Tuesday at Camp Fishing
Today was another beautiful day with a high of 91 degrees. The low tonight is supposed to be 60, so we’ll need to bundle up again for another cool evening.
Activities
Today has been full of activities. I visited archery today and witnessed a few impressive things. I was very proud of our archery specialist counselor, Juanse, for the job he did leading the oldest boys’ group in archery. Juanse was in command, did a great job of going over safety guidelines, and made archery fun for the boys.
This year’s archery program is top notch, thanks to activity director Caleb Homer. Last year we completely renovated the archery range by adding 10 additional shooting lanes. We pushed the main range back in the woods a bit closer to the Pinson Creek to allow more room and to give kids the feel of being completely tucked into the woods. Caleb, Pete, and I also visited Camp Greystone in North Carolina at the end of last summer to learn from their stellar archery program. We also invested in some nicer bows and Caleb built brand new rolling targets that are easy to adjust. Finally, during counselor orientation, we unveiled our new program to staff members who would lead archery. As I was watching Berry Patch West arch today, I couldn’t help but smile knowing that all that hard work had finally paid off. I’m excited next week to watch the kids compete in the Tribal Competition archery tournament. By that time, campers will have gotten in a lot of practice in.
This afternoon the Critter Pond was in full swing as well. I actually got in two bounces with the kids; Critter never gets old!
Tonight we had chicken tenders, rolls, spinach salad, and french fries for dinner. I even snuck in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dessert.
SOJ
After supper tonight we had our first SOJ of the session. SOJ stands for “Spiritual Orange Juice”; it’s a staff led, voluntary devotional time that gives campers the opportunity to discuss. This evening SOJ was at the archery range; the sun was setting, there was a gentle breeze, and it may have been the most beautiful SOJ we’ve had yet.
Fishing
Tonight we hiked over to the iPond (Initiation Pond) for our much awaited fishing night. We go old school by using cane poles and bobbers. The evening continued as we cooked s’mores, played volleyball, canoed, and just enjoyed the pleasant evening.
After that, we had Sing Song by the fire. We played You Are My Sunshine, When I First Came to This Land, Froggie Went a Courtin’, Red House, Long Black Veil, Wicked Twisted Road, Summer and the Camp Song.
One more update on homesickness- the few cases we had yesterday are going away, so that’s great news!
It’s been a full day and it’s time for lights out…so we’re headed to bed. We’ve got a full day tomorrow….we’re going to mix it up. More to come later. Goodnight!
