I’ve been meaning to post an article on the sort of gear you might want to have at camp, and I’ve finally done it! Take a look over to the left, in the “Pages” section, and you’ll see one entitled “Gear for Camp”. That has the standard gear list, plus a few of my comments on what we suggest and why.

Be sure to check at the end where I offer a few tips about how to think about gear. As you’ll note, less is more, and simple is beautiful. See you soon, and as always, feel free to get in touch if you have any questions!

Hello hello hello!
I miss you all!
First, I just want to toss up a couple of fun photos from Ice Cutting.

What a weekend it was! We had tons of people (more than two hundred were at dinner on Saturday night), great weather for working, and lots of good times. I’m happy to say that the Ice Mines are full and ready for camp to start. Thanks so much to everyone who contributed their time and energy to helping Flying Cloud. I always like to recognize that FC really couldn’t enjoy every summer without all the hard work people outside the clearing do to help us.

As we approach camp nearly all the lodges are full. We’ve got a great crew of returning campers and staff, and as always, if you have a friend who you think would just love life at the Cloud, encourage them to sign up now! We still have a few more bunk spaces and it would be sad to think that anyone who could be at FC missed that opportunity because they didn’t know about it! As always, campers and families are our best ambassadors, so get out there and spread the good word.

For this summer, we have a pretty amazing crew of returning staff. As the list grows, I’ll be sure to update it here, so check back often!
Striding Ash will be back as Assistant Director.
Sun Panther Gives will be there making sure we have everything we need, and planning trips.
Forest Flame will be doing his first summer as the Sensible Health Person.
So far we have a great crew of lodge staff, led by Tends the Grove, River Sways and Spring Rhythm, plus former campers Glowing Waters and Squirrel Moon putting in their first summers on staff. We also have three new guys: Elliot, Sam and Joe. Be sure to give them a hearty FC welcome when you meet them. Welcome aboard everyone!

Just like usual, feel free to get in touch with me whenever you want. I’m always happy to hear from Flying Clouders! It’s shaping up to be quite a summer, and I can’t wait to see you there. We’ve got lots of new campers, a new Crafts Lodge, and I’ve learned a few really funny new games we’ve got to try! Be sure to check back here regularly through the spring and summer, since I’ll be updating this page more and more as we get into the swing of things.
Thinking about you and another great summer at Flying Cloud,
Peace,
-VZ

Becka Warren, our Communications Editor, has asked me to see if there’s anyone in the FC community interested in contributing to the Interim. The Interim is the newsletter about camp that keeps us all connected in the interim between summers. If you’d like to contribute, here’s how:

Create a piece of artwork, or write down a memory from one of your summers, or tell us about how Farm & Wilderness has affected you, and then get your creation to Becka in the office. In particular, I’d love to have some FC campers write about some of the unique traditions of the Cloud, like circling up, Naming Ceremonies or Cook Crew, as well as why they’re important.

You can email your creation to Becka at Becka@farmandwilderness.org or you can call her up to talk about the best way to submit something at (802) 422-3761. You should aim to get these in by the end of February.

Looking forward to seeing some of you at Ice Cutting!

Happy Holidays to one and all! I’d like to take a moment to say how thankful I am for each and every one of you, and for the special web of connection we all share thanks to Flying Cloud. So often I’m amazed at how far our network stretches, as well as how deeply it’s rooted in me. As I travel the world, I always fall back on the values I’ve learned in my special summers at Flying Cloud.

I’m writing to let you all know about one of my favorite F&W events of all time…. That’s right, Ice Cutting is coming up! In just a few weeks, hundreds of F&W campers, families, friends and alumni will be gathering at the Tamarack Farmhouse for a weekend of playing in the snow, delicious food and lots of good hard work packing away ice for next summer!

No matter what your connection to FC, it would be great to have you there as part of the team. Perhaps you’re a former camper or staff member and you just need to get a little of the Flying Cloud love. Perhaps you’re a current FC’er and you know how important this work is for making camp run. Better yet, you’re new to the F&W community and this will be your first experience. Lucky you!

