The board

How an afternoon actually works

Everything starts at the board. It is a real board, outdoors, with real quests pinned to it, and it is the first thing you look at when you arrive.

  1. GGREEN

    Starter. One afternoon, on your own or with one other person.

  2. BBLUE

    Standing. Always there, repeatable, and the reason a wet Tuesday is never empty.

  3. GGOLD

    Earned. Carries a house sigil and a grade; clearing it moves you in that house.

  4. BBLACK

    A post with a place open on it. Paid work, held for a whole arc rather than taken for a day; the houses say which posts exist.

  5. WWHITE

    Posted by somebody here, claimed by somebody here. Anyone can pin one up.

BLUE 14 · GARLIC, IN THE GROUND

Takes: one afternoon. Party: 2 to 4. Needs: nothing you do not already have.

Break the bed, set the cloves point up, a hand's width down and a hand's width apart, and mark the row so nobody digs it up in February.

Truth: You will not be here in July when it comes up. Somebody else eats it. That is the job.

Signed ________________ Date __________

Reaching up

You can take a quest one plate above your own. Reaching is the point, and nobody has to tell you no, because the board already says it.

Nothing in the houses is gated on your plate. If you already know how to cook, start where you already are; the house cares what you can do, not how long you have been here.

A wet Tuesday in January

Someone has the big table. Someone is teaching a game they learned last week. Someone is on their third attempt at making one of their own. That is a normal Tuesday here. It is not the backup plan.

A day

How a day tends to go

A model, not a promiseThe two ends are fixed and the middle is not a timetable. What happens between them depends on who turned up and what the weather is doing.

We run two until seven, and we will open earlier if your school day ends earlier. Come when your school lets you go; if you have a half day, come at the start of it.

Two to seven, Monday to Thursday, and earlier by arrangement. Nothing starts on a whistle, and nobody is late.

  1. From 2:00The room is openCome when your school day ends. Drop your bag, say hello. Nothing starts on a whistle and nobody is late.
  2. FirstMoveA game, or something physical, outside where we can. Bodies first, after a day of sitting down; it is also the fastest way a group of people who barely know each other stop being strangers.
  3. ThenThe cooking guildWhoever is on the kitchen takes the food from raw to ready. Real cooking, from a real book, with knives and heat and somebody who knows what they are doing. It is a craft with a rota, not a chore anybody gets stuck with.
  4. ThenThe tableEveryone eats together, at the same time, sitting down. The people who cooked it get to watch it get eaten. This is where most of the talking happens.
  5. ThenThe floorAfter the food, anybody can take the floor: a few minutes, standing up, saying something to the room. What you made, what went wrong, what you have worked out. Mentors take a turn like everybody else. It is semi-formal on purpose, because being able to stand up and be listened to is a skill and it is taught nowhere.
  6. The rest of the dayThe quest zoneThe long block, and the one people come back for. Take something off the board, carry on with what you started last week, or go and work on the thing you cannot stop thinking about. Nobody hands you a task; you choose your own, and there is somebody around who can help when you ask.
  7. CloseDoorsPick-up, or a walk to the bus. Nobody is hurried out.

Wednesdays we finish at 6:00

One exception to the close, and it is deliberate: on Wednesdays we finish at 6:00 instead of 7:00, so anybody with a Wednesday evening still has it. The day costs the same; our pricing is by the day, not by the hour.

Half days

When the district runs a half day, we open early and the day is longer at our end. No booking, no different rate; it is the same day starting sooner.

The table

Everyone eats together, at the same time, sitting down. It is cooked here by whoever is on the kitchen that week, out of the garden when the garden is producing, and it is included; there is no separate charge and nothing to opt into. Some days it is a full meal and some days it is a good snack, depending on what the kitchen got done.

Students working on the land in the late afternoon.

The year

Arcs

The year runs in arcs of about eight weeks, with a break between each, following the school district's calendar. An arc ends with whatever gets finished in it.

The Dark

October, to the winter break

The light goes. You put things away for a year you will not see the end of, and the fire is lit every afternoon from here on.

The Cold

January, to the mid-winter break

The hard one, and the one nobody else runs. Anyone can love the outdoors in August.

The Mud

After the mid-winter break, to the spring break

The wettest of it, and the most trodden. The light comes back faster than anything else does. Seed goes in under lights indoors while there is still nothing to see outside.

The Green

April, to the end of the year

It all comes up at once, the work moves outside for good, and the year ends with a night out.

How an arc ends

An arc is not closed with a ceremony. It ends with whatever got finished: the bed that came through, the thing that sold, the build that stands up. What the arc was is whatever you can point at when it is over.

Why it is not a term

A term is an accounting period. An arc is a thing with a beginning and an end, which is what you need if you are going to start something and finish it. Most of what is worth doing here does not fit in an afternoon.

Come and visit