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Hej Ladies! Episode 04—Donna and Dean Erickson
45 Plays24 days ago
For this episode, Calla and Jenny talk to Donna and Dean Erickson. Donna is originally from the Sacramento area and grew up coming to Mission Springs with her family. She later settled in Minnesota, where she and Dean raised their family and Donna served as the executive producer and host of the award-winning cooking and crafting TV series Donna’s Day and wrote a weekly syndicated column. Despite the distance between Minnesota and California, she often returned for summers at Mission Springs. Now she and Dean are part of the Mission Springs leaseholder community after purchasing a cabin of their own.
The ladies also spend a little time speaking about Mission Springs trees with Emerson Cobbley, currently a naturalist with the Outdoor Education program.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Hey Ladies' Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Hi there, this is Kala and Jenny Holmgren, otherwise known as the Holmgren Twins, or just Hey Ladies. Hey, Hey Ladies. We have been coming to Mission Springs for our entire lives. So as part of the Centennial Celebration, we decided to start this podcast to talk Mission Springs memories. We invite you to listen and share in 100 years of what's been happening at Mission Springs.
00:00:27
Speaker
Welcome to Hey Ladies. Hi, Calla. Hi, Jenny. Can you believe it? This is our fourth episode of Hey Ladies. No, we're practically professionals. Practically professionals. One of the things I've learned about this process is that podcasting is hard.
00:00:43
Speaker
It is hard. No, it's not as hard as surgery. You do surgery. That's harder. Yeah, but there's a training that goes into that. And I have not had any training for this. So it's a work in progress. Yeah, we're making it up as we go along. But that's kind of fun, too.
Founding of Mission Springs
00:00:57
Speaker
All right, so for this episode, I thought we would talk a little bit about the fact that Mission Springs was started in 1926, but right before the Great Depression.
00:01:09
Speaker
And so in the histories of Mission Springs, there's a lot of discussion about how much things cost. And at first I thought, wow, this is a group of people that is very focused on on finances. But it turns out, then I thought about it I'm like, no, I think it's more just that they you know had to think about money more because it was the Great Depression. So here is an excerpt from the 50-year history. And it was talking about how much the cabins cost to build. So did you know that one of the cabins was built for less than $250?
00:01:47
Speaker
Unbelievable. Those were depression days. Many other homes were built for less than $500. Just the bare necessities of life went into those cabins. Walls for privacy, no hot water, no baths. Oh, well, we had open air meetings.
00:02:03
Speaker
So I guess they just were saying, you know, it's like camping, but with a roof and walls. Yeah. Well, that would be kind of like what they have up a frontier right now for the kids. Yeah.
00:02:14
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And still do have up there. It's funny. They still have those, even though they've had those the whole time. It's not like they've gotten fancier. They have added the bathrooms and the sinks and all that kind of stuff at Frontier, which is nice.
00:02:27
Speaker
Very. I remember when we were at Frontier and we had to brush our teeth in basically what I think were troughs for animals. Remember that? Yeah, they were. i mean, well, or maybe just super large sinks. Were they white? Not super large sinks. They were, no, they were brown.
00:02:44
Speaker
They were brown? They really felt like animal troughs. Did the water come running out of something? It felt like the water was in a long a pipe and then it had several different things coming out of it.
00:02:57
Speaker
remember that. I do remember that. Okay.
Breda Blick Cabin Stories
00:03:00
Speaker
One of the first, so going back to the cabins, one of the first cabins was Breda Blick. So that's the one that's right by the water towers yeah as we start that turn turn there. And it was one of the first ones that was built.
00:03:16
Speaker
I shouldn't say it's one of the first cabins, but it was one of the first ones that wasn't built on the flat. Okay. It was built up on the hill. And it was built by a family called the Hallstroms from Los Angeles. And the kids would hike up there and then they would go and they would sit on the porch and they would have campfire meetings on the flat and they would hear the kids singing on the porch from up above.
00:03:40
Speaker
So the kids would be up above singing on the porch and then the campfire meetings down at the flat would hear that that singing. And I thought, oh, that's really a nice, that's really a nice person. So was youth, that was like their youth meeting was up there? I think the kids went up there to get away from the grownups.
00:03:56
Speaker
As kids often do, right? Kids are always trying to find a place that's their own and not necessarily with all the grownups because maybe the grownups are doing boring things or they're singing different types of songs or I don't know. But so that was kind of where they would hike to to get away. And then they would be up there and they would be singing songs. And then the people in the flat could hear them singing.
00:04:15
Speaker
Sure. Because it's just a straight shot up past, behind the old tabernacle. Right. Up that pipe trail Ryan was talking about on the last podcast. Yeah. yeah yeah Which is not that different from what happens when people are singing or having fun at Cathedral Grove and we're at the Brown Cabin. You can hear all of that. And it's it's kind of fun to hear people having a good time and and having fun and singing down at Cathedral Grove. Of course, it also means you might be late for church.
00:04:40
Speaker
It also means that when dad is playing his music on the deck of the yellow cabin, somebody might hear him singing the Righteous Brothers. That's true. For listeners out there, one of my dad, Mike Holmgren's favorite things to do is to sit on the deck at the yellow cabin and have everyone play their favorite song.
00:04:58
Speaker
And he'll just broadcast it from his you know music player. And inevitably, my mom will pick On Eagle's Wings by Michael Crawford. She really likes that one. And dad likes The Righteous Brothers. Was it Unchained Melody? What does he like? Unchained Melody. Yeah. And he also loves Johnny Mathis, but then also Bon Jovi's Santa Fe from the Young Guns 2 soundtrack.
00:05:23
Speaker
that's Another good one. The kids pick a lot of Taylor Swift. Yeah, and there's a lot of Taylor Swift. And then my kids pick a lot of Broadway show tunes. Sure. moody Broadway show tunes. Okay, so here's some other things that I thought were fun, not necessarily related, but you think about a Great Depression era.
Family Traditions and Beach Picnics
00:05:41
Speaker
So things were a little bit more, you know, casual in some ways, and not so casual in other ways. Here was another excerpt from this particular time period.
00:05:52
Speaker
Picnics at the beach were enjoyed by all. Everyone went, kids, everybody, no nursery or babysitters then. And then they had these like modest blue serge, serge the word? I think that's a type of fabric maybe, bathing suits. And nobody was allowed on the grounds at Mission Springs with a bathing suit.
00:06:12
Speaker
That wasn't allowed. But I guess you could wear those at the beach. At Mission Springs, you were not allowed to wear, if you were a woman, you weren't allowed to wear slacks. Or pedal pushers? What are pedal pushers? They're like pants that are like shorter pants.
00:06:28
Speaker
So they're not like a short. They're longer than that, but they're shorter than a pant. Like cropped pants? I think they're cropped pants. Yeah. Okay. No Bermuda shorts for men either. All the dishes in the cafeteria were washed by hand by those high school girls who worked without pay.
00:06:43
Speaker
Boys were not allowed in the kitchen. And baseball was not played on Sunday, nor was the gift shop open on Sundays. Wow. I'm not sure I like that women doing all the dishes thing. i'm I'm glad we got rid of that.
00:06:58
Speaker
what were What was going to happen? Because that changed, you know, then eventually, you know, I think boys were predominantly dishwashers in the kitchen when we were on staff. Things are in kitchens. Things are heavy.
00:07:08
Speaker
I don't know. I'm just not. i I don't think we need to have gender roles for dishwashing. like i think anybody can do those. OK, well, I just thought that that was kind of an interesting picture, but they did go to the beach and enjoy that, too.
