Stone-Age & Wilderness Survival Skills
WILD EDIBLE PLANTS
Arizona contains an incredible array of delicious and nutritious Native Plants that helped form the dietary basis for the long progression of cultures that preceded our modern era. Now you too can learn to supplement your existing diet with these tasty resources, as well as safeguard yourself and others in a survival situation. For those who desire, you may wish to solely subsist from wild edible plants for several days.
Exploring among the area’s deserts streams, forests, and grasslands you’ll learn how to find, identify, harvest, process, eat, and store a plethora of wild taste treats. We’ll also look at a hunter-gatherer diet for the area, cover a variety of stone-age cooking techniques, discuss safely using wild edibles, and make several plant collecting/ processing tools. By the end of the class you’ll count each plant as, literally, a friend for life.
Raven's-Nest Plant List (downloadable PDF)
WILD MEDICINAL PLANTS
Using the diversity of environments at our disposal, we’ll delve into a wide variety of Natural, Plant-based medicines. During the class we’ll address such ailments as: headaches, stomachaches, sore muscles, infections, bleeding, abrasions, eye infections, sore throat, colds, and more. You’ll also prepare your own herbal salve and wild teas to take home. The knowledge gained here can aid you in everyday life, as well as during your time spent in Nature. Learn how Nature truly heals all!
Raven's-Nest Plant List (downloadable PDF)
NATURAL SHELTERS
Take away our modern buildings, tents, plastic, and other familiar materials and many would be at a loss as to how to shelter themselves from the elements. Now you can learn first-hand how to construct, live-in, and maintain both ephemeral and semi - permanent stone-age shelters. With the knowledge that you’ll gain in the class, you’ll soon be crafting your own wilderness shelters from earth, stone, plant, and other materials. A night spent in a natural shelter can be the culmination of your RAVENS-WAY experience. Perhaps no other skill is quite as satisfying as the ability to create an effective shelter in a multitude of situations.
STONE-AGE TOOLS
Stone, bone, antler, wood, and clay are some of the materials you’ll work with in this class as you learn the ancient wisdom of stone-age tool-making. While there are many projects to choose from, you may well make some of the following during you time with us - stone saw, stone knife, pecked bowl, burned bowl, digging stick, cactus brush, tongs, wedges, cordage (plant rope), and more. Further, we’ll guide you in learning how to effectively use each of your creations.
FIRE-BY-FRICTION
What makes us human? Intelligence? Tool-use? Or is it Fire. No other species that we know of makes fire and employs it for a multitude of purposes. Here we’ll delve into some of the time-tested fire-making traditions of our ancestors from around the globe. You may choose to focus on any of the following techniques or to try your hand at all of them: hand-drill, bow-drill, fire-plow and fire-saw. Using the finest materials available in the U.S., you’ll learn how to gather your own materials and fashion them into a beautiful and efficient fire-making kit. We’ll also use fire as a tool to craft other objects and to provide us many of our needs.
SENSORY AWARENESS
Sensory awareness is the ultimate foundation for all other outdoor skills and knowledge. At RAVENS-WAY we’ll welcome you to a new world - one where brilliant colors and dances of shadow and light grace each moment. Textures draw you near to touch and experience, while rich tastes and delicate aromas prove equally alluring. The symphony of Nature accompanies these sensations as you relearn the art of sensory awareness. Through a series of outdoor exercises and experiences you’ll once again feel “sensible”, as you join in the eternal Dance of Life!
THE ART & SCIENCE OF TRACKING
It has been said that ignoring the tracks and signs of animals is akin to only reading the covers of books. In other words, we are able to see the occasional animal, but far more often their presence can be detected (if we choose to “open the book”) through a track or other sign that they leave on the landscape. We will leave no stone unturned in our quest to find the footprints, scat, feathers, lays, scrapes, trails, holes, tunnels, and other sign of local wildlife. You’ll smile as you open up to a whole new world of life and possibilities.
Tracking is now recognized as one of the most important tools in the study of a wide range of Wildlife Species. Accordingly, we’ll guide you as you measure, draw, journal with, and investigate the tracks and signs they discovered in the Wild. Nature’s mysteries await your curious mind!
ROPE-MAKING
The world is full of various fibers and after taking this class you’ll know just what to do with them. Using you own hands, as well as simple stone-age tools you’ll learn the basics and beyond of cordage-making. Along the way we’ll also craft a variety of projects that rely heavily on the rope that we’ve created. While you may sometime feel “fit to be tied”, you’ll now learn what it means to be “tied to be fit”!
ABORIGINAL ART
Cultures all the world over have always melded art with function. Here we follow these traditions, as you embark upon one or more personal projects that reflect your interests and your personality. You may create a mini petroglyph, a rock bowl, a symbolic hunting bow, an elaborate necklace, a well-adorned backpack, or whatever your imagination envisions.
