Saturday/May 16th/0800

Haven’t been able to send a letter out to you in a while so I thought I would take a minute to give you a brief update. Last time we talked was before I left town so almost three weeks ago, sorry I haven’t been able to write. Its not that I haven’t thought about you, I’ve just been having a great time and leaving my phone off and in my bag.

I dont even know where to start I think I could fill the whole letter with stories just from our four day inventory trip. It was a blast. To give you a bit of an idea what it was like, when we woke up if we were comfortable because of our sleeping bags, well no more sleeping bags. If the tarps kept us dry, well no more tarps. It went a bit like that.

That was one of the challenges, pushing ourselves to find where our edge of comfort or skills. But we also had to dig a well so we could have water at our campsite and have enough wood so that we could stay warm in our group shelter throughout the night. There were nine of us in this leaf bed lean-to laying next to this long fire. Knowing you I’m sure if you were there you would have laughed or cried and then probably crawled in next to us.

But even beyond that we did some plant identification and gathered some food, worked on our sensory awareness, walked around the woods in the dark blind folded and barefoot with nothing but a drum to lead the way. Trust me, its not only a good time but there is something there, you’ll see. When we get together i’ll get out the ol’ notebook and we can replicate some of the things we did so you can have a first hand account. It will mean more to you that way then if I just tell you about my experience.

Again I could go on and on about just that four day trip but our bow making class is about to start in a few minutes so I have to get this sent out. Anyway when we got back we had this huge potluck: corn on the cob, broccoli and cheese soup, some tasty hawaiian spam dish with rice and seaweed, hot dogs, hamburgers, sauerkraut, stir fry, pizza made on the grill. I’ll tell you what after not eating (much) for four days and then having a feast (you cant eat much since your stomach has shrank), the food tastes great, you sense of taste, your appreciation and the nap afterwards, its great. I couldn’t have thought of a better way to end the trip.

Had the next day off to get base camp in order, do some laundry, take a much needed shower and get ready for the foraging class on Wednesday. So Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (before the evening) we got a big military tent set up, camp squared away, set up a new rocket stove so we would be able to cook for all of us. We made hugelmounds, planted apple trees and elderberries, nut trees and garden vegetables. I cant even recall how much stuff we got done as a group.