Earth Living Skills
Wilderness & Primitive Skills Course
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We invite you to join us at True Nature Wilderness School for a week of primitive living skills, natural crafts, outdoor survival training and nature awareness. This 7-day course offers participants a hands-on experience in wilderness living skills such as: Traditional hide tanning, primitive trapping, foraging of wild edibles, natural cooking techniques, fashioning of stone knives, friction fire methods, hunting with primitive tools, and stalking exercises for hunting of small and large game. Our land is nestled within the Grand Staircase National Monument, one of the largest wilderness areas in the country, inhabiting both desert-canyon and mountain life. |
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Earth Skills Course Topics:
☼ Natural Tool-making: Make friction fires by methods of fire plow and hand-drill using wood from bee plant, yucca, sagebrush, cottonwood root, clematis, or sagebrush; use stones to make knives; sew pouches from hides that you tan in the traditional method; use nettle or dogbane fiber to make ropes and cordage; scrape gourd bowls and carve out wooden spoons for dishware
☼ Edible & Medicinal Plants: Ethical gathering and preparation of wild edibles and medicinal plants (infusions, teas, poultices).
☼ Trapping and Hunting: Atlatl demonstration, construction and discussion; small game with primitive traps, deadfalls and snares; setting and placement of traps; stalking exercises; how to flourish in a survival situation.
☼ Nature Awareness: Moving, stalking, sense meditation; learn how to use your senses to notice more, how to have more wildlife encounters, how to move silently through the forest, how to smell flowers, and how to slow down to find a real connection with the natural environment; responsible plant and animal harvesting and care-taking ethics.
☼ Variety of Cooking Skills: Primitive cooking, rock boiling steam pit, cooking directly over coals, clay pot cooking; food processing and game processing; hide processing.
☼ Shelters: Creating warm sleep without a tent and sleeping bag using local materials; Debris beds; Primitive survival shelters; material and location choosing, safe construction principles.
☼ Edible & Medicinal Plants: Ethical gathering and preparation of wild edibles and medicinal plants (infusions, teas, poultices).
☼ Trapping and Hunting: Atlatl demonstration, construction and discussion; small game with primitive traps, deadfalls and snares; setting and placement of traps; stalking exercises; how to flourish in a survival situation.
☼ Nature Awareness: Moving, stalking, sense meditation; learn how to use your senses to notice more, how to have more wildlife encounters, how to move silently through the forest, how to smell flowers, and how to slow down to find a real connection with the natural environment; responsible plant and animal harvesting and care-taking ethics.
☼ Variety of Cooking Skills: Primitive cooking, rock boiling steam pit, cooking directly over coals, clay pot cooking; food processing and game processing; hide processing.
☼ Shelters: Creating warm sleep without a tent and sleeping bag using local materials; Debris beds; Primitive survival shelters; material and location choosing, safe construction principles.
Throughout the days, we'll explore how to use natural materials to construct a variety of tools for our basic needs, and learn how to live comfortably in the wild.
There is no requirement of previous experience with primitive skills in order to apply for this course. We welcome all participants who seek a wilderness excursion, aiming to increase their knowledge of traditional earth living skills.
There is no requirement of previous experience with primitive skills in order to apply for this course. We welcome all participants who seek a wilderness excursion, aiming to increase their knowledge of traditional earth living skills.
Earth Living Skills - Guides:
Matt Graham
Survival & Traditional Living Skills Instructor
Matt was a climber and began studying primitive skills at age 17 in Yosemite Valley. At 20 he was doing search and rescue as a tracker in Sequoia while running and learning to travel the backcountry with no food or gear. Not owning a car, he travelled all over California and parts of Arizona on foot. At 23, he ran the length of California on the Pacific Crest Trail (1750 miles) in 58 days, a record at the time.
Matt moved to Boulder at age 24 and started guiding and teaching at Boulder Outdoor Survival School, teaching all the hunter/gatherer courses. Primitive hunting and living off the land became his passion. Three years ago, he walked off into the wilderness on the Winter Solstice and returned on the Summer Solstice. Living with the land for 6 months, Matt has been on many primitive walks and led about 50 hunter/gatherer courses ranging 4 to 33 days.
He has been a consultant for “Survivor Man” and many other TV productions, was featured in "Wilderness Way" Magazine, "Trail Runner" Magazine, and is a leader in his field.
Survival & Traditional Living Skills Instructor
Matt was a climber and began studying primitive skills at age 17 in Yosemite Valley. At 20 he was doing search and rescue as a tracker in Sequoia while running and learning to travel the backcountry with no food or gear. Not owning a car, he travelled all over California and parts of Arizona on foot. At 23, he ran the length of California on the Pacific Crest Trail (1750 miles) in 58 days, a record at the time.
Matt moved to Boulder at age 24 and started guiding and teaching at Boulder Outdoor Survival School, teaching all the hunter/gatherer courses. Primitive hunting and living off the land became his passion. Three years ago, he walked off into the wilderness on the Winter Solstice and returned on the Summer Solstice. Living with the land for 6 months, Matt has been on many primitive walks and led about 50 hunter/gatherer courses ranging 4 to 33 days.
He has been a consultant for “Survivor Man” and many other TV productions, was featured in "Wilderness Way" Magazine, "Trail Runner" Magazine, and is a leader in his field.
Kirsten Rechnitz
Survival & Traditional Living Skills Instructor
Kirsten is a veteran of the wild. For the past ten years, she has led outdoor trips and explored ecosystems in over 30 different countries.
Her work began at Vanderbilt University, where she led trips through the Smoky Mountains while a student of political science and anthropology.
Her academic and outdoors work led her to study the people and cultures throughout the world who use natural materials to sustain their lives.
Kirsten believes the best way to study a people is through hands on experience of living the way they do. Her specialization in desert survival and the traditional living skills of Native Americans has included a month long solo expedition in the desert, where she sustained herself with friction fire, spear fishing, trapping, wild edibles, hunting and natural debris shelters. She has continued to develop her skills in teaching as primitive lifestyles have become not only a lifelong passion but a preferred way of living.
Survival & Traditional Living Skills Instructor
Kirsten is a veteran of the wild. For the past ten years, she has led outdoor trips and explored ecosystems in over 30 different countries.
Her work began at Vanderbilt University, where she led trips through the Smoky Mountains while a student of political science and anthropology.
Her academic and outdoors work led her to study the people and cultures throughout the world who use natural materials to sustain their lives.
Kirsten believes the best way to study a people is through hands on experience of living the way they do. Her specialization in desert survival and the traditional living skills of Native Americans has included a month long solo expedition in the desert, where she sustained herself with friction fire, spear fishing, trapping, wild edibles, hunting and natural debris shelters. She has continued to develop her skills in teaching as primitive lifestyles have become not only a lifelong passion but a preferred way of living.
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