Getting Ready for Girls Camp

I received the call to be the camp director for our ward a few months ago.  With my Young Women calling, and then filling in for the seminary teacher in April and May

I didn't have a lot of time to plan and mentally prepare.

But now I do, and I have come to realize that although I usually

way over prepare,

that's the way I need to do it or I 'll wake up in a panic during the night--"what about ...?"

So, camp is always on my mind.

What food to prepare?

How to make it fun for the girls?

What about all the equipment?

So we've been doing some dry run-throughs.

Yesterday, Alice and Elizabeth set up the new tent to make sure they

knew how to do it--since it will be the tent they are sleeping in.

I bought the tent 2 years ago and we've never had it out of the box.

And, since it was still raining, off and on outside, we swept out the garage

to try it out.

While we had it set up, we sprayed on some water-proofing around

the seams on the inside

(recommended in the instructions).

We are going to stay dry this year!

***

I've also been brushing up on my outdoor cooking skills. 

In the case of the Dutch oven, I'm starting from scratch.

We got the oven a couple of years ago for emergency preparedness,

then hoped we never had to use it.

Well, I'm happy to report that I have now cooked a casserole in it, and it was delicious! 

And NOT burned, like so many dutch oven meals I've tasted.

I used Grandma Bailey's chicken enchilada casserole recipe.

I started the charcoal in the chimney. 

The one shown is a homemade one, but I actually purchased a bigger one.

And it works GREAT!

2 sheets of newspaper wadded up in the bottom.

24 briquettes in the top.

1 match. 

And in 15 minutes the charcoal was all ready to use. 

(NO stinky lighter fluid).

Then I put 9 briquettes underneath and 15 on top

(using the tongs to place them).

I found out from a presentation that the secret is to rotate the

oven a quarter turn every 5 minutes so you don't get a hot spot.

Also turn the lid a quarter turn.

I REALLY wish I'd remembered to take a picture before

we devoured the food.  The taste was superb!

Tonight, we're going to try monkey bread in the dutch oven.

And, we got out the old camp stove

and cooked dinner on it last night.

I'm really determined to not have any

bad surprises at camp this year!

Sunday Morning

The gym floor at the ward is being refinished and the smell was so bad this morning that the rest of the block of meetings was cancelled after sacrament meeting.  People were getting headaches, and some of the more environmentally-sensitive had raspy throats.  The real clincher came when the Primary president was home with sick kids and both counselors are pregnant and the smell made them nauseous.  So there was no one to take care of Primary.  So... we have extra time here at home today.

I'm listening to the gentle rumbles of thunder as it softly rains and love seeing the bright green of a well-watered landscape.  There is nothing greener than Iowa at a time like this!

 And, speaking of landscape,

I'm amazed at how the colors entirely change in

just a couple of weeks.

In May, the mailbox garden was all purple, bright pink and soft yellow.

Now it is almost all yellow.

The wisteria has been beautiful this year. In late fall two years ago, I trimmed it back severely.

Last year it was pretty sparse and I was afraid I had made a mistake.

But this year it is full and lovely again-, and hanging down over the windows

(with Elly practicing her viola in the background).

Now we're back to constantly trimming wandering tendrils as they try to wiggle up under the siding, or they want to hang over so far (and so heavily) that they pull the wire trellis away from the wall.

I guess it gives us something to do (on a day other than Sunday).

How does our garden grow?

Very well!  (This year, at least!)

On May 24:

Today:

It's growing so well that the finches gather, 2 or 3 at a time,

to drop in and snip off baby beet leaves. 

They must be tasty!

And for the first time this year, a deer has gotten across our fence and left deep prints.

It also left several pea plants with empty stems

 where there should have been pods just beginning to fill out. 

Those deer know just when the peas are their most tender and delicious! 

Still, I'm so happy to have real pods this year. 

It helps me realize that the gardening failures of the past two years

really were weather-related, and NOT my fault.

And the tomatoes seem to like the trampoline spot.

Lots of sunshine.

Lots of room.

I put garbage bags around the new plants when I transplanted them, to protect them from the winds.  After a few days, I pushed the plastic down to expose the plants more.

Funny thing.  The plants with the black bags are larger than the others,

even though they all came from the same group of nine plants.

And all of them are larger than the two plants that were left over and were planted by the white fence where there was a spot.