2024 Instructors
Tim Swanson
Archery, Atlatl, Axe & Rabbit Stick Competitions
Trade Blankets
Make an Atlatl (Thursday Intensive)
Tim Swanson is the founder of Owl Eyes Wilderness Survival , a “traveling” nature connection and wilderness survival school for people of all ages. He holds a double Bachelor’s Degree in Adventure Education Leadership and Adventure Therapy (Unity College). He is a Level 1 Certified Animal Tracker (CyberTracker) and a Wilderness First Responder (SOLO). He is passionate about educating our children/teens/adults about nutrition, natural awareness, equality, and hopes to spread his love of nature through the practice of wilderness survival.
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Emma Markowitz
Kid's Carving and Kid's Fire Making
Emma hails from the wild prairies of Chicago. Since migrating East she has lived many lives including being a fermenter, wilderness social skills teacher and the Assistant Director of TimberNook Middlesex County. Emma believes in empowering children and facilitating self-discovery through child led nature play. As an educator in progressive education for over 15 years, Emma is an advocate for taking risks, getting dirty and allowing kids to do what they do best, play! When she isn’t teaching in the woods, Emma likes to fish, hike, and hang out barefoot and carving things in the woods with her kids.
Arthur Haines
Evening Talk: Human Rewilding
Plant Walk
Combatives
Mahoosuc Wanderings (Thursday Intensive)
Arthur Haines is a Maine hunting and recreation guide, forager, ancestral skills mentor, author, public speaker, and botanical researcher. He grew up in the western mountains of Maine, a rural area that was home to swift streams known for their trout fishing. He spent most of his childhood in the Sandy River Valley hiking, tracking, and foraging. Arthur now runs the Delta Institute of Natural History in Canton, Maine, where he teaches human ecology, focusing on the values of foraging, wildcrafting medicine, and primitive living skills. He continues to spend a great deal of his free time practicing his skills as a modern hunter-gatherer. In 2017, he authored “A New Path”, a comprehensive work on nature connection and rewilding, detailing how to incorporate ancestral practices into modern living. As a research botanist for the Native Plant Trust, he completed an inclusive flora of the New England region titled “Flora Novae Angliae” and has authored over twenty publications in peer-reviewed journals and books, including naming species of plants new to science.
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Harmony Cronin
Nose to Tail Animal Processing
Folded Ash Bark Baskets (Thursday Intensive)
Harmony is an apocalyptic Viking warrior princess who likes living off grid in extreme environments, a MadMax cavewoman wild-tending big game hunter, a brain tanning butcher biker babe, a roadkill connoisseur homesteader with your great grandma’s passion for food preservation.
She is a student of 'experimental archaeology', a primitive technologist, and an everyday practitioner of ancient living skills. She believes that we have a shared history in these skills - no matter where your ancestors came from, if you look far enough back, we all descended from people who knew how to procure everything they needed for an abundant, happy life directly from the land.
To her, it makes the most sense to do what humans have been doing the longest, and she believes that in order to find a place of balance again, we need to ask for guidance from those who came before.
Harmony spends most of her time tanning hides, shooting her bow, foraging, cooking weird and wonderful food, preserving food, making fire, and walking around secret wild places.
She teaches private and group workshops on both the Magickal and practical methods of extended animal processing, brain tanning, foraging wild food, friction fire, medicine making, fermentation of all kinds, and how to be comfortable (and stylish) living outdoors.
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Karissa Knudsen
Nose to Tail Animal Processing
Here is a picture of a meal from our last butchering class- goat meatloaf cooked in their beautiful honey comb stomachs! I’ve co-facilitated and cooked for slaughter classes, gatherings, and deluxe backcountry trips. I love cooking on the coals, cooking from scratch, and cooking with what lives closest to us. I’m passionate about using every every part of the animal and making it truly delicious (even for the skeptical), and re-membering or better yet, inventing new ways weaving earth and each other, into our lives.
