Things are working out perfectly

Ron, Christie and I came up with our own Outdoor School version of the popular "12 Days of Christmas" carol. The song was part of a fireside performance st our winter survival trek last week. It went something like this...

On the 12th day of ODS my school boss gave to me:
Twelve great outdoor students,
Eleven cool presenters,
Ten minutes late,
Nine-day canoe trip,
Eight bumpy bus rides,
Seven great outdoor trips,
A six voice choir, (there are always always always atleast 6 students singing!)
Five Assignments Due AT ONCE!
For-gotten field books...
Three rules to survive...
Two co-op teachers...
and an intern X X-X-X-X.

It was well recieved. So was the minus 30 degree weather that we slept in... without tents. We built shelters out of deadfall and spruce boughs. It took us about 2-4 hours to build them and in the end they were pretty cosy. I used 'hot shots' continuously and wore layers of wool. Our chicken quesadillas were very tasty over the fire in the chilly weather - with super hot homemade salsa!! Yum! Getting up in the morning was a challenge, but the most difficult thing to to was to dismantle our lovely hand-built homes and scatter the pieces through the wood before departing, so as to "leave no trace". Nearly heartbreaking. My students faired well... except for one who got severe frostbite on her toes and perhaps another case or two of minor frostbite... (?) Everyone was well prepared but it is one thing to talk about what one needs to do out there and entirely different to actually use your common sense to do those things out there to take care of yourself... eeeeeee.....

I'm happy to be heading home in about 2 days.

Tomorrow is the longest night of the year... Winter Solstice. I wish you all a happy solstice, and a merry Christmas! I can hardly wait!