Waning Moon/ Last Quarter
Lake Lagunitas

We were blessed to have Michelles son with us today who is 6 1/2 years old.  This was nice for the boys as they played with him joyfully.
And it was another beautiful day which we had a “backwards” day= circle comes after they eat their lunch due to needing to make fire and cook.
Straight away Velia and Hana had to poop and Ariel and Thea wanted to watch.  This is their current theme and curiosity one with the other. Also, asking permission if they can do so. 🙂
This took quite a while as they both pooped a lot in the Tender Tracks Potty yet, they said there was more so we had to go to the porta potties to finish because I ran out of plastic bags to line the potty with. Nico at this point joined us.
The others were HAPPILY busy gathering wood with and for Michelle and getting the fire area ready for cooking Elder Berry Flower fritters and making Horse Tail and Yeba Buena tea.
The Elder Berry Flowers are blooming all over the place and Yerba Buena you can find along the walks you take in our area.  If you wish to learn more about this please get a copy of Mia Andlers book: The Bay Area Forager: Your Guide to Edible Wild Plants of the San Francisco Area. She is local  and runs outdoor programs as well here in Fairfax.
So, by the time we got back the wood was stacked, the area swept, boys happy and Michelle and I got going with our hand drills.  I got a coal pretty quickly and she got the “nest” to put the coal in.  Unfortunately it went out so I made another coal and this one took. All the children worked together to make the fire a light.  And, they had been working with the hand drill on Thursday and at it again with enthusiasm to do it again on this day.   A favorite moment of mine was watching Enzo pick up a stick and a board and pretend to make a fire with his hand drill and fire board. As we got the fire together we called them in to  remember how to be safe and care for one another around the fire and to see who would be fire tenders. There then were other tasks to tend to: Getting water in the pot for tea, stripping the Horse tails to put in the pot with the Yerba Buena and mixing the batter for the fritters.  Mixing the eggs and stirring the batter was fun for all.
When the fritters were all cooked up and the tea was ready, we got into our cirlce, which is now created with our mats. ( this is aiding them a lot in coming in)  We ate and had two story songs: 1: There was a tree, in the middle of the woods, the finest tree , that you ever did see…. I think you all might know this call and response song. Then I told them a very funny story that they all had to partake in that ended with a great deal of fun and laughter.
For the children remaining after all this I brought out some Turkey feathers, a skeleton from a snake that past Tender trackers found and a Coyote Skull.  The taxi dermed birds will have to come out later because their attention had wained by this time.
The energy got a bit harsh at this time for most so we got them all together but alas, it was disturbing to Michelle and I so I called them together with our special talking stick that comes out at this time to see if we could create agreements to behaviors and treatment one to the other.  It kind of went over and after that they were much more settled as we migrated to a different spot and fully ate the rest of their lunch. And for those that had finished lunch and snack I brought another snake out, dates and walnuts that got consumed!
Theron found some of their nails that they had pounded in to the ground prior and wanted the nails and hammers again. But alas, those things were just too far so I made them some wooden nails and they used those with rocks for hammering. We then went further to a beautiful spot where they settled in and settled down to the sweetness of the lake, sun, eating wild plants, throwing rocks in the water in a way where everyone was safe and the like.  We then had to make our way back after an out breath here and a receiving the beauty of a different spot.