practice moving with stealth

With dry crackling leaves underfoot, and muddy spots perfect for tracking, this week get out, practice moving quietly through the landscape, and tune your senses to the animal world.

Below are just two easy & fun ways to practice "fox-walking" and moving quietly and invisibly.

Go outside with someone - start with one person turning their back, while the other attempts to "stalk" up on them and tap them on the shoulder. The "prey" person can raise their hand if they hear the "predator" stalking up on them.

Next, have one person try closing their eyes or lowering their head to "browse", then suddenly open their eyes (or pick up their head) and see if they notice the "predator" moving toward them. Truly stealthy predators move so softly, and are so aware of their prey, that if the deer picks its head up, it won't even see the hunter moving.

News from the Field & Forest

FIRST SNOW!

Heading out with the Dryden after-school program this week, we knew it would be a great day for a fire challenge! With the increased need for heat, the kids started cranking out coals with the friction kits. Soon we had a beautiful fire blazing, and we started coal-burning spoons, bowls, and cups.

At the Belle Sherman Urban Forest Adventures program, the group had an epic hike down to Six-Mile creek. There they nibbled black birch twigs (they taste like wintergreen!), made some rock-paint for face painting, explored fossils in the rocks, looked at different types of wood & leaf shapes, and snacked on Cornellian cherries.

At Youth Nature Awareness Program, our Thursday homeschool program, the Hickory Clan (mostly 6- and 7-year-old's) made a fire in a cold snowy-rain. They had to burn through a string to drop a surprise suspended in the trees! Once the string burned and the bag dropped, they found all the ingredients to make ash-cakes over the coals of their fire, complete with wild autumn olives to sweeten the dough.

Something fun to do this week

With camouflage and costumes on the mind this week, create your own wild face-paint!

We love making face-paint using charcoal, rocks, old brick or pottery fragments we find in the creek, and clay. Choose a “palette” stone, then grind and rub rocks on the stone. You may be amazed by the colors you’ll find hidden in different sedimentary rocks. Paint faces, arms, other rocks, or paper.

Be creative – what animal do you want to be? Afterward, practice your animal forms - fox-walk to a hiding spot, and use your deer-ears to find who's hiding from you.

News from the Field & Forest

This week up at the Environmental Sentinels class at Ithaca College, Tim and Jed taught the students how to use igneous rocks for rock-boiling. In the photo above, they're cooking in a pumpkin!

The students are also carving their own bowdrill kits, as they learn about making friction fires.

Environmental Sentinels, now in its fourth year, was started by Tim Drake, Jed Jordan, and Jason Hamilton. It is a required course for Environmental Studies majors at Ithaca College.

Tim and Jed refer to it as "Primitive Pursuits for college students."

From 3-year-olds to college students and beyond - it's always a good time to put in some "dirt time."

Oh, for a place to sit...

What is a sit-spot?

The sit-spot is an important naturalist routine that we try to layer in to as many of our programs as possible. As instructors, we try to practice it in our own lives. It provides an opportunity to be still and present in a spot in nature, to observe how it changes over time, and a chance to interact with the natural world in a very different way.

Usually, we talk about sitting long enough to reach “baseline,” which is the time when the forest tends to return to the state that it was in before you arrived and set off all those robin and chipmunk alarms. However, when introducing a sit-spot to a youth participant, we want to set the stage for a successful and fun experience.

One way to ease into a sit-spot for younger children is to use the time as a game. Start with them pretending to be a baby fawn that needs to hide quietly while the “coyote” sneaks by. If you, the adult, are the coyote, after you hear them settle into their hiding spot, let them hide for a solid 45 seconds before you prowl past. Next round, maybe you can let them hide even longer. Ask them if they saw or heard anything while they were hiding – you’ll be amazed at the bugs and treasures they find when crouched under a honeysuckle.

Invite them to make the spot special – tie a feather to a tree branch or plant. Ask them what was different about that tree today, or what direction the wind was blowing the feather? Maybe they would like to build a miniature shelter for the gnomes or mice that live around their spot.

Send them on “errands” to their spot – ask them to bring back 3 different leaves from their spot. Or leave a gift - let them hang a bird-feeder, or leave a pile of acorns or apples to see who visits their spot.

