Inspired by prompt number five over at Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop: “What summer means to your family.”  I do have to say, I consider myself very lucy because I have a job where I get the summers off, so I can actually do things in the summer.

If you actually follow my blog you probably can see that I spend a lot of time (especially lately) talking about summer camp.  Camp is what I do for the summer and what I have done for the summer since 1994 (overnight camp that is).  I missed three summers at camp due to college and work, but other than that I have been a camper or staff regularly.  I also did day-camp pre ’94, but I seem to not usually count that in my camp experience, though it was a fun time and I do remember bits and pieces of it.

When I talk about camp, I really do think of the camp community as family.  In fact, there were a couple times when I almost used the words “camp family” in the first paragraph of this post.  Thankfully, my real family saw the wonderful things that camp had to offer and decided to send me to camp.  I suppose I should also be thankful that I also enjoyed being at camp.  There are very few things that I would rather be doing during the summer than being at camp.

I have been to three different overnight camps, one as a camper from 1994-2001 and two as staff.  The camp that I currently work for is actually two camps, a boys and a girls camp called Indian and Forest Acres (respectively).  Since the first day that I set foot on the campus at IA and FA I have felt welcome and at home.  The people here really are like my extended family or my summer family.  It is so amazing how that happens, to walk in to a new place and to feel accepted and welcomed in like family is just unbelievable, and that is one of the most special things about these camps.  There are people here who I know that I could call on when I need something at any time of the year.  These are people who I see for only two months out of the year but they mean a great deal to me.

So, when I think about what summer means to my family, it is really a twofold question.  To my biological family it is usually a time to relax, take some time off from work, watch the dogs play, and spend time together.  We spend time at our home in New Hampshire and go hiking and such and we also often spend time at my uncle’s home on Martha’s Vineyard.  It is a time to go to baseball games with my grandparents who have been taking us grandkids since we were old enough to walk.  Going to the Red Sox games is always an experience with my grandparents and it is a lot of fun.  It is something I look forward to every summer.

To my camp family, summer is life.  We like to say that we spend ten months of the year looking forward to the two that we live together.  As soon as you step foot back on camp you feel like you never left, and even the campers who are new get welcomed with hugs and open arms.  The summer for this family is a time of learning, growing, bonding, and fun.  Amazing lifetime friendships are kindled and every summer, without fail, every camper and staff member discovers something new about himself/herself and his/her friends.  In some ways I feel like camp is really the time and place that you can really be who you are and who you want to be.  Staff and campers here do things that they would never do in front of or with their friends at home.

Summer is a time to be free, to run around and play.  It is a great time of year to explore both the world around us and ourselves, and I hope that it will always be something that I can really take advantage of!

So there is this really cool thing that I discovered thanks to Island Gal over at NYC Island Gal and that is a German organization that is working on neutralizing the carbon footprint of the blogsphere.  This is a pretty interesting concept, and the fact that it is free makes it even better.  Sure, many hosting services off the option to host your site on “green” servers, but usually you end up paying a premium for that service, and in the end, shouldn’t being green be something we just do and not have to pay for?

I can’t really tell you what else this company in Germany does on account of the fact that their entire website is in German.  I am not really sure how to even get to the english part of the site that talks about the project other than via the links that I have seen.  As soon as I started clicking around the site I was back in German.  I suppose then this would lead many to wonder if they are even legit in what they are doing.  I can’t speak to that, but as the program is FREE, then we, the end users, don’t have anything to lose other than one blog post.

So here is what these guys are doing:  First, you write a post about them (like this one), then you send them an email, and they will then plant a tree for your blog in a forest in California.  They also would like you to display a badge on your blog, which is fine with me.  Why does this work?  Well, according to them, the average blog produces around 8 pounds of carbon every year.  The average tree scrubs about 11 pounds of carbon each year from the atmosphere.  So by planting one tree for every participating blog, you actually neutralize more carbon than the blog produces.

Why do blogs produce carbon?  Well, you have to consider that no matter where your blog resides, be it on blogger or wordpress.com or on your own server or hosting account, that machine uses a lot of energy to host your blog.  Most of us are not on dedicated servers, even those of us who are self hosted are usually on a communal server in a server farm somewhere.  So, not only is the server itself using energy, but it takes a lot of energy to maintain the servers and keep them cool and functioning.  This all contributes to the carbon footprint of your blog.  I suppose you also have to consider the energy used by your own computer when you write posts as well!

If you want to read more and see the quoted research that all this information is based on, you can fid it here.  I didn’t think that I needed to take up too much space quoting them.  As I said before, they sound pretty legit about the whole program, and any little thing we can do to make an impact in helping out our home seems like a worthwhile cause to explore.  So, if you are interested in joining the cause or finding out more information, here is a link to the organization.

Just a few easy steps to make it green:

1. Write a blog post about the initiative + insert your favorite button
2. E-mail the link to your post to CO2-neutral@kaufda.de
3. They’ll plant a tree for your blog in Plumas’!

Well, I caught my first moose tonight.  By “caught” I mean captured with my camera.  I think that I have seen this guy before.  I think that he (I am not actually sure it is a he) kind of hangs out in this particular area; maybe just to pose for the people driving down the road.  It is almost inevitable though, that when you see a whole bunch of cars stopped on the road that there is a moose to bee seen!

