Friday, March 26

Jen's week: She worked on her newsletter on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Printer problems made her task harder than anticipated! With the wedding not too far off, she's been doing "wedding stuff" like dress fitting, cake decisions, etc. Jen also fit in doing therapy on Sue's neck and Nick's knee. And the funnest thing of the week must have been starting her taxes.

Marceaux's week: Marceaux started a job working with the census. He been working everyday, and in his freetime, he worked on the old van with the wheelchair lift, trying to get that running again. He also did work on John's van and Jen's car.

Karol's week: She edited the working draft of the Camp Daniel newsletter. She also started painting the exterior signs for the gift shop. Thus far; primer, two coats of green and first coat of yellow lettering. Two more coats of yellow to go and a few coats of a white directional arrow on each. She took advantage of nice weather and cut back the remaining plants from last year that were all around the Hartley House. She sewed a cushion for a thrift shop chair and cleaned up the wood on it. (I'll post a pic after the finishing touches are done)

Tony's week: He just found out that he was successful in acquiring, from a church in Ohio, a used commercial quality camera for making videos.
He worked on the sound system for camp. Every cord, wire, sound board, video, etc, were brought out, checked and reorganized. He sold some old equipment on ebay and at a sound store in Green Bay. He made a camera for the Two Night Show with Georgie Pongerins so that we can get a few more countries on our outgoing satellite feed.

Tim's week: He fixed the exterior siding on the girl's dorm. There was a section that didn't get attached properly. He finished the last (top) row of tongue and groove in room one of the dorm, and started to apply the polyurethane finish that he picked up in Green Bay on Wednesday, along with stain and supplies needed for upcoming workdays. He also picked up some tiles from Menard's and went over the prospects with Tony and Karol. There were also decisions made regarding the flooring, and many other finishes in the dorms.

Tony and Jo are coming home from Florida today.
Molly had a birthday on Thursday!!
John went out to Minnesota to address some issues on their new house, and Sue's been working. She took the guys to the library on Thursday.

Thursday, March 18

Maiden voyage of the Camp Daniel bus! We were on our way for a day of fun at Silver Birch Ranch in White Lake, WI. (about an hour west of us). Below is pictured, Chrissy and Tommy Kelly ready to go out on the trails.

The rock climbing wall was a hit. Here, we see Jen and Marceaux having a race to the top. (Jen won, but I think that Marceaux went easy on her at the end.)

New to Silver Birch is the "Leap of Faith". It's in the climbing tower. You jump off the ledge and try to ring the bell that hangs from the ceiling. You are rigged to the ceiling, but it was still scary.

John and the guys have, twice this week, gone to help the Rakowski's (a local family) with the sap buckets on their maples.

Tuesday, Tony and Karol went to Green Bay to take a class that's needed for continuing education, which is required by the state for the adult family home licensing.

Chrissy and Tony have been working on the next newsletter, which is set to be mailed in mid April.

Today, Tony, Karol and Chrissy sat down and had a two hour meeting on the food and kitchen needs for camp this summer. Some fun changes were made to the menu!

Tony's now working at trading our excavator for a skidsteer. He's found someone on Craig's list, who's interested. It's hard to express how much such an acquisition would make Tony and Tim's day!

The guys have been taking advantage of the great weather by raking the grass, sweeping the winter sand off of the walks, and doing some general outdoor cleaning.

Friday March 12

The search is finally over!! Last weekend Karol and Tony went to Chicago to look at two more buses, and were happy to close the deal on one. Tony was very happy with the quality of the bus for the price we paid, he said he would have paid $2,500 more for the same bus! He explained to the seller our needs and what we do do and he was able to knock the price down for us. It's a 15 passenger Ford 450 diesel engine, which we will add a kitchen grease burning kit at some point. The interior is a lot nicer than most of the buses we looked at during the exhaustive 3 week search. It has a wheelchair lift and tie downs for multiple chairs. It gives us the freedom to head to church in Green Bay carrying everyone in one vehicle instead of the three we take now. We'll be taking it on its maiden Camp Daniel run this Saturday, as the Camp Daniel missionaries are all going to Silver Birch Ranch Camp for a day of retreat fun. More on that next week.

Last Saturday, the Able Attack basketball team had a tournament in Menasha. They went one for one, but lost the lottery to advance to the next level tournament. So their basketball season has, unfortunately, ended for this year. They had a final practice and season wrap up on Tuesday.

Tim has finished mudding the dorm. (for a few months anyways) His shoulder is quite glad to be done with that for a while. On to finishing up tongue and groove.

Marceaux and the guys finished taking down the shack by the church in Athelstane. They salvaged the excellently weathered corrugated roof, and most of the crackled paint wood that was the walls. We'll be able to do some cool stuff with the salvage. Actually, we already used some. Last summer, the "rock bath", Tim made the chair rail and mirror frame out of the wood. He'll use more to make a door for the closet in that bath.

Marceaux has also been working on the Dodge wheelchair van, as it will go for sale now that we have the bus.

Today, after finishing the plaster, Tim prepped the third room to be used as a paint room. He then cut out the boards that Karol will use to make signs for the Camp Daniel Christmas gift shop and for the dorms.

