By Joe Crain
It has been a very hot and dry June here in the north woods of Wisconsin. Rather than the average highs of the lower to mid-70s, we were forced to endure early June temperatures ranging from the high 70s to mid-80s including a near-record 94 degree day on the 8th. With but a short bit of relief for a few days mid-month when the temperatures returned to average, things got hot again through the end of the month with temperatures returning to the mid-to-upper-80s and a couple of days again reaching the lower 90’s. Although most of the month was also very humid with readings in the 60 and 70 percent range we had virtually no rain the whole month! With only a couple of days with a trace amount of rain it was not until the 29th that a significant amount of rain fell, about a half an inch. I admit that I am stretching the definition of significant here a bit but with basically no rain having fallen in a month that would normally have seen about 3 ½ inches, now a ½ inch seems significant.
I have to admit that with everything being so abnormal this year, I have been doing a lot of grasping for normalcy. For instance on the day that counselor training should have begun, I made the small change of starting to wear my Camp Nebagamon T-shirts to work every day, as I have for many seasons now. It was a small gesture, but it has helped me move forward each day as I head up the hill from my house to an empty camp. Of course with the camp’s cancellation, we didn’t wake camp up in the usual way, by putting out all of the gear and decorations that are normally the kick off to the new season ahead. It is a lot of work for us caretakers and the select crew of pre-campers to get all of the camp season gear out of Herb’s, the Bike Shack, Swamper 2, and the Little House basement, and move all of the docks off of the beach and set up in the lake. Pre-camp set up is a ritual that has taken place every year since that first summer back in 1929 (although the volume of stuff and the storage locations have changed since then I’m sure).
The Swamp Gouger, with socially distanced white chairs behind him
After not doing it this year I was feeling pretty unsettled and was having a tough time keeping my head in the game for the seasons to come. So the other day I figured why not make another grasp at normalcy and allow myself to go through an (abbreviated) pre-camp set up ritual. So I focused on the area around the Big House, where we’re spending a lot of our time. I got out the swinging bench first, and then thought we could use some of the Adirondack chairs out, so I set up a small, properly physically distanced ring of them in their usual spot on the Big House west side lawn. Things started to seem a little more normal, so with the encouragement of Camp Director Adam Kaplan, who saw me trying to normalize things a bit and seemed to get what I was up to, I went ahead and set up the Swamp Gouger, complete with rope and signs. On a roll and starting to feel a bit more energized and hopeful as I was passing through a normal spring ritual at camp, I went ahead and put up all of the whirly gigs in their spots around the Big House. I followed the abbreviated set up with a little sprucing up with the weed whacker, and my grasp at normalcy was complete. The Big House lawn has some of its normal splash of color and whimsy back for its all too abnormal 92nd season.
Hoping you are all enjoying the extra time with your families during this unusual summer and are able to find a bit of normalcy during this uncertain time, it’s Caretaker Joe At Camp.
