Today was company day at Camp Hidey Ho.
So I was up and at ’em early.
I tidied up the cabin, made the bed and even vacuumed—which, I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit, is the first time I’ve vacuumed since I got here.
And frankly, if I do say so myself, the cabin now looks as good as—or maybe even better than—it did when I arrived four weeks ago.
Since I’m also beginning to think about heading home next week, I decided this would be a good opportunity to start some of the departure chores. I gathered up all the trash, emptied the composting toilet bag and headed for the dump.
And yes, today actually was Dump Day.
No need for the Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike routine this time.
On the way down Route 1, I had to stop for a procession of wild turkeys crossing the road.
There were two adult turkeys, one slightly smaller teenage turkey and 15 little kid turkeys.
At least that’s how I interpreted the family structure.
Mom and Dad, the nanny, and all the kids.
Although with 15 children, perhaps the third turkey wasn’t a nanny. Maybe it was a teacher and I had encountered a school of turkeys on a field trip.
Whatever they were doing, they all made it safely across the road.
I’ve really enjoyed how regularly I’ve encountered wildlife during this trip. Even a simple drive to the dump can turn into something interesting.
Afterward, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some food for my guests. As I was getting ready to leave, I spotted neighbor Joe and his wife in their truck. They’re down for a visit this weekend, so it was nice to run into them and say hello.
Then it was back to camp to wait for the main event.
Jen, Austin and the girls arrived around 1:00.
And we had a wonderful day.
Austin asked what he could help with while he was here. The one thing I had was getting the old camp woodstove out of the cabin and hopefully across the bog so I could take it to the dump. It is so heavy that Trudy and I could not come close to getting it out of the cabin. Austin must be descendent from Hercules because he walked to stove across the floor, tipped it over and with a little help from me carried the stove out the door, through the screen porch and out to the ground. I was happy with that but he wasn’t done. He noticed to stove was made up of three pieces. With a few swings of a heavy hammer we were able to break the cast iron where it was bolted and rusted together. Banda-bing-bass -boom. We now had 3 pieces. He loaded them into the Gorilla cart, pulled it across the bog and loaded it into my truck ready to go to the dump. I wish I still had his energy.
With the big chore done for the day, we all swam in the pond—with a bathing suit this time, in my case—and mostly just relaxed and enjoyed being together.
Jen and my grandniece Ella went for a hike around the pond and actually explored places I’ve never been myself, so they managed to see a little more of my own neighborhood than I have.
Mostly, though, it was just nice having people here.
I’ve spent almost the entire month enjoying Camp Hidey Ho by myself, and I’ve certainly never had trouble appreciating the solitude. But it was surprisingly satisfying to finally share the place with people I care about.
If everyone enjoyed being here half as much as I enjoyed having them here, then they had a great time.
And I think they did.
As they were getting ready to leave this evening, Ella asked her parents if they could get a cabin like this in the woods.
So apparently Ella gives Camp Hidey Ho five stars.
For dinner, we kept things simple: deli sandwiches, pasta salad that Jen brought, a regular salad and Klondike bars for dessert.
Nothing fancy.
But sitting outside in the Adirondack chairs and other chairs by the pond, eating dinner together with the lake in front of us, it was pretty hard to imagine needing anything fancier.
The weather couldn’t have been much better either—sunny, temperatures in the 70s and just a slight breeze.
We even had some wildlife come by to entertain the guests.
At one point, we saw what we think was a turtle poking its head above the water near shore.
We also spent quite a while watching a dragonfly.
Austin mentioned that dragonflies eat a tremendous number of mosquitoes, which may help explain why I really haven’t had much of a mosquito problem around the cabin.
This particular dragonfly was fascinating to watch.
The sun was getting lower in the sky, and the dragonfly was positioned between us and the setting sun. Every time it flew, the sunlight illuminated its wings.
It had also apparently chosen one particular branch as its home base.
It would sit there for a moment, suddenly zip out into the air, obviously grab some little insect, and then fly right back to the exact same branch.
A few seconds later:
Zip out.
Catch something.
Back to the branch.
Then repeat.
It was like watching a tiny fighter jet flying sorties from an aircraft carrier.
And if what it was catching happened to be mosquitoes, we were all rooting for it.
We also saw a hummingbird—the first one I’ve seen during this entire visit.
And this was not a stealth hummingbird.
We could hear it before we could see it.
It was surprisingly loud for such a tiny bird.
And last but not least, Buddy the mouse made a rare afternoon appearance to Caroline.
Jen, Austin and the girls left around 7:00 as it was beginning to get dark, but they’ll be back tomorrow morning, so we get another day together.
I’m really looking forward to it.
I also managed to get one more thing ready for tomorrow.
I’d pulled out the electric outboard motor for the rowboat, but initially the battery appeared to be dead. Nothing would power on.
After doing a little research, I discovered there was apparently a fault that needed to be reset. I followed the instructions, reset it, and everything seems to be working again.
The battery is charged and the motor is ready to go.
So tomorrow we’ll have another Camp Hidey Ho activity available: electric-powered boating on Patten Pond.
After spending most of this month building, staining, chinking, hauling, cutting, digging and fixing things, today was different.
Today I actually got to enjoy Camp Hidey Ho for what I always hoped it would be—a beautiful place in the woods where family can come, swim in the lake, explore, eat dinner outside and spend a summer afternoon together.
And judging by Ella’s request for a cabin of her own, I think Camp Hidey Ho passed its first real guest inspection.
We’ll see what adventures tomorrow brings