Camp Daniel Missionary Notebook

Thursday, February 9, 2012

2012-02-09T09:12:00.000-08:00

As you can see in the photo above, Dave D. has been very busy at Camp Daniel, installing tongue and groove in the Trapline Lodge. This pic is actually a few days old. He has since finished installing in this room.

We, at Camp Daniel, are generally a very healthy bunch, but in this past week or two, many of us have fallen to colds and such. This has slowed progress at DJ's house. We've also been missing Marceaux and Jen, as they have been in Minneapolis for the past week and a half, visiting with Marceaux' dad, whom flew in to have procedures done at Mayo Clinic. Thankfully, all is going well there, and the Bury's will be back in WI this weekend. So Tony and the guys have done what they can at DJ's. In the photo above you can see that they removed the wall between the kitchen/dining area and the living room. They pulled up carpet in the living room and old master bedroom. They've moved the door that leads to DJ's room. We've added shelving in the two closets. This remodel is so large that it took Tony and Karol 5 hrs at Menards to buy materials yesterday. Of course, this is on top of many other smaller trips to the do-it-yourself stores.

Chrissy has been preparing meals for two large groups that will be on the grounds in the near future. Today, a group of 30 will be coming from Silver Birch Ranch to work on the grounds. They will work this afternoon and tomorrow morning. That's 50+ people that need to be fed 4 meals. Next weekend is the Able Church Winter Retreat. We are expecting about the same amount for those meals. What would we do without the spaciousness of the Hartley House?

We are all doing preparations for camp as well. Applications are being reworked right now. They should be out by March 1. Tony has been working on the theme, logo, etc. Molly is starting a handbook that will be a wealth of information to our counselors at camp. Karol is figuring out crafts for the summer and 2 new theme meals. They will be a Christmas theme, (of which we haven't come up with a name for yet) and we are also bringing back a different version of a theme meal we did a few years ago. It's a farmhouse theme. The character will be the farmer that stars in one of our orientation videos.

DJ's House January 26, 2012

2012-01-26T19:13:00.000-08:00

DJ is now a proud homeowner!! The photo above shows DJ holding the keys to his new home. It was taken just after the closing this Tuesday. This has been an amazing process that started many months ago, when DJ received an unexpected inheritance. We started talking about what DJ wanted to do with this money, and purchasing a home seemed to be the best idea. We've been hoping for a new group home on Camp Daniel for DJ and the Bury's (whom have a baby on the way). An ideal situation would have DJ in a home with another person with a disability that is more DJ's speed, and is around the house more that his current roommates. Jen and Marceaux' baby is due in May and we really wanted to get them into something bigger than their current 400 square foot efficiency quarters. After a lot of research, inquiries and rejection, DJ was able to secure a loan with our local bank in Crivitz.

We found this manufactured home with attached garage on 3 acres. It's a 5 minute drive from Camp Daniel. The home is from 2003, so is in pretty good shape, but, of course it needs some renovations to accommodate the living situations of a group home. The plan is to have 1 or 2 additional guys with disabilities move into the home. With the Bury's as house parents, it will be set up similarly to the Hartley House at Camp Daniel.
When renovations are complete, the house will have 5 bedrooms, 2 baths and 2 living spaces. As you can see in the photo below, it has a wood burning fireplace.
These pics were taken before the purchase. It's now empty and the guys have already started deconstruction. I'll be sure to keep you posted, as we should end up with some great before and after's!

Other news around Camp Daniel:
The Able Attack Special Olympics basketball teams had a tournament last weekend. They played some really tough teams, and they're excited to get some wins at the next one.
Tim as been spraying polyeurethane on about anything that sits still too long. Here's the items I can think of: 12 frames that I painted, about 18 shelf/curtain rod brackets, two curtain rods, shelving and entertainment center pieces that Tim built for his basement, a mantel, and a bench. Even though spraying is much quicker than brushing on the finish, it still takes multiple coats, and with that much stuff, he doesn't even have room enough to spread it all out at once.
Dave Detloff was here this week. He started on the tongue and groove in the Trapline Lodge. Last week, Marceaux and Jerod painted the ceilings in the newly plastered rooms.
I feel like all I've been doing is paperwork. It's amazing how much stuff has accumulated for DJ's house! Between the loan, the insurance, the title papers and the offer, I may need to get a new file cabinet! This week, was due the state required water withdrawal report for all 6 wells on the property. Also due, payee report for Richard, which accounts for all the money he receives in a calendar year. Lastly, I had to fill out a lengthy report for Brian. Social Security office wants to be sure that he still has a disability.
Tony and the guys worked in Green Bay a number of days taking apart office cubicles. Tony was looking on Craigslist for office furniture and came across a guy willing to give away an entire office of cubicles and other furniture. He just wanted it gone and not to have to deal with it. So Tony said he'd take it all. It was over 24 cubes, plus conference room. We've already absorbed much of it: Tony and James Kocian are converting a large closet into two office cubicles at Living Hope Church, DJ got a new desk in his new room, we put new chairs in the Camp Daniel office, Tony took a large desk setup for his new office on the Camp Daniel property (to be built this spring), we took 3 nice tables for the craft cabin (since the Bury's will be moving out, it'll be an actual craft cabin soon), Tim Mandich took some pieces, and a walled section is being used in the vestibule at Living Hope Church. Now Tony is trying to sell what's left, which is less than half of the original amount! So it's been a huge blessing, but obviously a lot of work taking all that stuff apart, then organizing, then moving each piece here and there. Who would have known how valuable his cubicle building experience from his American Medical Security days would be!

Tuesday, January 17

2012-01-17T20:42:00.000-08:00

Of course, lots has happened since I last blogged! Just yesterday, Jeff Sielaf brought 3 men that he knows, out for a work day. As you can see in the photos, they stained the 6 bunk beds that were built and sanded in recent weeks. They also stained the corbel brackets that will hold shelves and curtain rods in the dorms. Those were just built in the past week.

Also, on Monday, we bought a load of tongue and groove, which will be used on the walls in the Trapline Lodge. In the pic below, you see Richard and Brian stacking them up in the bathroom, which since I last blogged, has been sheet rocked and plastered. Also getting plastered this winter were the ceilings in one dorm room and two additional baths. Jerod Kostreva, who has been a great help all winter, learned how to plaster from Tim and did much of the work with the guys while the Kelly's were visiting family in Montana over Christmas. He even taught the guys how to mix the plaster.

The goal is to have two dorm rooms and two bathrooms done by spring. The remaining rooms will basically have to wait to be finished until the new garage is built, as they are being used as work rooms.

Today, Rick Bub spent the day here painting the newly plastered ceilings.

Another new development in recent months, is the formation of the Camp Daniel Booster Club. Tim Mandich is leading this group of wonderful people whom are interested in raising funds and awareness for Camp Daniel. Tony has been working with the group on their first major event, which will be a banquet on March 23, in Green Bay. They just finished the mailer that gives the information, and those will be going in the mail very soon. We're very excited for the upcoming event and we're very appreciative of the hard work and dedication that has been poured into the Booster Club and this particular event.

Some camp stuff is underway as well. It's always good to get as much camp items done as early as possible.

Thursday November 10

2011-11-10T14:25:00.001-08:00

Much work has been completed on the grounds since our last blog entry. In addition to "every day's a work day", we had an official work day last Saturday. A group of Architecture students came from NWTC, and Jeff Sielaf brought up a friend that's a retired teacher. We were also excited to have missionary Jared Kostreva work that day. Plus he's worked every day this week! In the above picture, the 6 bunkbeds that have been worked on the past couple work days received two coats of poly.

