Last Post of 2010

I'm at my mother-in-laws and all of the holiday food is settling in. I am feeling quite ready for the winter season to begin. Next week we return with the annual Ski Week- a crossover program hosted by both PMOEC and Pok-O-MacCready Camps. Its a combination of downhill skiing at Whiteface and winter mountaineering in the High Peaks. After that we will have some winter training for all of the returning staff, as well as our new winter intern, who have never been at PMOEC for the winter. They are in for a treat, as long as mother nature agrees and gives us more snow than last year. Sending your hopes for deep, deep snow is appreciated. The winter schedule is fuller than last year and we are all looking forward to getting back. Stay tuned for reports from the trenches- that is the winter survival trenches (aka shelters), not those of the war. Until we get back to Willsboro...

Forgot the Pics in the last post

Museum Trip and Haunted Homestead

As I sit in a private school in New Jersey, selling the product that is Pok-O-MacCready Outdoor Education Center to the members of The New Jersey Association of Independent Schools (although trips to PMOEC really sell themselves) I am afforded a few minuted of down time and the luxury of high speed Internet. What better time to give an update on what has been going on the past few weeks and post my first photos to the blog in months! The staff continues to amaze Brian and me with their flexibility and hard work and over the past 2 weeks have been justifiably rewarded with more a more consistent work schedule and (gasp) evenings off. One exception to those to amenities fell on Friday and Saturday of last week when we hosted our annual Haunted Homestead at The 1812 Homestead Farm and Museum. This year we embraced the historical nature of our surroundings on that site and offered a haunted hayride based on a true story of love-gone-bad that occurred in the Adirondacks about 100 years ago. Brian served as the narrator and the rest of the staff ran around in the woods depicting the untimely death of both lovers. Below is a picture of Diane with Blythe's dog Genny taking a break from building our haunted haymaze. Also, the week before we prepared for the annual Halloween extravaganza, we took the staff to The Adirondack Museum. It was a chance or all of us to brush up on our ADK knowledge and to reinvigorate our own zest for learning. That's it for now. Stay tuned!

Mid-Fall Season Report

Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday I was writing about the heat of late August- early September and commenting on the believed strengths of the new staff. And now, as the second frost of the week is clearing off of the grass and roofs, I am able to look back on the busiest part of the fall season and smile. This fall had some severe ups and downs, but the ups were all in relation to the students and their experiences here, and that is the most important part of the job that I and the rest of the PMOEC instructing staff have done. As we prepare for the coming winter- prepping buildings, getting winter equipment running and digging out our winter gear- this new staff has become seasoned and ready for anything that this ever changing trade can throw at them. And of course, we are busy expanding and changing our programming to meet the desires of current and future clients. We are expanding our farming program with our recently acquired pigs and soon to be acquired chickens. We are enriching our staff and ability to teach with staff days at The Adirondack Museum and collective reflection on what we do. But, most importantly, we are bonding as a community- which will brighten every aspect of the work we do. We can't wait for you to come share it with us.

The New PMOEC Staff is HOT!

Training started a week ago and we couldn't feel better about the start of another new year! Brian is back as the Assistant Director and Blythe, last spring's Intern, is back as an Instructor. Other than that, everyone is new. I won't lie, that was a prospect that I was a bit nervous about last week before we started. But those nerves have been relieved. Each new employee brings a unique skill set to Pok-O and each day we are gelling more and more as a staff and a community. And while the temperatures have been topping out in the mid-90's all week, our sweaty brows haven't dampened our spirits- although the frequent trips into the pond at the end of each training session have dampened our swimsuits. I will happily be giving you more updates as this season takes shape because for both the newly hired and the returning staff, our Pok-O batteries are charged. Stay tuned.

Summer camp is winding down here, which means that we are starting to get excited for our upcoming season. I am happy to say that we have assembled an all-star staff made up of myself and Brian and a group that brings a lot of other talents to the table. We have people with farming and hiking backgrounds. We have people who know rock climbing and horses. We have an eagle scout, a thespian and a firefighter. Truly an eclectic group, the PMOEC staff for the fall will be able to reach out to every student that comes here. Laura and I continue to push Natalie to be the youngest ever recipient of a Pok-O patch. Here is a picture of the family at the top of Rattlesnake. Thanks for reading. See you soon!

