Boy Scout Troop 663

We always enjoy having the Scouts up at the camp. For this particular weekend Drew Prevost, who was one of the scouts, was the contact person and made all the arrangements. The day before they came we had a pretty good rain at the camp but during their stay the weather was nice. 

Five or six of the boys were here to earn their Wilderness Badge which involves them making their own shelters and providing their own food for a night. I was not able to get a picture of their shelters before it got dark as they were still in the process of completion. 

One of the instructors did build one as an example and went ahead and slept in it himself. 

They invited me over for dinner which was very good and plenty of it. 

There were demonstrations of building fires and various other things taking place during the day and I did manage to get a picture of one such time.

Farley Men Adopt the Obstacle Course

We would really like to thank Ben Langford, Shawn Reed and the other men who came out from Farley Baptist Church to the Camp and help with the Obstacle Course. Mostly this first trip out was to get a better idea on what needs to be done to improve the area, though they did get some things accomplished while they were here.

One of the guys brought a leaf blower and removed the 3-inch leaf mat that had built up through the Fall and Winter. 

Next on the agenda was to build a step-up to the horizontal ladder, which would make it easier for the smaller kids to participate. 

They had tools and made quick work of that project. Ben said they would be back again and make this area a focus of their men's ministry. We look forward to and appreciate all their help.

Wood-stacking Work Day

It wasn't the coldest day of the month, but it was close!  Thankfully, that didn't stop our volunteers from the Disaster Relief Team at Willowbrook from heading up to the camp to chop some wood!

Due to weather, the past three or four work days have had to be cancelled and the available fire wood had taken a huge hit.  So we got the fire roaring in the warming station, put on a pot of coffee, and got busy.

Volunteers from New Market Baptist Church, Wells and Gordon, manned the tractors, hauling downed trees up to the cutting stations.

These guys were professionals!

As the logs got cut, a couple of the camp's neighbor's, Susan and Amelia, help stack the wood.

The coolest part of the whole operation was watching the log splitter do its job:

No matter how big the log, the splitter had it handled.

And the warming station certainly got its fair share of traffic . . . 

And rightly so!

Chili was on the menu for lunch -- nothing like a hearty, hot meal after a morning of chopping wood.

And the chili was great -- Chris Wilson did a great job with it -- there wasn't a drop left between two crock pots.

We so appreciate all the help and the great stacks of wood we have now. May the name of Jesus be proclaimed many times over around the camp fires at the camp!

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.

Last Activities of 2013

November and December flew by up at the Camp and even though the temps were definitely turning colder, we still had a good number of groups using the camp.  Saturday, December 23, we had a repeat visit from one of our favorite groups, the Sunday School Class fellowship out of New Market Baptist Church.  It was a smaller group this go 'round, but fun nonetheless.  And while the temps were cold, the chili was hot, hot, hot!!

Thanksgiving day, our own family congregated up at the pavilion for a traditional turkey dinner.  We had family in from out-of-town, as well, and it was nice to have all the picnic seating we needed.  By then, we'd made sure the tarp 'walls' were up and kept a fire roaring in the fire place, so it was a cozy meal together.

In December, we got rained out for another work day.  Which was really a shame, the wood supply in the stacks has gotten low.  Hopefully we'll be able to get a crew up here to chop and stack wood before our spring campers start coming in.  

The weekend of December 13 and 14th was bitter cold, so when the guys from Troop 7084 showed up, they immediately pitched tents until the pavilion, taking advantage of the tarp walls.  

They also made good use of the fire place, and quickly put their Dutch ovens to work with a hot and hearty dinner and dessert.

Ever resourceful, the Boy Scouts figured out a way to enjoy their camp time in spite of the very low temps!

Our last group of the year lucked out with much milder temps.  It's amazing how one weekend in December it can be well below freezing, but by the next weekend, temps have reached the 60s!  

The manly-man group from Asbury United Methodist lucked out which such a weekend.

They pitched their tents and roughed it for their stay.  

The smell of steaks cooking over an open campfire was certainly tantalizing.

And that wrapped up the camping activity for 2013.  We're already booking for 2014 and the weekends in March are already filled!

Cub Scout Pack 350

It was a beautiful -- but very cold -- weekend for this youthful group of campers.  Most had not been up here before and since cub scouts have to have an adult family member to camp overnight, there were a good number of participants.

Friday evening a handful of veterans and hard core campers made their way to the camp and got things set up, but the majority of the group came in Saturday.  According to the leaders, it was a loosely structured weekend with no organized plans. Essentially a weekend of enjoying the outdoors, hiking the trails, and acclimating to tent living and campfire cooking.  Even so, they had quite the tent city going on up in the main campground . . .

And someone thought they'd do a little hammock sleeping, too!

We were told that all the boys enjoyed climbing in and out of it, but decided it was way to cold to spend the night in it.

We caught up with the group at lunchtime on Saturday.  They were enjoying the pavilion and the playground.

But while the big group was at the pavilion, someone had to watch the campfire in the main campground, right?

We found these two willing volunteers enjoying the warmth and peace and guarding the fire circle.  "Enjoying the chaos from afar" was the quote!

They did a great job cleaning up and seemed to enjoy the long weekend. We hope Pack 350 will come back and visit again.

FBC Huntsville RAs - Fall Camp Out

Another glorious fall weekend--with crisp evening temps perfect for campfires and warm, sunny days--presented itself for the annual fall camp out of the RA's of FBC Huntsville!  Folks started to arrive about midday on Saturday and got right to the business of setting up tents.

A Saturday arrival meant they could get here early enough in the day to have good daylight hours in which to set up tents!  That's always a tough chore for campers in the late fall, when they start on Fridays.  By 5:30 (and now, since DST ended, 4:30) it's hard to see!

No worries for this group, though.  They had about forty dads and lads and they made quick work of getting their overnight accommodations ready and then getting a blazing fire going down at the pavilion camp fire circle.

The chow wagon crew got busy too, especially the evening's grillmaster.  Something about that cool, camp air really brings out the appetite in the fellows!

Their program that night was a *magician* -- we weren't able to stick around to see him, but the setup looked promising!

The guys had a great night and had the added benefit of an extra hour (since they were here when the time "fell" back).