The photos above and below show Tony and the guys working on a concrete pour. They did this before the work day. The area is by the lake, and will be for the grill area, which will be completed next year.

Back to the work day. Above you see work being done on the gable end of Molly's. It will be sheeted and cedar shaked. Below you can see repair work being done from where the tree fell on Marceaux' electric shack.

A small group finished putting the ballisters on the railing.

Since the roof needed to be repaired, we took the opportunity to put steel roofing on.

Below you see another end of Molly's getting prepped for cedar shakes.

Jared came to Camp Daniel without much masonry experience, but by now, as his raw tired hands will attest, he's a pro at tuck pointing around the cultured stone. Since Saturday, he did all of Molly's porch (shown below), and all of the Lumberjack Lodge. You have no idea how happy this makes us...especially Tony, as he's the only other person that knows how to do this job. And a big job it is. It feels like there's miles and miles of this stuff on the grounds, so what he's accomplished this week makes a huge dent.

The work group also put tar paper down on the floor in one bathroom of the Trapline Lodge. The paper will protect the floor from the plaster, which will be the next step in that room.

Orchestrated Chaos

2011-11-04T08:13:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was a classic example of the unique way in which the Camp Daniel missionaries depend on one another. If you've been around any of us outside of camp, you may have witnessed first hand the orchestrated chaos that is the comings/goings of our group. Sundays, because we all travel to Green Bay, tend to be complicated each week. Well last week was no exception, and I thought it might be a fun thing to share. To set the stage, you must first know that Tim Kelly, Tommy, McKenna and Annissa are all at Silver Birch Ranch for the youth fall retreat weekend, and Molly doesn't have a car (hers was totaled when she was rearended about 3 wks ago). Molly was visited the Weidners for the weekend in Oostburg and returned to Green Bay Sunday afternoon to return the rental car by 5. She had the Kocians pick her up at the rental place and bring her back to their house. The Bury's had a wedding on Saturday in Whitewater. They came back to Green Bay late Saturday night because they had to be at the bowling alley early Sunday morning for Special Olympics bowling tournament. They spent the night at Jen's parents home in Green Bay. So Karol, Tony, the 4 guys, and Anthony took the van to Church. Karol and the guys left church a bit early to get DJ to the bowling alley for his afternoon bowling time. (Jen and Marceaux had to be there early for Crystal). They got lunch on the way to the lanes. When Karol dropped off the guys at the lanes, she picked up Annissa's bookbag, which she had left in the Bury's van, but now needed to do homework Sunday night. Karol brought the bookbag back to church, where Chrissy Kelly would take it to her home in Crivitz. Karol, Tony and Anthony went to Kimberly, where they did Trunk or Treat at Lora's church. The kids all dressed up in pirate clothes that we have from camp, and the trunk was decked out piratey. In the meanwhile, Jen leaves Marceaux and the other coaches to handle the remainder of the bowling tournament, while she goes with her parents to her aunt's birthday party in Appleton. Also, Tim, McKenna, Annissa and Tommy are on the way home from Silver Birch. By the time they get to Crivitz, Chrissy is already there, so Tim stops at his house to get Annissa's bag, and proceeds to drop her off at the Hucek's home. The Hucek's, who needed to go to Camp Daniel to get the remainder of their clothes (they stayed in the Hartley House for 4 wks, while their home was being redone) then brought Annissa (and her homework) to Camp Daniel. Annissa promptly took a recover-from-retreat-nap, before starting on her homework. At about 4, Marceaux and the guys took Crystal home, then came back to Camp Daniel. Meanwhile, back in Kimberly, Anthony is talking his mom into staying overnight so that he can trick or treat on Halloween with his cousins. Grandma will bring him back after that on Monday evening. So Karol and Tony leave Kimberly at 7 and go to the Kocian's home where Molly is waiting for a ride back home. After that stop, they head over to Festival Foods on Lineville road, where Jen's parents are dropping her off so that she can get back to Camp Daniel too. So at 10 pm everyone is at home. And they didn't even leave anyone behind!

October 28, 2011

2011-10-31T07:23:00.000-07:00

I actually posted this blog last week, but Tony told me it wasn't there. Turns out I posted it on Annissa and Ruth's blog! Sorry girls. Here goes again....
Last Saturday, we had a great work day at Camp Daniel. A large group from a Reform church in Cedar Grove, WI came for the day, and got a lot of stuff done. The weather was great, and we had groups of people in many different places on the grounds. Below you see Crystal and Tony working on cultured stone on the Lumberjack Lodge. There were about 5 people from the Cedar Grove church on the other side of the building that were doing the same. Between all of them, they finished applying the stones.

A group worked on the new stairs. First they repaired some damage that incurred when the tree fell on it, then they installed all of the handrails and part of the green rails.

The guys pictured below were installing cedar shakes on Molly's house.

Another great thing accomplished was the refinishing of the oars by the lakefront. The oars, although not that old, all had peeling finish on them, so these guys sanded the old finish off and applied two coats of exterior polyeurethane.

More shakes on Molly's

There was also a group raking leaves and taking them to the back of the property. Another stained the 6 bunk beds that were put together and sanded at the last work day. Dave Detloff was here last Saturday, as well as many other days. He's been working in the Trapline Lodge. Since we don't currently have any tongue and groove for him to install, he's been putting up the cement board in the bathrooms.

Tuesday, October 11

2011-10-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, October 8, was a work day. Unlike recent work days, where we've had little to no volunteers, we had a great number of workers on this work day. We had a group from a church in Sheboygan Falls, WI, a group from Able Church, and few individual families there to help. A wide variety of projects were worked on. In the photos above and below, you can see the group that worked on staining the craft cabin. They did great on such a messy job!

The 4 signs for the Trapline Lodge were hung.

Tim and Tony had spent time in the days prior to the work day getting the facade of Molly's house ready for the work day volunteers to hang cedar shakes.

This crew put together 6 sets of bunkbeds. Afterwards they sanded them. The bunkbeds are now ready to be stained at the next work day.

The guys from Able Church spread topsoil around the newly paved sidewalks.

The ladies from The Able Church replanted our butterfly garden, and, as you see below, raked leaves.

I forgot to put in the last blog about the trees that we planted. We had about 50 evergreen trees donated and we purchased 200 seedlings. They were all planted by Tony and the guys. In the photo above, you can see some of the trees that were planted behind Molly's house. It's exciting to know that these trees will grow to make beautiful areas on the grounds. The trees in this photo will eventually block the view of all that roof.

2011-10-07T19:52:00.000-07:00

While Jen and Marceaux were in Montana visiting Marceaux' family, Tim was put to the task of building cabinetry in their cabin. Some cabinets were built from scratch, while other, exiting cabinets, needed doors and shelving. Above is the before of the sink area, and the after picture is below.

The cupboards added a bunch of storage for them, which the Bury's need in this small area they live in. Tim painted the cabinets to match the existing ones, which were donated to us.

Tony, along with help from the guys, added concrete/stone stairs going from the top of the wood stairs up to Jo and Tony's house. The entire process took multiple days. They set flat rocks into the wet concrete for a more rustic look. The split rail fence completes the look and functionality.