Free Range Kids

Celebrating the end of the PMOEC season, my wife, my newborn and I have come to our family reunion on the sunny shores of Myrtle Beach, SC. While nursing my first day's sunburn under my uncle's 'EZ-Up' tent on the beach, I have been devouring 'Free Range Kids' by Lenore Skenazy. Yes, it is a laugh out loud dissection of our collective hypochondria and fear mongering as a society, but it is also a vehicle for operations like ours. Just like Louve's 'Last Child In the Woods' it challenges us as parents to take the bumpers off of our world and let kids be kids- to discover the world on their own terms and to take ownership of it as well. Of course, the challenge facing a center like ours is to do this while maintaining the safety of every client we have. despite this quandary that it raises for me professionally, it got me thinking and, for any other new parents out their who feel as clueless as I do facing the next 18 years of a child's life, I recommend both books. Excellent guides.

The End is Near!

Tomorrow will be the last day of another successful spring season at PMOEC. And, as Molly will be moving on (going back graduate school) the management of the blog will fall to me. So, excitedly, I am posting here today- bot dusting off the username/password combo, as it hasn't been used recently and re-introducing myself to you. So stay tuned to the blog as I will keep you updated on the colorful goings on here throughout the year. And lastly, I want to give a huge thank you to all of the amazing instructing staff and other employees who made this an amazing spring here at PMOEC. Brian, Molly, Liz, Mark, Julie, Tim, Blythe, Chris, Shelby, Julia, Donna, Diana, Johnny Mac, Ben, Abby- I couldn't have done it without you.

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl

We are pleased to announce the newest addition to the Pok-O family!

Stites and Laura's baby, Natalie Forrest McDaniel, was born last night at 8:19pm. She weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces, and was 21 inches long. (I think...I may possibly be wrong on those numbers.) Natalie, Laura, and Stites all seem to be doing well.

Stites has sent along a few pictures, which I'll post here. Natalie is a real beauty!

Amazing Week for Wildlife

I'm the first to admit that I'm a plant geek. Spring is one of my favorite times of year because there is so much going on in the plant world, and there are new flowers popping up everywhere I look.

In the past few days, however, the animal kingdom has completely stolen my attention, as I have had three days of somewhat remarkable animal sightings. Below are pictures from walks that I've taken over the past three days. (Thanks to my parents for getting me a camera with an awesome zoom on it for Christmas!)

The first picture is of a bat. The kids from our last school group were actually the ones to spot this. It was hanging on a small tree near the pond.

Since I was down at the pond, I took a few minutes to enjoy the view. I spotted what looked like a bird sitting out on a rock across the pond, so I used my camera zoom to let me get a better look. Imagine my surprise when I discovered it wasn't just a Cormorant, but also a giant snapping turtle! (Liz, our resident turtle expert, tells me that snapping turtles don't bask in the sun the way other turtle species do, so we don't know what this turtle was doing there. Snappers do come out of the water to lay eggs--more on that in a moment--but a rock in the middle of the pond is an unlikely nesting spot.)

Next I headed over to the other side of the point, to see if there was anything interesting going on in that bay. As I walked, a bird suddenly flew up out of the grass. I took a peek where the bird had been, and there was this nest! Based on the quick glance I got at the bird and the appearance of the eggs, I think that these are sparrow eggs.

Sadly, the next day when I went back to check on the nest, this was all I found...from what I read online, sparrows do not usually build their nests on the ground, and I guess this shows us why. Some animal had torn the nest up from where it was hidden in the grass and eaten all of the eggs.

I mentioned before that snapping turtles come up out of the water to lay their eggs. Here's a picture of one that I found beside the pond. (To help you get a sense of scale, I would estimate that it was almost three feet long, nose to tail.) If you're around water at this time of year, watch out for the snappers!

Red-wing Blackbirds have been active in the marshy areas around the edge of the pond. This photo gives you a glimpse of the distinctive red and yellow markings on the wing, which are most visible when the bird is in flight.

I also got to see a woodpecker on one of my walks. He wasn't easy to get a good look at (and even harder to get a good picture of), but I think that this is a male Hairy Woodpecker.

This last animal was kind enough to sit and pose for the camera! It seems like everywhere I go lately, there are dozens of chipmunks scurrying around, chirping at annoyance at me for daring to walk through their territory.

Obviously, there is a lot going on in the natural world right now, so I encourage you to go out and take a walk to see what you can find. Even if you don't see any animals, there are plenty of flowers out there that are very good at holding still so that you can get a good look at them!

"New" Flowers

I've seen some "new" flowers this spring. The first are not new in that I've never seen them before, but rather in that I've never seen them here before. This spring, the trail up Rattlesnake Mountain is full of bluets (picture below.) This is the first spring that I have seen them there. I think that their presence is probably due to the increased sunlight reaching the forest floor after the logging last year.

The other "new" flowers are Fringed Polygala, which I saw along the nature trail. I had never seen these before, and thought that they were really beautiful. They remind me a little bit of birds in flight.

Crazy Weather!

