Going back to October...

Going back a bit in time for today’s blog.  Camp Daniel hosted a work day Oct 26th.  While leaves were being raked outside, Karol was working inside on the frosted glass for The Factory’s front door.  First, a design was made with specialized computer software.  The design features The Factory in a stencil font with different shapes and sizes of gears arranged around the perimeter.  Then the design was cut out of vinyl with the digital cutter machine.  The positive elements were pealed away leaving a sticky vinyl stencil.  The stencil ( in green in the pic to the right) was firmly applied to the door.  Then the areas of the door around the window were all taped off, so that the spray on etching could be applied in several light layers.

Here’s the end result!
We are still working on The Factory.  When it’s all done, we will do a post showing the progression of the project.  So look for that in the next few weeks!

A group from The Able Church comes to Camp Daniel each fall for a work day of raking leaves.  We really appreciate their dedication and support. Not only did they get all the fallen leaves raked, but they also did  some other outdoor projects.  They shoveled gravel into wheel barrels and moved the rock to Trapline Lodge, where many hands were at work putting in a length of plastic garden edging, weed barrier, and finally gravel.

Last Work Day for Fall 2013

 Last Friday and Saturday, Camp Daniel hosted it's last official work days for the year 2013.  We were blessed to have multiple groups involved in the many projects that were tackled.
Friday afternoon 8 people from Word of Grace church of Sheboygan arrived ready to work.
They started by priming the new/temporary work room.  It's the old shed roofed wood shed on the backside of the garage.  It was enclosed this summer, and the guys have been working hard to get it ready to paint.  While some were busy there,
the rest got a tutorial on how to tile a wall.  Karol and Nick Sterry worked with the volunteers, and working together, they got far.

 When volunteers were working on projects, Trish was busy in the kitchen preparing meals for everyone.  Over the course of the weekend, she served over 120 meals!

On Saturday, a group from Woodland worship Center added to the mix.  We continued with tiling, and after the workroom (which will eventually be a backstage area of the future dining hall) was painted, the crew began to move all of the tools from the dorm.  

An additional group started on the tongue and groove on the ceiling of the Hartley House porch.  This is a job that we've wanted to have done for quite a while.  As you can see in the pic above, they had a good system going with the guys using the nailers to install the wood, while the ladies' were in charge of measuring and cutting.  This was a big job that will have to be finished in the spring.

Below, is Tony really pondering something profound, or is he just trying to figure out why the tile doesn't go the edge of the wall?

Overall, this workday finished out the season with a bang.  We were very happy with how many different things were done.  We had as many as 35 people working at once! That takes a lot of coordination and preliminary work, but when it's all done, there's few things more rewarding than seeing how much was accomplished.
THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE VOLUNTEERED AT THE CAMP DANIEL GROUNDS THIS FALL!!

Pumpkin Carving

 While this blog generally covers the work done on the Camp Daniel grounds, I thought it would be a nice change to show the Camp Daniel family taking some time off for fun.  Trish had the great idea to do a pumpkin carving night complete with snacks and apple cider.

 So the Camp Daniel missionaries and good friends, Rudie Koch and the Cleereman family all brought their pumpkins to the Hartley House where Trish had two long tables set up for carving.

                                                                                                                                                                 

 Leave it to a guy to feel the need to pull out the power tools to carve a jack-o-lantern!  We were debating whether Marceaux was cheating, or showing us his genius.

an MJ size pumpkin.

Molly and Justin were such a cute couple, as they took 2 hours to carve a pumpkin together.  Justin probably got a sore neck because he had the little carving knife in his teeth and was sawing back and forth.  They made a minion which is super cute.

At Camp Daniel, we try really hard to succeed in living in community.  It's not always easy, as we have many different personalities, but it's times like this that bring us all together again.  And it's very easy to just keep on working, working, working, and forget about taking time out for fellowship and fun.  So I thank Trish again, for being such a great asset to the Camp Daniel missionary family.

If you'd like to see more pics of the festivities, and the finished pumpkins, check out some of the facebook posts from Annissa and Trish.

Camp Daniel

Winter is soon coming! It started to snow here yesterday, and guess what? A little bit stayed on the ground for about fifteen minutes! Pretty soon we'll have a foot of snow! Well, we all know what holiday is in winter, Christmas! Everybody loves getting Christmas cards from friends and family. Molly has been writing Christmas cards to send out to each camper! She also puts a picture of everybody that was in their cabin that week.

