Week Five: Community Immersion
Week 5 has seen the gappers stepping into the role of community members at Glen Brook as well as in our wider New Hampshire area.
From apprenticeships and potlucks here on the farm, to visiting bakeries, festivals, and dance halls, us gappers have been busy immersing ourselves into what is offered by those in our local region.
Gappers had two choices of apprenticeships this semester: either working on the farm with Farmer Sam and Charlie or learning outdoor leadership skills with Maggie, Nora, and Tori.
For those of us who chose farm apprenticeships we worked with Farmer Sam and Chef Robyn to do the farm’s animal processing. This week brought up a lot of feelings within the gappers who were working on this task, but many of them were still grateful for the experience. Gappers also helped out in the garden picking turnips and green beans, along with helping to flip beds so that Farmer Sam could replant them with crops for the winter. For those who didn’t choose the farm, gappers headed to the woods with our instructors to learn valuable skills needed in the backcountry. Gappers learned techniques such as map reading, plant identification, first aid, bear hangs, and a group favorite - knot tying. During their time in the woods surrounding Glen Brook, gappers also found a nearby cemetery, small cabins, and trails leading to the waterfalls on the property. On Friday, a break was taken from the usual skills, and time was spent on building shelters, or as they were more commonly referred to as, forts.
At Glenbrook, us gappers have also spent more time getting to know the staff and other community members who live here. On Tuesday, we headed out to the ropes course under the instruction of many of the staff members who live here. We worked through challenges such as the balance beam, postman’s walk, and giant’s ladder, ending with some fun on the zipline. On Sunday, a few of the gappers also got to meet the wider Glen Brook community at the potluck that Mark hosted. It was fun getting to talk to the staff in a more relaxed environment while also getting to eat all of the great food that everyone prepared. Within our small gapper community, we also got to spend more time with Maggie and Nora when we played Grog all together. Grog is played by trying to find hidden pieces of a flashlight around the house while trying to not get tagged out. The game is played in total darkness and instructors and gappers alike had a lot of fun trying to outsmart each other to try and win.
We also spent a lot of time on field trips out into the community this week. Our first big trip was on Thursday where we went to a bakery called Orchard Hill. In exchange for getting freshly made pizza, we helped prep squash for squash soup that they were making in addition to helping with other tasks. Many of the gappers bought fresh baked goods, while others bought merchandise and even pottery from the small shop on site. On Sunday, Nora drove us into Vermont where we went to the Putney School Harvest Festival, which consequently meant we were able to go to the Orchard Hill booth to try the squash soup we helped to make. At the festival, we supported local businesses and schools through the purchase of jewelry, screen printed clothing, and baked goods. It was also a beautiful fall day, and we all enjoyed being outside in the perfect weather.
One of our most memorable field trips also occurred this week when we went Contra Dancing in the neighboring town of Peterborough. Contra Dancing is a type of folk dancing that involves partner work and long lines, and is usually done to live music. Although we knew almost nothing going in, many of us jumped right into dancing and even into partnering with some of the locals who were more than happy to teach us. We only ended up staying for half of the dance since most of us were tired, but we resolved that we wanted to start going to the Monday night dances in the nearby town of Nelson. On Monday, a few of us headed over to Nelson to dance, and some of the locals recognized us from the weekend. It was another fun night and we are looking forward to going once again.
Here’s our editor of the week, Izzy, telling us about her experience in the Outdoor Leadership apprenticeship.
“This week was the first week of our apprenticeships at Glen Brook and I was so pumped to learn an array of useful skills when I signed up for outdoor leadership. On the first day, we started by learning everyone’s leadership styles. The four categories were the driver, the relationship master, the spontaneous motivator, and the analysts. Then we moved into tree identification using only New England-specific plant books to classify the leaves. It was a little tricky at times because a lot of trees have similar leaves and there are also many different sub-categories of trees. The next day we spent time studying maps of Glen Brook and learning how to use a compass which is how we spotted a little cemetery on the outskirts of the property. On Wednesday we learned all about knots like the bowline, slip knot, daisy chain, trucker hitch, etc. Following that we did my favorite activity which was archery. I had done archery about 10 years ago in Girl Scouts so it was really exciting to get to try it out again. We closed off the week by foraging wild grapes to make juice and then on Friday we built a shelter out of branches, dirt, leaves, and a lot of hard work. Overall, I’ve really enjoyed learning all of these outdoor skills and I’m looking forward to teaching some of these skills to the rest of the gap group. ”
Next issue we will be further exploring what the gappers did during their second week of their apprenticeships!