Well, I have to say that this year was one of the best Ice Cutting’s I’ve seen. We had a great big group of people, though some folks, like Willow Stone couldn’t make it up because of the huge snowstorm in the D.C. area. In Vermont though we had just about perfect weather: cold, clear and sunny. We were also really lucky to be visited by Lights the Lodge who is a favorite FC staffer who fought through some health challenges to make it up for a few hours. We were so glad to have him.

Spring Rhythm, Tundra Warrior Sings and Forest Flame all helped me keep twenty rowdy and wonderful FC campers in line, and helped welcome a crew of new and prospective campers into the fold. The bunk room in the Tamarack Farm basement may have been smelly, but it was sure filled with a lot of laughter and love too.

On saturday, we woke up to perfect weather and a great big breakfast. We hiked up to FC and got right to work opening up the Ice Mines, setting up the Food Shelter and sawing away at the ice. Thanks to a couple of weeks of good cold weather, the pond was frozen up solid and we were getting good blocks out within an hour, which is great. While some people sawed, others chipped and a few brave individuals wrestled the blocks out of the water and into sleds for the ride up the hill.

In perhaps the most energetic and funniest part of the process, teams of six people ran down the hill shouting and panting, pulling on the rope that was attached to the ice sleds. Running down towards the pond, the sleds would come zooming by and arrive at the Ice Mines chock full and ready to be unloaded. Next a crew dumped the sleds, slid the blocks up a ramp and packed them carefully in sawdust. After all that they’ll stay frozen all the way through the winter and spring until we dig them out in June to refrigerate our food.

Though this event is about taking care of FC, we were supported this weekend by a ton of F&W families who just love the community and wanted to come help. When we’re up at the Cloud this year enjoying great meals, I’m sure going to appreciate all the work those folks did for us. If you were at Ice Cutting this year, every FCer from the summer of 2010 is thankful for the great work you did, and I’m really glad you got to have so much fun while you were at it!

If you want to see pictures, you can check out our website, or check out the album we posted on Facebook. Feel free to join the F&W fan page while you’re there!

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.

Well the snow has finally come, and I’m glad to have it. Suddenly it means we can go tracking just about anywhere. There’s a little field mouse that lives near my sit spot in the stone wall. I haven’t seen it yet, but now I can watch its tracks as it hops around hunting for seeds. What sorts of great ways are you finding to get out in the snow?

In preparation for next summer, Forest Flame, Hawk Shadow and I, along with a few friends spent the weekend practicing our hide-tanning skills. We had a coyote, a raccoon and a few deer hides to work with. The process took more than two days, but in the end we created soft, supple leather, and a few beautiful, furry hides. Though it’s a lot of work, this might just be the sort of project we’ll complete this summer with a few dedicated campers up at FC. How cool would it be to have your own, totally homemade shirt, or pouch, or knife sheath?
Here’s a photo from early on, and another from near the end:

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.