For older students, challenge them to stay longer. Maybe they can take a compass and mark the four directions with special items: rocks, feathers, or bones they’ve found. Let them take a craft that occupies their hands, such as cordage or weaving. For more advanced students, you may consider letting them tend their own fire – set a small ring of stones as a parameter for a small fire, so they need to tend it more often and carefully.

Most importantly, be excited with them. Celebrate their discoveries and ponder over their mysteries. The biggest hurdle to overcome is going regularly – encourage perseverance. Better yet – go to your own spot!

I can’t wait to hear the stories!

p.s. Hungry for more? You and your family can join us in taking the Sit-Spot challenge this month!

News from the Field & Forest

Have you ever wondered what we're up to out there? Last week we presented programs to over 300 individuals, ranging in ages from 3 to 18. Here's a brief glimpse of some of some recent Primitive Pursuits forest-dwelling fun...

On Wednesday, Primitive Pursuits joined with Earth Arts and several other outdoor educators to present at the Lehman Alternative Community School fall retreat in the Arnot Forest. Activities included creating and using a solar compass, lost-proofing tricks, friction fire practice, and plenty more.

We have also been teaching four preschool classes each week at Bright Horizons. Last week we made wild grape juice, and this week we are working on making cattail mats with a simple loom.

With our home-learners, the Youth Nature Awareness Program at 4-H Acres, we have started two large projects - a mini long-house, and a cob oven. In the photo above you can see the first layers - stone & wood base, fire-stone, and sand form. We'll be covering the sand with clay, which will harden to be the interior wall of the oven.

During Hunter-Gatherer Days, the two school break days over Columbus Day weekend, we had about 40 students in the woods each day - we built shelters and fires, processed wild foods, made wooden spears with feather fletching, practiced stalking, and played lots of games.

What's coming next?

Stay tuned for more news from the field & forest next week!

Bioluminescence all over

A couple weeks ago I had the delight of spending 4 days on an island off the coast of Maine with some old dear friends, and a whole passel of new ones. The crowd was mostly adults, people who care about the natural world, ready to embrace the chance to enjoy the wonders of creation on this wilderness vacation together.

Despite being surrounded by 9-foot tides, granite boulder cobbled beaches, harbor seals visible on far shores, and interesting birds on the water (who saw the guillemot?) – nothing created such a stir as the announcement Rose made around the campfire one night.

“Have you seen the bioluminescence?”

What?

“You HAVE to go. Take my canoe – just go!”

Thus began the frenzy. In the span of 24 hours, nearly every guest had either paddled a canoe in pitch blackness or simply plunged into the 60-degree water to experience the wonder of it – glowing sparkles that moved with the currents, lighting like fireflies any time the water was disturbed. We were told that they were dinoflagellates, micro-organisms that show themselves during the months of August & September when the conditions are right. But that barely mattered – we were mesmerized and needed to share this phenomenon with everyone on the island.

As soon as each “convert” would leave the water, they would dash off to find someone – anyone- who perchance had not yet seen the magic and glory. “Have you seen the bioluminescence?” became the new greeting in our world of wonders.

*******

This morning I had the delight of leading two groups of preschoolers in the woods for an hour. We sang songs, told a story, and built upon our “nest” shelter. But mostly we explored the woods around us. And, as my co-instructor stated – it was like bioluminescence all over the place.

Every single hole or burrow, red, orange, or green leaf was cause for exclamations and celebration. They would yell to their friends and teachers to share in their discovery and joy. Upon finding a fuzzy white caterpillar, one little girl would not let the group leave until every single person had experienced it. “We found a creature!” one little boy shouted.

Snail-pace crawling to examine a spider web, then lightening-speed dashes to be the first to climb on a stump – we scoured the small woods-plot. In the next moment, they were off again – approaching the world fully expecting to find amazing treasures all around.

After my time with these young ones, I returned to our program office to check emails and answer phone calls. As I kicked off my muddy shoes, I pondered – there was no need to feign enthusiasm or ask the children to share their excitement. Is it in our nature to wonder, and is it in our nature to need to share this wonder in order to fully experience it? What can we learn from these little ones?

Perhaps in our genes or in our cultural memory there exists some need to maintain this balance – each wonder shared before another can be absorbed. What if we lose our ability to experience wonder as we stifle our awe and amazement?

