Events, Appearances & Road Trips
Whenever we schedule a Special Event or Road Trip we'll list it here so can join us at events, or take advantage of us being in your area to set up a Workshop or Mentoring Session.
If you live in the general area through which we'll be driving and are interested in setting up a workshop or some one-on-one instruction we'd be happy to make a detour or a stop-over to work with you or your group. Give us a call or send an e-mail — we always enjoy hearing from you!
2008 Events Schedule
September | October | November | December
Open Skills Night
Practical Primitive
Toms River, NJ
January 16
Come on out and join us for our FREE Open Skills night. Bring a project you're working on, a skill you want to practice, a plant ID guide, an animal tracking book, or just come to meet us and spend some time with other primitive skills-minded folks. It's a casual evening that usually starts up around 6:00 p.m. and runs until people decide to head home.
You can find more information on our website, and for directions, check out our Locations page. We look forward to having you!
Winter Survival: 10-Day Advanced Wilderness Living Skills
Tryon, NC
January 18–27
$1195
Richard Cleveland, founder of Earth School and another former Tracker School instructor, has invited Eddie to be a Guest Instructor for this incredible 10-Day Winter Experience. This program will provide you with the opportunity to hone your outdoor skills to a higher level than you ever thought possible, and the limited enrollment combined with a 5:1 (or better) student to instructor ratio will ensure that you receive the personal attention necessary to truly learn these skills. This is a seriously "Hands On" advanced skills program, so whether you're an accomplished outdoorsperson, or an armchair nature enthusiast, you will greatly enhance your outdoor awareness and come away with a strong sense of confidence in your skills, leaving you better prepared to participate in any outdoor adventure.
Here are just a few of the things you will learn in this information-packed experience:
- Basic and advanced shelters that will keep you alive in below-freezing temperatures.
- Advanced firemaking techniques for all types of weather.
- Construct a rock oven and a steam pit and learn how to use them to cook delicious meals. Numerous fire lays, structures, cooking techniques and food preservation methods will be discussed and demonstrated.
- Identify and use wild plants for food, medicine, clothing, tools, insulation and more. You will also learn how to make acorn bread and process wild seeds into a tasty and nutritous flour.
- Turn raw clay into beautiful & useable pottery, and make baskets you will be proud to take home.
- Wilderness fishing techniques such as fish bows, fish traps, spears and dip nets.
- Survival bows complete with arrows, Atlatls (Aboriginal spear throwers), and Cherokee Blowguns will all be taught &mdash and you will learn how to use them!
- How to tan deer hides and transform them into beautiful buckskin. Honor, respect and use of the entire animal will be our focus.
- How to make, and more importantly, USE stone tools in any survival situation. Basic and Advanced Flintknapping techniques will also be taught, so no matter what your skill level when you arrive, you will leave with a better knapper.
Tuition includes all materials and meals, and they willl even arrange transportation to and from the airport!
Class size is strictly limited, and will be filled on a first come, first served basis. Don't miss your chance — we spoke with Richard earlier this week, and this class is already half-full!
Richard's ultimate goal for this program is to send each student home with armfuls of completed projects and a sense of real accomplishment, so come and join us for this amazing experience!
Give us a call or send an e-mail if you would like more information, or go directly to the Earth School site to register.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Open Skills Night
Practical Primitive
Toms River, NJ
February 20
Come on out and join us for our FREE Open Skills night. Bring a project you're working on, a skill you want to practice, a plant ID guide, an animal tracking book, or just come to meet us and spend some time with other primitive skills-minded folks. It's a casual evening that usually starts up around 6:00 p.m. and runs until people decide to head home.
You can find more information on our website, and for directions, check out our Locations page. We look forward to having you!
Flintknapping near Boston
Dighton, MA
March 8 & 9
We're heading south of Boston for two one-day Flintknapping classes courtesy of our Skills 2 You program. While space is limited, there are still one or two spots available so if you'd like to come out and join us for a day of knapping, give us a call or send an e-mail to info@practicalprimitive.com. We'd love to have you there!
4-Day Flintknapping Clinic in Nova Scotia
Wolfville, NS
March 23–26
We're driving to Nova Scotia to run a four day Flintknapping workshop March 23–26. This is going to be a very comprehensive class, starting with the basics and moving through the full "how to turn this piece of rock into an stone point" process. There will be folks there with all levels of skill and experience, so if you would like to join us, let us know.
We'll be traveling through Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine along the way. If you would like to join the class in Nova Scotia, or are interested in setting up a workshop or some one-on-one instruction while we are on our way up or back, give us a call or send an e-mail to info@practicalprimitive.com.
