Walking through the cabin area, I can hear the wind in the trees. This is the last post of the summer. Some of you may not even read this because you have been reunited with your reason for reading - your child. I mainly wanted to thank everyone for a fantastic summer. Whether you are a member of the F&W community or a parent or a supporter, a whole lot of magic happened here  during these last seven weeks.

Closing days are always a good measure of how the summer went. And yesterday’s was a perfect indication. It was a sorrowful, tearful affair, and yet there was a mixture of real hope. I got the sense that the campers are going to continue to develop the relationships they forged here. This was not just a summer experience for many of them and I could feel the love flowing between them all. In today’s era of social networking, it is easier and easier to stay connected and having a strong person-to-person basis for those connections means that even potentially vapid Facebook notes carry heft. I find that important in terms of the support they can lend each other.

So, I feel good about the state of their friendships. Our last week leading up to Fair pulled everyone even closer together. The word “tenderness” comes to mind when I think back on that week. It was apparent that people were being very intentional about taking care of each other. Fair can be a stressful event to work toward and it takes a lot of teamwork to pull off. I was impressed with the degree to which the community rose (and far exceeded) the challenge. And Fair was a great day and it lead into a moving candle ceremony to close out the summer.

So, I thank everyone for a fantastic summer. I’ve been around for more than my share by now and I can honestly say that this was a very special one. We had an amazing group of staff and campers. I will certainly cherish the memories of Tamarack Farm 2011.

My Best,

Medicine Shield Dancer

For our recurring activity called ” The Human Experience,” which is part of our anti-racism events, we started our summer with the idea of an iceberg.

Icebergs have 10% of their mass bobbing above the surface while 90% lies submerged. Thus, the theory goes, every camper and staff person has an iceberg made up of things we may notice quickly — skin color, activity preferences, style, and temperament — and things that take time or we may never even know, like family histories, past experiences, and hopes or dreams.

When we all arrived at Tamarack Farm, our submerged ‘bergs bumped and jostled in our little pool. Throughout the summer, we have brought more and more of our histories and personalities to the surface. I believe that is a real reason that camp has been so smooth for the second half of this summer. The differences between us are celebrated and augmented by our common experiences here. The superficial has melted and we are seeing our true selves.

That smoothness has seeped into Fair preparations as well. As I mentioned last week, the campers have been stepping into these leadership roles and this past week they put the real work in. Every summer, we sew a quilt sell off in a raffle. So, campers have worked diligently to design it, piece it together, make the batting, and quilt it together. Another set of campers have been cutting and building 15-20 Adirondack chairs (refer to our website for details).  There also has been a dilly bean and general pickling bonanza in the garden and we will have a line up of hand silk-screened shirts.

In short, it has been a productive week. Work is love made visible, as we say, and the love is everywhere these days. I really have been touched by the work that has been done and by the care that all the campers are showing each other. I cannot wait for this one last week of magic.

Week 5 was a blur. Sitting and recollecting, I take that as a good sign.

This was a week of presence and presents.

I felt like everyone here was more present than ever before, especially the campers. Week 5 is the week when the TF staff take a step back and the campers run more and more of the show -  (Important note, this is from a programmatic and systemic standpoint, not a safety and supervision one.)  We talk a lot about leadership in this community and this is the time that it is most apparent.

A camper-led committee picked our Fair Chairs, the campers who are in charge of organizing all our booths and concessions at the end of the summer Fair. Campers took full responsibility for barn chores. And they are really taking care of each other.

So, that was the presence part of camp.

The present aspect comes from a gift we gave to a local farm. Every Saturday, we do an all-camp work project and this past one we moved past the borders of Tamarack Farm. We packed everyone into vans and drove to a local CSA. Evening Song Farm is a first-year farm bought by a couple of young and dedicated farmers. The connection to Evening Song Farm was formed during trips when one of our groups stopped by and helped them out. So, this project was a continuation of that contact. Our 80 or so community members flooded their fields with willing hands for weeding. We also dammed up a small dunking pool in a river that borders the farm. I think it was a special morning for us to see young people really excited about growing vegetables and putting in the hard work to make a successful CSA. One of the farm’s owners, Ryan, was very grateful and really quite moved by the gesture.

