Posted by Tony Deis on Jun 23, 2009 in Village Life
Today our families can lead disparate lives. There's no regalia, no code of arms or crests to represent honor to ourselves and our children. There's rarely a breadth of shared history and oral tradition that stands with a timeless hearth. The other day I noted to a colleague that Trackers is decidedly secular. You won't find an overwhelming tone of cultural or spiritual beliefs at our programs. You will find great skills meant to inform the legacy and hearth of your own family and community. At least that's the theory. Yet I have to admit something, Trackers does have a culture. We do hold a set of values pertaining to havens of cultivation for healthy lands and families.
I'm realizing more and more, that is the stead of my family and Trackers is the crest. My village is a growing clan of wool wearing environmental educators, grumpy old germans (my dad's side), wacky Italians (my mom's side), eclectic burning man artists, ol' sailors, DIY masters, fine craftspeople, eloquent artists and much more. There's a culture evolving at Trackers. Something that exceeds the "business" aspect of what we do, transmuting into even greater accountability. But it needs to happen naturally. As visionaries, individuals and leaders we do not create a culture. Instead we tend to our relationships and what this care yields becomes our families' legacy.
Class roll...
1 year Permaculture Design Certification Portland, Oregon, 1 day a week for 9 months Permaculture is more than gardening. It reshapes all our relationships with land and people. Instructors include Toby Hemenway, Marisha Auerbach and Leonard Barret. You spend a year with Permaculture's best for the Pacific Northwest. You become the council of one of the most hands on permaculture courses ever to take place. Apply soon, application deadlines approaching. Learn more or apply online
Make your own 10th century German Shoes Design and craft a pair of 10th century thin-soled german shoes. Under the expert tutelage of immersion instructor Jason Craban, you learn an exceptional level of craftsmanship and make a pair of rocking cool shoes. Learn more or register online
Posted by Tony Deis on May 30, 2009 in Raising Kids
My mother was oldest of 4 children. Born in 1945 she was the one that had to follow my Italian grandfather to the produce stand every day after school, on weekends and in the summer. "I hated it at the time," she said about the hustle and bustle of the once infamous Yamhill market in Portland. As a teenager she began to realize her sisters were missing out. She experienced the buzz of a lively city, buying direclty from farmers on "Produce Row" and the graciousness of my grandfather, often giving food when someone could not afford to pay. Now she fondly remembers the time she spent with her father, Tony Rinella, as incredibly eloquent and defining for her life. Today my mother is practically a saint as she gives her days to watch children for young working families. A-lot people beyond my sisters and I think of Louise Deis as "Mom."
So many of us worry so much about whether or not a cadre of activities is enriching for our children, we often forget how simply contributing to our families contributes to character. With my grandfather and my mother this was not simply "take your child to work day". This was about survival for the family. For thousands (even millions of years) that was what human children were: fully and completely responsible for feeding the village. Now that has dramatically changed. Now responsibility is only a lesson and no longer a reality. I challenge that the lesson may not be fully learned without "actual need" beating at its heart. How can we change this? Lets all think about it, go pick some salmonberries with our kids and come back with some answers.
Let's do real stuff Little House in the Big Valley camp and much more at a TrackersKIDS summer. Find them all here...
Posted by Trackers NW on May 22, 2009 in Permaculture
An overview of Trackers 1 year Permaculture Immersion course...
Perhaps the first of it’s kind, the Trackers Permaculture Immersion is a 9-month, one day-a-week, urban-focused Permaculture Design Certification course with extensive hands-on training opportunities.
Core curriculum will be taught by internationally sought-after permaculture educator Toby Hemenway (author Gaia’s Garden, www.patternliteracy.com), Cascadian permaculture goddess Marisha Auerbach (www.herbnwisdom.com), designer Leonard Barrett (www.barrettecological.com), and several other local permaculture teachers. Guest lectures will be delivered by some of the regions most outstanding thinkers in ecological design and related fields.
Course Curriculum will Include:
-A Strong Emphasis on Strategies for Urban Permaculture
-Basic Tracking, Nature Awareness, and Observation
-Permaculture Principles and Strategies
-Edible Landscaping
-Design for Urban Revitalization
-Regenerative Business Models and Strategies
-Local Economics
-Site Analysis and Documentation
-Design Methodologies
-Co-Housing, Eco-Villages and other Collaborative Living Models
-Design for Water, Energy, and Food Systems
-And More....
What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is a design philosophy for creating regenerative human habitats. Utilizing principles of ecology, permaculture can be used to develop greater-than-sustainable systems that meet human needs for food, water, shelter, and other goods and services, in a way that leaves the earth healthier for all future generations.
Learn more about or apply for the permaculture course at TrackersTEAMS
Radio interview on Buffalo Butchering...
Our buffalo butchering and primitive skills instructor, Andrew Pinger does a radio interview with Beyond50 Radio. He talks about the value of taking responsibility for your own food and his life as a primitive skills practitioner.
Listen Andrew's interview...
Posted by Tony Deis on May 21, 2009 in Raising Kids
What is your relationship to the land you live. Is it a commodity you pay mortgage on? Is it a friend or a member of the family? These questions are very important to the children in our lives. They don't see the yards and neighborhoods we live as simply "where our house sits". Spider webs, weird bugs and trees to climb are etched into the ever evolving tale of growing up. They develop empathy only a few feet from the back door and even further into the forest and wasteland lots. Functionally, to them, this land becomes a character encompassing many other characters. They hold a wordless rapport with the topography and its denizens. You can't and don't need to decipher the whispered reality of these subtle relationships. All you need to know is that because of it, your entire family's interaction with the place you live is quietly noted and eventually informs the worldview of your child. So ask yourself, do I treat the land I live with respect? Do we care for it as a member of our family?
