Last updated on 11/29/08 |
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Custom Courses and Professional Grade Courses
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Custom Courses We are offer a limited number of Custom Courses during weekdays only (that's Monday thru Friday, sorry NO WEEKENDS) You can now enjoy our end of the year discount price $100 per person per day. Good only til New Years Eve '08! You pick your class,
together we will schedule the date, and then we run the class at our camp for
you as a One-on-One Custom Course or as a Custom Course Class for your
small group. Tim MacWelch personally runs each of these courses at Earth Connection's
camp near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Two days with overnight campout this season are regularly $300 for a one person private One-on-One class, $250 per person for 2 or more people in the same class. But you can now enjoy our end of the year discount price $100 per person per day. These classes run from 9am on the first day to 4pm on the second day and include ONE of the following classes
Wilderness Survival - Primitive Skills (condensed 2 day version)
Teens WITH a parent may be accepted for Custom Courses, call or write
for more info.
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Scheduling a One-on-One
Custom Course with Earth Connection |
Scheduling a Group
Custom Course with Earth Connection
Private classes for TWO OR MORE PEOPLE can be scheduled on
short notice or in advance. Short notice works the same way as above,
scheduling on Thursday or Friday for the following week. Scheduling in
advance works similarly, where we both pull out our calendars and see which
dates are good for next month, next season, or whenever you choose.
Applications and payment should be sent by you after the date is agreed upon.
Directions and class info ( what to bring, what to expect, etc. ) are
emailed and/or mailed to you upon our receipt of applications and tuition.
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Earth Connection's new Professional Grade courses are now
available, as of January 2008. Enrollment is open to US
Government, Military and Law Enforcement personnel. These courses are also
open to The Department of Defense; Game Wardens; Wildlife Management personnel;
State and private Search and Rescue teams; Professional guides and outfitters;
High risk government and civilian employees; Instructors and staff for outdoor
intervention programs... just to name a few. Our courses are a great value
to anyone who could benefit from life saving outdoor skills during the course of
their work in the field. These Professional Grade Courses offer
much of the smart, realistic survival curriculum that our regular public courses offer -
with a unique tactical edge all their own. Courses are taught primarily by Tim MacWelch,
along with select Earth Connection staff like Rick "Hue" Hueston. Tim
founded and still operates Earth Connection, which is now in it's twelfth year
of continuously teaching outdoor survival skills to the public. Tim is in
his twenty-second year of study and practice in modern and primitive survival.
Hue is a retired US Army military intelligence officer who has taught tactical
and operational skills at Fort Huachuca, Arizona and continues to work in the
intelligence community supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Courses can be held at our woodland campsite location just minutes north of Quantico, Virginia - or at your own training site or facility in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina or Maryland. The hands-on coaching style of each course ensures that each student gets all of the attention and custom training that they deserve. If you are interested in seeing our regularly scheduled public courses that are open to all enrollment, please go to the Earth Connection Course Description page. For our Professional Grade Courses, please continue down this page. Earth Connection would like to take this opportunity to thank the men and women of our Military, Government and Law Enforcement for your service to our country and our citizens. We hope you will consider allowing us to serve you by training your personnel with strategies to stay safe. |
Earth Connection's mission is to provide you with high quality class content; reasonable and realistic survival strategies; & a valuable and memorable learning experience. "Don't survive harder... Survive Smarter!" Tim MacWelch
Earth Connection classes are a refreshing experience in reality, in a country full of Hollywood shock value survival and mystical, cultish nonsense.
Tim MacWelch doing what he does best,
teaching friction fire making skills.
Earth Connection's courses provide the following valuable benefits
to our patrons:
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Our Modern Survival Strategies courses teach the skills of Shelter, Water, Fire, Food and Tools using modern materials and techniques. These very practical skills and concepts can be performed by anyone and provide a lifesaving system of strategies that only require a few pieces of gear.
Our Primitive Survival Strategies courses provide the ultimate back-up survival system with no gear, or just a knife. Shelter, Water, Fire, Food and Tools are obtained directly from the environment, with just one's knowledge and bare hands. These skills are not as easy as the Modern Survival curriculum, but they allow one to literally start with nothing and survive in a variety of weather and terrain.
Other skills that we teach include Plant foods, Animal foods, a Friction Fire intensive and a Camouflage course. Please read the descriptions below for more details.
Modern
Survival Strategies - One Day
Course Length - 9am to 5pm The Modern Survival Strategies - One Day
course uses modern outdoor survival techniques as the system of self
sufficiency and preparedness using the latest modern gear and techniques
along with
the best historic
outdoor skills. Students of this course will learn the Priorities of
Survival; What to put in survival kits; How to build tarp shelters and hammocks with a
variety of materials; How to collect and purify water with several modern methods;
The basics of making fire with Matches, Lighters and Flint & steel; How
to build a smokeless fire;
How to sharpen knives with a stone; Knots; and How to make string from
indigenous plant material. We recommend this course for all outdoor
conditions. |
Modern
Survival Strategies - Two Day
Course Length - 9am to 5pm each day The Modern Survival Strategies - Two Day course is designed to instruct students in a wide variety of
year-round life saving wilderness survival skills. This is a more in
depth version of our One Day course using the latest modern gear and
the best historic
outdoor skills. Students of this course will learn the Priorities of
Survival; How to avoid getting lost; How to signal for rescue; What to put in survival kits;
How to build tarp shelters
and hammocks with a variety of materials; Collecting and purifying water with several modern methods;
The basics of making and
utilizing fire with Matches, Lighters, Flint & steel, Batteries, Magnifying lens,
How to waterproof your
matches and tinder; How to build a smokeless fire. Food gathering instruction will include
Survival fishing with only a few pieces of modern tackle.
