We seem to have come almost to the end. Besides the obvious sadness this will bring, it also is an opportunity to start again, do something differently when we move on to wherever we are going. Right now we could all go almost anywhere.
So! We continued putting on the poles, laying them against the sides of the frame. We did have to get more but they were newly harvested and peeled so easily that they could have been done without a draw-knife; it was very satisfying. Finally, after a lot of patching here and there and some work on the chimney it was time to lay the vinyl (an old billboard, actually) on top. Over that we lay sod like bricks in a step pattern, covering all of the plastic. The clean up and small adjustments took the longest, and while all of this was going on Melody, Martin, Paul, and Erica finished up work on the door and window. Etched into the frames are suns and mountains. Iyla organized and worked on the stone patio. We lay boughs inside and sat and looked up at our lodge when it was finished. I think everyone is very proud of having built it in so short a time, and thankful to the weather for cooperating for the first time in the five months we have been here (we have joked that our slogan should be ‘NHVTSP 2010: rained in the winter, snowed in the spring’). We finished on the 29th. Thank you all for the lodge. Thank you Ken for all your hard work—all the best of luck on your garden.
Other than the lodge we have been working a lot on academics and reflecting on everything that we have done. The 2010 Semester Book will be full of the pages we are writing and drawing, including recipes, over 90 of the songs we have sung, copied by Melody, instructions for the crafts we have done, musings on our crafts and experiences, and big job reports. We all took a trip to Orchard Hill, stacked wood, and helped Noah the baker do a test run for his weekly pizza nights (and ate a lot of pizza, as you can imagine). Noah’s father Anton Elbers sat with us and talked about the flood that had happened in the October of 2005, what he personally experienced and what he heard from other people later on--an important story about local history. We also smoked the hides we had finished tanning on the river and even learned a bit about bark tanning from Nate, Oliver taking on the project from him for the few days he has been gone for. After the lodge was done we began making moccasins (better late than never). Throughout all of this we have had some truly magnificent meals, especially a few made by Mistral and by Eliot who have become experts in the outdoor kitchen. 
The teachers and staff for the summer have started to filter in, many of them whom we know. It is so good to see friends everywhere we go. We are just finishing up working on our new presentation, thanks especially to Kendra with her theatre experience and to Ari with his enthusiastic harmonica playing, and, after a brief hiatus due to sickness, Scott has come back to be our drummer. Graduation is very close, but we are living in the present, and I for one am pretending that it is not.
Nate and Anne, who have been here throughout these five months and who have seen us at our collective worst and best, and who have done everything they could have to help us be as good as we can be, are two of the most wonderful teachers I have had (a sentiment I feel sure is shared by the rest of the group). In the days still to come we hope to dance, build a sweat lodge with Grandfather, finish our moccasins, and generally have the best last week we can possibly manage to have.
Thanks for your continued interest in our adventures, and goodbye
--Anna Soltys Morse
A few reflections on the time spent here:
“In the day to day life of being on the trail or busy learning and building, I often forgot everything but the task at hand and have only discovered now that I have grown stronger and more resilient in the process. I hope that I will be able to carry these qualities into the larger world as well as the ability to work hard and live according to high standards.” {Mistral}
“I want to be what I love so I will never lose it.” {Martin}
“The other day I took a walk in the woods. As I went, I said hi to the yellow birch, an old friend. I knew him, beyond his name, understanding his character. This is one of the things I’m most grateful for on this semester.” {Ari}
“All of us have contributed a piece of our hearts to this experience, and now we have a beautiful semester to look back on. Thank You.” {Melody}
“2010 NHVTSP has been an experience. Spending the entire winter living outside was one of the greatest highlights for me. Not only was it a physically challenging semester, but it helped me to work through the challenges of community living. The people I have met have influenced me greatly. I have found a wonderful group of friends who identify with many of the same things I do. I’d like to thank Kroka Expeditions for teaching me to face my future with excitement, determination, and the knowledge that I can succeed.” {Iyla}
“My independence is defined by my experiences and is something I will never lose.” {Scott}
“This semester has been amazing. We have had such fabulous teachers, met such amazing people and learned so many new things. It has been an eye opener to the power we have over ourselves and over our destiny.” {Paul}
“Being at Kroka has really opened up the future for me, mostly by making me not think about it.” {Eliot}
“What is the Vermont semester? It is a space and time of learning, hard work, joy, laughter, tears, community, curiosity, consciousness, silence, chickadees, beaver ponds, water, fir pitch, calluses, listening, change.
As the last week draws near I find myself reflecting on the changes I have gone through in these last five months. I am still Erica and I am short and stocky with brown hair and blue eyes, but my heart is open and the world is beautiful. I have changed, not so much in what I do, but how, and most importantly, why. I do not become defensive as easily, and things are not so black and white. Every person and situation has its own circumstances and I will work with them when I get there. This last bit is bittersweet and I am loving every minute of it.” {Erica}
“5 months. Woah. 5 months of learning overflowing from my head, in between the covers of my journal and in my hands…and that’s just 5 months.” {Kendra}
“Let’s go do some fun things that most people don’t. Let’s tan hides, craft knives, live in simple happiness in the woods. I want you and I to go the extra mile and get up and DO. I want you to feel the joy I felt and I want the two of us to live like we know what we want. Because guess what. You and I do. So let’s do everything. We have all the time there is.” {Oliver}
Grandmother’s Mocassins
Grandmother’s moccasins
were very warm.
They were made from animal hide.
She never wore shoes
from the store.
Her moccasins were beaded
with many flowers
in beautiful colors
of green, yellow and red.
Her moccasins she loved.
When she took walks,
her footprints were round.
Like the warm round sun.
(1991)
-Margaret Sam-Cromarty
