Survival 2 + Horse Camp: Day Four

Good afternoon and welcome back to my investigation. I’m Detective Coltrane Turtle, and today I will dissecting this penultimate day of camp, both survival and horse. Let’s jump right in.

Campers continued to perform animal chores today, and I noticed a few peppers giving some extra love to the sheep this morning.

I’m a camper and I like warm hugs

Setting the stage for goat milking

Then, campers headed up to the garden to check on their solar stills! And guess what? They collected water overnight! I may have to set one of those up next time my tank levels get low.

Condensation for the win

This camper got about half a cup!

They also paused for a little kale snack

Then, it was time for campers to truly put their survival skills to the test with fire building! Peppers collected materials from the forest and used a magnifying glass, flint and steel, and matches to create a spark!

Where there’s smoke. . .

This camper’s on fire!

Attempting the flint and steel method

After the fires were put out, it was time for lunch. But before long, everyone was back at it with shelter building! Today was the final day of building before show and tell tomorrow. Check out these awesome camper creations!

The power of teamwork

A stellar shelter

Then, it was time for the next installment of LNT. Today’s discussion was about treating animals and plants with care and not disturbing them. As an animal, I fully support this sentiment.

“What a bunch of hams!” -Ms. Madeline

And then, it was time for a Survival Special: archery! Mr. Jason from MSU came to teach us the ins and outs of how to shoot a bow and arrow. I have to say, I was surprised at how well the peppers picked this skill up! I only took cover in my shell a handful of times.

Practicing the T stance!

Ready, aim . . .

Thanks to our stewards and SITs for being a great help during this activity!

How cool! For more pics of Survival Camp, click here!

I also made time to check in on horse camp, since I was getting paid to look into BOTH groups. I heard some laughter in the horse tent, and went to check it out. . .

Time with horse camp!

The campers were matching pictures and descriptions to learn tack and equipment. I learned about bits, bridles, and halters. I listened earlier in the week when the leaders discussed grooming, so I already knew about curry combs and soft brushes!

Matching tack and equipment

Then the campers participated in a relay race to find the tack items in the bucket. It looked like a tie to me!

Finding the curry comb in the tack bucket

Then it was horse time! Campers practiced trotting, obstacles in the arena, and walking over the bridge.

Over the bridge

Walking over the rails

Riding obstacles in the arena

After lunch, campers learned about basic horse care. Horses like to eat grains with molasses. Then they measured Sesame, Big Max, and me using a weight tape. I was 1/2 of a hand. Sesame was approximately 10 hands and 195 pounds. Big Max was 18 hands and over 1500 pounds! (1 hand is 4 inches)

The molasses smells good

Sesame is 10 hands

Max was 18 hands

Horse jeopardy looked really fun this afternoon. The campers raced to answer questions about tack, horse basics, Tollgate horses, horse colors, and horse anatomy.

Pick the category

Time to buzz in to answer the question

The answer is….!

The campers loved time with the horses! Here are the different horse groups: red, orange, yellow, and green.

Red group

Orange group

Yellow group

Green group

If you are interested in additional photos, you can click on this link! https://photos.app.goo.gl/nnnZ3F9xDp1jaRwk7

And of course, both camps combined for a grand Garden Kitchen! I was especially impressed by the stir-fry– it smelled fantastic!

🙂

Giving Ms. Leah a hand with the stir fry

I wonder if I could get Ms. Leah to stir fry some turtle food for me…

“Quinoa Castle”

A critical piece of the puzzle: recipes!

Very interesting. . .

I can’t believe tomorrow is the last day of the investigation! This week is flying by. Because it was so fun? Possibly. But I’ll wait to call it until I’ve seen the final day’s festivities. Until then!

-C.T.

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