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WindWalkerCamp

Hands-on for smart and talented and gifted kids . . .

In the toenails of the foothills of the Missouri Ozarks . . . (this is a really cool link)

In-town Daycamp (August - May)

701 S. Stemmons Freeway, Suite 240, Lewisville, Texas

phone: 214/789-0359 e-mail: mrhardage@yahoo.com

Hits since 21 August 2005.

"What the hands have learned, the mind cannot forget."

WindWalker Camp is an outstanding outdoor experience for smart kids . . . and by "smart" we mean the ones who are bored by all the paper chase in Talented and Gifted or Pre-Advanced Placement programs in school or who are otherwise just "smarter than the average bear."

This camp is

. . . physically and intellectually challenging

. . . absolutely hands-on

. . . engineering, science, and literature

. . . real-world stuff you can actually use . . .

Stuff we will be doing this season

(July 2006) includes

m living in wall tents on wooden platforms

m casting a dozen or so Greek and Trojan

warriors in pewter, melting the metal

over a fire like Benjamin Martin

(Mel Gibson) did in The Patriot

m reading aloud from really good books around a fire at night

m build-and-fly (large) model rockets - and a couple of cool little ones (You keep the rockets, too.)

m wildlife/bug/bird/plant study for science geeks

o build your own insect collection and mount it

for professional-looking display in Riker mounts (You even keep the bugs!)

o build your own flower- and leaf-press and mounting those specimens

m mountain biking on our "buttocks-wrecking" circuit around the camp perimeter . . .

no; you can't take off through the Buffalo Hills Natural Area that abuts our west fenceline.

m build your own camp chair for quieter times in camp . . .

The right-hand image looks west at Sycamore Square, where the Main Lodge and the first Medieval Tents are going to be sited on platforms. This shot was taken during Christmas Break, 2005. Three sycamores have grown together in the foreground, and that seemed like a good name for the spot. The slope behind is one of the gentlest on the whole forty-five acres.

This sign is about halfway up the westernmost hill where our fenceline line abuts the Buffalo Hills Natural History Area.

There are deer and quail out here in large numbers.

Overarching Message -- What WindWalkerCamp is about

When I was a kid in high school in Fort Worth, I used to live all year for Boy Scout

summer camp. I knew I could endure anything as long as I knew summer camp

was coming. This camp was a hundred miles west of anywhere at all, on the

Brazos River, and it was so hot the horned toads spent good money to buy those

little umbrellas the ritzy people put in the funny-sounding drinks in the movies.

Then I grew up, and I couldn't go to summer camp any more. That was not good. So I became a Cubmaster and Scoutmaster so I could go to summer camp with my own boys (we have four of those, and three girls) and a schoolteacher so I could be like the really great teachers I had back in school. Well, I've taught for thriteen years now, and I have loved a great many minutes of it. (Don't make the lie about this, y'all.) And I looked for years for the right piece of land to set up my own camp on so I could recapture the magic of the summers I remember.

My wife Kathryn and I found these forty-five acres two summers ago and fell in love with

all forty-five. They are completely, totally cool. In the summer, the leaves and grasses are so thick

you can't see a hundred feet most places, unless you're looking down the road. There's only

one road. You can't see the oak trees in the back corner that go sixty feet straight up.

In the fall and winter, you can actually see how much the hills go up and down.

No; not "up and down;" I mean up and down. The hills are thigh-crushers and

lung-blowers. The only thing out there is the driven-over track through the middle

of the place alongside the creek and, up by the road, the power line easement that

parallels County Road B. That's it. "No phone, no pool, no pets," as Roger Miller

used to sing it. No running water; no white porcelain bathrooms, no air conditioning,

no lodge building (yet). Nothing. There ain't nothin' out there but "out there" out there. Calvin and Hobbes

It's perfect.

is the best

cartoon ever.

So. I'm planning to keep my teaching job for three or four more years while I

accumulate great wealth (well, enough time to draw my full teacher retirement - that will let us put in the big, visible stuff that everybody expects to see. We'll put in a well. And commercially-manufactured composting toilets. Did you read that? Composting toilets. . . we're turning the -- ah -- "sludge" -- into organic fertilizer and putting it on the hedges and flower lanes we're putting in. And the lodge. We'll start off with living in wall tents on platforms. And really good food from the charcoal grill. We're looking for a chef, not a cook. And good times. We'll set it up so you can make those yourself. (You keep the good times, too, along with all the stuff you build.)

So, call us (214/789-0359) or email us at mrhardage@yahoo.com and let's talk about what-all we'll be doing out there and which weeks you're coming to. If you call, keep in mind I teach 9th Grade English till about 4:00 PM Central Time. I can talk at length after that.

My experience working with kids includes thirteen years

as a High School English Teacher in

Inner-City Public Schools

Charter School

Suburban Public Schools

I was Teacher of the Year, 2004-2005, in the Ninth Grade Center where I have been since 2000.

I am a Texas-Certified Secondary English Language Arts Teacher

Industrial Technology Teacher

Reading Improvement Teacher

Talented and Gifted Qualified

Texas-designated Quality Teacher

For one year I was the President of my School District Teachers' Union.

For Two years I was Cubmaster, Pack 405, Carrollton, Texas,. then,

for two more I was Scoutmaster, Troop 114, Carrollton, Texas

In Boy Scouting I am Wood Badge Trained

Powderhorn Trained (and Staff)

Sea Badge Trained

and I have L-O-K how many different skill certifications

I have operated PineWoodDerbyWorkshop from my home garage/shop for ten years now.

I am the Father of four boys and three girls, ages 35 -15

I have been a Sunday School Teacher several terms,

and I served a term as elected Lay Reader in my Church.

We bought the place last November. Since then we have spent a lot of nights on the place and conferenced with

County Commissioners

Economic Development Committee

Health Department

Postmaster

Well-drilling contractors

Pump and Filter contractors

Challenge Course construction contractors

Electric Co-operative

Soils Test engineers

School Districts in the Four State Area

Insurance vendors

Construction contractors

Summer 2008 (for planning purposes)

We will be running a summer day camp in Lewisville, Texas, this summer. Check us out here.

I completed American Camp Association Camp Director Training this past March.

First tent platform (14x14 feet) built in October '06. The second platform is under construction with green, treated lumber at the arrow to the right of the pick-up. The "Xs" below show where I was standing to take the photos.

^ second

platform

Looking back toward the road from just south of "Sycamore Square" during Christmas Break, 2006. Austin has mowed the middle of the road.

.22-Caliber Rifles

Astronomy

Botany & Insect Study & Collect

Botanical Drawing

Making Your Own Equipment

Camping overnight On-site

Cave Exploring and Canoeing Overnights

Drum Building and Drum Circle

Feasting on Watermelon and Ice Cream

Haiku

Hall of Flags

Lead Soldiers

Mountain Biking

Pinewood Derby

Plaster Casting Wild Animal Tracks

Quilting

Raku

Rocketry

Root Beer Brewing

Tamiya Mini-4WD Racing

Treehouse Teahouse

This page was last updated: April 21, 2008