After pressing a specimen of Lycopodium, we spent most of yesterday morning on navigation.  We introduced the compass, then built a compass from the sun which we maintained all day.  We rounded out the morning by making hand-spun rope, then having everyone make their own rope using a rope-spinner.

The afternoon began with a sharpening lesson, followed by some friction fire practice.  Then we scraped hides for two hours before breaking for the day.  There were some flies around the deer hides, a sure sign of spring.  Many people around here have been wondering if it would come at all this year, so it’s nice to see it finally arriving.

At sunset we walked down to the end of the lake to fish for smelt.  We say a few of them in the stream, but not enough to make catching them easy.  The way they’re caught is with a dip net, and when there are just one or two of them it is difficult to get them in the net.  While we were there we spent an hour or so identifying stars and constellations, and discussing their use as navigational aids.

It was another good, full day in the Earth Skills Semester Program.