk factor was starting to become a problem for us, which I had been waiting to address for a couple of years, and in the summer of 2011, we did something about it.

Putting on the Plate Beams...

The first thing we had to do is figure out what to do with the trash and recycling.   In order to burn the old nasty small shed, we had to first build a new shed and put it somewhere more out of sight, but still close by for us to use easily.   We chose to build the new one behind the Hide Shed, which is itself a little funky, so it would be in good company.  And it would be very much out of sight most of the time. The second thing was to figure out where to get the funds to build it.   We don't usually have much in the way of extra cash, as we are a not for profit organization called the Earth Mentoring Institute, Inc. and our budget pretty much barely covers our expenses on most years.   We had to keep the costs very low to make this happen.

Watch out for the pegs!

I looked in our woodpiles for extra wood, and found that we had a number of 5x7 beams left over from a frame that we did in 2010, that had a number of worm holes in the wood, and we didn't feel we could use them in a new frame, so the sawyer had cut new ones for us, and never picked up the old ones.   I would have been able to build a shed very quickly with 2x4s and smaller wood, but since we didn't have that on hand, and we didn't want to take the time to order it from a local sawmill, and since we had some apprentices who wanted to learn timber framing, we set to work.   Abigail Liss and Lucas Kane worked on making the pegs, cutting the mortises and tenons and drilled the holes for the pegs out of the older wood.   It was white pine and it cut very easily.   It took us about three days to cut this small trash shed frame, working part time, and soon we were ready to put it up.   It seems ridiculous to make a timber frame for something so small, and so mundane as a trash shed, but hey, it's how we roll here at Hawk Circle!

Classic Timber Frame Joinery!

Putting it up was fun because it was so light and small.   Usually we need a bunch of people to help lift the beams into place, but I could have probably done this by myself and been just fine.   As it is, Abigail and Lucas did a great job, pegging it together, making little adjustments to get it to fit, and cutting off the pegs afterwards for a smooth exterior.   We got the rafters up, too, and then I ended up buying a couple of sheets of plywood for the roof and some 1x8 inch boards for the siding and doors.   I also got a few hinges and clasps too, to keep out the chipmunks, mice and rats.

The rafters are up and the frame is
complete!

Putting up the siding was a lot of fun too, screwing the boards in place, and getting the doors to open correctly.  It was a good learning project for the apprentices, and the sun was warm and the weather beautiful.   Eventually we got the plywood up, some felt roofing paper down, drip edge installed and then asphalt shingles over the roof so it was water tight and ship shape.

Then, we moved the trash to it's new home, along with the recycling, and started tearing the old shed apart.  We took off the old doors, and brought them up to our burn pile, and then we rolled that old shed up to the center of the pile and filled it with wood chips and shavings from our timber framing.   They were extremely dry!   We covered it with brush from some clearing that Adam did with the Caretakers earlier that summer, near the Garden Shed, and added some of the wood from the old shed too, that had too many nails to reuse, or was rotting or broken.

The Epic Hawk Circle Trash Shed Bonfire

It was the last day of camp, and the summer session was the Wolverine Survival Camp.   We ate dinner and there was a light rain, and our hope for having a bonfire seemed dashed by many of the staff and campers.   But wait!   There was a flash of inspiration!   As dinner wrapped up, we all agreed that our goal could still happen, and be accomplished, if we just "Went For It!"   Which we did.   In the rain.   We tore up the old woodshed, pulling up old pallets that was the floor for the firewood, and took down old boards.  We pulled off the old steel roofing, and put it in a pile to be reused.   We dodged wasp nests and sorted out old metal and wire, being careful not to get injured in our moving and piling.   All of the time, the Bonfire Pile was getting bigger and bigger, as we added poles, old rafters, boards and posts to the giant tipi.   It rained hard, but our spirits were strong and there was much joy in our labors, and the rain mixed with our sweat and we were alive and awake!

Hawk Circle Summer Campers and Staff, enjoying the
cleansing power of fire...

