Salt of the Earth

We started our second at 5:30am with a trip down to the horses. After feeding them the boys headed back for breakfast. I opted out and stayed in the nurses station with ice on my swelling foot. After breakfast we hiked back down to the horses and it was time for the boys to ride them. Before Graham got to ride he learned how to rope a cow. It was very cool. I sat and watched and talked a few of the boys into riding. It was a beautiful morning and I really enjoyed watching the boys. My favorite part was getting to know the boys and parents and spending all that time with Graham. Graham’s was riding the horse. He was scared at first but as soon as the horse started moving all his fears were gone and he had a great time. 

Around the time Graham was returning from his ride my foot started throbbing and the nurse sent a car down to the stables to pick me up. I spent the rest of the morning on her couch with ice on my foot and listening to her tell me stories. Graham and the other boys went onto their next station which was Nature. 

I caught up to them at lunch time and we had sub sandwiches and tater tots. The sandwiches weren’t that great so we put the yummy tater tots on the sandwiches which improved them greatly. 

After lunch we made the hike back up to the tents for BOB time. (bodies on beds) By the time we made the hike we only had 5 minutes on our beds and it was off to leather and BB’s. Graham made a little coin bag with his initials on the outside. He was so proud of it cause he sewed it all by himself.

After leather we walked across the field to the BB range. Graham begged and begged me to shot with him so I did and I ended up hitting a bulls eye. All the boys cheered and I kissed my arms and did a little victory dance. (hobbled around is more like it) It was awesome.

Afterwards we had free time for 2 hours. Graham wanted to go to geology to pan for gold. It was so much fun. We stayed down by the creek for almost the whole time and Graham got a fair amount of “gold”.

After decided that he was rich enough, Graham decided to trade in his pan for a snow cone and a trip to the trading post. He decided he wanted to buy a hat that all the staffers were wearing. Since he’d saved up his allowance for camp I let him  make what I thought was a big purchase. (better than candy, I guess).

It was time for dinner before we knew it- and I hiked up that hill to get chairs for us to sit on during the program. Graham and a few of the other boys came with me cause they wanted to help bring down smore supplies for the camp fire.

As a special honor we got to see a flag being retired. The boys were a bit confused but curious about the whole process and sat patiently through the ceremony. Afterwards we made smores and then headed up the mountain to bed. I took my brace off my ankle and noticed that it was starting to change colors a bit. I stuck it under my covers and decided I wanted to live in denial until I got home. The nurse had recommended a trip to the ER- but I declined in fear that they would make me go home. So into bed I got in hopes of a better nights sleep. 

Just as I was settling in I felt the back of the tent moving. I thought it was one of the dad’s playing a trick on me cause I had told them at dinner that raccoons scared the crap out of me. After I realized it wasn’t a dad, I turned my light on and saw little paws trying to pull the tent open. I knew if I screamed I’d wake up a bunch of tired and cranky boys so I hit the tent and said ‘go away’. No such luck. I summed up the courage to open the flap and squirt the raccoon with my water bottle in hopes of scarring him/her away. WOO HOO victory was mine. THe raccoon scurried off and I tucked the tent under my mattress and slid over onto Grahams mattress with him. He was sleeping and I was clinging onto him with my eyes shut very tightly. Eventually, I fell asleep.

It was a good way to end our fun day.

T