Our campers worked their butts off. This is a connection I hope can continue to grow over the years.

On Saturday night we had our Museum of Farm Art, or MOFA, party, which is a fantastic night of celebration. Every member of Tamarack Farm submits some piece of art and we turn our Rec Lodge into a fancy exhibit. There was a mix of hand drawn works and sculpture pieces and there were also some fine performances sprinkled in throughout the evening. MOFA is often one of my favorite nights of a summer and this one certainly did not disappoint. There were brilliant costumes complementing the decorations and hors d’oeuvres. We finished the night with a bonfire shaped like an octopus.

Any time you finish your week with a bonfire shaped like an octopus, you know it has been a good week.

My Best

Medicine Shield Dancer

First off, I apologize for the gap in posts. It has been a hectic midpoint to our summer here. Our community split into seven groups to embark on a separate adventures. We send out trips for a multitude of reasons. Primarily, they are fun and break up the schedule of camp. It is cool to take a break from our farm schedule to hike in the White Mountains, to canoe on the Green River Reservoir, to work with farming organizations in Burlington, or to work on a shelter at Tiny Pond. Of course, one trip stayed home and kept our farm running smoothly. There is also the two-fold group dynamic aspect. Separating into smaller groups allows campers to get to know a different set  from their cabin mates or established friends. When those groups merge back together, the trip bonds merge with the previously cemented community ties. Year after year, trips prove to draw us tighter and closer. And, of course, a week on the trail would make anyone thankful for the luxuries of our outhouses!

Watching those trips return is always a pleasure for us. The hikers stepping gingerly down from the van, leaning slightly forward as if they were still wearing their packs. And, oh man, the smiles. The canoers swing their heavy arms, the campers on service projects stretch their backs. And, oh man, the smiles.

Visiting Day was the following day from those joyous reunions on our lawn and the event was a very successful one. The visit hold this natural tension of trying to show the visitors how a normal day at camp runs and how the camper is a part of this community and, at the same time, it is such a different day from anything else. I call it a success because I believe it can be a special day for family and friends. A camper watching a mother fly off the rope swing can shed new light on that relationship’s possibilities. A friend helping a camper milk the cow can foster a deeper tenderness. For campers without visitors, it is a day that can be unusual, but I appreciate how the whole group supports those campers. They are invited to join picnics and sit with families. The staff are also particularly mindful of them. So, I do believe it works for everyone involved and I want to thank anyone reading this who may have been present there.

We are on to week 5 now; we call this “push week.” The projects that were pushed aside are brought forward, we reach out to sit with those we may not have shared a meal with yet and we sign up for the work project we’ve always wanted. This is the time, when we are back as one complete group, when we grow and transform into the true essence of Tamarack Farm 2011. We even start to finish each other’s ……..

My Best,

Medicine Shield Dancer

Here is Moon, just moments after her birth.

Hello all:

So, there we were in the middle of the afternoon. We had separated into our trip groups and were learning various skills like fire building, stove maintenance, tent construction, and “Leave No Trace” practices when Ashlyn, our farm intern, came running. All thoughts about hiking or working on any other farm vanished. We knew what this meant. Melba was having a baby. Melba is one of our cows.

By the time our community reached the pasture– in a respectful, orderly fashion, of course– baby Moon had already been born. It was a fast, relatively easy birth with Ashlyn only giving minor assistance. A muted cheer ran through the crowd with the announcement that the calf was a girl. The reality of our farm is that we would not have kept a boy, but a girl continues the lineage. That lineage is important to a small dairy farm like ours. Midnight, Makoosha, May, Morning Solstice, Melba (now Moon)  and many others have been a part of our farm for over 30 years.

Moon was moved into the barn and we all gathered round. With an amazing instinct left from their days as wild animals, these babies walk after just an hour. So, we watched as she slipped and slid on her wobbly legs, bracing one hoof at a time. Finally, still swaying and teetering, Moon took her first steps. That is an image that few people will soon forget and was truly a unique experience.

So happy birthday, Moon.

My Best,

Medicine Shield Dancer

Dear Readers,

Week two is like a good Chapter Two. Characters are established. Story lines are foreshadowed and begun. Week Twois the first week of routine here. On a farm, routine is supreme. Animals like the cows and the goats have a rhythm to their milking schedule. There are feeding times and harvesting times. Week two is when campers and animals alike can settle in to that rhythm of the farm.