Ice Cutting this year will happen on President’s Day weekend, February 15th–18th with the official cutting all day Saturday. Usually this means that everyone arrives Friday evening and settles in at TF, and then after a big breakfast of Farm sausage, scrambled eggs and hot tea, we all head up to FC where the fun begins! Whether you’re sawing ice, pulling blocks out of the water, or running them up the hill, you’ll have a blast, and whenever you need a break there’ll be hot chocolate, GORP and oven-fresh pizza to get you fired up!

So far, we’ve got a nice little handful of FC staff on board, and I’ve heard from a few more guys who really want to be there. I’ll be flying across the country from Washington to see you all! I wouldn’t miss it for the world. You can also expect to see Medicine Shield Dancer, Buffalo Brother Smiles, Wind Stirs the Embers and Osage Panther out there cutting up the ice and packing the Mines chock full!

Come for the weekend or come for the day, however it works out, it’ll be great to get together as a Flying Cloud community and show just how much we love life in the woods. For more information, please contact Janet Stocker in the office at (802) 422-3761 or check the website: http://www.farmandwilderness.org/.

As a reminder of how great it can be, here are a couple of photos from last year (click on them for a larger version):

First you have to get there, which can be hard if you don’t follow the trail!

After cutting ice for a while, it’s time to pull it out.

And make sure to take some time for fresh hot pizza and igloo building!

Once the ice house is full, it’s time to reflect on all our work before heading down the hill for a hot dinner and some dancing! Just one more reminder that work really is “love made visible”.

Hello everyone! It’s been ages I know, but finally I have news!
First, you’ll see on the left that there are two new links in the “Pages” section. One for July and one for August lodge photos! I’m sorry it took me so long to get them up, but I’ve been really busy. (More to come on what I’m up to soon!)

The other main goal of this post is to ask that if you have any amazing photos from the summer, or know anyone who does, please get in touch with me! I’d love to collect and compile all of them so we can share some on the blog and make sure some end up in the F&W archive. I’d especially like to see photos from any trips, and the Fair.

Enjoy the lodge photos, and hopefully you’ll hear more from me soon!

Just a few years ago, Flying Cloud added a wood-fired stone-hearth baking oven to our kitchen repertoire, and we’ve been loving it ever since! For those who can’t quite imagine what I’m talking about, here are a few photos of the process for making one of our favorite products…. Pizza!

First, of course, here’s the oven. As you can see, it’s a large stone base, with a smooth stone hearth, and a brick arch on the inside where we build the fire. On top of that is a layer of clay to help store the heat, and above that is the roof to keep us dry while we work.

To get it ready for baking, we build a nice big fire inside, close up the door and wait a while. As the fire burns, it heats the stone of the oven. Once the fire dies down a little, we sweep out the coals, and then close it up again to give the heat a chance to equalize. After that, we’re ready for baking!

Step 1: Mixing the Dough and shaping it out into pizzas.

Step 1.5: “Proofing” or letting it rise, since everyone needs a little time to rest! (As you may note, those are whole wheat pizza crusts we’re making!)

Step 2: Topping and getting it to the oven. As you can see here, we’ve made a classic and it’s on the peel (the wooden paddle) waiting for its turn in the oven.

Step 3: Baking! Looks gorgeous, doesn’t it? You’ll note here that for a thin bread like pizza, we actually keep a fire going in the back, to make sure the toppings get nice and hot.

Step 4: Dinner time! As a pizza lover myself, I always consider the plain cheese the true test of quality, and I’m happy to say that ours is fabulous!

We’ve also instituted a bread chore this year, which means that every camper gets a chance to bake in the oven at least a couple times each summer, in addition to use on Cook Crew or for an activity. By all reviews, this thing rocks!

Well, week five snuck past without our even realizing it, thanks in large part to trips!
Flying Cloud ran five trips this half, all of which were three days and two nights.

Woodward Service came down to the Woodward camps (Indian Brook, Tamarack Farm, Timberlake and the Barn Day Camp) and did work projects for a few days. They were graciously hosted for lunch by IB (barbecue chicken was a highlight for our guys) and did trail work, spent some time in the garden, swam in the reservoir and ended up hiking almost eighteen miles!

