Spencer 2 Dogs Bolejack has taught classes at Firefly since its inception and served for a time on its board. He lived three years in the wilds of Appalachia, taught public school, co-hosted a Discovery TV show, and has roots more than 12 generations deep in the North Carolina mountains. He runs Land of the Sky Wilderness School and Riverside Martial Arts center. Spencer has deep compassion for all creatures, great and small, and he is special family to Firefly.
We spent some time with Spencer to talk about skillsharing, nature connection, and his presence at the upcoming Annual Firefly Gathering from July 7 – 12 at the Wild Human Preserve on Green Mountain.
“You’ve taught workshops at Firefly for 18 years now,” I said. “What keeps you coming back?”
“My passion is to help people use their hands in ways to empower each other and share knowledge and wisdom about living on this earth, while giving respect to our ancestors and the people who were on this land first. I have seen how this liberates people and takes them a small step away from the system. And it has a profound effect on the consciousness, making people less susceptible to media control and propaganda. Learning earthskills is a positive, productive thing that pays off not just in survivability, but in what we pass on to the next generation. As a former classroom teacher, I recognize how these skills can prevent young people from getting emotionally dragged into using their passion for violent and destructive means.”
“What specific skills and classes have you taught here?” I asked.
“I can’t even begin to list them all, but many different survival skills, including making fires, knots, shelters, stalking and foraging. Lately I’ve been getting weirder, making room for some of the newer teachers to come up and teach the basic skills. I did a really fun class called ‘Rednecks, Rastas, Hillbillies and Healers.’ We have early morning bo-staff meditation, which is healthy and it feels good. I’m doing stick jiu-jitsu because many people don’t realize how common things like walking sticks and drumsticks can be used for self-defense. I’m also focusing on classes with accessibility, like identifying edible and medicinal plants for people of limited mobility.”
“I sat in on one of your classes today and it became immediately clear to me that you have a deep respect and love for nature,” I said. “What’s behind that? Tell me about your relationship with the Earth.”
“I actually had a profound experience when I was four or five years old,” Spencer said. “My dad lost his business and as a result, we lost everything we owned, including our house and farm. So we built a shack out of a tobacco barn and moved into the woods. The thing that made me the saddest was leaving all the big oak trees in the backyard. I felt like they were my trees. Then I had a dream in which those trees arched over me and were leaning in close, weeping and crying on me. It felt so real. And actually it still does. It’s as clear to me today as it was back then. I have always believed that we are in relationship with the Earth. Nature might not look or communicate the same way as we do, but on an energetic level there is an exchange of information. There is a place for gratitude. They know when I am grateful and humble. But they also know when I’m being a jerk and have come there just to take.”
“How do you express your gratitude when you are in the forest?”
“I often say ‘Thank you’ to the things in nature as I pass them by. I believe that the trees and rocks somehow hear that.”
“That is beautiful, Spencer,” I said. “Speak more about our relationship with the Earth as humans.”
“I think our survival depends on that. If we are not in a right-relationship with Earth, we are not going to make it. This is not just a feel-good thing. We literally have to be in right-relationship with the Earth to make it through what’s going to happen. Even when Hurricane Helene happened, we saw how people who could fall back on those simple survival skills did better and were able to care for others. As a society, we should have evolved way beyond thinking ‘me and myself is all I have to worry about.’ If we have the skills of the Earth, we are able to treat infections, we can reduce fluid in the lungs and we can stop asthma attacks without pharmaceutical medication.”
“I’d like to close my eyes and let you paint a word picture in my mind,” I said. “What is it like to have a sacred walk in the forest? Tell me what you see and hear.”
Nature has food and medicine and animals and it is a piece of heaven right here on Earth. But we keep trying to bust it down. Something is messed up here in our relationship with the Earth. So when you step into the forest, you smell the grass and the dirt. You smell the bark. You feel every little pressure of wind and temperature against your skin. All of the animals are sharing a kind of web of information. Everything is talking to each other. Underground, everything is speaking through the Earth and fungi and even the bacteria. There is a force field of energy connecting it all. That can sound cliché but it’s true. This place feels your heart so you can’t hide. You can’t lie. You can’t go there and be fake. In that space, the things that you need will happen. Miracles will happen!”
“What specific words are you thinking or whispering there?”
“‘Thank you, Creator.’ Or ‘Thank you, God.’ Everybody has different ways to say it. You can say it in any language. On the deepest level it doesn’t matter. Say it in humility and respect. I give thanks by touching the soil. I’ll touch water. I’ll touch a tree. I’ll touch and smell.”
“Going back to that dream you had when you were little,” I said, “do you still feel like the trees are leaning in and comforting you?”
“The Earth is holding me. She is cradling me. That’s how it feels. Even when I hurt her, like a mother she still is tenderly holding me. Just like a mom, it doesn’t matter how belligerent her children are, this mother still loves her children. You got me crying again!”
Adaptive Edible and Medicinal Plants Class
If you have limited mobility — or if you’re simply intimidated by the idea of hopping streams and navigating uneven ground in the hot sun — you’ll love Spencer’s Adaptive Edible and Medicinal Plants class. Spencer will present this class at Firefly 2026 in the shade of his tented classroom, with the help of a solar-powered laptop and a big screen TV.
“People with limited mobility don’t need to feel left out,” says Spencer. “This is a way to go on an herb walk without leaving camp. I’ve prepared a wonderful slide show to introduce people to their plant and tree friends. I stress building relationships, as opposed to exploitation. There’s also a two-and-a-half hour professionally-produced version of the class on a USB drive that people can take home with them.”
Spencer has been offering this class at Firefly for years, and each offering is special in its own way. “Last year we had some elder, ethnic, herbal-wisdom women in the class who were experts in childbirth. When I started talking about herbal birthing aids like trillium, they took the discussion to an even deeper level. I also had the privilege of helping someone in a wheelchair create a plan for an herb garden on the deck of their home.”
Other classes Spencer frequently teaches at Firefly include bo staff meditative movement, stick jiu jitsu, financial resiliency, weather forecasting and map reading, and camp security in an unstable, grid-down environment. Consider attending Spencer 2 Dogs’ Adaptive Edible and Medicinal Plants class this July 7th – 12th at The Annual Firefly Gathering!
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Written by James, author, ghost-writer, suburban farmer, musician and Firefly worktrader. This is the first of a two-part series from Firefly 2025.
