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"Start being positive. Love, love, and love. Look for the good in others and all things. One must walk through the dark in order to get to the light. The darkness is then transformed to the light and you become the light, the way, and the truth. There is only love, love, and love."
Raymond Reitze from his book And We Shall Cast Rainbows Upon the Land

26 Jan. 2006 -- Our third week together began with a day in which time stood still for some of us. We found ourselves laying on our backs or sitting cross-legged on the yurt floor traveling down a winding wooded forest path, hand-in-hand with an elder. . being welcomed into a circle of more elders, sitting around the fire. . focusing on our breathing, filling our bodies with the fresh air, and exhaling out and up into the trees, the clouds, the streams. . . to the soothing voice of Grandfather Ray. Ray Reitze, a special friend to us, traveled from Canaan, Maine, where he and his wife, Nancy, run a School of Wilderness Living called Earthways, to share with us. . it is difficult to put into words what he shared with us or what we shared with him, but this email would not say much if I didn’t write something. . He shared with us his life growing up on a farm, spending much of his time with a Native who lived behind his house, Grandfather Joe, whom he learned traditional bush skills, as well as spiritual and life lessons. He told us stories, illustrating some of these experiences that he had with Grandfather Joe; let your heart guide the way, put positive energy into everything, take time to connect with the trees, the animals, the water, go forth with a loving nature, and pay attention to what your inner-vision is telling you. As Grandfather hugged us goodbye his stories, energy and lessons left imprints inside each of us, whether it be motivating us up a steep climb at Stratton Mountain, meditating at the foot of a Pine Tree, listening to the inner-vision in a dream, telling a sickness not to invade our body, or bringing ourselves upright on our skis with a smile on our face from a nasty face-plant.

The theme of positive energy and important lessons continued the next morning with Nancy Reitze, who shared with us her knowledge of Herbs for Winter Health. Prevention is the most important thing; a healthy diet, rest, taking time for yourself, and listening to your intuition. Sickness arises from not listening to the imbalances in the body, which might occur in us from letting ourselves become cold, tired, or stressed. We learned about many useful herbs for ailments and injuries that we might come across on the Expedition, such as coughs, sore muscles, upset stomach, burns, ect. . (but hopefully not too much of an "ect") We made Fire Cider, a warming drink with apple cider vinegar, onion, ginger, horseradish, and garlic. Ray and Nancy’s parting words to us were: Respect your elders. . Speak always from your heart. . Listen to your body. . Don’t be afraid to speak up about your feelings. . and always dry your boot liners (even if you think that they’re dry).

From two amazing visitors to four more amazing visitors. . we held the Vermont Semester Alumni Supper (a fancy black tie affair) with special guests Evan Griffith, Saul Blocher, Chris Clarke, and Misha (and I guess Stefan counts too). This night was full of stories of bathroom adventures in the bush, and advice from those who have skied before us. Saul’s words of advice were: If you make it to a layover with days to spare. . spend those extra days on the trail.

As the countdown progresses on our blackboard from nine days. . to seven. . to four. . the butterflies in our stomachs beat harder as our focus becomes sharper on all our various projects. . I glance around the Big Yurt, soaking in the activity: Hans buried in a Vermont Gazetteer, Evan’s eyes going back and forth from menu to menu, Lily helping Andy put the finishing touches on his mukluks, Hannah is threading a needle to complete her mukluks, Tom measuring fabric to make a bag for our Expedition sled, Sarah standing outside the door burning the edges of the fabric on her mukluks, Paul-Ivan is perfecting a pictorial representation of lard on his nutrition main lesson page, Daniel and Lucas preparing "RabaVermont" for supper (and for those M.I.A., Tommy is in the "First-Aid Department" of the barn. . Colin and Stefan are running errands in the "Big Downtown" of Brattleboro). . the table is cluttered with Main Lesson Pages, Group Journal Pages, unfinished mukluks, sandpaper, colored pencils, Immune-boosting tinctures, food menus, thread, and mugs half-filled with tea. Fabric, boxes of trail food, stuff sacks, and rulers cover the floor.

