Four Seasons Prehistoric Projects
-We strive to "live" in the wilderness, rather than "survive" it to get back to civilization.-
Lynx and Rico
1249 B Twisp River Road
Twisp, WA 98856
509-855-5335
lynxandrico@yahoo.com
Living Wild in the North Cascades
A six month long program in traditional and wilderness living skills. Awaken the knowledge of our ancestors by learning to use the resources that nature provides for all your daily needs.
2007 Class Schedule
Mar 23 Introduction to 2007 project
Mar 24-25 Felting I - Winter wear
Mar 31 - Apr 1 Tool making - Stone, bone and wood
Apr 7 - 8 Animal processing - butchering and preparation
Apr 14 - 15 Firemaking and bindings
Apr 21 - 22 Hide tanning I - wet scrape, dry scrape, rawhide
Apr 28 - 29 Hide tanning II - continued
May 5 - 6 Working horses - Traditional draft and riding
May 12 - 13 Wild foods I - Harvesting wild edibles
May 19 - 20 Wild foods II - Peparation and preservation
May 26 - 27 Footwear - Moccasins and sandals
Jun 2 - 3 Containers I - Pottery and gourd canteens
Jun 9 -10 Containers II - Baskets, pot fire and burn bowls
Jun 16 - 17 Containers III - rawhide and netting
Jun 30 - Jul 1 Clothes making - Sewing buckskins
Jul 7 - 8 Bows and arrows I - Stave preparation and arrows
Jul 21 - 22 Bows and arrows II - Bow making and strings
Jul 28 - 29 Hunting, fishing, tracking and trapping
Aug 4 - 5 Felting II - Sleeping blankets
Aug 11 - 12 Shelters I - building primitive shelters
Aug 18 - 19 Shelters II - continued
AUG 24 - SEPT 6 PROJECT 2007 - LIVING WILD IN THE NORTH CASCADES
Attention is given in all classes to pre-iron age methods of production The Living Wild project August 24 to September 6 aims to be entirely experienced using stone age technologie.
Cost: $ 1,750 for all 20 classes (10% discount for sign-up before Feb 20).
$100 per weekend class (some classes require 2 weekends for completion).
- PAST PROJECTS: 2006 -
Join us in the beautiful Sangre de Cristo mountains of New Mexico for intensive hands on wilderness living skills training. Between the open alpine peaks and aspen/conifer forest of the Pecos wilderness and the upper Sonoran desert of the Rio Grande valley lies a wealth of ecological diversity and a rich cultural history to be discovered. Learn to harvest and transform the gifts of nature for everyday needs such as tools, fire, shelter, food.... in a conscientious and sustainable manner as the ancients did.
Level I - BASIC SKILLS: Firemaking; bindings; lithic, bone and wood tools; shelter; wild food introduction. March 5 - 14. April 9 - 18. COST: $400.
Level II - ADVANCED SKILLS: Tanning and clothes making; containers; textiles. Learn different tanning methods including brain tanning, bark tanning and rawhide preparation. Turn these hides into clothing, moccasins and sandals. Felt a warm soft blanket from raw sheeps wool. May 1 - 30. COST: $1000
Level II - ADVANCED SKILLS: Containers and wild foods. Learn various styles of containers including woven baskets, ceramics, burn bowls and rawhide containers. Wild food gathering, preparation, cooking and preservation. June 1 - 30. COST: $1000
Level III - APPLIED ADVANCED SKILLS: Prehistoric Project 2006- Horse packing adventure. August 1 - 30, 2006
Each year a different theme is addressed:
2006 - Horse packing adventure
2005 - Nomad summer
2004 - The Kootenai River Project II, Water transportation
2003 - The Yaak River Hunter Gatherer project
2001 - The Kootenai River Project , a stone age living experiment
These projects are for those students who have already mastered skill levels I and II. COST: $1000.
- PAST PROJECTS: 2005 -
Four Seasons Prehistoric Projects
Presents: Nomad Summer
Choose individual workshops, week-long classes and outings, or come and stay for three months of intensive primitive skills training covering wild edible and medicinal plants, large animal processing, structure building, bow and arrow making, hunting and trapping methods, hide tanning, clothing and moccasin making, boat building, stone and bone tools, horse packing, basketry and containers. The full experience includes three 7-day wilderness trips. All classes combine the use of modern and prehistoric methods and tools. All trips focus on the pre iron age technologies, though some exceptions may apply. The full summer schedule includes:
June 1 - 7: Canoe building, a traditional style canoe of skin or bark.
June 10 - 12: Gathering spring wild edibles, harvesting processing, cooking and preservation.
June 17 - 19: Fishing with spears, plus primitive hook and line.
June 23 - 29: Canoe trip. We'll gather wild food, fish, trap, build shelters, etc.
July 1 - 7: Animal processing. Jerky, pemmican, rawhide, bone-working.
July 10 - 12: Braintanning deerhides.
July 15 - 17: Basket making. Pack baskets and gathering baskets.
July 22 - 24: Moccasin making, using soft deer hides.
August 2 - 8: Bow and arrow making.
August 12 - 14: Gathering summer wild edibles and utilitarian plants, plus cattail processing, mats and containers.
August 19 - 21: Primitive hunting and trapping.
August 25 - 31: Horse packing trip. Build a shelter, and hunt, trap, and gather berries.
The Long Dark Nights Winter 2005.