Open Skills Night
Practical Primitive
Toms River, NJ
March 19
Come on out and join us for our FREE Open Skills night. Bring a project you're working on, a skill you want to practice, a plant ID guide, an animal tracking book, or just come to meet us and spend some time with other primitive skills-minded folks. It's a casual evening that usually starts up around 6:00 p.m. and runs until people decide to head home.
You can find more information on our website, and for directions, check out our Locations page. We look forward to having you!
Open Skills Night
Practical Primitive
Toms River, NJ
April 16
Come on out and join us for our FREE Open Skills night. Bring a project you're working on, a skill you want to practice, a plant ID guide, an animal tracking book, or just come to meet us and spend some time with other primitive skills-minded folks. It's a casual evening that usually starts up around 6:00 p.m. and runs until people decide to head home.
You can find more information on our website, and for directions, check out our Locations page. We look forward to having you!
16th Annual Whittingham Traditional Archery Rendezvous
Whittingham Wildlife Management Area
Newton, NJ
April 25–27
This event is hosted by the Appalachian Bowmen of Sussex County, and promises to be a fun weekend. With 3-D Ranges, Archery Golf, Stump shoots, a Flying Disc range, on-site camping, Eagle-eye Qualifier, and much more, this is a great event that just keeps growing. We are very excited to be meeting the "home town crowd" of New Jersey Traditional Archery enthusiasts, so stop by our booth and say hi. We look forward to seeing you there!
Open Skills Night
Practical Primitive
Toms River, NJ
May 14
Come on out and join us for our FREE Open Skills night. Bring a project you're working on, a skill you want to practice, a plant ID guide, an animal tracking book, or just come to meet us and spend some time with other primitive skills-minded folks. It's a casual evening that usually starts up around 6:00 p.m. and runs until people decide to head home.
You can find more information on our website, and for directions, check out our Locations page. We look forward to having you!
Baltimore Bowmen Traditional Classic
Graham Memorial Park
Glen Arm, MD
May 16–18
This was the first event that Practical Primitive attended last year, and we had a blast. The courses are well laid out, the site is really nice, the camping is free and the people are great. We met some great folks, made some new friends, and are definitely looking forward to going back this year. If you've been thinking about checking out a Traditional shoot, this is a great one to start with. Some come by and see us!
For directions & more information about the event, see the Baltimore Bowmen website.
WEST COAST TOUR
OREGON — WASHINGTON — CALIFORNIAWASHINGTON
May & June 2008
Our first West Coast tour is coming up quickly, and we're really looking forward to the trip. Here's the rundown on where we'll be and what we'll be doing:
- Memorial Day weekend we will be in the woods somewhere near Bend, Oregon, attending the West Coast Tracker Round-Up. It's going to be a fun weekend and includes a rock run to Glass Buttes as well as much flintknapping and other fun skills-type stuff. May 27–28 We're heading up to Shelton, WA in the Olympic Peninsula to run two one-day workshops in Tracking and Flintknapping.
- May 29–30 we're back in Portland to hold a two-day Archery Fundamentals workshop.
- May31–June 1 will find us in Portland's Oxbow Park for two days of Tracking Essentials.
- June 2 is our last day on the coast and we'll spend it mudded up and skulking through the woods of Oxbow Park for one of our NEW classes, Stalking & Camouflage.
For more information on the WCT Round-Up or any of our other West Coast Workshops, give us a call or send us an e-mail.com. We'll see ya there!
Texas Trip: Dallas — Waco — Austin
June 7–10
A family event (Congratulations Jimmy!) is taking us on an unexpected detour to Texas on our way back east. We are in the process of deciding what workshops to offer while we're there, and will post them as soon as the details are finalized. At the moment we are choosing between:
- Survival 101
- Foraging & Gathering of Edible and Useful Plants
- Shelter building
- Fire making
- Pack & Gathering Baskets
- Flintknapping (of course!)
Skills 2 You workshops in Chicago area
Aurora, IL
June 13, 14 & 15
We've been invited back to lead a second set of workshops for the Chicago area "Meetup.com" Survival Skills group. We had a great time with these folks back in September and are really looking forward to spending another weekend. We'll be hosting a one day workshop in Foraging & Gathering, two days on Tracking.
You can sign up for either of these workshops on the Registration page, or if you'd like more information you can give us a call or e-mail us at info@practicalprimitive.com
Open Skills Night
Practical Primitive
Toms River, NJ
June 18
Come on out and join us for our FREE Open Skills night. Bring a project you're working on, a skill you want to practice, a plant ID guide, an animal tracking book, or just come to meet us and spend some time with other primitive skills-minded folks. It's a casual evening that usually starts up around 6:00 p.m. and runs until people decide to head home.
