Poland Spring Campground

We hear an awful lot of fish stories here at Poland Spring Campground.  In the office, at the lake, over a cup of morning coffee and around the crackling campfire, fisherman 6 to 96 love to tell tales of the one that got away!

Tami likes to tease, telling them that seeing is believing.  And guess what?  They brought her proof!

Those are some nice looking fish boys!  Great job!

Dale and his wife Mary camped with us for a month this year.  Whenever Dale goes missing, we know exactly where he is . . . out in the middle of the lake somewhere!

This year, he reported averaging three fish a day, catching 21 in the first two days alone!

His wife stopped counting half way through the month.  She couldn’t keep up.

Don’t worry though, he assured me there’s plenty left for the rest of us!

Just ask his daughter,

And his grandson with his first fish!

A chip off the old block!  Look at that smile . . .

Dale told Tami he mostly caught 12 - 14 inch bass.

That’s a beauty!

And last but not least, here’s one of the Emery boys with his supper

I hear tell they taste pretty good over the campfire, but I think I’ll stick with lily pads.

Hey campers!!  Maxwell here!

Look at these cool pictures Tami took of the Mom loon feeding the baby loon  yesterday!

Mama reached up high to stretch her wings.  Feeding babies is hard work!

After the loons moved out of sight, Tami was about to leave when I hollered, “Look up there! Is it a plane?  Superman?”

The eagle!  Tami kept her camera trained on him, hoping he’d dive for a fish or two.  But he must not have seen anything good to eat, because just like the loon family, he moved out of sight too.

One of our campers reported seeing the fox sun himself on the volleyball court this morning.  Jeff (the camper) and Myndi (Tami’s sister) both got some pictures of him.  Tami’s going to try and get copies so she can post them.

Things sure have been pretty quiet this week.  I can’t wait for our Fall Special people to come back tomorrow for weekend #2!

On the schedule today was story time, water balloon volleyball, ceramics, adult volleyball, capture the flag, darts tournament and ice games!  My favorite thing was making noisemakers for the

Labor Day Parade!

There were pin wheels . . .  Red, white and blue streamers . . .  Patriotic hats . . .

Debbi handed out some wicked loud whistles that had all the parents cringing

And then they were off to circle the campground!

I’m not sure how the little one below slept through it all.  You could hear this parading crew from the lake!

It was a great, end-of-the summer weekend!  There were times when Tami and I thought we were seeing double . . .

And there were lots of cute moments too -

(I always wondered how the campground stayed so clean!)

But now our recreation program is done for the summer.   Sigh.

While Tami, Debbi and Bryant are busy planning the theme weekends for 2009, you can still enjoy some quiet fall camping, you know!  Cool, crisp nights, the call of the loon, friends toasting marshmallows with friends . . .

Fall camping can be a lot of fun!

Maxwell here!

It’s been raining A Lot lot this week, so Debbie and Bryant did a bunch of indoor things, and also some indoor/outdoor activities like rain painting, puddle jumping, water balloon games and boat building

Aren’t they creative? They tested pretty well in that puddle too!

Today we had things like Halloween games, watermelon innard eating contest, horseshoes, arts and crafts and a toilet paper mummy making game:

Aren’t they cute!???

Trick or treating starts in one hour! One! O - N -E !!!!

I can’t wait! I can’t wait! Where are all the kids???

Come back later for some party pictures!

P.S. The pictures of Marcus and Angeliques performance last week are coming soon too! I promise. And today, one of the campers gave Tami some great fishing photos. We’ll get those up here too . . .

Maxwell here!

reporting on Medieval Weekend. There were lots of crazy rainstorms, but we were able to go on with our Medieval games as promised!

Jousting . . .

Defending . . .

Saving princesses in distress

and much more!!

Later that afternoon, after the horseshoe tournament, hat and shield forging

and the porridge eating contest, The White and Black Knights battled for the honor of being king!

It was a long and terrible battle, with one crowd cheering for the noble white knight and the other crowd cheering for the courageous black knight! After much clashing and clanging and tumbling, they settled their challenge by playing rock-paper-scissors. The white knight won and was crowned king. The crowd went wild!! Then the kingdom was at peace once more

Later that night Marcus and Angelique performed some wizardry! It was so amazing, Tami forgot to take pictures!!! Alex did though, and she promised to give them to me if I was really good to the kids at face painting tomorrow. So come back on Wednesday to see some magical photos!

Last but not least, a big shout out to the Poland Players who performed Shakespeare’s Taming of a Shrew Sunday afternoon!

It’s being directed by Alex and they’re showing it in several places locally between now and
the end of August.  They were awesome!

Good luck to you all!  Break a leg!

Tami here with the Fiesta Weekend report:

What a blast! Debbie and Bryant played South of the Border Games, had story time with a chocolate mousse snack, tossed horsehoes, played bean games, had a penny hunt, then made sombreros and maracas at Arts and Crafts

Of course the highlight of the weekend is our big Fiesta Party in the playing field Saturday night. We had carnival games . . . like throwing darts at balloons

Pin the tail on the donkey

Getting a tattoo

and the jumping bean game.

There were rides by Ricco Suave the donkey

and the bouncy house was a huge hit as always.

Once Maxwell heard all the fun, he begged his handler to bring him to the party too!

Debbie made fried dough for the very hungry party goers

While Bryant helped the kids crack open the hand made pinatas

It takes a lot of volunteers to run a party like this one . . . so I’d like to take a minute to really thank everyone who helped! We couldn’t do it without you. And even though I know we worked some of you so hard, you dropped where you stood . . .

