As of this very moment, it is twin day. All day long I have been watching campers and staff imitating each other, swapping outfits and doing their best impersonations of their friends. As the day has wore on, folks have been upping the twin factor, showing up to each pre-meal circle in more fabulous twin arrangements.
As I write this, I’m fairly certain that one camper, dressed as a certain counselor, is leading a bench-building afternoon activity while acting entirely in the character of that counselor.
The halfway point of the TF2KX season has gone flying by. We returned from our trips nearly two weeks ago, eager to share our far-flung adventures with our friends. We performed skits for the TF community detailing our heroic encounters, which included fending off hailstorms while canoeing, performing in a play, scaling several mountains in the rain, picking thirty pounds of blueberries, and building a stone fireplace for a sugar shack.
Several summer-long work projects are finally beginning to take shape. This week there are two work crews on the roof of the Rec Lodge– one
group putting new shingles on the back, and another group tearing the old shingles off of the front. We’re working double time to get new
shingles on the entire roof before summer ends– in thirteen days!
Also, in the past two weeks we’ve built and installed four brand new waterfront benches, built and installed rafters for the new shelter at SAM camp, baked and sold pies with local berries at our weekly farmer’s market, and fashioned a tire swing to enrich the life of our beloved sow, Halifax.
We spent much of last week preparing for our annual MOFA (Museum of Farm Art) exhibition. Campers contributed drawings, paintings, ceramic mugs and monsters, songs, poetry, paper-mache projects, fancy finger foods and fabulous costumes for the affair.
Camper Hannah led a crew of campers and staff in transforming our Rec Lodge into an elegant gallery space for the evening. Lights were strung, stages were erected, art was framed and mounted, and the entire setup was finally -“ooh”-ed and “aah”-ed by the community last Saturday night. After a showcase of inspired performances in the gallery, we left feeling inspired by our peers’ tremendous passions and talents.
This week we are getting ready for our Farm Party, a day in which we celebrate our harvest by only consuming food that is produced on our farm, or food that we barter for in the community. We kicked off the week with an all-camp work project in the garden this Saturday, releasing brussel sprouts, carrots, amaranth, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and zucchini from the never ceasing onslaught of weeds. The summer crops will get one last week of steady growth before we harvest all that we can for our three meals on Saturday.
Three Barns and Gardens work crews this week will also be harvesting, making yogurt, pickles, soft cheeses, and jams to be consumed by the community this weekend.
Finally, we will harvest our meat birds on Friday. Campers have been caring for these birds since the beginning of camp, feeding them twice a day and constructing movable “chicken tractors” so the birds can range freely. The harvest is entirely optional; campers who would like to be a part of the process will attend a talk by our head farmer, Chantal, on Thursday evening.
Looking ahead, we elected Bella and Ted as this year’s Fair Chairs, and they are doing a fantastic job of coordinating our contributions for the Aug. 14 Fair. The TF quilt grows a little bigger every day; co-quilt heads, Addie and Anna, are leading morning work projects and afternoon activities every day with the goal of getting every
member of camp to contribute some work time. The quilt will be raffled off during fair and all the proceeds will go towards funding camperships.
More than a dozen other campers are heading up our twelve booths at the fair– from activism to barns to wilderness living skills and a grand mural is in the planning stages. We hope that you will join us for this joyous celebration of our farm and community. This day is also the last full day of camp, which means the end of camp is
approaching far too quickly.
Pretzel,
Marne