Maine Local Living School

*Indicates a larger project that necessitates a half day commitment or more.

 

• Solar Food Dehydration: Make fruit leather

• Preservation with lacto-fermentation: Make sauerkraut, kimchi, dilly beans, or fermented pickles.

• Acorn Processing: Grind and leach acorn flour, bake acorn bread.  

• *Rocket Stove Construction: Make your own rocket stove for camping or home use. 

• Mowing with a Scythe: Experience the rhythm and grace of mowing by hand and learn about sharpening the scythe blade.

• Sourdough: creating and maintaining a sourdough culture & baking

• Making yogurt

• Tool Sharpening: Learn basic principles of sharpening edge tools.  Bring your own kitchen or carving knife to practice on.

• *Hammer Handle: Make a hammer handle and “hang” the hammer on its new handle.

• *Drum Making: steam-bend a hoop drum and sew on a goat-skin head.

• Wild Foods: Learn to identify harvest and cook with wild foods of the season.

• Tree Identification Walk: Learn who is who in our forest and some of their many uses.

• *Spoon Carving: Make your own wooden spoon to take home.

• *Bowl Carving: Carve a wooden bowl with gouges and mallet.

• *Basket Making: Make a small basket, from ash, root or birch-bark. 

• Leather Work: Sew a small pouch/ purse/ wallet out of hand tanned buckskin.

• Composting: Build a compost pile from start to finish.

• *Composting Toilets: Build your own simple composting toilet to take home, and learn the do's and don'ts of composting.

• Chicken Slaughter: Kill, process, and cook a chicken

• Orienteering: Map and Compass use / bushwhack adventure

• Spatula/spear Carving: Carve a giant wooden spatula or spear with a drawknife and shave-horse (parents often delight in the spatula while even a very young child (4yrs old) can make a great spear) 

 

Activities for Kids (and/or Adults!):

 

• *Make a simple bow and arrow

• Carving time with drawknife and shave-horse (With parental permission swords and spears are popular carving projects!)

• Making fire with friction

• Cooking bread on a stick

• Make string from natural fibers

• Make birch-bark napkin holders

• Make corn husk dolls.

• Make porcupine quill necklace