Spring Break Activity

This has been one of the wettest springs I can remember in quite some time.  Someone said the other day that corn planting may be at an all time low as farmers have not had enough dry weather to get in the fields.  We certainly have had our share of the rain up here at the camp.  Two or three times now I have had folks lined up for work on a project only to have to cancel.  Now last week we did manage to squeeze in a few visitors as Chris Wilson brought his kids up during spring break and Sam Kelly's son came along as well.  Sam and his friend James, who seems to be a jack-of-all-trades, came up and worked most of the day on the new bathroom in the main campground.  Chris cooked lunch for everyone on the grill and the kids seemed to have a good time.  The girls spent much of their outing down at Crawdad Creek.  

Here I got a picture of Reid, (Chris's oldest boy) in a rather odd position for taking a nap.

Taking Care of Business

Yesterday before the rain came I spent about three hours on the mower.  There is this one section of grass right where the pavement starts that seems to grow faster than the rest for some reason.  With all the extra rain this year it almost got too far ahead of me.....but it didn't!  The storms did come through but we did not seem to get all that much rain and missed the severe weather.  There was something that happened last night off of Ollie Howard Road around 8:00 or 9:00 that caused the power to go out for 3 or 4 hours.  The Utilities said the crew was having to cut up a huge tree that had fell across a power line.  One of our neighbors said she had heard something about a fire in that area.  Not exactly sure what happened but we did not get very much sleep.  Funny thing I just purchased a generator for situations like this but have not had time to get it ready and try it out. 

Storm Patrol

As is my habit I always go through all the trails and roads as soon as I can after a storm....this morning was no exception.  Not too many big limbs down this time so I decided to take some pictures while tooling around. 

I know they have been here all along but the dogwoods are really noticeable up here this year.  As a matter of fact I did not realize just how many there were growing wild throughout the camp.

On the lower field these tiny little orchid colored flowers are all over the place and remind me of stars from a distance.

Noticed these yellow ones for the first time today...not sure what they are.

This is the entrance to "The Hidden Pathway".  It winds around and eventually ends up in Beech Bottom Trail which in turn leads to the Secret Creek.

Pictured here is The Secret Creek.  I could tell we did not get very much rain as the creek is pretty much at the same level as yesterday.

The Wood Azaleas are very distinct and scattered all over the woods up here.

Now as you can see in this picture the Hidden Pathway can be treacherous and has caused Easy and I some trouble in days gone by.  I cut a new trail around this part but it is pretty wet right now as well.

The Dragon Flies were all over the place today.  Not sure if they eat mosquitoes or not but if they do they are my new favorite insect!

I ran across this picture from when the workday crew was up here a little while back.  Here we see some kind of salamander.  I think this was the third or fourth different kind Eddie's son caught that day.

I look forward to another great year up here at the camp.  There is a report to be given at the Executive Board meeting on Monday and a Golf Tournament to benefit the camp May 20th.  Last year was a good start but this just might turn out to be the best year yet!