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I wanted to let everyone know that as well as the Farm and Wilderness Facebook page Timberlake also has it’s own Facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Timberlake-Summer-Camp/154303474619212

There are some new photos from this summer and current alumni news, so come check it out! I will be checking the page regularly and responding to what people write.

You do not have to be a member of Facebook to view this page so if you are simplifying your life this shouldn’t be a burden.

I’ll be making an update here every month or so.

Peace,

Tulio

The most pertinent question I have right now for parents is:
What can you do to bring camp home?
We all want to support our kids to maintain positive experiences and practices from the summer.
Here is my “Top Ten” list of things each family can try at home this year… plus one to grow on.
1) Allow for Moments of Silence. These may help celebrate or honor an event such as a meal, family meeting or important conversation.
2) Sing! Start meals with a Grace, singalong to camp songs in the car, do whatever it takes.
3) Live simply – walk more, cut things out that aren’t necessary, especially TV and games.
4) Spend time outdoors – Plan a camping or hiking trip. Spend time in parks, even in winter. Play outside in the rain, or at least walk in the rain.
5) Keep in touch with camp values by keeping in touch with friends from camp. Encourage them to support each other to be their best selves during the year.
6) Work Is Love Made Visible – It was satisfying helping camp run by doing dishes and pots; it can feel that way at home, too.
7) Practice Social Justice and Empathy – Hear other voices and perspectives. Have an open heart and ask tough questions to yourself and others about race, gender and class.
Listen, so that others can speak.
9) Circling up and holding hands. We love both at TL, and both are pretty easy!
10) Brief and Debrief. Set things up and finish them off right.
11) Create rather than consume – build things, fix things. Paint, draw, hammer – anything to get yourself engaged and make the project your own rather than just something you buy.

We have two days left and camp feels great! This morning campers spoke of leaving, of how TL represented a place where they can recharge their best selves. One camper said - even though everyone was talking of leaving - we should behave like it was the first day - “there are still a lot of new friends to make here.” That a teenager is willing to stay that open to making new friends at the end of camp is remarkable.

As a reminder, pick up day will begin after our breakfast. The official time of pick up is 9 a.m., but if you would like you can come by as early 8:30 a.m.

Parking is limited at Timberlake, so please park diagonally, and pack ‘em in tight!

We will be singing from approximately 8:30 a.m.  to 9:15 a.m., and then going to Silent Meeting until 10 a.m. After that, you can pick up baggage from the cabin and chat with cabin staff. You are free to explore camp until 12 p.m. Please don’t enter any pastures with animals in them.

All lost and found items will be at Ken’s Lodge, which is the large building to the left of the road when you enter Timberlake.

If you take a wrong turn and end up running late, please call the TL off ice at 1-802-422-2316 or page me at 1-888-622 3276 so we can let your son know when you might arrive.

If someone other than a camper’s parents are picking up your child, this needs to be communicated in writing or by email.

We will send the camper letter about your son’s experience and also will email contact information a few weeks after camp.

See you on Sunday!

Best

Tulio Browning, Director of Timberlake.

Tonight is Spy Night! This is a truly epic game that the whole camp plays. Camper spies work with staff to develop ingenious ways to sneak into the Upper Lodge at night with hidden messages. Once the game ends, we all gather to see if the searchers can find the cleverly hidden messages (they have two minutes) and then wait to see if the spies themselves can retrieve their message in time (they have thirty seconds).

On Tuesday, we will be running some of our regular program, having our final cabin cookout and writing appreciations for each other.

Wednesday is Harvest Day - the whole camp will pull together to pull, wash, weigh and prep food from our garden. That evening we have “Dreams Night.” Near the lodges, we make small boats and paper hot air balloons to symbolically release some of the things that we feel have been holding us back.

Thursday will be a chance to finish up projects - we are looking to finish siding the new Big Lodge cabin and complete the stone steps on the path to Meeting. In the evening we will have a meal that is harvested entirely from our gardens, as well as our final Council Fire with skits and the beading ceremony.

Friday brings our final preparation for Saturday’s Fair and also for our own Banquet, where we transform the Upper Lodge into an unrecognizable palace of sorts.

I hope that gives you a bit of an idea what the campers will be doing over the next few days.

About packages, there isn’t much need to send them now, and if you were planning to ship in some goodies, please refrain. Food in the cabins is a problem, as is too much sugar! Cheers.