Ninevah Canoe went down to our nearby Lake Ninevah just two miles away and spent three days exploring this lovely lake. They tried their hands at fishing, played in the muck and took a day hike to the top of Gork in search of blueberries. Sadly, they weren’t ripe yet….

Worchester Buzzwick (Worcester Bushwack) had better luck though! After two and a half days of hiking along the Worcester range in Worcester, Vermont, this trip concluded with an afternoon at a local pick-your-own blueberry farm. Highlights included spectacular views and a cool mossy balsam fir forest along the ridge.

Closer to home, we sent out the Little Rock Pond hiking trip, to travel a nearby section of the Long Trail. This mellow hiking adventure started with some time to play at the pond it’s named for before traveling on to Clarendon Gorge. The Long Trail runs the full length of Vermont, as well as sharing a section with the Appalachian trail that runs from Georgia to Maine, and now even up into Canada! Perhaps they can do that section next year….

Finally, what summer at Flying Cloud would be complete without some time spent Foraging for Fun!? These guys hiked just a couple miles out of camp and set up a base where they harvested and ate wild edible plants, got covered in mud and snuck up on one another and of course built a few debris huts. The whole trip centered about learning how to provide for shelter, water, fire and food in the outdoors, including a challenge on the last day that they couldn’t have lunch until the group lit a fire with a bowdrill. They ate late, but I bet it was the best lunch of the trip!

After trips, we sent out a group of campers to receive their Flying Cloud names, and this was one of the best parties of the summer. We had guests from Timberlake and Indian Brook camps, as well as a few former staff and campers. The fire was one of the most pleasing to look at that I’ve ever seen, and the names are wonderful.

In closing, please join me in welcoming into the Flying Cloud community:

Tends the Grove
Zephyr Moon
Boulder Bear
Coyote Path
and
Daybreak Surf.

Well, amazingly enough we’ve made the transition from first half into second! I’m having the surprising realization that no matter what we do, the summer still slides by. We’re at the fun part of the year now when I’ll casually mention a day of the week, and kids will say “cool…. When’s that?” It’s a nice sign that they’re truly living here and in the moment.
As always, the transition from first to second half can be difficult and painful, with a lot of really wonderful young men leaving the community, but at the same time, we’re all thrilled to be forming a new community, with even more excellent Flying Clouders. This year we had fourteen campers stay full season, which means that nearly half of the camp has already been here for a month. As a result, we’re finding that campers are jumping right into the flow of things with very few of the regular bumps around establishing community norms.

Since we had so many people here over Changeover Day, we decided to do something extra special. I’ve been telling people that the goal for this summer is to make Flying Cloud even more like Flying Cloud, basically meaning that everything we do should be from us, and based on the values we want to uphold. For Changeover, this meant having a party, of sorts….

By lucky chance, I discovered that a handful of people were planning to have a barbecue in our gravel pit the day of changeover, and so we decided we’d send our campers down to investigate. In teams of eight, including one counselor, the campers camouflaged themselves and stalked down to the party as silently as they could. As they approached the gravel pit, they recognized the party-goers as FC staff, listening to music, tossing around a disc and roasting hot dogs. Reassured that FC was at no risk, the campers decided to have a little fun with their beloved counselors. One camper snagged the watermelon we were keeping in the shade, and others snuck up as close as they could, planning all sorts of nefarious tricks. We counselors were caught completely unawares, and the campers were quite happy to have an opportunity to exercise their stalking and invisibility skills.

In another tidbit of exciting news, we’ve hired one more staff member! Wind Stirs the Embers has agreed to join us during second half, to help out with perfecting our FC bread baking techniques and to be a general support person. We’re thrilled to have him, and he’s thrilled to be here.

Finally, here’s a nice photo from the end of first half of our Fire Keeper lighting a bowdrill fire under the watchful eye of his mentor Forest Flame for all the parents who came and spent the day with us during Visiting Day. We played games, did chores, and spent a little while on activities, as well as having a delicious potluck lunch, courtesy of the parents. Thanks to everyone who came!

