Blog#2: Life at Kroka Basecamp
Since the last time I wrote you, our lives here at Kroka basecamp have gotten busier and even more exciting! Each morning holds a very special routine of everyone contributing around the farm and camp village, doing chores. Some of us who are lucky enough to be working outside often enjoy watching beautiful sunrises unfold over the Kroka campus. These chores include feeding, milking, and cleaning the animals and their stables, or spending time tidying the indoor human spaces and getting to learn how to light wood stoves. However, perhaps the biggest task in our morning is the firewood chore. We have been given the big responsibility of splitting and stacking 12 cords of wood before we leave on leg two! So far we have made quite a dent, but still have much work to look forward to. Another morning responsibility, and perhaps the favorite, is the job of cooks. This job requires that we hang out for a few hours in our nice, warm, cozy home and cook delicious food for our community members. Our breakfast is always nice, in my opinion, as we are often joined by supporting community members, and sometimes an infant child. This is a nice time to greet the day together and check in about what the future holds for us. After breakfast, the day really gets moving.
In the past two weeks the majority of our days have been filled with many new and exciting activities. One of these big activities was skate skiing, which we began with Misha before expedition, and really went into depth with Andy afterwards. This was so fun because when we began, our skill level ranged from some pretty experienced skiers, to some who had never put on a pair of skis in their life. This made it very interesting to watch how much people improved. Another winter activity that was maybe even more popular was ice-skating. We first learned on the Beaver Pond behind Kroka and after some practice, moved on to the much bigger Lake Warren down the road. Here we played some intense games of hockey and got a lot of practice on bumpy, choppy ice. This, however, was only one way in which our relationship with ice and snow grew. Seth introduced us to a very special practice in his life called a Mikveh. The way we incorporate it into our community culture is to chop a hole in the Kroka pond to dunk every Friday. Each person who wishes to participate thinks of two intentions: one is something to let go of in the upcoming week, maybe a habit or negative way of thinking, and second is an affirmation, something each of us wants to cultivate within ourselves. We do one dunk for each of these, followed by a third dunk to solidify out intentions. The first week we had poor planning and made a very small hole to slither into, so this past weekend we spent time expanding that hole to its current size, is similar to that of a hot tub. This made it a little less scary for more people to participate. Hopefully we will keep up with this practice as much as we can through winter and into spring.
Another aspect of semester life that caught up to us as we entered into our basecamp rhythms was academic studying. We had several nutrition classes with Hanah, supporting staff at Kroka, who taught us about digestion and about how to stay healthy on trail. We also had a class with Nathan, another supporting staff member at Kroka, who taught us a navigation class where we learned about the sun in relationship to our planet, and began to learn about maps and how to read and use them. It can feel very special to have guest teachers come and teach, as we often find ourselves surrounded by the same 15 people every moment of everyday. Of course we were also learning from our core teachers as well. We have short, but frequent math sessions with Seth, which we call “numbers and movement stuff” to make it a little less intimidating. This class has included some basic mathematical skills practice, as well as some physics field experiments which seemed to overlap with our exercise curriculum, that Seth was also leading. From Oliver we have started to review and discuss the book we all read before arriving, Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. This book is very powerful and has sparked some very important conversations about cultural appropriation. From Oliver we also began to learn about Birch and its many uses, and recently began the process of making knife handles and sheaths. Our last big craft that we completed was a sewing project, taught by Lisl, a long time guest teacher of semesters. With her, we learned how to take care of all the gear associated with our sewing machines, and learned to make stuff sacks and mitten shells for our upcoming expeditions! Another class we have enjoyed is learning to make and draw with charcoal, which we learned to make with Oliver from birch branches.
Although our time at basecamp has been filled with such excitement, we are nearing the time when we must leave to go out and explore the wilderness that is awaiting us in Canada! We have all begun our preparation and have had several nights when we all got together and cut up vegetables to dry and carry with us. However, some students' big jobs are very vital to this type of preparation. For example, Martina and Lillian, (our navigators) have begun their mapping of our intended routes. Ma’or, (expedition food manager) has begun to think about the food we are going to be carrying with us. Havah (sewing and water manager) has made up a kit of patches and sewing gear to repair anything that gets damaged on trail. Luke, (energy manager) has been repairing our little camp stove that we love so much and all its associated parts. Liam, (vehicles and kitchen manager) has been making a kitchen set for our expedition and preparing the van we will be using. Rachel, (farm manager and medic) has been preparing everything we will need in case of cuts and bruises or even an emergency. Luīze, (day food manager) has been preparing the food that will sustain us through our travelling days. Dylan, (gear repair manager) has been repairing all of our gear, and waxing the skis! Georgie, (gear manager) has been fixing the tent and gathering the equipment which we will need to support us in snow.
What we are all looking forward to the most right now is parent weekend this weekend, when we will get to share all about what we have learned over the past month! Looking forward from that, we will be saying goodbye to the beautiful Kroka basecamp and heading north to explore the wilderness in Gaspé!
Stay tuned for my report of the next leg of Kroka Expedition’s Winter Semester 2018!
