Red Spruce Grove Newsletters

Second session is well underway here at Red Spruce Grove! Blueberries and raspberries are ripening, late-summer wildflowers are beginning to bloom, and our garden is bursting with life, producing a prolific amount of squash and lettuce and other tasty fresh veggies to add to our meals cooked over the open fire. Laughter and melodies dance across the meadow from dawn to dusk.  

All of the campers are getting settled into their tent groups, their temporary homes in our intentional community. The campers are divided amongst our four big Sibley canvas tents--Black Bear, Mourning Dove, Wild Iris, and Quaking Aspen. Old camp connections are being rekindled and new friendships are coming to life. We have such a wonderful crew of campers and staff here at the Grove. I feel an immense amount of gratitude for the vibes and energy of this group. Our full-summer campers have taken on leadership roles, helping their newer camp counterparts to feel welcome and included, and our newest additions to camp are diving right in to life here at the Grove.  

In our first evenings together, we've dedicated time to having conversations about what we want our community to look like here at the Grove, and the steps we can take to make that happen. Last night, campers brainstormed ways to make everyone feel welcome at our camp and celebrated in any and all of their identities. I am so impressed by the wisdom each of these children carry, and it is a joy when they are willing to share with the group in our fireside conversations. We also stayed up a few nights ago to gaze at our wide-open sky of endless stars after some wacky improv games lead by staff. The night sky here is incredible. We can see the Milky Way on every clear night! 

Campers have spent their first few days settling into the routine here at the Grove of daily chores and activities. We've been doing a "chorientation" where campers learn how to do all of the physical skills we use each day to keep the Grove running, such as washing dishes, cleaning kybos and showers, tending the garden, and caring for our three chickens and our bunny "Thunder.” This is also the part of camp where we teach our Outdoor Living Skills, such as wood gathering and processing (including proper hand tool use of saws, axes, and loppers), knife safety and carving techniques, fire-making, and learning the ecology of our local area. This afternoon, campers gathered their own wood and built primitive fires in the forest, with the challenge of getting a pot of water to boil in order to make themselves tea.  

While there is lots of activity and time for doing things, there is also intentional time built into our schedule for moments of quiet and stillness, moments of observation and reflection, moments of rest. It's a balance we seek each day as we allow our bodies to become more in tune with the natural rhythms and cycles of the world around us. We also take time to practice gratitude for the earth and all that it provides us, as well as sharing gratitude for one another.  

I cannot wait to spend the next several weeks with this wonderful community, and I am so excited for all of the adventures and growth that lay ahead.  

Until next time, 

Molly 

Wow. Has it been over two weeks already? The campers tell me that time moves in strange ways out here. The full schedule of each day can make a single day feel like several, while at the same time, the weeks can fly by in a blur. Here at Red Spruce Grove, I love that we get to intentionally take time to slow down and soak in all the goodness that camp brings to us.  

One way we do this is in our silent meetings that happen every morning, where we all sit quietly, listening, watching and observing, dispersed on a grassy hillside overlooking Saltash Mountain. After spending about 20 minutes in silence, we greet each other by passing along a cheerful “good morning!” and come together to share our afterthoughts with one another. I love hearing what the campers have to share after some intentional quiet time. The hillside where we meet is covered in various grasses, sedges, mosses, ferns, seedlings of spruces, pines, and maples, and—possibly our favorite here at the Grove—blueberry bushes.  

As I sat in morning meeting the other day, I found myself looking intently at the blueberry plant I was sitting next to. When I first arrived for pre-camp, the bushes had all bloomed and were sprouting tiny green berries. As campers arrived, the berries slowly began to grow and to take on hints of color, splashes of pink and purple. Now, some of the berries are plump and a deep indigo, ready to be harvested, while others are at various stages of development. I likened the blueberries to all of us here at camp, how we arrive each summer green and new, and through our time at camp we learn and grow and soak up all the wonderful nutrients that camp has to offer, so that we get to reap the harvest of all our hard work and growth. Campers are already reaping the benefits of their hard work here at camp.  

One thing these campers have boldly demonstrated this session is resilience. For new campers and returners, COVID-19 has turned their worlds upside-down and altered so many of their adolescent experiences, including those here at camp. Not just mask-wearing, distancing, and limiting hand-holding, but the constant barrage of news like, “this event you were super looking forward to just got cancelled.” We’ve had to hold those hard moments here at camp as a community, and I am so impressed with the campers’ ability to bounce back and find their own ways to make camp special. The Grovers worked tirelessly on creating a song to be shared at Interdependence Day – a day when all of the camps get together to celebrate the ways in which we are different and the ways in which we rely on one another within the Farm & Wilderness community. An event where Grovers get to share their new song with everyone in camp. However, due to the risk of COVID-19, the event had to be canceled. We discussed having a smaller Ninevah celebration (with SAM camp and Flying Cloud) and the campers got really excited about this prospect too, but it was still too risky. Nevertheless, the campers persevered. They finished their song so that they could share their creation over a distanced bonfire with our sibling camp, Flying Cloud. When it came to performing their song, each and every camper shone so brightly. It was truly a camp magic moment. They really impressed me with their song-writing skills and teamwork. Honestly, this production was 98% camper input, with very little support needed from staff. Tori C. is hoping to get a recording of the Grovers performing their song so that we can share it with all of you! 

