Nature Awareness School

Course Descriptons

Survival Skills Week

Primitive survival skills allow one to provide for all their physical needs, safely and directly from nature. Understand how to prioritize your efforts in an emergency. Know how to make emergency shelters and permanent homes from natural materials. Find water and make it safe for drinking. This even includes knowing which plants can become a source of water. Make a fire using ancient methods! Learn how native peoples provided food for their families before the invention of the grocery store. Identify, collect, prepare, and eat some wild edible plants. Use fire to make eating utensils, to make glues, to straighten arrows, and to fire-harden bone and wood. Prepare various plant fibers to make rope of any size or length. Make projectile points (arrowheads) and other tools from bone. Primitive hunting weapons will be made and you will gain some proficiency in their use. (NO animals will be hunted or trapped or hurt in any way during class) Learn to read and follow animal tracks!

Nature observation and awareness skills take one beyond the obvious. You will practice a series of skills that will enable you to really see, hear, feel, and observe nature on a much deeper level. Leave this week knowing how to walk silently and undetected through the forest, getting so close to animals that they can be TOUCHED.

Advanced Survival Skills Week

So you have completed the Survival Skills Week and want more! This is the next step. We will practice advanced fire-making using the hand drill. The bow drill will be made using only the materials gathered in the woods, and without the use of knives. We will learn how to make useful tools from stone, including projectile points such as arrowheads. (flint knapping) Advanced hunting weapons such as the Atl Atl and fishing spear will be made and practiced. Traps and snares will be made and demonstrated. (No animals will be harmed or bothered in any way.) Nighttime camouflage and stalking will be practiced to increase ones use of non-visual senses. This is a lot of fun! By the end of the week each student will be living in their own personal shelter, needing only the clothes brought from civilization. One of the highlights enjoyed by all is a two night and one day SOLO ADVENTURE.

Introductory Nature Weekend

Basic wilderness skills such as shelter building, finding or making safe drinking water, and using a bow drill to start a fire will be covered. Some wild edible plants will be shown. Students will learn to move quietly through the woods and also to see and hear on a deeper level. These abilities will greatly increase the number of animals detected and observed on nature walks. Cordage will be made from plant fibers. This class will take a low impact walk to observe nature. Some animal tracks, trails, wild edible plants, and a spectacular view of the Blue Ridge Mountains will be seen.

Wild Edible Plant Weekend

Students will become proficient in identifying wild edible plants, including annuals, biennials, shrubs, vines, and trees. Poisonous plants that look similar to an edible plant will be shown or discussed. Students will learn to identify, collect, prepare, and store plants for food, medicine and health improvement. Students will prepare and enjoy a major wild edible plant gourmet meal with acorn bread, stir fry, fritters, salad and teas, etc. You will leave this class prepared to enjoy a lifetime of responsible foraging.

Tracking Weekend

Tracking is one of the most important naturalist skills, yet one of the least understood. Learning to read animal tracks in the outdoors is like reading the morning newspaper when in town. Gathering useful insights about our animal friends using the art of tracking opens up a whole new way to enjoy nature.

Your tracking and observation skills will take a giant leap forward in just this one weekend. This class has been developed for over 15 years, to pass on the principles of these ancient tracking skills in just one weekend. You will learn gait patterns, print identification, aging methods, soil types, and sign tracking. Then we track various animals over different types of soil and terrain. Students will make a cast of an actual animal print using advanced casting methods. Students may KEEP their animal casts as a souvenir.

In addition to the topics above, we will include some man tracking information/skills. Animal tracking and man tracking skills very much compliment earch other.

Personal Awareness Retreat

Your birthright is to be aware of your inner and outer surroundings. This retreat is a wakeup call to your five physical senses and to your spiritual vision and hearing. You will be led through a series of wake-up exercises, with the beauty and peace of nature as a backdrop. Experience an inner and outer peace when walking through a landscape in silence and expanded vision. Learn to more fully utilize and trust your non-visual senses. Experience the ultimate sound vibration that can open your spiritual senses and bring inner peace to your life. We all have dreams; do you know how to remember yours? Understand how dreams and "waking" dreams can influence and improve your life. Let your dreams help you find more love and happiness.

If you are interested in attending our 3-Day Spiritual Retreat, this weekend will provide you an excellent foundation.

Awareness Week

This week combines an expanded version of both the Personal Awareness Retreat and 3-Day Spiritual Retreat. (These two retreats are described above) This is the perfect week to take for those who want to more fully explore both the natural and spiritual aspects of life. The extra day will allow more time for discussions, walks, personal reflection, and journaling. Having a full six days in the mountains, without the need to go back home after only two days, is very relaxing. Having an uninterrupted week will allow for deeper levels of personal insight! This is definitely a case where the whole IS more than the sum of the parts.

Rather than repeating the specific information about the other two retreats, please review the original information found above. We will do one sweat lodge ceremony as a group. This Awareness Week can be used as a Prerequisite to attend the 3-Day Advanced Spiritual Retreat.

3-Day Spiritual Retreat

This retreat will help you relax and have your own personal spiritual experiences. The purity of nature and some ancient and little known spiritual tools will enable you to reach deeper levels of personal insight. Whatever your religious background, you will learn to look and listen within. Having your own direct experiences with the essence of the creator is the most natural way toward total awareness. We will do one SWEAT LODGE as a group.

3-Day Advanced Spiritual Retreat

If you enjoyed the first spiritual retreat and are ready to go farther on the path of love, then you are invited to join this gathering of souls. Perhaps you will more fully recognize and appreciate the gifts given to you everyday by spirit. These gifts from spirit are gifts of love that can help you in your daily life. A special opportunity will be made available to let spirit help you directly. Perhaps this will "shed light" upon the areas of your life that are keeping you from reaching your personal and spiritual goals. You will also begin to know, on a very personal level, how much help the Creator has always made available to all of us. We will do one sweat lodge as a group.

Spirit Week I & II

There are three different Spirit Weeks. Each is one full week in length and scheduled from late February to early April. The school's log cabins are used for eating, sleeping, and teaching. Upon completion of the first week and after one full year, one may attend Spirit Week II. Those who have attended the 3-Day Advanced Spiritual Retreat will be sent more information.

Spirit Week III

This retreat is held in the log cabins for a small number of selected students.

Spirit Week REUNION

The REUNION is held June 25 - July 3. We conduct this 8-day retreat at the school area, not in the log cabins.

Walk in the Woods  New for 2010!

Come enjoy a five-hour MINI-ADVENTURE! We will take a short hike to a spectacular view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Along the way you will be shown some wild edible plants and animal tracks. Once at the overview, you may relax and enjoy! You may even have a "divine insight" while viewing life from the top of the mountain. Perhaps try something new just for fun; hand feed catfish, pet a goat, go inside a log cabin, eat lunch around a campfire. (Lunch and snacks will be provided.)

Walk in the Woods: May 1, August 28, October 2:  10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  If the school must cancel this class you will receive a full refund.

Warm-ups

Summer warm-up:  August 7 - 8; September 25 - 26