As a death worker of human and animal alike, I believe in living closely with the lives that we take to make more life- and with that closeness comes health, gratitude, wisdom, inspiration, and sanity. So, my family keeps animals, hunts, gardens, and puts up most all our food. We love tanning and crafting hides and walking our goats :) hoping to share some songs, some prayers, and some ideas about how to craft a culture of earth-belonging once again in our families.
Andy Dobos
Spoon Carving
Twined Baskets
Andy Dobos mentors people of all ages in Nature skills under the name Forest Wolf Programs. He has almost 20 years of experience teaching Nature based skills such as wildlife tracking, friction fire, spoon carving, bow making and much more. Andy earned an advanced completion certificate for White Pine Programs Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship and a level 3 certification in Track and Sign from CyberTracker Conservation. He holds a bachelor of fine arts degree and has studies traditional crafts for his whole life. He is also the organizer for the Cattail Gathering, a Nature skills gathering in Litchfield CT.
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Jackie Ryan
Botanical Illustration
Yoga
Jackie “Rainbow” Ryan is an artist, wilderness instructor and yoga teacher who is dedicated to using creativity to help cultivate relationships between people, their bodies, and the magical earth they come from. She has been teaching Hatha Yoga for 10 years and also loves facilitating ecstatic dance and contact improvisation. Jackie started teaching wilderness skills 7 years ago and opened Rainbow’s Nature School in 2021. Jackie has a BA in Studio Art from the University of Vermont. Her paintings are an abstract world of color and serve to transform energy and emotion. Jackie’s teaching style embodies a combination of calm presence, silliness, improvisation, and curiosity.
You can find Jackie’s artwork at visionfaerie.com and her nature school at rainbowsnatureschool.com.
Bob Berg
Flint Knapping
Atlatl
Bob Berg of Thunderbird Atlatl (the world's foremost atlatl designer and producer!) has been interested in all things primitive for the greater part of his adult life. He is skilled in many of the primitive arts and enjoys passing his knowledge on. Bob enjoys a few hobbies both in and outside the atlatl business, among them spear fishing, atlatl hunting, oil painting, and inventing mechanical devices designed to save the world.
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Krystle Bouck
Canning Food
Kid's Camp: Clay Marbles
Krystle has been canning and preserving food her entire adult life. While she works in the corporate world to make a living, her passion is homesteading. She currently raises all her own meat to feed her family. Having the ability to nourish our bodies and our children in a world of convenience is so important and it starts with knowing where our food comes from.
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Learning how to pressure can opens a whole new world of possibilities. It creates more room in your fridge and freezer and enables you to have the convenience of dumping something out of a jar for dinner while still knowing the food within is nourishing and healthy for your family. We'll start by learning how to safely pressure can bone broth from a leftover carcass after butchering. Bone broth is a wonderful nourishing base to many recipes and so good for you may want to just drink it out of a cup. We'll then delve into how to know when you should pressure can and when you can water bath. We will also go over how to make jam!
Kristee Nichols
Coal Tongs
Coal Burned Bowls
Kristee resides in Connecticut and has recently retired from the medical field. As an outdoors enthusiast and camper, she found her passion in 2008 when she began attending primitive skills gatherings. She enjoys travelling throughout the U.S., newly learning the "old ways". Among her favorite skills: wet felting, bowl burning, stone tools and gourd crafts. She has recently begun teaching at local events.
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Come Burn a Bowl!
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Free, walk-in class! Create your own container with hot embers and stone tools. Once I show you the technique, you'll be free to come and go and work on it throughout the weekend. (although can be done in a day). Shaping and carving the bowl is on your own but I can advise and guide you. Old leather gloves recommended as we'll be working with hot embers.
Children must be accompanied by parents.
Kevin Bouck
Campfire Cooking
A Soldier's Rations
Kevin Bouck lives in Litchfield, Maine, with his wife Krystle and twin boys Hunter and Zachary. They enjoy their 1850’s farmhouse and have a small, but ever growing, family farm. They enjoy the simple life and strive to keep things as period correct as possible. Kevin grew up in Michigan, and spent 20 years serving in the United States Marine Corps. After retiring in 2001 he settled in New England where he met his wife, Krystle. They moved to Maine in 2017 and have been involved with the Moose Ridge Gathering since 2020. Kevin enjoys all things Maine and the outdoors, although still can’t wrap his head around ice fishing. Hunting turkeys in the spring, deer in the fall, teaching as an Appleseed instructor, serving in leadership roles in his local church, restoring vintage firearms, and maintaining the farm fills his days. He is looking forward to having you visit him in his classes.
