Green University® LLC Alumni
Meet previous Interns from Green University® LLC
2011
Jonathan, Forest, Meg, and Trenton
Green University® LLC is slowly finding its way again after Tom Elpel's marriage ended in 2010. Jonathan joined Tom, Kris Reed, and Katie Russell in the spring for some primitive skills experience. He helped out with the primitive skills programs for public schools, including the 2011 Harrison School Junior High Camping Trip.
Katie Russell spent the summer doing a 1200-mile horseback ride across Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Tom showed up and offered backup assistance periodically along the way.
Katie led the internship program in the fall, with an intensive focus on animal processing. We were joined for the fall session by interns Forest, Trento, and Meg, as well as a handful of other individuals that came by for quick classes. The animal processing crew skinned more than two hundred deer, fleshed, and salted the hides, and did some hide tanning. We had the junior high students up for a day of hide tanning. It was good to feel the energy and community spirit returning to Green University® LLC!
2010
Brandon, Laura, and Sky
After his arrival in September of 2009, Brandon helped build the garage then stayed over the winter in the intern house, mostly working on his own writing and poetry. Brandon also started work on a botany database key for plant idenfitication, which is presently under continuing development. Kris returned for his fifth year, but as an instructor, rather than as an intern. Sky and Laura arrived at the beginning of May, and we all worked together with the kids programs, doing day-long outings with the elementary kids, as well as the three-day, two-night junior high camping trip. Just before Brandon took off in June, we assembled friends, family, and interns for a six-day carp-hunting trip on the Missouri River and Canyon Ferry Reservoir. That was lots of fun and we caught numerous carp with our bows and arrows and some by hand.
On the downside, the internship program was cut short as Tom and Renee separated and initiated a divorce after twenty-one years of marriage. The preceding three years of trying to keep the marriage going were hard, and now they were ready to move on. They remain friends, co-parents, and work partners. Renee moved into the intern house continues to own and operate Granny's Country Store, while Tom plans to relocate and continue growing and building Green University® LLC.
2009
Kris, Joseph, Ginny, Jake, Mike, and Brandon
2009 was a pretty low-key year. Kris returned and took Tom's son Donny on a three-hundred mile canoe trip down the Colorado River. Joseph flew out from Missouri and stayed for six weeks to help build the masonry fireplace in the intern house. Kris helped out with the primitive skills programs for public schools and joined the Elpel's on a week-long canoe trip down the Musselshell River in central Montana. Jake and Ginny stayed for a few weeks in July for some canoeing, hide tanning, and other primitive skills practice. Then Tom disappeared for most of August to participate in an all Stone Age Living Project. Interns Brandon and Mike arrived in September, after Rabbitstick Rendezvous, and helped build the garage attached to the intern house. Although many small projects remain, the garage was the last major project on the intern house.
2008
Kris, Sholei, Matt, and Lauren
Tom and Renee took a break from the internship program through most of 2008 to focus on quality family time after Tom wrapped up two years of writing his newest book, Roadmap to Reality. Although the internship program was temporarily suspended, previous interns Kris and Sholei returned for brief stays at Green University® LLC and joined us for an early walkabout in Arizona. The internship program started up again in the fall when Matt bicycled to Montana from New Jersey. Lauren also joined us for the last couple months of the year. We tanned hides, wrapped up some projects on the intern house, and went out on some short walkabouts.
2007
Kris, Sholei, Lisa, Bonnie, and Vidahlia
Kris returned early in the year and built most of the frame walls inside the intern house, and did much of the rough plumbing and wiring as well.
After our chilly walkabout the previous spring, we officially started 2007 with trip down south for the Virgin River - Lake Mead Canoe Trip. Sholei joined us for the canoe trip, and stayed on through the end of June, helping out with house-building projects, such as plastering the interior, wiring outlets and switches, and pouring the footings for the greenhouse and porch. We also hired Sholei part-time to work in Granny's Country Store.
Lisa and Bonnie arrived in July, along with Bonnie's two-year-old daughter Vidahlia. Lisa and Bonnie were very enthusiastic about house-building, and helped to complete the stonework on the porch and greenhouse, terra tile the main floor of the house, and poured concrete countertops. They took turns watching Vidahlia, so that one of them was always available to help out with projects. Vidahlia was a great joy everyday and loved playing on the sand pile. Besides house-building, we made lots of apple cider, went canoeing, and spent a few days car camping in Yellowstone National Park.
Bonnie and Lisa stayed until mid-December before heading home to Alabama. Bonnie illustrated Tom's book Roadmap to Reality: Consciousness, Worldviews, and the Blossoming of Human Spirit.
