Quick Captions

Just a couple pictures and captions this week.  Then I'm headed off to West Virginia for a couple days.  I'll tell you all about it next time.

This is the underground tank that we replaced on the East Side.

All the decking is done, and almost all of the rafters.

We're looking forward to laying plywood and roofing soon.

Deck Project

Tearing out deckboards.

Frost has been greeting us in the mornings up here at camp as we literally tear into the deck on the East Side Dining Hall.  As clouds come and go it warms up and cools down at the work site.  It's weird to think of the hours of work put into constructing this deck turns into about 10 minutes of me slamming it with a sledgehammer.  That worked for the spindles, but the decking was a lot more work.  Soon enough we had half of the deck torn apart and we were already installing new posts and new deck boards. 

The stripped down deck.

Dan Haines cutting new deck boards.

Most of my pictures on this will be from the same spots, but I think it will be fun to see how the porch starts to form, leading up to roofing the last quarter of the dining hall.  Just a stone throw away Mike Alchin has been working on a leaky water tank that feeds the whole East Side of camp.  It's buried underground and looks about like an in ground swimming pool.  It's been debated a little, but it sounds like the tank was probably installed in the early 70's. 

We also spent some time hauling equipment away from Crosscut.  Why?  Because it was used by campers this weekend!  There is still some more work to do, but it is a fully functional lodge at this point.  Thank God for the hard work and money that people were willing to sacrifice for this place where God has blessed.

I'm getting used to the Fall schedule, and I really enjoy the Fall weekends.  This weekend I helped out by driving the younger boys on the East Side to their chapel on the West Side.  I enjoy getting to know the kids a little, and also talking to them out at Thunder Express.  As for me, I've been spending most of my time working, but I've also had time to play soccer, watch some movies, and even a little mountain biking.  I borrowed the new head mounted camera from camp, and here's a video of a quick ride on the shortcut from the Program Center to the Trailer.

Mike and Cody's Greenhouse

Wait, greenhouse?  Yep, you heard it right.  The guys who tear down, chop up, and burn hundreds of trees throughout the year are working on some tree planting.  And here's why:

The new stairway to Crosscut is mostly finished.  We framed the last landing and now we just have to put up some of the railing and spindles.  There is a bit of a bald spot on the side of the hill near the stairway, so we decided to plant some trees.  Mike Baker and I traveled around the lake and snagged 14 to start us off on this hill.  We tried for a variety, and planted them with some kind of super tree fertilizer pellets.  Hopefully most of them will grow to be big fellas.  Now Mike is chomping on the bit to plant about 20 more in that area.

So now we wait and water.  Sometimes we have 20 minutes to an hour of downtime during the retreats, so it's fun to swing over and give them all a little water.  This weekend we didn't have a whole lot of extra time.  It was Grandparents Family camp along with work crew.  All of that on the West Side. 

The work crew was from 5 Points Community Church over near the Pontiac/Auburn Hills/Rochester area.  They are a top notch work crew and they showed it this weekend.  About 25 teens and leaders helped to do a lot of work in a quick hurry.  The big help was about 7 trees near the West Side Ball Field.  We hesitated to take them down because we didn't think we could clean it up well enough before a retreat.  With all the help from 5 Points we did it all in one day DURING a retreat.  I spoke to some campers that were in the RV Park and they were impressed that all of the trees were cleaned up so quickly.  The staff also mentioned how hard working the group was, and how their attitude was excellent throughout the hot day. 

The grandparents seemed to have an enjoyable camp.  The weather was fantastic and the moon was rich and full at night.  This camp is fun to see grandparents try to wear out grandkids without getting too tired out themselves.  I think everyone sleeps well after running around at camp for a weekend, especially if they come visit me at Thunder Express.  I had a couple kids that probably went 10 times in a row.  That's a lot of uphill hiking. 

Tom Harmon was our speaker this weekend.  Several times he mentioned "if time stands, which probably won't be for long".  One time he mentioned that he'd still rather "go up with the trumpets" than die on Earth.  Well the feast of Trumpets (Deuteronomy 29:1) is coming up at the end of the month and it just reminds me that life could be all done any moment.  I'm happy to be spending my time at Camp, living and serving my best.

Another Fall is Here

The Fall is Here

It's really Fall now.  It was so cold that Titus Brown came through the trailer and closed several of my windows on Sunday.  I usually just leave them open and cover up with blankets.  He says I look like a babooshka wrapped up in my blanket in my chair.  I think things will warm up again shortly.  Funny to think that on the 1^st it was 90 degrees and I was at a Tigers game.

This weekend we had a Family Camp.  It's interesting to watch the different families that come up here year after year.  I've been able to spend time with the some of the kids at all 4 of the family camps.  One of them is named Cody actually.  I was able to talk to him this weekend, and he spent a lot of time on the blob while I was lifeguarding.  I also spent some time on the Zipline and several trips through the dish room.  

The weather was the peculiar aspect of the weekend to me.  I think that we bounced from high 80's to low 60's as the weekend rolled on.  The crisp air makes me want to run out and play some football.  Instead, I'll probably spend the day unpacking my things, and really moving into the trailer.  So far I have my stuff in the building, but I need to get it all unloaded and put right where I want it. 

As for the maintenance department, we have a busy Fall planned out.  So far there has been a lot of getting ready for Fall camps.  That means tidying up the buildings and preparing the grounds for visitors.  For me that meant moving the Handcrafts tables from the East Side to the RV Park and cleaning up the cookout and campout sites in the national forest.  The big project for the maintenance group has been a giant stairway for the Crosscut parking lot.  I've been able to help on it here and there, but not very much.  I'll be able to work on the finishing touches this week. 

Please pray for the work that is coming this season!