We made an ember with a bow and drill in the barn as it was raining and kind of dark by then, and we carried it out in a nice tinder bundle, and let it ignite into the fire, which started to smolder, and flicker with small light, and thick smoke.   Then, the smoke rippled with energy, and flames began to lick along the long edges of the wood, then rising through the pile towards the cloudy skies and the dark mist.   Our fire was alive!    When the fire got to the burning of the old trash shed, it became Epic.   There is even a Hawk Circle Facebook Page about it...   That was one huge, intense, crazy fire!   It burned for about three days after the camp ended, too.  In the end, the land was cleansed of the old woodshed and trash shed, and the space for the new Woodshed was opened for business.

The Sill Beams, leveled and ready!

The First Bent goes up!

The first thing is to clear the site for the foundation and the sills.   Each corner has to be dug out in a three food circle, about four feet deep, and filled with mango sized stones, to keep the frost from lifting the frame up due to the cold.   The spaces between the stones gives room for the moist soil that expands, room to move, rather than push up.   Anyway, we dug six holes, and filled them with stones, after careful measuring, that is.   And then we sloped the soil around, to move the water away from underneath the frame.   We also covered the ground under the frame with plastic and old tarps, and covered it with gravel, about 3 or four inches deep, so that moisture won't come up under the sill beams, floor joists and floor boards which keeps it dry and helps the frame to last a long, long time.

The Second Bent is up!

Then we found some large stones, of varying sizes, to be the foundation rocks.   We had to put the sill beams up, and then try to level them, using different sized stones to make a solid floor.   We used the largest rocks we could, and it took a while, but we made it.   Once that happened, we dropped in the floor joists, which we cut from beams we had that were extra, and started on cutting and raising the posts and ties.

The Woodshed Rafters

Our Fall Apprentices Ezra Ward and Ben Gallagher cut the old posts, the tie beams and the braces, using posts from other frames that either were extra, or were two long or two short, that had been waiting to be put to good use.  We used a couple of white oak posts, and white pine and hemlock tie beams, and a mix of hemlock and pine beams for the top plates, which we scarfed together to make the 10' x38' frame.   We cut them in the barn, and then put up the beams as soon as they were finished, so it was kind of fun to work so close to home, so to speak.   The weather was good and we started putting the floor down too, using 2" hemlock boards that are strong, long lasting, weather resistant and not slippery when wet...

Putting the last few roof boards up...

Ezra and Daryl put the
Top Plate in Place.

We were able to use left over 5"x5" beams for the rafters, and those went quickly, until we ran out of extra beams.   We ordered more, and when those arrived, we cut them as well.   Putting them up felt great, just to see it come together.

We ordered boards for the roof, using a variety of 1" boards of different widths, and staggered these across the span of the structure. I did a lot of cutting them to length and handing them up to the crew to screw down in place.   It came together very nicely!

The new Railings, freshly peeled!

Waiting for Roofing Paper, March 2012
 in the Winter without Snow.

Once the floor was up, and the roof also, we covered it in roofing paper and got it filled with wood for the winter.  In the spring season, before our school group season got started, we installed a railing of natural wood saplings, and a half wall on the back, to protect against weather and rain splash, and we were ready for action.    Lizzy Mello got in on the action, drilling and screwing in our rails, as she was doing her Senior Year special project at Hawk Circle for the month of May.

The New Woodshed, filled with wood boards
in early April, 201

The Minnesota Waldorf School's
Eighth Grade made Ash Bark
Baskets in the New Woodshed.

Heather Burrill Cuts her Rafters in the Shade!
August, 2012

It didn't take long for our school groups to enjoy their meals on our picnic tables in this amazing new space.  We also did cooking classes, made baskets, various crafts and enjoyed the shady cool breeze even on the hottest days of the very hot summer of 2012.   Heather and Ben cut many beams in the shade, and Javi and the staff played many board games and did art projects on it too.   We cured our garlic there, hanging in the beams out of direct light, and we dried herbs and tea plants too.  

