Here in Plymouth, we are learning more and more that Nature truly has a mind of its own. After the damage done by Tropical Storm Irene, all of us here at Farm & Wilderness have been doing everything we can to help the community. We were fortunate enough to have minimal damage to our property.

And with all the rain came Autumn as well. The temperature is dropping (we even got a frost or two!) and the leaves are starting to turn their colors as well.

As we get farther from the summer, we only get closer to the next. So, I am very excited to announce the camper leaders for 2012!

The role of Speaker will be fulfilled by Moonsong Chickadee.

Stepping up to Fire Keeper will be Maple Holds the Spring.

As Drum Keeper we will have Stone Turtle Shines.

And finally, as Spirit Keeper we will have Ember Speaks.

Please join me as we usher these four incredible young men into their new roles. Being a camper leader is most certainly an honor, but not one without its own responsibilities and challenges. I know this is an opportunity for some personal growth that these young men will not take lightly.  I look forward to the chance to work with them.

Before I close out this message, I also wanted to let you all know that I have started posting photos from the summer on the Flying Cloud Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flying-Cloud-Summer-Camp/151054301606358).

Just looking through all the photos we took has put a smile on my face I just can’t seem to wipe off. So I just want to say one more time, thank you all so much for such an incredible experience. I hope you have a wonderful school year and please check back in every so often for monthly updates.

Be well,

~FF~

What a summer it has been. And what a closing. The last week of the summer can be a truly crazy ride. Ceremonies, Fair, banquet, and departure day; it’s quite a whirlwind of events. The summer passes by so quickly and on that final day, it is so hard for us to let go of those fine young men.

In closing out this summer, I would like to send out my appreciation to everyone who was a part of Flying Cloud this summer. Parents, campers, FC Staff, F&W staff, and visitors. Without all of you, our experience could not be what it was. I know that I will look back on this summer with only fondness, as I feel comfortable saying this was one of the greatest summers I have ever had at Farm & Wilderness.

Over the coming months, I will be changing my posting pattern to writing once a month. So, please check back occasionally  for a little piece of Flying Cloud.

I look forward to talking to so many of you over the coming year and hope that all of you who lived with us this summer are having a smoothing transition back to the rest of the world. We have a number of events throughout the rest of the year that we would love to have you join. The first one is Harvest Weekend and it is not all to far away (October 7 - 10). It is also my hope that we can all bring Flying Cloud not just home with us, but to all of the people who don’t have such an incredible opportunity.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions, concerns, or thoughts throughout the year. I am always more than willing to talk about Flying Cloud. The best way to reach me is shoot me an e-mail at Zach@farmandwilderness.org.

Much love and be well Brothers and Sisters,

~FF~

Here we are making our way through the last week of Flying Cloud Summer 2011. It has certainly been a wild ride. Trips returned just a few days ago and all of the campers and staff are beaming about their experiences. Grand adventures were had by all!

This week I also come bearing news of another set of names. On Monday night we held our fourth and final Naming Ceremony of the Summer. It was a pretty big deal. The Farm & Wilderness community really pulled out all of the stops and I feel safe saying this was the biggest Naming Ceremony that I have attended. If my calculations are correct, I believe we had over 250 people squeezed into our tiny clearing. All of them came to honor eight Flying Cloud brothers and one Flying Cloud Sister. It was a very special event indeed. We don’t bring a woman into our community every day! Also, we had some wonderful guests from days of old. Both He Looks to the Stars and his son, Foxfire Oak, came up to the woods to share some stories with us (for those of you who don’t know, these two incredible men were both Directors of Flying Cloud at one time).

The night was  beautiful with a large fire and a moon that laid heavy on the horizon as we settled into the Naming Circle. All of our community members had such wonderful things to say and the names that were given fell so comfortably upon the shoulders of those who received them. Please join me in honoring our new Flying Clouders:

Wolf Song

Lynx Tracks the Moon

Fox Reads the Seasons

Snowmelt Sage

Boulder Shares the Rhythym

Howls the Night

Osage Arrow

Horizon Laughter

And last, I am very excited to welcome Sarah Waring (the Farm & Wilderness Program Director) into our circle with her Flying Cloud name Gift of Life.

We are now getting ready for the Farm & Wilderness Fair this Saturday, August 13th. If you haven’t heard about it yet, I highly recommend you do what you can to attend. Flying Cloud will be providing all of our standard fare, home made beef jerky and hot sauce, plus the ever popular fried grasshoppers and crickets! To find out more information follow this link:

http://www.farmandwilderness.org/events-and-retreats/alumni-bbq

I hope to see y’all there, but if you can’t make it this year hopefully we’ll see you next year.

