The Art and Science of Invisibility - November 7, 10:00am - 3:00pm
From indigenous methods to ways of old mountaineers, author of The Appalachian Ninja, Spencer 2 Dogs brings to life methods of becoming a ghost of the forest. Spencer presents a unique culmination of experience including a 5th degree black belt in ninjutsu earned in Japan, years living alone in the Southern Highlands, and time cultivating America’s most elite who themselves were developed in the backwoods of North Carolina. Students will listen to birds, learn to sense danger, communicate without words, see more detail, smell more scents, hear without hearing, and move quietly in different terrain day or night. This class is a focused look at what he offers at his program Land of the Sky Wilderness School in Canton, NC
Spencer “2 dogs” Bolejack
Appropriate for age 13+ with a participating adult
$75 per attendant
Held rain or shine
Please bring a bag lunch , water bottle & rain gear
No refunds for cancellations
More info will be sent to you after registration
“Lovely Lard” with Melissa from True Cut Ranch - November 14, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Appropriate for ages 13+ with a participating adult.
$75 per attendant
Please bring a bag lunch, water bottle & rain gear.
Held rain or shine.
No refunds for cancellations.
We must have 10 folks to hold this class. Please bring a friend or two!
More info will be sent after we receive your registration.
Join Melissa in our off grid, wood fired, outdoor kitchen at Turtle Island Preserve for a hands-on workshop all about LARD.
Rendered pork fat has had a bad reputation, but now we know that margarine and seed oils weren’t so great while traditional fats can be nourishing and delicious.
We’ll start with pork fat from True Cut Ranch’s American Mulefoot Hogs and render it into a useful cooking fat. After learning about how lard can be used for cooking, baking, soap making, candle making, and more we’ll sample a tasty treat cooked in lard and then make fall-inspired jar candles for participants to take home.
Beyond the memories of this unique workshop experience at Turtle Island Preserve, participants can take home:
• Up to 10 pounds of pork fat to render into lard
• A jar candle made with lard and beeswax (plus optional fall-inspired scents)
Melissa and Fred left the city and their construction companies behind to pursue ranching full-time. Their children grew up with pigs, chickens, turkeys, and ducks in their tiny backyard and picked produce from their fruit trees, blueberry bushes, and seasonal gardens.
Now, with nearly 150 lush acres in Claremont, NC, they can produce food for the community as well. Back when Fred was in the construction industry he had a vanity plate on his truck that read “TRUE CUT.” They like the idea of lumber that is true cut because it is what it claims to be: a 2x4 is really 2” by 4”. They thought that name could fit equally well on the gate to the ranch. Here’s why:
Much of the meat you can find in the grocery store, even with an Organic label, isn’t what they would consider true. Is a chicken really a true chicken if you trim its beak and keep it indoors? Is beef from herbivores that spent their final days on dirt at a CAFO (feed lot) true beef? Is it true pork if the pig was bred to be lean and raised indoors?
Melissa teaching at Turtle Island
Age 16+
Held rain or shine.
Bring a water bottle.
$55 per participant.
No refunds issued for cancellations.
When we receive your registration more details will be sent to include directions, parking, etc.
Be guided into deep, timeless presence with nature through a guided forest bathing walk with Becca Nenow. This is a gentle and slow meditative walk where we connect with nature and soak in all the health and heart benefits the forest has to offer.
Becca grew up between the hills of Tennessee, the cornfields of Indiana, and the mountains of North Carolina.
Joan Didion said, "Don’t you think sometimes that people are formed by the landscape they grow up in…it formed everything I ever think or ever do or am."
From early on nature and art have been guiding forces in life, and medication and embodiment practices joined the team along the way. She was raised in a home with thousands of books, and in a family where they repeated her Montessori preschool mantra "learning and growing everyday".
Becca studied visual art in high school at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and then psychology, biology, and art at UNC Chapel Hill. After graduating she thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, was elected to Boone Town Council, and started a company for sustainable & refillable products, called Resupply.
She is still involved in local sustainability initiatives by serving on boards and volunteering at ecological work days, but the soul of her work is in guiding people into deeper connection with the Earth by guiding them how to be in the wilderness and live as their own wild self through co-created experiences. s in her life, and meditation and embodiment practices joined
FOREST BATHING - November 15, 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Becca Nenow
Forest bathing is based on the Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku. In the 80's and 90's the Japanese government noticed a decline in the population's mental and physical health as the workforce moved from outdoor and agricultural to indoor and technological. They researched what could improve these health outcomes and discovered that simply being in nature significantly benefits both mental and physical health. Research now shows that spending time with the forest improves cognition, creativity, stress, immune function, heart rate variability, and more. But better than reading the research, experience the feeling of the forest for yourself.
You will need:
Sturdy walking shoes
Weather-appropriate clothing, including rain gear or multiple layers for chilly & windy days
Water bottle
Hiking pole, if you would like support while walking
All Things Wood - TAUGHT BY SPENCER BOLEJACK
Wood whispers, wood speaks, and those who learn to hear it’s quiet voice learn to live in relationship with the rarest substance in the Universe. Come spend a day learning how to see more in wood than you thought possible with Spencer 2 Dogs. Spencer hasn’t just kept his family warm and cooked with wood for decades, he helped build many of the structures on Turtle Island. We will observe and utilize forest succession, read signs of weather and climate in the growth of trees, identify medicines and share methods of harvesting, preparing and storing gifts from the mountains. Handles, tools, repairs, debarking, splitting, cutting, sawing, chopping, planting and regeneration – and more, shaped by your own interests. If you are a student of survival, Earth Skills, or simply living this is foundational information as a resident on planet Earth.
Spencer 2 Dogs Bolejack operates Land of the Sky Wilderness School in Western North Carolina where he lives with his wife and three kids. An apprentice of mountain man Eustace Conway in the 1990s, Bolejack holds dan rank in multiple styles of martial arts including Tang Soo Do, Kenpo, IMA, and a 5th degree black belt in ninjutsu. After starting college with a full scholarship at Appalachian State, he gave everything away and moved into the woods for a total of three years, surviving on little and accumulating many of the skills discussed in camp. Eventually graduating from UNC-A, he has taught public school, won state level awards from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, has been published in Best Practices for Middle School Teachers and has taught internationally. The 11th generation Carolinian also co-hosted 59 episodes of Discovery’s Hillbilly Blood.
Spencer “2 dogs” Bolejack
ALL THINGS WOOD - DECEMBER 5, 2026 - 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Appropriate for ages 13+ with a participating adult.
$75 per attendant
Please bring a bag lunch, water bottle & rain gear.
.Held rain or shine.
No refunds for cancellations.
More info will be sent after registration.