Wolf Journey Class at the Urban Longhouse

Classes take place monthly on Mondays from 4-6 pm for kids and youth, and at 7-9 pm for adults and teens. Classes are taught by Chris Chisholm, who founded Wolf Camp in Bellingham in 1997. Everyone can attend on a class-by-class basis for $15 (and $10 for additional family members), or for $10 per class if pre-registered for the remainder of the season.

The topic and itinerary may change based on the "finds" that we all bring this week. For instance, if you harvested a plant that you need help processing and which we can all learn something from, let Chris or Kim know in advance so we can prepare for that. Otherwise, here's what we have in store:

6:45 Orientation for New Students (if you're late, please understand that we may choose to answer your questions later via phone/email which may have already been covered earlier).

7:00 Based on the philosophy that when sharing around the campfire in the olden days, we would also be working with our hands to create tools and materials needed in the coming seasons, students will receive instruction to work on a craft such as making rope from raffia, cedar bark, or nettle stalks, or perhaps making a medicine pouch from scraps of leather. This is also a chance for continuing students to show new students the skills they've learned in the past (as teaching others really makes us learn the skills better:) while also giving us a chance to meet one another.

7:10 Once everyone has gotten going on their craft, Chris will share his/her study site experience, which this week is from http://www.wolfcollege.com/wolfjourney/Book1Chapter01.html - Field Exercise 005 Celebrating Your New Study Site. We may then divide into groups if necessary, based on experience, progress on Wolf Journey field exercises, and group size so that everyone gets a chance to share about their own nature experience from the week.

7:20 Students will then have the chance to introduce themselves and share any experiences or insights from nature which took place over the previous week or month. Historically, this has been where many people experience their greatest learning, either from telling their own story and therefore processing what happened at their study site, or by receiving feedback from others who have experienced something similar in the past.

7:40 Those who are done sharing about their nature experiences will take this time to add to our Interactive Earth Skills Calendar which is designed to display when certain things happen in our bioregion. For instance, when did the Indian Plum bud and bloom this spring? When did the Western Red Cedar produce pollen cones? When did the Chinook Salmon start spawning in the streams? When did we have our first frost at sea level? When did we plant and harvest various crops in our garden?

7:50 Chris will get everyone back together and help to summarize what is happening out there in nature. We'll put the finishing touches on our Interactive Earth Skills Calendar, and also prepare to add what we may notice outside during the second hour of class. Chris will give an overview of what the second hour of class will hold, and assistant instructors will again divide us into groups if necessary in order to facilitate learning.

8:00 The second hour of class is designed to advance our understanding of a specific earth skills topic. For instance, we may review http://wolfcollege.com/wolfjourney/essays/plants.html or introduce Botany in a Day, which is a wonderful way to learn plant identification through taxonomy.

8:30 We'll review http://www.wolfcollege.com/wolfjourney/Book1Chapter03.html exercises as we walk to our group study site, where there may be more wild edible plants we can directly sample.

9:00 We'll have a final discussion on where to make our class study site, and head home with the knowledge that we can survive any time of year from the resources of the land.

See you on Monday, March 8th!