And with that I’m headed back to the woods. With only four days left, it’s now time for all of us, both staff and campers, to start thinking about how we will bring Flying Cloud home with us. I know I am feeling charged up to get me through another year till I can find myself back in the clearing among the community so many have come to love over all the years.

Be well,

~FF~

Yet again sorry for the delay in posting. I think this might mean it is time for me to shed my commitment about always posting on Sunday evenings. I wanted to wait until we had all our new Flying Cloud names to make the post, which meant I wasn’t able to get back to my computer until now.

Let’s jump right in- our August Session is off to a spectacular start. We brought in two new counselors and 17 new campers (we had 21 campers stay for the full summer!) Almost half of our community is new to Flying Cloud, so we’ve been really getting into the vibe of orientation. There is always an interesting shift to close out the July Session community and then immediately jump into forming a new community only days later. This year, the full season campers have been particularly great and welcoming and integrating the new Flying Clouders. We went through much of the same orientation we did at the beginning of the summer (how to build safe fires, use blades properly, how to do chores, etc.), but this time we had our full season campers taking on more leadership roles. Along with helping the new campers learn how to live at Flying Cloud, many of them have really been stepping up and are even teaching activities like leather pouch making and stone arrow crafting. This is truly an expression of the cyclical model of ’student becomes teacher’; only we also learn from those we teach as well!

If you’ve been following the blog, you know that a list of new names should be in here somewhere if we just had a naming. You’re absolutely right. So please join me in welcoming and recognizing nine of our brothers with their new Flying Cloud names (if you don’t know much about Flying Cloud names, take a look back to this post from earlier in the summer: http://www.farmandwilderness.org/fcblog/2011/07/10/well-under-way/).

Weaving Forest

Sky Otter’s Embrace

Osprey Dive

Heron Spring

Questing Crow

Yearling’s Bliss

Summer Dog

Constellation Gives

Watching Mountain Brings

I am so proud of all these young men for the journey they have traveled to reach their new names. While it takes a little while for the weight of a name to settle, I know with so much certainty that these names will settle well on the shoulders of these Flying Clouders.

Nine new names given, and we jump right into trips! Today the whole was split into the groups they will be with for the next four days and three nights for their overnight trips. During this half of the summer, we have a pretty incredible line up of options for the boys. In the hiking department,we have an expedition leaving right out of camp and hiking some of the biggest peaks in our area called S.K.i.P. Trip (Shrewsbury, Killington, an “i” for the sake of making a word, Pico). Our other hiking trip currently is to the Breadloaf Wilderness Area, which is a couple hours north of us in the Green Mountains. For those interested in a little time on the water we our offering a Raquette River Canoe trip in the Adirondack Mountains in New York. Beyond hiking and canoeing we have two other trips as well. First, we have our standard Wilderness Survival Trip. We take the campers and staff trip leaders for this trip to a hidden location where they can practice all their different survival skills from debris shelter building to friction fire to wild edibles collection. Then, (drumroll please), we have our capstone trip experience for the older campers which we call Uber Scout! This is a trip designed around testing our abilities of camouflage and silent movement. This trip is a pretty epic adventure that the campers always walk away from proud to have been a part of.

So, first thing tomorrow morning, we will see all the trip groups off. They will return to us on Saturday evening just in time for the last week of camp. The summer comes and goes so fast, but there is still so much that will happen in the next week and a half.

If you haven’t thought about it yet, I suggest you consider coming to join us for the Farm & Wilderness Fair on August 13th. All of the F&W camps are involved in a great time and we love to have as many guests as we can find! You can find out more at http://www.farmandwilderness.org/events-and-retreats/alumni-bbq.

Hope to see y’all there and if not please don’t hesitate to contact me at Zach@farmandwilderness.org with any questions, concerns, hopes, or joys you might have!

Be well,
~FF~

Turns out, it can be much harder to get out of the woods and back to a computer than I thought it would be. So, where are we?

Our July Session has come to an end and the August Session campers have arrived. This all happened in a whirlwind of powerful moments, some sadness, and, of course, immense amounts of joy!

I wanted to take some time to tell y’all a little bit about how we close out a session. Just like the beginning of the summer, we hold a Friendship Fire. This is a time for our community to come together. This is time in reflection, rather than the anticipation we feel at the start of something new.