Garlic drying in the loft, mid July...

In short, it has turned an eyesore into a wealth of positive uses, and the first thing you see when you drive up is it's wonderful outline waiting to be enjoyed and explored.   Currently, it is filled with a lot of firewood, but we will running youth and adult programs come spring, you can be sure.

So, Hawk Circle continues to grow and build, even as we work on strong programs that transform our youth, and we are ready for more!   Wait until you see my post about Eagle House, coming up shortly! That's when things will get crazy!

The Aurora Eighth Grade, April, 2012

The Newfoundland Expedition, August 2011, Part lV

Abigail and Japhy enjoy a sunny, windy day at the Tablelands!

Our next adventure in Newfoundland was one of the longest, too.  Not in hours but in activity and movement.   We got up early and ate, then headed out to the Tablelands, a rocky, barren area that is the real reason that Gros Morne was chosen and designated as an UNESCO World Heritage Site, with surface rocks from the earth's mantle, that closely resemble the geology of Mars.  NASA is even doing research there for their eventual trip to the Red Planet.

Peridotite, from the Earth's Mantle

The Amazing, Delicious, 'Trista Bars'

Nicole is a serious geology student and enthusiast, and she loves rocks almost as much as mushrooms and farming!    She was in heaven, and we all were amazed by the ways the landscape looked like the desert Southwest.   It was awesome!   We had a wonderful Ranger to showed us all kinds of things about the rocks, calcium deposits, all kinds of ways plants and trees were adapting to the harsh winds, poor soils and difficult terrain.  He was great, funny and had a wonderful presentation that was warm and friendly.

The Tablelands, Gros Morne National Park, Western Newfoundland, Canada

We walked up the end of the trail, and seriously contemplated climbing the ridge to the top and traveling along the crest to descend into the basin where the waterfalls were flowing, but the wind was intense and we had other places to go.

The incredibly tough and resourceful pitcher plant

Still, it was hard to go to Trout Brook and pull Ben and Abigail from this adventure.   I still feel guilty about it!   Seriously!   (Ben, if you are reading this, I promise we will make that hike/climb next summer!)

We snacked on sandwiches, fruit, some chips, and the awesome chocolate chip, coconut, and walnut bars that Trista made for us for our trip.  We called these 'Trista Bars' and one of them, heck, even half of one, would keep you from feeling hungry for a few hours.   And they really tasted great.  Very homey and warm and we loved them during our long drives and hikes.

We traveled to the end of the road, and saw another fishing community and valleys wide and vast that just begged to be explored and experienced...

Serpentine?  Nicole probably knows
what it is for sure!

We ended up stopping at the Park's Visitors Center in Woody Point.  It is fantastic.  It is modern, and beautiful, and the art!   The Art!   There are Artist's in Residence whose work covered the walls, and the children's art of the park wildlife was so sweet and insightful that it touched us!  Well, I am pretty sure that it did for me and Nicole, but I can't say for sure for the rest of our group.

The Tablelands Boardwalk Trail

The large relief map of Gros Morne was especially insightful.   We didn't realize how tall Berry Hill was, or how massive Gros Morne Mountain was either, or how deep the fjiords were in Western Brook Pond.   We talked to some of the rangers about fishing, and hiking the Long Range Traverse, which we were still debating hiking at some point on our trip.

Peas Pudding, Salt Beef (Corned Beef),
Potatoes, Beets, Carrots, Turnips, Stuffing,
Blueberry Cake Pudding, Pickled Peppers
and lots of Gravies!

 After we left the Visitor's Center, we drove back through the forests and waterfalls and mountains and meadows, seeing moose again and rivers that looked like they were loaded with fish.   We stopped at the Gros Morne Mountain trailhead, and hiked up to the first lookout, over a rushing stream.   We saw moose antler rubs, on huge saplings.   We found bunchberries everywhere, and birch trees, spruces, balsam firs and lots of birch and alders.