So perhaps community is a tool – a tool to draw you toward wonders and point out fuzzy creatures, but also a tool to extract the wonders from your hands, a container to hold it for you - freeing you to go dive in and find more.

Heidi Bardy lives with her partner in a yurt outside of Ithaca N.Y. and spends many days of the year in the forest getting dirty with children through her work with Primitive Pursuits.

Check out our new slide show!

Danby summer camps look to make local kids healthier and more ecologically aware

From Broader View Weekly on Thursday, May 26, 2011
By Andrew Casler

With the longstanding trend of Americans spending the majority of their time inside, local summer camps are working to increase connectedness with nature among children.

In Danby, there are two environmental education summer programs for children: Primitive Pursuits and Earth Arts. These programs foster tangible connections with nature by teaching wilderness survival techniques, naturalist skills and imparting ecological knowledge.

Brian Fowler said that outdoor education is a way to keep his kids healthy within a world that offers many unhealthy influences – such as video games and television. His four children have attended Primitive Pursuits, and his 9-year-old son, Avery, will be attending summer camp in Danby.

Fowler said he appreciates having the summer camps offered in Danby, and that nature is an essential part to his children’s development. He also said that environmental education has helped his kids maintain interest in outdoor activities.

“So rather than devolving in front of the television they get outside,” Fowler said. “I like knowing that my kids are making friends with other local Danby kids in an environment that I consider to be healthy and beneficial.”

Indeed, similar sentiments have been expressed by American Medical Association studies. According to a 2005 study titled, "Resurrecting Free Play in Young Children: Looking Beyond Fitness and Fatness to Attention, Affiliation and Affect," outdoor play is beneficial for the physical health of children. Time outside also helps children develop traits ranging from creativity and problem solving skills, to increased self-awareness and stress reduction.

Primitive Pursuits Program Coordinator Heidi Bardy said outdoor time helps kids recognize their own connections to animals and people alike, “Whether they’re being taught a skill outside, or even if they’re just out there playing.”

Bardy sees a sense of empathy develop from outside time. She says this affective knowledge develops from caring for nature, “I think [empathy] is immediately transferable into how they relate to other humans beings, which is a piece that is missing from the indoor environment,” Bardy said.

Outdoor learning seems to be a symbiotic relationship. Children who learn outside tend to gain empathetic attitudes, and in return those kids can develop life-long connections to nature and act as stewards who may protect natural lands.

Danby itself is an ecologically important area. Jennings Pond is the site of a major divergence in water flow; one current can be traced north to Cayuga Lake and then eventually into the North Atlantic, and another can be traced south to the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Danby is also a diverse natural area, with wetlands and cattail marshes, mixed forests, resurging unfarmed fields and the home of several sensitive plant species.

According to a 2010 study by The Outdoor Foundation titled, “Outdoor Recreation Participation Report,” outdoor recreation participation among 6 to 12-year olds has slipped since 2006. In 2009 only 62 percent of 6 to 12-year-old children reported participation in outdoor recreation. Conversely, the study found that people who identified as outdoor participants wished to protect undeveloped lands at a greater rate than non-participants.

Earth Arts Lead Mentor Julie Kulik said that connecting kids with nature is an excellent way to get students motivated to protect the environment. She sees her mentees developing into conscientious adults, “We hear through parents that kids will carry these lessons on in their adult lives.” Kulik said, “They carry on that connection to nature and then strive to save it.”

For more information please visit:

Earth Arts

Primitive Pursuits

Primitive Pursuits Family Field Day

Primitive Pursuits host its annual family field day in mid May at 4-H Acres, 418 Lower Creek Road in Ithaca, NY.

The field day offers free workshops for kids and adults that include hands-on activities in wilderness survival, outdoor living and nature awareness. The event is held rain or shine.




Again a big thank you to all of our sponsors and volunteers for helping us make Primitive Pursuits Day this year so phenomenal!

This great field day is owed to the many organizations and individuals who donated their time and skills.

Thank you to our sponsors at Gimme! Coffee, GreenStar, the Ithaca Bakery, McNeil’s Music and Napoli Pizzeria. As well as the highly skilled people at CNY Wildcrafters, Earth Arts, Hawk Circle and Lime Hollow Nature Center. Special thanks to Jeff Gotlieb, Becca Harber, Suzanne Johnson, Jeff Joseph, Linda Spielman and the staff & friends of Primitive Pursuits who volunteered their time to make this event possible.

