Tag Archives: cow

Cousins Camp at the Farm

IT WAS A PLAIN TWO STORY FARM HOUSE
I WISH TIME DID NOT GO BY SO FAST,
OH, THE MEMORIES OF THOSE YEARS LONG AGO
JUST TREASURES OF MY CHILDHOOD LONG PAST.  

-Adine Cathey

cousin stairs

Every other year, the Brown grandkids come to the farm in New York to spend a week or so at “Cousin Camp.” This year, the Johnson kids were fortunate enough to be a part of this tradition! We were all staying on the Brown farm for my brother-in-law Stevie’s wedding to Kirsten, one of the Browns’ granddaughters.

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One of the Cousin Camp activities is decorating t-shirts for the event. The kids loved this, of course! Each shirt was unique and creative, and all of them said “Cousins Camp 2016” on the back to commemorate the occasion.
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The Brown side of the family stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Brown’s farmhouse, and the Johnson family got to stay at Jeff and Lindsay’s house down the street. The new house wasn’t quite finished, so we got to help a bit in the process of building the house, which they are building themselves from scratch. I came later than most people, so all I did was sand a couple of window frames, but it was still cool to be a small part of the process! It was so generous of Jeff and Lindsay to let us stay in the house– they had 19 Johnsons staying there for almost an entire week! They had even left us things like shampoo and a coffee maker. What I loved most about the house was the little girl’s room. It looks out into a field with grazing horses. I could imagine her waking up ever day and looking outside on the wildflowers and horses– so wonderful!

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I loved the rural neighborhood. It is so quintessentially rural American, with sprawling lawns, bales of hay on the fields, and signs for fresh milk and eggs at the end of long dirt driveways. If I didn’t want to live overseas, this would be my dream. Naturally, I took full advantage of the time in the country, and so did everyone else. It was a great place to run, and it is safe,  which is a nice change from home.

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The kids, of course, were most thrilled by all the water activities of Cousins Camp. They loved fishing in the pond (as you can see by Zach’s enthusiastic fist-pumping) and splashing each other in the pool.

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The farm is a fantastic summer getaway. There is so much to do there, and none of it includes screens or electronics. In fact, I didn’t have internet or much cell service the entire time I was there! And guess what? I hardly missed it. It was refreshing to my soul to have to unplug for a week.

IMG_2002[1] IMG_2012[1]Every day, there was something new to discover. I snapped peas, fed a calf, got a new bread recipe… even hanging laundry on an outdoor line for the first time in a decade was fun and fresh to me.

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I guess I’m sort of a city slicker now, but I remember a time from my childhood when we lived in the country and could spend our days gathering wildflowers in the field and chasing cottontail bunnies. Oh, to be little and in the country! It was so nice to be able to relive some of those memories with my nieces and nephews.

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IMG_3873One of the most wonderful parts of the whole experience was the sense of belonging that permeated the entire week. The Brown side of the family treated us Johnsons just like their own side of the family. We got the same welcome and the kids got the same treatment. I had to stay a couple of extra days after the rest of the Johnsons left, and the Brown/ Wilson family invited me to stay in their house and made me a part of their family. I’m not even their in-law (does that make me their out-law?), and I still got a family welcome. Even the kids accepted me like family and invited me to do this or that with them.

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I got a whole new branch of extended family. It’s a picture of how Jesus has made us all one family, despite our last names or bloodlines.
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The whole week was so much fun. You can see by all the smiles that everyone had a great time! What kid (or kid at heart) doesn’t love being barefoot and berry-stained?

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Terrestrial Fauna on Sint Maarten

The Island of Sint Maarten is home to many exotic plants and animals. From the coconut palms, to the brilliant fish,  to the dozens of lizard varieties, to the flowers, Sint Maarten/Saint Martin’s wildlife is one if its biggest tourist attractions.

The iguanas are by far my favorite Sint Maarten land animal. They are brilliantly colored, they are gigantic, and they let you get pretty close to them in some areas of the island. They also run comically and it’s entertaining to watch them scurry away and leap into the nearest body of water if they become frightened. I wish I could take one home to the U.S.as a pet when we leave!
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This snail was moseying around our apartment one night when I caught it on camera. I would have caught it in a different way if I had realized what it was. This is one of the Caribbean’s most viciously destructive invasive species: the giant African land snail. It is wreaking havoc on our islands and causing concern among environmentalists. Quite an impressive feat for such a slow-moving animal!

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Pardon the fuzzy image below. I think this is a mud crab. He was pretty skittish, so I couldn’t get as good a look at him as I would have liked. This critter’s body was a good six inches long! I found him on the driveway into a friend’s apartment complex. He was intimidating enough to cause uneasiness in one of the residents, who was hesitant to try to get past the crab on his way home.

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What I found on my front porch was a little more exciting and definitely less awesome. This centipede was about four inches long. I started screeching when I saw it, and it scurried away, trying to find refuge in our neighbor’s apartment. I wonder what our neighbor thought about the racket outside as I hollered at Ben to get the bleach and kill it, and then danced around shrieking when the dying centipede writhed and wiggled much too close to my feet! And yet I still thought it was worth it to get close enough to take a photo.

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As long as I am talking about land animals, I certainly cannot neglect to mention the cows. This cow blocked traffic for a few minutes on our way back from Philipsburg one day. We don’t have any cows on the western arm of the island, but up the hills there are quite a few of them.

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These are just a few of the animals living on the island of Sint Maarten. Hopefully, my camera and I will find some more animals to share with you later!

Until then… keep smiling!

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