Fall was in the air when the Alevin gathered in Fairhaven Park. Interspersed sunny and cloudy patches eventually settled into a comfortable grey blanket in the sky. In similar fashion, explorers were excited for the new season and eventually found a comfortable rhythm in 100-Acre Woods.
Explorers were happy to whittle much of the day, diligently abiding by the motto of Safety First in ensuring that no one else was in their blood circle. Some explorers even learned about safely passing a tool to someone else using verbal commands along with careful handing. The boys manifested their focused intents into sharp spears and crafted branches! We remembered the motto: A tool is an extension of the body.
We didn’t waste anytime getting into the forest. A game of Hide reacquainted everyone with the area
and put on our camouflage eyes-lenses. Afterwards we were ready to eat snack and found a perfect opportunity to consider how we would gather or harvest a snack if we didn’t have any with us. And being blackberry season we found ample possibilities! We learned the history of the “King Berry” and looked for sunny patches to find the sweetest berries.
Kai led us into the woods as the lead scout and our mission was to find a place that we could build earth shelters. We found a place to hunker down and explored the area looking for the best shelter places. As Tribal Elder, Cole led the Alevin in a vote to determine that we would play Spider’s Web before learning about and building earth shelters. So, the group played a couple of rounds making each successive round more challenging for the flies!
When the game was over we discussed the differences and similarities of forts and shelters. Though seemingly close, we decided to define a shelter more for survival. And then Matt showed us the technique of building a solid frame by choosing two Y-branches and a long branch to act as a spine. About four groups made shelters and added
appropriately-sized sticks to make walls.
This was a good time to recognize the motto: Slow is Fast and Fast is Slow. It was hard to find the right sticks for Y’s and for walls. And sometimes we put the sticks on too quickly and knocked over other ones accidentally. Though some frames looked more complete than others, no one finished entirely.
Before we could collect the requisite three feet of debris for shelter insulation, time was up so we ran out to the field for Circle of Thanks. After practicing anAttitude of Gratitude we were done for the day. Not surprisingly, some explorers went right back to whittling before going home!
Written by: Dave Strich
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