NHVSP 2011 Update 3

Expedition preparation with Misha

Our knives are named, our stuff sacks are all sewn and our mitten shells are completed as we keep preparing for the winter expedition. Almost every day now, we have expedition preparation with Misha. Today we received our compasses and laid out all the 30+ maps on the yurt’s floor. We found our route north through the Green Mountains of Vermont. Misha and head navigator Julian gave us a navigation/map reading class and told us of the terrain we will face on the trail. 

After being taught yogurt making by Emily, we tried our own yogurt. It was delicious, but watery. We think it was too warm during its incubation period, the eight hours in which yogurt has to sit, undisturbed, at about 46°C.

Another veggie dehydration party

Our trail food manager Rosa has been on a roll with drying sourdough biscuits, vegetables and jerky. We have spent many nights crying around the table of the big yurt while cutting a sack of onions to dry. We have been experimenting with all kinds of sourdough: from dry biscuits for the trail to pizza, pancakes and brownies.

The weather has been fine up here in Marlow, blessing us with a very snowy winter. Only yesterday the weather angels went astray and sent us a wave of sleet, covering all the snow with a layer of ice. From experience I can tell you that there is almost no way of slowing down or turning while skiing downhill on ice. We hope that the upcoming snow will cover the ice before we go on expedition on February 1^st.

With the weather came a wave of illness, which has been sweeping through Kroka village, leaving students and teachers left and right with nasal congestion and coughing.  Many theories have arisen about how we all became sick: some say it’s the cold (though it’s been heating up here lately) and some, like myself, say it’s because we’re not outside enough.

Tomorrow we will be going to Granite Gorge for downhill skiing, with a lift ticket! We are all very excited for this opportunity to practice our snowplows and tele-turns, in addition to adding variety to our routine of sewing and skiing.

Mathilde Vikene from Norway

After being taught about the properties of Egyptian cotton, a strong, tightly woven fabric, we will be going to Conway for 3 days to sew the tent with master sewers from Tentsmiths company, who make traditional tents which are often seen in movies.

That is all for this week. The next update should come right before parent weekend!

        -Nimrod

The Poet’s Yurt

Silent needles knit

The fabric of my sanity,

Weaving calm consciousness

Into the cluttered rush of my mind.

Time fades with each stitch,

For each row a moment in my life.

The finished work will tell a story,

Not of fame and glory, no

Of inner growth and letting things go

And so I’ve found knitting lets your mind flow,

                                                       In a special way.

                                                      A kind of meditation

                                                     Like a monk in a crazy creek.

                                                          -Zane Reid

Quote of the Trail: "Perseverance, secret to all triumphs" -Victor Hugo

Rosa conquering the big hill

"The people I love the best can’t fit into a stereotype, or even necessarily, a generic sneaker size. The people I love the best are entirely their own, present in whatever form they represent. The people I love best are forever honest, to themselves and to others. The people I love the best, love themselves, their own skin, their own bones and soul. The people I love the best, get so much love and hard work from me, for I love their rhythms, uniquely radiant. For, the people I love the best are the people whom I love the best."

         -Chloe Walier

Tobias 

Tim drilling holes in our skis

Serene and Julian 

NHVSP 2011 Update 2

New Hampshire Semester 2011

Second NHVSP Update!

First ski expedtion

The first update seems like yesterday and already, limbs aching from our first daylong ski, I’m typing up the next! Our knives resting in their sheaths, ready to use, and now we await the naming ceremony, in which each one of us will give our knife a special name. Every day, we progress farther towards our goal: to be ready for February, when we start skiing north.

The last day in the workshop was well remembered. It was the day when we finished our handle and used our blades for the first time; cutting the leather for the sheath. We made 13 beautiful sheaths with personal and unique designs. We then each wrote our first NH-VT Semester 2011 Main Lesson Book page, a neatly designed and written page with personal reflections about the meaning of having a self-made knife. As a Waldorf student (in Waldorf education, school books are made in a similar way), I noticed that my fellow students and I were giving more attention and care to the knife project and the page than we would normally have done at school.

Our handmade knives and sheaths

Food dehydration 

Today we went on the first real trial for the navigator (Julian) and trail food manager (Rosa) – a day trip around the area with our skis. Some of us, like myself, carried packs filled with food and extra layers for everyone, getting the feel of skiing with a backpack for the first time. After the huge blizzard yesterday, the snow is very deep (two feet) and powdery - a perfect opportunity to practice our trail-breaking technique for the winter! The first person in line skis as hard as he or she can for 30 seconds to break a trail in the mass of white powder. Then, he or she stands aside and gets in the back of the line, and the next person in line takes over breaking the trail. We also learned about layering and the importance of carrying a warm extra layer with us on the trail, and pulling it out of the pack quickly anytime we stop, before the heat generated by the exercise is gone.

After the night’s break I am back, writing this update while half of the group is busy learning to use the sewing machines and beginning their stuff-sack projects. They are not using scissors to cut the thread; they’re using their handmade knife. Later we will go skiing. We will work more diligently then ever on our skiing skills because Misha told us of the great adventure we will have before we hit the trail. We are going to wake up early, drive to the white mountains, ascend the great peak of the tallest of them, and ski all the way down the glorious slopes of Mt. Washington.

      -Nimrod

Nimrod leading the pack

The Poet’s Yurt

(Where our poetic creations go)

I like winter

I like cats.

I don’t think cats like winter,

They get lost in the snow.

I wonder if cats like me

As much as I like winter.

I wonder if I would like winter

If I was a cat.