You can find more information on our website, and for directions, check out our Locations page. We look forward to having you!
Open Skills Night
Practical Primitive
Toms River, NJ
July 16
Come on out and join us for our FREE Open Skills night. Bring a project you're working on, a skill you want to practice, a plant ID guide, an animal tracking book, or just come to meet us and spend some time with other primitive skills-minded folks. It's a casual evening that usually starts up around 6:00 p.m. and runs until people decide to head home.
You can find more information on our website, and for directions, check out our Locations page. We look forward to having you!
Eastern Traditional Archery Rendezvous
Ski Denton
Coudersport, PA
July 24–27
One of the largest Traditional-Only Archery events in the world, 'Denton' draws shooters and their families from across the eastern half of the United States, down from Canada, even from Europe. Eight courses with over 200 3-D targets spread across 700 acres, over 100 traditional archery bowyers and suppliers, an Eagle Eye Competition and seminars on many different topics — this event is "The Show"! We'll provide more detailed info on this one as it becomes available, and hope you'll come find us!
For directions & more information about the event, see the Ski Denton website.
Open Skills Night
Practical Primitive
Toms River, NJ
August 20
Come on out and join us for our FREE Open Skills night. Bring a project you're working on, a skill you want to practice, a plant ID guide, an animal tracking book, or just come to meet us and spend some time with other primitive skills-minded folks. It's a casual evening that usually starts up around 6:00 p.m. and runs until people decide to head home.
You can find more information on our website, and for directions, check out our Locations page. We look forward to having you!
Stone Tool Technology Show
Letchworth State Park
Castile, NY
August 23–24
This will be our first year at "Letchworth", the largest Stone Tool show in the Northeast, and we can't wait. This one is on the calendar of just about every serious flintknapper in the eastern U.S., and only bring as much money as you want to spend because when you see all the pretty, pretty rock self-control may go straigh out the window! Set in the area of the Genesee River, take an hour to check out the fabulous falls and the 600 foot gorge that the New York State Park website calls "the Grand Canyon of the east".
For directions & more information about the event, see the New York State Parks website.
Flint Ridge Knap-in
Flint Ridge Memorial Park
Brownsville, OH
August 29–31
The culmination of the big knap-in season in the north east, plenty of knappers go straight from Letchworth to Flint Ridge. We had a fantastic time at this event last year and are looking forward to seeing many of the great folks we met again this time around. This is a fun show with plenty of rock and knapping tools, an atlatl range, as well as suppliers for all kinds of other primitive and traditional skills. (Including one of the finest and most reasonably priced teepee makers we've ever met, Wendell Humphrey. If you're in the market for a teepee, this is the guy to call!) This is the last big flintknapping event on our schedule so far, so be sure and come by to say hi!
For directions & more information about the event, see the Discover Ohio website.
Open Skills Night
Practical Primitive
Toms River, NJ
September 17
Come on out and join us for our FREE Open Skills night. Bring a project you're working on, a skill you want to practice, a plant ID guide, an animal tracking book, or just come to meet us and spend some time with other primitive skills-minded folks. It's a casual evening that usually starts up around 6:00 p.m. and runs until people decide to head home.
You can find more information on our website, and for directions, check out our Locations page. We look forward to having you!
Open Skills Night
Practical Primitive
Toms River, NJ
October 15
Come on out and join us for our FREE Open Skills night. Bring a project you're working on, a skill you want to practice, a plant ID guide, an animal tracking book, or just come to meet us and spend some time with other primitive skills-minded folks. It's a casual evening that usually starts up around 6:00 p.m. and runs until people decide to head home.
You can find more information on our website, and for directions, check out our Locations page. We look forward to having you!
Open Skills Night
Practical Primitive
Toms River, NJ
November 19
Come on out and join us for our FREE Open Skills night. Bring a project you're working on, a skill you want to practice, a plant ID guide, an animal tracking book, or just come to meet us and spend some time with other primitive skills-minded folks. It's a casual evening that usually starts up around 6:00 p.m. and runs until people decide to head home.
You can find more information on our website, and for directions, check out our Locations page. We look forward to having you!
Open Skills Night
Practical Primitive
Toms River, NJ
December 17
Come on out and join us for our FREE Open Skills night. Bring a project you're working on, a skill you want to practice, a plant ID guide, an animal tracking book, or just come to meet us and spend some time with other primitive skills-minded folks. It's a casual evening that usually starts up around 6:00 p.m. and runs until people decide to head home.
You can find more information on our website, and for directions, check out our Locations page. We look forward to having you!