Jonathan Shapiro
Tracking and Awareness
Skulls and Feathers
Jonathan lives in Vermont and spends his days tracking, making traditional crafts, hunting, canoeing, picking up roadkill, and listening to birdsong. He believes that an accurate understanding of and deep connection to our wild surroundings are necessary for all people to thrive. He runs the Fox Paw School, where he teaches adults about wildlife tracking, bird language, weather, plants, awareness, and nature connection.
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Julieann Hartley
Eating Acorns
Julieann Hartley is a local music therapist and nutritional therapist. After Julieann hiked the Appalachian trail in 2015, she was diagnosed with Lyme disease and began seeking out wild foods as a way of healing her body. Instead of counting miles, Julieann now focuses on counting plant and animal species while she is out adventuring. She loves to teach others about the plants and their uses, believing that education is key to sustainable land conversation. Her favorite wild foods are acorns, wintercress greens, hen of the woods mushrooms, dandelions and black locust flowers.
Julieann will be teaching a class about foraging and preparing acorns and will be providing a recipe for her favorite food of all time: acorn pancakes.
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Coleen Butler
Rabbit Pelt Tanning
Buckskin Pouches
Coleen lives among the maples and oaks in the Champlain Valley of Vermont. She is a hide tanner, hunter, and sewer. She works with the visceral cycles of life and death and is passionate about nose to tail eating, clothing making, returning bodies to ancestral health, living with the cycles and seasons of the earth, and generally being a wild human.
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Buckskin Pouches
In this workshop we will take hand tanned, brain tanned deer skins and turn them into pouches. We will learn different techniques of sewing with buckskin and leather. We will learn how to use awls, glovers needles, make and sew with buckskin thong, learn the purpose of welts and how to use them, and talk about the different aspects of a hide and how they can affect a garment.
Materials fee: $40-50
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Misse Axelrod
Needle Felting Tapestries
Misse's 20+ years of experience in sustainable food systems and farming lead to a passion for education. Misse has been weaving farms, food, survival skills, and education in public schools (PK-12) and on the farm for 10+ years. Teaching farm, food, and nutrition education in 12 plus Vermont schools grew into opening a Vermont Independent School (K-5th grade) at her family farm, Drift Farmstead.
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Misse holds a B.A. in Sustainable Food Systems & Community from Green Mountain College.
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Rocks-Wool & Needle Felting: How does the earth take a rock and turn it into wool? Through a short interactive learning lesson we will learn about all of the elements that go into producing wool. During this workshop we will wet felt soap loofas and needle felt quilt squares. This course is for all ages (under 8, an adult buddy is helpful).
Materials Fee: $8
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Ryan Johns
Mushroom Workshop
Kid's Camp: Shelter Building
Ryan Johns and his family live in the Montpelier area (soon to be Roxbury resident) and spend as much time as possible exploring the Vermont woods together. Ryan has a background in learning and teaching primitive and homesteading skills as well as training and experience in formal education. Ryan has been teaching for most of his life and especially enjoys working with kids in the outdoors. Ryan believes that everyone learns best when they are having fun and students can expect to play and laugh together all year long as we make friends with each other and our forest community.