I’m sure the kids enjoyed every minute of our Fiesta celebration! Don’t you think so Maxwell?

Especially this little guy, who just had to show me all his prizes from the games, and the candy he broke out of the pinata

We still have spaces for week stays in August, and even a couple of sites to book by the month. But you should call fast, because the phone has been ringing like crazy. The upcoming theme weekends are Medieval Weekend, with the magic of the Steelgraves on Saturday night; two weekends of Halloween, Super Hero Tryout Weekend and Labor Day.

September and October is a little lower key, but beautiful. Warm days, and cool nights. The call of the loon and great fishing . . . to find out more about our off season rates, give us a call.

Just a small sprinkle of rain this morning, but otherwise a gorgeous weekend.  You just can’t pay any attention to those weathermen!

Bryant arrived today, ready and eager to run some recreation activities.  He started with Arts and Crafts, where the kids made cool glasses.  As usual, he couldn’t resist making a pair for himself:

Afterward, he tried something new for kids games.  Super-sized marbles!  He used various sized balls instead of marbles, but kept the same rules.  The kids thought it was a blast, and I wish I could have gotten pictures for you.

A few turned out for horseshoes too . . . our first organized game of the season.

The highlight of the weekend though was horsedrawn hayrides by No Baloney Pony of New Gloucester

Jim took our campers for several rides around the campground, in and out the driveway and back around the camp.  Those beautiful work horses pulled the wagon up and down the hills like it was filled with marshmallows.

Jim told us the horses weighed 2,000 pounds each!

No Baloney Pony will be back on June 7th with their wagon.  They’ll also be back to give complimentary pony rides to our littlest campers on June 21st, Tuesdays in July, as well as August 6th, 12th and 19th.

Come join the fun!

A couple days ago, Dave was cutting trees when he heard the unmistakable sound of the pileated woodpecker. Rat-tat-tat-tat echoed loudly through the woods. We’ve been trying to catch this incredible bird in action for years, but they’re elusive. Seeing us, the woodpecker would hide itself on the opposite side of the tree and we’d go round and round in circles.

But Dave outsmarted him this time, by having JMoney (our maintenance man) move around the tree while he stood still with the camera.

Pileated Woodpeckers are 16 to 19″ (according to this website) with a wingspan of 26 to 30″.

They drill rectangular holes in trees to find ants. These holes can be so deep, smaller trees will sometimes break. Usually, I’ll see wood slivers dusting the ground at the base of the tree before I’ll see the hole he’s been working on.

We’ve also had this visitor to our feeder this past week:

a baltimore oriole! I love these birds . . . one of my fondest memories was Grandpa standing at the foot of his apple tree, calling to them. They actually answered.

I only see them in May, when they eat the oranges I put out for them. I believe they use the nectar to build their gourd shaped nest.

A few weeks ago, Dave and Ben saw this guy hanging around the bird feeder:

It’s kind of hard to see him clearly, but we think he’s a Red Tailed Hawk. He’s a sit and wait predator . . . obviously sitting and waiting for the squirrels and birds that visit my feeder. We only saw him that week, then he was gone.

Today is Friday, and I’m expecting approximately forty check-ins! Most are taking advantage of our Spring Weekend Special. Five consecutive weekends, for one low price. Campers arrive on Friday’s and go home Sundays, but leave their equipment right on site (storage really). We do this again in the Fall; click on our website on the right there, and go to our Campground Calendar to read all about it.

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone out there! Check back late Sunday or early Monday for some pic’s from breakfast and arts and crafts . . .

until Clean Up Weekend!

I just received a call from the nursery, and we’ll have trees for planting this year. In 2007, there was a little mix up, the trees didn’t come in on time, and the kids were so disappointed. We ended up sending one of our employees into the woods to carefully dig up one-foot baby pines. It’s always warms my heart to see how much the kids enjoy this ecological activity.  Some families request the same site year after year so they can check on “their trees”.

Every year we lose new growth between the sites, due to people cutting between sites, kids riding bikes off road, or campers setting up their equipment off the cleared site area. If we didn’t transplant trees, over time we’d end up with a tree-less campground.

Those of you who are camping this weekend, don’t forget about our pot luck supper on Saturday night! We’ll have a sign-up sheet in the office.  Hmmmm . . . maybe I’ll bring chili.

A snow update: Cookie and I walked the park early this morning and found only four little areas with the white stuff. Yea! There were still a few spongy road spots, but between the rain (to help get rid of the frost) and the sunshine they’re predicting after it, those areas will be firm enough by the weekend.

Halfway through my walk, the haunting sound of the loon reached out to me.  It was sweet, sweet music to my ears!

I would have headed down to the water’s edge to sneak a peek and catch if there were one or a pair,but alas . . . I had to get Ben ready for school. He was not a happy camper this morning. April vacation went by much too quickly . . .

The weather has been gorgeous these last couple of weeks!  The snow is melting nicely.  There’s still a few snow covered areas like here in the 40’s

but for the most part, the campground now looks like this

And Sam . . . your site looks like this

Isn’t that better!?

The roads are still too soft to drive on, but I think I can put those snow shoes away now.

Within the last week, we’ve watched the ice on the lake recede a few yards at a time. Last Sunday, there was still quite a bit off to the left of our point.  Today, I’m pleased to announce there wasn’t a smidgen of ice in sight.

The loons are back!  I can’t wait to hear their call over a roaring, crackling campfire.  It’s one of my favorite things.  There were ducks everywhere too!  At least fifty dotted the lake between our frontage and the golf course.

Even Mama Eagle was up on the edge of her nest, enjoying the warmth in the air

So keep thinking those Spring like thoughts!