In the meantime, I am proud to share the lyrics of an incredible original work by Rock Spruce Groove and the Dewy Bleubs:  

Takin’ It Slow 

[VERSE 1] 

In our early days, we’re finding our sound 

Getting our feet on some solid ground 

When the fog sets in, we grab some tea 

Slowly strengthening our community 

All of our food has been wicked delicious 

Even the tofu, though slightly suspicious 

Oatmeal is a constant staple 

We douse our pancakes in Vermont maple 

[CHORUS] 

Now we’ve got showers, now we’ve got doors 

Even our tents have some kind of floors 

3 chickens, a bunny, the occasional snake 

A new tent called Black Bear held up by a stake 

Along with our spruces, we’ve got room to grow 

Just like Chef says, we’re “takin’ it slow” 

[VERSE 2] 

Our very own personal world record holder 

Chef Gatz carries the camp on one shoulder 

The other one holds Marcus the lizard 

Shout out Chef Gatz, the RSG wizard 

We may be small, but we be mighty 

We may ask ourselves, “is the side porch tidy?” 

Hunkered down in tarp town, we get hyped up 

When someone lands a rock in the pebble cup 

[CHORUS] 

[VERSE 3 – RAP] 

We spit these rhymes like we spit our TOOTHPASTE 

We always compost so we have no FOOD WASTE 

We walk around barefoot until our FOOT ACHE 

In the Dutch oven, our Chef DO BAKE 

Chef’s claim to fame is their creation in A-FRAME 

When we’re around it’s hard to STAY TAME 

When Molly goes out our mail sure DO CAME 

Camouflage like Peter in THE HUNGER GAMES 

[CHORUS] 

[slowly] Just like Chef says, we’re TAKIN’ IT SLOOOOOOOOOW 

I personally think they should take this act on tour.  

In other news about our second week of camp, we took a deep dive into Guilds! “What is a Guild?” you may ask? Each session, each of our counselors chooses a project or skills to focus on that fits within our three program areas (Outdoor Living Skills, Creative Arts, and Homesteading). This focused skill or project is their Guild. Campers rank their favorite options and are sorted based upon their interests. It’s a chance for counselors to share their personal knowledge and skills and/or learn new things alongside campers, as well as a chance for campers to work closely with peers outside their tent group and go deeper into their exploration of an area of interest. This session’s guilds are Fairy Guild, Forest Guild, and Fiber-Arts Guild. Fairy Guild has been learning all about the inner workings of the lives of fairies in our Vermont forests, searching for traces of their mischief, as well as being hard at work creating their very own fairy homes. The Forest Guild has been doing a variety of activities, including journaling and drawing in sit-spots and then transforming those works into a hand-made collaged nature catalog. This group recently got in touch with their wild selves, going full camouflage (strategically covering themselves in dirt, mud, ash and leaves) and using their fox-walking skills to sneak up on the other Guilds. Our Fiber-Arts Guild carved and personalized their very own knitting needles and have begun work on knitting and crocheting squares to make a camp quilt.  

As I am writing to you now, our campers are out on the FIRST EVER backpacking trips to be sent out of RSG – what a momentous occasion deserving of celebration! I can’t wait to hear all about their adventures when they return and pass their stories along to you.  

That’s all the updates for this week. Until next time,  

Molly 

Hello!

There’s something quite marvelous about living in our world without time here at Red Spruce Grove – 

or as we’ve begun to refer to it: “The Land After Time.” It’s hard to believe we’ve only spent a matter of days together. It feels like such a gift that we get three whole weeks as a community in this magical space. We began our time here by acknowledging the land we are on and all that it provides to us, as well as remembering that we are but guests in this space. We’ve gotten to experience a wide array of Vermont summer weather already, with some hot and sunny afternoons, chilly evenings, and we welcomed our first thunderstorm last night.  

Over the past few days, campers and staff alike have begun to settle into the rhythm of life at the Grove. Everyone has nested in their sibley tents – their temporary homes – Black Bear, Wild Iris, and Mourning Dove. We’ve dedicated time around the evening fire to get into meaningful discussions about our norms and values as a team, and together we created a values contract about how we can be inclusive, solve conflict and about the many things we want to bring into our space (joy, happiness, peace, wildness, patience, honesty, humility, weirdness, the list goes on...), and everyone had something meaningful to contribute. 

Campers have also begun to learn the physical skills that make up our daily life here at our little homestead. They’ve practiced using axes, loppers, bow saws, and knives. They’ve been washing dishes, cleaning kybos and showers, feeding chickens and hunting for eggs, caring for our rabbit “Thunder” (who looks like a fluffy thunder-head cloud), gathering and processing wood for our fires. 

They’ve also been taking time to sit quietly in nature and observe the world around them, practicing being present and aware. They’ve been exploring, singing, embroidering and mending, hammocking, reading, birdwatching, storytelling, zeening (making stories/pictures/books from old magazines), teaching/sharing/learning/playing many games (especially pebble cup), and there may have even been a tarp slip-and-slide created.  

Our next adventure will be diving into fire-making!

It’s such a joy to be here at camp, to step away from the stresses and anxieties of the outside world, to do away with the urgency of time and instead allow our bodies to tap into the cycles and rhythms of the world around us. There will certainly be challenges ahead, and I am excited to see how our team grows through the process, builds resiliency, and works together to get through whatever may arise. It’s only been three days, but I already have so much confidence in our little community, fully believing that we will make it to the other side of any challenge that comes our way.  

Until next week,  

Molly