Cathy's Critters – stuff we do out here

Critter Camp 2011 was a great success. We hosted over thirty campers in our 4 1-week sessions for all age ranges from babies to 13 years old. Each camp day was from 9 am – 3:30 pm with lots of activities, crafts and fun things for the children to do. Critter Campers went home every day with new stories and experiences to tell and came back the next morning, ready for their adventure to being again.

Critter Camp 2011 included a wide range of activities, from science experiments to horseback riding. Since it was extremely hot outside, we were constantly trying to come up with ways to keep the campers cool. One of our science experiments happened to double as a tug-of-war game and a water game. We had one counselor and one camper lay on a table with a towel and thermometer on their back and a fan in front of them. The other campers and counselors played tug-of-war and whoever won the tug-of-war got to dump a bucket of water on their camper or counselor to see who was cooling off faster. Our counselor ended up getting dumped on and the thermometer showed a 17 degree drop in temperature so the game was fun and the experiment was a success!

We also had special presentations of all of our mammals, reptiles and birds. The children learned things such as how the chinchillas take baths and were able to hold snakes around their necks! The messiest, but yummiest activity was our goat-milking day. The Critter Campers learned how to milk a goat and then took the milk inside and made mozzarella cheese and ice cream from the milk. There were lots of sticky fingers and messy faces once the kids dug into the ice cream at lunchtime! We also had plenty of take home crafts, such as a clay flower pot made by the camper on a pottery wheel and a scrapbook that each child made with pictures from the week’s activities. We encouraged the Critter Campers to pick up treasures from around the farm, such as “pet rocks” and feathers to take home and show their families.

For next year, Critter Camp 2012, we are hoping to include an optional overnight campout for the older campers with campfire stories, s’mores and great bonding experiences for the children. If you are interested in learning more about Critter Camp 2012, call or email Cathy’s Critters to get some information.

Critter Camp has been educational, fun and exciting for the campers and counselors. If your child made new friends, let us know – we’d love to hear your stories! Please sign in and add a comment to the blog. We encouraged campers to exchange email addresses, but if your child is missing new friends, let us know and we’ll try to get you together.

Magic, our daddy llama, passed away last Saturday. He came to the farm 7 years ago and was one of the first pair of llamas on the farm. He was the first llama to go to petting zoos. Magic has over the years delighted many children with his ability to take a cup of food and tilt his head to eat the whole cup! He was also the only llama we had to let children ride on his back. A year after he arrived on the farm, he fathered our first baby llama named Junior. Since then, he has fathered 10 other beautiful babies – many spotted just like him. The heat has been tough on many animals here on the farm and it was no exception for Magic. Magic suffered from a heat stroke one Saturday when the temperature reached 108 degrees. With the vets help, we tried to get him back up but to no avail. We will miss him greatly around here. Farewell old friend.