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Kandi Karkos
Kid's Camp: Mammal Skulls & Furs
Kandi grew up in Wilton, Maine. She spent much of her childhood outdoors, making mud pies, climbing trees, catching and releasing frogs, toads, and salamanders, fishing, and exploring the woods behind her house and the family camp with her brothers and sister. Her parents would pile her and her 3 siblings into the car and take off to drive old tote roads and this continues to be a favorite pastime of hers. As a young adult, she continued to spend time in the outdoors, camping with her young daughter and panning for gold in the Swift River of Western, Maine. Her former husband, John, introduced her to mining for gemstones and hunting and since then she has harvested deer, moose, bear, grouse, turkey, and a goose. They drove old totes roads just to see what was over the next ridge and to search for oyster mushrooms and chaga. Kandi is an avid hunter and completed her Grand Slam in 2018, harvesting a bear, moose, deer, and a turkey in the same year. She learned how to trap so that she could harvest a second bear for meat. Kandi has been on wilderness canoe and camping trips with Mahoosic Guide Service. She enjoys learning new outdoors skills at Maine Primitive School and Maine’s Outdoor Learning Center (MOLC) and going on all-women’s hunting and fishing trips with the women of Maine Women Hunters. She studied herbalism with Dr. Nathaniel Petley and enjoys foraging for herbs, with which she makes soaps and salves and tinctures. In 2019 she studied with MOLC to learn the skills needed to become a Maine Guide. In 2019 and 2020, she became a Registered Maine Guide for Recreation and Hunting. Her love of the outdoors and Nature led her to become a certified Forest Therapy guide. In addition to guiding Forest Therapy walks in parks local to her area, she and her boyfriend, Nathan, plan to make walking paths on his land in Wilton, Maine so that she can guide people there as well.
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Nick Spadero
Primitive Fire
Nick Spadaro has been practicing primitive skills for nearly two decades. Lucky to study with some of the best, he is currently focusing on learning to hunt and fish for wild game in New England. He homesteads offgrid in central NH with his partner Wren, and their adopted pitbull Cricket.
Sonia Aceved0
Wilderness First Aid
Herbal Care and First Aid at Home
​​Sonia Acevedo is a small farmer, herbalist, mother and musician living in the Kennebec River Valley on Wabanaki land. She's been making friends with plants and healing with their medicine for 24 years, and loves the ways that plants remind us to keep rooted in natural ways of living and healing. She loves to share plant knowledge with kids of all ages!
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Len Mackey
Drum Circle
Fire Side Dancing
Natural Movement
Animal Voice Calling and Stalking
Len Mackey is a highly motivated earthling with years of study, performance and teaching experience, and countless hours of community service. Growing up in the north country, as a boy Len spent his time in the woods with his father, hunting, fishing, trapping, camping, and tracking game outside of the ADK park in northern NY state.
Always enamored with the healthy wisdom of ancient and foreign cultures he began his study of yoga and meditation, sweat lodge, African drumming, and Reiki in 1999, later receiving Reiki Master training. In 2004 while pursuing a degree in photography at RIT, Len began working with BushMango Drum and Dance company in Rochester, NY, and a year later traveled to Guinea w. Africa, with MBemba Bangoura and Michael Marcus, to further his learning.
In 2012 Len immersed himself in the study of ancient living skills and survival at Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School in NJ. This led him to Caribbean Earth Skills in St. Croix, Roots School in VT, and to Belize in pursuit of jungle survival skills.
As a teacher and artist Len offers programming in the form of survival skills and wellness training, yoga, corrective exercise, personal training, and west African drum and dance. He has been the recipient of Art$tart and Decentralization Grants provided by NY State, via the St. Lawrence County Arts council for over 7 years now, and a guest faculty for the American Collegiate Dance Assoc. for multiple regional gatherings.
Len is the founder of Ancient Earth Skills – Wellness and Wilderness Training, and Song of the Spheres, Inc. a multimedia company specializing in education and entertainment for children of all ages. He has recorded and produced three albums (with another on the way) inspired by traditional w. African, Aboriginal Australian, and Native American music.
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Grace Krupkowski
Wildcrafted Tinctures
Medicinal Plant Foraging Walk
Wildcrafted Tinctures
During this 3 hour immersive course, students will learn how to accurately identify useful plants for making herbal tinctures. Expect to forage herbal aerial parts and roots for processing into a tincture of your choice. This course includes useful techniques for how to care for the body in a
self-sufficient manner while catering to the land and the wider community around you. We will learn the actions of the herbs used and how they can support overall wellbeing. This class is open to all ages and experience levels. A $20 materials fee is requested.