How to sharpen a knife with a stone, Knots and String making
from indigenous plant material will also be covered. We recommend this course for
a complete set of Wilderness Survival Strategies. |
Primitive
Survival Strategies - One Day
Course Length - 9am to 5pm The Primitive Survival Strategies - One Day course teaches valuable wilderness survival skills using
the stone age technologies that were common to of all of our ancestors.
Students will
learn How to build a camouflaged leaf hut shelter, without tools or cord;
How to collect and prepare
tinder and kindling; How to do friction fire making with the bow drill;
How to build a smokeless fire; Primitive tool
making; Primitive water gathering and purification; Primitive cooking,
food preservation and storage; and How to make plant and tree bark string.
This course is designed to provide skills for living primitively in
the wilderness. This curriculum has long been a student and staff favorite. |
Primitive
Survival Strategies - Two Day
Course Length - 9am to 5pm each day The Primitive Survival Strategies - Two Day course teaches
a complete system survival skills using
only stone age technologies.
Students will
learn How to build a camouflaged leaf hut shelter, without tools or cord;
How to collect and prepare
tinder and kindling; How to do friction fire making with the bow drill;
How to build a smokeless fire; Primitive tool
making; Primitive water gathering and purification; How to make a rabbit hunting stick;
How to skin, clean and cook small game (typically squirrel); Primitive cooking, food preservation and
storage; Plant and tree bark string; and Burning out wooden bowls and
vessels to purify water. Food gathering instruction will include
Primitive fishing with hand made string and thorn hooks. This course is a complete system of
survival strategies designed to provide skills for living primitively in
the wilderness. This curriculum has long been a student and staff favorite. |
Wild Edible
Plants of North America - One Day
Course Length - 9am to 5pm This Wild Edible Plants course will focus
on the different plants and plant uses of each season, coast to coast. The course
is a guided examination of different habitats - identifying, collecting and
frequent sampling wild plant foods, and pointing out harmful plants to
avoid. The course will cover approximately 40 plants, shrubs and
trees, depending on the season in which the course is scheduled. We will cover proper
identification and use of these plants, whether plants are native or
introduced, when and where to safely collect plants, and which plants
will be found elsewhere in the world. Each student
gets an Earth Connection plant handout with full color photos and
written plant information. |
Friction
Fire And Concealed Fire Use - One Day
Course Length - 9am to 5pm Few things are as valuable in the wild as fire. And few things give away a person's position like fire. This course is designed to provide for the need of fire and the need to conceal it. Our Friction Fire And Concealed Fire Use course will teach the skills of making fire with wood friction using the Bow Drill, Hand Drill and Fire plow methods of friction fire making. Fire safety, tinder, fire wood selection, and setting up a primitive fireplace will be covered in addition to some of the physics of friction fire making. Proper construction, materials and use of the fire making equipment will be emphasized during the course. Students will construct fire making sets which will be theirs to keep from a variety of materials provided by us. The concealed fire use portion of the curriculum will include techniques for creating a smokeless fire during the day, and a lightless fire at night. The concealed use information will also include tricks for boiling water to purify it, and survival cooking. Our Friction Fire course teaches the Hand
Drill and Fire Plow friction fire making methods because they are the easiest fire kits
to make, with wide use through prehistory and world cultures.
The Bow Drill method is also taught in this course because it is the easiest method for
beginners to make friction fire, and the most likely to work under any
conditions. |
Primitive
Trapping And Fishing Strategies - One Day
Course Length - 9am to 5pm Earth
Connection�s Primitive Trapping And Fishing Strategies course will teach
you how to construct simple and complex traps to secure wild animals for
food. Trapping is typically the most efficient way to gather high calorie food in a survival
situation - as traps conserve your energy and hunt for you while
you
work on other survival tasks, or even while you are asleep. Students will learn the basic principles
behind traps and how to construct them focusing on the deadfalls and snares including the figure-four, Paiute
deadfall, wire snare, and their variations. In addition, more complicated
trapping methods using kinetic engines will be
demonstrated including many variations of the toggle stick and spring pole
traps. We will cover sign tracking as it applies to trap location, baiting
and trap camouflage. We will also create simple fish traps, and demonstrate
how to catch fish with a thorn for a fishhook. We also demonstrate non-lethal trapping
techniques to allow you to legally test your skill for practice. |
Native
Camouflage Strategies - One Day
Course Length - 9am to 5pm Our Native Camouflage Strategies - One Day course will teach the remarkably effective techniques in camouflage used by Native peoples all over the world. Mud, clay, charcoal and other natural materials are used as color and texture for concealment of personnel and gear. These extremely versatile materials provide a unique camouflage system allowing the user to match their surroundings from elements gathered in those surroundings. Campsite concealment and concealed movement will also be components of this course.
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Scheduling A Professional Grade Course With Earth ConnectionPlease call or email first to discuss your agency's needs
and preferred dates to run courses. The courses booked on a first come - first served basis. The days available are
Monday thru Friday, sorry no weekends. You pick your course or
courses, then together we will schedule the primary date and a back up date.
Once the date and a back up are scheduled, submit an application form and
tuition, and then we run the course for your group.
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PLEASE USE THIS REGISTRATION INFORMATION AND APPLICATION AS IT IS TAILORED TO THESE CLASSES
Please let us know if we can provide any further information.
Thank you for your interest,
Send mail to
earthconnect@earth-connection.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
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Earth Connection Request
in the subject line. Emails sent with a blank subject may not be
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Web site designed by the MacWelch's This site was last updated
11/29/08