Archive for the ‘The Future’ Category

Happy holidays to one and all! As of today, it’s officially winter. About time, huh? Up here that means cold, cold nights with bright shining stars which I’ve been appreciating at my sit spot. I’ve been having trouble finding the North Star recently, with all the summer constellations gone. Good thing it never moves!

I wanted to let you know about a couple of important upcoming events on the F&W calendar:

First, the application deadline for campership is January 15th! That means you’ve got to get your application in really soon if you need financial help for this coming summer. We don’t ever want to turn someone away for financial reasons, but we can’t help you if you don’t ask. If you haven’t asked in years past, you can still ask this year. The application is here. Of course, if you’re applying for campership, that must mean you’re applying for camp as well, and you can get your 2010 Camper Registration form off our website.

Second, Ice Cutting Weekend is coming up on February 12th-14th and I’d love to see you there. It’s a great time to show your support for Flying Cloud by harvesting all the ice we need to keep our food cold all summer, and it’s also just a blast! The event is open to everyone and always fills up fast so if you want to come, get your application in soon! Also, if you have friends who are interested in camp this is an easy way for them to join our community and will help them feel more at home when they come to camp with you this summer.

Finally, to send you on your way with some FC love, here’s one of my favorite photos from the summer.

Harvest Weekend wrapped up quite nicely last Monday, and it’s a good thing it did, since I woke up to snow on tuesday morning! We had just a dollop of thick, wet snow–perfect for snowballs– and I got really excited about the coming winter. It means it’s finally time to start all my indoor projects: more flint-knapping and making a hickory bow with Forest Flame.

For those of you who came and helped Harvest, thank you so much! The gardens look great, and we got IB, TL and SAM closed down and ready for the coming snow. You can check out pictures in the Photo Gallery on the website. They’re not up as I write this, but they will be soon!  There’s also one more way you can help if you were at camp this summer: we’d love to get your feedback, whatever it may be, on the parent or camper survey.

In other news, I’m sad to say that Flying Cloud is losing a very important race that started last week. So far Indian Brook has two campers for next summer, and we don’t even have one! If you’d like to make my day (and help stop IB from gloating), get your application finished ASAP and send it in. You can learn everything you need to know about applying on the “How to Register” page or you can wait just a few days and you’ll receive your very own application packet in the mail.

I hope you’re all settling comfortably into fall, and that if you have any great nature moments you won’t hesitate to tell me all about them!

Well, we’re half way through September already. I hope you’re settling into your fall and winter routine smoothly, and I definitely hope it involves coming to visit me at Farm and Wilderness for Harvest Weekend on October 9th-12th! For those who have never spent any time in Vermont in the fall, it’s truly amazing. I know I say this for every season, but really, truly, fall is my favorite. Just to give you a sense of why, here’s a photo of the lawn at Tamarack farm from a few years ago. When you get here it’ll look just like this!​
I really do hope you’ll come visit, and help harvest the last of the food from the garden. If you’re interested, check out the F&W website: http://www.farmandwilderness.org/events-and-retreats/work-weekends/harvest-work-weekend.

Well it’s been too long since I’ve written here, but there have been lots of great things happening. Since I last wrote I’m happy to say that more than one hundred people helped get the Ice House stocked full, so we’re sure to have a summer with great food up at FC! Check out some photos from this year’s Ice Cutting here. Of course if you have more photos to add, send them along!

In addition, I’ve been working hard on getting the staff all figured out for the summer of 2009, and I’m happy to say it’s going to be a truly amazing group of men. I think I say that every year, and of course it’s true. As it happens though, this year feels exceptional already. Won’t you join me in welcoming back….

Our glorious “Funkies”
Striding Ash (Resource/Program)
Sun Panther Gives (Trips/Logistics)
Forest Flame (Sensible Health/Forest Garden)
Tends the Grove (Food Coordinator)

And then there’s the lodge staff…. Oh boy, what a crew they are!
River Sways
Moonlit Raven Echoes
Kodiak Weaves the Thunder
Hawk Shadow
along with three new guys I’m excited to welcome to the FC community:
Alex, Andrew and Ried.

I was out canoeing on the lake outside my house, and I wanted to share a fun picture with you.

“Ice Canoeing!”

I think I’ll try to get it into the next Winter Olympics, so start practicing! I’m writing about it here because it’s a really fun ice sport, much like another F&W classic that’s coming up soon….

Ice Cutting! That’s right folks, Ice Cutting 2009 is fast approaching. The excellent weekend of playing in the snow, seeing friends and helping out FC is from February 13th to the 16th and you’d better register soon, because a weekend this fun fills up fast!

For those of you who don’t know what it’s about, check out photos from last year http://www.farmandwilderness.org/photo-gallery?g2_itemId=798. Flying Cloud doesn’t have electricity, as you know, so to keep our food cold we use ice cut from the pond in the winter and we need your help! If you’re interested, get in touch with the F&W office right away. If you’re a returning camper you know what a great chance this is to see old friends and if you’re new, this is the perfect way to make some friends who you’ll see again this summer!

Stay warm and play hard!