Much of the past two weeks we've been prepping for a concrete pour. Tony and the guys did the bulk of the work in all of the prep. The actual pouring of the concrete is a minute part of the total amount of work involved. In these pics the forms are set. On the day of the pour, we leveled the sand and packed it. Then, since the better part of the sidewalks were up against retaining wall, we had to set the 2x4's that hold the pipe that's used to level the screed. In short, it makes for alot of prep work and a much more difficult job of pouring and finishing the concrete.

Tony was super excited to be able to use the new concrete bucket for the skidsteer. The concrete truck was not able to pour directly into any of the forms. This bucket made this job possible. Without it, all of the concrete would have to have been carried one wheelbarrel at a time.

12 yards (which took two concrete trucks) was poured.

Chrissy has spent some time in the garage, organizing all of the kitchen stuff from camp. Plus she has been working on the upcoming newsletter. Molly, Jen and Karol have been taking advantage of the nice weather by getting the gardens weeded and cut back for the upcoming winter. Karol has also spent a number of days painting the large signs for the exterior of the Trapline Lodge. There are four signs in all. Tim Mandich has been cutting down dead trees on the property. After the strong winds last week, two trees fell on the property.

Here, you can see the one tree that fell on Marceaux' dog house. It just missed the railing and the stairs. Tim and the guys got both trees cut up and taken out of the way.

Friday, September 16

2011-09-16T10:58:00.001-07:00

Tony and the guys have continued working hard on the exterior stairs and landscaping around them. The pic above shows the top of the stairs, which will go to Tony Sr. and Jo's house. I love the little garden bed that you can see on the right of the pic.
Tony laid in concrete pavers that will be surrounded by grass, then moving closer to the front of the picture, is a small area with the pavers mortared in. The last stretch will be paved the next time we pour concrete.
The area in front of the dog house turned out very quaint. In the picture below, you can see the metal gate and fencing.
Also since, the last post, Karol, Jen and Molly finished planting all of the plants that we have to put in the ground. We still need more plants for shady spots. We'll do more hostas, bleeding hearts, and hopefully lily of the valley.
After the guys got the concrete and garden out of the front of Molly's, they leveled the dirt and finished the paver area in front of her porch. Tony mortared around the stones that were there, took out a strip of plants and added mortar to it. The front is now ready for the siding, and a seeping problem that we were having in this building is now rectified.
The view in the pic above is similar to a shot in the last post, but here, you can see the rest of the planting. Where there are not yet plants, we still laid the weed barrier down and covered it with mulch.
The above pic shows the second level and a bit of the third. The second tier has pea gravel right behind the house. When the planting is done, you won't be able to see that area. The third level has some plants that are out of the shot, but the rest of the planting will be done in the spring. In the picture below, you can see Tony and the guys working on the top tier. The fencing will keep people on the path and going the correct way down the stairs. They also planted 7 trees around the stairs area.
Other things going on include: Karol and Molly cleaned and reorganized the paint room. They added two shelves and labeled each gallon of paint with the area it was used. Tim Mandich met with those involved in the Shopko grant that he is apply for. They went over our proposal to make sure it's the best it can be before it's submitted. The Able Church's Tuesday night program started up again. The Able Attack has a few players bowling and a team doing volleyball this year. Tim, Molly, Jen and Marceaux have been busy getting all of those programs, and the bible studies going.

September 7, 2011

2011-09-07T18:09:00.000-07:00

Tony and the guys have been working long days on the outdoor stairs and the area all around it. The youth group that was here this summer put in the stairs, but there was still lots of retaining walls to be built, ground to be leveled, plants to be planted, etc. In the picture above, you can see them working on a short rock wall to hold the dirt in for the first level of the stair landscaping. The bottom level has rocks for it's wall, and the upper two levels have retaining wall. The rocks were all taken from the garden that was along the front wall of Molly's. They were all dug up and moved to the areas that you see here.
This photo was taken from the top of the stairs. You get a better "big view" idea of what's going on. At the bottom of the stairs, you can see where Tony added an 8' landing. This section allows for a gate that will go towards Marceaux' "dog house" (the kids old playhouse). If you go that way, you will no longer be able to go in front of Molly's bedroom windows. That "sidewalk" is now gone. Also in the picture above, is the beginnings of the plantings. In that section, Karol and Jen planted hostas that were taken from other areas.
In the above pic, you can see that the guys have pulled up the pieces of concrete that made up the old sidewalk.
The guys took those pieces of concrete and put them in front of the "dog house". This area is higher than it was before, plus it was just grass in front of it previously.
In this picture, the guys have the decking on the bottom landing. Plus, you can see the step up from that section to the gate that will go to the "dog house"
Jen finishing the hostas in the bottom level.
The guys took out all of the plants from the garden in front of Molly's today. Jen, Molly, Karol and Chrissy planted all of them around the grounds. Some went behind the snack stand, some by the office, some in front of Jen's and some to this new stairwell area. Molly is planting in front of the "dog house". In all of the areas we planted, weed barrier was put down, then a hole was cut for each plant before the digging and planting part. It's pretty time consuming during the planting process, but it sure does make weeding easier!
Jen is planting the ferns behind and alongside the "dog house"
Here you can see all of the plants and rock border gone. All that's left is the large bush. We had to use the skidsteer to move it; all of 10' to the right!
To the left of the old garden in front of Molly's was old concrete slab that extended past the newer closet/mechanical room addition that was put on before the Koch's moved in here. Tony cut the concrete with the concrete saw....
Then Nick got to town with the sledgehammer. They got all of the broken concrete pieces out. This entire area in front of Molly's is now level with the rest of the yard.

Also today, Chrissy, with some help from Karol browned 30 pounds of ground beef, 8 pounds of onions and 7 bunches of celery. After all were cooked, Chrissy mixed it all up and put them into baggies for our chili dinner this coming Saturday at the Camp Daniel appreciation picnic.

September 1, 2011

2011-09-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

Well, we've had some time to recover from camp, so things are really picking up around the Camp Daniel grounds. The Camp Daniel Appreciation picnic is fast approaching. There are many projects that we want to have done so that the grounds are looking their best. Tony and Karol started projects in the Hartley House. In the picture above you can see that the sharpening wheel table is finally done! They rearranged pictures on the walls and did some general touch ups. Also the extra bedroom that Big Anthony DiBiase and Justin Steiner stayed in was cleaned out to make room for some upcoming changes. Karol worked on the backsplash in the kitchen. Stained wood does not, generally speaking, make for a very durable backsplash surface. It was bleached, re-stained and finished with a clear matt poly.
Tony and the guys spend a day plus, working on a bunch of things on the craft cabin. They installed a gutter and downspout. They added treated 2x4's to the bottom of the railing. These pieces beef up the railing visually and structurally. You can also in the above picture that the edge of the grass up against the deck was low, and that they filled it in, raked it out and seeded it. Also, under this porch, Tony finished wiring in two outlets and put the trim on two recessed fixtures.
In the picture above are more small projects that Tony and the guys did. They installed the exterior fixture. They also put and outlet and switch in and painted them green to match the walls of the cubby next to the bathroom
sorry, but these pics are out of order. We're back to the Hartley House. Karol painted the top 12 or so inches in the bathroom and installed a wallpaper border. She also painted the cabinet doors and a shelf under the sink. It's hard to tell in the pic but the color is a very dark mahogany. They also purchased new shower curtains for this bath. Tony and Karol are on the lookout for new mirrors for both bathrooms in the Hartley House. There's still many small projects to be done before the 10th, and with the help of the Camp Daniel missionaries, the grounds will be looking good.
Molly, Jen, Marceaux and Tim Mandich have been busy getting back into the swing of Friday night Able Church and preparing for the upcoming Tuesday bible studies and Special Olympics. Molly has also been preparing her house for Crystal, whom we're hoping will be moving in with her soon. Molly has also been spending time uploading and editing photos from camp. It's a big job and uploading takes a long time, but the pictures are worth it. You should check out her blog to see the most photos. She's also gotten ahead of the game by printing out address labels for the upcoming year for camper birthday cards and Christmas cards.
Marceaux has had some mechanic projects pile up on him over the summer, so he's been busy working on vehicles.
Tim Mandich has been heading up our fund raising campaign. He's working right now with a possible grant from Shopko, that we're all really excited about. He does a great job with that stuff, and has really filled a need on our staff.

