Service Semester Blog #2

Zach journaling on the hills of Maine

Hello again!

With our community service journey continuing we traveled next to Grandfather Ray Reitze's. Now an old man, Ray lives in Canaan, Maine, where he's lived for the past 50 years. He grew up learning from a Native American man who taught him the way of the bush. After a childhood full of rich teachings in the world around him, he went off to serve in Vietnam. On his return to the United States, he then started this homestead in Maine. He felt that he had a calling to be a teacher, and through the Maine Guide certification, he would be better be able to teach and mentor those who came to him in search of learning. Being a Maine guide for most of his life, he has become more than accustomed to the Maine wilderness. We went over to his house on the 13th and met with him for the first time. The man we met was laid back and very cheerful.

Zach and Kory preparing the wood stove

For our first project with Grandfather Ray, we helped him dig trenches to add water lines to the teaching lodge. Our next project for him was to dig a 2x3x3 foot hole to pour cement into. This was to create a support for his new cook stove he is going to install. All of this was an effort to outfit the teaching lodge to become Ray’s and his wife’s new home. Throughout our stay, working would often be paused for Grandfather Ray to share his philosophy with us. He talked about how to survive and thrive in the bush and to work with the land, not on the land.

We next worked with Chris and Ashirah Knapp, who were both students of Grandfather Ray’s. They have now built their own home and a teaching building for educating young minds in the ways of the land. They teach survival skills, farming, crafting and many other talents in Temple, Maine at their school which is called Koviashuvik.

We stayed in an earth lodge that Chris and Ashirah had built themselves. It was about fifteen feet high and twenty feet in diameter. It had a wood stove and a bough floor for sleeping. There was also a second-floor loft that was also for sleeping.

Zach and Kory digging trenches for the new waterline

Kory hard at work digging for the waterline

We worked with them for four days, stacking firewood, cleaning up the teaching lodge for the coming winter months, moving and harvesting the last crop of the autumn, and transplanting kale from the garden to the greenhouse so it could survive the winter.

Leaving early on a very snowy Sunday morning, we slowly started our drive back to Kroka. We had a couple of stops on our way. Our first stop was to Macs home, a kind old man, to stack firewood. Here we were lucky enough to be greeted by Luke and Polly one last time. Catching up with Luke and Polly while stacking the wood was a real treat for us. Afterward, our kind host treated us with some hot soup to go with this cold wintery day. After soup, we were back on the road. Now we are just over the border in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Staying our final night at Nathan Lyczak’s grandmother’s home (Nathan is a staff member at Kroka). We will end this particular journey tomorrow but tonight we sleep in peace.

Until next time- your scribe's,
-Kory and Zach