Class roll...
6-8 years old Summer Camps Only a few spaces left in the new groups for June 15-19: Lost Island Adventure, June 22-26: School of Magic and July 6-10: Welcome to Middle Earth. Learn more or register here...
Posted by Tony Deis on May 14, 2009 in Raising Kids
I grew up in an Italian family. A big one. My identity is wrapped up in mia familia. Here are 5 thoughts that could help strengthen those bonds so important to all of us...
1) Make a family recipe book. Simply ask everyone, including Uncle Earl, for their favorite recipe. If you're food snob, don't be so quick to judge; include Aunt Sofie's popcorn balls in spite of that. Then take it to the printer, adding a cover with a photo or drawing of Great Grandma's house. My family did it. It was called the Rinella Family Cookbook. Perhaps one day we'll release it under TrackersSTUDIOS. If you don't have the extended family around, do one better, make it a neighborhood cookbook.
2) Dig the slides up and have a real slideshow. Someone has to have a slide projector lying around. Remember that "click" as the carousel turned. You hopefully didn't
throw the slides out when you digitized them (I know my dad didn't, he
keeps everything). The kids will wonder what the heck is up and I will
also bet you that they'll love it. Make them pull out the sleeping bags
and have the show on the patio on a summer evening.
3) Go fishing. I seem to put this in all my blogs lately. What can I say, its great advice.Especially for the kids and parents. If you head East, stop at Joe's doughnuts in Sandy, OR.
4) Learn to harvest mushrooms. Again, this was a staple for good Italian families. Find a skilled teacher then look for the easy and safest ones: boletes, chanterelles and oysters. Can kids do this? With the right fungi and education, yes! Check out these awesome resources: the incredible book All the Rain Promises and More and a TED talk by Paul Stamets (fungus is awesome). Mushroom hunting is an adventurous day in the
woods. Just be sure to lost proof your kids with simple navigation
techniques. Demand a Trackers "family day" so we can help that lost
proofing happen.
5) Have weekly dinners with the extended family and neighborhood. Make it a potluck featuring those cookbook recipes. Eventually when you release version 2 of the cookbook people will be sick of the popcorn balls and they will move onto something that will please us food snobs. Did I write that out loud?
Class roll...
Nature of the Village September 6-12
Another opportunity to join the TrackersNW family. Learn and trade skills as humans were meant to, as a collaborative, celebratory village. TrackersNW instructors will be key in delivering the skills they are most passionate about: nature awareness, bushcraft, permaculture, traditional cooking and much more. The price per family member is also very cost effective. Especially for a camp out, at an awesome cabin, on the edge of the Bull Run.
Register or learn more about Nature of the Village
Summer Camps Still some room but not much. Camps are filling very fast. We want to see your family there. Register soon.
Clarification from last week's post...
I noted that our lead instructors are fingerprinted and background checked. I wanted to tell parents our intern staff is also fingerprinted and background checked. You can be assured that everyone we hire to work with kids at Trackers is thoroughly reviewed to see if they are perfect fit and best match to work with your family. Please contact Tony (me), with any questions:
503-453-3038, tony@trackersnw.com
Posted by Tony Deis on May 14, 2009 in Village Life
10 simple things you can do the improve your village's relationship to the land.
1) Go fishing every other week during the summer. For every fish you catch, promise to put 2 back in its place. Don't worry, you'll find a way.
2) Gather spring greens: nettles, dandelions and other "weeds". Come back to that patch year after year. See how your harvesting affects it and help make it more abundant.
3) Make your own clothes. Ask Grandma or Grandpa how to sew. Use repurposed fabric (from ol' clothes). Turn it into high fashion (or a least try to). The latter piece is important so that you want to create more when people give you compliments. Action does not exist in an human vacuum and everyone wants to be appreciated. Here's a class to make scrap leather shoes with Jason Craban
4) Make cider this year from all the feral apple trees in your neighborhood and around town.
5) Ride your bike for all these great expeditions during the summer.
6) Get chickens or a goat for your backyard.
7) Go hunting (with a hand made bow if possible). This one will cause controversy with some folks. It is not intended to offend. From my experience hunting asks you to see and feel the land in an entirely different way. I have taught tracking to people for many years and when one of them goes hunting the relationship with deer completely changes. They seem... well, sewn together.
8) Bring friends along on these bike excursions. Every time.
9) Try to only buy local then organic foods. The farmers market is a good source. If you need to do a CSA (becoming a member of a farm) I also recommend shares at Fawnwood Farms
10) Come to our wild or local foods potlucks. Plus hold your own (and invite me). The key is for the food to be both wild and local, so no one feels left out be they a hunter-gatherer or aquarian farmer. Our next potluck is May 17 (this Sunday)
Class roll...
Free taster days, May 16 or 17
Come learn the skills we teach either May 16 (for new folks) or May 17 (for folks that have been before).
Learn more
Wild & local foods potluck May 17, 6:30-10:30
Bring something harvested from the greenspaces, the garden or the farmer's market.Come dressed to the nigh's but with barefeet, mocs or boots. Good ol' Frank and Mr. Tony Bennett will jazz us through the evening. And the new TrackersHQ will get the inaugural party it deserves.
RSVP by emailing Tony at tony@trackersnw.com
Butcher a buffalo and sausage making, May 30-31
Consider well before taking this class. We are here to show intense respect and value for the animals who's life we are taking. If its the right fit for you, then you will help skin and butcher a fully grown American Bison. Then you will make sausage by traditional means the next day.
Read more or register for the buffalo butchering
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