You can view an additional story about the event in the Ithaca Times, or our laurel in The Ithaca Journal.

Primitive Pursuits is currently gearing up for summer camp season. Please visit our summer camp registration page for more information.Click here!

10th Annual Primitive Pursuits Family Field Day

On May 14, an estimated 400 people gathered at 4-H Acres for our 10th annual family field day.

The event was designed to teach children and adults skills in wilderness survival and outdoor living, while also offering environmental education.

Suzanne Johnson who volunteers at Primitive Pursuits said she values the program because it offers a close connection with nature, more so than hiking. Johnson said she finds hiking "wonderful and beautiful" but sees primitive skills as providing a connection that is "potentially so much deeper."

Andrew Acla brought his son Ammon to the festival after reading about the event in The Ithaca Journal. Acla sees primitive skills as a logical progression of camping adeptness.

Acla said he saw the field day as a a departure from "being so reliant on things that you can walk into the store and buy."

The day's events encouraged participants to strengthen their connection with the natural world. Activities ranged from friction fire making and tomahawk throwing to wild-edible food preparation, forest ecology walks and wilderness games.

"I think Primitive Pursuits Day is awesome because it's a great way for people to be introduced to [primitive skills]," Johnson said.

Primitive Pursuits is currently gearing up for summer camp season. Please visit our summer camp registration page for more information. Click here!

Ammon Acla gets a spark while practicing friction fire making

A Winter Forest Playground Awaits Curious Young Explorers

Let’s go on an adventure! I don’t know where we’re going today but the surprise is worth the wait. Wherever our journey takes us, I know that trees will be patiently awaiting our arrival, creeks will be eagerly flowing to greet us, creatures will leave their tracks behind for us to discover and follow, and there will be SNOW! Crunchy, icy, wet, cold, melting, deep, powdery, packable, crusty, slushy snow! It has blanketed our forest destinations, tucking in all the members of the wooded community.

But we know as we trek through the diverse forms of snow, that not all the forest creatures are asleep. Even though we often can’t catch a glimpse of these carefully silent denizens, we can track their footsteps. On our expedition, we pause and let our curiosity take over as we examine animal tracks, gaze at the towering, naked trees whom we know by name, and listen to the rushing stream or pure silence when the Ice Queen freezes over the water. We turn snow-covered cliff sides into natural slides, play stalking games to understand our animal friends, and create fire solely with the wood of the land and the work of our hands. We don’t follow a predetermined path, but make a trail of our own accord, pursued by our inquisitive minds.

A frozen waterfall at a distance from the trail catches our wandering attention. A less curious mind may not see the inviting journey that the cascade of ice offers. We scurry off the trail to explore this mountain of ice. As we scramble to the top with hands and feet, we peek inside openings in the ice to gain a different perspective of the frozen water. We listen to the trickle of water echo underneath the ice.

Oh look! A willow tree is spotted for making bow drill kits out of its branches. Again we trudge through the snow toward the tree, creating our own path.

There seems to be an alluring force within nature sparking our curiosity and guiding our exploration. The natural wonders of the forest keep pulling us in to unearth their mysteries. Our curious minds are always open to new discoveries from which we can learn. In the same way, I encourage you to create your own journey through the forest. Let your interest in the fascinations of the earth guide your exploration and stimulate your yearning for knowledge.

Katie Power - grew up in Newtown, Connecticut exploring the woods and creeks near her house. Now a student at Ithaca College studying Outdoor Adventure Leadership, she has continued her love for exploration, seeking out new adventures within the woods of Ithaca and surrounding areas.

Interning With Primitive Pursuits

Ever wanted to get a taste of what it’s like to work as an intern with a nature-based education organization? Step into my shoes and join the Primitive Pursuits team on this nonstop journey of learning.

The great benefit of this experience is that I instantly became an active participant…..a learner among the kids, a mentor to my peers and to the kids, a leader of program activities, and a contributor to an organization which encourages my input.

Would you love to work with kids in nature, but have never had the opportunity to learn about primitive technology and aidless survival? Have no fear! I was in the same boat when I first started interning with Primitive Pursuits. One of the best aspects of working here is that I am constantly in a state of active learning; I learn by doing. I then put these skills to use in other scenarios, thereby reinforcing them.

