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School Profile
Earth Connection Virginia
Earth Connection is an outdoor school which
was founded in March of 1997 by
Tim MacWelch. We are a licensed and insured business in Fauquier County, Virginia,
U.S.A.
We are not the biggest or oldest school teaching primitive
skills. We are however the most sincere and least cultish
school teaching wilderness survival and general primitive technologies in the
entire Mid-Atlantic. We are neither New Age, Hippie, Militia or
Survivalist. We have no hidden agenda in our classes. We are not
selling our own brand of religion or spirituality. Each class teaches what
it promises to teach. We
feel that our hands-on courses and personal attention provide the best
way to learn primitive technology and outdoor skills. We're a small school
with better service; and we're also leading the way in outdoor skills education
by developing and offering ground breaking courses like Edible Plants of each
season, Primitive Cooking and Fire Making techniques that you won't see anywhere
else.
Our mission is to
teach our students how to be comfortable and feel at home in the wilderness; and to understand
the resources and history around them.
Our school teaches
modern, historically and prehistorically
based skills in a way that makes them relevant to modern people. We welcome
students who are with
us to learn skills that will keep them safe in the wilderness and students who are here to learn
more about the lives of their ancestors.
All Virginia classes
( unless otherwise specified ) are held at our woodland camp near Somerville,
Virginia. This rural area is rich in
biodiversity, and has been an excellent place for the school's location for the
past 5 years.
There will be no
electricity, phone or running water at our camp. There is a solar heated shower
for use during warmer weather.
The restroom facility is a simple outhouse.
Parking is close to camp; and students will have access to their vehicles during
courses.
Course Information
All of our courses are designed
to offer hands-on instruction and coaching in outdoor skills and primitive technology.
Class size is always limited to provide a personalized class and
plenty of individual attention.
All
courses ( unless otherwise
specified ) are adult level courses for adult participants, 18 and
older. To join us for a class, we must
have your application form and tuition at least 7 days before the
first day of the course. Please go to our registration page for more
information and a printable application form.
You
can now CHECK FOR LAST MINUTE CANCELLATIONS
in our classes, which would provide you
with a last minute space in that class. Please call or email for class
openings.
DAILY SCHEDULE
- All of
our courses are run on a predetermined schedule. The days are spent
learning in our camp, practicing the skills that have just been taught, and
doing exercises to reinforce these skills. On overnight courses,
there is usually a subject or two taught after dinner, and then the rest of the
evening is spent around the campfire. Students are not expected haul water,
chop wood or do any other school chores during our courses. They are only
responsible for washing their own dishes and cleaning up after themselves.
However, we always appreciate a little extra help when we need it.
CLASS TIMES
-
One day courses run from 9 am to 5 pm. Our longer courses run
from 9 am to about 8 pm on the first day, 8 am to 8 pm during the course, and 8 am
to 5 pm on the final day. A few breaks are also included in each day.
MEALS
-
Students will need to provide their own meals for all
of our courses, with
the exception of the Primitive
Cooking course. Drinking water, washing water and snacks will be
provided by us for all courses. There will be a one hour
break for meal time at lunch on our one day classes; and a one hour break at
breakfast, lunch and dinner on overnight classes. Our camp is located 30
minutes drive each way from the nearest restaurants, so there isn't enough time during
courses for students to go out for meals. We recommend that students
bring food that they can prepare while camping. Please contact us if you have any
questions.
Staff Information
Tim
Tim MacWelch
is the founder and head instructor of Earth Connection School of Wilderness
Survival and Ancient Skills. He has been a student of primitive skills for
twenty years now, studying wilderness survival and primitive technologies with
most of the top schools and instructors in the east. He has also been a teaching
assistant and guest instructor for many of his teachers. He has
independently studied Botany, and wild edible plants in particular, for the past
decade. Tim's favorite primitive skill is friction fire.
Tim also has independently studied Anthropology for the past
decade. Tim has spent time
studying the Coastal Algonquin cultures of the Mid-Atlantic and he used this
knowledge to construct an authentic Algonquin Long house for the Weems-Botts
Museum in Dumfries, Virginia. That exhibit no longer exists, but
this
knowledge and experience is still proving useful.
Tim has been professionally teaching wilderness survival and
primitive technology since he founded Earth Connection in the spring of
1997. He has been working with kids through his own youth workshops to schools, church groups, the Boy Scouts, Cub
Scouts, and other youth groups since 1995.
Hue
Rick "Hue" Hueston
is an
explorer and naturalist of a different breed. Class
adventures with him are a mixture of blind discovery and carefully thought out
instruction. He uses a self-developed method for teaching that centers on
the traditional Native American Medicine Wheel as metaphor.
He is a curious naturalist exploring our natural world with predator
vision, awareness and intuition. For
the most part, he is a self-taught and self-effacing person whose chief
interests in life has been to break free of society�s current technological
paradigm, gain degrees of natural knowledge and slip into nature�s simplicity.
Recently retired from military
service, he has personal adventures and professional teaching experience that
range the full spectrum of nature�s biomes.
Hueston wants you to explore and learn the skills with him,
instead of from him.
Jenn
Jennifer MacWelch
has kept this school running since it's beginning. She built this
web site. She handles many administrative tasks. For years, she has
stayed up to midnight cooking weeds in her kitchen the night before wild plant
classes. And she developed amazing wild plant recipes. If you are here at the right time of year, you may
get to taste her Acorn Pumpkin cake. This school would not exist without
her hard work and patience. She has given Tim two beautiful daughters,
Megan and Kaitlyn, who will hopefully follow in the family footsteps someday.
