Mountain Life

July 21, 2016 by Don Gentle

Today’s Pictures

Life is good on the mountain!  As a camp director you learn so many different skills.  First, you generally have a basic knowledge of all the activities.  Of course, there are those cool skills like driving tractors, mending fences, playing with power tools, and loading hay in the barn on a fall day. Then there is less than exciting skills like plunging toilets, shoveling horse manure, Hobart dish machine, cleaning just about everything, and throw-up…  Today was one of those random skill days.  The girls from Keystone were coming over this afternoon and the soccer field needed to lined. What I thought would take about an hour, was later turned into a three-hour journey through line-paint, measuring, and math.  It did come out very well all the way down to the PK line.  You’d be surprised how much measuring there is for all the boxes, lines, arcs, and circles.  Woody was a big help as we rambled off dividing numbers converting back and forth from yards and feet, and generally trying to be sure we had it correct. Anyhow, I was quite proud of our work. I’ll have to be sure you have a picture of our field tomorrow.

We enjoyed a wonderful rain shower that came in right after lunch today. I really enjoy when rest hour and a thunderstorm come together in perfect timing.  It cooled the air a bit, and then settled down to a calm rain for just about an hour.  Our 3:00 activities were back in action right after rest hour.  Just enough rain to keep everything green…and wet :).

Hillside cabin is headed out for their cabin overnight tonight.  After a busy day in activities, these boys will spend the night out on the property at one of our five open-air shelters.  It is a great time for cabin bonding.  These guys will enjoy some grilled pita pizzas and a few sides, then wash it down with  sticky, chocolate dripping, marshmallow puffed s’mores.  It may not be surprising that most of this sticky greasy, ashen loveliness will be all over their faces and shirts.  As night falls, they all enjoy playing games around the fire until the counselors finally call it quits.  We will see them on their way back to breakfast.

As we get ready to head into the last weekend of the session, I am excited for what we have in store.  Tomorrow night we kick it off with a welcomed change to the normal routine as we host Air Band night. There will be the Upper Senior Challenge. The Big Catch for our Monday fish fry, and a square dance with Keystone Camp. The rest will come up later in pictures and prose.  Stay tuned.

Don