It has been a wild week weather-wise here at Pok-O! On Wednesday morning, we woke up to find this:Yes, you are seeing that correctly. There is SNOW. And not just snow showers, either---a full three inches had accumulated overnight, and it was still falling, which makes it one of the bigger snow events of this "winter." Needless to say, we were all pretty cold all day.

A mere day later, and we had this:
Yup, that's right: no snow left, and temperatures warm enough that we were without hats and jackets. And it's only been warming up since then--today has been hot and muggy, and really feels like summer. Gotta love that Adirondack weather!

The kids in the picture are the 3rd and 4th graders from the Mead School. The kids were great while they were here--they were good sports about the weather, and they worked really hard to earn their Pok-O Patches by climbing 4 mountains over the 4 days they were here: Bare, Rattlesnake, Sugarloaf, and Poke-O-Moonshine. (The photo is from the top of Rattlesnake.)

Last week we held our second annual Spring Break Camp, and it went really well! We enlarged the size of the camp slightly, to about 48 kids on any given day. We did way too much stuff to document completely, but here are a few pictures to give you sense of what we did.

First, here's a picture of the youngest group on top of Rattlesnake Mountain, which was our day hike. We send all the groups out on day hikes, varying the mountain based on the age and ability of the group. Rattlesnake was a great hike for the youngest kids, and we had a lot of fun.

Next is a picture of the kids playing old-time games at the Homestead.

We started the week doing teambuilding activities. Here are two campers working together to cross one of the obstacles on the Low Ropes Course.

Here are some of the kids playing frisbee during free time.

We took the kids up to the Crux to go rock climbing. They did a great job climbing, even on the climbs that are designed for slightly taller people.

Of course, a week of camp would not be complete without a trip to visit the farm animals. Below is a picture of some of the kids with Jack the goat.
We had a great time at camp, and we hope that the kids did too. We hope that we'll see some of them again at future break camps!

Old Friends, New Faces

It has been a long time since we posted to the blog, but we have been keeping busy. In March, we all took some vacation time and had all sorts of adventures. I went to Brazil to see Viv Poit and Aja Bryant, the former Assistant Director and Chef, respectively, here at Pok-O. The visit to Brazil was awesome, and it was really great to see Viv and Aja again. Both of them are teaching English--I guess all that time working with French Canadians inspired them! Below is a picture of the three of us at Iguassu Falls, which is one of the largest waterfalls in the world. (When Eleanor Roosevelt went there, she said that Iguassu made Niagara Falls look like a leaky faucet.)

At the end of March, we started our Spring Season with staff training. Our staff this spring is mostly full of familiar faces: those of us who were here all year (Stites, Brian, Molly, Liz, Mark, and Julie) plus Tim Oprzadek, who worked at Pok-O last Fall and Spring. We have one new person on staff: our intern Blythe Czaja. This internship will finish up Blythe's degree in SUNY Cobleskill. Below is a picture of Blythe on top of Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain during staff training.

Winter Break Camp

We have been pretty bad about updating the blog this winter--but that is a good thing! We have had a busy schedule this winter, and it hasn't left us much time to keep up with things like the blog. Anyway, I'm going to try to cover some of the things that have been going on in the past few weeks. First up: Winter Break Camp.

After the huge success of Spring Break Camp last April, we decided to offer a Winter Break Camp during the February school vacation. So from February 15th to 20th, we hosted approximately 30 kids (the number varied by day) at our day camp!

We had a blast at camp, and we think the kids did too. (If amount of noise can be used as an indicator of whether kids are having a good time, then these kids were having the time of their lives!) Despite the lack of snow that had plagued us all winter, we were able to get in many of our winter activities, including cross-country skiing and ice fishing. (Alas, there was not enough snow for snow tubing.) We also went for day hikes, did nature walks, learned about surviving in the winter, spent a day at the 1812 Homestead, played on the frozen pond, and had our very own Olympics. I've posted some pictures below--I know there are a lot, but we had too much fun to narrow it down any further!

On Homestead Day, we made homemade soap. The kids also carved soap into original designs:

One of the highlights of going to a lesson in the one-room schoolhouse at the Homestead is when someone gets in trouble. I have never seen someone so happy to be punished!

Candle-Making at the Homestead:

Shingle-Making:

Our Olympics included many non-traditional sports, including the World-Debut of "Frizzing", which is kind of a cross between Curling and Shuffleboard. The kids were very good at it; if Frizzing is added to the next Olympics, I imagine that our kids will be the top contenders for medals.

Another Olympic event was relay races, which included pushing each other around on sleds.

The Bronze Medalists:

The Silver Medalists:

The Gold Medalists:

We'll be holding Spring Break Camp again this year during the April vacation, so if you're interested, e-mail director@pmoec.org for more information. We have a limited number of spots, and they tend to fill up quickly, so if you want to come, act quickly!

