Winter Work Day 2016

The storms, wind and rain of the preceding year have taken a toll on the trees around the camp and there are downed trunks "ripe for the sawing", so to speak. Which is a good thing, since our wood supply has been well depleted since the last work day!

Saturday was 65-degree January day, which made it a *great* day to cut wood. We had fourteen volunteers make it out to the camp for the work day. Wells Johnston came with his tractor and Polaris and brought a young guy named Josh who did a great job. We put him with Chris Wilson's son and they were busy all morning. 

Dr. Carl brought up the Disaster Relief trailer and a crew. I know Ronnie Smith and a couple of others. Once the system is in place man can they cut some wood like a well oiled machine. Dr Carl was preparing the trees that were down so Wells could drag them up to the pavilion with his tractor.

Once the tree arrived, several were there waiting with chain saws, including Wayne Hillis from Union Grove Baptist.

The would cut the tree up into pieces that would fit into the hydraulic log splitter. Two guys were working the splitter.

Once the logs were split two or three of the guys were stacking. This went on until around 2:00 p.m. with folks rotating in and out of different positions and grabbing a doughnut, or some water in between. 

We have enough wood cut up for the year ! I am not clear on what makes a cord but I heard one of the men say it looked like about 4 cords. We can not thank this crew enough for all their hard work and dedication to the camp. God is good!

Troop 96 Weekend

Our first campers of 2014 were the great folks from Boy Scout Troop 96 and Cub Scout Pack 391 out of Epworth United Methodist Church. We've had the pleasure of hosting this group several times and always enjoy having them here.

The weekend was bright and sunny but incredibly cold, so for their first night, they "roughed" it up by (and under) the pavilion.  

As scouts joined the group on Saturday, they made their way up into the main campground.

Saturday, we were privileged to watch the bridging ceremony as boys from the Cub Scout Pack advanced up to the Boy Scout Troop.

It was a touching ceremony and we caught a bit of it to share:

Here's a closeup of the arrows he talked about and handed to the boys, too:

And a closeup of the newly-bridged Boy Scouts of Troop 96. . .

As always, we enjoyed having this group up at the camp.  They do a fabulous job of cleaning up and leaving things looking better.  We hope they make plans to visit again soon.

Obstacle Course Workout

We were very grateful to have a group from UAH come out and give the obstacle course a good working over.  There were about nine guys and one gal ... and all of them went successfully went through the course.  One of the guys, Josh, had a point-of-view camera that he *wore* through the course . . .

Josh went back through the course and made the best time -- twenty-nine seconds is the new time to beat!

FBH - Annual Lads and Dad Camp Out

The day started out grey and quite cool, but that didn't dampen the spirits of this group from First Baptist Huntsville, as they made their way up to the camp for their annual RA's Lads and Dads weekend.  This event is a tradition they've carried on at the camp for many years and it's always fun to be a part of their activities.

Tent got set up lickety-split, and soon the camp ground was filled with all shapes, sizes, and colors of nylon shelters.  

Wes Blake, the organizer, always sets up his tent at the pavilion, since he's the chief cook (and he likes to get up very early to start things off).

Once tents were up, fathers and sons headed up to Megiddo's Field for some planned activities, like archery:

And a little target practice:

Some threw around a little pigskin while waiting for their turn at the other stations:

This year, their speaking missionary came from Kentucky and brought his whole family (his wife and six children).  This was their little abode:

And I think our space is small for two people?  They housed two adults and six children in this setup!  That's true commitment to the Gospel cause!

I headed over to the pavilion after they'd finished up dinner and were settling in to watch/listen to the missionary, Nathan Dorrell (aka "The Crazy Tie Guy") who happened to be a juggler. 

He delivered up a fabulous program -- one that involved all of his family -- including his wife, who worked a Chinese yo-yo.  

He incorporated the Gospel message into his juggling act beautifully.  

The boys ... and their dads ... were totally captivated by his program and Nathan did a marvelous job including the audience in his program, too.

I couldn't help but take a couple of videos of Nathan doing his act and couldn't decide which ones to share, so here they all are:

Nathan juggling knives . . . that's his three year old on the ground beneath him!

As always, we enjoyed having the FBH RAs up here -- it's a wonderful group of dads and sons and we will look forward to their return visit.