Swatchless

I am back from camp, and it was very memorable!  The first 24 hours were actually unforgettable, and we spent the rest of our time recovering from them.

Being strong paddlers, my brother and I were asked to go out with the canoeing day trip on Wednesday.  There were 5 canoes, 7 girls, 4 camp staff and us.  The plan was to paddle across the lake, down the channel to a bigger lake, and stop for lunch on a rocky point about a 45 minute paddle away.  Everything went according to plan; we paddled along, spotting herons and cows and lily pads, avoiding the stinky weedy areas.

swimming in PFDs at our lunch site

We got to our lunch site, beached the canoes and after a quick expedition to explore the immediate area, went for a swim in our PFDs before having our sandwiches.  Eating a picnic away from camp was very exciting for the girls.  We had another swim after lunch and then as we were getting ready to leave, we heard a distant rumble of thunder.  Clouds were piling up on the horizon looking anvil shaped and ominous.

ominous clouds

The girls had been wanting to build a fort, so we played “fort”, building a shelter out of canoes that could be used if the storm came our way.  We waited about half an hour, and the storm appeared to be breaking up.  There had been no more thunder, so we took down our fort and set off to paddle back to the camp.

our fort

Of course, the swimming, and paddling and fort excitement had left the girls reluctant to paddle, so the staff were working double time to paddle ourselves back to camp.  We didn’t want to be late for afternoon activities.

Halfway back, we heard a nearby clap of thunder, so we hauled the 5 canoes up on a sloped rock at the edge of a cow field.  There was no rain, so we sat on the rock and played some “I spy”, and watched the cows and horses across the channel.  With lighter sky in the distance, we felt that the storm would be short lived.  The rain came, but the thunder was gone, so we sheltered under a nearby cedar shrub until the thunder came back.  We had distant but continuous thunder and lightning, and we were sitting on our PFDs on the rock, looking at the approaching clear sky and yelling the “one Mississippi” counts between lightning and thunder.

We knew we were in trouble when the cows across the channel took off running at high speed.  The clear distant sky was suddenly gone, and the wind picked up.  My brother and another staff member went off running to the distant farm house to see if we could shelter there, because this storm was more severe than anyone had guessed.  As they ran, the wind started whipping hail at us almost horizontally, and the sky was illuminated with much closer lightning.  With our belongings all gathered, and the canoes hauled up even farther, we huddled with the now cold and very scared little girls until given the go-ahead to head for the farmer’s barn.

Much of the run to the barn is jumbled in my mind.  I remember feeling lightning shocks and tingles up to my shoulder.  Other staff remember the smell of smoldering hay, and the girls dropped their belongings and ran with us, staying as low as possible, to the barn.  We sheltered there for about 45 minutes, waiting out the worst of the storm.  The farmer was very kind and brought out the bunny rabbit that lives in the barn, and his barn kittens which soothed the scared children.  He let us know that we had been very lucky–there was a bull that ran with the cows in his field, but thankfully he didn’t make an appearance.  We used the barn phone once the storm had passed, and got all the kids back to the camp by car so they could get warm and dry and eat dinner.

water in the canoe

The storm was gone as fast as it arrived.  My brother and I returned to the scene of the chaos, dumped the water from the canoes, piled our belongings, paddles, PFDs and remnants of lunch back into the boats, lashed them together and set off for camp under clear skies.  It is exhausting to paddle with children who are tired.  It is even more exhausting to paddle 5 boats tied together.

safe on solid ground!

That was by far the most dangerous situation I’ve ever been in.  It could have been our last.

Sad to say, my camera and watch did not survive the trip, but both are very replaceable.

I know some people get nervous when I don’t write for a few days….so I’m signing out.

I’m going to spend a few days volunteering at Camp Hyanto.  I wrote about how much I love this place a while back, and I try to spend a week each summer giving back to the place that gave me so much.

I’ll be bringing my knitting….but I’m sure I’ll be so busy having fun that not much will get done.  In any case, I will be completely disconnected from technology, and that’s probably a good thing every now and again.

What do you do to disconnect?

What is the most important thing to do when you plan a vacation? Well, after figuring out where to go, who to go with, and where to sleep, my mind started wandering to where I can find good roving and yarn.  (I MAY have a bit of a problem!)

If you are traveling with another knitter or spinner, then you are set!  If you are traveling with non-knitters, you might need to disguise your itinerary a little.  Get your groceries at a farmers market that just so happens to sell wool too.  Go to a farm (that sells fleece and roving) to see the animals sheep and goats.  Find a good restaurant that might be across the street from a yarn store.  All of this takes quite a bit of planning…

Here’s my approach

Step 1:  Check on Ravelry to find local yarn stores near where you are staying.  Search the “people” section for people from the area, and ask them where they get the best quality yarn.

Step 2:  Search for local farms.  I found farmfresh.org to be very helpful.  Search by the product (veggies, honey, roving etc), or search by the town.  Maps and websites and farmers market details are all listed.

Step 3:  Ask on Twitter to see if anyone has recommendations of area farms to visit, markets or sheep and wool festivals to go to, or local yarn stores that are not to be missed.

Step 4:  Put all the locations on a Google map.  It is a great way to keep all the information in one place.  Link to websites, keep track of business hours or market days.  Use streetview where available so you know what the yarn store looks like when you “stumble upon it by chance”.

So far my plans include visiting alpacas on Martha’s Vineyard, pygora goats near Providence Rhode Island, llamas at Journey’s End Ranch in Middleboro MA, and sheep at River Valley Farm in Lennox MA.

If you know of anywhere in the Cape Cod Area that’s worth a visit, let me know.