Hello and welcome to Tollgate Turtle Tells All: A Camp Exposé Part II. In today’s installment, I will be dissecting the second day of Animal Camp, which was a very busy and fun-filled day! (Winged Wonders was not on Tollgate property today!)
It all started off with animal chores. Based on my observations so far, this seems to be a daily activity.
Hanging out with the goats while they have breakfast
Saying good morning to the chickens is always a good time
We scored an egg!
After the animal were taken care of, the campers got to take a tour of the gardens! They saw tons of great veggies, including kale, onions, and peppers. They even got to sample some of the raspberries– yum!
Garden tour!
The…raspberry of my eye?
As fresh as fruit can be!
But even after the normal animal chores, there were still some members of the farm that needed tending to. The horses! Campers got to groom and hang out with my pals Friday and Sesame.
Sesame gets some love
Only one “long” face here!
Horsin’ around
BUT, there was still one more species that the campers wanted to say hi to: the fish! Each group got to head over to the pond and cast their lines (a whole day earlier than I predicted!)
Insider info: This is one of the biggest fish ever caught by a pepper!
Patience pays off
Fishing in style ?
After a morning packed full of activities, we took a quick (and I mean quick) break for lunch, and then the campers were back at it with their creature creations. Now, you may remember that yesterday I showed the campers drawing creatures that they made up. Well today, they got to sculpt those creatures out of clay!
Massaging the clay
A magnificent made-up creature
The campers were not done using fun materials to make creations, however. Next up was nest building! Everyone had to use materials they found on the ground to craft nests that an egg could rest in. Then, they dropped the nests in the Children’s Garden in the hopes that their nests would prevent any cracks. Check out the pictures below to see how successful the campers were:
Mud makes great glue!
Preparing at the launch site
The drop!
The egg survives! No cracks at all!
Then, it was time for a super cool activity called “Sheep to Sweater” where campers got to turn sheep wool into sweater material! While we didn’t have quite enough to make full sweaters, each pepper got to make a bracelet out of the wool.
Step one: brush out the wool
Step two: roll it out into a thin rope-like shape
Step three: dip into Kool-Aid for a burst of color
Step four: hang to dry then enjoy!
And of course, we had some great snacks in Garden Kitchen. Ms. Leah has been doing a fabulous job helping our campers cook up some tasty treats. Today, we used a few veggies straight from Tollgate; Ms. Leah wrote them up on the whiteboard, along with some lines from the campers’ favorite book, Rah Rah Radishes! The lines are: Carrots are calling, take a bite! Cucumbers are cool, but kohlrabi is queen! Don’t eat zucchini? It’s time to start!
Making lemon juice out of lemons
Three bites away from the clean plate club!
A big fritter bite!
Making food & friends
Get the ingredients and make it at home!
What an awesome day!
And now my favorite segment of the day, Coltrane’s Captured Moments!
Wool-stache
This group of campers call themselves the “Star Knights”
So there you have it folks, the reality of a Tuesday at Tollgate Camp. Seems like a pretty good time 🙂 If you want to check out even more moments that I captured throughout the day, check out my Google Folder here.
Part III coming your way tomorrow- see you then!