00:07:21
Speaker
How long do you think it took him to get there? To the beach? Yeah. In a car. Probably about the same amount of time, right? You could go the back way. I mean, now it's probably, it's faster than that.
00:07:33
Speaker
I'm just wondering. Oh, okay. Well, I don't know that we can ask anybody, but... Cars didn't go as fast back then either, probably. Another subject I don't know anything about. Yeah. Cars. So let's just add that to the list. I don't think cars went as fast as they do now. But there might not have been as many lights on Mount Hermon Road.
00:07:53
Speaker
Yes, I think there were fewer people, so that would make it easier. And you could always go the back way, you know, that back way where you turn and and you don't ever have to even get on the freeway. And it comes out over by where Costco is now.
00:08:04
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, that is our trip down memory lane for this episode. Cool. Today, we are going to be talking to Donna Erickson. So Donna is originally from Sacramento, that that Sacramento area, and grew up coming to Mission Springs with her family. But then she went to North Park and met her husband, Dean, and she settled in Minnesota, lived in California, but then she was living in Minnesota where she raised her family and did a myriad of other things. Donna has done so many different things. She was an executive producer and host of an award-winning cooking and crafting series called Donna's Day. And then she had a she wrote like a weekly syndicated column. So she did all of these things in Minnesota, but she often returned to Mission Springs. She really loved Mission Springs. And now she and Dean have
Interview with Donna Erickson
00:08:55
Speaker
purchased a cabin. think purchased it in the 1990s at some point and are part of the leaseholder community.
00:09:00
Speaker
We're gonna interview her and I'm really excited about that. And then I'm hoping Dean's going to jump on the interview as well. Awesome. Looking forward to it. Great. Here is our interview with Donna and hopefully Dean.
00:09:21
Speaker
Hi, everyone. Welcome back. Cal and I are here with Donna Erickson all the way from Minnesota. So we're so excited that she's here to join us to talk about her experiences at Mission Springs. Welcome, Donna.
00:09:32
Speaker
Hey, it's great to be with you, too. Well, we're so excited that you are here. And we're going to start out with the question we've just been asking everyone, and that is, What is your first memory of Mission Springs?
00:09:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's um something that I can answer in a minute because i wouldn't be at Mission Springs if it wasn't for my mom and dad, because in 1940 at age 15, my mom was attending the second ever junior camp at Mission Springs. Her sister Marilyn had attended the first camp and they told her about a handsome guy from Fresno. So she was interested.
00:10:11
Speaker
And this handsome guy returned the second year. My mom played the piano and um she remembers being accompanying him to I Will Sing of My Redeemer.
00:10:22
Speaker
And after camp, they began to correspond and he decided to come to the state fair in Sacramento. So that was pretty cool. And he didn't have a driver's license yet. So his brother Carl drove him in his 1936 Chevrolet.
00:10:38
Speaker
Wow. And Carl got a double date with Virginia Nelson McGarry, who also has a cat had a cabin at Mission Springs and they were off to the fair. And that was the beginning, as my mom says in her memoirs of her love affair.
00:10:53
Speaker
None of the guys in her high school interested her after meeting Calvin. And living so far from each other, they settled for letter writing, church conferences at Mission Springs, and train trips between Sacramento and Fresno on the San Joaquin daylight.
00:11:12
Speaker
Nice. so like train trips. Yeah. Then the war years and my dad went to Germany. They were married though, when he came back in 1947.
00:11:24
Speaker
And then I was born in Fresno later. And so that's what began dad had to go to Korea and was stationed in Japan.
00:11:36
Speaker
So mom is sitting at Cathedral Grove and there's a full service. All the people are there. And I was just a toddler and I started screaming.
00:11:47
Speaker
So I don't remember this, but she does. And I've heard this story so many times. And then she took me down to my great aunt, Esther Youngdale's cabin, which is right next Berggren's cabin.
00:12:01
Speaker
Okay. And it was right down the road. And I've been thinking about this, you know, um i think it must have been the long sermon. And I've always left church services when the services are too long like that. And I started as a young one with that. And it was called coffee dop, which means If you see the sign there, it means coffee and something to go with it with cardamom. So as a toddler, I wasn't so dumb, right? Right.
00:12:30
Speaker
I left church early and got some fika. So way I look at it, my boredom with the long sermons began at that Cathedral Grove service. Oh, that's funny. That is, you know, I always think about that with Cathedral Grove because churches otherwise, it's if you have a crying child, you could kind of sneak out the back. yeah you know, you're kind of going through the narthex and get out of there.
00:12:52
Speaker
But that's not the case at Cathedral Grove. You're really, are you going to hike up the trail? Like there's there's really no way to sneak out. So yeah, that's that's rough. so No, it's like an echo everywhere. And you know, later on in life, I remember ever going, when I would go to Esther's cabin, she always had a big bouquet of flowers. And I found out later that When they would leave Turlock with their big family, she would always pick flowers and there were always bouquets around. And so even to this day, when I come to Mission Springs to now our cabin, first stop, I you know either go to Trader Joe's or down to the market and I get flowers and I put them around the cabin. And it's just a wonderful Swedish way.
00:13:33
Speaker
And it says something about our traditions, doesn't it? That we kind of carry things on without realizing it And it wasn't until today that I remembered that. And I think it's so important. And that's what she always did.
00:13:44
Speaker
You know, my mom does that too, actually. i don't know that she has a lot of flowers at her home, but she always does it at the cabin. Yeah. I think that's, yeah, I don't know. bought a vase just to put sunflowers it. She bought this vase and she's like, I think this is a sunflower vase. I'm like,
00:14:00
Speaker
Okay. And she puts it on in the porch. And then then if she can't find sunflowers for whatever reason, she starts to get a little panicky. Like, what about the sunflower? I'm like, you can put any flowers in that vase, mom. It'll be fine. But she just, yeah, there's just something about that. And I think, you know, Swedes, when it gets to be warm outside and things are growing and, you know, especially around midsummer where you see all the beautiful like crowns of flowers that the women have on, I think it it does remind me a lot of of Sweden in that those kinds of traditions. Yeah, there's that part and also that that you always light a candle. And I always learn from my great grandparents' stories that even if you don't have anything you know materially, all you need is a candle and a flower and that brings people together. And that's really a nice memory. And I think when you're talking about the Swedes,
00:14:53
Speaker
You know, Mission Springs does have all these dollar horses around, but I've been doing this exercise of thinking about talking to you guys, remembering that my grandparents came in 1912 to America. They were immigrants, and they hadn't been here that long when Mission Springs was actually founded. And...
00:15:15
Speaker
We need to kind of cherish the hard work they did and also their love for being together. And it wasn't just because they had left Sweden and left the church, but they were also leaving Sweden because they were the last maybe in many of their lives, the families that could have a future.
00:15:34
Speaker
And it makes the legacy seem even stronger to me now, when I realized that maybe they had only been in America for 10, 12, 15 years when Mission Springs started. And that's why they're still speaking Swedish.
00:15:47
Speaker
it It's not just the cute little horses. It's really a foundation of beliefs and love for the people to be together and to share and to get away from the heat in the valley. In my case, because it wasn't that word. They were down in Hillmar and Turlock areas. So certainly it was a ah reprieve for them.
00:16:09
Speaker
When you do read the history of Submission Springs, whether it's the 25 year history or the 50 year history, there's a lot of consensus that happens with every single decision that's made, whether it's like, where are we going to put this particular building? You know, what are we going to do to help house some of the young people who are starting to come? It's like they always had to have some kind of meeting about it. Nothing was ever just decided by one person and then enacted. It was Everything was by consensus. And you could just see that that whole group it's just was just so strong with that. They wanted to hear all the voices. so I think that's great. And also the idea that they all knew they were going have to pitch in. And that's a spirit that I hear now in the work I'm doing with the Covenant, even in what we're doing in other areas now.
