Welcome To ROOTS
Engage With Your Landscape.
Grow Your Wilderness Skills.
Craft A Handmade Life.
We offer classes to meet varied levels of skill and intensity, from beginner to expert, youth to adult. We offer limited class sizes, hands on learning, and highly experienced instructors. Roots is where you can build solid skills, connections to the world around you, and confidence and strength within. We hope to see you soon!
Bringing you the Stone Age since 2007.
New To ROOTS
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ROOTS Blog
Winter Tracking I
Tracking in the snow is cheating right? It can feel that way when much of the year you can struggle to find any clear prints to identify, any gait patterns to decipher, or trails to follow. You learn pretty quickly to look in track traps along wet areas, in protected...
Yesterday I noticed American Yew being browsed by white tailed deer. I have to say after 20+ years of paying attention to what these animals eat I still constantly add new things to the list. Hundreds and hundreds of herbs, shrubs, and trees for them to browse.
#whitetaileddeer #wildlifetracking #deerbrowse #tracking #signtracking #americanyew #yew #treeid
Bow drill signal fires. This month our long term survival skill group had the challenge of making a signal fire using a knife and p cord to make a signal fire. This was tough bussiness as it rained all day the day before then dropped to 14 degrees. They persisted and learned some valuable lessons on their way to success. Fire can be a powerful tool to helping rescuers find you when you can't get yourself to safely.
#wintersurvival #survival #survivalskills #wildernesseducation #wildernesssurvival #wildernessselfreliance #winter #vermontwinter #bowdrill #frictionfire #signalfire #skills
Hawkbill Sea turtle. What a blast it is to free drive along the reef and experience the variety and intricacies of the natural world. It makes me filled with awe like a little kid. Thanks again to @mattcorradino for being a great dive buddy and always being game to go out and see what we find.
#hawksbill #canebay #stx #stcroix #seaturtle #nikonz6 #wildlife #reef
Ash here holding a basket I wove from catsclaw vine carrying guava fruits. Inspired by the generosity of @sandra.kehoe.5 giving Ash baskets she wove and @mattcorradino 's kid, Ilee, being so cool as well as generous with Ash, this is now her basket to bring to the farmers market or fill with fruits or art supplies or iguanas -who knows! baskets always seem to find their place.
@Caribbeanearthskills
#stx #stcroix #craft #traditionalskills #handskills #basketry #guava
Built an osage take down bow so I could shoot this amazing 3d archery course they have here @caribbean_earth_skills . Shooting with @mattcorradino and Carmen is always a good time. Seriously tho, more than 30 full size 3d targets woven through the rainforest and ruins. Truly a hidden gem.
#3darchery #traditionalarchery #traditionalbowhunting #stx #stcroix #selfbow #usvi
star fruit for a star basket
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learned a bit about basket hoop vine, did a hex weave that I haven't done for a decade and makes my brain work hard to turn up along with Carmen @caribbean_earth_skills giving pointers on where the corners are, and star fruit/carambola are just going off right now.
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weaving, gathering, learning ...
Happy New Year 💚 2023
📸 @naturally_amasa
Brad builds a bow, Sarah weaves a quiver and we both make a few arrows for her to play with.
Ash is just learning how to string an arrow, but for those of you who love to shoot there is an extensive 3d target range through the woods here at Mount Victory that is pretty awesome.
Winter Solstice. ☀️
We welcome back the growing light.
Bank beavers! These beavers are caching willow, red osier dogwood, poplar and more. The last shot has the elusive beavers poops for all to see.
#vermontwilderness #vermontbyvermonters #vt #wildernesseducation #wildlifetracking #vtnature #beaver
Sunsets on the west end don't get old! Come check out this magic spot with us in December.
SAINT CROIX
Course is coming up December 4th!
Come learn with us and Matt and Carmen of @caribbean_earth_skills
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Ah, look at these lovely people who were a part of the course last year who wove beautiful baskets and gathered all sorts of plentiful foods.
We will be running a course with them December 4th - 9th.
This island is beautiful! Matt and Carmen are so knowledgeable with a love and respect for the land.
You can choose your own focus and take the path of basketry and foraging or tropical fishing.
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Link in bio to learn more.
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🌿Ash gnome in an Ash basket.🌿
Thanks to @lazymillhillfarm for running a great black ash pack basket class and helping me weave this beauty.
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Two years in, Ash's second birthday. I am so excited to have executed this idea of dying silks all the colors of the rainbow with natural dyes. Ek! They are so beautiful...more to be done, can't be stopped now!
We are delighted to know her and see her grow. May she tie one on as a scarf and keep helping me in the garden, jumping into piles of leaves, or pretending to weave baskets.
Beautiful days, @_rvnstone_ weaving basswood bark at a previous rendezvous courtesy of Barry Keegan leading the way.
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Coming up September 3, 4, 5.
Class schedule is up!
A few spots remaining.
Link in bio.
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#rootsrendezvous
Schedule is up.
It is a fantastic line up of classes, check it out! So excited about it. Too many to list them all. Link in bio.
Naturalist skills
Herbal medicine
Ninjutsu
Blacksmithing
Basketry
Fire by friction
Mushrooms
Butter and cheese making
Tracking
Broom making
Stone tools
Traps
Cordage
Wild edibles
Camouflage
Hide tanning
Birding
Bees
Mead making
Knife sharpening
Shoe making
Knots
And more...
Learn more. Grow. Connect.
Spots are still open so join on up if your interested. Two day registration just opened up.
The link is in the bio for you to scope it out, and check back in as I'll be adding a few more classes later today.
Feel free to share this with others.