Concrete in the snow

 I really just feel bad for this concrete crew.  They worked in Rhinelander all winter, through sub zero and snow; afterwards, they started here, and the weather hasn’t improved much, even though the calendar insists that it’s spring.  We got about 4 more inches of the wet heavy snow last night.  In the pic above, you can see where they have finished the tall walls, and have dug the footings for the front wall.  The concrete is mixed with hot water, and steams as it comes out of the truck.

 In the photo above, they have everything poured, and the insulation on .  The picture below is the tall wall.  After it was poured and the forms removed, they paint a black tar-like membrane on the concrete.  Then it’s covered in plastic, and the pic polystyrene goes over all that.

 This picture ws taken this morning.  The excavator is back filling the footings.  This crew will be done within the next day or so, and the framing crew will then start.

 While the professionals work on the new building, we’ve been working on the finishing details of Trapline Lodge.  Karol finished the logos in the 4 bathrooms.  Next will be the paw prints.

The guys have been trimming, installing door knobs, filling nail holes (which seems to be never ending).  Dave Dettloff was here and got the stall doors up in two of the baths.  So we’re really moving along.  Main things left are the last 2 floors (waiting for warm weather) and the finish plumbing.  Of course, in between those things, there always seems to be shoveling!

Construction update

 The concrete crew is working so quickly on the new building at Camp Daniel.  This week they put in the long pieces of rebar that will give the concrete walls strength.  Monday morning a flatbed truck rolled in with the forms for the walls, followed by two dump trucks of gravel.  This week has been a race against the spring road restrictions.  Basically, get as much here as possible before the weight limits are reduced.  The limits cause many more trips of materials than would otherwise be necessary; and we all know about the price of gas!

 By yesterday afternoon, the forms were in place for about half the wall.  A pumper truck was brought in, and the concrete trucks came one after the other to get the forms filled.  If you’re not familiar, the concrete truck dumps into another vehicle that pumps the concrete up the high arm you see in the pics.  The crew then has great control over a narrow steady stream on concrete.

 While all that was going on, more flatbeds brought materials.  One load was the floor trusses.  And the other is sheeting and lumber.

The fun part is that while all that’s going on, the rest of us were busy working in Trapline Lodge dorm.  Karol has been painting the logos in the cabin bathrooms.  Bobcat is the furthest along.  Marceaux and Brian were installing all the trim pieces for the venting in the last two rooms.  Trish and Molly filled nail holes with putty, which is a seemingly endless job.  Richard, Nick, Nick and Steve still had some doors and trim to polyurethane, so they tackled that job.  Afterward, Steve and Nick installed door knobs.  Molly sent out additional camp applications too.  

And after working all day in the dorm, most everyone was off to Green Bay for Special Olympics and Bible study.  

Breaking Ground on New Multi-Purpose Building!

 I am so glad to be able to finally announce that we have broken ground on the new multi-purpose/garage at Camp Daniel!!  The process for this building started well over a year ago with a floor plan by Karol and Tony.  The journey has brought us into contact with builders, architects, contractors and inspectors.  We were introduced to Frontier Builders, of Kaukauna, and they have been instrumental in bringing it all together and at a price that we can afford.  Permit holdups and the worst winter in recent history had joined forces, causing a 90 day delay in construction.  So when the equipment starting rolling in on Monday, we were very excited.  First job; snow removal.

 Then they got down to the real excavating.  The ground wasn’t frozen as far down as one would have thought (I would have guessed at least a mile and a half!)

 That excavator would have made Mike Mulligan proud.  In no time, the guys were putting in the forms for the footings.

Yesterday and today they poured concrete.  It was a very different feeling to have a cement truck roll up and not have all of our missionaries around, in rubber boots, with shovel in hand.  I can’t tell you the last time that’s happened!

Just in case you didn’t know how awesome Camp Daniel counselors are

Just in case you didn’t know how awesome Camp Daniel counselors are.....

We received a large envelope in the mail last week from a counselor, Alicia, that came to Camp Daniel via her high school Spanish teacher, Crystal, whom came to us through her dad, Rick, whom attends Tony and Jo’s church in Athelstane.  

Alicia had Barbie as a camper last year.  Barbie is a beloved fun loving camper, who also happens to be one of our older campers.  She has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair, and struggles to communicate.  

A letter in the envelope explained that said counselor, Alicia, is studying speech-language pathology in graduate school and that “Barbie has no way of communicating besides the words “yes” and “no” with a lot of effort.  So, I have made a communication board for Barbie to use while at camp.”  She went on to explain that it generally takes many attempts by professionals to get the right communication board, but that she wanted to try anyways.  Alicia went on saying, “Everyone deserves to be able to communicate and it breaks my heart that Barbie is so limited and has nothing to help her.  I thought that doing something is better than doing nothing...”

Since Alicia spent so much time with Barbie, she was able to customize the board to her specific interests.  The back of the board gives great directions on how to use the board for Barbie’s future counselor.

How cool is that?