I live in one of the special places where people live simply, children build entire fort communities, and people get together to watch movies under the stars on the baseball field. It is an extraordinary existence, far away from the noise of the city. A peaceful morning walk will find you serenaded by the sounds of a bubbling creek, birds in harmony, and gravel crunching underfoot.
We moved to this beautiful mountain less than a year ago, and even with the occassional power outages, sketchy satellite internet, and smattering of snow
(though I AM the Snow Grinch), we haven't regretted this move for a moment.
We actually live and work at a camp. Summer is characterized by the sounds of children, the smells of fire-grilled hotdogs, and the cool splashes of cannonballs into the pool. It's our busiest time of year. Though the staff is exhausted by the time the final child rolls up his sleeping bag, it is always a bittersweet relief. But before we settle into lull of the slow season, we have one final hurrah:
the Fall Festival.
It's been a flurry of activity for the past few weeks as we all gear up for the biggest fundraising event of the year. The culmination of energy has been observed as the outpouring of staff, board members and volunteers converge onto the grounds, transforming the area into carnival-like excitement! Every year, it's a huge success! With
$98,000 raised, this year was no exception!
One of the highlights is the auction - actually, two: one silent and one live.
In the silent auction, it was so fun to see the extravagant bids, all for raising money for the camp! This was my bid! #76 of course! I bid $40 for 3 tasty jams! hehe But at the very last second, I was outbid! I love jams - but $40 was my limit! And farm fresh eggs are WONDERFUL, but
have you ever paid $25 for a dozen of them? I had to check to see if they were gold!
Click on the link above to hear a 60 second sample from the auction!
And you would NOT believe the items that were going for thousands of dollars! Before you misunderstand, people who have been deeply impacted by this camp over the years WAIT for the opportunity to share their bounty with this beautiful place on top of the mountain. It is NOT unusual to see a 2-pound bag of pistachios go for $175, 10 pounds of sausage going for $750...
or as I stated in the title -
a simple bag of noodles going for $1100!
The older woman who makes these has been doing this for thirty years. They mentioned that if they could tally up the amount that these noodles have made over those thirty years - it would blow our minds.
I had my eye on this... but it was unlikely that I'd be able to compete with the big dogs! I figured this would make me a REAL official silver stacker if I could win it.... but, RIGHT as they were about to auction off my beautiful round, (they literally mentioned the item#, ready to get it on the auction block) the auctioneer said - "How many of those are we doing?"
They had been auctioning them off individually at $200-$275 a piece! WAY out of my range. But I hoped, hoped, hoped that the others were going for such high prices since they were coins from the 1800's and mine was 2018.
Oh well! They lumped my pretty little coin together with 5 other coins from the 1800's - and the whole group went for $500 even.
GULP. I guess I better start learning how to purchase my silver from @silversaver888, @monchhichi23 or @enginewitty! hahahaha
Either way, the entire weekend was exhausting, beautiful, and successful! With all its inconveniences, it's pretty extraordinary living in a place where community is embraced all year round!
