Girls' Camp!

Not too long after moving into our new ward I was asked to oversee this year's Girls' Camp for the 12-to 18-year-olds. I knew none of the Young Women (excluding my Penny of course), none of the leaders, and nobody in the ward (to have a good feel for who I might naturally be able to depend on for the various types of help I would need), and I hadn't even been to a Girls' Camp for 25 years!

I drove myself into a panic almost immediately (and off and on during the ensuing months). I knew we would need activities, and food (that alone seemed like more than anyone could ever be in charge of), and transportation, and gear, and crafts, and a million other details all arranged (packing lists, and sweat-shirt sizes and permission slips gathered, devotionals assigned, firewood, evenings around the campfire planned, etc.)

It's all the sort of thing that Mike (and possibly most of you reading this) would take in stride. (In fact, the only way I found to calm my mind some nights was to actually think things like, "Well, if it came down to it, I know Mike would drag all our kids up and cook dinner for us every night." or "Mike could arrange every bit of gear and a trailer to haul it all up if necessary.") But, for myself, being in charge of or planning large things is something I find incredibly overwhelming and do not like at all!

But, as I've discovered over and over this past year, when we set about a task that needs doing, and we seek the Lord's help (which believe me I did!), all the help and solutions really will be found along the path ahead. It's not all at the beginning. I had to keep taking the next step in order to find the next solutions: find out who my Youth Camp Leaders (YCLs) were, begin holding meetings, etc.; but as I faithfully took those steps, every single thing really did just come together. The Young Women secretary agreed to oversee gear when I asked her to; a woman in the ward "happened" to be in the room we were gathering in for a camp meeting one day and volunteered to be in charge of arranging all the food (whaatt??? I know!!!); someone asked a friend if we could use their beach-front property for a day at Bear Lake; the bishop took on arranging horses for every girl to ride; Mike's aunt supplied me with notebooks and all sorts of stickers for the girls to create little camp journals; my sister gave me a great idea about bringing thread and embroidery needles for the girls to create designs on their sweatshirts, and the YCLs (most of them only about 16 years old) took on all sorts of things I hadn't expected them to take on--creating packing lists and agendas, assigning devotionals, reaching out to people with various requests, and arranging groups to assign for meal prep and clean up, etc.) (And to be fair ... for all my dreading of things like this ... I think, in the end, I am a fairly capable person--good at seeing everything that needs done, delegating, and pulling together. [Though so many things really did fall into place that I'm not sure I can take much of any credit beyond being the willing person for it to all sort of filter through.]) 

It all reminds me of this Boyd K. Packer quote that I really love:

When the servants of the Lord determine to do as He commands, we move ahead. As we proceed, we are joined at the crossroads by those who have been prepared to help us.

They come with skills and abilities precisely suited to our needs. And, we find provisions; information, inventions, help of various kinds, set along the way waiting for us to take them up.

It is as though someone knew we would be traveling that way. We see the invisible hand of the Almighty providing for us. 

I did find "help of various kinds, set along the way waiting for [me] to take [it] up"! And in the end, I gained more confidence in my ability to handle these types of large assignments, became close to leaders and twenty girls (plus many of their parents) who I didn't know at all before starting this, and was helped to pull off a pretty amazing week of camp!

A few of the highlights:

-- We went to the rope's course at Bear Lake. It was perfect. Different levels depending on each girl's abilities, and many different routes to try on each level.

-- I worried about having enough to do in our down time, but the girls had such fun racing rubber ducks down the river, sorting through loads of stickers to create journals, making bracelets, and embroidering little hearts and suns and messages on their sweatshirts that we could have used much more free time.

-- We hiked Limber Pine one day. I was certain it would take at least an hour and a half. But it turns out I thought that because I have only ever hiked it with many small children who stop at every tree and rock and lookout. It only took us about 30 minutes with our Young Women group, Ha!

-- Our Bear Lake day was so fun. I was worried since the water was so hight that there was no real sandy beach. But the house we got to use came equipped with probably thirty paddleboards and kayaks. I think we could have stayed several hours longer than we did!