I truly love the closing Friendship Fire because of one special moment. That moment is when all of our community members have the opportunity to speak on behalf of Flying Cloud. This is often when we, as staff, realize all the work we have been doing has not been in vain. The lessons we sought to impress upon these youths have in some way broken through and we have made a powerful impact on their lives. This summer, more than any summer I have been a part of, I saw something truly special happen. The campers started using language and verbalizing their experience in the same way the staff speak.  Here they were, expressing themselves with such maturity and self-awareness  like I had never seen before. To share with you, here are some quotes from the night:

“Flying Cloud accelerates my growth.”

“Flying Cloud encourages me not just to be myself, but to seek within myself the person I want to be.”

“Flying Cloud showed me that there are so, so many ways to be a man.”

And the last one I want to share with you is an extension of a standard line. Every summer, a camper will say Flying Cloud is my second home. This year I heard this gem:

“I used to think Flying Cloud was like a second home. Now I know the truth though. Flying Cloud is my real home.”

These are just four comments from the 30 kids who chose to speak on behalf of Flying Cloud. We felt like that was exactly how we needed to wrap the first-session bundle.  I feel safe saying it was a session deserving such a wonderful close.

But, with the closing of the first session, we were thrown right into the start of another!

Sunday’s cooling temperatures (a much needed relief from some serious heat and humidity!) heralded the arrival of our August session campers. In a interesting twist on enrollment patterns, second session brought us 18 campers who have never been to Flying Cloud before. As I think I have mentioned in the past, sharing Flying Cloud with others is just about my most favorite thing to do. So rest assured, I am psyched for this fresh community. We open our August session with a Friendship Fire, just like we did for the July session.

This time though, we already have the essential tool of fire. What we are missing though is the metaphorical coal that we light the fire of our community from for second session. Friendship Fire is that coal. As usual, we gathered in Kahonkahona (our ceremony lodge) as dusk settled on the clearing. To symbolize the gathering of individuals into a new community, we brought a small bed of coals on which to build a fire. As our Camper Leaders (the four campers who have shown leadership and responsibility) orient the new campers to the Flying Cloud ethos, each camper or staff (both new and full season), placed a stick on that fire. Slowly, those coals brought that wood to flame and light was shed on the darkness of the approaching night, on our new group. Here too, the campers and staff share a piece of themselves. We asked some questions and  the most powerful one was, “What do you want to share with your brothers at Flying Cloud this session?”

“A sense of responsibility.”

“My passion for nature.”

“A sense of happiness and love.”

There were many more, but these were the ones that stood out to me.  I believe these three quotes do a fitting job of representing what it means to live at Flying Cloud.

I know this post was a long one and I have rambled on for quite some time now. What can I say is Flying Cloud inspires me, especially this summer. I would like to share that in all of the summers I have spent at Flying Cloud, I have never had as much fun as I am having this year. And I am not the only person saying this. I am hearing similar sentiments from campers and staffers alike. If I could summarize briefly why I feel like we are enjoying ourselves,  I would say this:

We seem to have found an uncanny ability (within the relationships between our staff and other staff at F&W camps, our staff and our campers, and our campers and other F&W campers) to access a passion and appreciation for all of what is great about childhood. These range from silly games to intentional recognition of the personal journey we are all on, whether this is the  paths we walk alone or the trails we walk with one another.

Thanks for all of your support and for lending us your boys.

Be well,

~FF~

First, just let me apologize for being a couple days late on this one. Our long trips returned this weekend and we jumped straight into another Naming Ceremony, so suffice it to say, I have been a bit busy. In fact, I had become so lost in woods that I didn’t even realize that the weekend had come and gone and that I was two days behind my normal schedule of blog posts. All that being said, I think having this new set of names to share with y’all is well worth the wait.

As much as I love all of our naming ceremonies, I especially love the ones with so many guests. Last night, we had over 200 people join us at Flying Cloud to honor our newly named brothers.  Our guests were campers at other Farm & Wilderness camps who joined us as part of our all-camps Interdependence Day festivities. It was a pretty wild party and although it’s a big fire in a big circle, we came pretty close to overfilling it!

So, please join me in welcoming all these newly named Flying Clouders. May they always carry this experience close to their heart and know our village in the woods supports them:

Coyote Stands

Wolf Tree

Wolverine Loves the Sky

Caribou Sings

Owl Tends the Tide

Equinox Wave

Wildfire Heart

Raven and Bear

Moonsong Rain Tracker

This is a beautiful set of names for a wonderful set of young men. For those parents out there, my apologies that I can’t let you know your son’s name in this online space. Rest assured, you will find out soon though. Our lodge staff members are already hard at work writing letters to y’all about the experience your son has had at Flying Cloud.

