Farm Camp!

I just found these photos on a disc. I had thought them lost. This was the crew at Farm Camp in the summer of 2006. All but two of these kids are headed to college or are already there. One of these boys guest starred (with his dad) in Showtime's Nurse Jackie this season. Two others are in a band that has been playing in rather major places lately. And one of these girls, the one on the far right, is planning to own her own food business one of these days. 

They did farm chores in the mornings, planting and tending various organic edible growing things. They also had to clean out the cow stalls, feed and water all the animals, and milk the cows. They cooked and ate what they grew and consumed the milk they collected, the apple cider they pressed, the bread they baked, and poured the maple syrup they tapped from trees on the farm over their morning pancakes.

Rumor had it that they also cleaned up their rooms, but I was never too sure about that. 

In the afternoons, they went to the lake. 

They jumped off the lifeguard post and generally had a ball.

Back at the farmhouse, they experimented with contraband makeup (the girls are 12 here) and put on impromptu plays and performances.

They dried their swim suits and towels on a line strung across the porch. And preened. 

They also built things.

And went camping.

And rocked in hammocks.

And had cosy talks around campfires.

And went to the ballgame.

And painted signs. (There's the kid who grew up to play a green haired teen addict in Nurse Jackie. He did a very fine job.)

And waded in freezing cold rivers when it was getting dark. 

And went bowling.

And played baseball. And laughed.

And fell out exhausted on every bus ride.

And slept in huddles, creating bonds of friendship that would prove when they scattered to different high schools, and now to college, to be loving and generous and sure.