Wild Hearted Boys – Session 6

Last session, the Wild Hearts enthusiastically continued work on their woodsy fortress. This week our carpenter friend, Tibor, helped us finish up the fort’s walls and prep the structure for a roof. What was most exciting about this session, in addition to the work we all put in to making this fort happen, but what has begun to spring up around the structure.

Immediately upon arriving at our work site, several boys began to clear out a small area of forest floor and demarcate it with standing sticks. As fort construction continued, the small fenced area began to fill up with all manner of edible plants – transplanted by boys who had learned about them from previous sessions.

The wild-crafted gardens didn’t stop there, once the first plot of land has been filled with blueberries and huckleberries a second plot of land was made for smaller, low crawling, medicinal plants. Small scout teams were assembled and equipped with  burlap bags and shovels to venture deeper into the woods with and retrieve a variety of less common specimens.

 

During their scouting missions, the boys also learned how to safely use bows and arrows, wandering through the woods and picking targets for each other along the way.

In many ways the  Wild Hearted Boys program has begun to take on a life of its own. As the boys have become more comfortable with being in the woods they have also started taking ownership for the spaces that they have made out there, the gardens being a great example of this.

Needless to say, as the summer approaches the Wild Hearted staff is looking forward to seeing what other roots the boys decide to put down on the land and within the group.

-Coyote