In addition to learning primitive skills, I feel that throughout my time here I have learned more life skills such as leadership, teamwork, community building, risk management, and self-awareness than I do in a typical classroom setting. I may be working at a program with other instructors out in the field one day, and the next day I may be in the office working at the computer. Either way, the skills I master will stay with me for the rest of my life because I am putting them to use by observing, doing, and teaching them.

Katie Power grew up in Newtown, Connecticut exploring the woods and creeks near her house. Now a student at Ithaca College studying Outdoor Adventure Leadership, she has continued her love for exploration, seeking out new adventures withinthe woods of Ithaca and surrounding areas.

Fire & Ice – day 1 (1/17/11)

(photo from 2010)

Today was a day too cold for cameras. It was a day too cold for most electronics, and most people, for that matter. Beginning at 8:30 am somewhere around 0-2 degrees Fahrenheit, and soaring around noon to somewhere close to 20 – I didn’t even bother to bring a camera. So, I sadly have no photos from this day as evidence that it was not too cold for a group of 6 and 7-year olds at Primitive Pursuits. So, below I present to you a couple snapshots of our day.

We started around a huge fire, meeting each other, learning names, talking about the unique adventures and mysteries that a snowy winter day could provide. With snow as our inspiration, we did a tracking game, learning a little about animal foot-patterns and the number of toes that correspond with some of the mammal and bird families

My group (or clan as we sometimes call ourselves) consisted of 8 children, all roughly six or seven. Using only our arms, legs, hands, and heads as tools, we started piling the powdery, grainy snow into a pile. Our goal was to make a pile large enough to hold someone inside. After pushing together piles, the students mastered techniques such as the human bulldozer, and worked together to make the mound larger and larger. The instructors explained that in this cold, you can’t just pack snow and make a snowball. But if you leave a mound like this to set for a while, it will harden and you can then tunnel into it to create a snow shelter. Sure enough, at the end of the afternoon, it was firm enough that several of the students worked on burrowing into it to create an entrance.

As we walked through the woods, a couple kids showed particular interest in the tracks made in the snow. One boy had even brought his own tracking book. He would look up his best guesses, and ask me questions to guess at the measurements. I in turn would ask him questions to get him thinking of other possibilities. He was so excited about finding out who his animal neighbors were – and later when I pointed out another familiar set and asked, “Hey Perrin, who’s this one?” he was proud to be able to show the mouse trail to his clan-mates.

We decided it would be a fun experiment to try to build our camp fire on ice, since the day’s theme was called “Fire & Ice.” We explored a swampy area around the hemlock woods, and the kids settled on a spot that had cool patches of smooth black ice, and a nice hemlock tree with broken-off branches that was perfect for hanging our backpacks. Together we made small log benches to sit on up off the ice, and built our fire together, learning safe ways to add wood to the fire, how to respect fire, and how to choose dry firewood.

After lunch, we played a game where the kids were squirrels, seeking out their last winter food cache. However, the Great-Horned Owl in the woods was about, hungry from building up her nest and preparing to incubate her eggs. As the squirrels searched for their food, the Owl could either tag them, or be distracted if presented with a really nice “wispy,” - a thin, fine twig (perfect for starting a match fire, if collected in a bundle). This game led to lots of running, hiding, and chatter – and eventually to a cache of hot cocoa, which we cooked on our fire.

In the afternoon, we met up with the other clan to play an epic game – a favorite Primitive Pursuits tradition. This one involved building up two fires and then protecting them from the opposing team trying to throw snow at the fire.

Here is one last snapshot I want to leave with you - and it is also what I carry away from my day with the most joy. One Primitive Pursuits routine is to take some time each day to feel thankful. Today we closed our day to mittens clapping to our “thank you” song, where anyone is invited to say a word of what they are thankful for from the day. Our collected words of thanks were: snow, fire, ice, games, sticks, trees, hickory nuts - to name just a few. Usually once this song begins, it starts a gratitude avalanche, and we need to stop just because somewhere (just beyond the woods) there are parents ready to pick up their kids, and probably wondering if they survived the coldest day of the year.

So I close here with my last thank you – to all you parents for supporting us in the work that we do, for taking the time to pack extra socks and mittens (we used them!)and for giving us this great blessing of being out there with your children.

