Longterm, Day and Weekend Classes

Course Listing

Longterm Programs

Living with the Ancients

9 month Program

Come for once a month for nine months to get hands on experience with the primitive living skills of hunter gathers. Learn in a natural group setting how to sustain life using only natural materials. In this course you will learn skills such as: primitive cooking, long term shelter building, stone tools, bow and arrow making, willow and plaited basketry, and more, all culminating in a week long primitive living trip with no paper, plastic, glass, or metal.

The Hunter's Path

9 Month Program

Master the basics of hunting, survival, and the skills of a Naturalist: tracking and awareness, scouting, stalking, stealth and camouflage, wild plant id, animal processing, natural voice calling for Turkey, Deer, Coyote, Raven, and so much more!

The Laboratory of Self

A Science of Instinctual Awareness

9 Month Program

Develop a personal training program and become a more durable human through a practice of natural corrective movement. Enter a state of dynamic meditation in a breath, develop your senses and awareness. Practice ancient food ways with wild edible and medicinal plants. Learn Earth based healing techniques, primitive sweat bathing, and the universal language of the heart.

Week, Weekend & Day Camps

Tracking and Awareness

Long before humans had any written language, we studied the marks left on the Earth by living creatures, time, and the elements: not only out of fascination and curiosity, but because our survival depended upon it. Our ability to follow a disturbance in the baseline, and determine “What happened here?” is defined by the limits of our observational skills.   Awaken your senses and strengthen your perceptive skills by learning the basics of tracking! Discover the who, what, when, where, why and how revealed in clear print id, gait studies, track aging, and sign left behind in various substrates. Come away with a new view of the world and a better understanding of the stories told by claw marks, a broken branch, the growth pattern of a tree, or the foot prints of our human and animal neighbors, as they move across the yard.

“Tracking and Awareness are one in the same.” – Stalking Wolf

Advanced Tracking

Gait Studies

Sign Tracking & Interpretation

No two animals, human or otherwise: think the same, act the same, move the same. While there are similarities across species, we each have our own individual tendencies, often revealed in the characteristics of our gait. In this class we take a closer look at stride length, straddle, pitch, and sign indicators that can reveal our identity, the nature of our activities, and our state of mind in doing them. We will also discuss track aging and its relationship with time, temperature, and weather.

Wild Edible Medicinal and Utilitarian Plants

So many of our human nutritional and medicinal needs, are met by the plants, many consider to be simply weeds!   Get to know your landscape and the beneficial plant life that surrounds you, as you learn to identify and process local species for edible, medicinal, and utilitarian purposes. Harvesting as a Caretaker would and practice the “Five Rights”: right place, right plant, right part, right season, and right amount; to ensure the safety, efficacy, and potency of your food and medicine, as well as the abundant continuity of local flora, ensuring the long-term health of all who share our planet.

Bird Language +

Natural Voice Calling

for Turkey, Deer, Coyote, and Raven

If you want to bring ‘em in close you gotta talk birdy to ‘em!   Practice natural voice calling techniques for turkeys, deer, and coyotes. Yelp, purr, gobble, putt…. doe and buck grunts to improve your luck! Tips on vocal modulation, will allow the birder, hunter, and naturalist to finesse their calling, and bring them in for an unforgettable and intimate encounter with local wildlife.   Also, Learn the Language of the Birds, and the 5 Voices spoken universally by our avian neighbors across the globe. Learn how to interpret their calls and avoid their alarms: by changing your posture, gait and mental state; allowing you to move silently and invisibly through the forest, and to get an even closer look at the wild life of local critters and the true baseline of the forest.  

Primitive Trapping

Snares & Deadfalls

Fins, Feathers & Fur

Mammals, Turtles, Birds & Fish

Whether the critter can crawl, fly, swim, or creep, has fins, feathers, hooves or feet: our ancestors have devised some method of catching and dispatching, or detaining them. Traps are energy multipliers and garnish food even while we are at rest, an excellent way to be lazy and bring home the bacon (subterranean whistle pig). Explore a variety of primitive traps: paiute and figure-four deadfall, T-bar and rolling snare, turtle and fish water sets, a livetrap birdcage deadfall, and bird snare will be demonstrated and tested. Scouting, scent camouflage, and baiting techniques will also be covered.

