Camp Daniel Update

The Camp Daniel Appreciation picnic is just around the corner! Trish has been very busy making sure everything on the grounds is ready to go. One of the things she has been doing is working on the flower beds around camp. She has been pulling up weeds and trimming flowers and bushes. Over by Papa Tony and Grandma Jo's house there is a small spot in the retaining wall that has ground in it. There are a lot of weeds in that! She pulled all of them up, left the three small bushes there, and put down a weed barrier and covered it with mulch.

Trish also worked with Jen to finish staining the fence surrounding the new recycling area.

Tony and the guys have been working on the area around the new fence. The poured more concrete, laid some cap stones, and did some landscaping next to the fence.

 (Above) Grass was planted everywhere in this spot. Hopefully more will grow!

The other week, Jen got an email from somebody in Special Olympics asking if the Able Attack Special Olympics team wanted to go to a Brewer game! So Jen got some free tickets! Jen, Marceaux, Justin, Trish, and some athletes from our team got on a coach bus down to Milwaukee to go to the game! Everybody had a great time even though the Brewers lost against the Pittsburgh Pirates. We had great seats too!

Karol has been busy too. The Crivitz centennial is this weekend and they are going to be using some of our carnival games. Karol went over to the storage unit to unpack those games and get them ready to use on Friday. Summer is almost over and since our part of the lake here is overgrown with weeds, Karol took out the swimming raft. Before you know it, the ground will be covered with snow!

The weeks of summer camp have been done for almost a month now! Guess what? Molly put the pictures online for weeks one and two! She is currently going through weeks three and four, and will be online soon! If you want to check them out, they are on her Facebook profile or go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/revolutionarylove1/sets/

It rained up here a couple of days ago and washed out some of the areas that have sand. One of those areas is the driveway. The Mighty Men of Camp Daniel went around and filled everything back in.

Justin has been working with Tim Bazett-Jones on getting the new Camp Daniel website up and running. It is a big and long project but he is starting to get the hang of it. He will be meeting with Tim soon to get a good grip on things. Tim Mandich is going to gone this Friday, so he left Justin and Molly in charge of Able Church. Molly is going to be leading worship and Justin is going to be speaking. Justin has been preparing his message and getting it ready to go.

Tim Mandich has been getting ready for the men's Bible study on Tuesday nights after Special Olympics. He has found a book to go through. It will be a book written by Randy Alcorn about purity. Don't forget that Special Olympics starts on Tuesday September 10th!

Big Projects Around Camp

We have been really busy around here! Now that camp is done, we are getting back into the working groove. However, before I go any further, there is exciting information for you...we have two more people moving in to Camp Daniel for a one year internship! So say, "Hello" to Steve Rickerson from Chicago, IL..

...And Nick Sterry from Crivitz, WI!

Because they are moving in soon, Tony has been creating policies for the new internship program. Along with that Tony and the guys have been working on the addition of the garage. They have put siding on it...

...reconfigured the ground around it to look nicer and drain water more efficiently...

...put a fence up for the recycling area...

...and put in gravel in and around the area.

Wow! But wait, there's more! It still has to be stained! Jen started working on that.

What a big project, and it's moving along fast! Speaking of big projects, before camp started, the muffler on Tony's golf cart broke off of the engine. As a temporary fix, Tony took a small piece of metal piping and connected it from the exhaust to the engine with metal tape. It lasted for a while, but during camp, it broke off again. Marceaux has recently been working on it. He has ordered new parts so it works for a long time! Here is the new muffler next to the old one...

...What a difference!

Justin has been gone for a couple of weeks. When he got back, Papa Tony's new Mac mini computer was waiting to be set up. Papa Tony used to use a Windows computer, so Justin had to order new accounting software and convert all of his files to work on a Mac. It is finally done!

The Camp Daniel Appreciation Picnic is almost here (September 14th)! A lot of work needs to be done to the grounds before then. Tony and the guys planted forty more trees; Trish has been mowing, fertilizing, and weeding; and Jen and Molly have been weeding.

The Able Attack Special Olympics team will begin their Family Nights (practice, pizza, and bible study) again on September 10th. To kick things off, we will be having our annual picnic after practices. Jen has been very busy getting things ready to start the season.

HoneyRock Service Team

As well as the Our Lady of Hope Youth Group, the HoneyRock Service Team came up to camp to help us out! They have been coming up every summer for a while. One thing they did was re-staining the gazebo and Papa Tony and Grandma Jo's garage.

One big project that they did was sand the big Shopko trailer and take the stickers off of it. They did this so we can paint it.

Our Lady of Hope Youth Group

Camp Daniel 2013 is done, but there are only 321 days (27,734,400 seconds if you prefer) until Camp Daniel 2014! In between weeks two and three, there is a week without campers or counselors. Some call it the week off, but believe me, it's not. We were getting ready for weeks three and four. Also, during this week, Our Lady of Hope Youth Group from Chicago comes up and helps us build things around the grounds. This year they came and started to build the "backstage" in the garage (It will eventually be the dinning hall).

 This is the spot where we poured concrete right before camp started (See previous blog post).

 One group put fencing around pathways.

 One group placed capstones on the stone walls around camp.

The biggest project that this group did was laying sod around the two dorms. It took them all week!!

 Getting the ground ready by spraying it with water (Above)

 Making sure it fits nicely.

The Last Concrete Pour Before Camp

On Tuesday, we had the last concrete pour before camp. We had to get this pour in. We poured down by the garage and the youth group that comes from Chicago between weeks two and three of camp is going to build walls around what we just poured.

Waiting for the concrete truck to arrive

 Done!

We had some concrete left over so we poured a little up by the Trapline Lodge

Almost Here!

Yesterday, Papa Tony's and Grandma Jo's church came here after their church service and had a picnic. They also had a baptism here!

Camp is almost here and we are almost ready! We are going to pour more concrete on Tuesday so Marceaux has been getting the skid steer ready for that. Tony and the guys have been building concrete forms for this. Marceaux has been making sure that all of the lawn and garden tools are operational. He and Karol have also been spreading mulch around camp.

Karol has been mowing the grass and transplanting plants around camp. She has been proofreading the camp counselor manual for Molly. The other day, Karol went to two recycling centers and collected 200 soup cans that we needed for crafts. She also finished the 2013 Camp Daniel banner!

Molly cleaned out the craft cabin bathrooms, office, and the Lumberjack Lodge. Molly also did the top and bottom bunk assignments for camp. Molly, Justin, Jen, and Trish started printing, copying, cutting, organizing, and putting together the camp volunteer manual.

Jen has been getting all of the medical folders and name bracelets ready for camp. She has also been organizing the camp costumes.