Youth Programs
Girls rite of passage program: A nine month rite-of-passage program where we bring girls ages 10-11 into the woods to meet their wild selves. Each season we will embark on a journey following the format of a different traditional folktale. Throughout this experience, the girls will develop earth-based skills such as animal tracking, fire skills and wild crafts, that are integrated into the story. Along with these skills, we weave in coming of age teachings that are designed to help navigate them through their transition into womanhood. This program runs two Saturdays a month for nine months.
This program begins Fall 2019. More information coming soon.
School Programs: Contact us about offering a nature connection program at your local school!
Adult Programs
Workshops: Our programs are all nature based and are designed to give people the tools to return to a deeper relationship with the earth, themselves and their communities. We offer day, weekend, and five-day classes for adults over 15 years of age. Anyone younger must be accompanied by an adult. Some classes are not suitable for children to attend.
We will begin offering classes 2019. See below description of workshops.
Apprenticeship: Coming soon! An immersive program where you delve into primitive living, cultivate a caretaker relationship with the land, build community skills and activate your own wild awareness.
Apprenticeship program begins in 2020.
Custom Programs: We do custom made programs for both adults and youth. This includes private workshops, guided trips, school programs, birthday party events, etc. Please call to inquire.
Description of Workshops:
Hides and Bones: During this five day course we will guide you through the magical and intense transformation of turning a deer hide into supple buckskin. You will learn the wet-scrape method of tanning using wood ash, eggs, and punkwood to bring the hide through this enchanting process. This method creates the most durable, soft, and sustainable fabric that exists and is both practical AND beautiful. We will also utilize another part of the deer that often goes unused; the bones. We will learn to craft tools, jewelry, fishhooks, and other objects with modern and primitive methods. You can expect to walk away from this course with the knowledge in your heart, and beautiful buckskin and bone craft in your hand.
Earth Living: This course delves into the foundational earth skills of Awareness, Shelter, Water, Fire, and Food. By living these skills for five days, we deepen our relationship to the landscape and connect to our own wildness. After practicing the art of shelter building, we will teach you how gather safe drinking water off the land, make friction fire with a bow drill, and feast on wild edibles. The awareness skills woven through out the week will reawaken your senses and show you how to relate to the forest in a different way. As we hone these skills, we realize all of our needs as human beings can be met directly from the land and each other.
Animal Processing: This weekend course brings us deep into the life, death, life cycle. We will take the life of a goat in a sacred manner, and honor its life by utilizing all parts of it. We will learn all the edible parts of the animal, cordage from the sinew, bone tools from the bones, and make rawhide containers from the skin and much more. No part of the animal will go unused. This course is for folks who want to change their relationship with death, and see the life that lies there.
Fire off the Landscape: This one day intensive fire making workshop will challenge and deepen your relationship to fire. You will learn the skills to make, tend, and create your own fires off the landscape. Carrying coals, carving feather sticks, and experimenting with different types of fire lays are just a few of the activities planned for you. We will introduce various primitive ways of making fire with friction, with an emphasis on Bow Drill. This exciting and adventurous day in the realm of fire will rekindle your own inner fire.
Survive a Night in the Forest: What do you need to survive a night in the forest? In this weekend workshop, we will move beyond the fear-based mindset of survival and begin to see the ways we can rely on the forest for our basic needs. We will have an exciting overnight adventure with an emphasis on shelter and comfort. Other survival topics covered include; lost proofing, securing drinkable water, fire building skills and more.
Wild Fibers Weekend: We will spend the weekend sauntering through the fields getting to know some of the local wild fiber plants. Learn how to process them into rope and thread for spinning and weaving. The entrancing art of the drop spindle and weaving on our own handmade looms will awaken ancient parts of us that remember when our clothes were once wild.
Gift of the Pine Tree: Join us as we spend a day getting to know one of the most abundant trees in this area; the pine tree. We will learn how to utilize all its different parts and develop a deeper appreciation for its existence. Food, water-tight containers, baskets, medicine, and glue are just a few of the ways will we interact with pine during this workshop. This is an intensive crafting day for folks who want a more substantial relationship to this generous tree.
A Wild Feast: As we spend the morning gathering & preparing a variety of local wild foods, we will rekindle a more intimate knowledge of the landscape. We will return and cook up a delicious wild feast to nourish our bodies and celebrate the plants.
Ancient Felting Techniques: During this one-day workshop we will take raw wool and felt it into functional and beautiful clothes. Come learn about wool’s ancient story and felt yourself a hat, mittens, or boot liners. Wet felting, needle-felting techniques will be covered as well as a brief introduction to natural dyeing.
What to expect/gear
Adult One-day, Weekend & Five-day Workshops:
Be prepared to be outside the whole class!
We have campsites in the forest available and a rustic outdoor shower or stream to bathe in. There is an outhouse with a hand washing station and mirror for tick checks. We have an outdoor classroom for instruction in inclement weather. You need to bring your own food, cooking equipment and mess kit. We had an outdoor kitchen with rocket stoves available to cook on and dish washing station.
This is a list of gear to bring to our workshops. Some items are not needed for day workshops.
– Clothing (lots of layers)
– Camping setup (tent/tarp, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, optional mosquito net)
-Bring your own water if you do not feel comfortable drinking from our open spring. (One gallon/day per person will be enough)
– Water bottle
– Bring your own food!
– Cooking equipment and mess kit. Bring a camp stove if you do not wish to use our rocket stoves.
– Journal/Pen (optional)
– Camera (optional)
Facilities-
Our school is located on 50 acres with access to hundreds of surrounding acres in East Blue Hill, ME. The school related buildings on the land consist of an outdoor classroom, an outhouse, outdoor kitchen and soon to be a timber framed workshop building. Come prepared to be outside!
Water: We have an open spring that supplies water for us, all of our animals, and the school programs. It has been tested and is good to drink. If you do not feel comfortable drinking it, please bring your own water. One gallon a day/person will be enough. You can fill up at the Blue Hill library.
Sleeping: We had campsites located in the forest. We do not provide tents, tarps, sleeping bags/pads, or mosquito netting but have extras if you forget.
Kitchen: We have an outdoor kitchen that includes rocket stoves for cooking, a dishwashing station, and basic kitchen equipment. (Pots, pans, spatulas, utensils, mugs, etc. We are always excited to teach people how to use rocket stoves, but feel free to bring your own cookstove if you prefer.
Bathroom: We have composting toilet outhouses with hand washing stations. There are two private streams for bathing.
Barter for Workshops
We offer work trade for classes at $10/hour up to 50% of the cost of the program. This must be completed BEFORE the workshop, but to keep true to our value of these skills being accessible to everyone, we offer scholarships. Please contact us for more information on how to apply for work trade or scholarship. We are trying to do our part of developing a regenerative community here in Blue Hill and expect people to honesty evaluate where they are at financially so that our school can continue to run and support the people who run it. If you do need the work trade option we expect hard workers who are serious about trading their time for our time. We need you to plan ahead, show up on time, work hard, and be focused on the tasks at hand.
Trading and Bartering of certain goods may be put towards cost of workshops. Contact for list of accepted items or to make a proposal.
