Snow Required

This week was a little bit different than normal for me and Mike Baker.  We've received very little snow and what we did get was really powdery, so we took the mission of trying to groom the tubing hill.  It's something that camp has tried before with some success, but at the cost of a lot of cold hours with the "Backyard Blizzard".  So Mike and I started out by just watering the hill to ice it up a little, then dragging snow from all over the valley to layer the snow.  We were thankful for help from 3 of the other folks on seasonal staff because moving snow can be pretty grueling stuff.  

Our efforts seemed to be helping firm up the snow, so we kept at it while considering more options.  We had decided the Backyard Blizzard should at least be tested, but that turned out to be its own adventure.  The cover of the machine has 7 easy steps for starting up, and it even says after the steps, "You're Making Snow!".  It turns out that after sitting for years the snow machine was frozen up pretty good, then we had issues with the hoses freezing.  We finally got it spraying a slurry of snowy/icy/watery stuff on Thursday evening.  Just then we tried to move it to where we needed the snow, and the connection for the water hose broke off.  It was pretty much the last straw for us.  We fiddled with it a little more, but couldn't get it to work very consistently.  So it turns out it doesn't make snow necessarily.

It's funny how we can spend a straight week coming up with all kinds of ideas to make snow and firm up the snow we already have, but then the weather changes and it so effortlessly drops from the sky.  Kind of a humbling experience as God dumped about 3 inches on us Friday night and the hill was successful all weekend.  So now I think I'll have a different perspective as I see the air full of thick and fluffy snow.  I also was able to spend some time down in Crosscut one afternoon.  We may have to rename the building "Dan's Hermitage" as our newest Full Time Staff has spent about 2 months straight down there. It's time well spent though, as he's doing a marvelous job laying tile in the bathrooms.

So I'm thankful for all the staff that we have here.  It makes it possible for us to get a lot of work done throughout the week at camp.  In other news I've been participating in a Bible study that Randy Harris has been hosting for some of the local teens.  I've enjoyed gathering, praying, and studying with these guys for 2 weeks, and I'm looking forward to this continuing throughout the season.  Camp saw another Teen Retreat and a Father/Son retreat pass through over the weekend, with Don Jackson and Tom Harmon preaching. 

Thanks for following!  Glory to God for all the work we've been able to do on camp and more importantly, with the campers.