Thank you. I must begin this blog with the recognition for trusting us with your children. Parents have done this with Farm & Wilderness successfully for over three quarters of a century, yet most of them did not live in an era where the expectation was to have a constant feed of photos and news and online information when absent from loved ones. “Feed” was something for our animals, not for us! Yet here we are, it’s the world we live in and I appreciate your patience and trust when words and images have been few.
What’s been going on at camp?
PATHFINDER PATH
Remarkable achievements abound. This morning we left for Silent Meeting out of the front door, and silently walked a brand new path, complete with bridges, up into the old OLS area above Borrows field. It was a communal way of celebrating the work of all the campers that pulled stumps and cleared brush and graveled the path to make this new connection to a beautiful spot, which also connects directly to the trail up to Souders Rock.
A HIKE TO REMEMBER
In the Spring, Jonathan Schoder proposed we bring back a day hike back to camp that was 34 miles. We are used to PKS (Pico-Killington-Shrewsbury) in a day, which is about 14 miles, but this was in another league. We managed it carefully, with a warm-up hike of PKS in a day at an advanced pace – which the six hikers finished in less than six hours and set a record. Three decided that setting that record was enough, while another three decided they wanted to try the longer hike. The rest is history. They left at 5.15 am, were back by 9.45pm and hiked over 34 miles in one day. When they presented their skit to the camp, it was highlighted that each one of them started with their first hike in First Lodge, and that those first miles with a big pack and a little body were as hard or harder than any of the 34 miles they did on this capstone hike. We rarely imagine how far we’ll go.
12 HOUR SOLOS
Some of our 10-12 year old campers chose to do 12 hour solo sit-spots in the woods. They passed the time in different ways, and each discovered new things about nature and themselves. One spoke of how he realized the connection between a tiny, perfect sapling and the enormous tree next to it. Another built himself a bench from sticks – that was quite comfortable!
TL CHOPPED
Our new Head Cook loves to engage with our campers. Some have been helping in the kitchen and learning and growing. To close that cycle, he allowed them to choose six random ingredients for a meal. They chose: Pork Shoulder/Maple Syrup/Bok Choy/Rice Crispies/ one more / another one. The meal he came up with was:
· Pulled pork with a soy and maple sauce
· Arugula salad with a home-made vinaigrette
· Sautéed vegetables including Bok Choy, onions, kale
· Lemon and black sesame rice cookies.
· Options for everyone with allergies as well!
GODZILLA DAY
I have a hard time remembering how any given day at Timberlake matches up with a calendar from the “outside world”, yet one of our youngest campers knew exactly when Godzilla’s birthday was – that is the day, 77 years ago, when the first Godzilla movie was released. We celebrated at TL and the enthusiasm for this from one of our littlest was precious.
RATINGS AND MORE
We have 30 Woodsman ratings to give you tomorrow night, as well as new swim levels, canoe ratings and many appreciation beads.
It’s been an incredible journey we can’t believe it is almost over. We’ll see you very soon and thank you again for your trust and willingness to allow your son to work together with us this summer
-Tulio