Those routines include our afternoon activities. This past week was jampacked with a wide array of choices, including papier mache costume making, a basketball trip to a local court, song card writing, a ridge hike, canoeing and spoon making. Knitting made a triumphant return. These campers love to knit. There has been a real enthusiasm about these afternoons and that inspires the staff to push their creativity. Campers have also taken on the role of leading their own activities.

I should say that not everything is skewed toward a routine. We try to mix things up to keep the summer new and fresh. One of the ways we do that is with nights like our Interdependence Day celebration. All six camps at Farm and Wilderness celebrate how we are all interdependent and can help and support each other. We come together and perform a song or a skit,  usually with a positive message about that camp. So, Friday, July 8, was a big success. There was a bonfire and a contra dance with ice cream sandwiches. The community really rocked out and I honestly saw us coming closer together while performing.

Finally, we had a great week of work projects as well. We have one crew building a new shower house. We have another crew pouring hexagonal cement tiles to expand the basketball court we made last year. Those two ventures are going to be landmark projects for the summer. This is an opportunity for campers to come back year after year and, as they look at that shower house or that basketball court, say, “I helped build that.”  This experience offers a special feeling.  The barns and gardens projects are a little more ephemeral at least on a summer by summer basis, but also there is the immediate gratification of weeding a row or building a new fence. Watching campers return after a morning of working in the garden is great because each one has this glow about them, whether they are aware of it or not.

Alas, it is now time to go work off those Sourdough pancakes made by the first bread crew of the summer. Delicious.

My Best,
Medicine Shield Dancer

Greetings followers of the TF blog, the best blog about TF out there,

As I write this, the voices of Tamarack Farm - every last camper, staff, and cow - echo across the lawn. The morning work project is an all-camp weeding of the garden. This shows the  true spirit of our community as laughs, hoots and giggles ripple from bed to bed, row to row. We make this work an experience, working together side-by-side, doing the work that needs to be done, and enjoying every minute. This is how lasting bonds are forged, with the sun on our shoulders, dirt on our hands and smiles on our faces.
These first few days are all about forging those types of bonds. I imagine our community is like some majestic animal. Okay, maybe the term majestic is a bit much, but it’s not far off.  The first two full days were filled with orientation and training. The campers learn about the systems that make Tamarack Farm run, like the barns and gardens, work projects, the waterfront, and, of course, washing the dishes. In the afternoon, our staff offered a range of activities from silk screening, costume making, soccer, chess, knitting, building a bike trailer and “getting-to-know-you” games.  Brains, brawn and skill are everywhere!
Today is the first day that we take the off the blinders and let up on the reins. Campers begin to take ownership of this place. With a week of experience, they feel comfortable here. It is a sight to behold as four-day-old friendships look like four-year ones. I have seen many Tamarack Farm communities in my time and I can honestly say this one gives me goosebumps already. Everything, from the games of knock out during free time to the dinner conversations is amazing. We have a good pace and we are coming around the first turn. I could not be more excited.
Tamarack Farm is officially off and running!

My Best,

Medicine Shield Dancer

As of this very moment, it is twin day.  All day long I have been watching campers and staff imitating each other, swapping outfits and doing their best impersonations of their friends.  As the day has wore on, folks have been upping the twin factor, showing up to each pre-meal circle in more fabulous twin arrangements. 

As I write this, I’m fairly certain that one camper, dressed as a certain counselor, is leading a bench-building afternoon activity while acting entirely in the character of that counselor.

The halfway point of the TF2KX season has gone flying by. We returned from our trips nearly two weeks ago, eager to share our far-flung adventures with our friends.  We performed skits for the TF community detailing our heroic encounters, which included fending off hailstorms while canoeing, performing in a play, scaling several mountains in the rain, picking thirty pounds of blueberries, and building a stone fireplace for a sugar shack.

Several summer-long work projects are finally beginning to take shape. This week there are two work crews on the roof of the Rec Lodge– one
group putting new shingles on the back, and another group tearing the old shingles off of the front. We’re working double time to get new
shingles on the entire roof before summer ends– in thirteen days!

