Class Schedule
~ 2023 SCHEDULE ~
2023 Earth Knack Courses, Classes and Programs
Independent Living Skills … More Important Now Than Ever
Hands-On, In-Person Instruction … More Important Now Than Ever
Lighthearted Positive Teachings … More Important Now Than Ever
Top Quality Instruction … Our Specialty Since 1990!
Intern Dates & Focus Topics for 2023
JUNE 5 – 30 JULY 1- 31 AUGUST 8 -24
High Altitude Food & Fruit Growing, Horse & Buggy Transport, Tipi Living,
Natural Water Catchment , Plasters & Pigments, Home Butchering, Fire Making
Traditional Hide Tanning, Preserving Meat & Eggs, Adobe Horno Baking
Classes for 2023
MAY 18 – 23 Hide Tanning instructed by Robin Blankenship
JUNE 16 – 20 Buffalo Bull Boat with Ken Wee
JUNE 23 – 25 Ancestral and Survival Fishing with Patrick Monroney
JULY 7 – 10 Fibers Fantastic! Felting – Spinning – Weaving – Dyes- and Leather Strap Braiding with Val Herenchak & Mike Foltmer
JULY 15 Survival, Edible & Medicinal Rocky Mountain Plants with Cattail Bob Seebeck
JULY 21-24 Primitive Arrows with Ken Wee
JULY 28-31 AtlAtl and Darts with Ken Wee
AUG. 12- 13 Fire! Fiber! Flint! Survival Basics with Ivan Lakish
OCT. (dba) Homestead, Blacksmith & Butcher Tools
Repair and Maintenance with Papa Dean Smith
Intern and Outdoor Living Immersion Details
You can choose from three time options. Stay for one, two, or all three time options.
JUNE 5 – 30 JULY 1- 31 AUGUST 8 -24
Arrival is firmly the start date for each option. Minimum stay of two weeks if your schedule does not allow for staying the full time.
Focus learning opportunities for the 2023 season are High Altitude Food & Fruit Growing, Horse and Buggy Transport, Tipi Living, Natural Water Catchment , Plasters and Pigments, Home Butchering, Traditional Hide Tanning, Meat & Egg Preservation & Canning, Adobe Horno Baking, Fire Making
You will participate in the focus learning opportunities above and daily routine support chores here at Earth Knack, such as helping keep the outdoor kitchen clean, helping maintain the soilets in great condition, helping with horse care chores, working on keeping firewood piles full, tending and watering garden areas, and hosting class students to their campsite on class arrival days. Our schedule for focus areas is Monday – Thursday 10am to 3pm, and support chores every day before 10 am. Interns prepare their own breakfast and lunch and dinner is provided. We gather for communal dinner prep at 6pm each evening.
As you gather skills and familiarity with the tools and techniques of primitive skills, you will have access to the facilities to engage in your own primitive skills projects. Throughout the season, you may be exposed to many different skills and learning.
The Intern fee, which includes dinners, is $95 weekly. You can choose to participate in the Earth Knack courses available to students as well, for an additional special intern rate of $45 daily tuition for any course in which you participate.
To Apply: Please send me a brief essay: Why I Want to Participate in the Earth Knack Intern and Outdoor Living Immersion to earthknackschool@gmail.com.or by postal to Robin at Earth Knack PO # 508 Crestone Colorado 81131 I will then contact you to arrange a more in depth conversation by phone to discuss the realities of being here, questions you might have about what to expect and your personal goals for learning.
Upon an agreement of participation, submit a registration form and your intern fee of $95 weekly (multiplied by the # of weeks you will participate).
Print out or hand copy the registration page and send by postal to Robin at Earth Knack
PO # 508 Crestone Colorado 81131 or by email, earthknackschool@gmail.com
Payment can be made by paypal or money order and is due 3 weeks before program start.
The Earth Knack camp is in the woods along the banks of pristine Cottonwood Creek.
If you are staying overnight, you can set up your own tent, build a shelter or choose to stay in a tipi. Use our fully equipped outdoor kitchen to prepare your meals.. Bring a personal cooler, Oils, spices, and teas provided, along with all the cooking pots, pans and eating dishes. There are gas stove tops ,adobe “horno” baking oven, solar ovens, dutch ovens and wood charcoal grills. Facilities include composting toilets and a lovely solar shower structure.
Class Descriptions and Schedules
Hide Tanning 5 days May 18 – 23 $325 instructed by Robin Blankenship
Learn wet and dry scrape methods, hair on pelts and hides, rawhide preparation, traditional brain, bark and fat tan techniques, hide frame construction and hide glue preparations
Buffalo Bull Boat Class 5 days June 16 – 20 $325 with Ken Wee
Discussion on prepping a fresh skinned bison hide
Rehydrate a dried bison flint (hair on, fleshed and salted or not salted hide
Fleshed bison hide (dried flint or green)
Construction of jig to make frame for bullboat
Prep rawhide lace from rawhide/discussion on how to make rawhide
Harvest green willow shoots from live plants
Rawhide to cut into lashing lace
Build the bull boat frame
Make paddle with seasoned lodgepole
Lash wet, pliable bison hide onto frame with elk and deer rawhide lashing
Build Buffalo bull boat paddles
Rocks to Weigh down hide in water with rocks
Allow hides, rawhide to dry taut
Float finished bullboat in wide enough river, stream or pond
About the instructor: Ken Wee; Primitive technologist, experimental archaeologist, historian and artist, specialist in primitive archery, atlatls, fire making, brain tanning. Owns Rocky Mountain School of Hard Knocks – est. 1984. Has taught at Rabbit Stick, Winter Count, Rocky Mountain National Rendezvous, Rocky Mountain College, Earth Knack and Tesoro Cultural Center.
