2025 Full Circle Semester Blog #5
My soul was new when I came out of the wilderness,
My soul was new when I came out of the wilderness,
Believing, believing on the land.
I looked at my hands and they were new,
I looked at my feet and they were too.
I started to talk, I had a brand new talk,
I started to walk, I had a brand new walk,
I started to sing, I had a brand new song,
And everyone around me wondered what went on.
Footsore and weary, three small groups of travelers made their way slowly up Lazy Mill Road in Stannard, VT. They turned up a muddy driveway and eased off their packs in the barn at the top of the hill, where there were hugs, laughter, and long stories to tell. The Winter Trail, 200 miles and 6 weeks of winter expedition, had come to an end.
And here we are at Lazy Mill Farm, where Penny Hewitt has let us camp for the past three weeks…
We spent our first few days wrapping up the winter expedition, resting, and catching up with ZZ and Lillian, back from healing off trail. We processed all of our feelings and experiences from the winter through journaling, an appreciation circle, creative writing, skit work, dance, and song.
Anneliese, Thomas, Justin and ZZ dancing on one of our few warm days
Candlelit appreciation circle under the stars
Our second day here at basecamp, we began making our home for the following three weeks. We lashed tarps to the pre-existing tarp structures, set up a beautiful and functional kitchen, organized our log yard, and once again put up our well loved tent. Underneath the tarps were our sleeping spaces: the large Honey Hollow canvas wall tent for the girls and a smaller wall tent for the guys. At meal times, we ate in the winter tent and during academics we used the upstairs of Penny’s barn.
Cecilia washing dishes in our new camp
We welcomed Hope back and Tashi joined our group before we said goodbye to Jo, Rebecca, and Alex five days later. With the switch in staff, we began to focus on working as part of the surrounding community: moving forward replaced looking back at everything we had done together in the past two months.
ACADEMICS
With Hope and Tashi, our days followed a rhythm and we were able to work more on academics and other projects.
We spent an hour in the woods one day making something beautiful out of found objects. It was a cold, overcast day with a foot of fluffy snow and more falling as we worked. We trudged through the woods together to see each art piece, approaching in silence and then making space for observations. Each one was so different and beautiful in its own way: a spiral in the snow, a mossy fairy house, or a dried flower bouquet ensconced in a birch bark scroll.
Alexa’s mandala made from boughs, dried grasses, and rocks
Delilah’s model boil up spot
We also formed small literature groups. Each group set a reading goal for the week and met up to talk about the book. Each person in the group was assigned a role: discussion leader, summarizer, illustrator, literary luminary, and pathfinder. The discussion leader came up with questions relevant to the reading and led the discussion. The summarizer looked at the section that was read and found the key points and then wrote a short summary to share with the group. The illustrator made drawings of something from the book. The literary luminary came up with important bits to talk about and interesting quotes, and the pathfinder mapped all of the places in the book and how they shaped the characters into who they are.
Hope did a short class with us on songwriting. We came up with lyrics from our journals and then played with melody. We have been slowly learning some of the songs that were written as our meal time blessings.
Dorothy’s song:
And every footfall onto earth
Is a gratitude in motion.
We are made of starlight.
Everything has come full circle.
Zinnia’s song:
Cause–
I’m a wayfinding traveler,
A wayfinding traveler I am.
Two skis on my feet,
This pack and some cheese
Away from here I must go–
Cause…
Tashi taught us some friction firemaking skills, and we made a bow drill kit and practiced bow drill and hand drill.
Lucia doing bow drill in the barn
As winter began to turn into spring ( well, at least for a couple days) we studied phenology, the changing of seasons. Each of us chose two species to observe from now through our spring expedition and record the changes that occur as the weather warms.
SERVICE WORK
Center for Agriculture and Economy
As part of getting to know this area, we volunteered at several places that are part of the larger community.
On a frigid blustery day, we met Bethany at the community garden in Hardwick. She is an employee at the CAE (Center for an Agricultural Economy). The CAE helps small farms distribute their produce to grocery stores, rents out their commercial kitchen to small companies as a stepping stone to buying a factory, and organizes about 80 community meals per month.