This week, Karol and Tony have been busy trying to fill Tony Sr's shoes. Lots of mail, phone messages, bills to pay, application requests to send, camper parents to call back, etc.

Tony has been working on getting ahead of camp preparations as he leaves with Tim and Chrissy for Africa on June 10. He also has been sending out letters asking for partners in prayer and finances for the trip. He has been doing cleaning and maintenance on the sound systems and lights, getting ready to start rehabbing trailer into a new outdoor stage and sound both for camp.

Karol ordered vinyl for the new diecutter machine that we were able to purchase from donations via the newsletter. We'll be able to make professional vinyl logos for the new bus and signage. It's exciting, and a little intimidating. It's a complex computer program that is used with this machine. You just don't think about the amount of time and research that goes into so much stuff around here. Vinyl. Who has the best prices? Which brand? Which colors? Do we need the 50' rolls, or the 10'? Do we spend more on the high performance grade, which costs more? How about the transfer tape? How does that work? How much do we need? Then we had to order window cling vinyl for the signs that go on the glass doors in the office. Such a major production. I'm pooped just thinking of it all. And in the end, it was a good couple of hours work. Which is why sometimes when people say "what do you do all winter?", I'm momentarily speechless.....

Monday, March 8

Last summer we had a bear donated. He was a 300 pound black bear that had fallen out of a tree, injuring his hip and died from the injuries. We took him to a taxidermist in Three Lakes that's been very good to us in the past. He's been working on the bear when there's extra time, as he's donating his services. We decided to give our bear a visit, and give you an update on his status. They are working on the mold cast for the fiberglass. He will be standing on his hind legs and reaching up with one arm toward a beehive. The below pic is his hind end and legs. Yes, those are playing cards. Mitch said that the cards are embedded into the clay so that the fiberglass will have seams.

This is his head. It's pretty funny looking without the ears, but the nose is very bearish.

This is his torso and one arm that is reaching up.

Molly, Tony and Karol went to Three Lakes on Monday to get a used auto part that Marceaux needed to fix a Camp Daniel van. They also went to visit Molly's mom, Robyn, whom works as a cook in the kitchen of Honeyrock Camp. Everyone at Honeyrock was very accommodating, and answered all of their questions quite patiently. Karol and Tony are currently working on the plans for Camp Daniel's future kitchen and dining hall, and the more information on what to do and what not to do, the better. Honeyrock's dining hall seats about the same about as Camp Daniel's will, so it was confirming regarding the planned size of the kitchen and the dining room. Honeyrock also donated over a 1,000 plates, mugs, and bowls, and over 1,400 cups. The van was riding pretty low on the way home. Karol was happy to have such a great storage spot for them in the attic of the dorm.

Tim's still mudding. He probably does it in his sleep. The second bath is done, and the furnace room is done. He and the guys are currently on the third room.

Marceaux and the guys are taking down a very old, small wood building with a corrugated metal roof. It's next to Cornerstone Church in Athelstane. They've taken a number of trips back to Camp Daniel with the good stuff and the non usable wood that will be burned.

John and Sue came back from their trip on Monday, and on Tuesday, Tony and Jo left for three weeks in Florida.

Monday, March 1

Last Friday, Rick Bub and company came out again and worked on tongue and groove. You can see in the pic below how awesome it looks. We're so glad that we put the dormers in each room, as they let in so much light, and make the rooms feel so much larger than they actually are. Tim, Marceaux, "the mud mixer", and the guys mudded the furnace room. The official workday was last Saturday. Below you see Jen and Crystal (Molly, although not in the pic helped too) mudding the joints of the cement board in the bathroom. Prior to this, they taped all of the seams. A small group came with the Wieds for the work day. They put vapor barrier up in dorm room two and started the tongue and groove. They also prepped dorm room three to receive tape and a first coat of mud on the ceiling, which Tim and co. will start this week. Brian, the electrician from Living Hope Church, finished the rough electric in the second dorm, then finished some wiring on the furnaces in dorm 1. Tim and Co. mudded coat one in bathroom 2. It's very exciting to see the rooms taking shape!

Karol made Annissa's headboard on Friday and Saturday. Annissa was very happy. Good thing it's only a twin because it's pushing 50 pounds!

I forgot to mention in the past, Tony and Anthony have been working over the past few weeks on a very special project to be unveiled at camp. I won't show any pics or give too much behind the scenes info, so as to not spoil the magic. But how cool would it be if Georgie could roll around camp in his wheelchair and interact with the campers?...........

...........you'll have to come to camp this summer for the details.

Last week Karol did research on the best way to do the doorknobs in the dorms. I know what you're thinking, but nothing is as simple as you'd think. The issue was how to do the door that goes between two dorm rooms. It needs to lock, but be unlockable from both sides. Thankfully, Schlage makes a double cylinder deadbolt. It has keyhole on both sides. This will be used in conjunction with a closet (non-locking) lever handle. Menards had the lever handles on sale, so Karol took advantage of that and bought the handles for two of the rooms.

Tony's search for a many passenger van continues. I'll keep you posted as things develop. They are currently many irons in the fire.