When you hear from me next, we will be stepping into our second session! We are so excited to have all the new brothers joining us in just one short week. Until then, we have a number of powerful experiences and moments coming for our first session community and I look forward to telling you more about those soon!

Be well and much love Brothers and Sisters,
~FF~

I hope you all are doing as well in the outside world as we are up in the Clearing. I thought camp was running about as well as it could, but I am overjoyed to be sharing with y’all that things are only getting better!

The staff have been leading some incredible activities and creating a buzz among the campers.  Our hide tanning is off to a great start, we are about halfway through processing our first deer hide of the summer. Our beef jerky has been getting smoked and is almost ready to devour. We even had some campers lead leather pouch making today! I spoke with the counselor after the session and he said that not only did the campers do a great job teaching the other campers, but they had fun teaching as well!

The really exciting news of the week though is that eight of our community members have been ushered officially into our ranks by receiving their Flying Cloud names. A Flying Cloud name is a powerful gift to receive. The name represents all the best qualities that the community has seen in you - but there is so, so much more in a name. As you spend time with your new name,  the meaning of your name begins to grow. Over the years you might even forget why you were given your name in the first place. As a Flying Clouder matures, so does their name. This is something to aspire to, a name for the person you always wanted to become. The name conveys your best self. In my mind, the Flying Cloud Naming Ceremony is the most powerful experience of every camper’s first summer with us.

Here are the eight new Flying Cloud names that were given out just a couple of days ago:

Sunfire Dreamer

Lightning Brother Gathers

Glacier Dawn

Peregrine Shines

Ember Lights the Nest

Summer Zephyr Smiles

Cougar Walks the Canyon

Lynx Holds the Ocean

From this day forward, among their Flying Cloud Brothers and all their friends and family within the greater Farm & Wilderness Community, these young men now go by these new names. I could not be more proud of them. For the parents reading this, don’t worry your son’s new name will be explained in a letter that you receive when they leave Flying Cloud and will share a bit about your son’s experience with us.

Well, I’m already starting to get that strange feeling that I’ve been sitting in front of a screen for a little too long now. Time to head back to the woods! From the Flying Cloud community to all of you -

Much love,

~FF~

The first couple of days spent at Flying Cloud, whether you are new or returning, is all about inspiration and orientation. We started out the first night with a good comfort meal - chili and corn bread. Once every had thoroughly filled themselves, we transitioned into a very important event.

We hold our inaugural ceremony on the first night of every summer, called our Friendship Fire. This moment is of the utmost importance as the rest of the summer is dependent on it’s success. Our Firekeeper (an experienced and older camper selected the previous summer) creates the fire, which will burn through the entire summer, by using the bow drill method. Bow Drill is one style of friction fire (the creation of fire by rubbing two sticks together! Bow Drill was a common method used by many primitive cultures, including the Abenaki, who lived in the same forests where Flying Cloud is located. If you search “bow drill” on the Internet you can find out more information on how the skill works.

Once the fire has been started, we introduce the core values of Flying Cloud. These are: Simplicity and Isolation, Common Gender, Honoring the Land, Honoring the Spirit, and Respect and Community. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Flying Cloud Ceremony if we didn’t have a chance for people to share. We asked the campers and staff two questions:

“What do you want to bring to Flying Cloud and share with your brothers?”

“What do you want to gain or learn from your brothers at Flying Cloud?”

It was so wonderful to hear their answers. Some of the common themes included bringing openness, a passion for nature, and love for each other. People wanted to take away new friends, new skills, and a sense of belonging.

After the ceremony concluded, I particularly enjoyed sitting on the edge of the clearing as all the candles dispersed through the clearing. Slowly, all of the tipis and yomes began to glow as fires were lit. As the evening drifted well into night, the murmur of voices faded and once again silence returned to the clearing. But it doesn’t last long!

The following day was about learning how we live at Flying Cloud. This includes knife, blade, and fire training, some get-to-know-you games, and pumping water and breaking up fire wood! In the afternoon, we broke up into smaller groups and learned the boundaries of camp and all of the cool spots to visit like Magic Springs (a natural spring that ushers forth from a crack in a giant boulder deposit by glaciers tens of thousands of years ago).

