This weeks theme is crafting and shelter building! Both activities are common throughout every week at camp, however this week some groups are going extra lengths. Gifts of the Deer camp is running this week, a camp where campers go through the process of smoking their own deer hide. It is a lot of hard work but the results are always incredible. Shelters all over the acres were popping up on Monday, with Forest Village making large ones at Edge Camp. They also crafted flower crowns out of jewelweed, starting their week right on theme.

Tuesday, Gifts of the Deer moved on to the next step in the smoke tanning process. After scraping the fur off their hides, the campers started stretching their hides. The skin on the hides is now super smooth and ready for the next step. At the Meadow, the Forest Engineers worked on their makeshift catapult, a trebuchet. The campers held the form of the sticks upright while Instructors James and Blue tied them together. 

Wednesday was a busy morning all around the acres. The Wildcrafters, Pathfinders, and Forest Engineers met up at the meadow to play some Capture the Flag and look at the Forest Engineer’s trebuchet-in-progress. Next door at Hearth Camp, Primitive Cafe was cooking up yummy pizza bagels and apple pie. I noticed rustling in the trees, and saw the Yellow Warblers in camouflage face paint sneaking up on us! 

The Purple Finches helped out with a really cool task: protecting our plants growing in our Food Forest! The plants include apple trees, plum trees, willow trees, and more. Led by Instructor Catherine, the campers helped pile wood chips onto the base of the trees to give them space to grow! At Turkey Knoll, Instructors Rowan and Calendula led the Pathfinders through making their own atlatl darts, which included carving and tying the feathers on. The darts came out great and soared easily through the Meadow. 

A Forest Village camper with her flower crown

tThursday, the Forest Engineers test-launched their trebuchet! It was not a super successful launch so the engineers got right back to work on fixing it. The Wildcrafters made really cool pine bark bags with stitching that they get to bring home. Campers used different colors like purple, red, and orange to stitch their pouches together. There was a whole lot of smoke coming from Hearth Camp, so I checked it out to find that Primitive Cafe campers each made their own mini fire to roast a potato over it. At the Pole Barn, there was a treat for the Purple Finches; Gifts of the Deer camp needed help stretching their hides, so a few small campers got to be bounced around on the hides like a mini trampoline! 

Friday was an incredibly busy day! Primitive Cafe made a feast of cinnamon rolls, pizza, watermelon salad, and yummy soup and invited all the other groups to have some. It was absolutely delicious! A few other groups had fun cooking today; the Pathfinders made pasta and the Yellow Warblers made orange-peel brownies. On a different note, the Forest Engineers launched their trebuchet, launching a sacrificial cantaloupe they named Timmy. Timmy went flying through the air across the meadow and the kids roared with excitement. Gifts of the Deer camp smoked their hides today and the results were awesome! Each camper gets to bring home their completed smoked hide. 

Primitive Cafe serving treats

Photo Gallery – Hallie Allport, Isa Goico – August 4-8