The Weekend Off, Whooooo Hoooooo

Typically I work every weekend because my camp has "cook out" on Saturday and Sunday. This is where my kids stay in campsite and cook all of their own meals over and open-fire grill. This is referred to as an "altar fire." During the previous week, the kids create their own menus, referring to a price guide to calculate the costs of food. They plan for nutritional requirements and make sure that the portions are adequate for the number of people in our group. They must add up the total cost of the menu, and then use their long division skills to calculate the cost per person. Talk about experiential education! They're practicing their math skills, learning organization, planning balanced and hopefully tasty meals, and they get to cook it and eat it in the end. Nice!

We always split up into inside and outside crews. The inside crew is in charge of washing all of the dishes, setting the table, and cooking the meal. The outside crew is doing some sort of work around campsite--chopping wood during the winter, washing a top tarp for their sleep tent, fixing trail rocks, tying lashings, etc. etc.

The last two weekends I have had to work cook out on my own in group. Since the weekend is usually a pretty stressful time, the absence of my co-counselor makes it even more so. Running two crews is not as easy as it may sound--especially when at any moment you have kids throwing rocks, pushing each other, running out of boundaries in the woods, etc. You gotta love 'em though.

All of this to say that my kids went home today on their home visit--a privilege they get every 5 weeks. I am off from Friday afternoon until Tuesday at noon. My list of things to do:

--drink beer
--pay my bills
--watch college basketball
--drink beer
--record some music
--walk around the woods aimlessly in search for meaning
--drink whiskey, then beer
--watch a couple of movies
--catch up on the recent Harper's
--go to a bar to drink beer

Peace my brother and sisters