Jamey
Jamey Hueston
has been assisting us for two years now, and bringing us the great
outdoors from a woman's perspective (this can be a very testosterone driven
"primitive Industry"). She is a great craftsperson in gourd work
and
a serious camping chef. Her wild greens quiche can turn even the
staunchest " I don't eat quiche" guys into believers!
Jamey is kind and very helpful, even teaching a stubborn old fire making dog
like Tim a few new Bow Drill tricks.
Where have you seen us?
In addition to volunteering at many Boy Scout events
over the years, Earth Connection has been featured in Conde Nast Traveller
Magazine, the Washington Post newspaper and several local publications. We appeared on the National
Geographic Today news program teaching reporter Kristin Whiting how to make
a friction fire, and she got it (Jan. 18, 2001). We have also been
featured live on Good Morning America teaching Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts
and Tony Perkins the Weatherman how to make friction fire with the Bow Drill
(Jan. 23, 2001). We were sponsored by Men's Journal to
provide workshops at Camp Jeep 2001 (July 26-28, 2001). Earth
Connection was back again at Camp Jeep 2003 (June 26-28, 2003) sponsored this
time by Men's Journal and Rolling Stone Magazine. We have 3 outdoor videos
on MonkeySee.com that you can watch for free any time.
Why do we offer the most reasonably priced
classes around?
Because we don't believe in price
gouging. It's that simple. It shouldn't cost a fortune to learn to
rub two sticks together. We want to put outdoor skills in the hands of
everyone. Maybe your money is limited, or your time is limited. Not
everyone can take off a week of work (and spend a thousand dollars, too)
to go break rocks in the woods. We run concise, subject specific weekend
classes that are respectful of our student's time and money. Some of our
students said that they didn't try us first because they thought we were "too
cheap". They thought that the high dollar classes at big name schools must be better.
They told us that they were sadly disappointed with the expensive classes, and
very glad they found us.
How can the cheapest be the best? We invite you to come to
see for yourself. 2009 will be our 13th year of continuous operation,
offering weekend classes every season of every year, and weekly Custom Classes year-round. Over three
quarters of our students are returning students, taking multiple classes with
us. And often, they bring their friends back with them to share their
experiences and fun. Their repeat patronage speaks volumes.
Why
do we teach this stuff?
In a nut
shell, we love the subjects that we teach; and we love teaching.
The philosophy of Earth
Connection and it's staff is pretty simple - we
love nature and history; we want to preserve both; share them with
others; and hopefully, inspire our students to do the same.
Our
school's mission is to share the concept that all of our ancestors lived in a similar way.
Everyone's ancestors rubbed sticks to get fire, broke stones to make tools and made homes
from the natural materials around them, no matter what culture they lived in or which
continent they lived on. We believe that from this prehistoric common ground, we learn lessons
about cultural understanding and harmony today. Our business plan
is to provide you with high quality class content; reasonable and realistic
survival strategies; and a safe, enjoyable learning experience.
What we are
We are living historians and primitive technologists.
We are stewards of the land and the skills of our ancestors who lived close to
the land. We teach how to be a part of the
landscape, and how to preserve it for future generations. One of the nicest compliments that we ever got from a student was simply -
" You guys are exactly what I wanted, a cross between the Sierra Club and
my college Anthropology Department." Mike C. of Washington, D.C.
Our
survival skills do not destroy nature, in fact, we feel it is our
duty to preserve nature and the skills of the peoples close to the earth for future
generations. We feel that our
future will be positively affected by promoting an understanding of the skills common to
all of our ancestors. That's how we think and operate.
Moving toward something positive. And hoping to inspire some fellow
travelers to join us on similar paths.
What we are NOT
We are not a
cult. We are not tree hugging drum thumping hippies. There is no religious or philosophical agenda at our classes. We are not
"Survivalists" waiting for the BIG ONE to drop. We are not new age weirdos motivating people through fear like so many outdoor gurus who sell you the illusion of
salvation along with the promise of Apocalypse. We DO NOT believe that the End of the World is
coming. I (Tim) have sat in other school's classes and heard their head
person promise me that the world will end in my lifetime, and if I take all of
their classes now, my family and I have a 100% chance of surviving. Well,
that was my last visit there. That's not how we operate, or think. We're not trying to get you to take our classes through
any scare tactics.
Each class stands alone. We enjoy repeat guests, and we get A LOT
of repeat guests, but we are certainly not
trying to scam anyone into taking all of our classes.
Why go to Earth Connection courses?
Earth Connection's courses provide the following valuable benefits
to our students.
-
Earth Connection is a small, streamlined business with the
ability to provide priceless, lifesaving skills at prices well below
our competition. We try harder and we pour more into
our classes that the "Name-Brand Schools".
-
The
Custom Classes can be scheduled Monday thru
Friday - year round, at prices very close to our regular class
prices.
-
Our curriculum is compartmentalized, to allow you to select and combine the subjects that suit
your needs and interests. Add on a Private Class before or
after a regularly scheduled class for a longer training period.
-
Even if our students have received extensive survival training,
our innovative survival techniques will provide them
with additional new survival strategies. These new skills will
give our students even more tactics to survive.
-
All of our courses provide students with a written manual on the
skills covered in that course, so that everyone has consistent
information to study during the course and to review afterward.
-
Earth Connection's curriculum is designed to pack many new
skills and skill practice time into every class.
We don't believe in scamming our students with useless filler.
There's no marching around or busywork on our classes. If you
want to go hiking to fill up a day, you can do that yourself for
free. It won't happen on our clock. We pack into 2 or 3
days the amount that other guys stretch out over a week. So
you cover the same ( or probably much more ) information at a
fraction of their cost!
-
"The
class isn't over when you go home!" We care about our students
and their progress. The door is always open for further study,
for your questions and to help you join the local and global
Primitive Skills community.
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