Hawk Circle 2.0 continues: The Community Conference Call

Greetings, Everyone, from Hawk Circle and Cherry Valley, where we are enjoying a blustery blast of wet snow in a typical March storm! (Okay, the picture is from a few weeks ago, in the Snowmageddon storm, but you get the idea!)

Trista and I have been thinking of having a free conference call to all interested people to:

1. Update everyone about some of the current Hawk Circle News and Happenings.

2. Speak about some of the current issues of our collective communities and discuss strategies that can begin to build wholeness for ourselves, our families and our communities.

3. Answer Your Questions about Hawk Circle, our camps and any other skills, animal, tracking, awareness or mentoring.

And you can send Trista and myself your questions by email ahead of time, too, so we can all benefit from the questions. I think it would be a good way to stay connected and gain your input on things happening in your communities, your needs, as well as insight gleaned from our collective skills, experience and knowledge.

If you are interested in being part of this call, please send me a note on Facebook or an email Ricardo.J.Sierra@gmail.com.

Thanks for your help and your friendship!

Big Picture: Thinking Like A Hawk

One of my favorite things about hawks is their amazing eyesight. They soar hundreds of feet in the air, riding thermal currents and get the big picture of the land, the animals, the clouds and their tiny prey far below. Their sudden plummeting dives are power and grace in motion.

Metaphorically, I like to think like a hawk, too. I like looking at issues, ideas and situations from high above, seeing connections, obstacles, ope

nings and multiple perspectives. I enjoy thinking from this place not just in the here and now, but also generationally, seeing how the past has influenced our present moment and how our actions or reactions will affect our future. Seven generations is a long time, but many native cultures thought all major decisions in tribal life to include the impact that their actions would have seven generations later. That is a lot of foresight!

It begs the question: Would our current economic, environmental, agricultural, medical, human rights and social issues be different if our community and political leaders thought with this long range perspective?

Seeing like a hawk, and thinking like a native, I know that we are planting seeds for the future. The work we do with youth, with children, with families and adults provide skills and experiences that will sprout, root and grow throughout the lifetime of each individual, and affect their decisions, actions and thoughts. Contact with the natural world, with each other free from electronic clutter, around the campfire, we open up to ourselves in a profound way. Listening, feeling, thinking, imagining- all of these things are part of the experiences at our camps and programs.

When I really get the big picture, when I fly or travel through major cities and across the country, I am humbled by how incredibly immense our world is, and how many people we have in this country alone. Does it matter what we do, then, with our small program and speck of green?

I think it does. Maybe more than ever.

When I started Hawk Circle, in 1989, we were one of the first exclusive camps offering wilderness skills and nature awareness skills to children and youth. There was no internet

then, so it is hard to say we were first, but the number of camps and programs was very small. Now, there are probably several hundred programs out there, in this country, in Europe and Canada, doing work year around, in schools homeschooling groups, at nature centers and mini workshops. This is all in just twenty one years! I know that our tiny movement will continue to grow as the years pass, and we will see the seeds we have planted bear much fruit for our grandchildren... for all children everywhere!

Do you see the big picture in what you do? Do you feel energized by the challenge of creating a better world for our children, or is it sometimes too much to handle? What makes you feel good about being part of the ongoing change?

Feel free to leave a message, and keep soaring on those thermals, people!

Future Seeds for our Kids: Preparing for Climate Change

Cary Fowler: One seed at a time, protecting the future of food | Video on TED.com

If you have any doubt that climate change is happening, know that there are many people who are dedicating their entire lives to help ensure our future for our children and grandchildren. While we don't store seeds, at Hawk Circle, we are preserving skills that our children will need to adapt and thrive in the changes that are to come, and they won't need money, either.

The impact this has on me and our work here is considerable. I am spurred on by their work, and I know our community and staff are fully dedicated to not only teach skills and nature awareness, but also to connect children to nature in a way that can preserve humanity in a powerful way.

Are you Experienced?

No, I am not doing a Jimmy Hendrix post here, people. This is much more important! The topic, in short, is about experience. Skills Experience. Community Experience. Nature Awareness Experience. Gathering Experience, and well, you get the idea.

