Dear NDC Campers 2011,

Eureka!  Campers listen up, we've found something:  El Ranchito and the Naure Discovery Campers of 2011 are awesome!  We found that old and new friends were made all through the summer and lots of fun was had every day.  The big news of this summer is that we lived together outside through the second hottest June on Texas record.  That will definitely go down in our camp weather station history!  And we found that we could live through that as a camp family with a positive attitude and very few complaints. That's amazing!

A returning camp star, the Chuck's-Will-Widow, sang each morning and night for us to hear.  As you may recall, that bird sings in the morning to tell us he's going to bed, and then greets us at night as he wakes up because he's nocturnal.  He does things his own way, and may be different from other birds, but his uniqueness is like we all were at camp:  each special.  Many of us also heard the Screech Owl call from the edge of the woods.  We even hiked together in total silence, and saw the stars and Saturn's rings with Doug.  Magical.

For you new campers, you learned about macro-invertebrates with Dani and Lisa from the LCRA, and ate an Earth Parfait for the first time.  Many of you got to rock climb at Reimers Ranch!  For you seasoned campers, you got to review what you already knew, including going on a fantastic John-guided Westcave tour.  But you all learned new songs, like the Unicorn one, another special animal who isn't like the others! You may have seen the mysterious resident gorilla, who is new to the camp landscape,  We all went bananas!

You loved all the water activities we shared together:  the Pedernales River, Founders Pool, and the new ice game, Drip, Drip, Soak.  You can try that one at home with friends and family.  We were sorry to see that the Shield Ranch creeks, Rocky & Barton, were dry, but everyone learned about what a drought is and how to conserve waer.  Some of you saw a Central Texas Whipsnake, found the shed skin of a rattlesnake at Settler's Cabin, or met Paco, the rat snake.  Snakes like water, too.

We already miss you and look forward to seeing you again next summer - camp looks so empty without you, as all the tents are now packed away.  We hope to see you in October for a reunion gathering, but if you can't make it then, we'll see you next summer.

Thank you for being special and unique and joining us in the El Ranchito circle of friends,

Suzette Ermler*

2011 Camp Director, Nature Discovery Camp

and the NDC program staff:  Chase, Melanie, Danielle, Drew, Elias, Lexi, Lindsey, Raanan and Riley.