By Karen McCall | Education Coordinator
We have started our next session at Githens and look forward to seeing the changes in our surroundings as winter arrives. This is a great opportunity to hone our survival skills, one of the students’ favorite topics. They really enjoy the challenges we present to them, and continue perfecting one match fire starting, shelter building, and learning ways to collect water.
The mystery and draw of fire has been our main survival skill focus this month, especially with the cold weather that has decended upon us so suddenly. Given a cold day, we decided to work on our fire-making. The students were given the challenge of collecting the wood, building the stack for the fire with the best materials and sizes from tinder up to large sticks, and getting it lit with one match. To be deemed successful, they had to complete the challenge in 15 minutes. We had one student, Chance, succeed, Emma needed two matches, and the rest needed several matches, but they all got a fire going.
Making a fire segued into learning how to cook on it. A great opportunity to have a warming cup of pine needle tea and roast some chesnuts! We happened to have a pot with us, so the students collected pine needles which we cut into smaller lengths and steeped on the open fire.
Did you know that Pine Needle Tea is a great source of vitamin C? Good thing to remember if you are ever lost in the woods for any length of time, or use at home to fight off a cold!
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