"We invite you to join us for our fall gathering happening October 18th through 21st at the La Junta Ranch on the Rio Grande near Presidio, TX. The theme for this fall’s event is “Work-Play-Camp-Learn”. Admission is free and meals will be provided. Volunteers help with projects during the day and sit back and enjoy a hearty meal, sunsets, music and the night sky with friends both new and old."
Hmm. Sounds interesting.
So, we packed up our tents and headed to Presidio on the Mexican border to help plant a few pomegranate trees for the La Junta project.
While there, we learned about a fellow named A. Kelly, a cowboy, writer, and painter, who once lived on this land in a renovated yellow school bus with his two dogs, one of which was a full blooded wolf he had rescued as a pup. A. Kelly passed away in 2009 and left behind a dream of conservation and rejuvenation that the La Junta project aims to fulfill.
His dogs outlived him and they were there for this weekend of work. Mary loved playing with Wolf, especially as her favorite animals are wolves. I was a little nervous, but Wolf proved to be the sweetest "dog".
We arrived late Friday night and set up camp. We promptly lost track of our two dogs and found them hanging around the outside kitchen area where they had found several other dogs to hang out with. This weekend was a dog heaven for Anna and Daniel; no fences, no leashes, other dogs to play with, and many people with tidbits of food.
Saturday was a hard day of labor. As a group, we planted a total of over 600 trees, and installed an irrigation system to make sure they didn't perish. I single-handedly hand watered about 400 of them until the problems with the irrigation system could be figured out. The next day I could barely roll out of my sleeping bag, I was so sore.
Mary had the time of her life. She spent many hours helping plant the trees and collecting strewn flags and plant pots. I thought she would tire after an hour or so, but she just kept going. In the afternoon, she helped the band set up the stage area. At night, she helped serve drinks at the bar with her new friend. She was a very conscientious waitress, perhaps bordering on harassment.
The food was good and hearty and at night we enjoyed the campfire atmosphere, listened to some very talented musicians and shared some bottles of wine with some new friends.
Mary got up during 'free mic" and shared some shadow puppets.
Musical breakfast
Camp anywhere
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