Hunting Wild Game

Advanced Techniques

Scouting, Stalking, Camouflage & Tracking

Shot Placement & Instinctive Archery

Develop the ancient skills of Hunting and Instinctive Archery. Tracking, Scouting, Stalking, Camouflage, and Attracting wild game with food plots, scents and natural voice calling will be covered for a variety of creatures including: deer, turkey, squirrels, grouse, and others. Learning to hunt is more than just firing an accurate arrow while sitting camouflaged in a tree… which, mind you, is no small feat!   To be an effective hunter you must know your landscape and the way it forms habitats and shapes the habits: movement, feeding, rest and breeding of the wildlife you seek. Then you must be able to adapt to changing seasonal patterns, and the fact that animals can be as unpredictable as they are predictable. Finally, when you are close enough for a shot you have to connect solidly with your target and place your arrow in a vital area, or go home hungry.   Our ability to launch a deadly projectile, while avoiding detection, is part of the reason human beings are the apex predator on planet Earth. Following in the footsteps of early hunters, instinctive shooting techniques for everything from sticks and stones, to self-made, recurve, and compound bows, will be covered.

Touch a Turkey!

Wild Turkey Scout, Stalk,

& Natural Voice Call

If the early bird catches the worm, you must get up well before the bird, and be in the right spot to catch it! Rise before the sun and stealth out to a scouted roost, settle, quiet and become a part of the forest. Talk turkey, call ‘em in close, and see if you can touch a feather without them even knowing you are there.   Why don’t we just shoot it you ask? Well, to touch a bird with your hand is far more difficult than reaching out with an arrow or gun. And, it’s a heck of a lot of fun!

Debris Hut Survival Shelter

Location, location, location! Once you find a good spot to build your cozy primitive abode, use only your hands, sticks and leaves, to make a shelter proportioned to your body, that keeps you warm and dry without a fire, even at subzero temperatures. This human sized squirrel nest acts like a giant sleeping bag trapping your body heat and isolating you from the elements, allowing you to conserve energy and enjoy a deep rest. Build a two person style debris hut, and camp cozy with a friend, (or in the case of the photo above a Coyote Mom and her pup).

Wild Water Sources

Coyote Well & Water Purification

Learn to read the landscape and source wild water: a spring or wet area where you can dig a coyote well and provide a clean drink. If you are unable to find a clean water source then you must purify your water and make it safe to drink. Using elbow grease, sticks and the heat of friction generate a coal, add it to a tinder bundle and ignite it into flame. Build a fire structure specifically design to heat stones. Gather wild plants and container materials to make a tonic rock-boiled tea.

Survival Essentials

Ancient to Modern

Stone Tools to High Tech Wizbangers

What things should you always have with you when you venture alone into the wilderness? Make an exhaustive list of essential gear, and experiment with modern and ancient ways of providing your most basic needs: clothing, shelter, fire, water, food, tools. Learn to utilize a metal hatchet, or break rocks to create a cutting edge and shape the world to suit your needs. Make a wire snare, and also craft one from natural fibers to catch dinner. Build a one match fire, or crank up a flame with a ferro rod or a freshly harvested bow drill kit. Practice these vital skills of self-reliance and feel comfortable wandering into any environment with everything organized in your pack, or nothing but the clothes on your back.

Human Tracking & Trailing

Everything is a track to study, and a mystery to explore!   Develop the Tracker’s mindset: a keen self-and-situational awareness, honesty with self and others, and the ability to focus all of your senses on the trail. Vary your vision while following disturbances in the landscape, and foster the patience and mental flexibility required to pursue the human animal through changing substrates. Learn to recognize patterns and sign left behind by human activity, and read the stories written in the cluster tracks of the human gait, clear print id, and other target indicators.

High Speed Invisible Survival

Learn to thrive on the move and master the first three days of total wilderness immersion. Ensure you have the proper clothing: adjustable layers are the first level of elemental protection and camouflage. Build hidden shelters, find and purify water, tend a scout fire, set traps, forage for food. All the while, practice counter tracking and stealth, leave no trace, as you traverse the landscape: gathering food and resources along the way. Study old forms of navigation; natural land features, rivers and ridges, sun, moon and stars to find your way home.

