September 7, 2011

Tony and the guys have been working long days on the outdoor stairs and the area all around it. The youth group that was here this summer put in the stairs, but there was still lots of retaining walls to be built, ground to be leveled, plants to be planted, etc. In the picture above, you can see them working on a short rock wall to hold the dirt in for the first level of the stair landscaping. The bottom level has rocks for it's wall, and the upper two levels have retaining wall. The rocks were all taken from the garden that was along the front wall of Molly's. They were all dug up and moved to the areas that you see here.
This photo was taken from the top of the stairs. You get a better "big view" idea of what's going on. At the bottom of the stairs, you can see where Tony added an 8' landing. This section allows for a gate that will go towards Marceaux' "dog house" (the kids old playhouse). If you go that way, you will no longer be able to go in front of Molly's bedroom windows. That "sidewalk" is now gone. Also in the picture above, is the beginnings of the plantings. In that section, Karol and Jen planted hostas that were taken from other areas.
In the above pic, you can see that the guys have pulled up the pieces of concrete that made up the old sidewalk.
The guys took those pieces of concrete and put them in front of the "dog house". This area is higher than it was before, plus it was just grass in front of it previously.
In this picture, the guys have the decking on the bottom landing. Plus, you can see the step up from that section to the gate that will go to the "dog house"
Jen finishing the hostas in the bottom level.
The guys took out all of the plants from the garden in front of Molly's today. Jen, Molly, Karol and Chrissy planted all of them around the grounds. Some went behind the snack stand, some by the office, some in front of Jen's and some to this new stairwell area. Molly is planting in front of the "dog house". In all of the areas we planted, weed barrier was put down, then a hole was cut for each plant before the digging and planting part. It's pretty time consuming during the planting process, but it sure does make weeding easier!
Jen is planting the ferns behind and alongside the "dog house"
Here you can see all of the plants and rock border gone. All that's left is the large bush. We had to use the skidsteer to move it; all of 10' to the right!
To the left of the old garden in front of Molly's was old concrete slab that extended past the newer closet/mechanical room addition that was put on before the Koch's moved in here. Tony cut the concrete with the concrete saw....
Then Nick got to town with the sledgehammer. They got all of the broken concrete pieces out. This entire area in front of Molly's is now level with the rest of the yard.

Also today, Chrissy, with some help from Karol browned 30 pounds of ground beef, 8 pounds of onions and 7 bunches of celery. After all were cooked, Chrissy mixed it all up and put them into baggies for our chili dinner this coming Saturday at the Camp Daniel appreciation picnic.

September 1, 2011

Well, we've had some time to recover from camp, so things are really picking up around the Camp Daniel grounds. The Camp Daniel Appreciation picnic is fast approaching. There are many projects that we want to have done so that the grounds are looking their best. Tony and Karol started projects in the Hartley House. In the picture above you can see that the sharpening wheel table is finally done! They rearranged pictures on the walls and did some general touch ups. Also the extra bedroom that Big Anthony DiBiase and Justin Steiner stayed in was cleaned out to make room for some upcoming changes. Karol worked on the backsplash in the kitchen. Stained wood does not, generally speaking, make for a very durable backsplash surface. It was bleached, re-stained and finished with a clear matt poly.
Tony and the guys spend a day plus, working on a bunch of things on the craft cabin. They installed a gutter and downspout. They added treated 2x4's to the bottom of the railing. These pieces beef up the railing visually and structurally. You can also in the above picture that the edge of the grass up against the deck was low, and that they filled it in, raked it out and seeded it. Also, under this porch, Tony finished wiring in two outlets and put the trim on two recessed fixtures.
In the picture above are more small projects that Tony and the guys did. They installed the exterior fixture. They also put and outlet and switch in and painted them green to match the walls of the cubby next to the bathroom
sorry, but these pics are out of order. We're back to the Hartley House. Karol painted the top 12 or so inches in the bathroom and installed a wallpaper border. She also painted the cabinet doors and a shelf under the sink. It's hard to tell in the pic but the color is a very dark mahogany. They also purchased new shower curtains for this bath. Tony and Karol are on the lookout for new mirrors for both bathrooms in the Hartley House. There's still many small projects to be done before the 10th, and with the help of the Camp Daniel missionaries, the grounds will be looking good.
Molly, Jen, Marceaux and Tim Mandich have been busy getting back into the swing of Friday night Able Church and preparing for the upcoming Tuesday bible studies and Special Olympics. Molly has also been preparing her house for Crystal, whom we're hoping will be moving in with her soon. Molly has also been spending time uploading and editing photos from camp. It's a big job and uploading takes a long time, but the pictures are worth it. You should check out her blog to see the most photos. She's also gotten ahead of the game by printing out address labels for the upcoming year for camper birthday cards and Christmas cards.
Marceaux has had some mechanic projects pile up on him over the summer, so he's been busy working on vehicles.
Tim Mandich has been heading up our fund raising campaign. He's working right now with a possible grant from Shopko, that we're all really excited about. He does a great job with that stuff, and has really filled a need on our staff.