Wednesday, July 27

2011-07-27T15:11:00.001-07:00

The Our Lady youth group is back again this year working on multiple projects on the grounds. Camp Daniel has been so blessed by this group and the projects they've completed over the years! This year they are building new stairs on the hill between Molly's and the Craft Cabin (currently Jen and Marceaux' place). It's a major project and it's coming along quite nicely. These pics are all from yesterday. Things happen so fast during the week that they're here, that I just can't keep up!
They put split rail fence between the Lumberjack Lodge and Jo and Tony's house.

they've also done retaining wall projects around the grounds. In the pic above, they added retaining wall to finish off the area around the butterfly garden.

keeping it real

2011-06-30T08:43:00.000-07:00

I've been needing to blog. And really...this is what's going on around here. The annual pre-camp tornado has settled over the Piantine household. The kids keep saying that camp is closer than it feels because there's not enough stress in the house. Well let me tell you that just looking at these pictures gives me stress! Tony has been pretty sick for about two weeks, so he's pretty limited in what he can do. Once he finished the camper/counselor matchups (temporarily finished, because we all know how many last minute changes there are) he started on theme night clothes. Karol and the guys went to the storage unit. First they packed up the carnival into the small enclosed trailer (check!!) then they went through the theme meal things. They brought back about a dozen bins of clothes and accessories. We went through each bin, and since then, Tony's been making pirate and western costumes. In the pic below, you can see Little Tony's sewing area. He works at his chair, on an ironing board.

I'm hoping that this chaos is at it's worst, but time will tell. Til then, pray for our strength and sanity throughout camp preparations!

June 8, 2011

2011-06-08T19:11:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday night, Camp Daniel and The Able Church hosted "Dance for Disabilities." Seven other local disability organizations helped sponsor the event, which was held at Bay Beach. The dance was free to the 300 attendees.
Between fast dance boogies, there were free refreshments for the guests to enjoy. The music played from 6 til 9 and many danced the entire evening! We all had fun....
even the mayor of Green Bay, whom stopped by with his family. They, along with many of the other dance attendees, took time during the day to visit the rides at Bay Beach. The day was toasty, but the breeze off the lake felt good.
We danced to many classics such as the YMCA, the Chicken Dance, Celebrate, and the Electric Slide.
Of course, this event took many many hours of planning and work to pull off. All of the Camp Daniel staff were involved. It's always fun when we all come together for one goal.
Many things have happened since I last blogged:
Karol went to a training class in Green Bay for continuing education, which is required for the adult family home.
Chrissy and Karol took a day to go to the food bank in Omro to get food for camp and for the food pantry at Camp Daniel.
We all pitched in to get the grounds ready for Emily Neitzer's Graduation party, which was the first public event on the grounds for this year. It's a job to get all of the spring cleaning done in the snack stand; plus, all of the grass cutting and landscaping.
John, Sue and Corrie Koch were here visiting over Memorial Day weekend. We got a chance to catch up with them and make plans for the summer while they were here. They also had opportunity to visit many friends in the area. It was a great visit.
On Memorial Day, we all participated in DePere's parade with a large group from Mega. The beautiful weather really brought people out; we handed out about 3,500 Mega brochures with tootsie rolls stapled on. Oh yea, that was a job. We had our "stapling party" two nights in a row to get all those done!
Of course, Tuesday is meeting day. That always takes us to lunchtime, and shortly after that, Jen, Marceaux and Molly are off to Able.
Which brings us up to the couple days before the D4D, as we call the Dance for Disability. Tony was still printing brochures, Jen was organizing decorations with her mom and Karol was making signage, plus too many other things to even mention!
Marceaux got Karol's golf cart put back together, plus he got the riding lawnmower up and cutting again, which was a good thing.
Sunday, we all went to church, then Tony, Jen, Marceaux, and Molly headed straight to MN for Bit O' Sun camp. Larry and Carolyn Campbell are hosting this camp for people with disabilities. They've been involved in camps for years, but this is their first time running one. They enlisted our staff to help with speaking, recreation, and other things at the camp. Our staff will be back Friday night.

2011-05-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

We had another work day last Saturday. The picture above shows the all day project of putting in the docks. The water level has gone up approximately 18" since last fall, so a lot of adjusting needed to be done on both the swimming and fishing docks.
Mark Jarosinski worked with Nick on the facade of Molly's house.
Last week Jen and Marceaux got a load of sand for the bocce court. The guys brought all the 100# bags down to the bocce court where the final layer was spread and shook with the compactor.
We've had issues with water runoff down by the lake. The sand went right up to a small piece of concrete sidewalk and when it rained very hard, the force of the water would wash the sand away. In the above pic the guys are filling with gravel to encourage drainage. They topped it off with dirt, which we will put sod on to encourage the rain to disperse before it gets to the sand.
Today Molly painted the door to the old playhouse, which is now Marceaux' Dog House. (Really, he's using it for hobbies)
Tim's been finishing the plumbing in the Lumberjack lodge. He's been setting toilets.

Thursday May 19

2011-05-19T15:54:00.000-07:00

Three guys from the Black River Falls Assembly of God church came up last weekend to work. They came late Thursday night; worked Friday; and worked Saturday until they left after lunch. They worked on the exterior of Molly's house and did electrical work all around the grounds.
Jen's dad and Marceaux worked on Karol's golf cart, which needed major repairs. It's almost there!
A dream come true!! At long last, Tony's wish came true for a skidsteer. Camp Daniel saved up for many years to be able to purchase this used skidsteer with tracks. Tony and Tim say on a weekly basis how much easier something would be if we just had the skidsteer. As you can see it has a new bucket. There are many attachments on our wishlist. We have forks to be able to use it as a forklift, which will be a tremendous help as we currently have no way of moving pallets more than a few feet. We'd love to get a snowblower for winter.

A group from Able Church came up for the workday on Saturday. Some stayed the weekend. Above you see Peter and Jim cleaning brush and leaves.Our awesome raking crew braved cold and rainy weather!
Steve Hays was here for the day. Below he's just goofing around, but he did actually do some work. He and Jen's dad sanded and polyurethaned the stained bunkbeds.
Last week Little Tony and Richard spent two days cleaning the garage. We're trying to make room for Marceaux to be able to work on vehicles inside the garage. His mechanics stuff is crammed into a small area now and he needs room so that he can work all year round.
Jen and Marceaux took the guys last Wednesday to Chilton to get a one ton load of granite sand for a top layer on the bocce ball court.

