Canoing

This week we officially opened our waterfront for the spring. This involves taking all of the boating equipment (canoes, kayaks, rowboats, paddles, and PFDs) out of winter storage and setting them all up on the boating docks. We'd been waiting for the water to get as warm as possible, but with the first canoeing classes of the spring on the schedule, we knew that it was time. 

Right now we have two schools at the center. St. Marcel and St. Maria are schools from Quebec that organize a joint trip every spring. Both schools are for Québecquois (French-speaking) students, although the students who come to Poko have been studying English, and their trip is primarily for English immersion. 

Canoeing is a great class for students learning English, as it involves practicing "direction" words such as "forward" and "backwards." Of course, sometimes it seems like the kids might not fully understand, as seen in the following picture! (Just kidding...these girls paddled like this for fun.)

Here are a few other pictures from canoeing...One of the best parts of the class was getting to do some close-up examination of on the beaver lodges on Long Pond. 

All these pictures are from one of the canoe classes this morning. By the afternoon, the wind had picked up enough to make for a very challenging class, and the instructors were too busy keeping all the canoes together to take any pictures!

Crafts for Kids

Yesterday was the first event in our Spring Community Events series, Crafts for Kids. Kids from thoughout the local area came to Poko to make nature-themed crafts in honor of Earth Day. 

Here, some of the kids go for a walk to gather materials to make nature collages:

In this photo, the kids are using the materials they gathered to make their collages:

Finally, here are Tess and Maggie showing off the twig picture frames that they made:

Thanks to everyone that came out for the event. We had a blast, and we hope that you did too! If you interested in coming to a future event at Poko, check our our event listing to see what's happening in upcoming weeks. We hope to see you soon!

Spring Peepers!

When we were hiking past the marsh at the 1812 Homestead today, we were surrounded by the sound of spring peepers. Spring peepers are tiny frogs, generally no larger than an inch in size. They breed in the spring in freshwater ponds and marshes, and the overwhelming "peeps" that we hear are the males trying to attract mates. Many people consider spring peepers to be one of the most quintessential signs of spring...so we were excited to hear them!

Spring Break Camp - Playing in the Woods

We took the kids from our Spring Break Camp to the tree house at the 1812 Homestead today. We had a lot of fun exploring the tree house and playing in the woods around it. Here are a few pictures:

Spring Staff Training

The new staff has arrived for the spring, and we've just finished our first week of staff training. We have a few new faces, as well as some returning friends. 

Tim Oprzadek, who worked at Poko last fall, has returned for the spring season after spending the winter working at Bolton Valley ski resort is Vermont. Tim worked on the snow-making crew at Bolton, and

 he's been threatening to hook the air compressor up to a garden hose to make snow at Poko. Given that we've finally started seeing signs of spring, the rest of us would rather he not put his snow-making skills to use. But threats of snow aside, we're all happy to see Tim back again. 

Ginny Tice has joined the staff this spring as our intern. Ginny is taking a term off from her studies at University of California San Diego, where she's studying Ecology, Earth Science, and Computer Science. Ginny has done an admirable job of dealing with the weirdness of the rest of the staff, and has reassured us that the first week wasn't enough to make her want to run away screaming. (She's braver than most.) We've all been enjoying the fact that Ginny has many of the same interests as others on staff--she's into botanical stuff and computers, so most of us have found something to geek out with her about. She has even passed an important initiation rite--a mere 5 days after ice-out on Long Pond, Ginny joined some of the braver (or crazier, depending on your point of view) members of staff for the first swim of the year in Long Pond! It was a very short swim, but everyone survived. Here are some before, during, and after photos:

         

We also have a new chef this season. Mike Gast has worked as the chef at summer camp for years, so we know he can handle cooking for crowds, and he's already completely won over the outdoor ed staff by making us all sorts of treats. (A few nights ago we came back from a night-hike on Bare Mountain to find warm chocolate chip cookies!)

Our new director, Stites McDaniel, has not officially started work yet, but he has been joining us for dinner most nights and then participating in our evening training sessions. We have enjoyed having him with us when he can be there, and can't wait until he officially starts!

Staff Training is always a busy time, and this spring has been no exception. We've hiked three of the four Poko-Patch Mountains, reviewed our most common classes, done a lot of group bonding, and managed to have quite a bit of fun. Next week we'll get training-in-action when we host our first-ever Spring Break Camp, where Ginny and Stites will get a chance to see what Poko is like with 30+ kids around. 

Hello Spring!

It's been warm here for the past few weeks, and signs of spring have started showing up everywhere. There is only snow in the shadiest of corners, and as you can see in the picture, most of the ice is gone from the pond. That change came quickly--less than two weeks ago, people were still out on the pond ice fishing!

Not many plants have started showing signs of spring yet, although a few daffodils have poked up in the flower beds next to the building, where it is warmest. With a few more weeks of warmth, though, tree buds should start swelling and opening soon.