2006
Kris, Phil, Merian, and Adam
We started 2006 with a walkabout in eastern Montana In Search of Spring. We didn't find it, and Phil's hair in the picture above is not gray, but white with snow. After the expedition we went to work on the intern house. Kris, Phil, and Merian lived in the basement, and hung a tarp from the ceiling to redirect the rainwater coming through the floor. It was a very wet basement.
One day a wildfire blew on down the other side of the river while we were grouting the tile floor in the basement. We patrolled our side of the river for sparks, and had to put out one small fire. Kris, Phil, and Merian helped complete the stonework up to the peak in the front and the back of the intern house.
Kris stayed on and co-hosted Canoe Camping on a Song and a Paddle, Volume 4 in The Art of Nothing Wilderness Survival Video Series. We worked together to put a roof on the intern house. Adam stopped by to check out the project in August, and ended up staying for five weeks. It was perfect timing, as we needed the additional help to close in the roof to finally keep the house dry. Afterwards, we went out on a couple of short expeditions. It was great to get the house closed in to provide dry living space for future interns and to be able to work on the project during the winter. Thanks guys for all your help!
2005
Mike, Robert, Brian
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| Green University® interns Mike, Robert, and Brian started at the ground floor, building the intern house from the basement on up. |
In the spring of 2005 we tore down the trailerhouse that previously served as the intern house, and started construction on a new passive solar stone house to replace it. Unfortunately, that meant we had no place for the interns to live while building the new house. Mike, Robert, and Brian moved into an eighteen-foot tipi, which kept them mostly dry, and worked their butts off to get the intern house started from the ground up. They did the hardest and hottest grunt work to form and pour the footings and basement and start the stonework. It is because of their efforts that the Green University® LLC intern house materialized into existence.
Mike was especially interested in building and had considerable building experience, so that helped. Robert was most interested in primitive skills, and was great working with kids on the junior high camping trip. I wish we could have done some additional walkabouts together. Brian was the first one to move into the stone house, although it had no roof. The floor over the basement looked reasonably tight, but actually leaked like a sieve. We are immensely grateful for their combined efforts to get the intern house started.
2004
Brian, Norm, and Christian
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We bought Granny's Country Store in Silver Star, Montana in the fall of 2003, and officially launched the internship program in 2004 as part of Hollowtop Outdoor Primitive School. Interns Brian and Norm lived in the trailerhouse next door to Granny's and stayed with us for six months. Christian also joined us for a few weeks in the springtime. On the junior high camping trip, while Tom was whispering to the students about how to use a throwing stick, Christian was standing in the back of the group, saw a bunny, and killed it right then with his throwing stick.
Brian and Norm helped put a fresh coat of paint on the store, and assisted with many other maintenance projects around the place. Primitive skills and hide tanning was the primary emphasis of the year, and we all made buckskin outfits and joined Lynx Vilden (a.k.a. "Lynx Shepherd") for a canoe trip in northwest Montana. (Be sure to read Norm's Primitive Skills Internship Journal.) Conversations with Brian and Norm led to the idea for Green University® LLC, which was launched in the fall of 2004.
Prior Interns
Chris, Vince, Richard, Monk, and Jim
The internship program first started in about 1994 when Chris and Vince independently arrived at our home to check out Hollowtop Outdoor Primitive School. They offered to stick around for a while and lived in a hut in our orchard. Chris and Vince designed and built an earthlodge on the property that became a teaching facility and intern house for several years. We remain in touch with both of them on a regular basis.
After working with Chris and Vince, we were inspired to launch an internship program, but needed an appropriate space to house the interns separate from our home, which didn't happen until we bought Granny's Country Store in the fall of 2003. Other individuals who contributed to the shaping of the internship program included Richard, who helped us with a stone masonry project in 1998 and joined Tom for a walkabout over the mountains. At other times we were joined by Monk and Jim who stayed with us for a few weeks, learned some primitive skills, and helped take care of the place when we were away on vacation with our kids. We gradually realized that we preferred the long-term relationship with a handful of individuals versus the short-term relationship of structured classes and expeditions. These experiences gradually led to the internship program and the founding of Green University® LLC.
Hey Tom!
I remember on the way to the airport you asking me to express what I thought about the internship. I can't recall what I said but i have more to add because I didn't realize most things till I left. I gained a lot of confidence in my ability to be innovative. When I returned home and was helping my cousin with his construction business I was much better at my job. Like you said. When you build, you are always going to run into problems you've never had before. Its learning how to deal with whatever is thrown at you that will make you successful. It was awesome how Brandon and I were allowed to come up with our own ideas and then get to implement them if they made sense. My cousin was also quite impressed with how well I could use all the tools. I've found the experience to benefit me in other areas of my life not related to construction.
Take it easy Tom,
Michael S.
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