Also, in the past two weeks we’ve built and installed four brand new waterfront benches, built and installed rafters for the new shelter at SAM camp, baked and sold pies with local berries at our weekly farmer’s market, and fashioned a tire swing to enrich the life of our beloved sow, Halifax.

We spent much of last week preparing for our annual MOFA (Museum of Farm Art) exhibition.  Campers contributed drawings, paintings, ceramic mugs and monsters, songs, poetry, paper-mache projects, fancy finger foods and fabulous costumes for the affair. 

Camper Hannah led a crew of campers and staff in transforming our Rec Lodge into an elegant gallery space for the evening.  Lights were strung, stages were erected, art was framed and mounted, and the entire setup was finally -”ooh”-ed and “aah”-ed by the community last Saturday night.  After a showcase of inspired performances in the gallery, we left feeling inspired by our peers’ tremendous passions and talents.

This week we are getting ready for our Farm Party, a day in which we celebrate our harvest by only consuming food that is produced on our farm, or food that we barter for in the community. We kicked off the week with an all-camp work project in the garden this Saturday, releasing brussel sprouts, carrots, amaranth, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and zucchini from the never ceasing onslaught of weeds.  The summer crops will get one last week of steady growth before we harvest all that we can for our three meals on Saturday. 

Three Barns and Gardens work crews this week will also be harvesting, making yogurt, pickles, soft cheeses, and jams to be consumed by the community this weekend.

Finally, we will harvest our meat birds on Friday. Campers have been caring for these birds since the beginning of camp, feeding them twice a day and constructing movable “chicken tractors” so the birds can range freely.  The harvest is entirely optional; campers who would like to be a part of the process will attend a talk by our head farmer, Chantal, on Thursday evening.

Looking ahead, we elected Bella and Ted as this year’s Fair Chairs, and they are doing a fantastic job of coordinating our contributions for the Aug. 14 Fair. The TF quilt grows a little bigger every day; co-quilt heads, Addie and Anna, are leading morning work projects and afternoon activities every day with the goal of getting every
member of camp to contribute some work time.  The quilt will be raffled off during fair and all the proceeds will go towards funding camperships. 

More than a dozen other campers are heading up our twelve booths at the fair– from activism to barns to wilderness living skills  and a grand mural is in the planning stages. We hope that you will join us for this joyous celebration of our farm and community.  This day is also the last full day of camp, which means the end of camp is
approaching far too quickly.

Pretzel,

Marne

Well, it’s the start of Week 4 at Tamarack Farm and camp is temporarily quiet as eight groups are out on trips. 

Green Mountain and White Mountain are on hiking trips in Vermont and New Hampshire, respectively.  Umbagog is experiencing a canoeing trip on the NH/Maine border.  B&P is on a trip to work with the folks at Bread and Puppet in Glover, VT.  Sugar Shack is building a small building at a farm in Randolph, VT (they carried most of the pre-assembled pieces with them).  Farm Girl Farm is working on a CSA in Egremont, MA.  The Homestead trip (aka the Hard Core Farmers) are tending our herd here and taking day trips to selected small farming operations in the area.  The Mystery Trip (a TF tradition) is an improv trip of sorts, leaving camp on foot with three staff and exploring the local area and being creative, writing journals and producing art.

Over the past week, our TF work projects have included the ongoing re-shingling of our beloved Rec Lodge, cooking (culminating in a camper-cooked supper on Sunday), acting as morning counselors at the Barn Day Camp, doing trip packout, building the Sugar Shack components, making a waterfront bench, pouring concrete pavers for our basketball court by the Dance Barn, building steps in the outdoor space affectionately known as LaLa Land, harvesting and weeding in the garden, and finishing the ‘bridge to nowhere.’

On Saturday mornings, we have a tradition of working together as an all-camp group.  This past Saturday, we hiked up past Peggy’s Pond to the Scott hayfield. We used bow saws and trimmers, as well as cleared some of the brush encroaching on the field.  After an hour and a half of this satisfying work, we admired our efforts while having Silent Meeting looking off to views of Killington and Shrewsbury.

This Saturday evening, we had the rare pleasure of having Frances Moore Lappe (author of Diet for a Small Planet) visit and speak to our assembled group in the Rec Lodge about the politics of food and democracy world-wide.  The campers were fully engaged and attentive. They gained a new perspective on this organic farm where we are lucky enough to live.

