The Short-tailed Weasels Explore Together at N. Galbraith

Plenty of energy today!

The Short-tailed Weasels had their final outing of the season at N. Galbraith trailhead. It was a small group of STWs today; even with an explorer joining us from another group we were only seven total!  We found out that many of our fellow STWs were not able to join us on this outing because they were at home resting and trying to kick seasonal colds. So, we were low in number but high in spirit as we struck out into the forest on this cold December day with plenty of energy and excitement for what our day held in store.

After a brief opening circle (we had to keep moving to stay warm!), we headed straight into the woods.  After winding our way through chest high sword ferns and towering Douglas fir, western red cedar and big leaf maple trees we came to a neat looking spot to take a break and have a bite to eat.  While we were having our snack, we noticed that someone had built two earth shelters here.  We learned that these people were actually another explorers club groups and we took some time to notice the merits and shortcomings of each shelter.  They were certainly well built and sturdy, but a bit to big for our liking.  They also did not have the required three feet (!) of debris on top in order to keep us warm and dry if we had to spend a night inside.

Comfort testing a debris hut

The STWs then channeled their focused decision making energy from the last outing and decided that they wanted to play spiders web and then travel further up the hill to a spot where they could all practice carving.  These boys have played many games of spiders web together so we let them set up the game all on their own.  The mentors simply joined in the fun when it was time to start!

Flies waiting for the wave

After two games of spiders web that included some great work by the spider and some long distance and patient sneaking on the part of the flies, we packed up our bags and headed up the gravel road into an interesting landscape.

We found ourselves walking through a clear cut section of forest. We were headed into this area to harvest wood that we will use next season for making a bowl (Art of Carving II is our skills focus in the spring).  We knew that, being a clear cut, this area would have plenty of wood that was already cut down so we knew we would not be negatively impacting the forest elsewhere.

Clear cut at N. Galbraith

Some of us wondered why the forest needed to be clear cut like this.  We learned that this forest was being cleared to make room for a new housing development.  We had a discussion about this and felt empathy for the plants and animals that had to lose their homes to make way for our homes.  As animals living on this planet, we absolutely have an impact on our Earth.  It is up to us what kind of an impact we will have and how severe that impact is. Many of us had not considered that our homes were built at least in part from trees and that our neighborhoods were previously forests.  This clear cut helped us visualize and deepen our understanding of the impact that we have on our Earth as humans.

Our small group for the day!

We trudged our way up through the clear cut on a logging road and eventually found snow! This was a welcome surprise and we had a (surprisingly) civil snowball fight. Here we searched the piles of dead trees for suitable piece of wood from which to carve a bowl next spring.  Some of us were quite interested in this project and got to practice using a folding saw.  Others were not (Challenge by Choice) and instead honed their sneaking and searching skills playing round after round of Eagle Eye.

Snowball fight!

Harvesting big-leaf maple for our bowls that we will carve in the spring!

We met in a circle of thanks to close not only our outing at N. Galbraith but also our fall season.  We took some extra time in closing circle to look forward to our spring season.  Our earth focus for this fall was Art of Carving, and while we did get to practice with our knives, we agreed as a group that we could benefit from more focused carving time so next season our earth skills focus will be Art of Carving II.  Thank you Short-tailed Weasels and families for a great fall season and we look forward for our winter outing and then another full season in the spring!

To see the rest of the photos from today, click here.