Even thought I have to stay behind when trips go out, I got to sit and watch skits from all the groups on Saturday night. The trail clearing group talked of what a good trip it was as well as “a lot of work!”. The Green River Lake canoe trip saw loons, some surfacing right next to their boats. Both hikes on the Long Trail had hard uphills and great views. I know that a young camper scaled one our climbs at Silverlake in record time - faster than any counselor has ever done.
Back in camp, our A1 campers and some stay-behind group stayed busy working on the Fair Fire, created a primitive earth kiln, designed a began work on a TL Frisbee Golf course, made two “TL Toss” games (aka “Cornhole”), and leveled up in Red Cross swimming. The day before trips returned, we went on day hikes. One was from one side of our valley to the other - Sodder’s Rock to Rainbow Rocks. Another was the ridge behind camp and the final group did Pico, Killington and Shrewsbury in a day - a 16 mile hike!

Now we are all together again for our last days, and it feels special. This morning at meeting a senior lodger (R.W) spoke of how he had been thinking a lot about love. How love is everywhere, in the friends that we make, and the places we care about. Even when you can’t find it, you can make some yourself - by smiling, by being nice to others, by caring.

Welcome to the shrinking and growing camp - as trips come and go. Much time and energy has gone into preparing for all these experiences from checking the protein content on each meal to reviewing the trip itinerary. I look forward to a bit of vicarious fun through the trip skits on Saturday when everyone is together again in camp.

Changing groups and camp is a great way to change the group dynamics. I usually blog about all the activities and events that celebrate what we are doing and how well we are getting along. But, of course, that is only part of the story. We also have our challenges, make mistakes and try to take the easy path rather than the necessary and correct one. But we work on these mistakes every day, and we are honest about them. It is never easy to call each other out - but we do it every day - from campers all the way up to support staff and myself.

“Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict.”
Dorothy Thompson

“Change is like a locomotive with unlimited fuel, and unlimited distance to travel. But we are the conductors of that locomotive. We decide what direction it moves in”

G.P. - Full Season Senior Lodge Camper

I have no doubt I will recall and repeat this camper’s words many times in my life. I am grateful for his wisdom and appreciate Timberlake for creating the space at Silent Meeting where I could hear it fully.

Today marks the fifth day of camp for this session. Campers in First and Big Lodge have gone through all the major areas - Barns and Gardens, Swim Lessons, Outdoor Living Skills, and Work Projects. Senior Lodge has completed a three-day cycle focused on one activity area and will begin their next cycle.

Trips have been selected and groups are beginning to do team building work on the lower ropes course as part of the preparation for going out on the trail. The weekend will bring some big all-camp games, the first Council Fire, more open waterfront and camper-led activities.

A1 short session campers will going on their overnight camping adventure tonight.

The principle feature of next week will be trips and a shrinking and expanding camp. We may even eat pancakes with ice cream. Who knows?

Once everyone is back from trips, we will be diving into preparing for Fair, harvesting for Food Day, preparing for our final, blow-out Banquet and finishing all the work we began in each program area.

I’ll keep you posted!

We can’t deny it, the weather has been very helpful.  Well, there have been some storms on the radar last night, but all they  meant was we needed to raise our voices for dinner announcements as the rain crashed on the roof.  The evening skies have been stunning.

As I walk around camp, I see campers gathered in the Packard Shed listening to out Work Project’s head low, confident voice run them through an orientation that inspires and informs the group.   Later, I will see campers hammering on siding to our new cabin so it can be finished by this summer.

At circle up, I hear about campers who have passed their knife test, build a wet weather fire or led our goat, Bruce, to a new pasture.

We have had a night of wacky skit’s for our Trips, including fluffy white clouds, high octave singing and shiny silver tights.    Not everyone can get their first choice but we can make sure they get one of their top half  choices.   We’ll now start doing the team-building initiatives for each trip group.

Thanks to everyone who came up for a smooth drop off day.

A storm of calm.   The final days felt like the usual whirlwind of activity, but there was a pervasive sense of ease to it, a sense we had done what we had come to do.

Our Banquet theme was tropical, as was the food: red beans and rice, fried plantains, huge 6″x 6″ ribs, (seitan kebabs for veggies), citrus and berry fruit salad, sherbet and key lime pie.  All of these goodies were home made.

Our ceremonies during the banquet included recognitions for canoeing around the lake, tanning hides to make buckskin moccasins.  swimming the five miles around the lake, carrying canoes to Indian Brook, and much, much more.

Yet, my favorite part of closure was when we began our candlelight ceremony.  Each camper leaves our Upper Lodge with a lit candle and slowly proceeds down to the Meeting Circle where we close with “I am” statements.

That evening, there was a warm summer breeze that rustled the treetops, then blow through our procession.   Every time this happened, campers came together to the one candle that remained lit and quietly and patiently rekindle and continue.   I think it took half a hour to make it the three minute walk to Meeting Circle.  When we gathered in silence we heard many eloquent expressions about the first half, but perhaps none so much as the simple and silent cohesiveness of the group as we made our walk together that night.  Thanks everyone for a great first half!