We finished re-shingling the LS the third weekend in May this year. It took us 4 Service Weekends to complete the task. Charlie had a dump truck parked by the side of the LS on Thursday May 13th. Starting at about 1:00 pm on Thursday, 7 of us (Doug, Flip, Joe, Lyt, Matthew, Tayloe, and I) removed the 2 layers of old shingles and roofing felt. It rained the following night, so it was good that we were able to install the tarpaper before we quit Friday evening.
A pair of squirrels got into the Education Building over the winter. They got in through gaps in the shutters of the Lab and also made their way into the Library and Museum. They trashed all three rooms and destroyed some books, pencils, fish nets, and other equipment. We replaced the Lab hinges that caused the gaps in the shutters and cleaned up the mess the squirrels produced.
Andrew, Lyt and Flip met Charlie at Camp the weekend before to do some tree work, then a large crew moved the brush they created and a lot more during the Service Weekend. We also established a perennial culinary herb garden behind the kitchen; replaced some fascia boards; replaced some rotten benches; collected trash along 608 and up the New Road; cleared the culverts; cleaned up the vegetable garden beds; smeared some sheetrock mud on the ceiling of the Staffhouse; and installed a permanent display recognizing the major donors to the Campaign for Nature Camp in the Staffhouse. Nell created the display using 54 painted tiles. We used a router to create a wooden sign that asks visitors to check in at the office, and got a good start on the Nature Camp history project.
The hero award goes to Nell, who learned 4 days before she was to arrive at Camp that she was to be chief cook and bottle washer, which included designing a menu, buying all the food, and transporting it to Camp. She had lots of help in the Kitchen from Amy, Art, Shirley, and Rosie. The food was wonderful as usual, especially the pizzas and blueberry pies. We played music in the LS on Friday and Saturday evenings.
Of the 55 folks who attended, 4 had never been to a previous Service Weekend, 11 folks are on Staff this summer, 2 folks are campers this summer, and 7 have been Assistant Directors at Camp. We have now had 323 folks who have attended at least 1 Service Weekend.
Thanks to Amy, Andrew, Annie, Art, Barak, Braxton, Cammie, Chris, Christopher, Chuck, David, Don, Doug, Emily, Flip, Forest, Jason, Jen, Jenny, Jesse, Joe, Katie, Kim, Larry, Louise, Lucy, Lyt, Maggie, Maggie, Matthew, Mike, Molly, Nell, Oliver, Paul, Paul, Peggy, Peter, Rob, Robert, Rosie, Sara, Sara-Henning, Sarah, Sarah, Shirley, Sofia, Steve, Tim, Tony, Vadim, Walter, Wilfredo, and especially Charlie. I had a really great time.
Amy K Gonzales has invited you to look at her photos from this past weekend. They are wonderful photos and she has spent a lot of time learning and recording the names of folks in the photos. Amy has the photos posted at the following website:
http://share.shutterfly.com/
Please share any other digital photos you may have taken with me, AmyKG,
or Michaux the Webmaster at https://www.naturecampfoundation.org/.
Jim Brooks
NCF Service Committee Chair