Primitive Arrow Making

Over the weekend of April 25-26 A.K. held its first primitive arrow making class. This class focused on the steps it takes to produce a primitive arrow. The first day was spent harvesting arrow shafts of Viburnum and learning how to straighten them. The process of straightening can be achieved two ways with heat or slowly straightening the shaft over the course of several months. I supplied some already seasoned and straightened shafts that we scraped and sanded to perfection. We Then began the process of grinding our arrowheads out of bone. I introduced the students to a primitive vice, some would call it a glorified clothespin, I call it a skin and knuckle saver. At the end of the day the points were looking great. The second day of the class we spent finishing the bone points, processing sinew, and preparing the feathers for fletching. After the nocks were carved into both ends of the shaft we began the construction. We oiled and fire hardened the completed points and put on their final edge. We then applied the pitch and hafted the point to the shaft with sinew. Once everything was cool we began fletching the arrow. Its always a treat to watch someone make there first arrow. The tedious process of pitch application and fletching is always a bit comical in its difficulty. Once the fletching was done we trimmed our feathers using coals from the fire. The completed arrows were not only beautiful they are deadly. I hope to harvest a deer with mine this season.

Animal Tracking Workshop

On April 18th Ancestral Knowledge hosted its first animal tracking workshop. The workshops was taught along t the Paint Branch Creek in College Park MD. This area is rich with animal diversity and hosts one of the finest sand bars in the area. I spent over 16 hours a week for over 2 years tracking and observing animals and animal behavior in this location, in essence this is were I became a tracker. It was a beautiful day reaching 70 degrees with a light wind from the south. We spent 6 hours tracking 4 different animals. Finding each print and identifying its species. The first trail we followed was a treat, having only seen clear tracks of this animal on 2 occasions in 2 years and never having seen a full clear front track. Today we had the gift of seeing several trails and trail conditions. The first two pictures are of this animals trail and I will leave it to you to try and figure out who it was we were following. As the day progressed the tracking became more and more difficult. The suns angle was changing and they were put on more and more difficult trails to follow. The third trail was along a run where fox traveled back and forth frequently. The trackers had to figure out which trail was connected to the original track I set them on. Track aging was crucial but not impossible to determine which tracks were from the night before and the ones laid that morning. The fox was doing its typical 2 x trot. After a short break to mend our tracker headaches we moved into the wooded area along the creek to look for some good deer tracks to follow. Tracking in leaf litter is a bit more challenging then on sand as you can imagine. After a short walk I found two great trails to follow. These trails taught the trackers a great deal about becoming the animal and seeing through their eyes. One trail was a meandering slow walk as it ate along the way. The other trail was of a cautious deer as it approached a bike path. The trackers quickly learned to expand their awareness to their surroundings to notice the different plants the deer nibbled on and the sight lines that the other deer paused for to check if anyone was coming along the bike trail before crossing. All in all it was a great day and I look forward to sharing the wonders of tracking in the future.

Home School mentoring program

Ancestral Knowledge has been working with home-schooled youth for several years now. We have tried many variations of programs and found that seasonal bimonthly meetings work the best. The 5 hour program is part primitive skills and part naturalist studies. The intent of the program is to broaden the students awareness of their environment and their role with in it. Each skill we teach has a lesson that is larger then the obvious. They are designed to lead the students to discover a new plant, tree, or other skill set to complete the task at hand or will be needed for another. Each participant is given projects that to be worked on between meetings to help create a self motivated passion to learn about the old ways of life while exposing them to experiences that they might never have otherwise. Each season we end with a three day two night camp out. On this adventure in the Shenandoah Mountains the participants put to use the skills that they have been practicing throughout the program. We are very proud of our students and are amazed at how much they want to learn every time we meet with them.