Lillian taking apart an older garden bed
The flooding in the past two years has severely damaged the community garden beds and Bethany needed us to help with taking apart broken beds and rebuilding and filling beds in the small greenhouse there. Following the work block, Bethany fed us delicious homemade soup and sandwiches that she made us and kindly answered all of our questions about the organization.
Cecilia and Thomas moving garden beds at the community garden
Jem moving dirt to a new garden bed at CAE
Lillian, Jem, and Delilah dumping soil into a newly built garden bed at CAE
Thomas, Delilah, and ZZ having fun with the wheelbarrow at CAE
All of us with Bethany at CAE
Heartbeet
Outside of Hardwick, there is a small Camphill community and farm that we were lucky enough to be able to spend time at and help them out with gardening work: Heartbeet Lifesharing.
We worked with their farm crew on getting the soil ready for planting. We pulled grass roots and turned the soil while we chatted with the residents and staff, one of whom, Finn, did winter semester! We ate lunch in their beautiful communal building with everyone from the community. Everyone was very welcoming and openly shared about what daily life looks like there.
ZZ and past semester student, Finn, pulling weeds at Heartbeet
In the evening, we split up into groups and had dinner at several of the houses on the farm. They made us delicious food, we played games together, and had interesting conversations. After dinner, we performed part of our skit and a few Heartbeet residents shared about their experiences living in a Camphill community.
We slept overnight in their main building, and the next morning we helped out on the farm again. Half of us shoveled out the barn and the rest of us weeded and transplanted in the greenhouse. We said a sad goodbye to everyone there, and we all sincerely hope to go back and visit again.
Sky Meadow
In return for the space that they let us use for parent weekend, we helped Erin and Brandon with getting the Sky Meadow Retreat Center ready for the spring. We raked dead plants and grass out of their garden, shoveled gravel back onto the driveway, and pruned the many chaotic grape vines that were trying to take over.
PARENT WEEKEND
May you know in your bones that this earth is your home…
We approached the circle of our families, eyes closed with smiles on their faces as we sang. We wound into the center of the circle, approaching just as we had left them, holding hands with a song on our lips and tears in our eyes.
Our smaller community melded into the larger community of all who support us and think about us every day: grandparents, parents, siblings, and staff. It felt like we were one big family connected by our love of each other and Mother Earth.
We had a leisurely breakfast together, sharing stories and munching on the delicious food that all of our families brought. Following the meal, half of us had parent teacher conferences at Sky Meadow before lunch, while the rest of us walked or drove to Penny’s with our families to show them what our camp looks like and help Penny out with splitting and stacking wood. After lunch, we had another block of conferences and spent time at Penny’s.
We all ate dinner together, performed our skit and got to watch a parent show and tell. We closed the day with a whirling contra dance. The next morning, we had our last few hours with our parents. We ate breakfast, did a short slideshow and said our goodbyes. We drove back to Penny’s and spent the rest of our afternoon by ourselves in the woods to process everything that had happened during the past couple of days.
PACK BASKETS
Throughout our stay here, we have worked on pounding black ash logs to prepare material for our pack baskets. Black ash is a ring porous tree, which means that when you pound it, the spring growth is crushed and the thicker summer growth releases, creating thin wood splints, perfect for weaving.
afternoon pounding by Penny’s pond
Schuyler pounding black ash
Dorothy peeling the summer growth off of a black ash log
Penny is a basket weaver by trade, and she guided us through the process. After we had pounded enough material, we cut them into ¾ inch strips and wove the bases of our baskets. We then screwed rectangles of wood into the bases to make them sturdy and began weaving upward, shaping as we went. We lashed thicker rim pieces onto the tops of our baskets and made straps for carrying them on our backs. It was wonderful to see how even though we had all started the same way, each basket was unique and beautiful. No matter where in the world they end up, the baskets will link us together, all of them originating from the same trees.
ZZ and Alexa screwing the board onto their basket bases
Runa and Justin weaving their baskets
And now here we are gearing up for our spring expedition! We head out on our bikes in two days headed for Lake Champlain…
Sacred human I am
With bare feet
I walk across the river stones
With iron in my blood
And the earth in my bones
I tend the fire in my heart
So I am never alone.
Sacred human I am
Your scribe,
Lucia
