Meet our Animals

Posted By: Kelly Marston on 8/2/2008

We spend a lot of time taking care of the animals who live here on the farm.  From the puppies and kittens who are adopted by camp families each year to our dairy cow and sheep, there are great animals to get to know.  Click here to see more.

A Day in the Life of an Earwiger

Posted By: Tess Hartigan on 7/28/2008

It's not every day that one can claim to have made it down a local gulch through the redwood forest, greeted the ocean, and made it back to camp for a beautiful afternoon. All in the span of two and a half hours. That is just the beginning of the amazing stunts that this group of Second Sessioners have accomplished today, and I cannot wait to see what else they have up the sleeves of their new Plantation tee-shirts!

My name is Tess and I have the luck to be the counselor of the amazing twelve to thirteen year old boys in the unit Earwig, the second oldest male unit. From campfire talks to perfecting our football spirals, Earwig has been the ultimate mix of respect, adventure, excitement, and above all else, fun! Waking up in the morning and keeping perfectly silent as a flock of wild turkeys strut by, my boys tend to vacillate between complete awe and complete exuberance. Who could ask for more?

Having always been a first session camper and staff member myself, I had no idea what to expect of these late summer outward bounders. All I can say is that these kids are blowing me and my fellow counselors away at every turn. The first drama of the session was on Friday night and I have never seen a better impression of an orangutan in all eighteen years of my life. Improvised by a thirteen year old girl in the unit Alpine. Did I mention she was also simultaneously imitating a counselor as well?

Throw in a group of avid horseback riders who are currently circling the corral with supreme postures, a yoga activity finding their zen at the lake, and a raging water slip n' slide that is in construction as I type, all I can do is thank the parents who lent me these incredible kids for three and a half weeks of summer. I don't want to return them! I'll be heading off to Stanford, a different kind of farm so to speak in the fall, and I know that I am a much more vibrant, intrepid soul for these extraordinary experiences with your children. Thank you.

I'm off to make treats for afternoon tea, so until next time!

Tess

Happy Birthday

Posted By: Kelly Marston on 7/15/2008

During the sumer we have many birthdays with all of the campers, counselors, and staff.  Those are celebrated with many songs, love and wonderful cakes.  We also have births throughout the season as the cows, sheep, and goats have their young. Campers on sheep chore have had the task all summer to count the sheep and are doubly excited when the number is higher than the day before because a new lamb has been born (to date we have had 6 new lambs this session).

Still, today was special because we were already expecting to celebrate the birthday of counselor-extraordinaire,Lydia.  She is also Waterfront Coordinator, which you can probably guess looking at her fabulous birthday cake.  To add to the speacial day, Topaz, one of our nubian goats, gave birth to triplets.  Yes, triplets.  And, multiple births aren't easy on goats either.  So now we have three adorable baby goats to add to the Plantation family.  Only one has been named so far, the baby girl who is Opal.  We will have to wait and see what the campers on goat chore name the two males.

A happy Happy Birthday!

Fire and Smoke Update

Posted By: Kelly Marston on 6/28/2008

We've gotten a lot of questions about how the Mendocino fires are affecting camp.  So I wanted to give everyone an update -- so far, the fires have not had an impact on us at camp.  We have seen and smelled the smoke in the air, but between the fog and the wind we have been relatively clear.  We check with CDF (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) and our local fire department daily.  Having the Fire Chief as our next door is always reassuring and in times like this it is doubly so.

Milestones

Posted By: Kelly Marston on 6/25/2008

The start of each summer marks a beginning.  School is over and while days aren't measured by homework to be completed or hours in a classroom, learning doesn't stop.  At Plantation it moves outdoors.  Skills are continuously being acquired as we explore the environment around us.  We build coordination and agility as we hike, ride horses, and play capture the flag, and perhaps most importantly, we learn how to be a better friend and live with different people.

Camp is in full swing!!!

Soccer is being played in the meadow, dozens of campers went to the Park to stake their claims and build forts, and lessons are going on in the corral.  In other words, it is camp time.  The start of a new session brings so much excitement.  Everyone, not just the campers, looks forward to the joy that a month at camp brings.  The first morning can be a bit quiet, but by morning singing it felt as if eveyone had been here for many summers.  Now with activities in full swing, the farm is filled with the happy sounds of summer.

First steps

I can't help also sharing with you milestones in Reilly and Aidan's lives too.  On the first day of camp Aidan took his very first steps on his own.  After months of cruising around pieces of furnitures and, more recently, taking steps and even learning to dance while holding on to someone, Aidan started walking without assistance.  He is still wobbly and crawling is his mode of choice when he needs to get someplace, for now.