00:16:57
Speaker
in 2026, people volunteer, people just give of themselves. And that's what we call the covenant way in some of the conversations we have on the board. And I think that started so early from what you're talking about, that they gathered around and they built these buildings and they hauled stuff from the Central Valley to build the bridge and whatever it
Missionary Influence and Teaching in Congo
00:17:19
Speaker
took.
00:17:20
Speaker
And that's really something yeah consider of their value and what they believed in. That's one of your first memories. Do you have any subsequent memories as you're growing up and attending Mission Springs and maybe going to your own camps? And what were some of those formative experiences like?
00:17:38
Speaker
Well, we never had a cabin as a family. So our family would come and stay at different places like Redwood. And i remember when we would stay at the, we had a room there and there was a frozen block of ice in the refrigerator in the back little kitchenette. There was a Murphy bed on the side wall and we would bring that down and crowd in there. It was a completely different experience than having a cabin. And so for our family, we always were kind of jealous of all those families who had them.
00:18:12
Speaker
But we were so appreciative of being able to come. You know, as a kid growing up, we didn't go to Disneyland or different trips around the country. We were always going to Mission Springs. That was our focus. And so I lived in different cities. My dad had jobs that transferred him. So I started, as you know, born in Fresno, but also in Sacramento, Redwood City at Peninsula Covenant Church, and then in Sacramento.
00:18:39
Speaker
The Covenant Church is a big umbrella for me. Actually, i think about all the places where I've had roofs over my head, and one of them is Mission Springs. And it's It's a place where our family always centered with other cousins and people. And we came, we heard so many good presentations. And of course, when I went to camp too, from missionaries, and that was a big part of my life.
00:19:08
Speaker
When I was in third grade, I was back at Redwood with that Murphy bed. And I was there for three nights with Linda Swanson as my counselor. And she and I laugh about it now, but it was a missionary from Japan. who came and my dad, who had been in Japan a few years previous, I had an outfit and I also had the the shoes and I dressed up for the dinner on the last night of camp.
00:19:33
Speaker
Then as years went on, we would have Vinette Thorsale come and speak about Congo. And I remember how she would tell these amazing stories. She was from Berkeley Covenant.
00:19:44
Speaker
And then my senior year in high school, I think the Andersons came and they spoke about Congo and who knew and that five years, six, seven years later, i would be myself sitting at North Park University a,
00:20:00
Speaker
a It was just a morning chapel. And the president said, if any of you speak French, if any of you are interested in Africa, consider teaching in Congo.
00:20:13
Speaker
And I sat there and thought, wow, I speak French. I'm a teacher, but Congo. But so many memories came back to those days at Mission Springs.
00:20:23
Speaker
And so off I was three months later with my green Samsonite suitcase for Kinshasa. And I was going to teach it there. And then I ended up at the new Bangui where they needed a teacher in Bado.
00:20:38
Speaker
And this goes full circle, you guys, because who knew also that in the 90s, I would be at Mission Springs at family camp. and walking across the flat and there was this person ahead of me and I said to Dean, my husband, you know, i recognize this person.
00:20:56
Speaker
And I went up to him and I said, I'm Donna Erickson. I don't know if you know who I am. and he spoke back to me in French and he said, Madame, you never forget a teacher, a teacher's a brick who builds who you are today. and it was Luiata, my student. Oh, that's cool. He was the president of the Covenant Church in Congo at that time.
00:21:18
Speaker
And so I ran over to Lloyd Alm and I said, Lloyd, I'm a brick. And you know, that one moment, really, really had an impact on me because I started thinking about how that became a really basis for my career on bringing families together and doing activities for families, of building strong bricks for families.
00:21:40
Speaker
And it came from that moment when Luiata did that. And then most recently, you guys might have been there this last um summer, another student of mine, Duale, who's now another president of the Covenant Church,
00:21:55
Speaker
um happened to be at Gather, our covenant gathering in Florida. And I had pictures of him when he was 14 years old and showed them to him. And then we were able to share at Mission Springs. And I had the privilege of translating his greeting to our worship service on the 4th of July. Yeah, I was there for that. That was really cool.
00:22:18
Speaker
It's and it's so nice to see you're right about it being full circle because in many ways, Mission Springs is a place for gathering, right? It's a place to get together. And we talked about it in a previous podcast where a lot of the locations are just spots where people get together to talk to each other. But isn't that what?
00:22:36
Speaker
you know, the the church and the the community is supposed to be. It's supposed to be a place where people can get together and talk and maybe hear about other experiences in other places and maybe disagree and maybe agree.
00:22:48
Speaker
But it's just, it's ah one of those safe places where people can, you know, just interact with all sorts of different people. So it's great. Well, and I think that's in particularly important right now given all social media and all these things and people talking about people not being connected, you know, what are the things in our lives that do allow us for that connection, you know, to have that connection in person, not online, which is great for what it's good for, especially people are far away. But when you can meet in person and not just see people you've known before, but meet new people. And ah I think that's particularly relevant right now.
00:23:22
Speaker
Well, and I think the influence of the people who came before me and who were really involved in our camps. Also, I think about right now with the people who are doing all these great programs with our nature efforts, these kids coming from different schools, different places. Again, it's a global community at Mission Springs. And That's a big part of my life at Mission Springs is not only what I heard when I would go into the meetings and Bible studies and so forth, but it was also about learning about nature and the redwood trees.
00:24:00
Speaker
Okay, so thinking about their roots and those connections around them and the fairy rings and going up above. One of my favorite places at Mission Springs is to go beyond the chapel and walk those trails. And I've been doing that since the 90s. And every time I go to Mission Springs, my first thing I do is go up above that property beyond Frontier. And that's where it's quiet.
00:24:27
Speaker
And that's where I see the views. And I think this is part of our wonderful legacy here at Mission Springs to be part of that. We also take our children and grandchildren now every time we come across the bridge and we go to Henry Cowell Park. And what a wonderful gift that is that we have that only 10 minutes away. And those redwoods, every time I take the grandkids, they think,
00:24:54
Speaker
Grandma, there are little ecosystems up at the top and there are birds coming up and there are fish and water up there. And to think that they're learning all that because it's just so close to where we live, not to mention the beach.
00:25:07
Speaker
right And I told you, Calla, that I was going to talk about the soundtrack to my high school experiences at Mission Springs. It was the Beach Boys, for sure. um You know, I grew up in the sixty s and It was so much fun for us to hang out right there by Fireside. And you were talking earlier about those soda that soda machine thing we had. And you pull the you pull it across and pull out your soda pop. And it was called soda pop then. And we'd go to the beach.
00:25:38
Speaker
And it it was so much fun. Spending so much time with my um friends. And to this day, we talk about our time together regularly.
00:25:50
Speaker
being out in the waves and enjoying what the coast had to bring to us too. It's a really special spot. You know, it's, it's hard when we have relatives like Josh's family comes from Idaho to visit and they go to big trees over at Henry Cowell, or you go and walk along West cliff. It's just so amazing that all of those things are within 10 minutes, right? You can just quickly drive. And then also if you want to go up to San Francisco, it's only what an hour, if the traffic isn't too bad, it's just such a,
00:26:20
Speaker
It's like a nestled spot in a really safe place, but in the middle of a lot of activity. So my daughter right now is working at Outdoor Ed. So she's teaching those fifth and sixth and seventh graders every week. and It's very cool. She really likes it. And It's really given her a new appreciation for how some kids aren't exposed to that, you know, as small children like we were. But not all kids get to go to the wharf and the beach and learn about the sea life. They, you know, they're traveling from places like Fresno that are they're far from the beach. We're so gifted to have this place that we've just kind of called home. it You get spoiled a little bit, I think.