2011-05-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

Well, since I haven't blogged in 3 weeks, there's lots of catching up to do! We'll just follow the order of the pictures. Two weekends ago, the youth group from Kimberly came up for a work weekend. They arrived Friday night and enjoyed a bonfire by the lake. Then after breakfast on Saturday, they got to work. Many helpers from Able Church were also here for the work day. Above you see the crew that was raking leaves. It was a rough day for raking with the cold and the wind, but they did a great job! Below you see the girls from the youth group staining bunkbeds.
In the picture below, the two girls shown filled all of the nail holes in the trimwork of the dorm.

Below, they are raking dirt in areas that were planted with trees last fall. These areas were then seeded with the special tall grass seed that we planted in adjoining areas earlier last fall.
The boys in this pic are taking a layer of gravel off of this path that was put in last year. We are going to add a more decorative layer for the top.
Jen has put in many hours in her makeshift sewing room that she set up in the birch cabin of the Lumberjack Lodge. She made the curtains for that room and the curtains for the Red Oak Cabin as well. She did a great job. They are lined and well made to stand the abuses of camp.
Here Jen and Crystal are putting polyurethane on the door jambs. Karol also applied an additional coat of poly to all of the trim in the four baths.
Also during the last few weeks:
Chrissy, Tony and Karol all went to Green Bay for the Reinhart regional food show. They attend it every year to get new ideas and items for the summer menu.

Molly, Jen, Chrissy and Karol all spent half a day giving the Red Oak and White Birch dorms and baths a very thorough cleaning. With the bulk of the messy construction done, it could get a good spring cleaning.

Marceaux has been working on getting the golf carts running. Plus doing some other maintenance around the grounds

Tony and Karol met with the leaders of the Our Lady of the Blessed Hope youth group that will be working for a week on the grounds this summer. All of the projects for their summer trip needed to be finalized and detailed out so that all of the needed materials could be ordered. Tony and Karol had measured and drawn up as detailed as possible, all of the projects they'll be doing. Then they all met at Menards for 2 hours to make necessary changes and order everything.

Wednesday, April 20

2011-04-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we had a work day last Saturday. Dave Detloff and Al King were put to work installing trim in the dorm rooms. The rest of the Camp Daniel staff grouted the fourth bathroom. Crystal Johnson was here for the weekend, so she was trained by Jen in grouting. We had a lot of fun and got a lot done in short order.
Tony spent much of the days leading up to Sunday preparing for his sermon, which he gave at Living Hope Church. He did a great job. Tim also spoke for 5 minutes giving an update on church missions.
On Monday, Jen, Marceaux and DJ went to the Occupational and Physical Therapy Department at Concordia College to give a presentation on Camp Daniel and the realities of working with people with disabilities. Thus far, one person from the college committed to being a counselor. Getting the first person is always the hardest; I'm sure that the numbers will grow in following years.
Karol is still working on camp crafts. Lots of gluing and cutting needs to be done before camp.
Yesterday, Tim installed the vinyl baseboard molding in the two dorm baths. Tony and Karol were in Green Bay for continuing training, which is required by the county for the licensing of the adult family home.
Today, Karol gave both bathroom a second coat of paint, while the guys cleaned their house. Tony's been doing computer work for days now.

Thursday, April 14

2011-04-14T07:01:00.000-07:00

We've had a busy week here, at Camp Daniel. A small group from Silver Birch Ranch were here for a work day yesterday. In the pic above, you can see that they're grouting the tile in the Jack Pine Cabin bath. Yes, that means that the one bath is done being tiled. The guys, Tim, Marceaux and Karol put in many hours getting that tile done. The pic above shows the shower area. You'll notice that the tile is different than the rest of the bath in that it's all 12" tiles. This is because we want less grout to have to keep clean in the shower area. The rest of the bath has 2" tiles under the large border. The 2" tile was donated, so we're using it until it runs out. It's more time consuming than the 12", but it's good tile, and more importantly; free! There's also very little waste with the smaller tiles; and they're quite easy to cut around pipes, outlets, etc.
Jen and Molly helped move the dorm project along by applying poly to the trim that still needs to be installed in the dorms and baths. Two coats each! Jen was happy that the weather permitted her to do much of it outside. (Less toxic fumes)

The Silver Birch group also put together and sanded the 6 bunkbeds that were delivered (in pieces) a couple of weeks ago. Or was that last week? Time's getting away from me!
Yesterday, Tony and Karol gave a tour of the grounds to a group from the Presbyterian Church in Lakewood. Longtime friend of Camp Daniel, Johanna Axelrod (Julia's mom) set up the tour with this, the church that she attends. Tony was able to share about the beginnings of Camp Daniel, where we are now, and where we are headed. I think that the visitors were all blessed by the visit.
Aside from tiling, Marceaux has been busy this past week working on Molly's car and Karol's golf cart. The golf cart had a major injury last fall that required the entire engine to come out, plus the metal box on the back was cracking. We're blessed to have Matt Mandich help us out with both of these problems. Hopefully the golf cart will be zipping around the grounds in the next week or so. Marceaux has also been working on Mega's Micro Bus. It's been in the shop getting road ready, but he had to make sure that everything was road ready for Steve Hays to use this summer.
Tony has been organizing the speakers for the summer. It's a lot to organize with everyone's schedule when we have four weeks of morning and evening speakers to fill. Like so many things, when one thing changes, there's a domino effect.

Have I mentioned? work days: this Saturday, April 30, May 14 and May 21. Let us know which one you'll be attending!

April 8

2011-04-08T07:41:00.001-07:00

The countdown is on to get the Lumberjack Lodge dorm completely done by April 20th, which is the deadline that Tony gave because of a donor special event that will be happening on the grounds shortly thereafter. We've been working on the dorms for the past three weeks, but now we've kicked it into high gear. The main things that have needed done are the bathrooms: tiling, fixture setting, stall dividers and floors and the cabins (or dorm rooms), which mainly need the floors done, doors installed and finish trim done. In the above picture, you can see the shower area. We did the border first, then work below and above. The border goes throughout the entire bathroom. By the way, both baths are identical, except for the flooring color.

Cleaning, staining and finishing the floors is a many day process, which was started when we had our last work day. After they cleaned it, and protected the walls, Karol started on the floor logo, which is different for each room. Using contact paper she makes a positive and negative of the image. Using the negative as a stencil she using contrasting dye colors to paint on the image, then the positive contact paper piece fits right over that image to protect it from the color that will go on the remainder of the floor. The negative (stencil) contact paper is taken off, and we're ready to dye. Donning a heavy duty respirator mask, Tim applies the dye with a pump sprayer. In the green room, he applied two colors in a random blotchy way. The color variances are beautiful and will be more forgiving to future imperfections in the floor.
After the green was applied to the floor, Karol finished the logo. This, Jack Pine logo had too many small details to do ahead of time, so the small branches and the pine needles were added at this point. After that was dry, Tim applied two coats of a very caustic polyurethane type product, buffing in between. Then, when thoroughly dry, he applied two coats of wax, then when that was dry, buffed it. The floor is Beautiful!!
In between the steps for the flooring, Tim, Karol, Marceaux and the guys tiled, tile, and will be still tiling for some time. The above pic is the toilet area. This room has the finished green floor, so the guys covered the floor with kraft paper and tar paper to protect it while we finish working.
After the green floor was done, everything was moved from one set of rooms to the other so that the orange floor could get done. This cabin is Sugar Maple. Currently, this floor has one coat of poly, with the other being applied this afternoon. The smell is so very strong that no one can work in the building for about 12 hours after a coat is applied.
The above is the maple leaf logo that's on the floor. This floor is a rusty orange consisting of many layers of 3 different colors. To appreciate these floors, they must be seen live, as the pictures don't do them justice. So come for a visit, and bring your tiling tools!!