And a reminder!

The main Visiting Day at Tamarack Farm will still be at the end of this week, Saturday, July 24th. We’ll begin at mid-morning (10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.) and extend through mid-evening (9:00 p.m. ). Since Visiting Day for Indian Brook, Timberlake, Flying Cloud and Saltash Mountain will be on Friday, July 23rd, we will make time for any families who are coming to visit other campers on Friday to come visit us as well if they are unavailable on Saturday.

All of the Tamarack Farm campers will be returning from trips either on Thursday or Friday and we have tried to ensure that any campers with Friday visitors will be returning on Thursday.

The general schedule of the day looks like this:

We will  have some time in the morning when parents can participate in the work projects. Then we will join together for a picnic lunch time; we encourage families to bring picnics to share with campers and their friends (we will provide a picnic lunch for anyone who needs it). The afternoon will be is divided into three parts with various activities, including an open waterfront, on either side of “TF101″ (a mid-afternoon time when parents meet with the directors in the Rec Lodge to ask any questions you may have.) The later afternoon activity time includes barn chores, lake runs, etc.

Our supper is a buffet on the lawn followed by a Postum House (open mic) evening that can include family members performing. This will end at around 9 p.m., and then campers will transition into Dance Free.

Fingers crossed for good weather and we hope to see you then.

tom’b

The summer of 2010 has officially begun.  Sixty-seven Tamarack Farm campers arrived on Wednesday afternoon with their trunks, boots, and gloves, ready to get busy.

In the three days following their arrival, the garden has experienced the joy of an all-hands-on-deck weeding part. As a result, the ground between the Dance Barn and the Rec Barn has been cleared for our new basketball court, and the dining hall has been decorated with flags and a Facebook-type wall.  These farmers are not kidding around.

Campers have swiftly settled into the busy Tamarack Farm routine.  The first town criers of the year, Molly and Hannah, did a fantastic job of leading us through our pre-meal circles and post-meal singing.  Returning campers have stepped up every day since to do the same, and the tiger box is overflowing with end-of-day affirmations.  Everyone is well into their first rotation of camp chores, including the Ye Olde Inn and Split Level campers, who are managing the summer’s first barn chores.

Sapphire and Halifax, respectively last year’s calf and piglet, have grown up (with Halifax weighing more than 600 pounds), and we are milking Rachel twice a day.  The kitchen is well stocked with the farm’s fresh eggs and milk. Our garden’s strawberries were recently spotted at breakfast.

This week, we hosted the first TF farmer’s market over at the Barn Day Camp. We are getting ready to make our garden love visible with a week of work projects that includes a harvest crew, a landscape team, and a construction squad for making a greenhouse planter. We also experienced a few spots of rain, but the weather has taken a turn for the better, and this afternoon saw a second bout of haying.  More than 15 campers volunteered to suit up and load 175 hay bales on Friday afternoon; the goal for the summer is 1,600.  With another week of hot, dry, sunshine called for, we’re hoping to get a little closer to filling the hayloft in our new livestock barn.

After a long morning of work projects, you would expect the energy level to wane, but the farmers have shown excitement about all-camp afternoon and evening activities.  In three afternoons we’vebeen able to create silkscreens, personal ceramic mugs, built a photo booth and a chipmunk palace and have written poetry. We’ve also taken plant identification walks, attempted to walk on the slack line, mastered the low-ropes course, strummed guitar, played soccer and invented a few water sports in the lake. Last night we threw a raucous scavenger hunt; campers built human pyramids, dressed their teams up as a rainbow, and came up with a song to sing to our wonderful cooks.

Friday evening’s cabin night was declared a grand success—in their cabins, groups played games, lit campfires, cooked delicious treats, and got to know who they’re building a community with this summer.
The swim tests have been swum, the 4:30 long runs have begun, the song cards have been dusted off.  The kybos have been sawdusted, the dish routine has been established, and we are happy to report that the costumes in Fred the Loft are being utilized to their fullest potential.  The first installment of Postum House, TF’s open mic night, begins this evening.  The bar has been set, the first note has been sung, and wow, they are high.  Camp has begun.  Stay tuned for more.

Pretzel,

Marne Litfin