Today has been a slow day at Flying Cloud. We’re very much in transition. Tomorrow is Visiting Day so we’re getting ready for that, but more importantly we’re all relaxing and resting after last night’s Naming Ceremony!

We had guests from Indian Brook and Tamarack Farm, as well as a special guest appearance from our former directors Foxfire Oak and River Holds the Stone! It was wonderful to have everyone there.

 The campers worked well and hard yesterday to build a fire which was truly one of the best I’ve ever seen in my time at FC. It was hot but not too hot, provided plenty of light, was beautiful, and in the end collapsed in on itself perfectly. Congratulations to all for a job well done!

That night, while the fire burned brightly our community gathered close together and took the time to truly honor and appreciate the boys and men who were about to be named. At the critical moment, a camper is plucked from the crowd and brought forward to sit cross-legged on the Flying Cloud Naming blanket. The Voice stands behind him, shielding him from the heat of the flames. As the camper faces his peers, the Voice calls “who speaks for this camper?” and dear friends raise their hands to speak. Last night was a truly powerful time of young men praising and affirming one another in their own unique and beaufitul ways.

“He has a pure gaze that lets you know he’s fully there.”

“He makes me feel cared for.”

“He makes me laugh.”

“….and for these reasons and many, many more, I know he will get a wonderful Flying Cloud name.”

Four times the Voice calls for affirmations, and four young men speak as the chosen one sits on the same blanket in the same spot as every other person who has ever received a Flying Cloud name. There is no way to convey the humble pride and the subtle joys each camper feels as he hears the qualities for which he will be recognized.

Finally, the Voice stands tall and delivers the name to the group. The newly named camper takes his Flying Cloud blanket and stands. As he begins to walk around the fire, his brothers call his birth name one last time, and as he emerges reborn from behind the fire, they embrace him, howling and shouting his new Flying Cloud name.

This is how we honor our brothers at Flying Cloud.

    Well, campers are coming home from trips today, and that officially wraps up week two! Soon I’ll get you a few of the stories from the Conn River Canoe, Silverlake Climbing, Little Rock Pond Hiking, and White Mountains Hiking trips, as well as from the FC capstone Flagstaff where older campers spend a week hiking and canoeing around Flagstaff Lake in Maine

Though a whole lot happened this week, I want to focus on just one special event: the first Naming of the summer!
The Naming is a very special event for members of the FC community in that it’s a time to recognize and honor our new members with a name.
The Flying Cloud name is meant to represent many of the best qualities of a person, as well as to connect them to the local area and one another. One unique FC aspect of the name is that we try to avoid saying our own names. Since they represent our best qualities, we feel it would be immodest to state those attributes ourselves, and instead we have one of our Flying Cloud brothers make the introduction for us. As a result, your son or friend will have to wait to share his name with you until someone who knows it can introduce him. Don’t worry though, if you really want to know, you can always ask me or even better, there’s a master list of all the FC names EVER in the office.

At Flying Cloud we recognize that in addition to being a way to recognize someone’s best self, the gift of an FC name is also a way to mark an important rite of passage in anyone’s life. As such, before someone receives their Flying Cloud name they must go on a twenty four hour Solo. During this time those about to receive their name are taken deeper into the forest, away from the FC clearing to allow them an opportunity to reflect on themselves, their life and their experiences at FC. For most people, the Solo is a challenging experience. They are discouraged from communicating with their Solo brothers, or from eating or drinking. By placing these challenges before themselves, those about to be named have a powerful opportunity to look inside themselves and see who they are and what beliefs they hold most strongly.
Upon returning to the community, the Soloers are given a night of rest before the Naming Ceremony day. For many campers, the Naming Ceremony is one of the most vivid memories of their experience at FC. The campers spend the entire day building a fire and cleaning the Naming circle, with the knowledge that as dusk falls we’ll be having a serious party!
As the sun sets, the guests are seated in the Naming circle and the Flying Cloud campers line up in their FC blankets to await the lighting of the fire. For this first Naming, a gift of summer rain whispers away as full darkness falls to allow for a beautiful moon rise. As the first sparks fly upward, the drum beat begins and we raise our voices in song….

Hang on for now, and perhaps later in the summer this story will continue….