Moving through the rest of the week, we have had ample time to spend as a community and in small groups. We went well beyond Flying Cloud on Saturday for day trips. We traveled to the top of our own little Saltash Mountain, down to the Lake Ninevah area, visited the Lower Camps to use the challenge course, and our biggest day trip - a 15 mile trek across Shrewsbury, Killington, and Pico Peaks!

We have ton’s more planned for the upcoming week but I’ll make sure to let you know about that next weekend! Hope you are well and as always if you ever have any questions please feel free to contact me at Zach@farmandwilderness.org.

Although I know that seems weird since when we last saw each other we were deep in the Green Mountains, e-mail is the best form of contact. I try to make it out of the woods to work on staying in touch every 24-48 hours and will get back to you as soon as possible.

Be well and much love,

~FF~

We are getting closer and closer to the summer now. Even though it is only a couple weeks away, we still have a good deal of work to do.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Flying Cloud could exist in its summer form all year? In reality, we build all the lodges at the beginning of the summer and take them back down at the end. This summer, we are setting up eight tipis, two yomes, and two wigwams as living quarters. There is a ton of other work that goes into making Flying Cloud possible. We’ve cleaned out the food shelter and stocked it for cooking meals, set up our water system, and prepped our bigger shelters, such as Two Kettles, the Tool Shelter and Kahonkahona. We want to have Flying Cloud in tip-top shape for the arrival of the campers.

In the end though, we all know that there is so much more to Flying Cloud than its structures and campus. That’s why,  even though the tipis aren’t standing throughout the year, we can all carry it with us in our hearts. It’s the people that make it so special, and soon enough our village will be united once again!

Be well and much love,

~FF~

Ps. Here’s a photo of the staff setting up a lodge in the woods. The smoke you see is a new ritual we are beginning this summer. Every time we build a home we light a fire to recognize the connection between home and the hearth. Can you pick out with lodge site this is?

FC staff set up a tipi in the woods

After being away for handful summers, Jared “Yarrow Heart” Curtin returns to Flying Cloud. I am very excited to have Yarrow Heart back at Flying Cloud and here is why he is thrilled to be back in that magical clearing:

“I am very excited to take a step back and get closer with the natural world. I would like to gain some more appreciation for the little, every day things we all take for granted, and I looking forward to spending time with my new and old friends this summer.”

Next, I would like to welcome back a face who has been in-and-out of Flying Cloud at various times over the last six summers - Zachary “Moon’s Embrace” Heyman. This summer, Moon’s Embrace is very excited about a number of things and but I think his quote sums up his sentiments quite nicely:

“My highest goal this year is to see those moments when a camper’s face lights up with sudden understanding and confidence, when the atmosphere we’ve built– one that’s both supportive and challenging, both safe and adventurous - is transformed into an instant that the young man will carry with him always.”

Next up, we have two staff members who are becoming strong, constant presences at Flying Cloud. Both of them are returning for their third consecutive summer as Lodge Staff. First, I would like to share what Ried “Forge Song” Meyer shared with me:

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work at Flying Cloud because it gives me chance to encourage positive values in young men. I also love spending my time working on leather crafts, and doing so with campers in the woods makes it even better. And aside from the excitement I have for the the big box of spoon blanks I just made up, I am excited for another summer with the amazing campers and greater community that Flying Cloud is.”

The other returning staff member I am excited to introduce to you is Daniel “Loon Dreamer” Blackman. Loon Dreamer has been a camper and a staff member for a number of years now:

“I am excited to be living in the Vermont woods again in a community small enough to support itself from day-to-day while learning more about the forest. I look forward to the personal growth and bonds that Flying Cloud cultivates in and between us all.”

Lastly (but most certainly not least!) please welcome Jack Sinclair to Flying Cloud and the greater Farm & Wilderness Community. Jack was introduced to me by Forge Song and I think he will make a great fit with our little family. Jack shared these sentiments about his first summer:

“I’m looking forward to refining my own outdoor skills while helping campers develop theirs in an atmosphere that supports a healthy and genuine sense of masculinity. I am also hoping to discover ways in which I can be a more effective teacher and leader as I work to help campers engage in nature.”

Alright! that’s the whole crew, all 16 of us (I know, I only introduced 15 people but I think you all know me well enough by now). Assembling this group of men has been quite an experience. I believe whole-heartedly that, not just as individuals, but as a working community, these men are going to craft a totally new and awesome experience for the campers and themselves this summer. After all, when has Flying Cloud ever been anything short of an absolutely incredible and unique journey!

Be well,

~FF~