Thursday, March 1, 2018

Short-Tailed Weasels find Fatwood in the Snow at the Yew Street Woods


The Short-tailed Weasels arrived at the Yew Street Woods and immediately started sliding down the top of the water retention dome on a discarded piece of a broken sled. Snowmen were being built and snowballs were flying, which signaled to mentors to circle up for our opening meeting. Reining in the boys’ excitement and silly energy for the snowy exploration ahead, the mentors debriefed our last outing where the STW had struggled to show the necessary focus to prep the wood for a fire before the parents arrived to our potluck and continuously talked over the mentors and derailed the group process.
Setting the intention to improve upon our circle time, general focus, and group decision-making the mentors laid out three rules to help support the group. First to encourage the heart by supporting other group members, being genuine and caring towards one another, helping peers when needed, and keeping each other’s goals in mind. Second, don’t waste anyone’s time (including your own) by taking advantage of what is offered during the outing and listening when needed. Lastly to be here now, which is an Explorers Club motto that demands staying present and mindful during outings and group focused work.
With our three rules in place and agreed upon we headed out and quickly connected with the power line trail. The snow blanketed the forest and highlighted its shapes and contours. The boys pointed out a few dog tracks alongside side the trail and commented on how the snow allowed them to see everything that was moving through the forest. It was truly a beautiful day.
For many of the Short-tailed Weasels the Yew Street Woods are quite literately their own backyard and their knowledge of this landscape and comfort in it shows. As mentors we aim to connect the Explorers with the wild spaces all around their homes in the hopes that they will recognize the value and complexity of even the most “urban” feeling natural spaces and develop a relationship with those places that promotes curiosity, creativity, investigation, agency, and stewardship. Adam and I believe that the Yew Streets Woods holds all of the qualities for these boys and it is powerful to witness.
Turning off the power line trail the boys navigated to the area that they had built shelters in the fall. They were surprised to find the shelters had collapsed. They ventured a guess that it was the weight of the snow that that toppled them, but also thought it could have been from the storms and wind throughout the winter. Earth skills like shelter building not only promote persistence and problem solving, they also help our Explorers recognize the seasonal changes that takes place within the forest.
Only an hour into our Exploration and the temperature had started to warm up and snow had begun to fall from the trees, making a glorious symphony of dripping and whumping sounds throughout the woods. Feeling the need for some calories the boys circled up under a Western Red Cedar and made a plan for the rest of their day.  Our Leader of the Day facilitated an excellent group decision-making process using the Four C’s: circle, collaborate, compromise, and consensus. The boys decided that they wanted to prioritize having free exploration time and an organized snowball fight. The mentors amended their plan adding the skill focus of looking for fatwood fire starters to carve and add to their Earth skills kits.
Locating a logged Douglas Fir stump that was starting to crumbled and deteriorate, the mentors asked the group to pull apart a section of it.  Digging away at it the boys started to notice two very distinct sections of the stump. The first part of the stump crumbled easily in their hands and broke into square-like sections.  This was due to a process called cubical butt rot, which the boys thought was hilarious and was caused by fungus mycelium. The second part of the stump was rock hard and stood vertical in thin knife-like sections.
The mentors explained that this was due to the tree’s response to being cut down. Trees do not die right away after being cut, but respond to being felled as a massive injury, sending loads of pitch from their roots to seal off the top of the stump in an attempt to ward off infection. Try as they might, the tree will eventually die and decomposition leaves sections of stump heavily impregnated with resin. After the cubical butt rot takes it toll on the dead stump it exposes vertical sections of fatwood or pitch impregnated grains in the woods that can be carved into shavings.
This resin-impregnated fatwood contains terpene, the main component of turpentine. It is incredibly flammable and takes flame effortlessly that hardly ever lets up. Because of this, fatwood shavings can be lit with a spark, even when wet, producing a flame that resists the wind and burns much hotter than regular shavings.
After our lesson the boys needed some decompression time and wandering out into the logging clear cuts, exploring what natural history wonders excited them in the moment. Searching out a premium stump we harvested a large chunk of fatwood and got to work processing it. Most of our group was really engaged in the skill and everyone walked away with an emergency fire starter stick.
A few of the boys carved some fatwood shavings off their fire starter sticks and got a tinder bundle together from some jute cordage. Using the mentor’s striker and ferrocerium rod the boys worked persistently to ignite the bundle. The flame they produced burned hot and bright! Nice work Short-tailed Weasels!
The group ended our day with a modified game of Spider’s Web that involved throwing snowballs. Although mentors have often seen snowball fights end in escalation and frustration (and they don’t quite fit our motto and culture of using tools not weapons) they are essential in any snow experience and seemingly satisfy a deeply primordial need for these boys that the mentors could not deny the group.  
The group played with honor by respecting each other and they tried their best not to make any “head shots”. Lively and bonded together the group circled up to give thanks and share apples. What a pleasure it was to share this snowy day with the Short-tailed Weasels. Before heading back to meet the parents the mentors pointed out how the group had held to the commitment of encouraging the heart, not wasting anyone’s time, and being here now and the positive effect it had on our outing.
Our mentors will continue to hold the group to these straightforward commitments in the outings to come and will continue to walk alongside them in support and encouragement as they grow together experientially as individuals and a group.

For more pictures from our outing please visit the Short-tailed Weasels’ photo album from the day.