ETHNOBOTANY
Ethnobotany - the study of people use plants - is a vital foundation for becoming a well-rounded Naturalist. You may well decide to explore the plant world in this catch-all class that covers the many uses that humans have for Wild Plants. You will locate, identify, and use a wide variety of Plants for food, medicine, shelter, tools, art, and more. Several Stone-age take-home crafts will serve as a reminder of your new incredible wealth of plant wisdom.
VISIT VINCENT'S ETHNOBOTANY & WILDERNESS SURVIVAL SKILLS BLOG
STONE-AGE HUNTING & TRAPPING
During this class we will hearken back to a time when we sought the lives of our animal relations for our daily sustenance. We will approach each tool and hunting weapon with an attitude of reverence and respect, seeking to honor the hunt. Hands, sticks, rocks, traps, snares, and bow/arrow gain new meaning when used properly and when crafted directly from Nature. You will also learn the art of transforming your quarry into a plethora of useful items. See how hides, bones, antlers, hooves, and sinew gain new life in a variety of stone-age projects.
FLINT-KNAPPING
One of the most vital and basic of Stone-Age and Survival Skills is to be able to transform rocks into useful and beautiful tools. Starting with gathering, we will create a variety of stone tools and implements using stone-age ingenuity. Rock saws, knives, scrapers, spoke-shaves, wedges, drills, etchers, arrowheads, and spear-points are some of the projects that we will make via this ancient art.
SOUTHWESTERN BASKETRY
Weaving constitutes one of the most vital skills in the stone-age world. Baskets are great for storage, food preparation, backpacks, hats, carrying devices, and many other uses. Plant identification will soon lead us down the path of gathering and weaving our own baskets using only what Nature provides.
WILDERNESS SURVIVAL SKILLS
What would you do if you found yourself lost in the desert? The woods? Would you know how to make the things that you need directly from the Natural Environment? What if you lost some or all of your modern gear - would you know what to do? Though countless people find themselves in survival situations each year, few are prepared. If you or your family enjoy time in the great outdoors, then you owe it to yourself to empower your mind with the knowledge that may someday save lives. Unlike many survival courses taught today, we focus exclusively on what Nature can provide, not fancy survival kits. We invite you to experience the old adage - “the more you know, the less you need!”.
VISIT VINCENT'S ETHNOBOTANY & WILDERNESS SURVIVAL SKILLS BLOG
TRANSITIONING TO THE WILD (Primitive Living I)
This is a beginner’s introduction to the fundamental stone-age skills that form the foundation for all others. We run this course with the support of a modern nature center and campground at RAVEN’S NEST. Here you will learn how to fashion rope from plant materials, build an efficient fire lit with a hand-drill kit, find and identify Wild Edible Plants, learn some basic Tracks and Signs, learn about finding Safe Drinking Water, cover basic Wilderness Hygiene, Hunt with Your hands/rocks/sticks, learn one style of Primitive Trap, Build a Basic/One-Person Shelter, and make the following: Stone Bowl, Rock Knife, Rock Saw, Mineral Paint Kit, a Woven Mat, Digging Stick, and more!
INTO THE WILDS (Primitive Living II)
Our intermediate stone-age skills course allows you to take your knowledge to a new level. Set amidst the Wilds of RAVEN’S MOUNTAIN in the foothills of the Chiricahua Mountains, we begin to transition into the Wilds of Arizona. Some of the skills we’ll cover include: Advanced Rope-Making, Fire-Plow and Bow-Drill Fire-Making, Collecting and Processing Wild Foods (we’ll have one or more Wild meals), in-depth Tracks and Signs, Wild Medicinal Plants, Small-Game Hunting Bows/Arrows, 2 more types of Animal Traps, One type of Snare, Multi-Person Shelters (incl. with fire), Woven Basket, and Hide-Tanning. You must have “Transitioning into the Wild” or an equivalent class as a prerequisite to this one.
A HUNTER-GATHERER’S LIFE (Primitive Living III)
In some ways this is the ultimate RAVENS- WAY class! Here we apply the skills that we learned in “Transitioning to the Wild” and “Into the Wilds” (prerequisites for this class) in a true wilderness setting. We begin with several days of crafting whatever tools we’ll need for our expedition. In addition to the skills covered in previous classes, we’ll also craft a stone-age backpack to carry our vital gear. We will then embark on an expedition of several days to a week or more into some of the Wildest country in North America. During our time in the Wilds, we will endeavor to work as a Hunter-Gatherer Team, cooperating to meet all of our basic needs and beyond. If you’ve never experienced the thrill of living in harmony with the Earth, then what are you waiting for?!