Another Photo Journal Entry

It has been another couple of hectic weeks so once again I'm going to wimp out and let the pictures tell the story. We've had a number of new work groups in camp, many of them of Dutch descent from Michigan, where Marv DenBlyker was originally from. Marv, who is almost 80, has been around camp probably longer than anyone and is still part time staff. These teams have again been a lot of fun. Scott, Heather, Jennie and Dawn put the roof on our back shed. Those girls were great roofers!

We try to have each of the teams out for desert. That would be pie. Somehow they all know that pie is on the menu before they ever get here. I'm not sure how that happens. Rhubarb is the favorite for some reason. Rhubarb is like a weed here and grows ALL summer long so we get tired of it, but apparently no one from "outside" does so it is REQUIRED for each group that comes.
Rodney and Gordon (another camp regular, a welder and plumber) spearheaded work on a hot water loop to heat the space under the house and the pelton wheel/battery house. The old loop through the wood stove was completely plugged so Gordon built a new one and Rodney installed it.
Purty, isn't it?
Gordon hooks up the loop to the rest of the system, while eating pie. ;) Gordon is an ex-navy nuke so we had a lot to talk about while he worked!

Sergei and Andrei taught Annie to split wood.

So then Annie tried it out.

Rodney got a "new" boat from the pastor here. Can you tell that he is happy? It is nice and deep and solid.
So we had to take a test run to appreciate how sweet it is.

And being Dutch-ish, there is a lot of card playing going on here. Waitaminute. Not ONE of those pictured here is Dutch! How'd that happen?????

And another scenic picture for good measure. That mountain looks different every time you look at it!

The next three weeks will be even more hectic than ever. Between home school preparations for Oksana, potluck dinners for the pastor candidate, another double-booked work team (27 people), staff appreciation dinner for the people who have worked here this summer (I get to make pie for 120), and trying to fit in people for dinner before they leave for the summer, it is going to be CRAZY! Basically I'll be making a lot of pies and dinner and then cleaning up. Next time you see me I'll be tired. Wait, I'm tired now. Next time you see me I'll be REALLY tired! I'm also into my second week of a cold that just seems to keep getting worse. I'm hoping it doesn't turn into pneumonia, but it isn't promising. This is NOT the time to be sick! Ugh!

Happy Birthday, USA!

We're having a rare, quiet day today and while I could be out gardening in the rain, I decided it would be a good day to post since I have a lot of pictures again. My brain is taking a rest today too though so I'm not sure how much writing I'll manage for this post. It has taken me about 15 minutes to get this far already. We try to have each of the work groups over for an evening to get to know them a bit, host dessert, and just hang out. Nate and Maggie take the groups down to the river and we often join them there. Here's a bunch of pictures from Thursday's trip:

Eskimo Potato - I guess you can eat the roots:

Fireweed is starting to bloom:

Everybody enjoys the scenery:

Sooner or later this is how they all end up:

At the end of a gorgeous day and we have to look at this scenery on the way home (yeah, rough life):
I did finally manage to get the paint room mostly cleaned up and organized. You could barely walk in when I started:

Cleaning up around the paint room I found some bear scat, then these tracks, probably from the same bear that we saw behind the house a week or so ago:

We've been looking for a piano off and on for a while now. We finally managed to find one and connect before anyone else did. It came home in the usual way:
Fortunately we had another teen work group over for dessert that night. Good kids, seriously. It was amazing to hear what they had to say about their time here at Victory. I go back and forth on what I'd like to do for the desserts. I'd like to have them over one of the first days to get to know them better, but it is AWESOME to hear them talk about what has happened just before they go home. There's just not enough time to have it both ways, but if I could manage it, that's what I'd do - have them over early and then again just before they go home. As you can see, Ellie was telling everyone what to do as usual.