Spend a month in the Northern forests learning wintertime skills. Start out in a cozy cabin learning how to tan skins and furs for clothing, make warm felted boots, hitch up the horses for a sleigh ride, make fat lamps and torches and while away the long evenings with wild food dinners, stories, songs and dandelion wine.... Then venture out on skis or snowshoes to camp in primitive shelters, follow tracks, build fires and a steam bath lodge and call back the sun on the longest night of the year. Limit: 4 people.
Mountain Horse Packing Trip Fall 2005. Spring 2006.
This four week adventure includes two weeks at a base camp during which you may tan a hide, make a pack, learn felting and get to know the horses. The next two weeks will be spent packing out into the Rocky Mountains. Build and Live in primitive shelters, fish and trap, forage wild edible and medicinal plants, use stone, bone and wooden tools, craft containers, make fire by friction and sleep in the comfort of a warm buffalo robe. Limit: 3 people.
Stone Age Horse Packing Experiment Fall 2006.
Walk, pack, and ride from the Montana/B.C. border to the Rabbitstick Rendezvous in southeastern Idaho. Participants must have previous experience with horses and primitive technologies. Please write for an application and more details.
- PAST PROJECTS: 2004 -
Four Seasons Prehistoric Projects
Presents: Watercraft Transportation
A Stone Age Living Experiment in Western Montana
Have you ever wondered if you could not only survive, but thrive in the wilderness using only the abundance that nature provides? Some of us learned these ways as children from our parents and grandparents. For others, the skills were lost and forgotten far back in our ancestry.
In the summer of 2001, the Kootenai River Project began the Stone Age Living Series, with a two-month long berry camp. Fall of 2003 saw a traditional bow hunting experiment with the Hunter-Gatherer Project, which was documented in the Bulletin of Primitive Technology. In 2004 we did the Watercraft Transporation Project. All projects have been based on pre-iron age technologies. Classes included:
April 30 - May 2 --Introduction, fire making and bindcraft.
May 7 - 9 -- Tool making; stone, bone, and woodworking.
May 14 -16 -- Containers; baskets, rawhide and wooden containers.
May 28 - 38 -- Hide tanning; wet and dry scrape methods of brain tanning.
June 4 - 6 -- Clothing and footwear; garments, moccasins, and sandal making.
June 11 -13 -- Wild plant foods and medicines; harvesting, preparation, cooking and storage.
June 18 - 20 -- Fishing technique; hook and line, spears, nets, weir and trap, hand fishing.
July 17 - 23 -- Boat building I; pirogue plank boat and paddles.
July 30 -- Felt blankets; hand-felting sheep wool.
August 7 -13 --Boat Building II; traditional style canoe.
August 15 - 30 -- Watercraft transportation project
Apprentices participating in the project were required to manufacture the following items:
- Clothing--buckskin dress or shirt and loin cloth (requires a minimum of 2 tanned deerskins).
- Footwear--moccasins and rawhide sandals.
- Containers--gathering basket, rawhide storage container, and wooden bowl.
- Tool kit--stone knife, bone awl, fishing line and tackle, pitch glue, fire kit.
- Foods--5 lbs. dry local wild harvested foods.
- Paddle
- Bedding--may include blankets and mats from plant material or hides fur or felt.
- Boats included hand-crafted and modern non-motorized vessels.
INSTUCTOR PROFILE OF LYNX VILDEN
"I grew up in Europe where I experienced a varied youth including phases as a punkrocker, performance artist and musician. I also spent time amongst the Sami reindeer herders of Northern Sweden. My life changed radically on emergence from my first sweat lodge ceremony in 1989 with the realisation of the calling back to the Earth, learning, sharing and teaching the old ways. This has been my lifestyle and my passion for the last 16 years while I have lived in the Rocky mountain states from Montana to New Mexico.
For more information on Four Seasons Prehistoric Projects, classes and slide presentations contact:
Lynx and Rico
1249 B Twisp River Road
Twisp, WA 98856
509-855-5335
lynxandrico@yahoo.com
Please Note: Lynx lives in the mountains in a handmade yurt far from phones, cars and electricity, she doesn't get to town very often so responses may take up to a week or two. Your patience is appreciated!
The Four Seasons Prehistoric Projects website is maintained by Thomas J. Elpel. Please visit our Web World Portal.
How to Place Retail Orders
Order On-Line: Order on-line with your Visa, Mastercard, Discover or American Express. Simply click on the links to learn more about each product and enter the quantity you want in the little white boxes, then click the "Add to Order" button. You will be transferred to our secure payment service for the final check-out.
Order by mail or telephone: We accept checks and money orders payable in US dollars. Please use the on-line shopping basket to tally your order. Click the "Pay for Order On-line" button to calculate the postage, then print or copy the information and call or send it to us at the address above.
Shipping Options
Granny's Country Store Departments
Tom's Books & Videos
Wilderness Survival | Nature, Wildlife, Tracking
Wildflowers and Edibles | Resources for Educators
Home-Building Resources | Goods for Green Living
Books & Gifts for Kids
Thomas J. Elpel's Web World Pages
Green University | Granny's Country Store | HOPS Press, LLC
Sustainable Living Skills | Primitive Living Skills
Wildflowers & Weeds | Society of Primitive Technology
Jefferson River Canoe Trail | What's New? | Search This Site!
Return to Thomas J. Elpel's
Web World Portal | Web World Tunnel
© 1997 - 2008 Thomas J. Elpel
