Dear Camp Friends,

Our weather is absolutely beautiful. 80 degrees, low humidity and sunny. For the opening day of camp our friend Trink from Wyoming put on a Cattle Cutting Demonstration. She used my horse Rolex, that I brought home last fall from her ranch in Wyoming, and we were all thrilled. My brother Phil brought a couple of heifer cows down and she and Rolex went to work “cutting” them away from eachother, keeping them seperated. One of the calves decided he had enough and jumped the five foot stone wall to get away from her. Nobody could believe there eyes. But with all the composer in the world she walked Rolex out, brought the cow back and joined him with his friend.

The kids are enjoying the counselors, the horses, the activities and eachother. I thought this was a cute picture, taken near the horse pond. Baby and Dora were exchanging words. Dennis our photographer is posting photos daily in CampMinder. You need to use your password to get there. He also keeps a running slide show on our website for everyone to see. Summer is officially here! Enjoy yourselves,

Mary

All but a few staff are here and busy preparing for the opening of camp which is this Sunday. Notice the group picture. Everyone assembled after our morning meeting. The riding staff went on to exercise the horses while the sports counselors set up a bocce court and sorted out the craft room. Ben Vernille came for lunch and then took everyone out on the riflery range so they could practice target shooting. Our cooks are busy setting up the kitchen. It’s wonderful to smell dinner cooking, and the counselors think our food is great!

I thought you might enjoy seeing pictures of my niece Janice Keppler competing in pole vaulting at the NCAA tournament in Arkansas. Charlie and I went down to cheer her on. A storm blew in and the sky turned red. Tornados threatened to touch down so we had to evacuate in the basketball stadium for three hours. It was quite a night. I will update you soon.

See some of you on Sunday,

Mary