-- One night we had a lady from our ward come with all of these African (?) style drums for the girls to use around the fire. She instructed one girl to start with a steady "heartbeat" drumming and the others to fill in with drumming that matched the beat. It sounded so cool.

-- The boys in our ward had their camp the same week (and not too far from ours) so we planned a combined dinner and fireside for one night. Brother Whittier from our ward came up and gave them the story of Old Ephraim (with a spiritual tie in). I was so happy to get to see Jesse and Anders for a few hours! 

-- I don't know that most in our ward have a lot of money, however, we do have resources that people in other areas simply wouldn't have access to. For example we were able to have people from the ward bring up 30 horses--saddled and ready to go--for all of us to go on a lengthy trail ride!

-- Whitney Boudrero, the woman who volunteered to take on food, really was just ridiculously amazing. I don't know that I have ever eaten that well for every meal for an entire week. She came to our meetings and made sure the girls were involved with planning it all, but then she just decided to drive the thirty minutes back and forth to camp multiple times a day so she could use her own kitchen. I don't think she sat down once for the week. Not only did we have amazing meals (even on the morning we were packing up and leaving camp she made homemade cinnamon rolls, homemade blueberry muffins, hashbrowns, eggs and sausage gravy!), but we had snacks like freshly baked cookies, caramel corn, sliced veggies and little cups of her homemade ranch, etc. It really was amazing. 

-- Our various priesthood leaders were so great. They did things like: brought their ATVs to give girls rides in their downtime, cut down a fallen tree to uncover a large water trike at the beach, and hauled copious amounts of things for us.  

(Penny immediately determined she wanted a horse after this. To be honest I found the trail ride a bit terrifying [it didn't help that my horse fell at one point]. But Penny loved it. And she must've done well because the guy in our ward leading her group asked me afterwards if Penny was my daughter and, when I said yes, commented on what a natural she was and how much confidence she had on that horse.)

I really did love the girls. Hurrah for a successful camp. (And hurrah for it being over! Ha!)

Of Goslings and Mosquitos

We spent most of the spring making disparaging remarks over Goose Helen's lack of maternal instinct; but then one mid-May day I arrived at the farm to Goose James honking and hissing as I tried to come near the hen house (the hen house that he'd driven all the hens from) and Helen sitting on a clutch of large eggs.

For a month she patiently sat. For a month James patrolled and stood guard. And then, last Thursday evening, when I'd run over to quickly check on our goats, I noticed that both James and Helen had abandoned their posts. I raised an eyebrow, shook my head (assuming they'd abandoned their duty), and went about filling the goats' buckets with water. 

But then I saw this (!!!):

I immediately texted the family the exciting--and, as Mike pointed out, terrifying--news of more geese on the farm.

Our excitement was slightly dampened the next day when we discovered that there had been two other little goslings whose lives had been cut very short by some cruel critter 😭. We set a raccoon trap that evening (though we've had no luck catching any yet) and ordered a door that can automatically close on the coop at night. And, every day since, we've arrived at the farm in a state of slight anxiety, and then breathed a sigh of relief when someone has called out, "The goslings are still here!"

They really are darling to watch as they stick their little nub wings out and run in a quick little waddle behind Helen. It's very dear.

And, in other farm news, I have a little bird app I use when I'm trying to identify unfamiliar bird calls. Look how many birds it identified in one minute and nineteen seconds at the farm Friday evening (while I waited for Mike to set up the raccoon trap!):

There was just chirping everywhere!

I love all the birds up here. And I can never get over how many I never saw living just 45 minutes south! Sandhill Cranes, Killdeer, Red-winged Blackbirds, and just in the past week or two I've begun seeing the flocks of white-faced ibis that I fell in love with last year (and could not identify for the longest time because, well, for one thing, their faces don't look even remotely white).

And that is all. Except (lest I've overly romanticized this rural living): I currently have 30 mosquito bites on my right foot (30!), a smattering on my left, and about ten on each arm, and I scratch myself bloody several times a day. So. There's that side of things.

And now to really end: matching the little girls during an after-church animal check at the farm (lovely expressions Mette and Summer), and a few photos of kids walking goats ... or rather ... trying to walk goats: