Stick Snowshoe Discovery and Sausage Roast

March 29, 11am till you go home

This has been an incredibly long cold winter, (the coldest in 35 years!); therefore making snowshoes at this time of year is still appropriate. The snow is deep in the bush, so knowing how to make a quick pair of snowshoes could be a life or death situation. We will discover this process, by putting our collective skills together to create functional snowshoes.

Its also fun to wear your own eclectic pair of snowshoes! You will go home with a pair of bush-worthy snowshoes.

Lunch will be sausages roasted over a fire.

Things to Bring:

• knife
• sausages
• buns
• condiments
• cheese

Please RSVP to rachelsbuckskins@hotmail.com

Spruce Beer Making

May 11

We will enjoy the fruits of our labor. Making syrup involves boiling down the sap 40 to 1.  So their is an intense boil off period. This can take anywhere between 8 and 24 hours.  We are experimenting on the small scale, so we can expect at least a days worth. The Spruce beer recipe is an ancient one, so we're looking forward to seeing how that turns out.

Things to bring:

• food and drink, and lots of it
• firewood
• mason jars, for finished product. 

Please RSVP to rachelsbuckskins@hotmail.com

pic from woodtrekker.blogspot.com

Spruce Tapping

April 13 11am till you go home

We are being hopeful that the sap will have started to run.  If not, the taps need to be made regardless. When the sap is running, spring is on its way, whew!! Sap is a source of great vitality and has been used many different ways.  We would like to explore syrup and beer.  Those who participate will also take turns checking and emptying the buckets over the course of the syrup season, which is about a month.

Things to Bring:

• knife
• twine
• empty 4L milk jugs or other large containers. 
• snack lunch
• warm clothes 

Please RSVP to rachelsbuckskins@hotmail.com

Edible and Medicinal Plant Study

June 29, 2014, 11am-3pm

Interested in learning about the plants in your bio-region, and what they can do for you? Then this plant study is for you. We will draw on our collective knowledge to learn about the flora, as well as spend time with the plants, allowing them to teach us a thing or two.

To Bring:
Books: field guides, botany, herbology
Paper and pen
Camera
Packed lunch
Water
Appropriate outdoor clothing

Please RSVP to rachelsbuckskins@hotmail.com

Camping

July 11-13 2014

If you enjoy camping in a group, than this trip is for you.  We are picking a place in BC on crown land, by lots of water, roughly a 3 hour drive from Canmore/Banff.  The goal is to have fun in the sun!!  Our primitive skills practice will come naturally. 

To Bring:
Bring what you need for camping.  Everyone is self-sufficient. We will do some co-ordinating with food including a collective supper closer to the date. Car pooling will also be arraigned closer to departure time. 

Please RSVP to rachelsbuckskins@hotmail.com

Annual Rendezvous 2014

August 15-17

The purpose of the annual rendezvous, aside from socializing, is to live as closely to nature as possible.  So much of our time will be spent learning and practicing ancient skills.  We will sustainably use the resources around us, so as a result, will be camping in a FLUZ (Forestry Land Use Zone). 

To Bring:
Ideally, we would just bring ourselves, with the intention of living 100% off the land, but our reality is that we still need modern inventions to aid in our daily living.  We also live in a very harsh climate, so it is impractical to live a hunter/gatherer lifestyle. So...
Bring anything you normally would for camping, with the intention of sleeping in your own shelter, and under natural coverings. As long as there is no fire ban at that time, cooking will be done over a fire, using natural methods.  We will pull the frying pan out if we have to though:)  We will collaborate on food closer to the date and carpooling can be arranged. 

Please RSVP to rachelsbuckskins@hotmail.com

pic from albertacommunityprofiles.com