When I started Hawk Circle, I remember thinking about how important it was to me to include not only the time dedicated to teaching a new skill, such as tipi fire building, or throwing sticks, but practice time. Dedicated, experience building practice. Time for trouble-shooting, problem solving, sharing with each other about what works and what doesn't, as well as time for students to talk to myself or the instructors for help or inspiration.

When I first learned a lot of these skills, I was at the Tracker School, or some other workshop, and time was often of the essence. Meaning there wasn't much time at all. We often spent our time taking notes, talking about skills or techniques, and learning through lecture and white board drawings rather than in the field, feet on the g

round experience. It was more along the lines of 70% Lecture-30% Field Work.

This might not seem that significant, and I am not saying I had a problem with it during my study. I had a lot of previous field experience, using hand tools like hatchets, axes, saws, chisels and more. I already knew how to pitch a tent in the dark, or travel off trail, or work on projects from simple sketches and outlines and make them work.

However, I was an adult at the time of my training and I had grown up in a number of rural areas. I split firewood all summer (by hand) for the winter, as we heated by wood stove, and that was how I learned my trees. It was a great way to learn but it took a long time, too.

Today's average student or camper don't have that breadth of rural living experience, so when they come into a camp or program, often they don't know their knots, trees, or knife carving skills. Their hands aren't used to holding hand tools, or twisting plant fibers into rope or string. This isn't a bad thing, really, it is just something that we have to keep in mind, today more than ever.

I set up Hawk Circle so each program focused on learning that is approximately 80% skills, or direct hands-on learning, and 20% lecture/story/classroom time. This means we might not be able to cover as many skills, but that the skills we do teach, students will leave with a real, working knowledge. Which means they can actually do those skills! (Isn't that the whole point?)

Beyond this post, my question to you is this: What does it take to get experience? Where do you practice? When do you find time to practice, to hone and refine and 'make your own' for fire-making, tracking, carving, or crafting? There are so many things that compete for our attention, for all of those precious specks of sand that pour from the hourglass of our lives!

If you have something that works for you, post and let us know about it. If you don't, and you need help, add that too. Thanks. We are all in this together.....

Looking Back on 2009

It's my last blog post of 2009, and I wanted to share a few highlights from this past year's adventures!

One: The Camp Bonfires.
This year we had some really great bonfires that lit up the night and burned high, sending sparks over twenty feet high into the sky! It was magical and powerful and exciting, and one of my favorite memories of the year.

Two: Gathering Hickory Nuts, Acorns & Autumn Olives.
It was a bumper crop of hickory nuts, which was fantastic because it has been a few years. We had fantastic weather, warm, sunny, with winds blowing the nuts down on our heads and all around us. Javi liked picking up the nuts and husks, which Trista and the Fall Apprentices used for dying yarn. The autumn olives made the most amazing tart jam that is the best wild jam I have ever tasted.

Three: The Nature Fashion Show from Painted Arrow Camp.
The staff and campers created clothing, jewelry, accessories and props out of natural materials (bark, leaves, feathers, plant fibers, wild flowers, cattails and more!). It was awesome!

Four: The Timber Framed Beds.
This fall, the Apprentices here at Hawk Circle made beautiful hand made beds for their rooms, which they crafted using hard wood pegs carved from white ash. The head and foot boards were made with larch and pine, and everyone sanded and carved them carefully to last for decades of use in the farmhouse! Thanks, Joel, Miles, Virginia and Nate!

Meeting all of you is a powerful memory.

Finishing a couple of sets of our timberframed bunk beds for the cabins is another.

What about cooking meat over the fire in the Winter Intensive last January?

All of the school groups and school visits were awesome.

The CROP Afterschool Program partnership with Hawk Circle was a highlight.

Going to Wintergreen Gorge was a highlight.

Teaching many of you to make pegs, chop wood or throw tomahawks was a highlight!

Tracking Bobcats was a highlight, too, and seeing the baby bobcats hunting eastern cottontail rabbits in the brush while bow hunting was totally awesome!

Timberframing in our barn was a highlight, listening to good music and teaching others about carving pine, larch, hemlock and white oak beams.