00:27:01
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just curious, what has she heard from the kids? What are some of their kind of aha moments? They're elementary and early junior high kids. So they hike up to Eagle's Landing several times in a day. i mean, that's that's a lot of hiking, especially if it's raining or something like that. But just to to see these trees, to put a banana slug, you know, i think they have this thing where they put banana slugs On their face? I don't know what they do exactly. Who knows? Who Is that what it is? Okay. I'm like, I don't really need a man that close to me. But ah they do all of these things and they learn about the things that live in the creek all the way up to the you know, they have a ah garden and animals where they hold chickens up in the chaparral and...
00:27:44
Speaker
It's just such hands-on learning. Those are the formative, I mean, I'm a teacher, so you see, those are really the formative learning experiences. It's not sitting and doing a worksheet on fractions, you know, as important as fractions are. It's, you know, what are we doing out in the world to have this experiential learning? And so she really, really likes it. And it's such
Nature and Inclusivity at Mission Springs
00:28:02
Speaker
a wonderful program. They see so many kids.
00:28:04
Speaker
You know, um when I was, just to go back to my impressions of Mission Springs and first- experiences i was on staff in Mission Springs between my freshman and sophomore year of college.
00:28:18
Speaker
I had been at Seattle Pacific College my freshman year, and then I came down and worked for the summer. And that year, we would switch every week our different responsibilities. And I loved when I did Frontier Ranch, and it was the first year.
00:28:34
Speaker
So I can sing the song. yeah and Sing it now. No, I'm sorry. And we actually did have kids from the community who had never been in the Redwoods. And we would take them up and Dean, my husband still can't believe i did this, but we would go up. It might have been up maybe a little bit where the landing is where you have the view.
00:28:57
Speaker
And we slept at night in sleeping bags, just under the stars. Now when I hear that there are mountain lions around, I thought, what in the world? But we we were brave then. That was how we lived. And those kids absolutely loved it. And I still remember the joy of that. It was also a turning point for me because, like I said, I had been at Seattle Pacific.
00:29:20
Speaker
But there were so many North Parkers on staff that they convinced me that I should go to North Park. so ask me So my I transferred to North Park after that. It was really something, you know, another thing about all of us going there and I always wanted a cabin, which I said earlier, I was always jealous of people who had cabins in the sense that it seemed like such a centering place for extended families.
00:29:50
Speaker
And it was in the 90s that we started coming to Mission Springs. And my relationship with the Benson family, they were from Sacramento where I was during my high school years and they were close friends of my own family, had a cabin right across from your parents' cabin.
00:30:08
Speaker
And it was kind of a strange cabin. And Ben, who we bought it from, said, you know, it was kind of a Frank Lloyd Wright design. was really a little departure from the other Stugas at Mission Springs. And it certainly was.
00:30:24
Speaker
And so we were thinking, oh, my gosh, we would like to buy this. And they were willing to sell. And then we bought it. And then Ben said to me, do you have buyer's remorse? You know, you're thinking you're telling your Minnesota friends, i am buying a place at the epicenter of an earthquake. I am buying on land that's owned by the church. Right. And place needs a lot of work.
00:30:47
Speaker
But it's a good deal. yeah And good deal is sort of something that's intangible, right? You can't explain why you're so happy to have a place in Mission Springs.
00:31:01
Speaker
And so that's what we did 2002. And now we love bringing our grandkids there. We have a lot of challenges because we live far away, but we love coming and it's so meaningful every time we come. And it's the the joy of having a place where people can gather and that we can connect with our cousins because my cousin, Nancy Helwig, also bought a cabin the same time we did. And so now at family camps,
00:31:30
Speaker
We're together. My cousin's birthday is July 4th every year. we know what's going to happen. We know it's what we're going to eat. And it's it's really important that now this next generation of kids, which you alluded to earlier with um all the screen time and social media,
00:31:50
Speaker
that they can gather and do what my daughter Britt did with your cousin, Ingrid. I think they used to have so much fun at your yellow Stuga and they went to North Park together and now they're still best friends.
00:32:06
Speaker
Yeah. How important is that? And you don't have that if you don't have a place to meet. And I don't know where you can explain where that is anywhere in this country that this happens, that you can go back and your great, great grandparents were friends. a lot of shared experiences. I mean, that's unique.
00:32:23
Speaker
You know, we're we're talking to all these people on the podcast and You know, everybody has different experiences, but every when we talk to different people, we're like, oh, no I remember that. And so you have this shared thing. oh I remember getting slushes at the pool. i remember when they finally got chairs there or, you know, the Fourth of July, and the parade. You know, it's just a lot of of things like that that are unique.
00:32:47
Speaker
So Donna, something that made me think of it when you were talking was that you said you know what the menu is for 4th of July. well I've always teased my mom that every year she has this meeting with us, like, what are we going eat on the 4th of July? And the menu is always the same. I'm like, I'm not sure why we haven't laminated it.
00:33:04
Speaker
What is on your menu? Like, what do you guys eat on the 4th of July? Well, first of all, I think your mom does that. that bean casserole dish. yeah it's Every year.
00:33:18
Speaker
Yeah, I was part of the committee that did the Mission Springs cookbook about 10 years ago, and i yeah I love that recipe. I also love the family recipe with the zucchini and rice. So just so you know, there's some real gems on that in that cookbook.
00:33:35
Speaker
We are lucky because my cousin Terry, whose birthday is on the 4th, she loves ribs. So We have ribs, we have potato salad, and I make a green salad. And then there is this special birthday cake that she has. And I'm sorry, I don't know the recipe. Her daughter is a baker and it is a tradition. So you're right, it it should be laminated. It is the same and we know it's gonna be good.
00:34:03
Speaker
And we know we're gonna have more people than places around the table on the deck. It's funny, my dad will also always complain that he didn't get any beans. and And I'm just like, dad, take them earlier.
00:34:15
Speaker
Like, just get some before everybody else. He's like, there's never any beans left. I'm like, have mom make more. I think there's answers to these questions. like It's okay. can solve the problem. We can solve Yeah. And you know, and oh, I was just going to say that another thing is that what we try to do is invite other people to our cabin and especially on these events, because we want to bring Mission Springs to others and hospitality is such a big part of our, again, our covenant heritage. You know, it's important for us
00:34:50
Speaker
to understand that other people might feel, oh we're not part of this. And that's why Dean and i the last maybe 10 years, have been hosts at the dining hall.
00:35:02
Speaker
when come in, because I remember what it was like not to be a cabin person. And we just love connecting people as we meet them and introducing them to other people, also to give them a sense that Mission Springs is a place for everybody. And I hope in the future now we continue that that focus because that's what's going to keep us alive. And we've already got a few constraints because of how you can sell or how you can rent, that sort of thing. But also we can still be welcoming to all these covenant church people in the broader Northern California community, especially. For sure.
00:35:45
Speaker
We've talked about that on the the task force, just about how We communicate to others how Mission Springs can be their camp. You know, it's not just a camp for people who've been affiliated with it for 100 years, but it can be their camp. And I know here.