Medical Plant Foraging Walk
Join in on an informative walk around Moose Ridge where you will learn about many wild medicinal plants that you can forage and wildcraft into potent herbal remedies. Learn plant identification tools, foraging guidelines, and ways to process plants into medicine.
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Trilogy Herbalism is founded by Grace Krupkowski, herbalist and educator. Trilogy Herbalism is located in Keene, New Hampshire and serves all of Northern New England and beyond. Trilogy Herbalism seeks to weave the power of personal agency, health justice, and medicinal plants together into cohesion. These three links bring forth an awareness not only of how you can better take care of yourself, but also of the natural world, its forces, and the medicine it provides. Through herbalism, we establish resilience and an awareness of interconnectedness between all aspects of the self. Grace's innate and learned knowledge fosters a connection across many herbal traditions. In 2015 she began an exploration into the world of herbalism and plant connection which has since blossomed into a lifelong passion. Since 2020, Grace has served as an educator teaching courses in person and online while managing an herbal product line. Grace also offers one on one herbal wellness consultations that encompass the whole individual, their ailments, and goals for healing and balancing the body.
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Kitty Michelotti
Animal Husbandry
Kitty raises chickens, rabbits, turkeys, and pigs on a 2 acre homestead in Derry, NH with her husband Nate and their 3 boys. Since moving to NH 10 years ago (from Colorado by way of Massachusetts) Kitty and her family have striven to raise and harvest as much of their food as they can while homeschooling and living in suburbia. Kitty prides herself on having least four species of animal in her chest freezer at all times. :)
Ritchie of FoxActiv
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Ronan of White Raven Survival
Primal Movement / Flow & Ancient Functional Strength: Tools & Techniques
Ritchie of FoxActiv:
As the head coach and owner of FoxActiv, Ritchie harnesses his profound personal journey and steadfast dedication to uplift individuals on their path to achieving holistic physical and mental wellness. With an expansive expertise that bridges ancient functional fitness practices and primal movements with contemporary, evidence-based methods, he innovatively integrates functional fitness and outdoor education. FoxActiv offers a unique platform where students are encouraged to delve into the great outdoors, facilitating a deep exploration of self and surroundings. His approach not only cultivates physical strength but also fosters a profound connection with nature, echoing his commitment to comprehensive well-being.
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Ronan of White Raven Survival:
Ronan is a seasoned outdoor educator and owner of White Raven Survival, specializing in ancestral skills that have been passed down through generations. As the indispensable right-hand man and second head coach at FoxActiv, he leads the outdoor education and survival skills division with unparalleled dedication and expertise. With a profound connection to the land, Ronan doesn't just teach survival skills—he embodies them. His life is a testament to the practical application of the knowledge he imparts, living with the land utilizing the same techniques he teaches. A true craftsman at heart, Ronan's love for the outdoors is a way of life. His passion for natural living and earth skills inspires students to explore, connect with, and respect the natural world around them.
Mike Dube'
Tracking
Traditional Native Story-Telling
Come learn the Ancient Art of Tracking with Mike Dube'. Mike teaches Traditional Native Skills through his School, "Taconic Challenges". This will be his 5th year at Moose Ridge Gathering, teaching Tracking Classes and telling traditional Native stories around the fire.
You'll learn side-tracking, aging with Wisdom Keepers, 10 step drill, Stalking Circle, patterns, Cutting Sign, and track casting. Your connection to Mother Earth will expand.
Gaianne Dube'
Kid's Camp Instructor: Dream Catchers
I am relatively new to Maine, moving up from Fitchburg, MA in 2016. I was born and raised in Boston, in the neighborhood of Jamaica Plain. I am of blended heritage, Puerto Rican, Black and Native American. Growing up in the city I have always longed to live in the country and learn to live from the land as my ancestors did. I have worked in the science/medical field and am currently employed as a Certified Pharmacy Technician in Farmington Maine. I am working on getting certified in Wilderness First Aid, with the goal of Certification as a Wilderness First Responder. I am married to that great guy Mike Dube’ and together we have 6 children and 6 grandchildren. I love to sing, I am a worship leader for my church. I even auditioned for The Voice six years ago, and I am a volunteer Chaplain at the hospital I work for. Since coming to Maine I planted my first garden and canned and preserved from that harvest, thank you Krystle Bouck, for teaching me! I took a basket weaving class, and as you can see from my profile picture made my own pack basket! Last year I learned to process and skin a rabbit from beginning to end right here at Moose Ridge! I have learned many skills, so many, that this bio would be way too long if I listed
them all. There is still so much I have yet to learn and discover. I am looking forward to each and every lesson with great excitement!!