Saturday April 2

2011-04-02T14:01:00.001-07:00

Since the last blog, we got 17" of snow, which set us back a few days. Saturday, the 26th, we all went back to the Kelly's to help with their remodel. We also did a surprise birthday celebration for Molly. Wednesday, a group from Silver Birch Ranch came out for a workday. They put the metal roof on the gazebo that was put up last summer. They also did a bunch of work in the dorms. They moved all of the exercise equipment from the Jack Pine room in the Lumberjack lodge to a room in the other dorm. Then they cleaned the floors and taped off the walls so that Tim could dye the floor. They also moved a bunch of cases of paper supplies that were donated. Additionally, Marceaux led a group in putting up the vinyl base molding in the Red Oak bathroom. They also did some small paint jobs and other miscellaneous jobs. Jen led a tour of the grounds for the people that haven't been here before.
Much work was done this week preparing for Able Church. An Able and camp attendee, Phillip Meincke, passed away last week. The funeral was at Able Church, during the regular church time. The family knew that Able was important to Phillip, so they decided that that would be a great place for the service. His small family is from far Northern Wisconsin, so much was put on Jen and the rest from Able to plan the funeral service. Well, it was a great service. There was over 100 people there. Some regular Able attendees, some from Phillip's group home and also from his workshop. They were all blessed to see people with disabilities participating in the service. A church FOR people with disabilities isn't something you see everyday, and one BY people with disabilities is extremely rare. Pastor Tim gave a great salvation message, and many were able to get up and talk about Phillip. Everyone at Able feel blessed to have been given this opportunity!
Lastly, Today was a scheduled work day, but no one volunteered to help, so I thought this might be a good place to put a plug in for upcoming work days.
April 16, April 30, May 14, May 21

2011-03-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

Shame on me for not having blogged recently. Time got away from me, that's for sure. When I sit down to blog I look back at the last entry to see where I left off. Well, this may be a long one today! I'm not going to go in chronological order, so we'll start with the pictures. We had a work day last Saturday. A group came up from a church in the Sheboygan area. They are a great group, who's been here for work days before. They always get so much done, and we sure don't mind that they bring along lunch as well as willing and trained workers! In the pic above, these guys are putting up vinyl base molding in the finished bathrooms (well, now they're finished). We decided to get the larger 6" molding to protect the walls from all of the future mopping that'll be going on in these bathrooms.
These guys are putting up a guide for the tile border that will be in the remaining two baths of the Lumberjack Lodge. We now have a deadline of mid-April to get this dorm 100% done. That means lots of tiling, trim work and floor finishing will be going on over the next few weeks. It'll be fun.
Karol spent much of last week painting the signs that go on the Lumberjack Lodge. There are a total of four, one on each facade. This sign is about 30" by about 7', so you can read them from pretty far away. Now there's no excuses to not call this building by it's proper name! (I think that "women's dorm" is going to be a hard one to break). Then, during last Saturday's work day, a couple of the guys set up scaffolding and hung the four signs. Tim, then caulked them in.

Other jobs done during the workday: installation of interior doors, trim in two dorm rooms, waterproofed two showers (that we're tiling now), sheetrocked dormer in Trapline Lodge dorm room and put up sound board in same room.

Earlier this week, the guys torched the burn pile and tended to it for a full day, until it smoldered out. They also helped Tim install the enormously heavy concrete counters for the two dorm baths. Yesterday, Tim, Karol, Marceaux and the guys started the tile border in the two bathrooms.

Last week Molly and Karol went to Second Harvest in Omro to get food for our food bank. Those trips always make for quite long days. They left at 7:30 and got home about 4:00. Then the guys helped unload the food so that it could be put away, which took til about 6pm.

Molly and Jen have been doing brushing alot of polyurethane. They put two coats on the 5 sets of bunkbeds and they currently have one coat on the walls in the dorm room in Trapline Lodge. The guys started sanding those walls today so that tomorrow they can put the second and final coat on.

Chrissy got the newsletter done. Many at Camp Daniel contribute with articles, and Karol does a lot of the proofreading, then Chrissy brings it all together. It'll go to the printer this week.

Tony's been spending time building new puppets and costumes for this summer. Our "Trust" theme will be taking on a superhero feel, so he's making stuff to go with that theme. Karol's been working on crafts for camp, plus a few other minor camp things that are good to get done early.

Last Saturday, the Camp Daniel staff descended upon the Kelly's house unannounced. Tim, and his friend, Mike Waldrop were planning to work on electrical stuff for the basement that they're finishing (they need one more bedroom for the kids). They weren't planning on the rest of us, which made it even more fun! We came packing tools and lunch. We got lots more done than they had originally hoped and we're planning another Kelly work day this Saturday. We all feel like poor Tommy has been living in the hallway long enough!

Saturday, March 5

2011-03-05T13:09:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we had an Able Church winter retreat. It was the first function of its kind that we've had on the Camp Daniel grounds. There were about 20 retreat attendees, plus all of the Camp Daniel staff. They slept in the dorms, and ate in the Hartley House. Jen and Marceaux set up the one unfinished dorm room as a chapel/meeting area.

There were times for indoor small groups and lots of outdoor activities as well. We had a fire down by the lake while everyone split up into teams and played monkey ball. (it's soccer with your hands, on ice) Everyone had a lot of fun with great fellowship.

Thinking toward summer: Deacon Jim, from the Illinois youth group that volunteers here each summer, came up to decide on which projects they'll be tackling this July. On Friday, Tony Sr, Tony and Karol sat down with the salesman that we buy Camp Daniel clothing from. We ordered t-shirts, sweatshirts, and jackets for camp this summer. Tim Kelly had a great idea last year that we implemented; t-shirts for the red team and blue team.

Monday, February 14

2011-02-14T12:21:00.001-08:00

Around noon last Thursday, the group of 31 from Silverbirch Ranch came to Camp Daniel for work days. This year, Silverbirch has 30 students in their 1 year program. They brought their students at this same time last year, as well. They worked the half day on Thursday, stayed overnight in the dorms, then worked til noon on Friday. It was very cold, so most all of the jobs were inside. Below you can see three of the group that primed and painted the ceiling and upper walls of the two dorm bathrooms. This crew worked on drywalling the large dormer part of the ceiling in the dorm of the Trapline Lodge.

A few months ago, Tony and Karol put together information and ideas that they've gathered over the past 15 years, about bunk beds. It was finally time to come up with a do-it-yourself design for the dorm bunk beds. Plans were painstakingly drawn up, then Tim built a prototype. We've been very fortunate to have great people step up to help with different aspects of construction. Again, we had a volunteer to build the bunkbeds; a couple at a time. So the plans were passed along, and a few months later, we have three bunkbeds! The Silverbirch crew sanded, conditioned and stained the beds. They look great!

This crew was learning how to put up tongue and groove in the Trapline Lodge. Many of the volunteers learned new skills while at Camp Daniel, and we were very appreciative of the help! I believe that's called "win, win".

Monday, February 7

2011-02-07T12:03:00.000-08:00

Tim and the guys have been working in the Lumberjack Lodge dorm. In the pic below, you can see that supports for the poured concrete counter. This smaller counter is also in the bathrooms. It will have a mirror above it. It's basically a primping area. These counters were poured in place, which is the same way that they did the first two baths.

