Fall 2012 ARGH

It was our 10th ARGH!! But since I hadn't done the proper math, I didn't realize this until afterwards. Bummer, we might've had a big 10 celebration. Maybe we'll save that for our 10th YEAR!!!

Alas, we went right ahead and had an awesome time anyway!!!

Let me start my recap of events by saying that it was COLD. The weather in the region had taken a turn due to residual effects of Hurricane Sandy in the North East. Springmaid Mountain had gotten some snow just a few days before our arrival and I was worried about our tent campers as well as the thought of it being muddy...EVERYWHERE!! and it was. But that didn't stop the fun!! We even got a little bit of snow of our own early Tuesday morning!

We started off this time with some fun Ice Breakers instead of rolling right into the Potluck on the first night like last time, we do get smarter all the time!!  It was a lot of fun and it was cool to see so many new people jumping right in and making friends that night. We chose to do the Potluck on the 2nd night to give folks more time to cook and get ready. Since we have so many people and a small space we moved some of the seating over to the pavilion (we got smarts and rented it this time!) to make more room for the food line (almost 200 people in a single line is not a good idea, even the 2 lines we had this time wasn't perfect but was definitely better).

We always have some pretty cool activities at ARGH, and it could be my imagination but I think they are getting better all the time...there was hoop making, a discussion about balancing work, money, and unschooling, TWO sandwich shops; one cold, one hot, road cycling on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Blues Dancing, a big birthday party or two, sword and doll furniture making, cootie catcher making, an awesome jam session that I enjoyed from afar while painting, a costume contest, gluten free baking intro, book and cool stuff swap, collaging, finger knitting and crocheting, friendship bracelet corner, magic the gathering games, toys in the kids' corner, ARGHpreneurs, Nerf Wars, kettle corn making, hand, foot, and head massages, board games and brain puzzles, Contra Dancing, photo-walk, Dirty Words & Forbidden Conversations: What RUers don't talk about, a round table about entrepreneurial unschoolers, and finally the Talent Show and Tell and the Dance Party which took place at the pavilion.  We had a smaller than usual turn out for entertainers at the talent show but what seemed like a larger than usual audience...so there were plenty of claps for the performers!!  And the Dance was just awesome, we got started early when the talent show ended early and so we danced for 5 hours straight...and I am still, 5 days later as I write this, a little sore.

Karen Tucker had trucked her pizza oven all the way up the mountain to do several pizza workshops, but the weather did not agree with it so we are gonna put our heads together for next time and come up with something really special...mmmmmmm pizza.

So I've got this very tiny batch of pictures I took this time, hope you enjoy and remember to turn it up and watch it on full screen!!

 

photos: by laura, taken with a very old digital camera.
music: "my heart is a drummer" by allo darlin'