It’s been a busy two weeks with the Earth Skills Summer Program.  We’ve focused intensively on bushcraft and nature studies, and this morning we’re doing a segment on wood canvas canoe building.  We’ll examine the process, look at molds and how they’re built, then pull a hull that’s been planked off of a mold and set it up for finishing.  Along the was we’ll look at hull design considerations for tripping and poling, and learn a little about steaming, boiling and bending wood.

This week we’ll be getting further into our studies of edible wild plants and poling canoes.  We’ll spend a day on a nearby river poling the rapids and fly-fishing the flats and pools, we’ll build another shelter, and we’ll get deeper into mammal tracking.  We’ll also be working our bows down to finished dimesions.  They’re still a little wet, but losing moisture rapidly.

Have a great week!