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The Great Camp

As it is that time of year where we consider the blessings that surround us, I submit this story written to commemorate The Great Camp. I usually send it in an email yearly to those who are familiar with the story's origins, but I thought this year I'd put it where others could read it too.

The Great Camp
A Legend Only in Vermont

In the time before the world as we now know it began, there was another world. This world started long ago with a great explosion of feathers.

You may well ask "feathers?, Are you sure?," but it is so, as surely as the great duck once lived in Vermont. It is written in the landscape, it comes forth still from the great cornucopia, and is evident in the composition of the great camp, formed long long after the great explosion.

This is the story of the Great Camp and how it was created during the events of that strange and wonderful time before there were any wristwatches.

After the Great Explosion of feathers, all things began to form from the settling and resettling of the feathers. After many less successful combinations had come and gone, there came the time when the Great Dear (which in that time was spelled with an A) and the Great Duck came to be. They lived together in Vermont in harmony and peace and shared the land that was different in appearance then, because the Great Camp and all of the Great Buildings and trees around it, weren't yet there. Still, how wonderful their coexistence was, for together, they watched as the rain of feathers from the sky continued to fall and change the land and the forms around them.

One day there came The Great Stillness and quiet. As the Dear and the Duck watched and listened, it became clear to them that the rain of feathers had stopped. It was a stillness that roared. This was especially disquieting to the Great Dear who had little memory of the past and no knowledge of the future unlike the Great Duck who had memory of past and future, but no present. Therefore, the Dear did not know that the roar portended a wondrous event. The very fear that engulfed them actually enabled the event to happen.

At that time, the Great Dear were amphibious creatures that enjoyed the Great Pond as much as the Great Duck. The Great Dear gathered together on the pond and chose amongst themselves a leader, that would go from the Great Pond and make an offering to the sky to make the roar of silence stop, in hopes of restoring calm to the Dears’ universe. They decided that an antler from the leader should be brought to rest between the place that the Dear lived and the place where the Great Duck lived to express a symbol of their wish for peace and quiet, for the Dear had not the wisdom of the future to come, and supposed that the Great Duck had the power to control the silence that roared.



The Great Dear Leader sped to the place where the antler would rest, but because he had so very little memory about the past, he forgot what he was doing and in the excitement of the moment, fumbled and crashed the antler to the ground, sending splinters flying to a field less than a mile away. The Great silence continued and the Dear feared all the more the roar of silence, for in not knowing much of the past or any future, they knew mostly the fear they felt presently. They flocked together on the pond and dove down to the bottom, where their great antlers began to grow and take root in the great pond. As they were large Dear (hence the name Great), their bodies were not completely covered by the great pond, and their tails stuck out of the water, and many a legend tells in vivid detail designed to put children and adults asleep - the story of the Great Dear's tails becoming the white birch we know now.

Meanwhile, a piece of the great antler that broke off and landed less than a mile away began to quiet the roar with sounds. From the tip of it started flowing strange and wonderful things. These things began to form other things, and before the Dear could know the silence, a different kind of peace had returned to the land.

The Great Duck saw all this, and knew now that the Great Cornucopia had landed and was changing the world much as the rain of feathers had done, except that now, the Dear could not see or hear the changes, since they too like the rain of feathers had become one with the land. The Great Duck knew all future and past and began to contemplate them, for now that the cornucopia had landed, things would be different.

The Great Duck watched patiently (for there was no time for impatience then) as the pond dried up. She saw the Great Cornucopia continue to pour forth great multitudes of pumpkins, water in bottles, mixes of all varieties, apples, and potatoes, maple sugar candy, canned fried potato sticks, chocolate semi-sweet chips, canoes, and water, and oars too, garlic, diapers, Toyotas, high paying jobs, tiny things of all kinds, beautiful but curious pillows that could not be used, free medical care, toothpicks, a different spelling for the word Dear, and more!

The Great Duck watched this and smiled. She thought about the future, and the past and how the land had changed, and she watched the tails of the Great Dear grow to become beautiful white birch trees. She thought about the buildings that would one day occupy the spot where she watched. She thought about the pump house near the pond that would one day fill with water again, and flow through the pump house to feed the great camp's water needs. She thought about the two neatly hung wrenches that would someday hang in the pump house and the gallon of water in the plastic container meant to prime the pump, and then - or maybe a little before then she grew weary indeed. She had just barely enough time to think about the fact that the Title GreatCamp.doc has too many letters and had to be shortened to Greatcam.wps to be acceptable to the wordprocessor available at the time in the future when this story was recorded (but a tiny miracle for another story). For now, the Great Duck was weary beyond measure, and knew that it was her time to take part in changing as well.