Wednesday, July 27

The Our Lady youth group is back again this year working on multiple projects on the grounds. Camp Daniel has been so blessed by this group and the projects they've completed over the years! This year they are building new stairs on the hill between Molly's and the Craft Cabin (currently Jen and Marceaux' place). It's a major project and it's coming along quite nicely. These pics are all from yesterday. Things happen so fast during the week that they're here, that I just can't keep up!
They put split rail fence between the Lumberjack Lodge and Jo and Tony's house.


they've also done retaining wall projects around the grounds. In the pic above, they added retaining wall to finish off the area around the butterfly garden.

keeping it real

I've been needing to blog. And really...this is what's going on around here. The annual pre-camp tornado has settled over the Piantine household. The kids keep saying that camp is closer than it feels because there's not enough stress in the house. Well let me tell you that just looking at these pictures gives me stress! Tony has been pretty sick for about two weeks, so he's pretty limited in what he can do. Once he finished the camper/counselor matchups (temporarily finished, because we all know how many last minute changes there are) he started on theme night clothes. Karol and the guys went to the storage unit. First they packed up the carnival into the small enclosed trailer (check!!) then they went through the theme meal things. They brought back about a dozen bins of clothes and accessories. We went through each bin, and since then, Tony's been making pirate and western costumes. In the pic below, you can see Little Tony's sewing area. He works at his chair, on an ironing board.

I'm hoping that this chaos is at it's worst, but time will tell. Til then, pray for our strength and sanity throughout camp preparations!

June 8, 2011

Last Saturday night, Camp Daniel and The Able Church hosted "Dance for Disabilities." Seven other local disability organizations helped sponsor the event, which was held at Bay Beach. The dance was free to the 300 attendees.
Between fast dance boogies, there were free refreshments for the guests to enjoy. The music played from 6 til 9 and many danced the entire evening! We all had fun....
even the mayor of Green Bay, whom stopped by with his family. They, along with many of the other dance attendees, took time during the day to visit the rides at Bay Beach. The day was toasty, but the breeze off the lake felt good.
We danced to many classics such as the YMCA, the Chicken Dance, Celebrate, and the Electric Slide.
Of course, this event took many many hours of planning and work to pull off. All of the Camp Daniel staff were involved. It's always fun when we all come together for one goal.
Many things have happened since I last blogged:
Karol went to a training class in Green Bay for continuing education, which is required for the adult family home.
Chrissy and Karol took a day to go to the food bank in Omro to get food for camp and for the food pantry at Camp Daniel.
We all pitched in to get the grounds ready for Emily Neitzer's Graduation party, which was the first public event on the grounds for this year. It's a job to get all of the spring cleaning done in the snack stand; plus, all of the grass cutting and landscaping.
John, Sue and Corrie Koch were here visiting over Memorial Day weekend. We got a chance to catch up with them and make plans for the summer while they were here. They also had opportunity to visit many friends in the area. It was a great visit.
On Memorial Day, we all participated in DePere's parade with a large group from Mega. The beautiful weather really brought people out; we handed out about 3,500 Mega brochures with tootsie rolls stapled on. Oh yea, that was a job. We had our "stapling party" two nights in a row to get all those done!
Of course, Tuesday is meeting day. That always takes us to lunchtime, and shortly after that, Jen, Marceaux and Molly are off to Able.
Which brings us up to the couple days before the D4D, as we call the Dance for Disability. Tony was still printing brochures, Jen was organizing decorations with her mom and Karol was making signage, plus too many other things to even mention!
Marceaux got Karol's golf cart put back together, plus he got the riding lawnmower up and cutting again, which was a good thing.
Sunday, we all went to church, then Tony, Jen, Marceaux, and Molly headed straight to MN for Bit O' Sun camp. Larry and Carolyn Campbell are hosting this camp for people with disabilities. They've been involved in camps for years, but this is their first time running one. They enlisted our staff to help with speaking, recreation, and other things at the camp. Our staff will be back Friday night.

We had another work day last Saturday. The picture above shows the all day project of putting in the docks. The water level has gone up approximately 18" since last fall, so a lot of adjusting needed to be done on both the swimming and fishing docks.
Mark Jarosinski worked with Nick on the facade of Molly's house.
Last week Jen and Marceaux got a load of sand for the bocce court. The guys brought all the 100# bags down to the bocce court where the final layer was spread and shook with the compactor.
We've had issues with water runoff down by the lake. The sand went right up to a small piece of concrete sidewalk and when it rained very hard, the force of the water would wash the sand away. In the above pic the guys are filling with gravel to encourage drainage. They topped it off with dirt, which we will put sod on to encourage the rain to disperse before it gets to the sand.
Today Molly painted the door to the old playhouse, which is now Marceaux' Dog House. (Really, he's using it for hobbies)
Tim's been finishing the plumbing in the Lumberjack lodge. He's been setting toilets.

Thursday May 19

Three guys from the Black River Falls Assembly of God church came up last weekend to work. They came late Thursday night; worked Friday; and worked Saturday until they left after lunch. They worked on the exterior of Molly's house and did electrical work all around the grounds.
Jen's dad and Marceaux worked on Karol's golf cart, which needed major repairs. It's almost there!
A dream come true!! At long last, Tony's wish came true for a skidsteer. Camp Daniel saved up for many years to be able to purchase this used skidsteer with tracks. Tony and Tim say on a weekly basis how much easier something would be if we just had the skidsteer. As you can see it has a new bucket. There are many attachments on our wishlist. We have forks to be able to use it as a forklift, which will be a tremendous help as we currently have no way of moving pallets more than a few feet. We'd love to get a snowblower for winter.


A group from Able Church came up for the workday on Saturday. Some stayed the weekend. Above you see Peter and Jim cleaning brush and leaves.Our awesome raking crew braved cold and rainy weather!
Steve Hays was here for the day. Below he's just goofing around, but he did actually do some work. He and Jen's dad sanded and polyurethaned the stained bunkbeds.
Last week Little Tony and Richard spent two days cleaning the garage. We're trying to make room for Marceaux to be able to work on vehicles inside the garage. His mechanics stuff is crammed into a small area now and he needs room so that he can work all year round.
Jen and Marceaux took the guys last Wednesday to Chilton to get a one ton load of granite sand for a top layer on the bocce ball court.