Doug Householder
Leather Stitching
Melon Baskets
"Arkansas Doug" Householder has trained in and taught survival from the tropical jungles of South America and Hawaii to the Sonoran Desert, but calls the Ozark Mountains home. He is a highly skilled outdoorsman who teaches at top survival schools. You may recognize him as founder of Earth Trekker Bushcraft.
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Barry Keegan
Fire Saw and Fire Thong
Birch Bark Baskets
Barry has taught many Earth skills since 1991: such as flint knapping, basketry, bark canoe making, fire by friction, bows and arrows, primitive fishing, survival food/water/shelter, and much more, has made or repaired 70 wigwams and longhouses of bark and thatch, and 15 dugout canoes, (one of which has been part of numerous films featuring bark and dugout canoes), fluting a point, and History Channel’s Stonehenge Archer (Mystery Quest). He also performs a rare demonstration of 9 ways to make fire by friction-back-to-back, which may be unique. He has taught at many survival schools, primitive gatherings, colleges and public schools, day camps, museum and nature centers. Barry makes replica crafts for many museums and teaching institutions, has written over 20 articles for periodicals, and assisted in writing and illustrating numerous books on primitive technology related matters.
Cheeny Plante
Navigation (Thursday)
Practical Knots
I am from Sanford Maine. I was a SERE (survival, evasion. resistance, escape) Specialist in the Air Force for eight years. I trained thousands of aircrew members how to survive in every environment in the world. I currently work in the trades (painting, general labor) and I am a registered Maine guide. When I'm not working, I'm backpacking, fishing and canoing.
I was on two seasons of Naked and Afraid and completed the 21 day challenge in South Africa. When it comes to survival my focus is on being prepared and having a basic survival kit.
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Susan Theberge
Creative Mending
Join Susan in making the clothes you love last a little bit longer. Simple darning and mending techniques demonstrated and discussed. Bring a favorite pair of socks or a sweater to work on.
Nate Glaser
Ham Radio
Could you communicate with family and friends if cell service went down? Ham radio is a great way to increase self-reliance and be able to speak to people over long distances without cell towers or the internet in an emergency, or just for fun!.
In this class General license holder Nate Glaser, call sign KC0MYM, will cover short wave radio, reception, repeater operation, digital modes versus analog modes, ham license differences, antennas, and disaster communications. Nate will bring his base station radio (Icom 9100) and various handhelds. Feel free to bring your own radio and any questions you may have.
Mackenzie Bergthaler
Axe Throwing
In 2018 I fell in love with a new sport, axe throwing! The first time I threw, I threw for 4 hours straight. I was hooked the second I started. I quickly got a job at the Agawam Axe House in Massachusetts coaching. Since then I have taught people of all ages and sizes. I coached the mayor of my hometown and people as old as 80. I opened up the first axe throwing range in Austria and people came from all over the country to try it out. With safety as my first priority, I am excited to be able to offer this unique and fun sport at the Moose Ridge Gathering!
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Hannah Rhea
Bone Craft
At Way of the Earth school we seek to embody a deep relationship to the earth through wild living skills which are sustained by ancient and nurturing land management techniques. We offer a 4 month residential immersion program as well as workshops for adults and youth.
www.wayoftheearth.com
Thabani Ndlovu
Fish Skin Tanning
I have spent 6 years learning and practicing tanning leather. 4 of those years were specifically learning to tan yellow fin tuna hides. I have a bachelor's degree in Fine Art and am currently wrestling with the arbitrary line between Fine Art and craft. I love creative experimentation and the slow process of making.