I wonder if liking winter

Has to do with being taller than the

Snow.

Maybe I should go out west,

And find out.

         -Tobias Yandow

“Standing at the top of the hill, looking down at the snow, the jump, and the box behind. My goal today is to clear the box. Still standing at the top, looking ahead, I can see this jump as a metaphor for the whole Kroka experience. I see the run to the jump as the first three weeks here at Kroka base camp. The jump itself is the scramble to get ready for the expedition. Now I am flying through the air. For a few seconds the world rushes by like it will on the river and trail. And finally the landing. Coming softly back to earth like we will return here, to Kroka. And the final projects we do once we return will be like the final turn I make to slow down and come to a final stop. Sweet!”

-Tim Morse

Ski expert Tim from Maine

“The people I love the best are gone

They walk, leading their lives

I sit, watching mine lead me

That is not to say I love them less

I love them as myself

But that is not enough

Perhaps more

Like stone their feeble minds

In solidarity with my actions

Practice, being held separate

Love, being blind to the both

-Jacob Olsan

Quote of the Trail: “the people I like best, jump into work head first” –Marge Piercy

Julian, triumphant at the bottom of the rock

Sam, one of our many musicians

NHVSP 2011 Update 1

Our first skiing lesson with Misha

Tim Morse and Rosa DeJong

After arriving on Wednesday and eating the traditional Kroka potluck, we said goodbye to our parents and started the five month long journey with our teachers Nate, Lisl and Lu. We are a group of 13 students:

Sam (16) from New Hampshire – likes long walks on the beach, poetry and rose gardening.

Bridie (17) from Vermont – likes singing, fishing, archery, hiking and puddle jumping.

Jon  (20) from Florida – enjoys beaver dams/ponds/ the beaver themselves, banjo and carving holes in the ice.

Julian (16) from New Jersey – likes soccer and getting caught in the rain.

Rosa (17) from New York – loves trees, long underwear, fresh air, drawing and being alive.

Mathilde (20) from Norway – enjoys wintertime dipping, skiing, singing, making things by hand and laughing.

Tim (15) from Maine –  appreciates food, sleep, sailing and skiing jumps.

Jake (17) from California – likes banjo, jam bands, riding bicycles, downhill skiing, climbing, hiking, music, art, forests and fishing.

Zane (16) from Massachusetts – enjoys snowboarding, carving, camping, writing songs and books, sitting with a good group of people and chatting.

Tim, our ski manager, drilling holes in skis

Serene (20) from Colorado – loves the ocean, hiking, dipping beeswax candles, hugs, singing, circles, collecting stones, laughing and living.

Chloe (18) from New Hampshire – appreciates a good session of knitting, with a nice cup of tea, a rip-roarin’ contra dance and straight gigglin’.

Tobias (17) from Vermont – loves snacks, packs, flax, hugs, cakes, gloves, jet packs, mountains, cheese, dirt, power metal, cats, couches, running through the darkness, greeting the morning and wizards.

Myself, Nimrod (16) from Pennsylvania - I like reading, carving, cooking, writing updates and more.

The knife handle takes shape

On Thursday, we set out on our next great adventure – skiing with Misha! We tumbled and rolled in the snow but managed to follow a straight line by the end of the morning’s class. We had loads to do after lunch.  Some of us started knitting a hat with earflaps, while others went with Nate to the workshop to begin working on our hand-carved, cherry-burl knife handles. Everyone made good progress. Chloe broke the end of the saw she was working with and set the tip deep within her knife handle.  Then, we enjoyed dinner together and settled down for the evening.

We are now more settled into the rhythm of the day.  We get up at 6:15 and do our chores; some split firewood, some cook, some sweep, until breakfast. We then have our morning class, lunch, afternoon class, two hours of free time and, before we know it, dinner is served, the indoor evening class is spent and we go to bed in our sod-covered lodges and our warm sleeping bags.

We are all assigned big jobs: some are responsible for the maintenance of the camp, some organize our food schedule and make sure we eat a healthy diet, I write this update and more. Zane was first to act on his job as Medic after Tobias cut his finger, and we all hailed that moment as our duties settled in, bringing on our shoulders a weight of responsibility most of us never felt before.

On Friday, we went on a bushwhacking ski run around Kroka to experience what is it is to ski in the wilderness. Every day, we learn new things and prepare for February, when our 300-mile skiing expedition will begin.

-Nimrod

The knitting has begun

Mathilde Vikene and Nate

The Poet’s Yurt

Snowflakes falling soundlessly,

Swinging gently from side to side

On their way.

A small creek rushing past stones,

Conquering branches in its path.

Green leaves, yellow-green, newborn -

Just there, you can barely see them -

Smelling the first air out of their shells,

Hear that sound? That’s the wind blowing,

There must be pines near, they have their

Own special sound.

A bird flying high, the new from the next hilltop.

A comforting hand on a shoulder, a shared glance.

Oh! She shouts, not only with voice,

But with her whole body

That’s amazing!

The beauty of the world “resonates”

In the cavity of her chest,

Playing her heart strings,

Flowing out of her throat.

May these months bring this girl closer to me.

                                         -Matilde Vikene

The Wrong Knob

Crummy and smelly is how I felt,

Days of toil do that to a man.

Warm I was, under my layers,

Then suddenly freezing, pain,

Courageously thrusting my head through the stream

Searing, no, flowing down my back,

Torturing, no, healing my skin.

Then it’s over: “Oh refreshing!”

I felt elated, because in my shower,

I just did luckily, turn the wrong knob.

- Julian Dahl 

Jon

                                            

Jake