00:36:01
Speaker
Up in Washington, we have Camp of the Cascades and our church every year has a winter retreat at Camp of the Cascades. And I might not have ever gone up there except that we go on this retreat. And now I feel like I go up there and that's our camp here in Washington. So anytime we can open our doors and people can come and see and and experience whether, you know, they've been at Covenant or their whole lives or they're just now doing the Covenant or there's someone affiliated with Outdoor Ed or whomever, however they're connected, that it's their camp too.
00:36:30
Speaker
But I think that's gu very Midwest too, because that seems like how the relationship, like living here in Chicago, the church that I go to, they go to Covenant Harbor. That's their camp. And they don't even say it's Covenant Harbor. They just say, oh we're going to camp. And I'm like, which one are you going to? And it's like, well, our camp. And I'm like, okay, there are a whole bunch. Maybe it's Scandinavian. I don't know, but it's definitely, I see it more in the Midwest.
00:36:54
Speaker
Well, you know what? You bring up something, dean I just said to Dean, because I want to make sure that he's part of this. We want to hear from him too, yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. I didn't meet him at Mission Springs, but I did meet him at North Park in religion class. And we were married in 1973. And I said, you know, we've got to go out to California to see my relatives and meet them. But part of the itinerary was you've got to go to the place of my heart. And that's Mission Springs. But have to add.
00:37:22
Speaker
I went to Mission Springs before i met Donna and Dury. Oh, tell us about that. but yeah I was a junior in college and Jeff Norman, you know, the Norman cabin up and Jeff was my friend. And he said, spring break, let's drive out from Chicago to to Oakland, where he lived.
00:37:42
Speaker
And we have a seminary guy who needs his car delivered out there. It's a Studebaker. That's another story. Not for this. Okay. And so we went and we hang hung out. And one night we went to Mission Springs and I stayed in the basement of his cabin.
00:37:56
Speaker
Okay. I didn't even look around at Mission Springs. I just stayed there and then we left. And the next day I flew home and I opened my suitcase minnesota to Minnesota and my suitcase just reeked, you know, that kind of smell of, and I said, what is this? And somebody later said, that's the ode to Mission Springs. Yes. That there's kind of a damp,
00:38:19
Speaker
Yep. sp you know you know this You know the smell i don't smell. Absolutely. Our old yellow cabin in the closet smelled exactly like that. Exactly like that. And it's not like anything else. That was my first introduction. You noticed that they didn't even react it because we all know what it Yeah, like, what a stupid story. We all know what that is. It's perfect. And you kind of get attached to it in a way that's like, this isn't a good smell, but now it brings back so many fond memories that it's like, oh, I'm kind of attached to it. You know what?
00:38:47
Speaker
It wasn't a good smell. I will be honest with you. and And we got married, Donna said we have to take a road trip. We went out and visited all the relatives and we spent some time in Mission Spring. We drove through, didn't stay there, just drove through. it And I remember, I think it was Lloyd Allum I bumped into and I said, Lloyd, this is a great camp, but where's the lake? yeah There's got to be a lake here.
00:39:10
Speaker
And he went, he kind of rolled his eyes and went, Oh man, these Midwestern people, they don't understand there's a huge lake. 10 minutes away, it's the biggest lake in the world. Just don't worry about it. So that was my second introduction. And then we ah we used to go out.
00:39:26
Speaker
Donna said we need to maybe try bringing our family to family camp. So we, three little kids, my mother-in-law, Dolly, and Donna and I slept in one room at laur at Laurel Lodge.
00:39:38
Speaker
And It was a great year. And we did it for a couple of years. And then we invited the Hellwigs and we said, you guys ought to come. That was Donna's cousin. So we take credit for having the Hellwigs now connected with Mission Springs. Yeah, because again, Dave went to camp in Omaha and there was a lake.
00:39:56
Speaker
He was at a camp, covenant camp. So he didn't understand the concept either, which I didn't. We've talked about that I can see like Josh was the same way because he went to Portage Lake and that was on a little lake next to Lake Michigan. So they almost had two lakes up there. And yeah, he wasn't quite sure what he's like. You've got these private cabins and there's no lake. what What kind of camp is this? But. yeah And I also asked the question, where are the mosquitoes? Because you can't go to soer camp without having mosquito spray and being miserable. And there aren't any mosquitoes at Mission Springs. yes Can you tell that to my dad? I think you need to. Because every year on Father's Day, we give him a new thing to deal with the the mosquito problem that he thinks exists at Mission Springs. Oh my gosh.
00:40:39
Speaker
No, but that's just perspective, you know, San Francisco. So at Covenant Pines in Minnesota, are there are is are there big mosquitoes? I haven't been to Covenant Pines before.
00:40:49
Speaker
Huge, huge mosquitoes. You can't leave little children out because they fly away with the mosquitoes. No, but they're pretty miserable at times. And then let me let me just finish. And then we, so we rented a cab, a room at Laurel for a couple three years and then we had this idea we should maybe buy a cabin and so we started looking around in the Benson cabin we were good friends with the Bensons and this place was it needed some work as Donna said and but we bought it and we fixed it up i had a sabbatical for my job and we worked on it and we had relatives come and help and
00:41:29
Speaker
It was part of the Mission Springs spirit of people working together, which was the original building of the cabin. A lot of relatives of the Bensons put time together as they did at other cabins. yeah I guess that cabin was built by just guys who would get together on the weekend. yeah We have a window that was a school bus window. yeah and me yeah yeah it was It was incredible, but we're happy to have it and we we just enjoy it. It's been a great family gathering place for us. So despite my ah reservation about the smell of my clothes and the lack of tomatoes and lake, we've made a good decision. We're happy to be there.
00:42:07
Speaker
Excellent. It is funny that a lot of because our church up here in Washington is 75 years old and we have more weird closets. And, you know, it's just like everything got put together. And sometimes I'm like, this is like a seventh grade science project. Like who put this together? And sometimes the cabins at Mission Springs feel a little like that. Like, here's a door to someplace.
00:42:30
Speaker
Why is this here? But you don't know because it's like 40 years removed from when they put that door there. And so you have to kind of figure out, you know, how to work around it and make, you know, adjustments and things like that. So here is the final part of
Local Adventures and Challenges
00:42:43
Speaker
our podcast. And it's just a series of rapid fire questions. But you can think about it. You don't have to answer them too quickly. But it's just kind of fun ending questions to get your perspective on different things that are kind of a common thing at Mission Springs.
00:42:59
Speaker
OK. So the first question is this. Have you ever participated in shooting the gulch? ah Well, I told you that we used to go to the beach.
00:43:12
Speaker
back in the 60s. And thankfully, I wasn't in those Volkswagens and Mustangs, but I'll tell you, my friends were. and if you talked, know you're going to probably talk to John Norman. If you talked to Don Olson, we called him Surfer Don.
00:43:29
Speaker
He has stories. And thank goodness I'm alive. that was That was before my time. So have time. You haven't done it yet? It's probably for the best. me I don't even know what it means. it What does it mean?
00:43:44
Speaker
Explain it, Jenny. Oh, you want me to explain it? Because I, over the time I was like, what does it mean this? Does it mean that? I think it's when people enter Lockhart, like off of Mount Hermon Road and enter Lockhart Galt Road. And you try to build up enough speed where you don't have to brake.
00:44:04
Speaker
all the way to Mission Springs. it's So you end up driving the road really, really fast. Now we had one junior head counselor who said shooting the Gulch was when you did it with the lights off, which I really don't recommend anybody do because that's super dangerous. But it's basically going super fast down the road without using your brakes.
00:44:22
Speaker
It's not, good I think given the number of people that live, ah because when I was little, we were little, I don't remember as many people living the colch. Maybe people did, but I just don't remember. There were fewer people.