Not to be left out, Reilly had his share of firsts too. On our mother-son day/town trip Reilly enjoyed his first ice cream cone with sprinkles.  We learned about the importance of cleaning up drips and not licking it so that it falls off the cone.  Altogether he thought it was very good, especially after he realized that he got to eat the cone too.

His second feat was riding a horse.  He wasn't on his own, but rode with our neighbor, Terry, up into the Alpine meadow.  There was even a bit of trotting.  While, he LOVES horses he had been a bit hesitant to get too close.  It is so great to be part of a community with neighbors like Terry.

Farm Update

With so many hands working on the farm it is changing constantly.  The most exciting news is that we have 7 new lambs.  The most recent was born yesterday afternoon.  When sheep chore got to the meadow they counted the 6 lambs that were there in the morning and Reilly spotted a new one, still wet from the birth.  They watched it take it's first steps, Reilly got to name it (Plantation tradition is that the first person to see an animal born gets to name it), and we are so happy that our flock is expanding.

My Journey

Posted By: Christian Hull on 5/18/2008

G’Day, my names Christian and I am so excited to be back as a counsellor. I live and work in Sydney, Australia and love it. I thought I would tell you a little of how international counsellors get involved in work like this and how we get here.
Summer camps don’t exist in Australia, however having grown up with American TV I knew all about them. There are several programs that place counsellors at camps and allow directors to search for the right person.
From there these programs organise your visa and all the mess and paperwork that comes from travel. You would think this was the hard part but sadly it isn’t.

After finally getting conformation of flights, insurance and visas its time to pack. If you’re new to the Plantation game then listen up, I was lucky to have a little advise from a New Zealander my first year, without him I would have definitely have froze and been pretty useless. To me summer is hot and humid, sometimes dry but ALWAYS HOT even at night. However on the Sonoma coast it’s a little different. James told me a good sleeping bag and some warm clothes was a must, I was a little shocked at the fact I needed warm clothes for summer, THANK GOD I brought them. 
The days can get very hot at Plantation and the nights very cold. I took one jumper and some long pants. This was not really enough but at least I brought them. I was lucky there is a camp store, I bought a few jumpers (sweatshirts, I like jumpers better).

After conquering my first year I was ready for round two. Packing for this proved to be rather difficult. Your probably wondering why is it harder? Well after knowing what goes on at Plantation you find that you have all this amazing stuff you want to take with you, like awesome drama costumes or barn dance outfits or just stuff you can wear at camp but never in public.

For those of you coming this year watch out, I have bought an amazing wig and some pretty awesome gear.

Some how I managed to cull a lot of stuff my second year, this isn’t the case for 2008, I am posting up a large box with some of my stuff, and brining up a bag that probably a little bigger then a trunk. I KNOW I KNOW excessive but for those of you that know me its hardly anything.

If I can give packing advise to new comers it would be, bring warm pyjamas and a good pillow, clothes you don’t mind getting dirty, long pants jeans are good there thick and good for hiking, some cool bling and as an artist myself DEFINITELY bring a good plane t-shirt to either ty dye or silk screen (there are plane tees for the kids they get one each but sometimes the sizes run out and your left with a shirt that’s like a dress.) Also you might want to chuck a little deodorant the trunk as well.

Look forward to meeting you and seeing what amazing stuff you brought.
See you soon
Christian

P.S, you dont want to take to much because if your anything like me your tent just ends up in one giant mess.


 

The farm is always changing, even when camp isn't in session

Posted By: Kelly Marston on 5/14/2008

We are entering the final countdown to camp as the counselors who will be transforming the farm into our beloved camp will be arriving in just weeks. This isn't the only major transformations that you will see when you get to camp. The Browns have been very busy making improvements that are exciting.

Sad Farewell to Bennie

Posted By: Kelly Marston on 4/25/2008

Sometimes, life on the farm has sad moments that catch us up short. This past week Bennett, or Bennie, one of the camp dogs, died of stomach cancer. He'd been sick this winter and at first the vet couldn't find out what it was. Sadly, what they did find was very serious and even with lots of love and being taken care of by Dave and Suzanne the illness was too much.

Happy Earth Day!

Posted By: John Chakan on 4/22/2008

When I was a boy, Earth Day seemed a bit overwhelming. I mean, I know, it's important to take care of the Earth, but what could I, one little boy (okay, I wasn't ever all that little). When I was a boy, the problems facing the environment were also so big and abstract (I remember being terrified by the concept of "acid rain"). Nowadays, everyone knows much more about global warming, overburdened landfill, polluted waterways, and endangered animal species. It still seems overwhelming, but we know much more, and there are things that all of us can do, and we can make a difference.