Seeing my son Javier growing up, learning to read and seeing him change and mature is an ongoing favorite of mine. It hasn't always been easy with all of his special needs, but this year, he hasn't had any big issues or anything. For that, I am always grateful.

As always, I am loving the amazing wildlife, nature, plants and trees, sunrises and sunsets, thunderstorms, snowstorms, flowers, fruits, smells, fresh air, beautiful animals and birds.... man, I could go on and on and on!

Thank you all for your support, encouragement,

friendship and hard work. It is a blessing having all of you in our lives.

Ricardo Sierra & Trista Haggerty
Hawk Circle Wilderness Education

The Hawk Circle Annual Appeal. Just a few days left in 2009!

Well, 2009 is just about in the books, and it has been a good year for us at Hawk Circle. Hard in some ways, but we are still here and we are poised to make 2010 great too, as a year and as a decade, even. There is a lot of work to do, but we are on our way!

I wanted to share a letter that one of our camper parents wrote in support of our work, as part of our annual appeal, etc. Thanks Colleen! We really appreciate your efforts on our behalf, and for the youth and adults too.

Here is the letter:

December 7, 2009 Dear Hawk Circle Family,

There is a place where people, young and old alike, gather around a camp fire. Sometimes they sing, sometimes they talk, often they are silent, feeling the awesome companionship of nature and one another. This is a place where children and teenagers learn to create from the gifts of the wild and adults learn new ways to survive using natural resources that have always been there. Time slows down and thoughts deepen. Senses quicken and lives are set on new paths.

Hawk Circle has been providing quality programming in wilderness education for two decades. They have been working hard to ensure that these experiences are available for children and adults alike. Their small community of mentors is dedicated and committed to creating an environment where students can come and study; to reaffirm the interconnectedness of the human world and the wild world of nature.

My name is Colleen Langdon. My family and I met Ricardo Sierra several years ago when we attended a one day workshop outside of Baltimore. It was a memorable experience for my family. The children made wooden spoons, learned to build a fire, learned about knife safety and listened to Ricardo tell stories about nature. The activities were meaningful, engaging and deeply satisfying to my children. I picked up a camp flyer from Ricardo and knew we’d find our way to Hawk Circle soon. As so often happens, events in our life prevented us from going for several years, however, I knew one day we would find a way there. The summer of 2009 was that time. My two sons were scheduled to attend camp and I came at the last minute when my youngest son asked me if I could come and stay also. Trista graciously allowed me to come and the next thing I knew I was pitching my tent in the Caretaker field. As my sons went off with the counselors, I wandered around the camp. Wandering lasted about five minutes. Why is it so hard to do nothing? I almost felt a sense of panic at not having a purpose. My children’s needs were being met by the camp and I was so used to cultivating busyness. The previous six years had brought plenty of challenges to my family and I had not taken the time to rest and reflect. I was spinning and I felt like I could not find solid ground to stand on.

I was soon comforted and gently rooted by the rhythm of the day that the staff and community create. I had a unique position to see the staff and youth as I was able to weave in and out of various activities from sitting in on a fire circle, to helping out in the kitchen or garden. I was able to observe from many angles the magic that Hawk Circle offers. During my visit I was impressed by the high level of teaching done by the staff. The counselors were passionate men- tors who took the time to teach the students with patience and dedication. They engaged each student yet allowed them space to explore their own abilities. I was amazed at the creativity in which the counselors wove stories throughout their teachings encouraging the students to develop critical thinking and to see the relationships between themselves and all living things.

Hawk Circle intentionally keeps their camps small to insure safety, high quality mentoring, and authentic bonding among campers and staff.

By the end of the first week I noticed that students were excited and more confident. From building a fire and a campsite to tracking and hunting, the students knew the work they were doing was authentic and it showed in how they carried themselves. Engaging in these activities allowed the natural world to come alive in a real way for these students.

Children who immerse themselves in nature have a deeper sense of awe and wonder for the world.


