Katie was OK with this idea as long as I didn't talk to anyone, ask questions or take too many pictures. I was fortunate enough to have a surgery on the morning of the 10th so I missed the bus 😢 and had to drive myself to camp😎. Nothing like your own music and the open road for 2 hours. Camp was south of Rochester at the Eagle Bluff Enviromental Learning Center. I arrived right before lunch and dropped my gear in the male chaperone's room where 6 of us would be bunking.
The meals at the center were quite good but the center really wants kids to think about consumption and waste. The motto is "take what you eat and eat what you take." St Huberts assigned 2 students at every meal to monitor and compound our food waste. If you have zero you get points for a camp award. St. Huberts hasn't had any food waste for like 5 years or more. No pressure on the Anseth family to keep the streak alive.
In the afternoon, Katie's group explores pond life. In the rain we skimmed the water of the pond to look for various nymphs and water bugs. Then we returned to view them under a microscope. We discussed the roll of diversity and what the loss of sensitive organisms may mean for an ecosystem.
Katie comtemplating if this ecosystem is balanced.
"I see a water bug" or is that a piece of mud."
Katie was mortified when the enviromentalist running our session asked the parents a question and I answered it. Her quote was something like "Why did you have to sound so smart when you answered that question."
We enjoyed a dinner with no food waste. The Anseth family was stuck on KP duty after dinner so Katie, her friends, Kirk and myself had to do all the dishes. To be honest we killed it. No one over the next 2 days did it as well or as fast.
After dinner we enjoyed a program by one of the naturalist on coyotes. I thought it would be pretty short. Go ahead and shoot em, but It was more detailed and encouraged us to consider their position in the ecosystem and discussed the history of the coyotes and importance in the Native American culture.
So if you are reading this and you're one of my friends from MT or ND, go ahead and think about that and then probably still shoot em.
Amara and Olivia dominating at Kubb
#girlsrulerandomscandinavianyardgames
Olivia finishing the boys off.
After that it was night hike time or night game. Being viewed as somewhat shaky on the supervision side I was stuck with night games which didn't require much effort so that was good. After that it was time for a quick prayer and bed.
Friday morning was bird watching. Pretty tough to see many birds with Katie and her crew. Nobody would accuse those girls of sneaking up on anybody. We looked for birds at the feeders, on the prairie, in the woods, at the bluff and at chickadee city.
Birds at the feeder. Apparently these birds are not terrified of loud noises.
Everyone was looking at this one bird
On the bluff overlook. Spotting turkey vultures and eagles.
Elise and Katie with some chickadee fees on their heads. They were almost quite enough to have the birds come and eat.
Lunch was great and no food waste. In the afternoon we took on the high ropes course. No need for helmets, they are good catholic kids so The Holy Spirit is their helmet.
Safety briefing with Sara
Nellie!!!!!!
Elise zipping
Katie gave my chaperoning 2 thumbs up
Katie hold on hold on
Megan, why are you scared of this zip line? Remember you went to the state fair with Katie Anseth and her dad (Who is awesome)
Scottie finishing off the zip. What is the tensile strength of this cable?
After zip lining, it was dinner and a program on raptors by our enviromentalist host. That night the groups switched and some went night hiking while others did night games. Again, since my ability to supervise the youth is questionable, I worked the night games.
After night games we had a bonfire and snacks. I love snacks.
This night game was called Nuke em. It had no discernible rules. It did seem to involve Katie yelling a lot.
The campfire and the crew
Katie and her friends breaking it down after a day of action.
One of the boys tried to tell a scary story. It kept getting a little gorier. Finally, he said "and then they saw the mom in a body bag!!!!" At that point Mr. Ehalt jumped up and was like "OK that is enough, how about some jokes or funny stories." After the campfire, it was a prayer and bed. It was a pretty great day to spend with your daughter and her friends.
Friday morning we finished breakfast with no food waste. Yeah St. Huberts, Yeah Katie and Scott for keeping the streak alive. After breakfast we did geocaching. This involves running around camp with GPS units finding lock boxes to solve a puzzle. It was an open channel. Thank goodness nobody dropped any curse words over the channel.
Yeah we found this tree with our GPS systems and it had a letter in it. I think Katie sabotaged my unit because the battery went dead right before the real contest started.
That is a wrap St Huberts. No food waste and you picked up your rooms.. is it possible Ashley didn't go to this somehow.??
Great fun and great weather with this beast. Now let's get back home so we can use our cell phones.
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