00:44:33
Speaker
yeah Like, no, there are way more cars. It's not safe. and And the road was a little bit in better shape. Now there are parts of it that are kind of falling into the creek. And so I don't recommend people do that. I don't know if you guys know this, but we...
00:44:46
Speaker
have a 2001 Volvo in our garage that we use. You do not shoot the 2001 Volvo. That would not be smart. It's not my kind of car.
00:45:00
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think in any of our cars either. And, you know, we joke about it, but the speed limit at Mission Springs is 11. So people really should not drive faster that. They're kids around. It's a good speed limit for 2001. Okay, go. That's right. Okay.
00:45:15
Speaker
Next question. If you ran the mountain goat run, now or at any time in history, where would you place? Oh, wow. That's a great question because we love the mountain goat run. We have all the t-shirts, you guys. That's awesome. That's amazing.
00:45:29
Speaker
Yeah. Where place? you know what? Now that you say that, now you have to go up to that area I was talking about that we do for our- Eagles Landing. Eagles Landing. Yeah, we go up there.
00:45:40
Speaker
So where would I place? I ran quite a few years and I placed towards the back. I'll be safe. I'll say that. I'm impressed that you ran it, Dean. I'm i'm not running that race right now.
00:45:54
Speaker
I'm lucky if I get out in the middle of lunch to cheer people on or now it's ah now it's in the morning. a lot of times they do it in the morning now, I think. So they've changed the time. It used to be when they ran it, it was right after the ice cream social. And so if you wanted ice cream, you couldn't run the race. If you wanted to run the race, you couldn't eat ice cream. So it was a real.
00:46:13
Speaker
i was out. Yeah.
00:46:16
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm so busy taking pictures of my granddaughters doing the kiddie one. Right. But if ah to answer your question, I don't know how many would be running my age. um Walk and run, maybe? over there yeah That was legal. Yeah. Anyway, pretty good. I'm trying to keep in shape, but who knows?
00:46:34
Speaker
It's a good question. first over i was Okay, next question. If you're at the pool, again, at any time in history, what are you getting from the snack bar? Oh, fudgesicles.
00:46:47
Speaker
Nice. Done. Is that you too, Dean? You'd pick a fudgesicle? Well, they don't have them anymore. They had them back when I first started. oh they did? Okay. Okay. okay And I want to add that um the pool opened when I was really young and my dad had a 3D camera and I have photos of people at the pool in 3D, you know, kind of one of those view master type things you can put them in. So sometime if youre every anyone wants to see them, they're beautiful. They're fun. well That'd be great. I love old pictures.
00:47:23
Speaker
And the pool wasn't heated back in those days Oh, no. It was so cold. never. My dad dived in and bonked his head. and Yeah, there are a lot of memories in school. surprised there haven't been more things at the pool. i to To this day, I'm a little against when they try to heat it for other conferences. I like it cold, but I recognize I'm in the minority about that.
00:47:44
Speaker
Yes, you are. Yes, I know. i know and And yes, before you ask, um we on staff would climb the fence and sneak in at night for a few laps. So that was just part of the game.
00:47:54
Speaker
I think that's pretty much a universal experience. Every person we've talked to has done something along those lines. So really the question is whether they got caught. but That seems to be the it of the question. Everyone did it. It's just did you get caught? One of my memories of the pool is that there were always big watermelon feeds up there and they would bring up a truck with all these watermelons and just take a big,
00:48:17
Speaker
um knife and slice them. And we'd all sit around the pool with big slices of watermelon. What a joy that was. That's cool. So much summer. Next question. Have you broken a Mission Springs rule? And by rule, like I use quotes because, you know, then they're not, it's not like there's a sign on the wall that's that said, these are the rules. And if you have, which one?
00:48:39
Speaker
Well, I think I've broken the 11 mile hour speed limit by a couple of miles. It's good to be honest. Yeah. Maybe I've gone 14 or 15. Okay. That's it. What about you?
00:48:51
Speaker
Well, I already talked about jumping over the fence. There's a lot of freedoms at Mission Springs. I think that's one of the things. That's why I asked the question, because you know there's it's a place where kids are given, I think, a little more freedom than maybe they, at least nowadays, than maybe they have in their you know traditional home or neighborhood. And so you know going off and exploring and giving the given the freedom to do that is kind of a unique thing about Mission Springs, too. And sometimes in the case of that, you know rules get broken here and there.
00:49:19
Speaker
you know Stay out too late. Make a little too much noise. Yeah. And, you know, also just respecting, I go back to nature. I mean, poison oak has always been a big part of Mission Springs. When I was a kid, there was a big framed picture of a real poison oak that was framed. So we knew what it was. And just to know that and that you shouldn't touch it. And how many kids went home? Touched it. I think we should bring that back.
00:49:46
Speaker
Given the number of people, and I'm sure Emerson's seen this the kids that ask, where's the poison oak? I'm like, I mean, I think my daughter asked a couple times. I'm like, it's very obvious. Okay, maybe i can maybe I can take that project on this summer. I think we should put it up. I really do.
00:50:02
Speaker
yeah I'll get an Ikea frame and we'll we'll make a big one. Yeah. Just so kids know, I had poison oak once in my life. Never again. Never again. All right. And then the last question, and I joke every time we talk to people, but Cal doesn't like this question, but I think it's kind of funny. What do you think is the best kissing spot at Mission Springs?
00:50:23
Speaker
Well, I can't answer that. Oh, sure.
00:50:28
Speaker
Okay. So... and This is really embarrassing question because do we say, all right, so i um remember a guy i met in camp and he I will only say he lived in the white cabin next to Wellander and he was from Patterson.
00:50:48
Speaker
And yeah. That narrows it down. That narrows it down. And is and my mom would always talk about ocean view. So I think it my in my generation, it was always ocean view.
00:50:59
Speaker
And now it's so covered with bramble and bushes and trees. It'd really be a good spot, I guess. There could be multiple people up there. yeah don't No more events is there anymore. yeah Yeah, my parents joked about that, too. They joked about the submarine races. They're like, we go up there to watch the submarine races. I'm like, what? He's like, well, you can't see any submarines. I just put that question in there because i know also Mission Springs can be a real formative place, you know, during that time of life. So I think that's always kind of the walk around the mountain was a classic.
00:51:34
Speaker
Classic. Yeah. so That's funny. Yeah, it's there's a lot of stories related to that, but I'm not going to share one. We can let that go. yeah We lived in innocent times. Yes. And that's the best part, you know, just kind of all the things associated with summer when you're young. that's yeah And, you know, you're winding it up, but I just want to make sure I i share with everyone how much Dean and I appreciate all the people who have been such amazing contributors. i mentioned earlier the volunteering, but also donors and supporting this amazing place because it takes a really large group of people who believe in the mission of Mission Springs and what it brings to all of us. and
00:52:23
Speaker
We're privileged to be able to go there and there's nothing like it. And I just want anyone listening to know how much we as a family appreciate the continued support everyone gives to Mission Springs. The leadership is amazing and also the regular people who give. And um we wouldn't have this place without that.
00:52:46
Speaker
That's right. And being a guy from Minnesota, I'm a believer. It's a great place.