After my experience this summer, I am recommitted to this belief. But not only for children. For all of us. Stepping out of the busy world I had created and into nature awakened in me the power of healing and creativity. One special night, Trista offered a women’s circle that was simple, powerful and transformative. There was a true sense of connectedness to these women I had just met only days ago. There was no false sense of ‘spiritual rightness’, no forced rules of what it is to be sacred. There was only the simple but powerful quality of being embraced.

Without a doubt, Trista Haggerty and Ricardo Sierra have created a special community where they offer a respite from the hectic modern world and a place to rejuvenate and deeply nurture our essential selves. They are incredibly generous, have a well-thought out vision of the future they are creating, and the leadership to move forward.

Please support this awesome work.

After twenty years, Ricardo Sierra continues to pass on his stories of survival, adventure and magic in the wilderness to the ‘eager to learn’ , next generation.A donation to Hawk Circle is an investment in a rich program that offers young and old alike a place to make deep connections to the earth, to one another and to ourselves. Without this connection our future would be truly uncertain.

Your donation will help to insure the protection of the earth and its beauty by supporting our youth in establishing passionate and reverent relationships with the natural world.

If you have also experienced the power of Hawk Circle--its people and its land--please take this opportunity to honor that experience and safeguard it for others. Make an investment, any amount will help, towards the future of Hawk Circle. Please consider a donation to Hawk Circle Wilderness programs this year. Your donation will help fund the education programs that profoundly affect our children, the community and our future. With much love,

Colleen Langdon
Hawk Circle Parent

Hawk Circle Wilderness Education (The Earth Mentoring Institute) is a
501C3, not-for-profit organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible as allowed by law.

Hawk Circle is the kind of place that needs to exist. It is essential for people’s psychic and emotional well-being. If there aren’t institutions that offer this kind of education, we are lost.
---Earth Skills Student


Thanks for reading, and many blessings for you and your families/communities in the new year!

Winter Survival Decoded: The Hawk Circle Winter Intensive

There is a big difference between knowing about how to do something, and actually doing it. Theory vs Experience counts in the wilderness, and no where is this more true than in the winter season. Everything is more intense and when it is 14ºF outside, and you are trying to make a fire, you can feel that the need for that fire is real. Your hunger is more like a growling wolf in your belly, and you know you need food. Energy rich food, too. Water is key, both tea, hot chocolate and clean spring water. Your gear, and your mind and your body is all that comes between you and sure, frozen death.

But one thing that I like to keep in mind is this: As hard as it seems like winter is, all of our ancestors knew how to get through just fine. And aboriginal peoples have been living in extreme environments for thousands of years. Not hundreds. Thousands. Seriously! Isn't that a little comforting?

So, about seven years ago, I put together a course that I tried out on my apprentices and staff, and later evolved into The Hawk Circle Winter Intensive. In it, we put together as many skills of winter earth skills as we could pack, and made it in January, so there would be snow and cold and it would be real! We even put together a little trek to put the skill in action, too.

So, the dates are January 3-16, 2010. What better way to start the new year than by roasting chestnuts by the fire, making winter teas, learning to track winter predators and stay comfortable no matter what the temperature! Join us if you can, because after that, it's time to get ready for maple syrup season, and start timberframing again, too....

One of the things I like about this course is that it is gentle on new winter neophytes. We aren't going to just throw you into the cold without being prepared, and we take it step by step. So you can learn without feeling like you are being pushed too fast, too far, too soon. Which is important. On the other hand, if you want to go further, faster, more intense, we can do that for you too.

Another thing I like about being part of a class like this is the fellowship, the community of students and staff that is formed when we all come together to learn and grow. After all of my years of study of skills and practicing, I know how it feels to work on my skills alone, by myself, and then to experience it in a group, at a class or a circle of good friends. It is one hundred percent different, more fun, amazing, with a group of friends and the learning is just accelerated too. Sometimes it is hard to tell what is more awesome, the class or just cooking great meals and hanging out by the woodstove, enjoying the evening carving crafts and drying meat or making cookies!

Feel free to write or call us for more info. 607-264-3396. And if you aren't up for the winter adventure, have fun in your own way, and enjoy it as best you can. Set up a bird feeder for the winter birds, or catch up on your reading, or get your seeds ready for next year's garden. I know I will be trying to do all of those things too. Have a great winter!