Saturday 6 August 2011

HESFES 2011

Belatedly, here are some piccys from this year's Home Educator's Summer Festival. We had a fab time. Ds1 turned feral (returning only to grab meals and disappear again), dd adopted several other families (we saw very little of her) and ds2 hung out with a few mates designing computer games (in a field with no computers).



A few of the marquees:


Bongo and band workshopping with the HESFES band (the HESFES band consisting of children from tots to teens, including about 13 drummers!):



Ds1 as one of the many drummers:




Why did you bring me camping?
Because I'm worth it:



But I've got more hair (ds2):





And I'm rougher and tougher than both of you (dd):




Making copper bowls, i.e. bashing a bit of metal for a very long time until it looks slightly more curved than it started off(note the hair wrap, patiently created by a member of one of her adopted families):



Ds1 with his home-made (tin can) drum kit before he got promoted to a proper drum:





Twirling home-made poi thingimagigs:




A demonstration of 'rocket stoves' (made from tin cans):

The result of our group effort and the dog eating an awful lot of king-size cheap dog food (our stove is the shiny one):








Lighting it wasn't so easy:



Hand-painted bandanas:



Beautiful sunset over our tent and van:




It's all been too much:



4 comments:

Homeschool family said...

Wow, it looks like you all had an amazing time. fab x

MadameSmokinGun said...

Couldn't get my rocket stove to stay alight in that damned flat East Anglian air-field either. Brought it home tho' for a proper try. Left it in the garden to fill up with rain. Grrrrr...

My pretty little copper bowl now sits on my window sill - from where I gaze out at my delightful undulating hills in the distance kind of view - wondering what possessed me to spend so much time in such flat East Anglian air-field surrounded by industrial units....

....Oh yes.... I feral kids and other adoptive families...... NOW I remember!

Thought I spotted your little DD lining up for a copper flat (pre-bowl) but 2 seconds later seemed to have disappeared. But that could have been me that disappeared looking for a hammer....

Big mamma frog said...

She was the one using the hammer to dig a hole in the ground. Which is why her copper isn't very curved.

Our rocket stove kinda lit, but went out as soon as we put a saucepan on top. Methinks a sdesign modification is required.

MadameSmokinGun said...

Yeah - probably something to do with the 2 blokes (lovely as they were) not agreeing at all on the best method. One said 'Snip more flaps' (don't think those were in fact his exact words..) while the other said 'Oh you've got too many flaps (ditto), one said 'tuck it inside' while t'other said 'outside' etc etc.... Eventually I thanked them for their kind patience and scarpered back to camp to bash the thing about my own way. But it did look nice. Unique in fact. Dovetailed flaps in and out.

But the bastard still didn't stay alight. I think you're right - it was the kettle on top wot did it in. Altho' Mr RB did marvel at the WARMTH of the water in the kettle after waiting too long for his cup of coffee. So it stayed alight long enough to warm a kettle. Life-saving tool that.