00:52:55
Speaker
I wondered when I went there the first time, but it's... You're still looking for the lake, Dean. still looking for lake, but it's a big place. You might be on the top of a redwood tree. And i enjoy I enjoy so much going there. It's just a great escape for us. So thank you, Lisa. It's a really nice refuge. Yeah. And a place to just, yeah, be restored. You know, we talk sometimes as a family about how, you know, you find God in these thin places in the world. And that Mission Springs is one of those thin places where kind of heaven and earth are a little closer together than in other places. So, well, thank you so much for volunteering and being willing to talk to us. I so appreciate it
00:53:37
Speaker
This is just one way that we're helping to tell the story of Mission Springs. And the more people we can talk to, the more stories we hear. And we just love it. I think all the time that it would have been great if I could hear recordings of like my great grandparents talking about Mission Springs and my grandparents and you know we could hear some of it but we just can't keep hearing it so that's part of what we're doing and we appreciate you talking to us.
00:54:12
Speaker
Wow, that was fun talking to Donna and Dean. Weren't they funny? They were so funny and so fun. And it was nice to hear those neat memories and yeah, just a different perspective than one we've had yet.
00:54:24
Speaker
Yeah, I especially loved hearing from Dean about what it was like at Covenant Pines yeah compared to Mission Springs. I would have liked to hear more about that because I always think it's interesting to hear these perspectives of the different camps. Yeah.
00:54:38
Speaker
But we thought for this ending part of our episode that we would invite my daughter Emerson Copley to join us because she's been working with Outdoor Ed and she has some unique knowledge about the trees at Mission Springs, which you may have learned in a previous episode, Cal and I don't know a lot about. So welcome to this podcast, Emerson.
Discussion on Redwood and Douglas Fir Trees
00:55:00
Speaker
Hi, guys. I'm excited to be here. Great. Love trees. You love trees. You do. really do. She at um at one point made me listen to a podcast called Completely Arbortrary, down from Seattle to California.
00:55:16
Speaker
18 hours about trees. No, no, no, no, no. Maybe 15 about the Enneagram, one hour about trees. I didn't get away with that much. Okay. I just learned that. What was the tree that ended up winning the the the tournament of trees? i think the olive tree.
00:55:31
Speaker
it was the It might have been the olive tree. Yeah. But there were a lot of trees from around here in the running for a tournament of trees. There was like the redwood, ghost of redwood. I know that tree. Okay.
00:55:42
Speaker
So check that out. That's a big one to know here. And it's a different one than the Redwood Redwoods. There's two, there's the Sequoias. There's lots of different types of Redwoods. But the Sequoias is what I tell the students. Sequoias stand by themselves.
00:55:56
Speaker
Sequoias, and solo. um And then Coastal Redwoods, one, are by water. Two, are in a lot of groups. They like being in a big old happy family. Oh, that's nice. I know. They like hanging out together. makes really strong trees they're pretty cool they might have won the tournament of trees to be honest with you no they didn't it was like the olive tree i think i remember getting upset about it for the sake of the podcast let's pretend that the coast redwoods won let's just okay yeah what i remember anyway yeah yeah emerson we had had a discussion in a previous podcast episode where we debated talking about covenant pines and how there are probably lots of pine trees at covenant pines in minnesota
00:56:35
Speaker
whether or not there were pine trees at Mission Springs. And I was pretty convinced there were. And Calla was like, no, there aren't. No, i did didn't know. i just didn't know. didn't know if there were pine trees. So we thought we'd come to you and ask you as a member of the outdoor education staff and a naturalist at present about the trees that we have here at Mission Springs, including the maybe, maybe not pine trees.
00:57:02
Speaker
Right. So We have lots of trees here at Mission Springs. As you can tell, it's pretty green and woodsy area. We're in the woods. Most of the trees that we're going to see along the along the main drag, up the mountain, down the mountain, are going to be two kinds.
00:57:20
Speaker
We have coastal redwoods and Douglas firs. Those are the ones with needles. And what you need to know about pine trees is that all the pine needles, pines come in pairs. So if you're looking at pines themselves, their little needles are gonna come in groupings. Whereas the Douglas firs just kind of look, they kind of just stick out of the branch.
00:57:39
Speaker
The next thing you can- Can I ask a question? Yeah, you like ask me. So is pine tree a big category? an ACA. Okay, is Douglas fir in that category?
00:57:50
Speaker
Not to my knowledge. I think it's called, ooh, let me look up the Latin name just to make sure so I don't give you false information. I am not a biology major, and I know some of the botany people in the...
00:58:04
Speaker
outdoor ed department would be a little like peeved that i don't know this so let me well i was a biology major and i don't know any of this stuff but we know how you feel about i tell the cause i'll tell listeners i feel about bonnie which is i was really lucky to get a b and it's the reason that i did not win the on-fell medallion at north park university and i'm still better about okay it is in the pine family but it's not a pine tree okay big pine family Got it. Not a pine tree specifically. So if you want to look at it like taxonomically.
00:58:37
Speaker
Yes. We could say it's a pine tree, but it doesn't have pine in its name. It's a fir. We call it the Christmas tree tree. You wouldn't call a Christmas tree a pine tree. They're fir trees. Got it. they They look, if you look at it from a distance, I think furs look fluffy.
00:58:52
Speaker
That's what think. oh Oh, Christmas tree came from the Home Depot and came with lights on it. oh Well, those ones are in the family. It's her plastic. It's in the plastic family. The plastic family.
00:59:06
Speaker
To answer your question, are there pine trees at Mission Springs? Like a true pine tree. Yes. um We have a couple of different types of pine species in the Santa Cruz County region, including there's like a Monterey pine that's specific to Monterey Bay. We have, there's a gray pine that's kind of niche. there It's not, I would say Douglas fir and coastal redwood are the keystone species, but the ones that we have on the property, I think there's one on if you go up to Ridge Camp and keep going back on that trail,
00:59:41
Speaker
There's a pine tree over there and there's one on Vineyard, which is the one trail that you take past the girls cabin area if you go down that way. So once you get closer to the chaparral in the mixed evergreen forest ecosystem, you're going to have ponderosa pine.
00:59:57
Speaker
Oh, yes. Okay. Fun fact about ponderosa pine. If you stick your nose... Right above the ponderosa pine, bark smells like vanilla.
01:00:09
Speaker
As it produces the same chemical called vanillin. Do you have the kids do that with outdoor ed? Well, no, because here's the thing. Here's the thing. The only reason I think it's a ponderosa pine, they're not on trail. They're kind of tucked back, but they lose their pine cones on the trail.
01:00:25
Speaker
And usually if it's in the mixed evergreen forest getting closer to the chaparral, we have fewer ah needle trees, coniferous trees, more madrones and manzanitas, stuff like that. Live oaks like living up there.
01:00:41
Speaker
uh there's just a lot of poison oak once you get up there i just tell them not to touch anything green until i tell them to one of them got so confused last week they're like can we touch moss i'm like yeah that doesn't look like come on that doesn't look like poison oak that one's fine but yes i my guess based on the cone it looks like a traditional pine cone that you're picturing in your head it's a ponderosa pine that we do k crafts with with the small children if you wanted to make a bird feeder out of the pine cone put peanut butter on it and seeds this is your pine cone now cal is like never don't ever know my neighbors my neighbors in chicago have one of those and it's a good way to attract other things besides birds raccoons squirrels squirrels oh squirrels if you're on if you're really unlucky a raccoon a raccoon if you're really unlucky rat a rat
01:01:31
Speaker
And they're they're as big as raccoons in Chicago. so Oh, they're big. It's not good. It's not great. Yeah. And then Douglas fir cones are going to look different as well. They don't look like pine cones to me.
01:01:43
Speaker
they Do they look more closed up? They're all closed up. They're really narrow. um And they have these special little pieces of them that kind of look like, I describe it to the kids as like a lizard's tongue.
