Stomping Ground: May 2022
After a great family reunion held at camp in October of 2021 a bunch of us decided to return to camp for a week in May of 2022 to help get camp ready for the larger number of campers expected in summer of 2022. When Pam and I let the family know we were taking an airbnb for a week to volunteer we were surprised and happy to here that Maury Schott wanted to join us at the bnb, Bob Bayley and Ernie Dankert (close friend of the Bayley’s and camp) would come and stay in Ernie’s coach and all our boys plus Erin could come and stay at camp for at least some of the time.
Beds
George, the camp facility manager had called a few weeks before our trip and asked if I could design some low cost bunk beds. I sent him a couple designs and when we got to camp he said he needed 14 new bunks built to one of the designs he had tested out. So we set up a bed factory.
The weather was beautiful so we set up outside the shop cutting all the parts, which then needed pocket holes (Maury learns a new skill) and to be sanded and sealed (Pam and Erin)
What have I gotten into.
Break time with bunks and doors in background
A small subset of the bunk sides stacked against the shop for polyurethaning
Maury and John assembling in the barn
First finished product. By the time we left all the parts were cut, sanded, polyed and all the sides were assembled. Four bunks completly assembled, the rest just needed the ends screwed on.
Erin sanding the sides.
Doors
It turned out that the 44 doors we had built in Uncle David’s basement for the mini cabins in the winter of 2019-2020 held up better than either of the commercial styles that were installed in the blueberry or cedar villages. So when we got to camp we needed to cut, assemble, paint, add screens and hardware and install 8 new screen doors.
Maury and John assembling doors on the picnic table bench
Pam and Erin painted the doors hanging between the shop and the giant shade tree
We left with 8 new doors installed
Removing old and installing new doors in the blueberry village. Luckily some volunteer dads did the installs at the cedar village
Maury and Bob and later Erin attaching hardware screens and insect screens
Roofs
The camp crew had moved two of the mini cabins below the dinning hall closer to two others to form a new “village”. The boys (Jesse, Jack and Stephen) tore off the old metal roofs and installed new on all 4 cabins only stopping when they ran short of material so the camp crew would have a little finish work to do. When Bob B. came down with covid symptoms, he and Jack tested positive and had to leave per camp guidelines (Ernie took Bob). Jesse, Stephen and Erin decided to leave a day early since the boys had run out of materials. The rest of us formed a bubble and tested for a few days with the camp staff (all negative) so we could keep working.
A cabin in the new village in need of a new roof. The excavations are for the trenches dug to install conduit to run power to the cabins. Each "cabin" had started life as a boy scout lean-to and had been better enclosed and had screen doors added on some of our earlier visits to camp.
Jesse and Stephen getting started
Note the boys in shorts for this hot stretch. A year earlier on a similar work trip we had about 6 inches of snow.
Jack and Jesse finishing one side
Dad was happy to stay off the roofs but got called in to help with a chalk line
Looking good including the new powerline going in thanks to Dylan with some help from Jack
All the rest
With nine of us working and Pam (our photographer) painting, sealing and running to hardware stores it was hard to capture all the Schott crew’s activity let alone those of the camp staff and the camper family volunteers who came for a weekend but here are a few random peeks
The day we arrived John M. had decided it was time to demolish the back addition to the White house (Note the Scouts called it the White House, Camp calls it the Farm House so you'll see both used here). So George worked with John M. much of the week clearing up the debris. An HVAC contractor was installing a new furnace and duct work after the camp crew had gutted the main building.
Front of the White house showing some of the stabilization work that has been done over the winter and early spring. Note the sign to encourage locals to help restore this 1840s farm house. This will be a massive undertaking.
John M. started the excavation for the cellar to go under the new back addition. The old addition sat on rubble. The new one will have a basement as does the original structure.
Laura and John M. discussing the work at the White house
Jack "working" at the Getaway. Pam spent a couple days painting in the Getaway. Check out the floors Laura and crew restored.
Ernie's vintage GMC motorhome parked alongside the camp's vintage tractor he helps maintain. Ernie has mechanical, vehicle and internal combustion engine skills the rest of us lack and spent his time in and under the camp's vehicles much to Dylan's thanks.
Seems like there is always electrical work for John (his happy place). By the time we left Dylan, Bob and John had all 4 cabins in the new village on line and all but the breaker box installed at this mini-cabin in front of the refurbished Banker cabin. The new village will let camp grow by about 100 camper weeks this summer. That's a lot of happy kids and makes the cash flow more manageable
This is the new memory pad (my name, I don't know what camp is calling it) where donors can "buy" a paver and share thanks and memories
Here is one of a few stones we recognized. It is also a reminder to me to once again say thank you to the Schott Family and Friends for all the support they provided to Camp. We had scheduled this trip to dedicate a cabin to Justin Schott but the Covid scare delayed that into the autumn.