Our new canoe
Homes
A little Swallow
has a home:
small holes in steep river banks.
The ant has a home:
little hills deep in the earth.
An owl flew by,
taking himself home to the woods.
A seal is in water for
it’s his home.
My home, earth, sky, water,
a humble home.
Like the ant, owl,
the swallow, and the seal.
(1996)
--Margaret Sam-Cromarty
Hello Everyone,
I (Anna) have taken on the position of Scribe for the spring portion of our trip. Some days ago I had the privilege of meeting many of the families of the people in our group, and, as I assume those families are readers of these updates, I ask you to forgive me if I backtrack over events you may have already heard about or been a part of. I hope to be writing to you once every week until we leave Northwoods – our own little home in the Northeast Kingdom - for our river expedition on the 24th of April.
March 27th was an important day, as it marked the end of our winter Big Jobs. We all hurried to finish our to-do lists before Big Job presentations began. Some of us drew pictures, others of us performed skits or songs, and a few of us gave lists of all the things we had used on the trail, like the amount of butter (80 lbs.) and tape (31 rolls). We also had an unexpected visit by two VT-NH Semester students from last year, Nelly and Daniella, who came and stayed with us for a few days.
The next day we spent in a communications workshop with Nathan Lyczak, Kroka’s Managing Director, which was a welcome chance for us to sit down with everyone in the group and voice appreciations and concerns. It was a valuable opportunity to gain insights into our relationships and how to improve and deepen them. Misha also left us at this time - we will see him next when we paddle Sumner Falls, the white-water section of the Connecticut River. For the next few days we worked on the remaining camp set-up jobs—there is now a cleverly constructed outdoor kitchen in our camp, courtesy of Scott and Erica—and on our new Big Jobs. Mistral and Yarrow are our new Navigators, as well as our new Fire and Camp Managers, respectively. Melody has passed off her old job as Medic to Scott and is now Kitchen and Logistics Manager and Wanigan master. Eliot is the Base Camp Food Manager and will coordinate with Kendra, the new Trail Food Manager, to organize a few stops to farms along the river. Iyla is the Canoe Manager and Paul is the Tools Manager. Ari will be teaching us about hydrology, hydration, and tea as the Water Manager (or as he calls himself, “Aquaman,” or “Tea Master”). Erica is our Photographer. The noble position of Hygiene and Bathroom Manager has been given to Martin, and the newly created job of Cultural Navigator (someone to tell us about the history of the places we paddle through and to dispense general knowledge about our surroundings), together with that of Sewing Manager, has been entrusted to Oliver. Lastly, I am the Scribe.
Chris and Ashira Knapp with their son Owen and their daughter Bonnie Bee arrived late in the evening on the 30th. The next day we all began pounding brown ash logs, the first step in pack basket making. When you pound a log with a hand sledgehammer (or a wooden mallet, the traditional method), the layers between growth rings separate, and each year’s growth loosens and peels off the log in long, strong, flexible strips – a slow, miraculous process. Pack baskets were a highly anticipated craft on the semester, and since we were all very glad to see Chris and his family again, this was a time of rejoicing. There was also time dedicated to group meetings about working through interpersonal conflicts. Having lived together for several months now, there are certain inevitable differences of opinion that arise, and so we are working through them with the help of our lesson in communication. This delicate process is an essential part of living with and caring for each other, and therefore an important and positive experience, strengthening our group and our relationships. In the meantime, we threw ourselves into pounding and stripping ash into material for our baskets. Owen frolicked around us, taking a special liking to Iyla, who seemed entranced by him as well. 
Around this time we had an unconventional nutrition class by Eva Cahill, Scott and Erica’s mother. We listened to her talk about Paracelsus, Plato, the different ways we take in nutrients, and the digestive system, and then we started an ongoing experiment with over ten different kinds of milk. There are now jars of pasteurized, ultra-pasteurized, homogenized, biodynamic, raw, soy, goat, and cow (and varying combinations of the above) milk sitting here on a shelf, just waiting. I will be sure to let you know which ones rot and which ones sour after they have been sitting for 20 days…. The rest of the parents arrived on April 2nd for parent weekend. We had fun before they arrived, decorating camp with a balsam fir bough table, an archway, and humorous signs lining the pathways, made by Yarrow. Up until that day we had been having gray, rainy weather, but it cleared up and we had a beautiful, sunny couple of days. Parent weekend was a whirlwind of activity. Students and their families and friends were treated to a slideshow and presentation by Alexandra Conover, a Maine Guide who has been taking trips and guiding in these areas for many years, and who is a paddle maker as well as a great canoeist. We were busy with ash pounding, potlucks and a contra dance with a French-Canadian twist. We would like to again thank the parents for bringing up so much good food for everyone’s enjoyment.