Primitive Pursuits Field Protocols

What to do when you’re lost in the woods



1. Take a moment to just breathe –
Realizing that you’re lost is stressful and unsettling. So do whatever you need to do to relax for just a minute… do some stretches, make a poem about the scary looking tree. This moment alone could be all you need to get un-lost, but if you’re still lost:


2. Asses the hazards –
OK you’re lost but how bad is it really? Are you injured? How far have you traveled since you last knew where you were? Does anybody know where you went? How long till someone starts noticing your absence? What do you have with you? What are the true dangers? Are there cliffs, etc? The basic idea hear is - don’t make it worse, take advantage of what is going right.

3. Come to your senses –
Use all of your senses. If you have managed to calm down a bit then perhaps simply “tuning in” might help the situation. Do you hear and recognizable distant sounds such as traffic, people, machinery? Do you see any familiar landmarks such as streams, hiking trails or distant hills that may guide you? Do you feel warm or cold? Going through all of your sense can be relaxing as well as informative.


4. Make observations from multiple perspectives –
Once you’re relatively calm and utilizing your senses start thinking in terms of “Near & Far”. What does the landscape look like around you? What is the terrain like? Look at the contours of the land both close by and far away. Is the sun visible? Can you determine which way you came from?


5. Make a decision –
Consciously choose what you are going to do only after relaxing and making a thorough set of observations. The basic rule of thumb is that you should simply stay put, but there are sometimes good reasons for not doing so. This is a good time to consider one basic fact: if you leave the spot where you are you will likely walk in circles and you may become more lost.


If you stay:

• Make your self more visible – Light a fire, make lots of noise, pick an open and/ or elevated location (it’s not a good time to fall out of a tree).

• Respond to rescuers –Many lost people become fearful to the point of hiding from rescuers. Between making noises, be sure to stop and listen hard.

• Take care of your self – Seek out natural shelters, stay hydrated, use the tools and resources you have and forgive yourself for being a modern human.

If you keep moving:

• Stay Present – Continue to assess the situation & use all your senses. This is the time to play back all the time you’ve heard someone say “Stay calm! Everyone just stay calm…” and then to follow that advice. Breathe. Listen. Go slow.

• Be intentional – Do not wander aimlessly. If you can not get back to the place where you first realized that you were lost then you’ll be in serious danger of becoming “more lost”.

• Know when to stop – If you are no longer feeling well, if you are getting too cold or are otherwise unable to make decisions based on good observations then it may be time to take care of your basic needs: warmth and hydration. You can do this much better by staying put and focusing on resources.


Aidless Navigation Tools


A critical fact to consider is that in uniform terrains people tend to travel in circles when they are lost. This is not very helpful when you are trying to get somewhere, but knowing this will allow you to do something different.


Tool number 1: “Sight lining” - or How to walk in a straight line
If you can line up three objects in the landscape then you can walk in a straight line. Simply walk to the second object, glance back to the first and ahead to the third then pick a new object to walk to that is in line with both. If you continue this leap frog exercise then you will be going in a straight line and not walking in circles. In locations such as Tompkins County where wilderness areas are rather small, walking in a straight line will get you to civilization relatively soon.


Tool number 2: “Song lining”
This tool can be most helpful if you practice it before you are lost, but it works the same either way. The principal is to create a story or “song” that uses natural objects and features in the landscape as the characters. Begin by choosing a unique feature in the landscape that you could easily recognize (from any angle) when you see it again. Head off in the direction you desire to go but before losing sight of your chosen object pick another one to string along in your story. The more personal you make these objects (“Uncle Bob’s big hairy toe”) the easier it will be to remember the story as you go. Add a familiar melody, and repeat as you go.


Tool number 3: Build a sun compass
If the sun is shining and you have shadows to play with give this a try. Put a straight stick in the ground and take note of where its shadow is cast. Mark the tip of the shadow where it falls on the ground with another stick. Over the course of the next 15 minutes to an hour, the original shadow will move far enough for you to mark it’s tip several more times. If you connect the points that you have marked you will have something close to a straight line moving west to east. You can now determine which way is north and south by simply making a perpendicular line to the points you have marked. And now you have a compass!


