Camp Tales - For the Love of the Spiders

Most of my rules and daily life at camp involved creativity, creation, and the safety of those who spent time in my Craft Hall. I encouraged my campers to create and assured them in their creativity was one of their greatest gifts. But there was another lesson I was trying to constantly instill in my young charges - to constantly respect the natural world around us and the creatures that made this place their home during the months we were there and the months we were not. Protecting the spiders and the webs in the corners of my raft Hall was nearly a constant battle. Somehow any of these kids saw the spider webs in the high corners of the pavilion that sered as a Craft Hall as a threat that needed someone clean out. Perhaps it was the hippy in me, but the one rule that I had to constantly remind both campers and counselors was to respect my spiders. I reminded them that during the months that we were not there, the critters were the only ones who called this places home. I reminded them that the critters called this place home year round and not a week at a time, like they did. I reminded them that the spiders had an important job to catch other bugs and mosquito's, the very ones they often complained about biting them. I reminded them constantly, that the spiders were my friends and did not like my friends being injured or their work undone. Somehow, my spiders were generally left alone and I hope that a few kids gained a new light about the world around them.

For the love of my spiders... leave them in peace.

Camp Tales - The Freezer

The first summer I was at camp, I started the summer off with cleaning, organizing, sorting and taking a general account of supplies. (This would become typical for the beginning of these summers at camp.) I had become begrudgedly accustomed to finding the the occasional dead furry thing amongst the boxes of yarn, fabric, popsicle sticks, old magazines, markers, beads, thread, & so on. (I had an agreement with the Head Naturalist/Environmental Ed Director that as long as I didn't freak out over the dead things or the live ones I came across, he would make one of the naturalists remove the dead animal from my space.) It was common to come across where animals had sought refuge bedding and food especially during the old months when the raft Hall was closed up. I had entire cardboard box of twine that had been so destroyed from wintering mice, that I ended up heaving into the dumpster.

As I cleaned that first summer, I found any things from summer's past as I sorted through through boxes crates, spider webs, and dirt. As I moved boxes I was prepared for things that moved, slithered, and crawled. Beneath a pile of boxes I found an old freezer. It was a smallish chest freezer, still decorated with ice cream stickers from when it had lived once in the camp store. It was not uncommon to use old freezers for storage against ravaging critters and I wondered if it still worked or if it was full of more craft supplies. I opened the lid slowly, not sure what I would find, but not prepared for what I did find. Eyes stared up at me, but not the living kind. I slammed the lid tightly, before slowly opening it again. It was a working freezer full of carefully wrapped dead birds and tiny mice and baby bunnies mostly in clear plastic. For a moment it felt like something from a horror film and I was suddenly recalling how any such films took place at a summer camp deep in the woods. I didn't scream. I didn't yell I didn't run. I quietly closed the lid and left it be until I could figure out what the heck was going on with a freezer of dead animal in my Craft Hall.

I found out later about the freezer and like with any things there was a reasonable explanation. Our camp had a full Nature enter full of stuffed animals that had died of natural causes. Some of the birds and creatures were ones that they were waiting to be taken to the taxidermy when funds were made available. We were also a Bird of Prey Rescue and the frozen mice and baby bunnies were ones that were used to be to be cut up and fed to injured birds in need of food. (It made me very glad not to be one of the Naturalists that this task often fell to.) It all made sense when explained, but looking back the explanation would have been nice to come BEFORE I opened a freezer of dead animals looking up at me.

Camp Tales - The Spider

Nature is a part of working and living at a summer camp. It is part of the challenge, the perks, the overall experience. Most of it is good, occasionally we run across things that are not so good - like when the bridge connecting the two side of camp is flooded (again), bug bites, poison ivy (not me, but others), bad cell phone service (and climbing a hill to get it), camp food (even from good kitchens staff gets sick of the constant repeats), shared living space (everyone gets pushed sometimes), and bathroom situations (at Girl Scout camp we used latrines). I expected mice. I expected snakes and bugs... I actually like a lot of them, defending & protecting the spider webs in my Craft Hall corners, but spending my days in a Craft Hall one does not expect to run across some of the same things a Naturalist might. I was a bit wrong.

At one camp my Craft Hall was located near the Camp Office, staff quarters, a recycling shed, and down a little hill from the kitchen at the back end of the dining hall. It was a good location, convenient, but much of my own space. I liked having the Recycling Shed nearby for retrieval or disposal of things like cardboard. One quiet afternoon I had been cleaning and organizing (a constant battle in that world) and headed the short walk to the shed, a piece of cardboard in hand. As I opened the sliding metal door, I felt something fall down the side of my face, inside of my glasses, and down. I thought perhaps it was a dust ball or something, but as I looked down to my arm, I was not expecting to see a large brown spider. (About an inch to inch-and-a-half in diameter of legs.) I knew what it was, having had a Naturalist show me a large, battle scarred brown recluse that was living in a woodpile not long before. With the brown recluse resting on the edge of my three quarter sleeve, I look around me. No one was in sight and it was doubtful if anyone would hear me call out without having to yell and even then not necessarily right away. With a piece of cardboard in hand, I made a decision and with one swift movement of the cardboard I sent the spider flying and away from me. I like spiders and had no desire to kill the thing, but I did not want it on me or biting me. It just goes to show you, that even the Craft Instructor can face down the BIG bugs that can hurt you while keeping one's cool and without needing rescued. (Although, I happily took the help when it came to removing the occasional dead mouse or squirrel found among my storage shelves.)

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