June 5, 2009

Hey all!

So things have been nuts around here. I am back in california as of the 30th of May. It is nice to finally be back at one place for more than a week and get settled in (as much as you can when running like mad)!!! lol. So there has been some crazy things going on around here and the last days of being home, let me tell ya!

Friday night, the 29th, was my last night in town. We spent it at Pats house trying to make a fire (didnt work) well my sister Devan called me around 10pm and asked for my help because a 6 year old boy from our neighborhood had gone missing since about 830/9 ish. So we gathered up as many friends as we could and took of back toward my house. When we got there we met up with the mother and some parents of the childs friends. Got some information and set off in parties of 2-3 to look for him. He had gone home from a friends house (last time seen) to ask for more time to play and went missing shortly after. So we coordinated with the cops and spoke with a neighbor who gave us a positive description of the child running west across a busy street. We sent out parties in that direction and looked for awhile. We had been out for over and hour or more when i decided to take my two friends i was with and stop to pray. I think i might have caught them off guard when i did it but if felt so right. Not more than 15 min after we prayed a cop drove by telling us the found the boy hidding in a box in his GARAGE!!!!!! Man is his butt going to be sore!!! lol.

It was amazing to witness the power of prayer in such a short moment and for two people to witness it with me. AWESOME!!!!

So after that craziness i came back here, home, to camp!!! It was relieving yet stressful to come back knowing i was back in a familiar and comfortable place excited to see new and old friends, but knew the work ahead of me. Sunday morning i went out for a bike ride up a mountain road called Bay Shore. If you know it you know how steep and dangerous it can be. Well i rode up for about 4 miles and then turned back for the amazing downhill ride. All went well until the final corners. The turns up top are long gradual and easy to manage at high speeds (which i was totally experiencing). But the final 3 corners are tight and sharp. When i got to the first one i didnt check my speed enough to make the corner and launched myself off the shoulder about 30 feet down the embankment into some trees and shrubs, the bike went further. It was a blessing from God that i walked away and unscathed as well. With only a few cuts and a banged up helmet to me, and a flat tire i am blessed to be alive. My pride was the most bruised, having to walk back over a mile in cleats, bike shorts and my jersey. But i am alive and well.

Monday lead to another adventure. (I know i know, but it is me common what do you expect?) i went out for a ride around the lake, what should have taken only 45 min, turned into a 2 hour ordeal. I past my turn point to cut over the dam and wound up biking all the way into town, around town, onto another road, and when i realized where i was, had to back track and bike all the way back uphill to camp, i think total i was out for a 22 mile ride on mountain roads, oh joy. 

So i have kept off the bike for the past few days one because i am sore and two i dont want anymore good stories. I did get an amazing opportunity monday and tuesday though here at camp. we added riflery as a new activity this summer, so myself and 3 other staff got to go through an extensive 2 day training course to become rifle range instructors, and during it all become pretty good shooters (look out!) It was a good time, i bonded alot with the other staff i got to hang out with. 

The master instructor was not the most friendly person, quite unique!!! but i guess when you have been in military training and service for 30+ years you kinda loose your kidding and relaxed personality. he was def pushed from his comfort zone working with 4 big kids from camp! lol. 

So now we are into the end of program training week. I have def felt the stress of having a leaner staff and more responsibility as a returning member. i feel i see alot more of the behind the scenes and preperation than last summer. I am alittle stressed with the multiple things i need to do for the summer and the little time i have left, but things always seem to get done here no matter what. Gods hand is totally over us (Isaiah 41:10). well that is all for now, i am done rambling. Staff comes today so i will keep you posted on what has been happening. I love and miss all of you. God Bless

May 27th, 2009

So it has been alittle over a week since i last wrote. I worked all of last week for our opperations director in exchange for food and housing (Pretty sweet deal if you ask me). It was alot of fun, but also alot of work. I was a blessing to get to hang out with some staff that was around last summer as well as people who will continue into this summer. They were people that i knew last summer from our program team but didnt really "get to know". We had been working from 8 am to 5pm. Different odds and ends jobs to fix up camp and the property in time for staff training to happen in just a few days!!!!! wow time flies.

Since i was not trained and didnt know how to do many of the "list" items (those of you who work at camp will know the significance of the list!!), i was paired with someone else or given stupid proof jobs to do. One day i got the short end of the stick and was assigned to work on finishing digging out the whole for the septic tank, yes the septic tank, covered by a small piece of 1/4 inch partical board that bent whenever is stepped on it, luckily the tanks were just emptied......right.......

I worked another day on the swamp coolers, the airconditionaing units on all the buildings. We had to clean them out and prepare them for the summer. This was a fairly painless and fun job, since i got to play with water and climb on roofs all day. My most favorite job was to clear the "tree stumps" in the ropes course area, which turned out to be wriste size twigs sticking out of the ground. But since i am Axe lol i got to play with chainsaws all day!!! oh what fun it was!!!! I then spent the other half of the day cleaning the saws that i had packed with mud and dust from cutting so low to the ground (Adrian i know you are wincing and i am sorry, dont worry i took care of them).