Advanced Camo Techniques

Mud to Modern - Craft and Carry

Ghillie Hats

The more your camouflage is tuned to the landscape the easier it is to hide in plain sight.   The principles of camouflage: dulling, dappling, blending and fuzzing can be applied to bare skin, plain clothes and modern camo to effectively disappear in any landscape. Observe the light and shadow, colors, textures, shapes and reflectivity of your environment, apply materials mud, clay, pigmented tallow, and vegetation to break up the human outline and merge with the landscape.   Practice techniques to enter a relaxed state of mind, and stealthy ways of moving to add another level of camouflage to your stalking game. Respect “jungle etiquette” and avoid disturbing a singing bird, and get that much closer to wildlife and experience the freedom invisibility brings. And…   Build your own ghillie hat! Assemble a ghillie boonie hat or ballcap to effectively camouflage your dome! Make and take, we provide ghillie, mesh and hat*. *You may Bring your own well fitted hat, or; you must let us know when you preregister: your exact size and style preference.

Camouflage & Tie-Dye

All Natural Dyes

Utilize natural dyes made of black walnut, golden rod, indigo, madder root, onion skins, and rusted iron to create a range of
beautiful colors, and ultimately a natural tie-dye, or camouflage, article of clothing. Learn about substantive dyes and mordants to maintain colorfastness as you tie dye, leaf stamp and print your Natural fabric! Buckskin, hemp, linen, or cotton t-shirts are best. No Synthetics Fabric! And, avoid silk and wool for this dye application. Old already-stained garments, make great camouflage, and are a fun way to re-enjoy and repurpose a previously ruined accessory.

Sweat Bath & Potluck

Learn to construct a dome shaped shelter or Medicine Lodge for Sweat Bathing, safely select and heat stone, sacred herbs, and pour water, participate in a universal ceremony honoring the four directions, the seasons and cycles of life, and how to create your own ceremony. Sweat bathing has existed on every continent for thousands of years, and now is a good time to enjoy its therapeutic benefits. Enjoy the fire, and share the warmth of a dome shaped shelter heated by stone, steam, sweat, and tender loving care. Bring a dish to pass, your favorite foods to share, plenty of water, towel, bathing suit, and an empty stomach. You don’t want a full belly when you sweat bathe. Potluck to follow.

Snap Bow/Flex Bow

Bow Drill Fire Kit


Make and take you own friction fire kit! Learn carving techniques to craft a flex bow made of black locust, a cedar fire board, spindle, hand hold, and string. * We provide some tools, and please bring any hand carving tools you have: knives, saws, rasps, etc.

Coal Burning

Bowls & Spoons

Craft a Bowl and Spoon with fire, coals, stones, and breath. No metal carving tools needed (though they are helpful). Learn which woods are ideal for coal burning and which to avoid, and how to shape them into a useful vessel or splendid spoon. *Bring sharp flat or scoop shaped rocks, and any hand
tools that shape wood.

Bow Building - 4 day

For over 14,000 years humans have utilized the stick bow for gathering food and protecting their people. Create a hunting bow (legal draw
weight) from a seasoned wooden stave, fabricate and attach a bow string, and begin a lifetime of playful focus and instinctive shooting. Principles of bow building: tree selection, harvest, drying, and the reductive process of shaping a wooden stick into a well tillered, self-made bow will be presented. Reverse wrap a loop into your bow string, attach it, and then test your bow with
instinctive shooting methods.

Arrow Making

2 Day Class

Primitive arrow making is an ancient art that has fostered the success of our species in hunting and warfare for millennia. The class covers how to craft a deadly accurate projectile: the knowledge of landscape and local plant species ideal for harvest, as well as the hands-on skills required to straighten, fletch, and haft an arrow with a dangerously sharp point made of bone, stone, wood, or volcanic glass.   Acute scientific observation of arrow flight dynamics will allow you to build arrows that match your bow’s draw weight, and ultimately fly straight to your target. Craft and Carry home your own primitive hunting arrow. *Bring your own bow and make your arrow to match.