A moose just off the road on Rt. 302 in NH between the Mount Washington Hotel and Crawford Notch

This moose was not our first wildlife sighting of the day though.  Being that it was our staff-week day off, I took Ruth over to Franconia to see our house there, meet my sister, and just have a relaxing day.  We did a little bit of laundry as well, but that was not the goal of the day.  After a relaxing day and dinner at home we loaded up the truck to head back to camp and that is when the fun began.  Our first sighting was wild turkey just hanging out on the road.  This is not too uncommon, but it is still pretty cool.

As we were driving out Rt. 114 towards Rt. 3 I was telling Ruth that we used to have a bear that like to hang around there and sometimes visit the area around the house.  As if on cue, we came around a corner and there was the bear, almost in the middle of the road.  It was pretty impressive timing.  Our approach probably scared him a little as I wasn’t really expecting to see him so I had to slow down pretty quickly.  At that point we didn’t have any cameras ready so we didn’t get a picture.  Some animals I will chase to grab a photo, but I don’t think that going after the bear as he headed off to the woods would be a good idea.

As I mentioned earlier, our next sighting was on Rt. 302 right around milepost 42.  This is between the Mount Washington Hotel and the AMC building at the top of Crawford Notch.  We saw people pulled over and pulling off the road, so I was pretty sure that there was a moose there, and of course, there was.  I managed to get a couple good shots of this guy before there were tons of people stopping which was cool.  Moose are really cool, hopefully I will catch a few more before the summer is out!

After we dropped through Crawford Notch, Ruth caught the last sighting of the day.  She spotted a bear with cubs off the road.  I didn’t get to see them because I was driving, and, as I mentioned, I am not one to be chasing down bears, especially ones with cubs!  So, I would say we are off to a pretty good start in terms of animal spotting.

Other than that, we are getting close to opening camp.  We start having kids show up tomorrow and the big arrival day is Thursday.  On Thursday I am doing a tour of New England to pick up kids, and adventure that will be starting at 5AM and going until all the kids get safely to camp.  That should be a real adventure.  That will be when all the fun begins though, I am looking forward to it.  Camp will be a lot of fun when the kids get here.

For now it is time to rack up some extra sleep before the driving and the craziness that always ensues on arrival day.

Why is it that sometimes you think that you have a great idea, a thought for a post that couldn’t be better, but when you sit down to try to put the words on the page, it just doesn’t feel the same?  I know that everyone feels that sometimes.  I wouldn’t so much call it writer’s block as much as it is just the possible lack of flesh on the original concept.  I don’t even actually remember what it was that I had thought was such a good idea to write about, but as soon as I opened the page to start writing it just didn’t seem as worthwhile anymore.

Sometimes there are ideas that really just flow from the brain through the fingers and onto the page.  Other times they seem to need a little coaxing.  Every now and then they don’t really want to come at all.  It is strange though, that many of the times that words just flow is when you least intend for that to happen.  It is like getting in the zone, you have to see where things take you.

Inspiration can certainly come in many forms and at any time.  I am sure that when I take the time to actually put pen to paper this summer and write some real letters to people, words will come.  I do think though, that there is something magical about real mail that you don’t get from email, IM’s or blogs.  I also think that there is something about the physicality of actually writing (which I think is becoming a dying art) that makes it very conducive for creative juices to get going.

I suppose the other thing that I could take into account is the fact that I am up way past my bedtime and the past days have been very long.  The days will only get longer though as the summer progresses.  It seems that all the good ideas come lat at night though.  Not the best combination of events when you spend a summer at camp.  Could be a lot worse though.  When you think about it, how many people do you know who will write something about not writing something and actually make it a post you can ponder?

In the end, what does it boil down to?  Could be a post on nothing….

Summer in Maine (or anywhere in northern New England really).  This is the time to look out for moose.  Every summer at camp we have one intrepid staff member who comes to camp with the exclusive mission of seeing as many moose as possible in the eight weeks that we are at camp.  With the number of moose around where the camp is, one would think that this is not a hard thing to do.  In reality, it can be quite the challenge.

Last night was our first night off since staff week began (not that the powers that be really care what I am doing after dinner) so it was the first time that Mike could head out and go moosing.  I am not really sure if “moosing” is actually a real word, my spell-check doesn’t like it, but that seems to be the term that everyone uses when looking for moose.  Mike is also very particular about his moosing trips and goes out almost every night of camp, sometimes with campers and sometimes just with his family or a couple friends.  If other people see moose but not him, that is about the worst.  Las year I had about four or five sightings before he had his first….

One of the favorite spots for moosing is about ten minutes up the road from camp on one of the little Maine back-roads.  The road runs between some marsh-y land and and a river.  Right around dusk and just after dawn are the times to really get out to find some animals so we often leave on moosing excursions after dinner.  Up at this location there is even a little place to sit and look out over the fields than can keep you pretty well hidden.  It is usually an active spot, many people hang around there or show up there looking for moose.

So last night Mike took off with his family and left me back at camp.  I of course got on the phone and managed to swing a pickup to get out on the first night of moosing.  We drove around out there for over an hour without any sightings, and right around sunset I decided to make some art and shoot some barn and sunset photos.  After a couple more loops around the area, his family was starting to get hungry so we gave up and headed off to town so they could eat (I had eaten at camp).

As we headed towards North Conway we passed the Asst. Director of the camp who was out moosing with some other staff people.  Seconds after passing we got a phone call from him, wanted to know if we had seen any moose.  Well, you already know the answer to that question.  However, by the time we got to the restaurant we got another phone call and they informed us that they had seen three moose right where we were.  One right in the middle of the road where I had been shooting sunsets!  Twenty minutes!  I guess you can’t win ‘em all.

With that, the game is now on for the most moose sightings this summer and the best moose photos!