As she lay resting she noticed that her body was beginning to take on another form. She was aware from her knowledge of the future that this would be so, and she smiled and was not alarmed, especially since the Great Cornucopia had not as yet poured forth any wristwatches, much less alarms of any kind. She knew that her body was changing into the Great Camp itself. She felt her skin harden and thicken, and form into walls and a roof. Her eyes multiplied and spread out to form well-placed and easy to clean windows. Her feathers dropped from her and were drawn inside to make splendid camp beds and marvelous pillows, although some of them could not be used because of a need to sacrifice things of beauty to the Gods of Useless Beauty’s happiness. From her bones formed exquisite furniture and dazzling utensils for every taste. Her internal organs turned out and formed a refrigerator, range, and wood burning stove. Her Great webbed feet separated and formed the guest house and sauna hut, with its very own wood stove. Her teeth (in that time Great Ducks had great teeth) collected to provide a lustrous commode in both the kitchen and toiletry areas. All these things came to be in their proper times, and they were good. In time there would be creatures that would marvel at the bounty of the Camp and not know of whence they came. These creatures would need to create their own stories to explain from where the riches they harvested would come.

But, be that what it may,
let it not be forgot
that once there was a time when,
The Great Camp it was not.
The End.

Yes, But It Had To Be Done!

On my way home from work today I stopped at the Blue Seal Feed and Needs store to get a pet clipper for Lola. Her fur had gotten quite matted underneath and she was getting hotspots way down deep in her felted fur. I have been unable to keep up with the brushing since she doesn't tolerate it.....who could blame her? She was surprisingly tolerant of the clipping....after a few minutes of wrestling. All five and one half pounds of Pahket would have shredded me and yet all I got from Lola was a pleading look.....There's more to do, but I thought I'd give us all (including the clipper) a break. The fur filled up a plastic grocery bag, and there's still more to go...I'd love a scarf made of it.

Muca had to check out the debris. I bet she's glad she has short fur. The rest of the job may require 2 people or tranquilizers or both. She won't really like having her hindquarters shaved (just guessing). I got some of the larger mats off her tummy, but there too it will need more work. The tail isn't matted so I'll try to work around that.

Just for being so good I gave her a delicious treat. I think she ate it all by herself and if she gets sick it won't mess up her fur too bad. I wonder if she'll be cold or hot tonight?

Oh No! Not Again!

Why, why why? Once again a nasty wasp had it's way with me. This time I was trying to mow the lawn, and apparently disturbed one.....
After going right inside and taking Benedryl and putting ice on it I waited a few minutes to see if anything else was going to happen.....soon enough I started to get itchy and red all over (and
not in a good way) and decided to go visit the local emergency room where I got some Epinephrine and other stuff to lessen the itchiness and swelling. They also gave me a prescription in case of future attacks.

It was a pretty itchy and sleep deprived night. I spent most of today alternately soaking the foot/keeping it up and watching golf. Tomorrow I guess I'll go visit my Dr. to get something so that I may wear shoes again sometime soon. Right now, only the slipper fits. Did I say I don't like this very much? I meant to.

Just Doing My Part

For many years now I've admired the dedication and devotion that S.P.A.W (Society for the Preservation of Artificial Wildlife) has exhibited - specifically at Exit 19 off of Rt. 93. I've long wanted to contribute to their efforts in my own small way, but always had the steadfast belief that artificial wildlife should always be either given to you as a gift, or stolen from another's lawn....In fact I had been admiring a beautifully cast cement Flamingo that one of my neighbors have, but I feared they would perhaps not share my conviction or see the humor in finding it relocated to my yard.

This morning as I approached my desk at work I spotted the package there addressed to me.....What's this? I haven't ordered anything....? No, I hadn't indeed.....it was a gift!

You may well imagine my joy and amusement at finding these two fine fellows carefully packaged and safely delivered by the USPS.

So now....I have a start (Thank you Chris Daley!) and am looking forward to many happy years with these and any others that may find their happiness in my gardens.

Really Bad Minton

Hannah came down for her father's 50th birthday party this weekend and the birthday festivities went happily without a hitch, except for me - during a semi-serious game of Badminton I managed to injure my shoulder all while giving the opposing team critical points. It's a little hard to pick up a coffee cup.....but I managed that ever critical task too....

Yesterday morning, her friend Eric came down to pick her up at my house. So, while I was benched they were able to start a new Badminton game in the street before I made them come back in the yard. They put up a pioneer style net and played there after.

During the photodocumentation process I noticed that my Blackberry has a Sepia photo mode, so some of the rest of the pictures of the weekend show how food was prepared in the pioneer days. Back then you had to make neutral faces, or frown so as not to get too tired during the very long exposure, so I asked both of them to do just that. They both look remarkably angry with me.....no?

Hannah was very pleased that the Foxglove and Peonies bloomed this year. She also braved some weeding....very brave in that there was a rather large blackberry (not the phone) that was taking over one side of the walkway. Luckily she had her welding gloves in the car and yanked it up without injury to herself or others, but determined sadly - the gloves were nearly useless when playing frisby. Who knew? Another entry in the annals of scientific discovery.

Hannah glove-testing

A Garden Shot

A Gloved Porch Shot

Triple Exposure

I didn't find any leeks....but I found a flowerbox. Lola likes it too.

Outside & Inside