We had such an adventurous day last Saturday! It was so nice to spend time in the woods with the adults simultaneously in the Awakening Wild program. Although we didn’t sneak up on them this week, you never know about next month. 😉
We started our day with laughter and a big game of banana tag—a game where everyone is It and nothing in the game has to do with bananas, haha! We followed the game with morning circle, in which we expressed gratitude to the land, and then wandered up to our camp ready for a busy day.
With the diligent efforts of many wood-gathering explorers, we began to collect firewood to both boil sap and boil ash water. When the fire was built and ablaze, we enjoyed snack and a lesson on basswood bark retting. The ash water boil was for the process of retting the basswood fibers for cordage. By boiling the bark and inner bark of the basswood fibers, you can separate the inner bark fibers in under three hours; this process take two months if you just leave them soaking in water.
But first, we needed the sap from the trees we tapped last month. So we split up and sent a group out to collect sap buckets down by Grandmother Maple. When this group came back from collecting two full gallons of maple sap, the fire was ready for the sap and to boil the bark.
While the sap began to boil, the sap collectors joined the fire tenders and basswood bark shavers at camp. Each explorer using a knife learned about ASTABS, Flying Deer’s knife-safety acronym. Soon enough the pot of boiling ash water was filled with bark by diligent shavers. The sap was getting sweeter, wood was continuously collected by the explorers, and it was about time to eat our lunches and enjoy the sweet, warm maple sap.
We followed our double boil with a few rounds of Eagle Eye, a hiding game where the eagle closes its eyes and all the other animals scatter and hide, making sure they can see the eagle but the eagle can’t see them. The eagle closes its eyes again and again, counting down for less and less time as the animals try to hide closer and closer for added challenge.
At our next meeting, we’ll be watching for signs of the changing season.