Many thanks and happy reading,
Emily Wasem
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| (most of) The Crew! |
In the past two weeks the majority of our days have been filled with many new and exciting activities. One of these big activities was skate skiing, which we began with Misha before expedition, and really went into depth with Andy afterwards. This was so fun because when we began, our skill level ranged from some pretty experienced skiers, to some who had never put on a pair of skis in their life. This made it very interesting to watch how much people improved. Another winter activity that was maybe even more popular was ice-skating. We first learned on the Beaver Pond behind Kroka and after some practice, moved on to the much bigger Lake Warren down the road. Here we played some intense games of hockey and got a lot of practice on bumpy, choppy ice. This, however, was only one way in which our relationship with ice and snow grew. Seth introduced us to a very special practice in his life called a Mikveh. The way we incorporate it into our community culture is to chop a hole in the Kroka pond to dunk every Friday. Each person who wishes to participate thinks of two intentions: one is something to let go of in the upcoming week, maybe a habit or negative way of thinking, and second is an affirmation, something each of us wants to cultivate within ourselves. We do one dunk for each of these, followed by a third dunk to solidify out intentions. The first week we had poor planning and made a very small hole to slither into, so this past weekend we spent time expanding that hole to its current size, is similar to that of a hot tub. This made it a little less scary for more people to participate. Hopefully we will keep up with this practice as much as we can through winter and into spring.
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| Working on our handstands with guest teacher Kat Wood in yoga class |
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| Edie, enjoying physics class on the sledding hill! |
Another aspect of semester life that caught up to us as we entered into our basecamp rhythms was academic studying. We had several nutrition classes with Hanah, supporting staff at Kroka, who taught us about digestion and about how to stay healthy on trail. We also had a class with Nathan, another supporting staff member at Kroka, who taught us a navigation class where we learned about the sun in relationship to our planet, and began to learn about maps and how to read and use them. It can feel very special to have guest teachers come and teach, as we often find ourselves surrounded by the same 15 people every moment of everyday. Of course we were also learning from our core teachers as well. We have short, but frequent math sessions with Seth, which we call “numbers and movement stuff” to make it a little less intimidating. This class has included some basic mathematical skills practice, as well as some physics field experiments which seemed to overlap with our exercise curriculum, that Seth was also leading. From Oliver we have started to review and discuss the book we all read before arriving, Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. This book is very powerful and has sparked some very important conversations about cultural appropriation. From Oliver we also began to learn about Birch and its many uses, and recently began the process of making knife handles and sheaths. Our last big craft that we completed was a sewing project, taught by Lisl, a long time guest teacher of semesters. With her, we learned how to take care of all the gear associated with our sewing machines, and learned to make stuff sacks and mitten shells for our upcoming expeditions! Another class we have enjoyed is learning to make and draw with charcoal, which we learned to make with Oliver from birch branches.
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| Nathan- our navigation guru! |
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| We have been enjoying our singing classes with guest teacher Terry Landis! |
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| Terry has helped us work on singing as a community |
Although our time at basecamp has been filled with such excitement, we are nearing the time when we must leave to go out and explore the wilderness that is awaiting us in Canada! We have all begun our preparation and have had several nights when we all got together and cut up vegetables to dry and carry with us. However, some students' big jobs are very vital to this type of preparation. For example, Martina and Lillian, (our navigators) have begun their mapping of our intended routes. Ma’or, (expedition food manager) has begun to think about the food we are going to be carrying with us. Havah (sewing and water manager) has made up a kit of patches and sewing gear to repair anything that gets damaged on trail. Luke, (energy manager) has been repairing our little camp stove that we love so much and all its associated parts. Liam, (vehicles and kitchen manager) has been making a kitchen set for our expedition and preparing the van we will be using. Rachel, (farm manager and medic) has been preparing everything we will need in case of cuts and bruises or even an emergency. Luīze, (day food manager) has been preparing the food that will sustain us through our travelling days. Dylan, (gear repair manager) has been repairing all of our gear, and waxing the skis! Georgie, (gear manager) has been fixing the tent and gathering the equipment which we will need to support us in snow.
 |
| Luize and Dylan spar in knife hafting class |
What we are all looking forward to the most right now is parent weekend this weekend, when we will get to share all about what we have learned over the past month! Looking forward from that, we will be saying goodbye to the beautiful Kroka basecamp and heading north to explore the wilderness in Gaspé!
Love
by Ma’or Lev
Love is but a shadow
of the glory of this world-
an abstract of perfection,
with flaws and cracks and all.
Love is like the waters,
flowing on and on,
without a pause in passing
it seems to carry on.
Love is as the wind,
illusive in its flight,
who brushing birch and willow,
kisses them goodnight.
Love is not a teacher
nor friend or foe for me-
but as a path it guides me,
through waters, winds, and hate,
to rest a while pondering,
to rejoice and rejuvenate.
Stay tuned for my report of the next leg of Kroka Expedition’s Winter Semester 2018!
Many thanks and happy reading,
Emily Wasem
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| Dylan and Liam enjoying an experiential physics block |
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| Shaping the cherry burls for our knives |
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| Hand carved |
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