All in all it was a good week, a few other friends arrived as the week ended. I spent thursday in the park researching new trails, and new sights for our day trips with our youngest campers. I found out that one of the trails was wiped out by rock slide, so i just had to go check it out (dont try this at home....or when other people are around because the sign definately said turn back). But it was soooo cool, trees thrown all over huge boulders covering the trail and the hill side, it was like a avalanche on steroids!!!!

I got to spend sometime working on nature center stuff. We caught an awesome Gopher snake that i am currently thinking about the fact that it hasnt eaten in awhile so i hope it is alive when i get back. opps. But he is super calm and chill, the perfect snake for the kids to handle and experience. I am working on building it a bigger snake tank, which is what my last day at camp consisted of. I also organized the bay with all of the nature supplies and started my usual pre camp list of things to buy.

We got to eat at the forks burger (awssome food.....come and visit and eat some!!!!!) as a goodbye to a long time friend of camp Meredith. I didnt know her well except with i had visited camp to see lauren when we dated, so i wasnt too attached to her. Friday we took a ride down to Fresno for star trek, always a blast with camp people and won ourselves a ton of 3D glasses (Pele and i stole them) which are sure to be a neccessity for camp this summer (not sure how yet).

So now i am back in chicago, i got to see my sister graduate on sunday, which was awesome and weird all at the same time. weird that she has grown up so much, yet she still has along ways to go. I got to give her, her bible for graduation and she actually responded alot better than i would have thought. Since i have been home i have gotten the chance to talk with all of my family about faith in a setting and environment that is pretty comforting. It has always been really hard to come back here without a strong faith community and a family who are not believers, but i realize the importance of my visits here.

Being home has been very boring, i have spent way too much time looking at gear, no time training and the same amount working on stuff for camp....oh boy! But it has been nice to just relax for a bit. I can really see that i burnt myself out last week trying to get too much stuff done at once, and i still have two weeks before our kids show up.

Well that is my rambling, i will try to keep these shorter and more brief, alot has happened since i last wrote. God bless everyone!!!!

Miss you all

Doug (Axe)

May 16th, 2009

So here it starts: May 16th, 2009I arrived to Bass Lake, CA, home of Yosemite Sierra Summer Camp today. This was after leaving fort collins, this past Weds and sleeping at good friends places along the way (Thank you to Morgan, Celsey,Goose, Hula, Kuljis family for taking me in, feeding me at times, and giving me a place to stay). It was a relaxing and interesting time. I got to think alot about my future, this summer, Gods plan in some personal things in my life and really just spend sometime exploring his creation. I did however end up with a nice new set of tires for the jeep after i aquired a wobbling problem with the front end half way through nevada which turned out to be a blown inner tire that could have really messed me up had it blown, the guy was shocked i had driven all that way with out it blowning, i wasnt, (Thank you Lord). So after a 10 hour day to Zion National Park to See Goose, i climbed and bike around the place until he was done with a canyon trip. (I want his job)!!!!!!. Friday i took off for southern cali where i spent 2 days with some awesome friends, hanging out at the beach and talking to very late hours in the night. (oh and swapping sides of the bed in the night without even knowing it.....thanks IVOR). So now i am at camp, after 1600 miles of driving, 4 new tires, a sun burn on my left side only, broken IPOD and no air conditioning!!!!! awesome......But it is good to be at "home" I already have a list a mile long of things i need/want to do both for fun and to get prepared for work. I dont have to work this week, but since i am being fed and provided housing for this week, i figure a few days wouldnt help. I am taking one whole day already to spend in Yosemite researching some new hikes, and uses of park resources for our Nature Center trips. I am alittle nervous, i feel new responsibilities, and a higher bar set for this summer, some of which i am unsure i will meet, others are meer laziness on my part to put the work i know i can do in to get it done. ( i mean common i did just finish school not only 4 days ago....give me a break lol). But i know i will get it done and there are hands to help here if i need them.At church this morning in southern cali (weird that i am in another location yet speak of chruch in a far off place) we talked about Gods creation being not only for us but for HIM for Christ. That all of this was created for His coming, His Glory. It really rocked my world, to know that yes it is for us too, but it was also created for him, WE were created for him. (1 Cor. 1:16). check it out. That is all for now i will be back in chicago startiing the 24th to the 30th. also my mailing address for those asking for it is as followsNOTE!!!!!!!If you do send something please send it to "Axe" not me (campers see our mail at times and they do not know our names until after their session is over.... i know it might seem stupid but it is more for their experience than for us to keep a secret....thanks)Letters, envolopes etc:p.o. box 449bass lake, ca 93604boxes of some sort:39515 road 274bass lake, ca 93604