Instructors
Natalie Bogwalker
Natalie's love affair with with the natural world was conceived when her mother sent her out into the forest behind their house in pursuit of wild huckleberries for tarts. The joy of living as an integral part of the web of life, fed from wild plants and animals has yet to wear off, though her tastes have become more accustomed to salads and stews than to sweets, and her interests have blossomed way beyond wild foods.
Natalie Bogwalker practices and shares skills she considers vital to humanity's future. She lives in a lovely, growing homestead nestled deep in community in the Southern Appalachians. She spends her time harvesting or the wild, building, gardening, planting, putting up food, growing, teaching, scheming about how to introduce more people to earth-based living, and worshiping the beauty around her.
She is the founder and director of the Wild Abundance, LLC the Living Skills School, and the Firefly Gathering. She teaches at the Living Skills School, Wild Intelligence, the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, the Maps meet, Earthskills Rendezvous, and has given talks at FSU, Southern Adventist University, Toulane University, Ohio University, Vanderbilt University, Western Washington University, and lots of other places. Recently she gave the keynote speech at the Evolver Conference in Atlanta.
She holds a B.S. in ecological agriculture, and, more importantly has studied with teachers who have deeply enriched her perspective, including Juliet Blankespoor, Margaret Mathewson, and Frank Cook.
Alex Kilgore
Alex Kilgore has been learning and teaching primitive and traditional living skills since 1995. He began with a formative apprenticeship with Steve Watts, founder of the Society of Primitive Technology and Director of the Aboriginal Studies Program at the Schiele Museum of Natural History. In 1997 Alex completed his degree in Outdoor Experiential Education at Appalachian State University. For the last 14 years he has worked and taught at Earthcamp, Earthskills Rendezvous, Mountain Quest, LEAF festival as well as in public and private schools. Alex lives in a strawbale house that he built on his off the grid homestead in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He prides himself on continuously learning and improving upon his skills in order to practice a more sustainable, self sufficient lifestyle.