Abigail enjoys the Jigg's Dinner

It was starting to get late, so we headed down to explore Rocky Harbor, and get some money exchanged at the bank and do some shopping.   Louise Decker had shown us a flyer for a community fundraiser at a local church called a "Jigg's Dinner", and we wanted to check it out.

We went through a couple of stores and craft shops, and I got some Cloudberry Jelly and Partridge Berry preserves, too, as well as some postcards to send home.    There were sweaters, and mittens and socks, all hand made, and there were a lot of polar fleece jackets and rain gear items that looked like tourist travelers would grab them up when it got cold and foggy outside in all seasons.   Luckily, it was sunny and warm, so we were all set.

Ben chows down!

We headed up to the church, where we saw the signs and the cars!  It was filling up fast, so we went inside and got tickets!   Then we sat down, and saw that Harold Snow, our park ranger friend, was there, with his wife, and lots of other local folks.   Ben sat next to an older woman whose accent was so strong I doubt he understood a quarter of what she was saying!   But she was so kind and sweet and they had a good time!

I sat next to a guy from Nova Scotia who told me stories of the "black flies in Labrador that were so intense that they covered your arm if you rolled down your window to adjust your mirror... your arm would look black and then when you wiped them off, it would be bloody!"

Yeah, really makes me want to go there...  (Maybe after it gets cold?)

When they called my number, we got to go up as a group for plates of home made food that was hearty and flavorful, with all kinds of vegetables, meats, 'puddings' and sauces that really hit the spot after a long day of hiking and driving.   Local preserves, pickles, gravies, everything...   We were all so glad we went!  I was so full I didn't even go up for desert.   The hardest thing was that it was difficult to hear in the large room with so many people having good conversations.  I wanted to hear everything about what these people were saying, and share some time with them.   It was a great feeling.

The boardwalk trail to Baker's Brook Falls

Ranger Harold heard that Nicole and Abigail wanted to go up to Baker's Brook Falls, so he invited us to hike out there with him, to work off the meal.   We met in the parking lot and started off down the trail.   It was a long series of wooden boardwalks, passing over bogs and wetlands, to protect the roots of the trees and plants.   Ranger Harold is tall and has a stride like an elk, moving swiftly and easily in a subtle, kilometer eating gait that left us in the dust a few times.   We passed through areas where the moose had been eating and scraping their antlers, and I was grateful for the momentary breaks where Harold told us stories about the trees and different park issues to catch my breath for the next section of trail.  

The clearings in the northern forests

The trail passed through open areas and was fairly level, across a lightly sloping plain that led us towards the river.   The sunlight was soft and hazy in the evening light, and I stopped for a few pictures every chance I got.   When we got to the river, we took pictures at some of the overlooks, and the water was high and loud.   It was tannic, like most of the waters of Newfoundland, with that deep brown tea color that looked almost black in the fading light.

It is hard to describe what it feels like to actually be standing in this place, with air fresh and moist...

Ranger Harold Snow, Nicole, Abigail, me and Ben
at Baker's Brook Falls

Harold headed us back as quickly as we came, knowing we had many kilometers still to go on our return trip.   As we moved down through the meadows, the clearings of fallen trees, we saw the clear, huge outline of a bull moose, it's antlers jutting upwards against the western sky.  It's shoulders were huge, and it looked ten feet tall.   Everyone was hushed as it moved in our direction, feeding and fearless of our presence.   It was our first close encounter with a moose, and we tried to take pictures but it was too dark to capture the dark haired beast.   We moved on, letting him feed in peace, and saw another, and then another, each in their own clearing, crashing along, smashing small branches with their large hooves and strong legs.

The walk back seemed longer in the deepening gloom, but inside, our hearts were full of an amazing day of great food, great learnings, powerful encounters with stone and animals and waters of this place.   It felt really, really good to head back to camp and crawl into my sleeping bag and slip into a deep, restful sleep.

To Be Continued...