Fun Day at the Camp

• Who can find a virtuous woman? her price is far above rubies
• ...with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard

My folks live in the country, and when I'm home, I live right next door. But they have a getaway spot, too, on a piece of land that came down through my dad's family, that we call "the camp". We live in the country, 5 minutes from our small town, but the camp is in the boondocks. When my parents first moved a travel trailer in, it was so dark at night it was downright spooky. For a girl raised in the country, I do like my conveniences. Later on they added another small trailer as a "guest cottage". What with our traveling around with my husband's job the last few years, we haven't gotten to use it much, but one day last week we got to take a day trip to the camp, my parents, my sister, and my husband and I. (me?)

My parents have worked hard to clear up years of benign neglect around what used to be an old home place. (I swear that for years I thought everyone called it "the old Camel place", and I never could understand why it was called that--imagine my surprise when I found out it was really "the old Campbell place"--as in, a family named Campbell used to live there. It really makes a lot more sense that way, but it will always be the old Camel place in my mind.

This pretty piece is new this last year, near the grand entrance to the camp. Actually, this is the grand entrance, isn't it pretty? This old wheelbarrow used to be in my front yard, but during my travel years it became a hotbed of carpenter ant activity so my husband emptied it and it sat out behind our garage until my mother brought it up to the camp and replanted it. Isn't it pretty and rustic? I love it.

This is one of the first little vignettes mom made made when they first started working at "the old Camel place". The back drop is some old wooden gates with a collection of odd bits and pieces of old metal that they've found as they've worked and cleared.

My camera started giving out (low batteries) so I didn't get a good close-up of everything, but there are all kinds of lovely rusted things...

...like this old piece that my dad says is part of a "fire dog" that sat in a fireplace to keep the logs from rolling out onto the floor.

This is an old planter. If you click the picture to see it up close, you can see the little spiky things on the front wheel that made the indents in the dirt, then the seeds dropped out of the bucket-looking thing, and the smaller flat wheel on the back smoothed the dirt back over.

I think this is part of a breaking plow, used to break up fallow (unplowed) ground.

This is another old plow they found. There's another piece to it that yoked over the horses and was attached to this part by a piece of chain.

And then some slightly newer "found treasure", a metal framed headboard used as a backdrop for more flowers.

We had such a good time just laughing and talking and "visiting". Daddy grilled some yummy hamburgers, sausage, and hotdogs, and we stayed till way later than we intended. There is just something about getting outside of our normal surroundings that helps everyone to relax, and this place is so off the beaten path that it's especially quiet and peaceful.

How about it, do you or your family have a camp in the woods? A beach cottage, or mountain retreat? Where is your place of retreat? Getting away with family, no matter where the location, works for me.

This post is linked to:

Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer

Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family

Vintage Thingie Thursday at the ColoradoLady

Finer Things Friday at The Finer Things in Life

Until next time...