Electives (Class Calendar)
Electives (as opposed to the core curriculum) in The Human Path are classes that
cover one detailed subject and are usually short in length (2 - 3 hours), or sometimes
a series of classes for longer subjects. These topics range from primitive skills
to wilderness medicine to primal homesteading and gardening (permaculture, forest
gardening, green building, etc)
If you live in the San Antonio, Austin or South Texas region and are interested
in homesteading, bushcraft, wilderness medicine and survival, self-defense, primitive
skills, herbology or tracking, joining one or all of the online meetup groups (read
below) is the best way to stay informed of and sign up for classes.
It doesn't cost anything to join, and classes are very affordable, usually ranging
from $10.00 to $50.00+ depending on how many sessions are involved in a given class,
and the amount/cost of materials.
Also, classes are always posted on the
calendar, with links to the signup pages.
The
San Antonio Wilderness Survival and Primitive Skills Classes teach primitive
living skills related to skills like making fire, building shelter, tracking, primitive
hunting and fishing, basic bushcraft, and much more. This same group is available
in the Austin area as well.
The Wilderness Medicine and Herbology classes cover skills like
medicinal plants of the southwest (USA) - harvesting and usage, making salves, making
tinctures, forest gardening, Wilderness First Aid Certification and more. A lot
of the focus is specific to the hill country region (San Antonio, Austin, South
and Central Texas)
Finally, putting it all together in a method that teaches the outdoor fitness required
to be able to work with all these skills: The Survival Fitness and Racing classes teach functional fitness,
core-muscle training, stamina, agility, basic self-defense, and more. Currently,
these are weekly classes that focus about 90% on fitness that can range in tasks
from fighting-related, to carrying someone out of danger, to quadrupedal strength
and plyometric explosiveness, to functional physiology training like climbing trees,
balancing and throwing spears or rabbit-sticks. The other 10% is an introductory
"skill of the day" that can range from identification of an edible or medicinal
plant, to a new track, to a new knot, to a combat technique, to many other skills.
|
| |
Here are some of the upcoming elective classes and courses for 2010 and 2011:
click on any link below to see a full description
|
|
Course
|
Description
|
Bow-making and Archery Series
Container Making Series
Food Preparation Series
Water Safety and Survival
Atlatl making and throwing
(2- or 3-part
class)
Land Navigation
|
This 2 - 3 month series of several weekend
classes will start with 2 or 3 (depending on time) survival bows, all from local
materials we will gather and prepare ourselves. We will then move to arrow making,
fire hardening and fletching, with everyone making at least one complete arrow.
If there is time, there will be a couple of classes on flint knapping for an arrowhead.
However, we will also work with other designs and materials, both primitive (hardened
wood) and modern-primitive (using human salvage materials) for arrow heads.
Next, we will make 2 different types of bowstrings using natural cordage, with everyone
making at least one complete bowstring.
We will have one class on intuitive shooting using both the survival bows we have
made, as well as some other self-made bows that I have on hand.
Finally, this series will finish with several classes spent making a long-term bow
from start to finish. The stave and materials will be provided as part of the class,
and everyone will take home a long-term, self-made bow. A 4 class series covering Basket weaving, bowl burning and
clay pots. We will gather and prepare the clay from the property.
This series will include gathering and
preparation of the local edible plants around the THP property. Mesquite flour,
mesquite honey, canned prickly pear fruits & TX persimmons and agorita jam will
all be on the menu as part of the gathering portion.
Rabbit and venison jerky, as well as pemmican recipes, will be part of the hunting
portion of this series. The meat preparation will be part of the preparation for
the 2010 Survival Trek food caches that we will be using. Also in preparation for the 2010 Survival Trek (water), we
will spend a full day learning water and canoe safety, basic first aid, field expedient
rafts (using natural and man made materials) and water navigation.
Making a spear thrower (atlatl) and dart
(straightening, fletching and target foreshaft), using resources from the local
ecology (Ashe juniper and Arundo donax). Once the spear thrower We will spend at
least a few hours using and tweaking the designs, after they have been made.
This is a full-day class. During the morning,
we cover in depth the use of a topographical map, a compass, pace count, terrain
association. Then in the afternoon we hold a friendly orienteering competition on
a moderate course (teams of 2 or more).
|
|
|
|
