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.