For many more tools or a chance to intentionally get lost (with a guide) give us a call or shoot us an email.
primitivepursuits@cornell.edu

Dirt Love

For many children (and adults) one of the biggest barriers to stepping outside and starting a relationship with nature is a fear of getting dirty. We are taught to wash our hands, and rightly so – but sometimes our concern to avoid germs leads to a near phobia of real good, clean dirt.

If you want your child to develop a love for the natural world, to see beauty and life in the wild backyard, you may first need to break down some barriers of discomfort. One of the best ways to do this is to start with small positive experiences around getting dirty. Below are some activities you could do with a child of any age – just be careful not to push the tentative child too far – better to end on a good note after a brief encounter.

Start by simply going outside. Take a walk on a nature trail. Try to make it fun, and let your own enthusiasm shine. Do you love birds? Let your wonder soar, but be mindful not to overload your young hiking companion with information that may bore him/her. Point things out, and eventually you’ll find something that also inspires their wonder. Maybe it will start as a question, “I wonder what made the hole in that tree?” If you find anything that sparks their interest, explore with them. And don’t be afraid if you can’t answer the questions.

If you find a muddy spot, look for tracks. Where do you see toes, claws, shoe prints? Lean in close to the mud to take a better look. Now, walk through it yourself and observe your own tracks together. There is a hidden message here, and it’s going to start seeping in – dirt is okay. Just the act of role modeling touching dirt will be very profound.

The next step is to find a way to comfortably navigate your way OFF the trail. The fall is a great time to wander – maybe you can find a rotten log to turn over, looking for bugs or salamanders? Getting your hands dirty in rotten logs may still be uncomfortable for some kids, but the life forms found under rocks and logs are so intriguing, that maybe they’ll momentarily forget. They’ll get their hands a little dirty, and this is dirt that brushes off easily. Good gateway dirt! Remember to show respect for the creatures you find, to carefully replace their homes, and to thank them for letting you visit.

Are your hands dirty yet? Good! See if you can keep the adventure going without a trip back to clean up.

Another activity I love is playing with clay. Find a natural deposit as you wander along a creek or stream. It’s such a fun tactile sensation to explore the way you can shape clay – make balls, cubes, snakes, turtles, the Parthenon – whatever you can imagine. The important thing here is that it is now becoming a fun, positive experience to get dirty.

As you wander along the creek bed, find a large, flat rock. This is now your palette. Find different rocks and experiment with rubbing them on the rock to create “rock paint.” You can use this to paint other rocks, your hands & arms, or for the child that is now really embracing the beauty of clean dirt, it is a great face paint!

Our lives depend on dirt. The soil and organisms that inhabit it create the foundation of our ecosystem, a place for plants and trees to grow, which we need for food, shelter, and even the air we breathe. Create time in your day today to appreciate dirt, and share it with someone you love!


Heidi Bardy- Lives with her partner in a yurt outside of Ithaca N.Y. and spends many days of the year in the forest getting dirty with children through her work with Primitive Pursuits, a local non-profit organization.

I am kneeling low on the ground

I am kneeling low on the ground, palms up in front of me, the backs of my hands touching the ground. My face is inches from the forest floor, and I am waiting. Rustling in the dry leaves to my right, I see a line of feet – sneakers, brightly colored rubber boots, gym shoes, and hiking boots. The children, elementary school students, are lined up, quietly and anxiously awaiting their turn to step on my open hands.

How did we get here?

Fox walking, we sometimes say, is the act of stepping lightly on the earth. I teach this skill as an essential wilderness skill – equal in importance to learning wild plants or tracking. We go over the basic logistics of it: relaxed and balanced stance, laying a soft foot on the ground starting with the little toe, rolling to big toe, then setting the heel and whole foot against the ground before shifting your weight. Simple and elegant, yet there is so much more to it than that. Asking them to relax their eyes, and expand their peripheral vision (owl eyes), I tell them to imagine they are stepping on someone’s face – the face of the earth. Can we soften our steps, and quiet our minds enough to actually leave lighter tracks?

As a test, I offer to let each of them walk on my hands. Which brings me to where we started: kneeling low on the earth, hands open, ready, and waiting. I tell them that I trust them, and that I know they won’t hurt me.

