Hello Again Flying Cloud Blog Readers!

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~

Hello Again Blog Readers,

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~

So we have reached the end of week one. The week seems short because our circle was only completed on Thursday, but,  wow, did we have a lot happen!!!

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~

Greetings Blog Readers!

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

As promised, I present to you the second half of the Lodge Staff that will be working at Flying Cloud this summer. In this batch, I’ll introduce a couple of men who have come back to Flying Cloud after some time away, some returning staff from the last summer and a new staff member. Please join me in welcoming these five incredible men to the Flying Cloud Staff of Summer 2011!!! The introductions for these guys will look just like the last, I have asked all of them to let me know what they are most excited about this summer.

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~