For the large counter, (which will have 3 sinks), Tim decided to do it differently than he did the first two baths. Instead of pouring the counter in place, they poured the concrete counter upside down. When dry, it will be flipped and put in place. The benefit is that the top (which was the bottom when the concrete was poured) will be very very smooth. The downside is that this counter is extremely heavy, and the fit had to worked out quite precisely before it was poured.

Tim and the guys also insulated one of the attics above Molly's place. Dave Detloff has spent a few days here recently, working on tongue and groove in the Trapline Lodge dorm. This week, much time will be spent preparing for a large work day on Friday. We have 30 people coming from Silver Birch Ranch. We're excited at the work that'll get done. That's a lot of jobs to find and get organized for!

Tony spoke at Living Hope yesterday for Missions Sunday. He spent much of last week preparing for the service. It went great. There was a lot of fun Steelers/Packers banter throughout the entire service. All of the CD staff was at the Super Bowl party that Living Hope puts on as an outreach to the community. There were many new people there, and many people that attend Able Church.

Tony was super excited last week when he got a professional video camera in the mail. It was donated by a church in Ohio over a year ago; but we just received it, as we had to wait for the church to raise the money to buy a new camera. The main plan for the camera is to shoot a Jesus Film specifically for people with disabilities.

Jen and Marceaux have been very busy with the Able Church Special Olympics basketball team - The Able Attack. They won both of their games last Saturday. Recently, the Bury's sent out a missionary newsletter to their friends and supporters. Marceaux has also been doing handy work with the snowblower, fan on the bus, and the large bullet heater. He's also been doing Bible studies with the guys.

January 25, 2011

2011-01-25T13:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry, but this blog update won't have any pictures. I've been in Arizona for a week helping my mom around the house after her second hip replacement. I'm so glad she had it done in January!! I just wish I could bottle up the sunshine to bring home with me to share with the Camp Daniel staff! They've been working in the supreme cold this past week. So here's a brief rundown:
Well, I should start with something that happened before I left; Matt Mandich and his son came to camp to give a lesson in welding, which is something that Tony, Marceaux and Tim all only kinda knew how to do. They were able to practice and learn many tricks and techniques. We have 2 kinds of welders, so now it's good to have people that can use them properly!
The Sunday before left, we were all excited to witness Patty Truetinger (camper and Mega and Able attendee) baptised. We've really seen great integration into Living Hope Church. Patty was surrounded by people from Living Hope that love her and are actively involved in Able and camp. Really, it's just how it should be. Also getting baptised that day, were Sara Gillstrom and Brian Suess, both of whom are very active in Camp Daniel and Able. We love them all, and were blessed to witness such a meaningful expression of faith.
Jen has been working doing occupational therapy. She's also been planning the Able winter retreat that we'll be having in February. She's been trying to track down winter sports gear, including broom ball, cross country skis and snow shoes. We're trying to keep the price as low as possible, so Jen's been trying to find inexpensive places to get some equipment. She and Marceaux stopped at Lake Lundgren to talk with them about their equipment. They got some good tips. Jen's also been working on the Dance for Disability. We were originally looking at September, but June is now being considered. Jen and those involved with Special Olympics, went to a basketball tournie last Saturday.
Marceaux has been doing bible studies with the guys. He also worked on getting the two school buses running smooth, as we had a church from lower Michigan drive up to buy them. So, Senior is happy to have those eye sores off the property, and the rest of the testosterone is excited to have more money in the skidsteer fund.
Molly has spent the past week babysitting at the Kocian's. She has been working on some photos that she took as a side job. Of course, she's still doing lot for Able, including Tuesday night bible study and prep work for the winter retreat.
Tim finished plastering the two dorm baths last week. Then he got a first coat of poly on the fourth bedroom. On Tuesday, during our staff meeting, the guys sanded that first coat, then Tim and I got the second coat on. Later last week, he brought the guys to a town near Stevens Point, to help Micah Weidner, whom was heading up packing a moving van for a family moving to Texas. The family is already there, as the dad has been seriously ill, and is seeing specialists in Austin; but all of their stuff was still here. After the truck was loaded, Micah drove it to Texas, then was planning on flying back. Tim was planning for a work day last Saturday, but it was cancelled on short notice. Sunday was all about football. The trash talk is flying as the crazy Green Bay fans take on Tony and family, whom are fans of the Super Spectacular, although underdog Pittsburgh Steelers. It's gonna be a fun two weeks! Tim also brought in the plow to get fixed and ordered doors for the dorm. We buy as we go to make the money go as far as possible. As leader of the youth group at Living Hope, Tim and Chrissy have been planning for a ski outing and a winter retreat. Both taking place at the end of this week.

Monday, January 17

2011-01-17T09:18:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged! But here we are, with a bunch of catching up to do. During Christmas, we generally don't work on big projects. We all took time to visit with family and friends, and really enjoy the holidays. The Kelly's were in Montana for two weeks visiting family. Molly visited with her parents at Camp Daniel, and in Eagle River. Jen and Marceaux did a lot of visiting in the Green Bay area. Of course, we had people at the Hartley House many times throughout the holidays.
The Able Church, as per usual, added a bunch of special events and activities during the holidays. One was cookie making one Sunday after church. Then on the following Tuesday, the group brought the cookies to a group home. While there, they sang carols and did the bell choir.
Jen has been working hard with Special Olympics basketball. She and the others involved in Able have been planning more special events for the summer and fall. Able is hosting a winter retreat in February, so Jen's been working on logistics of that.
Marceaux has been working on both snowblowers, here at Camp Daniel. He changed the battery on the bus, and also took the last load of garbage to the dump. I say "last load" because we finally got a dumpster from Waste Management. Marceaux is still doing Bible study with the Hartley House guys. He helped Tim with plaster in the dorms last week. Also, Marceaux is taking a homestudy course on mechanics.
Molly has been working with Able. And she has also been helping the Kocian's and the Weidner's with babysitting. Since she's good with all goods, and truly awesome with kids with disabilities, she's become the go to person for these families. Also over the holidays, Molly was given the opportunity to speak at her old church in Eagle River, to share about being a missionary at Camp Daniel. Right now, Molly is at her parents, recovering from strep.
Since the Kelly's got back from their Montana trip, Tim has mainly been working in the dorm bathrooms. With help from the guys, they did prep work and two coats of plaster in two baths in the Lumberjack Lodge. This week, he's polyurethaning the walls in the fourth bedroom in that same dorm.
After finally getting all of the Christmas decorations down, Karol started doing some work on camp crafts.
Last Thursday, Tony and Tim went to a Lion's club function in Wausaukee. They did a 15 minute presentation, and thanked the men for the support that they've given Camp Daniel.

Christmas

2010-12-23T10:01:00.001-08:00

This picture goes further down. I accidentally deleted it. There's no moving around of pics with this program. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I'm not starting over!

I thought it would make for a fun blog to post pictures of the Camp Daniel missionaries' Christmas decorations. Some of us have been hording decorations for decades, while others are just starting to collect some holiday items for their homes. I think we all know which category Tony and I fall into!

So this is like a Camp Daniel Pictorial Tour of Homes. Free of charge.

Jo and Tony have Christmas decorations everywhere. It was hard to decide what to take a picture of! Anthony liked this new wreath that Jo has on the wall. To me, this picture is iconic Jo. She changes this hutch for every season, continuing the tradition that her mom started when she had it. Every item is Christmas, and the pieces have been collected over many years.

