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How to Make Your Own Waterproof Match Case

Flying Deer Nature Center | 2 Boy lighting a Campfire

Here’s a great way to start (or add to) your wilderness survival kit! Simply follow these steps to make an awesome match case!

All About Amphibians

Child Holding Frog | Flying Deer Nature Center

Every year I am ecstatic to hear the first calls from the pond. The frogs and other amphibians emerge from dormancy and get active, making noise in the water, crossing roads, mating, laying egg masses just beneath the surface of the water.

Try this today: Find a body of water near you. Hear anything? See anything? Any masses of eggs in the water? Journal what you find.

Here’s a resource to help with identification.

If you want to take on a project that you will remember forever, consider bringing some eggs home and following these instructions.

Seize the moment! We suddenly have more time than ever. Use it to work on things you want to get good at, things you enjoy and things that will benefit you and your family.

—Josh

Celebrating the Season as a Family

We send our warm greetings to you all. We are missing our times together in the woods and look forward to seeing you all again soon, when it becomes apparent that it is wise to do so. In the meantime, we encourage you to settle in with your family, and enjoy some good quality time with them—including time outdoors if you are able.

This is a great season to celebrate the changes that are happening all around us. This is such a lively time of year for wildlife. So much is happening each day! We encourage you all to get out there and watch, listen, and discover what changes are happening on a day-to-day basis.

Just the other night, I heard a drowsy wood frog croaking it’s first croak of the season …
The turkey vultures are back from their winter vacation …
Male red-winged blackbirds are making a beautiful racket in the marshes here once again as they wait for the females to arrive in their separate flock …
And the willow buds have just begun to pop!

Shelter from the storm

We began our day by twisting up a big jute rope and of course immediately started playing tug of war, trying to lasso each other and testing its strength. Then we played Palm Tag and Bobcat Dodgeball to get our blood pumping and warm up.

Yesterday we focused on two important aspects of survival: fire and water. Today we rounded out our skill set with shelter and food. In our morning block, we hiked up the hill to what one camper referred to as the “shelter learning village.” We explored some existing shelters of various types and some old collapsed or re-purposed ones as well. Then the instructors alerted us to a huge (fictional) blizzard on its way within the hour! We had to work quickly and hard to make a shelter large enough to protect all 20 of us from the coming storm.

Traps, Stealth, and Collaboration

The day dawned cold and crisp but warmed up considerably, gifting us with another gorgeous autumn day. The FOREST group gathered together in the field and expressed our thanks for the day, the land, the people, and all the good things to look forward to. We had a fun circle activity and sat down to snack at the Base Camp.

As we arrived at Base Camp, we took notice of the extent of last week’s storm damage. The high winds had ripped down two large tents and two large tarps! We pulled the downed tarp off the benches and sat down to a friction fire demonstration. Our two teenage counselors expertly demonstrated the bow drill and hand drill kits; they each produced a coal and kindled it to life with the aid of a shredded Cedar bark bundle and a song by the FORESTers!

How to build a Debris Hut

What a wonderful day to spend out on the land, enjoying the wind and sunshine.

During drop-off, Josh demonstrated flint-knapping, which involves striking a hard rock against some chert, effectively breaking off pieces that have a nice sharp edge, which some kids then used to carve pumpkins with. After everyone got there, we gathered up and did a warm-up song and exercise. Then we played a short game and shared some gratitude.

Life and Death in the forest

What an exciting morning: Woolly Bear Race 2019! Racers at the ready, trainers watching and hoping, we all cheered the fuzzy winter predictors up their strings! Some to victory, some to sleep, they all did their best. We stand proud of our unknowing racers and of their kind and caring trainers.

When the race was all over, they were released to sweet mint and dandelion leaves or cared for for the rest of the day and returned to where they were found near home. We settled in for snack and a story: an old Chinese folktale about the value of learning from the forest, our friends, and from folks unlike ourselves.
Now ready for the rest of the day, the FORESTers split into two groups: coal-burning spoons and a camp mancala board to play during free time in one group; and, in the other, carving mallets and throwing sticks.

WILD WAYS ON THE TRAIL

Today was the hike day for the Wild Ways Teen Homeschool group! We got to the trailhead and were surrounded by cows, mooing loudly amid the green grassy fields rolling gently out of the “Hopper”—an enormous mountainous bowl formed on the western flank of Mount Greylock, punctuated by several clear mountain streams.

Acorns and Sit Spots at the cobble

We got lucky again with another stellar autumnal day at the Cobble! We started the day at the nature table with a half-gallon jar full of acorns, making guesses on how many acorns were in the jar. There were three winners with many runner-ups, and it was hard to believe how many acorns were indeed in the jar, a whopping 175! It was also hard to believe that one of us guessed the EXACT amount!

CrAFTING AND TRACKING

This morning at Wild Ways, we had a nice array of intriguing things to check out on the picnic table. Lauren put finishing touches on her new Willow basket and shared the process with students, talking about our beloved Willow and how to tend it in the wild. Everyone is pumped to get an introduction into Willow basketry! We also had out some supplies which we would be working with: walnut dye, honey, hide glue, feathers, fur and more.