Marin Tender Tracks Tues. Nov. 4, 2014 Day 17

Waxing Gibeous Moon
Lake Lagunitas

Hana and Theron were away on holidays today and we were visited by a beautiful woman who played with ease and grace with the children.  It was a very big day today as it was a Fire day.  We now have permission to have wood burning fires at Lake Lagunitas as long as they are in the designated fire pits, NO PROBLEM!!! and so, that is what we did for the day.
Of course the children came in and out like a village with “work” going on and the young ones coming in and out as their interests ebbed and flowed.  It was a peaceful, easeful and beautiful day.
When the group shifts due to some children gone it is always great to see what happens.
Ariel and Velia did just fine playing with each other and of course Thea. All the girls played with delight together with their games of house and babies.  Thea doesn’t put her back pack on the front of her body like the other girls but she does play with joy.   Jai and Enzo were seen so many times during the day playing together, eating together and having just a good time of it.  Julian REALLY liked helping out with the fire, bringing wood and needed things from the bus and he and Nico helped a lot with all the things that we needed.  They worked together sweetly.
Enzo took our guest to go find the newts but they were not successful . Later on Velia, Thea , Jai and I found them and we called her over for that.  They got their hands REALLY  muddy in order to hold the newts and were very happy campers about this.
Linsey worked at making a bow drill with her kit but she needed to make a notch in her fire board.  The children sat in coming in and out and then, the fire board BROKE!! so then it was time to make a one match fire.  We were practicing with some of the materials we had around.  Our materials  were wetter then we thought so, it took us about 5 matches but alas, WE GOT IT GOING!!!
I have a stone slab that I use for cooking on and after the fire was going and the children put their sticks in we put the grate down, stone slab on and then waited for it to get hot.  I had a spray bottle that Enzo and Jai were LOVING and come time, they sprayed the slab to see if the water beaded up.  We had to build the fire up a little more in one spot and, after a time, hot and hot and hot it got and on went the pumpkin seeds that they scooped out of the pumpkins from Thursday.  They cooked and got salted and then, we ate them up!!! SO yummy!!!!
The day moved on quite quickly it seemed so we had to get a bucket brigade going to put out the fire. The boys all worked together to get water and then all of the children took turns pouring water on the fire.  But oh yes, we danced a fire dance before we put it out. It was really ashame to put such a beautiful fire out before it had fully died down but alas, we had to.  They heard the music of the fire and the water sing out when we poured the water on and then it all turned into a grand watery fullness. The colors changed from white to black.  We saw Cloud children being burn as the water fell upon the fires.   The stone slab was REALLY hot and after many, many water pourings over it, I finally took it down and dunked it into the pond!
They all got their belongings together, we sang our good byes and gave some beautiful gratitudes and made our way back to home.