Much of this "clutter" is due to the upcoming Food Pack-out Day, as well as working on our Nutrition Main Lesson Pages. After Katja Swifts’ nutrition talk, Chris lead the group in a different kind of nutrition talk, which focused on the reasons why we chose our food and what it means for us. We went through each meal in our day, examining each food; the origin of the food, the nutritional value of the food, and the social and environmental implications of the food. For example, the milk added to our yogurt culture comes from a local Farm in Putney. The milk is raw, whole, organic, and comes from Jersey cows. Each time we stop by the farm (which is on the way home from a couple other farms that we go to on our "Farm Tour") and fill a five-gallon bucket with milk for yogurt-making, we are saving the waste of buying twenty quart-sized yogurt containers. We are also connecting with the community. . meeting and paying the farmer who has put in such dedicated work to provide communities with nutritious dairy products. Our next Main Lesson Page will be on First-Aid, the newest addition to our lessons being Bones, Joints, and the Spine.

We also have a new addition to our daily schedule: Salt water nasal douching before each meal! This is one of the many points to the "Health Notes", which we developed to heal our sicknesses and to keep us healthy. We are following a strict regime of Vitamin C ingestion, Echinacea-infused herbal teas, drinking lots of water, consuming raw garlic at each meal, adding one hour of sleep to our daily schedule, dressing appropriately, and staying warm. However, we could always use some extra positive energy from all of you to add to the Health Notes.

We are working just as hard outdoors as we are indoors. Mother Snow has also been more active, making the days colder than they had been the past couple of weeks, as well as dusting our paths and trails with snow, providing a couple days of awesome skiing. The Ski Team, composed of Sarah, Ilene, Daniel, and Tommy, practiced downhill and uphill techniques at Stratton Mountain with Stefan, balancing on one ski, then the other. The rest of the group had another art lesson with Margaret, after helping her move woodpiles. This time the focus was sketching animal forms and the human body. The group split again for an afternoon; two people took a rest, Navigators worked with maps, and the rest piled into the Big Red Van, headed for a day of downhill at Stratton. We discovered, however, that there was enough snow that day to ski a more peaceful and fuel-efficient hill, just a few miles away. We skied up Putney Mountain Road, which is unplowed, and up to the summit of Putney Mountain, where we had an amazing view of the Connecticut River Valley and gorgeous blue hills. On the ski down we improved our telemark turns. Sitting in the van, Misha made an eye-opening comment to us; he pointed to the West River and announced, "Hey guys. . look! This is your take-out! This is the exact place where you are going to end your Expedition." Wow. . . what a distant thought. I know that I am going to remember Misha’s comment four months from now, as we haul our boats out of the water. But a lot is going to happen from now to then.

We celebrated the inaugural tent set-up and discovered that we can all sleep inside of it. . . all sixteen of us. . . however, with the stove and a woodpile has yet to be determined. It was a very exciting time for us. . smiling inside our beautiful home, designed and sewn by our hands. We still need to sew the fly and the stovejack.

After a beautiful afternoon of skiing the Putney Trails, we joined Misha, Lynne, Miron, Danya, and Mathias for a delicious supper of spaghetti and salad. After supper we enjoyed a wonderful slide presentation of the Golfman-Boudreau family Expedition down the Rio Grande on a catamaraft. One of the comments that stood out in my mind was when Misha told us that by the end of the month they had entered this amazing place of gratitude and appreciation for each other and for family.

On that note, all of us are looking forward to January 28th, Parent Send-off Day, which commences with a nine o’clock breakfast. We hope that everyone is enjoying a fantastic winter. . staying healthy. . taking time with themselves and with the trees, animals, and streams. . and keeping your boot liners dry!

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