01:01:56
Speaker
It's kind of forked pieces and you see it on the outside. Yeah. Got it. What do redwood cones look like? Redwood cones and everyone gets so confused. they're like, elbow. That's my nature name.
01:02:07
Speaker
It's very. It's the nature name is elbow. Yeah, we won't get into it on the pod. It's not good enough. Redwood pine cones are very small. OK. Redwood pine, like the or and I should say redwood cones, not pine cones because redwoods aren't pines.
01:02:22
Speaker
Redwood seeds look kind of like poppy seeds. They're really, really small. They release a bunch of them. So in that way, if you looked at like our Western red cedars that we have in Washington, they're going look way closer in size to that as compared to a Douglas fir.
01:02:40
Speaker
And then the ponderosa pine is going to be like almost six inches tall. Okay. Yeah. Wow. That's fascinating. It is fascinating. I'm going say that the next time somebody says, is my small baby going to grow up to be a small person? I'm like, maybe not.
01:02:54
Speaker
Redwoods have very small seeds and then they grow up to be giant trees. Yeah. You're like parable the mustard seed. I raise you. Parable of the redwood seed. Wait, does mustard come on trees?
01:03:07
Speaker
Oh. Good question. No. Mustard grows like a plant? Yes. Okay. its could You know what? Again, let's... I haven't grown mustard. I still Google. Where was Google when I was taking biology? Oh, right. It hadn't been invented yet.
01:03:21
Speaker
No, because you got like mustard greens, right? No. I wouldn't buy anything like that at the grocery store ever. I don't know what you're talking about. It looks like lettuce. It looks like lettuce. Yeah. So if you get mustard greens...
01:03:34
Speaker
So it's just a plant, not a tree? Just a plant. Don't worry about it. And they have really bright yellow flowers. So if you're looking at some of the yellow flowering fields in Sweden, those are probably some mustard greens.
01:03:48
Speaker
Oh. Yeah. Okay. Probably where the yellow and the Swedish flag comes from. Some of it. Some of it's just, you know, barley. Oh. And rye. Rye.
01:03:59
Speaker
Okay. although So this brings up the question for the second half of the podcast here. What is your favorite kind of tree? at Mission Springs. And I'm going ask both of you one at a time. So Calla, why don't I start with you? What's your favorite kind of tree at Mission Springs? Well, the redwood tree. One, because I've been able to consistently identify it.
01:04:19
Speaker
And two, because they're just kind of awesome. I mean, people come from all over the world to see redwood trees because they're not everywhere. I don't want to bias people against more common trees because, you know, clearly Canadians like maples and stuff like that. But I mean, I think redwoods are pretty special.
01:04:33
Speaker
Yeah, they are. And they're especially designed like evolutionarily, if you're thinking about it, to resist fire. Right. All that fuzzy bark on the outside protects them from fire.
01:04:45
Speaker
And so not that many things kill them at all. They have to be cut down or struck by lightning. And those are pretty much two ways to kill a redwood. Interesting. So Emerson, what's your favorite kind of tree at Mission Springs? I love the redwood, but just for the sake of biodiversity, I think I'm going to say the bay laurel.
01:05:06
Speaker
I love the bay trees. Okay. So the bay laurel. Oh my gosh. What's a bay tree? They smell so good. They smell so good. They kind of fell into the pool a lot when we were younger. They were like the long skinny leaves.
01:05:20
Speaker
Okay. Kind of shaped like little boats. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And the reason why I like the bay laurel is like threefold. One, they grow up to be really big trees with branches up in the chaparral.
01:05:31
Speaker
We have a trail called Bay Tree Cutoff and all the naturalists are like, it's the best teaching spot and it's the farthest away to get to. Like you have to have a group that basically sprints after you on the trail to get there. Otherwise you can't teach there.
01:05:43
Speaker
So they have really big branches. They have a very nice wide canopy, tough bark, good for climbing. And then if you crush up their leaves, they kind of smell like eucalyptus. They have a menthol-y smell.
01:05:55
Speaker
I always am like, you guys, what does it smell like? I think it smells like a cough drop. and they're like, oh yeah. I'm like, mm-hmm. Smells like cough drop. And we put them in our water bottles just to make it look like something. But the...
01:06:07
Speaker
The big reason that I like the bay tree is that when the leaves fall, they turn yellow. And the yellow kind of long-shaped leaves that taper off at the ends are the reason banana slugs are yellow.
01:06:20
Speaker
Oh, because they are camouflaged. They are camouflaged, yeah. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, so bay trees, banana slugs, best of buddies right there. That's really interesting. I didn't know that. I love the smell of bay leaves. It's a smell that I associate with Mission Springs. Yeah. And for the Centennial, it was my suggestion that they make candles that smell like that. Well, we have so many.
01:06:42
Speaker
So it would be a waste of resources not to make some candles. I'll make candles in here. The red cabin will smell great. You want to make some candles? I don't know how to make candles. Every time I've tried, it hasn't worked very well. But for people who know how to do that, that's my challenge. Make some bay leaf candles. the One of the types of trees I really like, and this is something I've just recently learned, I like the madrone trees because of their red bark and then it kind of goes away and then you see all the green. yeah But what I learned actually from from grandma, from my mom, yeah was that you can't burn madrone wood because it burns so hot, it will like melt metal and stuff. yeah
01:07:23
Speaker
That's what she said. i know i mean i have I don't go around burning a lot of wood, but she said, yeah, you can't you can't burn it because it's so it's so strong. We had him a Madrone tree off the back of the brown cabin deck. And grandpa used to say, oh, he just loved that tree. It was his favorite little tree. And to be honest, I thought that that tree was really bold for trying to survive underneath all those other trees.
01:07:45
Speaker
But then at one point we got back to the cabin and it was all kind of burned up. It looked all, it just looked like something had happened. And I'm not sure it didn't get struck by lightning.
01:07:56
Speaker
I always like to think that maybe that tree saved the cabin because it got struck by lightning. Now that might not be true. That might just be some, some story I'm making up, but yeah, those Madrone trees are pretty cool.
01:08:07
Speaker
They are cool. All of the species here, all of them. And we learned this because part of one of our work days as the outdoor ed staff is Chloe took us, Chloe Michelle took us to Henry Cowell to help with their fuel reduction program, which is basically like setting little tiny controlled fires underneath.
01:08:25
Speaker
to make sure no big forest fire takes over big trees. So we were just raking piles of stuff and making a fire perimeter around all of the big trees. But he was like, you can, all of the species here grew up around wildfires. This is what they are designed to do.
01:08:42
Speaker
So the fact, they don't burn wildfires. very well in lots of other ways. And when they do burn, they release their, they're very adaptable to burning. There's a species up at Eagle's Landing that's called chemise. And it's really good at helping cover up the forest floor.
01:08:58
Speaker
Once a fire spread through, it comes over, it it covers everything up and helps ah other plants grow. That's so much good information. We're going have to have you back on the podcast, Emerson, to keep sharing things about...
01:09:10
Speaker
I didn't know a lot of that stuff about Mission Springs. Anything about animals, you got to give me a heads up because the other naturalists know way more than I do. We'll just maybe have to have a naturalist party on here and just get all the information from when you guys have a break, which isn't very often. yeah Have us on at our one o'clock break from lunch. Let's go.
01:09:29
Speaker
Exactly right. Yeah. Well, thanks for listening in today. It was fun to talk to Donna and Dean and Emerson and always, Kala, it's fun to talk to you and find out what we know and what we don't know about Mission Springs. Nice.
01:09:43
Speaker
Okay. Well, see you later. Till next time.