The apprenticeship includes the opportunity to stay on site between April 30th and October 15th and will concentrate on building Earth Living, Awareness, Tracking, Philosophy, and Mentoring skills. The program requires attendance of at least four of our 5 day programs (Tracking, Awareness, Earth Living, and Philosophy), as well as one winter skills program and one of the mentoring weekend programs.
Three weekend courses will be used as instructional labs. Weekly person-to-person or phone interviews regarding practice components and dirt time are also a part of the program. Cost includes these elements and is $2,300.00. There is a 12 person limit. It promises to be an exciting journey! The kick-off is a pot-luck dinner at the Maine Primitive Skills School Augusta campus on March 25th at 6pm. From there we'll meet each other and map out personal interests and what you would like to emphasize during the experience. The 5 five day courses and the dates you plan to attend will also be worked on, and we will schedule your monthly "one on one" time when we can work on skill sets, discuss progress, focus, etc. and weekly phone interviews to encourage and share with you on your journaling and sit areas as well.
Each participant is invited to stay in the dorms during and between classes, provided there is room. Due to the limited infrastructure, only four can stay for more than a week at a time between classes, and we'll attempt to fill that calendar as well during the pot-luck. Apprentices will be able to come early and participate in acorn meetings before classes and also share in the debrief after classes end. This is valuable experience in mentoring technologies and the invisible school. It will also prepare you for your own instructional time in the late summer and fall when you can apply the technologies you've been working on in front of a "live" class.
This experience was designed to preserve the intensity of successful Tracking based programs found in the East while implementing the community building models so successful on the West Coast. The goal is a "best practices" forum where you are challenged, involved, and allowed to develop your own passions in primitive skills. All of this is designed to awaken connections to the landscape and increase your proficiency in the "hard" and "soft" skills of our ancestors. There are parts that are tough. We believe without the struggle of getting your first coal with a hand drill, or the experience of sleeping COMFORTABLY in a debris hut for the first time, your voice as someone who shares these skills will lack the strength of your experience. You will, however, be supported by a community of fellow learners just as dedicated as you are.
