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PROGRAM NEWS
PADDLING NEWS
By Misha Golfman
This coming summer,Wild World of White Water students
will make paddles again. Younger students will work with
softer cedar, while older students will work with harder
ash. Hugh Landis is making work benches for camp.
Thanks Hugh!
Students of Paddlers Up North will begin their journey by
making custom helmets from fiberglass and epoxy resin.
Students will put final touches on their work by sewing the
helmet harness and decorating their head pieces.
All paddling students will enjoy two new awesome solo
canoes: Spark and Zoom. Solo canoeing classes will become
a regular part of both Wild World and Paddlers Up North.
WILDERNESS LIVING NEWS BUCKSKIN PRODUCTION
AND MOCCASIN MAKING
By Chris Knapp
This coming summer, students of several Kroka programs
will sew their own moccasins from hand tanned buckskin.
There is nothing like running through the woods in a pair of
homemade, tight fitting, featherweight moccasins.
How will this all come about? Last hunting season I
bought 16 raw deer hides from a custom butcher. This winter
I am working hard to transform raw hides with meat and
hair still on them into soft fuzzy buckskins. I will then sew a
complete line of moccasins with a pattern for each size so
students can try on a pair, just like at the shoe store, then
sew their own. The difference is that unlike at the shoe store,
where footwear is often the product of third world factories
and cheap labor, our shoes are made of local leather tanned
with vegetable oils. The moccasin project will help us to
walk softly both in the woods and on the planet.We will be
making moccasins in Caves and Waterfalls, Coastal Sea
Kayaking, Expedition Pre-Columbus, and Coming Of Age
For Young Women.Walk Softly!
EXPEDITION PRE-COLUMBUS NEWS
By Ashirah Knapp
Last summer’s trip was a big success.We waded through
swamps, navigated the Lye Brook Wilderness with a map
and compass, and plastered our friend Andy with mud on
the banks of the Battenkill River.We encountered obstacles
such as stinging nettles (just eat them!) and forgetting to
pack the bowls (we made birchbark ones!) So how could
this trip get any better?
Our plan for the summer of 2005 is to strike out into
uncharted territory.We will hopefully connect the hiking
portion of the journey with the canoeing portion by making
our way over a trail-less mountain and down to the river.
Other new parts will be “carrying coals” from our morning’s
fire to our evening’s fire, thereby saving some work on the
bowdrill, going on a nighttime “foxwalk” without flashlights,
and continuing to explore the animal, plant and bug world
for tasty snacks.
COMING OF AGE FOR YOUNG WOMEN NEWS
We have a beautiful campsite on a lake and miles of
mountain wilderness to be our home. During the program
we will relive a life our women ancestors lived, tanning hides,
collecting wild plants for food, and creating rituals around
being a woman. This trip is new each year as each year a new
group of young women choose to meet their lives with
strength and joy.
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