Dear Readers,
Week two is like a good Chapter Two. Characters are established. Story lines are foreshadowed and begun. Week Twois the first week of routine here. On a farm, routine is supreme. Animals like the cows and the goats have a rhythm to their milking schedule. There are feeding times and harvesting times. Week two is when campers and animals alike can settle in to that rhythm of the farm.
Those routines include our afternoon activities. This past week was jampacked with a wide array of choices, including papier mache costume making, a basketball trip to a local court, song card writing, a ridge hike, canoeing and spoon making. Knitting made a triumphant return. These campers love to knit. There has been a real enthusiasm about these afternoons and that inspires the staff to push their creativity. Campers have also taken on the role of leading their own activities.
I should say that not everything is skewed toward a routine. We try to mix things up to keep the summer new and fresh. One of the ways we do that is with nights like our Interdependence Day celebration. All six camps at Farm and Wilderness celebrate how we are all interdependent and can help and support each other. We come together and perform a song or a skit, usually with a positive message about that camp. So, Friday, July 8, was a big success. There was a bonfire and a contra dance with ice cream sandwiches. The community really rocked out and I honestly saw us coming closer together while performing.
Finally, we had a great week of work projects as well. We have one crew building a new shower house. We have another crew pouring hexagonal cement tiles to expand the basketball court we made last year. Those two ventures are going to be landmark projects for the summer. This is an opportunity for campers to come back year after year and, as they look at that shower house or that basketball court, say, “I helped build that.” This experience offers a special feeling. The barns and gardens projects are a little more ephemeral at least on a summer by summer basis, but also there is the immediate gratification of weeding a row or building a new fence. Watching campers return after a morning of working in the garden is great because each one has this glow about them, whether they are aware of it or not.
Alas, it is now time to go work off those Sourdough pancakes made by the first bread crew of the summer. Delicious.
My Best,
Medicine Shield Dancer