This past weekend we had our usual monthly work party at camp and boy, what a party it was. More people showed up than we were expecting.....all (well mostly all ) with construction talent. I had to rearrange my schedule as the dining hall committee had a meeting with the Civil Engineer who is designing the service road into the new dining hall. I can tell you that after that meeting I have heard enough about grades, permits and even being "civil". The meeting went well and we were able to agree on a course of action. Greg Batie who was also in attendance took the afternoon to get a jump on the electrical project for the new Trading Post.
We had a number of staff members show up, in particular Andy Briggs, Andy Hoyle, Chris LaLonde and Derek Hayes along with his father Steve. They all pitched in on the Trading Post helping out not only Greg Batie but Greg Hammond who also attended along with Trent. Gary Smith also attended our meeting and then spent the weekend working on the Trading Post as well as Tom Rogers and Meredith Daniels. Basically, when we say "working" this essentially is having Batie measure something out, drill a hole through what he marked then drag wire through that hole. Simple? Not so fast my friend, it is amazing that to do that job right you need to be part contortionist. In any event, the doors are on, the windows in, plumbing is mostly done and the electrical is just about there as well. Finally we may get this thing done.
We were surprised to have Dennis Hummel and a buddy of his come up on Saturday as well. Dennis worked at CP in the 70's and spent two years as Head Cook. To this day I still believe that he ran the most efficient (and feared) kitchen of all the staffs I have worked on. I worked as his assistant cook for one season and enjoyed myself.....thank goodness the scars have healed. Dennis and his buddy were able to change out the door on the doctor's cabin. That was a project that had been on the list for some time.
Matt Jainga and Chris Myers were up on Saturday as well and along with Ralph Gorg and Bruce Duncan cut down the remnants of a large tree that was hanging precariously over the Mt. Olympus campsite. Not really in a place to do any physical harm to the structures there, but one heck of an attractive nuisance for scouts to try and climb up on. You see, that is Scout Physics Law #12; any inanimate object which has one end on the ground and angled so that the other end is at least (but not less than) 50 feet above the ground exerts an irreversible attraction to scouts.
I know that I have left out someone (Jim Watson, Alan Hutchinson and Sam Eng), but every ones help was appreciated particularly from Ken who was happy with all the work that was done. He was a little worried about the food as he didn't know that these many people were coming, but we had plenty of lasagna left over when everything was done. It was good chatting to the boys in the evening, even if it was freezing up there on the canal.
42 applications have been received; half from returning staff and half from "new" staff (many of whom were CITs last summer). We are off to a good start for 2012.