SkyEarth Host/Co-Founder

Scott is the owner of Prairie Haven Texas, the land upon which SkyEarth takes place.  After years of attending other gatherings and having his life positiviely impacted, it became clear to him that offering his land for a gathering could make an impact on other people's lives as well.  Scott started SkyEarth in 2018 with help from Rabbitstick/Wintercount founder Joshua Sage and has been sole operator since 2020. 

Scott has plans to reclaim the land in a way that will nurture and heal it following previous conventional land management practices. To regenerate his land he raises cattle and intermittently smaller ruminants using holistic management and permaculture design practices to restore the native landscape. 

Scott, a Lonesome Dove cowboy at heart, also keeps horses and teaches riding lessons on his property. 

The generosity of Scott and his family is evident as they share this special land with SkyEarth guests each year.

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"Uva Uvam Vivendo Varia Fit"

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Kids Camp Leader

Born and raised in Texas, Chris has spent his whole life wandering and exploring the wild places. Fishing along the coast in Corpus Christi, hiking the trails of State Parks across Texas, exploring the piney woods of Big Thicket and discovering all that nature offered as mysteries along the way. After high school Chris traveled across the country taking classes from dozens of different outdoor schools that focused on modern, native and traditional skills of living, as well as leadership, homesteading and permaculture. Beginning in 2009 Chris began working in environmental education for youth and adults teaching outdoor leadership skills, archery, bow making, wildlife tracking, edible plants and survival skills. In 2014 Chris opened Natureversity to help homeschool communities around Austin and Dripping Springs reconnect with nature through the practice of hands-on and passion-led learning while being outside. He lives in Austin Texas, he enjoys traveling to new locations in Texas, making bows and arrows, primitive hunting, fishing and tracking wildlife. 

Chris will be leading our children's education component of SkyEarth.

Camp Mom

Lacey Proffitt is the part-time Director of Agriculture at Jourdan-Bachman Pioneer Farms, a living history museum showcasing 1800s living in central Texas. Always attracted to the outdoors, she has been fascinated by the interactions and connectivity in natural systems which led her to study biology and the natural sciences in college. She uses this background as well as her Permaculture Design Certificate and study of Holistic Management to create thriving agricultural systems at Pioneer Farms. Her “day job” is running Full Tank Coaching where she coaches individuals toward creating and fulfilling their life’s vision as well as acting as a marketing and business development consultant for design and construction companies.  

Doug is from NE Arkansas and is the Founder and Owner of Earth Trekker Bushcraft.  He is trained in:

• woodland survival in the Arkansas and Missouri Ozarks

• desert survival in Arizona and Utah

• jungle and coastal survival in Costa Rica and Hawaii; northern woodlands of Maine

When Kristina first learned of primitive skills her world drastically changed. A closer walk with nature produced a remarkable life change; she left behind a toxic diet and lifestyle, causing her weight to drop and energy levels to soar! Since that time, she has attended several survival schools and gatherings. She has studied wild edibles and natural medicines which are skills she utilizes on her many outdoor adventures. Kristina has taught wild edibles at multiple survival schools.  Still a student of the natural world herself, she is always excited to share her passion with others. 

Largely inspired by his Native American heritage, Phil spends a lot of time in the wild with minimal gear to further his connection with nature. He is the owner and lead instructor of “Primitive Wilderness Survival” and teaches the primitive portion of the Pathfinder instructor course. He has taught alongside and learned from many of the greatest instructors on the planet and put his skills to the test in the Canadian Arctic for a month on the show Alone: The Beast.

Dave Van Hook - aka "Dirty Dave" - has been cold process soap making for over 20 years. For the last seven years he has been teaching hot process soap making at gatherings. 

With a background in project and manufacturing supervision, he started soap making as a hobby in the 90s for family and friends. He began taking it seriously in 2008 when he was diagnosed with lymphoma, realizing that what we put ON our bodies is as important as what we put IN them.  

His first gathering was Winter Count just nine short months following a bone marrow transplant. He attributes much of his recovery from that ordeal to the culture and community of Primitive Skills Gatherings.

Matt's primitive skills background started like most as a kid.  He was lucky enough to grow up out in the country and spent all his summers running wild - fishing, hunting, and building shelters (forts in the woods).  When he was 19 he was introduced to archery and spent the next 10 plus years bowhunting everything possible.  His favorite time of the year has always been September in the mountains chasing elk.  Around 2012 he heard about the Rabbitstick gathering in Idaho.   In 2018 he made the long trip and it changed him for good.   Now September is spent in Idaho not elk hunting.  The skills and community he found there are 2nd to none.  Since that trip he's been to seven other gatherings.  He looks forward to teaching and learning new skills at SkyEarth this year.  Some of his favorite skills are fire, camp crafts, atlatls, and knife making.

Will is a blacksmith, tool maker, writer and public speaker. He lives in rural southern Missouri and enjoys a self sufficient lifestyle. He strives to build a life he doesn't need a vacation from.
Will is teaching our blacksmithing classes at SkyEarth. Join us no matter your prior experience! 