Ancestral and Survival Fishing 3 days June 23 – 25 $195 with Patrick Monroney
Three day intensive making nets, spears, and basket traps that have been used by many lineages on all continents for thousands of years to catch fish. Please note that this will not be guided fishing: rather an exploration into stream ecology and ancestral tool making. Modern survival fishing will be covered. Any students wishing to fish after class will need to have a Colorado fishing license and follow all Colorado regulations.
About the Instructor:
Patrick Monroney taught Flora, Ethnobotany, Experimental Archaeology, and Outdoor Survival Skills at the University of Alaska-Kenai Peninsula College. He spent 6 year’s Commercial Fishing in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, and is an accomplished fisherman and fishing guide using both modern and ancient techniques.
A Fantastic Array of Fibers Learning 5 days July 7 -10 $325 with Val Herenchak and Mike Foltmer
Day 1 Morning Intro to fibers Historical context Show and tell of finished products primitive / modern wool and natural fibers prep techniques, plant fiber cord making
Day 1 Afternoon , drop spin,, wheel spin Plying spun yarn with two or more bobbins demos and time to try Set up for card woven strap project
Day 2 Morning: Card weaving start (after learning folks work on strap when they can throughout program) Collect yucca leaf for sun visor project Mike teaches leather braiding
Day 2 Afternoon Cattail leaf sun visors Felting demo and trial squares and circles Prep wool for felt project Progress on started project or practice spinning
Day 3 Morning Flat felt project with inlay design Needle felting on fabric or felt and 3D figures
Day 3 Afternoon Plan and prep for seamless (3D) felt bag Start 3D felt bag Progress on started project or practice spinning Mike teaches leather braiding
Day 4 Morning Finish seamless 3D bag (use card or straw strap for bag?)
Day 4 Afternoon Set up for straw weaving project Straw weaving start (after learning folks work on strap when they can throughout program)
Day 5 Morning Learn to dye animal and plant fibers. Use ochers and clays to color fibers.
Day 5 Afternoon Finish up all started projects and practice skills for confidence to continue at home.
About the Instructors: Valerie Herenchak got her first sheep in 1994 and over the course of 23 years, developed her own breed which she called American Silksheep. Along the way learned to spin, dye, felt, weave and knit wool. She has introduced countless people to the joys of working with wool and making their own yarn. Mike Foltmer
Survival Plants of the Rocky Mountain West 1 day $65 July 15 with Cattail Bob Seebeck
Morning focus: forested creek side and riparian zone plant of the montane and subalpine
Afternoon focus: desert valley floor and pinon / cedar belt dry land plants
About the Instructor: “Cattail” Bob Seebeck has been instructing wild useful herbs, edible and survival plants, wilderness survival, outdoor education, and mountain cabin building classes in the Rockies since 1975.
Arrow Making Class 4 days July 21 – 24 $275 with Ken Wee
Shoot Shafts
- Definition/description
- Preview-demos/different species
- Theory-desired properties
- Shaft selection & species specific traits
- Seasoning/peeling/drying/storage
- Size and straighten
- Burnishing
- Spine and balance
- Nocks and nocking size and fit
- Cresting, sealing and lightning grooves
- Fletching: Configurations, varieties, prepping, wing vs tail feathers
- Attaching, wrapping and sealing
- Points and hafting
- Historic traditions and context
- Shooting semi/fully finished arrow
Reed, cane, bamboo tubular shafts
- Definition/description
- Preview-demos/species
- Theories-desired properties/design considerations
- Shaft selection and species specific traits
- Harvesting by size, age, condition and sex
- Heat straightening strategies
- Nock types
- Foreshafts
- Spine and balance points – static vs dynamic
- Fletching types, preparation, attachment
- Bindings
- Points
- Sealing, finishes
- Shooting semi/fully finished arrow
Dowelled from scratch shafts
- Description of types/shapes
- Preview/demo
- Grain configurations & orientation
- Species/board selection
- Dowelling
- Straightening and spinning
- Burnishing and final sanding
- Nocks: Basics and types
- Fletching
- Cresting
- Bindings
- Points
- Shooting semi/fully finished arrow
AtlAtl and Throwing Dart Class 4 days July 28 – 31 $275 with Ken Wee
DARTS Similar to arrow making class
Phragmites reed, bamboo or can
Dart made from cane or reed or bamboo
Aluminum arrow shafting
Dart made from lumber or aluminum arrow shafting
Feathers for fletching
Feather fletching
Glue for hafting/fletching
Fore shaft or self point
Hardwood fore shafting
Sealing hafting. wraps
Field points thread, artificial sinew
ATLATL. Quickie, survival atlatl
Varnish, pitch, Golf Tees, epoxy
Finished atlatls for sale, demonstration
Range Throwing Practice
Beginning AtlAtl Throwing Lessons
Fire! Fiber! Flint! Survival Basics 2 days August 12 and 13 $135
with Robin Blankenship and Ivan Lakish
Make fire by rubbing sticks! Hand drill, bow drill and fire plow methods. String, rope and net making from local plants. Learn basic flint knapping techniques to make knife edges and other useful tools from stone Use pitch and sinew to “haft” a handle to your “stone age” tool.
October dates and price to be announced
Homestead, Blacksmith & Butcher Tools Repair and Maintenance with Papa Dean Smith