We began our day by twisting up a big jute rope and of course immediately started playing tug of war, trying to lasso each other and testing its strength. Then we played Palm Tag and Bobcat Dodgeball to get our blood pumping and warm up.
Yesterday we focused on two important aspects of survival: fire and water. Today we rounded out our skill set with shelter and food. In our morning block, we hiked up the hill to what one camper referred to as the “shelter learning village.” We explored some existing shelters of various types and some old collapsed or re-purposed ones as well. Then the instructors alerted us to a huge (fictional) blizzard on its way within the hour! We had to work quickly and hard to make a shelter large enough to protect all 20 of us from the coming storm.
We split into two groups to start. One group gathered huge poles for our structure and evergreen boughs for warmth and cover. The other group ran off to claim the huge tulip bark shingles from another fort a little ways away. Before too long, a sizable structure was forming and the kids were scurrying around like worker ants, hauling shingles and logs larger than themselves, working together to move pieces that were too heavy, and laughing and playing all the while. We all had to run for cover in our new shelter as the “storm” descended.
With our shelter finished, we headed back to basecamp for lunch and then crafts. The group whipped up a beautiful fire in just a few minutes and then sat down to eat. Our food portion of the day was a fun little dessert called banana boats. We scooped out the center of bananas and replaced it with chocolate chips. They went right in the coals to cook in their own peels.
While we waited for the bananas, some kids got a refresher or new lesson on knife safety while some of the veterans helped prepare a craft—carving maple taps out of sumac. If your child brought home a tap, I highly recommend trying to find a sugar maple to tap and get some delicious sap. We finished off the day with some games in the field! Happy vacation!