Scott is a mentor that people are drawn to as he lives and speaks from his heart.  In the last several years, he has become a student of indigenous and native practices as well as ancient wisdoms, which has led him to receive musical gifts for numerous instruments including the native flute and drums.  Scott shares these healing gifts in music mediations offered privately and for groups.   

Scott has a profound connection to nature and has spent time understanding the principles of nature and has become an accomplished nature photographer with an active social community.  Scott is dedicated to creating mindfulness and sacred space in our daily lives by connecting to nature in activities and practices. His personal relationship with nature has blessed his life in countless ways as he practiced a simple goal – show up and see the beauty. 

 Tony Pike is the founder of Ancient Wisdom Survival School and has been teaching survival skills for over two decades. He grew up in a family that lived a lifestyle of self-reliance, a fact he directly attributes to his intense passion for thriving in a minimalist environment. His father challenged him every day, testing his resolve, something he explains was crucial to the mental resolve needed to survive challenging situations and created the drive to become a nationally ranked power lifter. Because of this self reliant lifestyle he soon developed a deep respect for the ways of the Native Americans' ability to live off the land. 

The youngest of 5 siblings, Tony helped his dad trap, hunt, and fish from a very early age, and takes pride in the fact that he helped feed his family as a young boy. He found his first arrow head at age 7, at which time he became fascinated by seeing how such beautiful creations could be crafted from simple rocks. He went on to explore many primitive skills from that point in his childhood until today. Much of his free time is spent with experimental and amateur archeology.

 Hugh is an entrepreneur, instructor and executive. He is the creator of Mustang Medicine and founding partner of Clapham Foundation. Hugh believes a return to virtue is necessary to elevate humankind which is what he proves through Mustang Medicine, a 501(c)(3) charity that provides life-changing experiences by utilizing evidence-based horsemanship and positive psychology as a methodology for healing and growth. 

By combining the science of Positive Psychology, Evidence-Based Horsemanship and ancient Greek Philosophy, our program delivers workshops wherein  individuals experience practical application of their divine strengths and divine deficiencies to develop core character excellences (virtue).  

During our workshops, scholars work with semi-wild mustangs and facilitators to think through the pressures of the mustang’s challenging circumstances.  By doing so, scholars discover their own character strengths & deficiencies and teach themselves principles to address adversity and develop the confidence to defeat fear, create internal safety, trust themselves and find gratitude in growth through hardship.  Our workshops foster awareness and teach scholars how to think - not what to think.  As a result, our scholars discover that all the answers they need to successfully address and overcome life’s challenges reside within themselves.

 If it’s out in Nature and looks like fun, Smokey either does it, or wants to try it.  He has been working with youth for over 20 years, and loves to share his love of adventure through teaching and leading trips.   

Smokey will be teaching Camp Chairs and Lashings at SkyEarth.

 TJ is a life-long resident of Ellis County and he has owned Liberty Tree Service for over ten years. TJ is an arborist by trade and an avid plantsman and gardener in his free time. He is especially knowledgeable about native Texas plants and edible/useful plants and will be teaching our plant identification class at SkyEarth.

TJ and his family live in Waxahachie Texas where they grow all kinds of edible plants in the garden and in the landscape. 

At age 8, after her local wetland and forest playground was destroyed for a suburban housing development, she realized that the wildlife she loved all required native plants for food, shelter, and places to raise their young.  She began working with local landscapers, teachers, Master Naturalists, Master Gardeners and volunteers to create a "Schoolyard Habitat for Wildlife" behind her elementary school. She hasn't stopped since and has deepened her understanding with a degree in ecology and over 20 years of observation, maintenance, installation, and enjoyment of habitat gardens.   

She founded Ecosystem Regeneration Artisans (ERA) Landscapes to unite talented land stewards on projects that realize the vision of creating healthy ecological communities. Shannon and her team create projects focused on earth care and people care.    

Shannon is certified as a native plant landscaper, permaculture designer, holistic management practitioner and low impact development construction inspector. Drawing on these diverse land-stewardship teachings, Shannon regenerates native landscapes with an eye for protecting water quality and improving soil health while creating beautiful, water-wise garden oases that help our waterways keep flowing, not flooding, for generations to come.

Alfonso has been a firearms instructor since 2017 in pistol, rifle, shotgun, and carbine.  He became a law enforcement designated marksman in 2018 and currently has over 500 hours of SWAT training. He is TCCC and TECC qualified, a Certified Wilderness first responder since 2019and a member of East Texas Search and Rescue. In July 2021 he became a Certified Law enforcement Active Shootee response instructor. 

All of this experience makes him especially qualified to teach a special class at SkyEarth on Mindset: Surviving an Active Shooter Event.

David will be teaching Beginner Bow Drill at SkyEarth.  He grew up camping everywhere from Texas to Alaska. His father was a District Executive for the Boy Scouts so he worked at scout camps from the age of 11 to 17. He really started down the rabbit hole of primitive skills 7 years ago and now takes all the classes and training he can. The more he learns, the more he realizes how much more there is to learn and he enjoys sharing all he's learned with others.  

He is a licensed master electrician, but currently supervises special teams crews building the F-35. He is also a proud father and grandfather. 

