Flying Cloud does Fair preparation a little differently than the other camps. At Flying Cloud one thing we do that requires a lot of preparation is the beef jerky. We started beef jerky ten days before Fair, by chopping up the beef and marinating it for a few days. Once it’s nice and flavorful, we string it up in the smoke house and start drying it. The drying process has a crew of campers working day and night (literally!) to keep a nice smoky fire going at all time. The fire can’t be too hot or too cold, and as you may have tasted this weekend, when done carefully we get a pretty tasty product. I hope you enjoyed it!
The other piece that starts well in advance of Fair is Fire Raising. From our whole gaggle of campers we select the oldest who have really shown leadership in camp for this special job. These guys work long days collecting wood and practicing their choreography in the sun and rain. When they think they’ve got it, we have them rehearse it again. After days of hard work they hike on down to the Fairground on Friday for one last day of practice. Though it’s occasionally stressful, and definitely demanding, the efforts are clearly worth it. For those of you who saw the ceremony this year, I’m sure you could feel the power and the focus these campers brought to the performance. For any of you who got great pictures of the event, I’d love to see them and share them with others. You can email them to me or Becka, our Communications Director. For everyone else, check back here soon for photos and perhaps some video of the event.
The rest our our Fair preparation is all focused on grasshoppers, hot sauce and barbecue sauce. This year we went out on Friday and collected something like one hundred and fifty little guys for your snacking pleasure! I don’t know why, but we seemed to have some exceptionally big ones this year too. Back in camp there was also a crew of guys chopping onions, peppers and tomatoes for our “Smoking Tipi barbecue sauce” and our “Flaming Tipi hot sauce”. If you were lucky enough to get a bottle, you’d better check over the ingredients carefully. Some of my favorite “seasonings” from this year were “immortality”, “bad campers” and “love”.
Though it’s hard to believe, this is the last week of camp. We’ve got a lot of amazing closing activities planned, and we’re all praying for good weather. We’ll be expecting parents to come pick up their campers this Thursday, August 14th between 9:00AM and noon. If for some reason you’re going to be late please call the main office at (802) 422-3761 and let them know and they’ll have someone contact me.
I’ll leave you now with two of my personal favorite appreciations from campers this week:
“I want to thank my parents for sending me here because this is such a wonderful place.”
“I want to appreciate all of my friends for being great.”