The parents left and so did the fair weather, making way for the first thunder and lightening storm of the year. Big job work continued; Eliot has made use of an old root cellar that was found for his fresh order of vegetables (200 lbs of mixed roots, 70 lbs of cabbage, and more), Oliver has been seen watching the stars at night, preparing to tell us what he has observed, and Paul has taken on the job of sharpening and organizing the many tools we have for all our projects. We kept working on our pack baskets, nailing the uprights and the bottoms to the skids, and weaving the sides in an upwards spiral. Ashira was a wonderful teacher, telling us to send good thoughts into the baskets as we shaped them, and sharing with us her experiences making baskets in the past. As she said, it was like we were each making a friend. The baskets took shape slowly, some people finishing before Chris and Ashira departed and some still weaving and lashing their rims on when we bid them a sad farewell. On the afternoon of April 6th the Knapp family left and Rollin Thurlow, a master canoe builder from Maine and owner of Northwoods Canoe, joined us to start canoe building.
We are finally making our canoe! It is to be a 15 foot white cedar and canvas tandem canoe. Rollin has been patiently helping us along as we bend the cedar ribs over the canoe form, wetting and steaming them in a box Noah built back at base camp to make them flexible, and then nailing them into place. Rollin has built around 850 canoes in his lifetime, plus about a hundred more for various classes and groups, and is the co-author of the book “The Wood Canvas Canoe” – not your ordinary teacher. He has been on numerous expeditions in the North and listening to his stories has been lovely at mealtimes. After the ribs we shaped the decks, thwarts, and other detailed pieces, and nailed down the planks that go on top of the ribs to give the canoe a solid shell. The whole group went down this morning to lift it off of the form, as it can now miraculously keep its own shape—we were amazed that it already looked like a boat. In the next few days we will be smoothing out the nails on the inside and outside of the planking, using a hammer and clinch iron, putting the thwarts inside, and stretching the canvas over the boat. It feels like a storm is coming, so we have been trying to keep things tied down and in tents while it rains outside. People walk the paths with their pack baskets, proud of their creations, making excuses to carry things around camp so that they can use them. We go in small groups down to the workshop during the day to work on the canoe, and people are always stopping by to see what progress has been made, curious about how it will end up looking. We are settling into a rhythm at Northwoods, getting up at the same time and running and stretching in the mornings. It is wonderful to be able to bathe and wash our clothes in the streams and the pond. The trout lilies we use to spice our salads are sprouting through the blanket of dead leaves on the ground. In the evenings we gather as a group and talk and play music, with the occasional oddball song thrown in by Ari. Melody and Erica showed us their slideshow from last fall’s Ecuador Semester, and Martin, who we are all very glad to see re-enter our group, delighted us with his reflections on his old job as Photographer, which were in the form of limericks. Meanwhile, Yarrow and Mistral have been steadily working on navigation and Kendra has been planning lots of delicious meals for us for the springtime--parts of which we will gather as we paddle down the rivers. Every day brings us closer to our second expedition.
Well wishes,
Anna Soltys Morse
Skiing along through icy snow,
High above the wind does blow,
Sudden elation
But documentation--
I’ve got to take pictures, oh no!
- by Martin Summer, reflecting on his job as Photographer
Chai Tea (for sixteen people), as made by Mistral Louw:
1gallon milk
4 cinnamon sticks
½ cup cardamom pods
1 medium ginger root—finely sliced
1cup loose leaf Assam tea
3 tbsp. peppercorns
2 tbsp. ground cinnamon
1-2 cups sugar (measured by taste)
Boil it all until it becomes strong, dark and spicy; it should simmer for around 30 minutes.
Contradance at NorthWoods
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