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I had fun, how about you?
When you get really lucky in life, one good thing teaches another and another. What we are finding on the ramp-up for In The Van, is the repeated opportunity to learn and practice common skills of the mid-19th century: this weekend the task was to begin training for wagoner's assistants.
Equines, bovines, rolling stock, humans from pre-teens to social security age, hound dogs, barn cats, and the occassional sleepy snake all joined on a snowy Kentucky weekend.
We learned that safety is Everybody's Business--and saw that put into practice as heads turned all across the pasture and voices echoed "No, Stop!---and the perpetrator grinned to know that the lesson was so deeply ingrained.
We learned that what can go wrong, will, even with well trained animals and maintained rolling stock. We saw how an experienced wagoner looked to the safety of his passenger and his team, first--and examined the broken pieces to understand how and where equipment fails.
We did a tremendous amount of literal 'woodshedding', coming in out of the snow to warm up and ask the hard questions about logistics and support roles.
We laughed, a Lot.
Now, we put a bunch of folks on planes, and let other participants out to pasture, leaving a few with a long drive home. They'll be along with pictures and commentary.
Our thanks to Gary Barker, Maria Hummel, and Nathan Stark for their generosity.
When you get really lucky in life, one good thing teaches another and another. What we are finding on the ramp-up for In The Van, is the repeated opportunity to learn and practice common skills of the mid-19th century: this weekend the task was to begin training for wagoner's assistants.
Equines, bovines, rolling stock, humans from pre-teens to social security age, hound dogs, barn cats, and the occassional sleepy snake all joined on a snowy Kentucky weekend.
We learned that safety is Everybody's Business--and saw that put into practice as heads turned all across the pasture and voices echoed "No, Stop!---and the perpetrator grinned to know that the lesson was so deeply ingrained.
We learned that what can go wrong, will, even with well trained animals and maintained rolling stock. We saw how an experienced wagoner looked to the safety of his passenger and his team, first--and examined the broken pieces to understand how and where equipment fails.
We did a tremendous amount of literal 'woodshedding', coming in out of the snow to warm up and ask the hard questions about logistics and support roles.
We laughed, a Lot.
Now, we put a bunch of folks on planes, and let other participants out to pasture, leaving a few with a long drive home. They'll be along with pictures and commentary.
Our thanks to Gary Barker, Maria Hummel, and Nathan Stark for their generosity.
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