You will never know what you mean to me

As relayed in the dreaded spider story *, from the summer before 7th grade until the summer before 12th grade, I went to Girl Scout camp for a week every summer. I loved my camp. I still love my camp.


This year, I finally did something I've been wanting to do for a while, and I volunteered to go out to camp and lead some nature activities. The bibliophile and I went up there on June 2nd to go "bug fishing" and do a leaf scavenger hunt. For the bug fishing, we took the girls down to a shallow area off the main lake and had them hunt for macroinvertebrates. We didn't get as many bugs as I can usually find at the local wetlands, but they had a really great time catching tadpoles and tiny frogs.


We managed to find one dragonfly nymph, and it was a pretty proud moment when I introduced this ugly-ass bug to a bunch of 8-year-old girls as a baby dragonfly and they went, "AWWWWW!!"


The girls were pretty rad all around. During the leaf scavenger hunt, one of the groups spotted a snake up a tree, and instead of freaking out, they all wanted to see it.


Added bonus -- one of the counselors was in my unit the last year I went to camp, so it was really cool to reconnect with her.



We went back out on the 25th for a night-themed session. I didn't realize it at first because the name has been changed, but this session was the exact session I went to for my first year at camp. How appropriate is that?

We started out with a simple owl lesson. Did you know, for example, that for a human's eyes to be proportional to an owl's, they'd be the size of baseballs? Also, owls don't have eye muscles, which is why they turn their heads so much. They can't actually do a full-on exorcist twist, though. They can only go 270 degrees, not a full 360. It was actually pretty fun. I borrowed some props from the nature center where the Master Naturalist program is based, so I could show them the adaptations on the owl's feathers that allow it fly silently and show them a real taxidermied talon and stuff. After that, we got to the good parts, and the girls dissected owl pellets. One kid found an ENTIRE rat skull in her pellet, and then she donated it to the "sample jar" of bones I'd saved from the last time I did this activity as examples to show other participants. Rock on.

While the girls had "me time," the bibliophile and I hiked down to a little rock hollow near the swimming area. While we were down there I found what I thought to be an empty turtle shell, which is totally awesome and something I've been hoping to find for years. Alas, it was only mostly empty. I got a few Ziploc bags from the kitchen to seal off the smell, and figured I'd come up with a solution later. (Incidentally, I may see about leaving it out at Danger's place for a while with a bunch of almost-unstinky bones that MacGyver has found on his rambles. Of course, if it's not done with it's circle of life stuff before they move, things might get complicated.)


After dinner and a little dusk-time kayaking for the girls, we headed up to the top of the hill to make simple starwheels and go stargazing. It was so cool. The sky was absolutely perfect, and we saw at least a dozen constellations. The two-hour drive home, starting at 12:30, was kind of brutal, but I'm pretty sure it was worth it.




*Seriously. It's a great story, but not for the arachnophobics.


Reading:  Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich

Playing:  Disc One:  All Their Greatest Hits by Barenaked Ladies