horse camp heaven

by Clay Stauffer
     “I gotta win the lottery, get a house with a front porch and a pond, and get ducks.”
     That right there is pretty much my one-word summation of spending the good part of a week at Horse Camp (a close second would be “Making coffee with a percolator is not something I am born for.”) Horse Camp is what we are calling the two campers out at the third pasture overlooking a pond and the ducks thereof. The ducks come in to be fed, and horses come up to hang out, and if that sounds amazing, why yes. It most certainly is.

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     Horse Camp was so relaxing and so peaceful that even though I thought I would want to head over to Corvallis and check out some of my favorite places I rarely get to go to anymore (here’s looking at you, Corvallis Tavern) at the end of a long day at the Fair all I wanted to do was to go back to Horse Camp, feed the ducks, and grab a beer from where I had them cooling in the pond.
     But even better than that, it was the people who I hung out with at Horse Camp that really made it:
     Debora coming out with some steaks that we cooked over the fire while watching the jet contrails light up and wondering what was going on (turns out I really lucked out as I stayed there during a super moon, which was awesome).
     Cari, Kendra, and I all standing there in a line petting Ice while waiting to see the full moon rise and somewhat freaking out because we just saw Starlink fly across the sky (well, Cari and I were freaking out…Kendra was locked in scratching Ice’s butt).
     And last, but definitely not least, Daffy, Donald, and Decoy (not their real name but probably should) be coming over every few minutes so I could feed them, and then rushing back to the water just as fast from some unheard command between them.
     Good times with good people and something a kid who grew up in New Jersey loving dinosaurs and video games never thought he would ever experience.
     My favorite dinosaur is the Stegosaurus, by the way. No one ever asks what your favorite dinosaur is anymore and I think if we did, all of our differences would be put aside and we could achieve World Peace.