Join our mailing list:

Updates and News
Volume 2
1/19/2009

Hello Everyone!

First of all I would like to apologize about the incompleteness of the last update. I left out a few very important events. The first took place on Saturday: the chicken slaughtering. We went up to the farmhouse after lunch and observed as Misha stuck a chicken, head down into an upside down roadwork cone. Then he cut off its head with a knife and let it drain into a bucket. We students were given the chance to try slaughtering a chicken, but only a few of us did. Then we put the chickens in hot water and plucked them. After that we brought them back inside and gutted them saving the hearts and gizzards, which we fried and ate for lunch the next day. We now have 12 chickens to use this month in soup and sandwiches.

The other fun event that I completely forgot to include in last week’s update was our second visit to Orchard Hill. On Sunday we were invited to work cutting up a dead apple tree and taking apart a wall in the bakery. We worked all afternoon and were later allowed to use the sauna! We sat in the intense heat and then daringly dashed out into the winter air to jump into the pond, where we had chipped a hole in the ice earlier. We felt surprisingly warm and many people stayed in the water for a while before jumping back out and running to the sauna to warm up again. It was really relaxing and refreshing and I think I speak for all members of the group when I say that it was thoroughly enjoyed.
Ida dehydrating veggies for the trail

Chris, Ashirah and Owen left our community for their home in Maine on Tuesday. Chris will be back for a month on the ski trail and Ashirah will visit us again at North Woods to teach us pack basket making. We will miss them until then and thank them so much for everything they have done for us so far.
This week we completed three new projects: our anoraks, toolboxes and tool belts. Jane Barron, a Maine Guide for 20 years and the owner of a small stitching business, came to show us how to master the sewing machine. As a warm-up project she taught us how to make small stuff sacks. We will use these for small items on the trail like toothbrushes, headlamps, matches, etc. The next class we started on the biggest project: our anoraks, the coats that will protect us from the wind and cold as we ski north in February and March. They are made from light, tan nylon using a pattern that, according to Jane, specifically said it was “not for beginners.” Nevertheless, with Jane’s patient guidance we pushed through and have now all completed our coats, adding touches like stripes of cloth or designs to make the coats our own.

Miron and Ari sewing their anorak

Ken Gagnon came to work with us on our toolboxes. We worked on these boxes in pairs, planing, notching boards and then gluing them together and adding a plywood bottom. We added handles and burnt designs on the sides, then finished them with two coats of Shellac. On Saturday they were filled with tools and thus initiated into the Kroka community. We hope that they will serve Kroka well long after we leave.

The last project we completed this week was our tool belts. We went to the home workshop of Russ Bigelow, who has been working with leather for 53 years. Every inch of space in the workshop was covered with leather projects. Belts, feed buckets, bridles and bits lined the walls, ceiling and floor. Big sheets of leather were draped on shelves and over furniture. Over the course of one class we all made our tool belts, leather belts with hammer loops and key rings. We have hung our knife sheathes on them and buckled them around our waists for a winter of use.

Aidan, learning to stop with a snowplow	Hagay, flying down the Kroka Hill

Sunday night we went to dinner at the home of Bill White and Katie Schwerin, the owners of the Badger Balm Company. We ate a lovely dinner of curry and rice and then sang with Katie and listened to Bill tell the story of “The Samurai and the Tea Master.” We had a great time and want to thank them very much for sharing their home, food and company with us.

Today we went for a ski through the woods with Misha to meet the school group from Kimberton, PA

Nelly is admiring the beautiful Quinzy the Kimberton 7th and 8th graders built!

A couple inches of new powder and lovely weather made for an incredible ski. During lunch we were visited by Charlie Strickland, a Marlow native, who was involved in subduing the Great Marlow Fire in 1941, when he was in high school. The most powerful message he conveyed to us was the way a community can stick together, and how those bonds are tightened through hardship and helping each other.

The big yurt is bustling with activity tonight. Sewing machines buzz, pens scratch across paper; scissors snip and dishes clatter in the sink. Occasionally some melody rises above the noise for a moment before it recedes into silent concentration: “My soul was new when I came out of the wilderness…” Outside clouds cover the moon and stars. It is time now to slip away to our respective dwellings where we hope our stoves will still be running, crawl into our warm sleeping bags and sing ourselves off to sleep.
Good night!

This is Nelly, the scribe.

Back to top