Stone Bone & Wood

Arrowheads, Knives & Fish Hooks

Flint Knapp, Peck and Grind

Weekend Course

Stone, bone and wood have shaped human existence for even longer that human hands have taken to shaping them. These resources make useful tools, allowing us to shape the world and satisfy our survival needs. In this class we will explore the process of reduction to craft bone knives, fish hooks, and arrowheads. Pressure-flake an arrowhead from a glass bottle, and grind one out of bone, stone, or hardwood..

Longterm Shelter - Earth Lodge

Week Long Intensive

Construct a long-term shelter from all natural materials: find the perfect location give thanks and draw a circle upon the Earth, dig below the soil, erect the center poles, walls, ceiling and chimney, lash it together with bark and natural fibers, insulate with leaves, lattice, and debris; gather stones to build the fire pit, make beds and sleeping matts, light a fire, make tea, campout, and enjoy.

Water Vessels

Pinch Pots and Gourd Containers

Using only sharp rocks open and hollow out a gourd water vessel. Shake it, shake it, nice and clean! Waterproof the inner lining with beeswax and carve a cork. Form a ball of clay into a pinch pot and decorate it with leaf prints, stamps and relief carving. Dry, Toast and Fire.

Primitive Cooking

Delicious Gourmet Food prepared round the fire! Learn old methods of water purification and food preservation, make stone soup, a clay bake and ash cakes. Enjoy fire roasted apples, coal cooking, rock grilling, and
make jerky with a tripod smoker/dryer. Relax and savor the ancient flavor.

Traditional Hand Drumming

Djembe Orchestra

Djembe, Doundoun, Sangban, Kenkeni, Balafon


Practice the essential language of the drum, and experience the incredible phenomenon of call and response, polyrhythmic group play. As one village ensemble, we’ll create traditional polyrhythmic hand drumming, song, and melodic patterns inspired by the w. African djembe orchestra. Exercises in listening, group orchestration, and improvisation techniques will be shared by all. BYO Drum if you have one.

Expert Awareness

Awaken, Heighten & Hone

All of your Natural Senses

Enjoy fun group games, solo, and partner exercises and get to know your body better than ever. Come to understand your sensual languages and how
they respond to stimuli as you awaken the faculties of sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing, and your ability to sense presence and intent. Through
interactive and scientific experimentation, you will develop both your physical and instinctual senses, improving your self-and-situational awareness in any environment; be it the forest, city, or suburb.

“Our senses define our consciousness. How far do you want to take it?” – Diane Ackerman

Natural Movement

Develop a fitness practice specific to you and your body. Grow stronger, more confident, flexible and durable. Lose weight, get toned, and eliminate
any fear of falling or becoming feeble as you age. Learn to move like a ninja, an animal, and a Scout. Studies on aging have found three major factors that determine the quality and longevity of human life. They are: grip strength, our ability to rise from the ground, and our ability to balance on one leg. This course is the beginning of a gradual progressive journey, to reclaim and fortify your body from the effects of a sedentary life, or a life of repetitive movement. It will reset and balance your body by strengthening your weak spots, and toning your body from its core. The goal is to move with joy, control and ease; allowing for fluid transitions from low to high levels, explosive power, a soft, quiet and supple grace; and the ability to roll or fall without injury.

Dynamic Meditation

Access a dynamic state of meditation with a variety of tools involving vision, breath, your senses and your gait. Enter “The Silence” and explore Nature. Discover a new way of being. This is Not a “Meditate on your pillow and wait to be enlightened” kind of a thing. It is a “Here is a tool.
Now go test it.” kind of a thing. To know these tools are working we need results.

Earth Based Healing

& Body Control

Strengthen your mind body connection and access your Inner Fire to warm your body, heal yourself, and heal others. Master Earth based techniques of energetic conductivity similar to Reiki, to harmonize, empower, and balance your vital energy

Personal Training

Need some guidance in bringing your life to the next level, recovering from injury, or the effects of a modern lifestyle? Len is also an ISSA certified personal trainer and corrective exercise specialist. He has been teaching yoga and fitness for over 25 years. He is the founder of Feral Human Fitness, and the Couch Potato to Wild Critter corrective exercise online training program.

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