Two groups of five Explorers, each with the same assignment — build an earth shelter in which you could be warm and dry through the night.
Our skill for the season is shelter building. As the Barred Owls reminded me, they’ve already worked on this skill (last year). Great then…should be easy, right?
The good news, as with most challenges in life, is that the quality of the final product, while important, is not the only measure of success. Your Explorers scored better on collaboration, creativity and effort, for instance, than they did on construction…or on selecting team members with useful skills…or on selecting an appropriate site for their shelter. Well, perhaps not
that easy.
One group decided to capitalize on a rock overhang that provided a dry space, but had to abandon their effort because the “cave” was on the side of a hill, which called for many up and down trips gathering materials. Lessons learned? Calorie conservation is a key consideration in a survival situation, so avoid the extra work involved in climbing up and down a hill if at all possible. They also realized they were eroding the wet hillside, a reasonable tradeoff in a true survival scenario but not it a mock emergency such as ours.
The other group struggled to come together on a shared vision of what the shelter should look like. You can see from the photos that they worked through that, but took valuable time “sweating the small stuff” in the process. After 90 minutes of effort, they still had much work to do, a deal breaker when weather and nightfall bestow a real sense of urgency.
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| A section of Galbraith Mountain was recently logged for housing development. The view feels odd. |
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| To compensate for a curved ridge pole, this group decided to raise both ends of their shelter, which would make for more room but increase the complexity of ensuring a warm and dry environment. |
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| Another look at the 'skeleton' of their shelter. Note the clean, flat surface. Their time might better have been spent completing the structure. |
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| It's dirty work, but someone has to do it. |
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| While others played Spider's Web, two Explorers decided to work on their carving skill. |
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| Our closing meeting. A good example of the leadership transferred to our Tribal Elder (see below). |
The Barred Owls have been together for several years now. They know the culture (see mottos); they’re in or approaching middle school. In a few years, they might be participating in multi-day backpack trips that require personal discipline and awareness of, and attention to, the needs of one’s trip companions and the group as a whole. It’s time for them to assume more responsibility on our outings. So, our Tribal Elder took on the task of distributing our jobs and leading our opening meeting as well as decision making during the outing. We’ve done this all along; we’re increasing the stakes now. Our tribal elder on Sunday accepted the opportunity to stretch his edge (Motto) and did a fine job.
Fortunately, we have another chance to work on their shelter building when we next meet - Saturday, December 10th, 10:00 - 4:00 for an exploration of Deming Homestead Eagle Park. Note the longer schedule. We meet at 10:00 as usual, but to allow for the ride out to Deming, we'll return at 4:00 pm.
Check here for the photo gallery. I guess we were too involved in our work to capture the moment on "film". Sorry about that; we'll be more aware next time.
