My favorite experiences this year is getting to meet and work with the youth workers who also work for Mike. They are all younger than me but we still connect because we have similar interests. They are all hard workers and have good social skills. Another experience I liked was the first time we harvested wild foods. It was beautiful. We were on a dirt, heading to the destination where we knew there would be wild foods. All along the road was all kinds of fruits such as currants, grapes, plums, and snowberries. There was also a medicine the Lakota used a long time ago, Purple ConeFlower, which they used to use the leaves to make tea for head and stomach aches. People used the root for toothaches as well. If you chew on the root it will give your mouth a numbing sensation. Ever since 7th grade I wanted to be an Engineer, but this experience might of changed that.
Some of the projects Mike and I were planning on doing was building a pine bough shade, a canning and drying shack, and a dehydrator to dehydrate the wild fruits we find. So far we have the pine bough shade built which we are using for our “Showing of the Garden” cookout. I was also thinking about donating some of the animals (Pronghorned Antelope) I harvest in August to the garden. Mike could use his dehydrator we are going to build to dry it out and give it to people in need.
Here are some pictures of the shade being built.