From the farm to the Farm

Posted By: John Chakan on 10/11/2008

It is always fun to get together with camp folks in the off season, and this weekend, we went down to Stanford to meet up with the Feffers (Rafe goes to second session).  While we were there, we also saw three counselors who were also at camp this summer: Leslie, Alex, and Tess.  Of course, I have a special fondness for Stanford, having graduated in 1997.  It was a beautiful weekend in Palo Alto.

We would love to catch up with more camp folks in the off season, so let us know if you'd like to get together to talk about camp or anything else.  And Go Stanford!

Memories of Summer

Posted By: John Chakan on 10/6/2008

Looking back on this summer, I have many fond memories of camp.  Wonderful dramas in the barn, dancing above the pool to the Ridge Band, many smiling faces of campers and counselors...the list could go on for days.  Looking through the pictures from this summer as we get ready to put the scrapbook together always transports me back to camp, and now I have something else that evokes powerful memories of summer.

I have just pulled my second loaf of sourdough bread from the oven, and the smell in our house right now is heavenly.  This bread was begun with the sourdough started that Mary Stefensen (our second session (and Family Camp!) nurse) brought to camp.  I have attempted sourdough before with my own starter, but these loaves have turned out remarkably better.  Perhaps it is the extra ingredient of camp love?  Tonight for dinner, we are going to use some camp sausage in our pasta.  Yum!

Plantation Farm Camp is a Green Business

Posted By: Kelly Marston on 9/30/2008

"Congratulations! Your application to the Green Business Network (GBN) has been approved. You are among GBN’s year 2008 progressive business leaders who are solving today’s tough social and environmental problems."

We just received this exciting news.  Plantation Farm Camp is now the second camp to be an approved member of Co-op America and can now be found in the Green Pages.  We are very proud of this as it recognizes the commitment that we at Plantation have always exhibited.  Prior to approval we underwent a screening process that evaluated our:

• familiarity with and commitment to social and environmental responsibility, and 
• significant action in terms of this commitment.

What is a Green Business?

• Green businesses operate in ways that solve, rather than cause, both environmental and social problems. 
• These businesses adopt principles, policies, and practices that improve the quality of life for their customers, their employees, communities, and the environment.

Fall at the Farm

Posted By: John Chakan on 9/22/2008

So, summer has come to an end, and autumn is upon us.  On the farm, there are many things to do before the rains of winter come.  Tomorrow, our cows are headed into town to spend a few days with the vet.  While they are there, they will be undergoing artificial insemination.  Then, next June we hopefully will have three new calves on the farm.  Fingers crossed!

I am headed up to the farm on Wednesday to finish up a few projects around camp.  Among them, I will be harvesting a few more vegetables from the garden, checking how the pigs are growing, and helping put the pool to bed.  I will also be working with Jenny to take care of the animals for the day.

Winding down from the summer

Posted By: John Chakan on 9/8/2008

Well, summer has come to a close, and it was another fantastic summer at Plantation.  After Second Session ended, we cleaned up the farm, said goodbye to half of our amazing staff, and welcomed 65 folks to Family Camp.  We had two days of chilly fog (echoing the last two years of Family Camp), but then the sun came out, and we had a blast, swimming in the pool and the lake, hiking down Millers Gulch to the beach (where we also made sand candles), creating piles of tye-dye and silkscreen t-shirts, and dancing all night long in the barn on Saturday night.  Once again, Family Camp was a wonderful way to wrap up the summer, and the families that came embraced how much fun it is to live on the farm.

We have returned from a couple weeks of vacation and now we are back home in Berkeley.  It is good to be back home and we look forward to looking through the photos from this last summer and starting to plan for next summer.

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.