This weekend we had two class reunions, a youth program group, and a Christian Women's Retreat...WHEW!
Casper and I ran programs for the kids from Kinston who were actually here via the Scuppernong River...they stayed in a river cottage and came on out for some archery, challenge course, and the ever popular climbing wall. The climbing wall is the ultimate challenge for children. The wall has 3 sides, each accelerating in difficulty. I like to belay on the difficult sides and see kids struggle and eventually overcome the challenge of elevation, coordination, and cautious fear. Nevertheless, it was a pretty awesome group and all kids that attempted made it to the top of the wall. Apparently you can see a McDonald's from up there. I never have, though...but I am usually just ready to come back down.
The Class reunions of Columbia High 1960 and Creswell High 1990 turned out to be pretty cool. Yours truly was personally charged with quantitative meat production. I had a mountain of ribeye to climb, but did so with the deftness of Lee Scripture. He is not the only man who can cook 100's of pounds of flesh in short and tasty order. I pride myself on a perfect lattice-work of sear marks, which I happened to achieve this time around. I wish I could cook steaks to order, but it would just involve to much waiting for our hungry patrons. I usually cook half of them medium and the other half well-done - really well-done. Steak should never be eaten well-done, though. But that's my personal preference.
This past weekend was dubbed Monster Saturday by the talking heads on ESPN. Auburn played and won on Thursday night, so my nerves could take a break this weekend and just hope for upsets. The only notable upset was Virginia Tech's loss to James Madison....the Dukes powered out a victory of Tech...much to the Chagrin of our very own Kali Beach. She's our lifeguard/shooting sports/loudmouth du summer. Brittany Farlow, another summer staffer was pleased with the performance of her school and was quick to point out the vistory to Kali via facebook.
NC State and ECU won, which also satisfied the rest of the summer staff, especially Josh Wall who might be one of the greatest sports fans ever to be employed by moi. South Carolina also took it to Georgia (finally), leaving summer staff member Sydney Crawley with tears of joy. Her celebration was apparently interrupted by her duties at the neighborhood smoothie shop. I love to see staffers get "other" jobs during the school year. They are usually begging to come back to summer camp by October.
Waterfowl season is just around the corner, too. Those that know me also know that I will enter a state oc sleepless nirvana as I chase the south-traveling pochards. As automatic as the full moon, so is the annual migration of waterfowl, shorebirds, and other prairie nesting birds. I don't blame them. When the water and shores are frozen, they just head south. Eastern North Carolina is a haven for many wintering waterfowl, most notably the Tundra Swan. Roughly 90% winter in Tyrrell and Hyde counties every year. To see the birds in a field is to think that a snow-white blizzard has blown through. in flight, hundreds of birds sound like a flute and trumpets-only orchestra. Off key, but on point as well. This year should be a great season as the spring of 2009 was very wet in the northern prairies. Breeding duck counts were high. All of the water on the prairies made it tough for predators to eat omelettes, too. Their southern migration in 2009 was met with record rainfall, leaving literally millions of acres (most out of reach to sportsmen and women) under water and providing safety. In turn, more ducks returned to the prairies and were met with wet conditions there, which increased nest success. Some have headed southward already. Mostly teal and some ocean ducks, but soon enough, we'll begin to hear the swans and see the bluebills on the Sound. The addition of a layout boat to my arsenal of paraphenalia will bring added to sport. I also handpainted and burlapped many of my traditional Herter's decoys. The art in this is not painting them specifically, but attempting to mimic nature in the deployment. For those that think hunters have lost touch, I beg to differ. To fool a wary bird into a stool of decoys is like getting a horse to ride a cowboy.
This week we have Opening Doors for several days. The University-based diversity course is pretty cool! I'll also be preparing their daily 1st and 2nd meals. I'll be up early...This weekend there's a wedding, too. Auburn plays Clemson - ESPN's Gameday will be there, which saddens me. I really miss going to the games with my poppa, but we'll rendezvous in late-October for the Auburn - LSU game!
Enjoy the day...
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