Yesterday two local girl scout troops (one from Willsboro and one from Peru) came to Pok-O for a Winter Survival program. After a discussion about all the ways that one could die in the outdoors (the girls were very creative), we focused on ways that we could avoid some of those hazards. Since this was a Winter Survival program, we focused mainly on ways to stay warm. We played a spirited game of Doubles (a.k.a. The Chocolate Game) to practice putting on appropriate layers (admittedly not the main point of the game, but we had a lot of fun) then headed out into the cold. The girls managed to scrape together enough snow to build a quinzhee, and they gathered enough firewood to build a giant bonfire (although we limited ourselves to a small fire just big enough for roasting marshmallows.)

We get several boy scout and girl scout troops throughout the year, coming in both for day programs and for overnight visits. Many of our classes can help the scouts meet badge requirements, and visits to Pok-O are a great way for troops to bond. If you're part of a troop and would like to arrange a visit to Pok-O, give us a call!

Winter at Pok-O brings many things: snow, skiing, snow tubing, evenings spent curled up beside a wood stove, and...French Canadians!

Approximately one third of our client base comes to us from Montreal (our closest "big city") and other parts of Quebec. Although we had a few Canadian Schools in the fall, this is the time of year when they start coming with some regularity. These students are native French speakers who are learning English, and they come to Pok-O to practice.

This past week, we hosted 5th graders from the Sir Wilfrid Laurier school. These kids have been in an intensive English program since the beginning of the school year, and their hard work has certainly paid off---their English was very good. (I'm ashamed to admit that their English, after 5 months, was slightly better than my Spanish was after 5 years of studying.)

The English program at Sir Wilfrid Laurier was run for years by the legendary (at least among the Quebec English Language Learning community) Wynanne Watts. Wynanne retired last year (she serves on our Board of Directors now), so this winter we got to meet the new teacher, Marie Annick Poulit. Based on the level of English that the kids were speaking, we know that Marie is doing an excellent job!

Our program with Sir Wilfrid Laurier was three days packed with lots of activities. We did the full range of winter activities, including cross-country skiing, winter hiking, snow tubing, winter survival, and ice fishing. Below are a few pictures from ice fishing and winter survival:

In this picture, kids are using the ice auger to drill a hole for ice fishing. Because you need to both turn the auger and exert downward pressure in order to effectively use the auger, you either need to be tall, or work with a partner.

Here are some kids ice fishing. Unfortunately, we didn't catch anything on either of our early morning fishing expeditions. Fortunately, Chris had prepared something else for breakfast, so we got to eat anyway!

One of the highlights of Winter Survival is building snow shelters. Usually we build Quinzees, which are shelters that are built using loose, powdery snow. Given the weather lately, however, the snow was perfect for cutting blocks, so we built igloos instead. In the photo below, you can see the process of cutting snow blocks.

Here we are building the igloo...

Here is the finished igloo! Building a domed roof was beyond our engineering skills, so instead we built straight walls, then made a lattice with branches and topped it with more snow blocks. All in all, we were all pretty proud of our igloo!

Winter Ecology

Winter has arrived at Pok-O full-force, and with it comes our winter curriculum! Although we still offer many of the same classes regardless of the season, during the winter we lose some of our fall/spring classes (canoeing, for example) and gain some new ones, including Winter Ecology.

Winter Ecology is a class that looks at the challenges animals face in the winter, and the strategies that they have developed to address these challenges. We discuss migration, hibernation, and other adaptations, all the while doing some hands-on activities to help the kids really understand what the animals go through.

In the photo below, we are checking the results of an experiment about finding warm places to hibernate. Students are each given a small container filled with hot, liquid jello, and need to find a place that will keep it warm over the next 10 to 15 minutes. If they find a place that will keep their "animal" warm, the jello remains liquid. If their burrow is too cold, however, the jello congeals.

In the next picture, you'll see students playing the "Tracking Game." In this game, the students pair up, with one playing the role of the predator, and the other the prey. The "prey" walks across an area of clean snow, leaving tracks that they hope will confuse their predator. Then the "predator" gets a chance to try to follow the tracks, and see if they can end up in the same place as their prey. (In the picture, the predators are trying to figure out which way their prey went.)

After students track each other, we head into the woods to look for, identify, and follow real animal tracks. In a recent class, we followed a set of deer tracks for quite a distance, and were able to find branches that the deer had nibbled on and places where the deer had gone to the bathroom. (The students were especially excited to find the deer poop, as pictured below.)

Winter at Pok-O is a great time to head outdoors and learn more about what's going on in the cold. We'll try to post more about our other winter classes soon!