Justin  was born and raised in east Texas, grew up on 105 acres, where he and his siblings and cousins played cowboys and Indians and pony express all on horseback. He had a love for the land and always felt he needed to learn to use it, not just live on it.  His grandfather taught him things like primitives traps, making bows and arrows from trees and shrubs, which trees to use for headaches and toothaches. and on and on. These little things began to form his love of learning primitive skills and ways of living whic guide him today.

David grew up in the hills of Arkansas and Tennessee as well as the beaches of Florida and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He spent 20 years in the Army retiring in 1992.  He enjoys hunting, fishing and primitive/ancestral skills and has taught knife hafting, sheath making, animal butchering and survival skills at RabbitStick, Winter Count, The End of the World gathering and SkyEarth, as well as at local schools and other social groups.   

David's main emphasis, and what he'll be teaching this year, is on old-time cooking and leather work--primarily knife sheaths of varying styles

Jen lives in Austin, and has over a decade of experience with herbal medicine, not counting her first product made when she was 16: a rose tincture gifted as an herbal cologne for her mother.  While her path has ventured far and wide, she came home to plant medicine forever while living in Mexico.  Pregnant for the first time, she realized she would need organic plant based medicine for herself and the baby.  She started crafting using books and local remedies.  She grew Chamomile and Epazote in pots; while working with Stinging Nettles and other herbs from local markets.  When she returned Stateside, she went back to school for functional nutrition, herbal medicine locally in Texas, and aromatherapy and other plant based modalities.  She has operated two different small batch organic skin care and herbal remedy lines, and has an in-home apothecary where she sees clients.  She grows herbal medicine in her backyard using sustainable permaculture techniques, and sustainably wildcrafts in Central Texas.  Her passions are to empower others to grow, wildcraft and use plant medicine; cultivate a strong relationship with the Earth; and guide the next generation into a path of resilience. While it's hard to pick one, Monarda citriodora is her favorite native medicinal plant.

Dan and his wife Carolyn enjoy raising cows, goats, and chickens, keeping bees, tending an orchard, gardening, and enjoy practicing a wide range of primitive living skills from harvesting wild foods, butchering and preserving meats, drying and fermenting fruits and vegetables, blacksmithing, etc.   ​

Carolyn has been instrumental in our animal dispatching class at SKyEarth. She and her husband, Dan, have donated a goat to be dispatched and processed fully in our classes the last few years.

Jen is a proud member of Earth Trekker Bushcraft and an herbalist currently studying natural integrative medicine at the American College of Healthcare Sciences in Oregon. She is a long time nature/ outdoor enthusiast and grew up learning folk medicine from her grandmother. She has many years of experience camping with her military-family childhood.

Courtney Taylor has been foraging wild food for 20 years, in a variety of ecosystems and climates from the tropical jungles of Hawaii to the arid hills of Arizona and northern California, but the majority of her experience is in North Texas, which she has called home for most of her life. She’s been teaching foraging classes for 10 years, and has compiled her North Texas teaching and foraging experience into an ebook--North Texas Edible Wild Plant Basics--and runs the Wild Foraging North Texas Facebook group. When she’s not foraging, she’s enjoying time with her husband and two children, hiking, backpacking, camping, gardening, reading, and writing.

I was born and raised in the Archery world. My father, Tom Crowe is a champion professional archer and bow hunter. I was fortunate to learn from the best! During my middle childhood years we traveled to compete in tournaments and won many of them including Trail, 3D and Indoor/Outdoor target shoots. After a long break from Archery, I decided to pick it back up and teach my three girls bare bow. Now we shoot for fun and meditation. I am Looking forward to sharing my skills with all ages at skyearth this year.

My name is Austin Mago. Originally a California native my wife (Leighah) and I moved to Texas in 2014. Growing up in Southern California I developed a passion for the outdoors but did not begin full building until 2012. A full decade later my hobby of building wooden bows has become quite an obsession and ultimately lead to my career as an arborist. Please join me as I pass on my knowledge and help those who are interested in taking up the time honored challenge of building their own selfbow!

Ash Wiecek is a homeschooling mom, homesteader, naturalist, farm-to-table chef, local and slow food entrepreneur, horticulturist, herbalist, and forager. Life forever changed for her in 2011 when her son was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition that was healed through supporting his body with proper nutrition rather than conventional medical treatment. From this point on, her priorities changed and grew into educating others on how food and plants can be a natural medicine to support them in the journey through life as well. Her passions include connecting other humans, especially tiny humans, with the natural world around us. As an educator at Greenbriar Community School, she loves teaching others to grow, produce, and process food and plant medicine in relation to their nutritional needs and overall health/lifestyle. She also feels that living within community is a big part of raising and supporting our children and helping to heal the world from trauma. She thoroughly enjoys working with people to build strong relationships to themselves and others through nature and community. Her current projects include operating the Greenbriar Community Garden and her new start-up herbalism apothecary: Full Circle Botanicals. She lives, works and thrives with her family in an off-grid homestead nestled in the woods at Greenbriar’s surrounding intentional community.