I notice several patterns in their steps: some step stiff and awkward, yet the soft earth still cushions my hands. Some fully press on my hands, and I feel the gentle roll from toes to heel on my palms and fingertips. Some, however, are afraid to commit – they lay a foot on one of my hands, then quickly hop to the next foot so their weight never fully lands on me.

I realize another thing: after this brief lesson, they trust me more. It is as if my willingness to trust them, this most simple vulnerability of hands on feet, has somehow won a little bit of their trust.

So my question to them, to each of us is: which are you? The earth is open to us all, palms up and ready to accept our awkward footsteps. Are you striding blindly forward, and ignoring what she is willing to teach? Are you stepping carefully, no matter how awkward and unbalanced, but at least trying to feel her face through your boots? Or, if after seeing her laid out before you, are you so afraid to make a mistake or hurt her, that you will not let yourself fully step in?

How do we move from a place of fear, to a place of exploration? I told them I trusted them, and to you I say the same. I knew they wouldn’t hurt me because they were walking out from a place of intention. As you leave this page, you are now walking out with intention. Walk in awareness and you will know which steps you need to take. You will know where to lighten up, where to step higher, where to stop and listen quietly.

So, I welcome you on this journey. Walk with me. Or, when the time comes, kneel down, put your face near the earth, and lay your palms open upward. We have so much to learn together.

Ahh... summer.

Just a few fleeting glances of the joy of green....

The Story of a Great American Tree

The below article was written by Akiva Silver, Primitive Pursuits educator, and is being published by the May 6th "Broader View."

The American chestnut might have been the greatest tree to ever live on this earth. It lived up and down the Appalachian range and throughout New York State (excluding the Adirondacks). The chestnuts of the old days grew to over 150 feet tall; they were called the “redwoods of the east.” Great pillars of life, these trees were highly valued for their wood and enormous crops of chestnuts.

Chestnut wood is rot resistant, light, and easy to work. It was used for everything from building barns and houses to fence posts and furniture. The nuts were another story. Not only did they benefit humans, entire populations of animals came to rely on the dependable annual crops. It was said that in an old grove of American chestnuts the forest floor would be ‘knee deep in nuts’ every fall. I did not believe this until I saw a photograph of two loggers standing in front of one of these giant trees. It is hard to believe that they were not redwoods or sequoias.

In old time Appalachia selling chestnuts was a guaranteed income bonus every autumn. The streets of New York City were busy roasting and selling the nuts. Everything changed suddenly- in the early 1900s the trees started dying. People watched in horror and astonishment as four billion trees died in a 20 year span. A disease called chestnut blight accidentally introduced from China spread like a fire that could not be put out. Lumbermen salvage logged every chestnut tree they could, ignoring the possible presence of disease resistant trees.

No one gathered nuts for roasting. Countless turkeys, deer, bears, raccoons, squirrels, crows, etc. were devastated. Huge white tree skeletons stood from Maine to Georgia. Chestnut had been the dominant tree of Appalachia, in the heart of its range, comprising 70% of the forest. The loss of the American chestnut tree is considered by many biologists to be the biggest ecological catastrophe in human history.

Many people gathered any seeds they could find and began the great breeding project that continues today. Disease resistant trees became the holy grail of American chestnut growers. Some cross-bred American and Chinese chestnuts to create this tree, while others focused on pure American species. People have been trying everything imaginable to save this tree, including radiating nuts and genetic engineering. To this day a chestnut tree that is immune to the blight and is able to reach the forest canopy is still being sought after. Growing American chestnuts takes place at research stations, in our local wild forests, and in backyards.

I recently planted 18 American hybrid chestnuts on my land in Spencer and 25 with a group of kids at 4-H acres with Primitive Pursuits. The money to buy the trees came from donations acquired through the monthly tree walks I lead and from Primitive Pursuits families. The next walk is on May 9^th at 2 pm at Lindsay Parsons Biodiversity Preserve in West Danby. You can come for free or make a $5 donation toward American chestnut restoration. The walks cover tree identification, natural history, edible plants, and survival uses of trees and plants.

Akiva Silver can be reached by email at akivasilver@yahoo.com

Epic adventures with Winter Explorers

At our Winter Explorers homeschool program, we travel to various wild areas around Tompkins County. Here is just a small sample.







Oh, the places we've been! Lick Brook, Shindagin Hollow, Connecticut Hill, and Diane's Crossing, to name just a few...