Archive for August, 2009

Hey everyone, for those who aren’t in Vermont, I wanted to let you know about a great couple of articles about Farm and Wilderness and Flying Cloud in particular that came out this week. Both were published in Seven Days, the local independent newspaper, and I’d love for you to check them out and share them with friends.

The first is a printed article on their website: http://www.7dvt.com/2009nature-and-nurture.

The second article is actually an audio piece specifically about Flying Cloud and our history. Sarah, who created the piece from interviews with directors over the last two decades, is an F&W alum and I think she did a great job. You can listen to it here: http://www.7dvt.com/2009evolution-flying-cloud and if you listen all the way through you can hear me singing “Sim Boyo”– the closing song for our Naming Ceremonies.

Well, I’m sad to say it, but camp’s over. We sure had a great summer, didn’t we?

There was truly a whirlwind of activity to wrap things up at camp this summer. Since I last wrote we had Banquet, Friendship Fire, Fair, Fire Quest and lots of work during post-camp. Some of it is hard to convey in print, but I’ll do my best. In particular, I just want to highlight two big events: Fair and Fire Quest.

Fair was a whole new experience this year. At Flying Cloud we held on to a lot of the best elements of Fair that we’ve always had and loved, and we also had some new elements. If you have thoughts about the changes, I’d love to hear them. We made beef jerky this year, like always, and we also made more of our Flaming Tipi Hot Sauce, which has become increasingly popular as we fine tune the recipe. For next year I think we’ll make even more of both, since as usual they sold out fast! This year we decided to give away our fried grasshoppers, and I was surprised to see that people ate them right up! I guess if you fry something in oil and put enough chili powder on it, it’s pretty yummy.

The new version of the closing of Fair was very pretty, though a big hot fire in the middle of the day was a bit too warm for most! For next year I’m sure we’ll keep the piece about each camp singing a song, which I thought was gorgeous, but we’ll have to find a new way to have fire be a part of Fair. Right now I’m dreaming of something more sculptural…. Again, if you have great ideas I’d love to hear them.

The other big event that was part of the closing experience for the summer was the addition of Fire Quest. In this ceremony older campers who chose to were invited to go out into the woods around Flying Cloud, build a fire, and tend it overnight until they were called back in to camp by the sound of our ceremony drum. On the surface this sounds like a pretty simple task, but there’s something about sitting alone, in the dark with a pile of wood and a little fire all night that seems to bring out a lot of personal reflection. Our hope in holding this ceremony was for our campers to have a chance to reflect on their summer and to prepare themselves for the coming year. Life as a teenage boy can be stressful and confusing, and often times taking the time to sit and think while under the protection of a loving community can make all the difference. We hope it does for our boys….

Hey everyone, we’re officially in the home stretch. We had the last Naming ceremony a few days ago, then the second session SAM Square Dance, and we’re coming up on Fair really quickly. We started smoking beef jerky for it today, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be delicious. I hope to see you there, but if not, we’ll be sure to take lots of pictures.

For today, I just wanted to let you know that we’ve finally given an FC name to every member of our community for the summer of 2009. As usual, I ask that you join me in holding the following young men in the Light, and appreciating them with their new names….
Shadow Flare
Flint Path
River Shares Light
Alder Loon
Kindred Forest
Sunrise Coyote.
As usual it’s a great bunch of names, and I look forward to watching these boys as they commence on the journey of learning to live up to all the attributes they’ve been recognized for. It’s not always easy, but it’s worth it in the end.

I’m happy to say we all made it back from trips with all our various pieces still right where they belong. Don’t worry, it wasn’t that hard. This session we sent out our Little Rock Pond hiking trip to tackle a section of the Appalachian Trail between Little Rock Pond and the Clarendon Gorge. Everyone agreed one of the highlights was jumping off the high rocks into the rushing rapids at the gorge. Not to be outdone, ADK Canoe happily paddled down the Raquette River and across Tupper Lake. One highlight they mentioned to me was when the moon rose over Tupper Lake each night and illuminated the valley in sparkling beauty. Apparently they spent the rest of their time cooking and eating…. Not a bad trip! The last trip for this session was the super-secret Über Scout trip, that went on an adventure to an undisclosed location and practiced awareness and invisibility for four days. Highlights from that trip included a S’mores treasure hunt, a couple of gorgeous nights out in the forest and sneaking past someone so nearby that you could reach out and touch them. I’m happy to say that trips were again a great success this session, and that once again we heard campers saying “this was the best trip ever”!
In other news, it’s hard to believe but we’re beginning to talk about that “final time for 2009” for many different events at FC. Those were the last trips, and tonight is the last Naming Ceremony, and we’re almost out of activity periods too! There’s a whole lot to pack into this week, and it’s going to be tough, but I’m happy to say that among all the “lasts” there are going to be some great “firsts” as well and I can’t wait to see how they go. Among those, one of the largest will be the “first Fair” in the new style. Excitement is beginning to build around camp, in part because we’ll start smoking jerky tomorrow and I’m sure it’s going to be delicious! I hope you can come try some this weekend….

Hi everyone, I know it’s been a while, so I wanted to write and let you know that second half is cranking along quite well. We’ve had what feels like a bit more rain than usual this half, but I’m happy to say we’re rolling along well despite that.
One moment that stands out for me was when I was leading a birch bark collecting activity so that we could try distilling the oils out of the bark and boiling them into glue for hafting obsidian blades onto handles. It was pouring rain, and I wasn’t sure anyone would want to do the activity. I announced it, and a large group of campers immediately ran over. We went tromping off into the forest, knives and raincoats at the ready, and they merrily went to work stripping the bark off a downed paper birch. I didn’t hear a single word of complaint about the rain. In fact, people were going out of their way to take in the experience of the dripping wet forest. We harvested the bark and brought it back to camp to process around a big hot fire. The rest of the morning was spent chatting and feeding the fire, and I’m happy to say our experiments worked! Hopefully your son will be able to show you a stone tool he made with a handle he hafted (that means “attached”) with our natural glue.

In other news, I wanted to let you know that we’ve just had our first Naming of the session. After nearly perfect (meaning sunny) weather for a Quest, five of our FC brothers were honored in a ceremony attended by 25 Indian Brook campers and all of Saltash Mountain camp. The night started with a downpour and five great rounds of Battle Blanket, followed by a clear, starry sky and these five new names being added to the rolls: Sprinting Wolf, Mink Circle, Harvest Rain, Summer Bear and the counselor Sky Brother Listens. Please join me in honoring these wonderful young men.
Well I’ve got to run. We head out on trips soon and I’ve got to go get my gear together for our next big adventure! I look forward to seeing you all at Fair on Saturday, August 15th, or at pickup day the next morning.