Jeff Goes Idyllwild!

I apologize for not posting last week. It was a pretty quiet week, but not without a Funny Kid Moment (of course!). I was double-checking harnesses for the rock wall when a young man decided that, rather than stand still, he would perform the Truffle Shuffle for me.

Anyhooo...After two months of hearing about all my fun, Jeff decided to try out Astrocamp for himself. It was so nice to have him here for a visit, and he really enjoyed the Idyllwild experience. I treated him to a "Best of Astrocamp" tour, including building rockets (his was one of the best I've seen), playing with the Tesla coil, jamming on the Theremin, posing in front of the phosphorescent wall, taking a night hike, and checking out the night sky with our awesome telescopes.

Thursday morning was beautiful, so we went for a hike up the May Valley trail.


Here he is taking on the toughest route of the rock wall, the "creepy faces" wall. The handholds are all shaped like weird faces instead of rocks. He did better than the average 7th grader before the faces got the best of him.

Monday's forecast called for snow, and we weren't disappointed. Here are a couple of the neighbors traipsing through the snow in front of Turner Cottage, the Astrocamp guest house.

I think the rental car is under there somewhere. It's hard to tell....

Despite the snow, he did make it safely off the mountain and back to "civilization" this morning. It's hard to believe his visit is over...time definitely flies when you're having fun!

I'm dreaming of a white....Valentine's Day

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day. We celebrated during Stitch 'n' Bitch with wine and good company. We had a little tease of snow (not unlike what we'd get in Portland) yesterday, but today has been serious business. My footprints from lunch were already covered a couple hours later when I came down to the library to post this!

Good morning, Moon. This was on the trail between camp and the house. One thing I can say about this job is that the commute sure beats Portland traffic.

There is something incredibly satisfying about knowing there are 300+ other people at camp (most of them kids) and still managing to be the first person across a snow-covered Bridge of Doom.

While working at the power pole yesterday afternoon, the clouds broke and Tahquitz Peak finally showed itself. It was the power pole that gives us this week's Kid Moment of the Week. A young man, we'll call him Charlie, climbed to the top of the pole, but then wasn't entirely sure of standing up and decided that sitting on the top was good enough. As his classmates were cheering for him to stand up, he shouted, "I'm not standing up, you a$$holes, so just shut up!" I looked at the other instructor, and it was all we could do to keep from busting out laughing.

Snow and lichen on a Live Oak.

A Coulter pine cone in the snow....it's a sno-cone, right?! (FYI, that pine cone is about 10" long, and it's small for a Coulter!)

More Coulter pine needles....

The snow's been fun, because it's been easy to see all the critter footprints around the house and tell what kind of "neighbors" we have. Coyotes, bunnies and deer all hang out along our trail. I wonder what kind of weird creature left this size nine....

A frosty Coulter....this is for you, Jeff! :)

Whatever the weather brings you this week, stay warm and give everyone a hug from me! I think there's a snowman out there that might need building.....

If you don't like the weather...

What a crazy week for weather! It's hard to believe that Friday morning I was leading a hike in just a tee shirt (and roasting!), yesterday I launched rockets in a dusting of snow, and right now I am literally in a cloud. The forecast is calling for more snow this week...all I can think is that the zipline must be really interesting in a blizzard!

Over the weekend, I got to team-teach 5th graders with my buddy Christina. We had a great time working together with our terrific kids (dubbed Team Phoenix and the Lightening Wolves). The kids must've enjoyed it too, because they got us each a tee shirt at the camp store!

I've never considered myself a trend-setter, but my owl hat has created quite the buzz around camp. I've had several people ask me to either show them how to make an owl or polar bear or (insert critter here), or to just make it for them! Good thing Stitch'n'Bitch is coming up, right?! Unfortunately, there is a distinct lack of yarn & craft shops in Idyllwild, so we'll have to make a run off the mountain for supplies.

Tonight I'm looking forward to the first gathering of our a capella ensemble. Right now we don't have any plans other than singing our hearts out with others who love to sing their hearts out.

Speaking of hearts, I wish you all a lovely Valentine's Day!
XOXOXO

Gettin' Crafty

Other than First Aid training, it's been a pretty quiet week here at Astrocamp. My most exciting news is that my new niece Harper Grace Groskopf was born Friday morning! Welcome to the world, Cutie-pie!

As I don't have any other exciting pictures to share, I figured I'd show off some of my craft projects. Since the institution of Tuesday Stitch 'n' Bitch, I've knit two hats and made a few necklaces. Hat #1 is a chunky, jewel-tone ribbed number, and has been dubbed "The Jellyfish" aaaand I just realized that I don't have any pictures of it....but basically it looks like a turquoise and green jelly. (shocking, right?!)

As for Hat #2...when working with children, you're always encouraged to bring things down to their level, to make stuff relevant to them. Well, nearly all the kids that come to Astrocamp have funny critter hats, so guess what? I figured I needed one, too. Hoo says kids get to have all the fun? (sorry for the bad joke, I just couldn't help myself.)

The first necklace I finished was a natural garnet crystal pendant for Grandma HofMann's birthday. One of my roommates went rock hunting last week and actually found a few natural garnetls, so I might be making more like this!

Necklace #2 is also for Grandma. It's a double strand of pearls accented with copper and handmade Kazuri beads from Africa.

Necklace #3 is for Mom. Pale lavender pearls, Czech glass and sterling, with a lampwork pendant. I hope you like it, Mom! It's in the box I mailed today! :)
That's all the "news" for now. Have a great week!