Another thing that comes around this time of year is the Camp Daniel newsletters get sent out! Molly, Justin, Karol, and Trish spent the afternoon on Wednesday putting address labels on all of the newsletters! After that was done, Trish and Jen brought them to the post office.

As well as the newsletters, Tony and Karol have been working really hard on the craft cabin! It has come a really long way. They have been working day and night, and it looks great!

The Able Attack's first volleyball tournament is next Saturday! This past summer, Justin's home church raised money in their VBS program for new uniforms for the team. Justin and Jen have been working together to buy new uniforms. They look really awesome! We will put a picture on here when they are delivered.

Justin has also been working with Pastor Tim to create an Able Church website! It has been a very long process, but it will be done soon! All that's left is putting the pictures in where they need to go!

Camp Daniel Update

It's getting colder and colder each day here at Camp Daniel. The leaves keep on falling and winter is coming fast! Since all of the leaves are falling, that means the grounds are covered in them. Well, Trish needed to mow the grass one last time before winter arrives but couldn't because of all the leaves. So, for in order for Trish to mow the grass, Nick, Steve, Trish, and the guys went around and raked some leaves. Now, in the last blog post, we said that the Able Church would rake when they came up for a workday. But don't worry! There are still plenty of leaves to be raked!

Tony and Tim Mandich went to Indianapolis for a Disability Leadership Conference this week. So, when Tony was gone, Nick, Steve, and the guys put up drywall and plastered the seams in the new addition on the garage. They spent a couple of days working on that. It's looking pretty good! When it is finished, we are going to move the tool room down the so we can finish the Trapline Lodge.

After they did that, they went up to the work room and cleaned it. It was really dirty!

Who remembers Messy Games? Who can forget, right? Well, do you remember at the end of Messy Games the is a huge water fight? Well, all of those squirt guns needed to be cleaned out, and somebody had to figure out which ones didn't work anymore. Justin and Molly spent a whole day cleaning, drying, and sorting through all of the water guns! There was only a handful of them that didn't work.

Tony and Karol have been continuously working on the blueprints for the Dining Hall/Kitchen. There have been a total of fourteen rough drafts in sixteen years! Well, they have finished what they hope to be he last one! And it is amazing!

October 12th Camp Daniel Workday!

We had another workday on Saturday up here at Camp Daniel! We had quite a few people come up. Seeing as it is Autumn, that means there are a LOT of leaves that are falling off the trees. Somebody has to rake them, right? Well, that's what one group of people did...rake leaves. A lot. And even thought they raked a lot, there are still plenty of leaves that still need to be raked! (Maybe a job for the Able Church Workday?!)

While they were walking around camp raking leaves, another group was up in the Trapline Lodge plastering and tiling the walls. This group included Becca and Shelly Risner, one of their friends, Don Richmond, Steve, and Nick Stonelake. They did a great job!

While they were doing that, Lilly Howe and her Dad, Richard, Nick Sterry, and Jake were in the new addition of the garage plastering the walls! 

But wait, there's more! (This is a big workday!) Tim Mandich came up to the work day and worked with two more people and put up a small retaining wall continuing from the existing one down by Tony's office. This was a VERY dusty job! They had to cut the concrete stones to make them all fit next to each other.

And don't forget about the craft cabin! They took out all of the drawers and cabinet doors so Karol can sand them and get them painted.

After the workday, there was another Camp Daniel Counselor Meeting which we have here every second Tuesday of every month. Not as many people showed up to this one, but there was still a good turnout! On Saturday night, we talked about our favorite movie and how it affected us spiritually. Comment your answer below! We'd like to hear from you!

Concrete Pour!

We poured concrete twice this week! That's right twice! We poured sidewalks up by the Trapline Lodge on Monday and more sidewalks around the Trapline Lodge and the garage on Wednesday. Justin was really excited about these pours because he can now go all the way around both dorms without going inside of them. We started pouring at eight in the morning on both days. On Wednesday, it was so cold that Justin had to go inside before we were done. Steve and Nick learned how to use the machine that smooths out the concrete. They did a great job! After everything was all said and done, these concrete pours went really well!