Freedom is Free20thMarch
What did I do as a teenager? Take tests? Play football? Run for student government? What I really did was spend three to twelve hours a day in my garden on Oatfield Road in Oak Grove. I grew everything you could think of, from wild native plants to the old timey seeds that I bought during that 90's renaissance of nurseries or begged and stole from old Italian gardeners. Once and awhile I would put on my travel pack, load it with ten to twenty pounds of food and clothes and be gone for several weeks hiking the backcountry of the Pacific Northwest. Your typical NOLS instructor might shudder at the thought of this minimal weight with little gear, but I personally fared well with a light step and healthy back. Plus, I often had my dog Rusti accompanying me, she carried another seven pounds (though some that was her food). For six years I found myself wandering around mountains, meeting friendly black bears and sleeping underneath 7 foot tall stalks of blue corn on my suburban three quarters of an acre. Not your typical high school career.
If there's one thing I can advocate for children and teens today, it would be to work a garden to feed their family. If I had the opportunity to add more unsolicited advice I would also say walking a couple miles in your neighborhood everyday and backcountry travel every other month. There's nothing in our lives that should prevent us from doing this with our children. In fact, in challenging economic times we need to find more cost effective yet rewarding activities. Seeds themselves are your first expense, but you can track down open pollinated varieties from the old people with gardens in your neighborhood or the permaculturists with food forests in their backyard. Lose our culture's obsession over the tame landscape and "one right way" to do things and try to let your garden replicate nature. Have different kinds of plants growing together (heaven forbid). Don't till, instead put layers of debris over that bare soil (letting the worms do the work). Finally, have faith that everything will grow while not being afraid to experiment and learn. Simple and cheap enough, yet I have one more caveat; don't dote or overbear on either child or teen, let playing and working in the dirt be its own reward. Let them discover that feeding the family is something they can be a vital part of. Just be careful, your teen may ask for time off of school so they can spend afternoons among the blue corn.
This is my preamble to a series of garden and backcountry how-tos for kids and teens. Further articles will include more direct instructions on starting the garden and finding your way around the wilds of where we live. Let's make Trackers obsolete, at least by the time my garden is planted again:)
Little House in the Big Valley
This is one of the summer camps I'm absolutely most excited about! You can tell from how much I include it in the newsletter. Laura Ingalls Wilder is the perfect person for TrackersNW to pay homage to. We make jams, preserve food, work gardens, make homemade ice cream and a real fiddle player shows up. We may even have local old time food artisans and teachers come as guest stars.
Learn more or register here
Ages 4-5 Afternoon Option for Summer
Did you ever want to send your 4-5 year old to trackers all day, or at least for the afternoon? Now you can. This also opens our 3:30-5:30 aftercare option to those families with TrackersTOTS. Thank you for the feedback that helped us make this happen.
Check out the new afternoon options