Moving on to our home. We have a regular Christmas tree in the living room, but this is my special antique tree, which sits between the kitchen and hall. Charlie Brown wouldn't have been given such hassle, had he brought home this aluminum beauty! We bought it at an antique shop in Crystal Falls, MI. It was a real find, as I already had many antique ornaments. Every one of the 180+ ornaments on the tree is antique.

More old stuff in our living room. All silver and red. Some of it is new. I specifically remember buying the snowman and the house (both in the foreground). We were with Greg and Kitt Cleereman, in Chicago, in January. We went to Marshall Field's (now Macy's), where the Christmas leftovers were 90% off. I was like a crazy person! I just remember Greg sitting there looking at me like I was nuts. Well, maybe just a little.

Jen and Marceaux have a real tree. They were going to put it outside, but it kept blowing over in the wind! So it's literally in the middle of their place. On the tips of the branches are pieces of popcorn that are "glued" on with a doughy paste.

This stocking hangs outside of the Bury's. It's a pretty arrangement that Jen's mom made.

Onto the Hartley House. They have a nice tall tree in the living room, but I felt like the deer had a bit more character. Other taxidermied critters in the house with Santa hats: fish and smaller deer mount.

The top pic goes here. It's probably the largest nativity in the county! The very top has the traditional nativity characters, and the rest of the shelves have more of a supporting cast of towns people, Roman guards, angels, etc. When Tony and I did craft shows, Tony made stables for nativity sets. We bought the sets, and he built the buildings. We bought Fontanini brand at wholesale and sold the many many pieces that they offer. Well, after we finished doing the craft shows, we had many pieces left, so they now take a place of honor in the dining room of the Hartley House!

This is a close up of Molly's pretty Christmas tree. It's all silvers, blues and purples. Pretty impressive for her first tree!

But even prettier than her tree is the way she lit up the exterior of her home.

The Kelly's are the only one with a proper fireplace for Santa! Those are some big stockings. I bet the kids picked them out!

Have a Merry Christmas, from all of us at Camp Daniel.

Who knows, maybe next blog, I'll show all of the snow we've shoveled!

Thursday, December 9

2010-12-08T18:43:00.000-08:00

This blog will focus on what Jen and Marceaux have been doing the past week or so. They often go about their business with such quiet dedication, that what their doing gets sometimes overlooked on the blog. Well not anymore!

We begin two Sundays ago. Sunday is, of course, Mega day. Jen is a megaphone (worship leader) and Marceaux is in charge of security. After church they, along with Molly, went to the Mandich's for an Able Church meeting.

On the following Monday, Marceaux did a bible study with the Hartley House guys in the morning. Later that day, he finished sheet rocking his "Ham Shack" (the kids old playhouse, which will be for Marceaux's ham radio). Jen worked on "Miracle of Camp Daniel" book. She's been putting together the stories and history of Camp Daniel. She also organized and labeled all of the braille books of the Bible that are in the conference room. Jen then went through the basketball uniforms for the Able Attack Special Olympic team, check to see what we have and what we need for this season. Jen also did some therapy on Tim's shoulder recurring shoulder injury.
We have a staff meeting every Tuesday morning. After the meeting, Marceaux, Tony, Tim and the guys all worked to get the old plow truck onto a trailer and brought to the plow shop. The plow was taken off of the truck and installed onto Tim's truck, which actually runs.
Tuesday is Able Family Night. Twelve players participated in their first basketball practice. Roger Weid is the head coach, and Jen and Marceaux are both assistants. They had additional coaching help from Brian Suess and Bill Woods. After practice, was the pizza and Bible study time, during which 25 people participated.

On Wednesday morning, Marceaux did another bible study with the guys. Then he and Jen spent some time cleaning out the basement of their place. They are converting it into an "art cave/studio". They hauled in a large work table and hung shelves for supplies. Afterwards Jen worked on Tim's other shoulder, which is also injured. Jen also added to the Camp Daniel book that day, and did laundry. She spent some time in counsel with DJ, whom has been going thru some hard times. Marceaux finished his portion of the thank you cards from their wedding. He knocked out 40!

Thursday morning brought another Bible study. Jen worked on preparations for Friday night's Able Church. She also spent a long time counseling with Lori, DJ's girlfriend. She then had a fun night out with Molly, Karol and others at a Sushi restaurant in Green Bay.

On Friday, they left camp early to get to Green Bay, where they visited with some members of the Able Church. After Able, they brought the guys to Jen's parents house to spend the night before the big Special Olympics Bowling State Finals, which were early Saturday morning in Wausau. The guys placed 7th. After bowling they headed back to Green Bay to help with the clean up from the Mega Movie. After cleaning that mess, Jen, Marceaux and the guys, went to a concert at St. John's in Howard. They saw an acapella group that only uses their mouths for the instruments. Right up DJ's alley. The guys all had a great weekend. It was like a mini vacation for them. All thanks to the Bury's.

Wednesday, November 17

2010-11-17T13:21:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, we had our last work day of the year. Ed Rogers, a camp counselor, brought 5 guys from the work share program he volunteers with. They worked in the Trapline lodge (men's) putting up drywall on the cathedral part of the ceiling in a dorm room. Also here for the work day, was a group from Shepard's College. It's a Christian non-profit that provides residency for people with disabilities, and more recently, they started a post secondary education system for people with disabilities. The students can choose from horticulture and culinary arts. Erin Reynolds, who has been a counselor at camp many times, works at the college organized their coming up for the work day. The college is in Union Grove, WI. They drove up Friday night and stayed in the dorms. The Shepard's group consisted of 9 students and 3 staff. They broke up into three groups and each group worked with a member of the Camp Daniel staff. Below is a picture of the group. They were a lot of fun and we're hoping that they come back again.....only in better weather. Saturday was all about cold, rainy and windy. A lovely combo. But they were troopers, and none complained as much as I! In the end, we got a lot done.I just mentioned the wet weather, which never touched any of this crew! (Yea, I'm a little resentful. And I think they were just showing off in those short sleeve shirts! ) These guys hung drywall with Dave Detloff.

These guys kicked butt. They moved 5 pallets of retaining block. Each block probably weighs 15 lbs.! Do the math. They loaded them onto the trailer, where they were then added to the retaining wall between the Founders House (Jo and Sr) and the Lumberjack Lodge (women's dorm). When they finished moving the block, this group back filled the retaining wall with sand.

This was the group that I worked with. (yes, we were outside the entire day. :( First we mulched the trees that hadn't been mulched during previous work days. Then we moved about two yards of pea gravel. In the pic below, they are unloading the gravel to a location where we can store it until we need it next spring. The pile was left over from the retaining wall that's between the Founders House and the Lumberjack Lodge.

This is where the first group I mentioned was moving sand to back fill the retaining wall.

The kids were having a grand time with "Ooblec", which is a science experiment that Annissa learned in science. It's two parts cornstarch and one part water. When mixed it has this strange ability to change back and forth between a solid and a liquid. If any pressure is applied it gets instantly solid, like a thick clay, but as soon as the pressure is released, it's instantly a drippy liquid. Very cool (and a bit messy, as I'm still finding it in nooks and cranny's. Although maybe I shouldn't blame it on the ooblec, rather the ones making it!)

This week, Tony and the guys have been working by the retaining wall that's between the Founders House and the Lumberjack lodge. Even after the work day, there was still much that needed to be filled. Then they started on the new path that will lead from the dorm down to the lake area. If you're familiar with camp, it's where the stairs are that now lead up to the Founder House. Tony is great at seeing how things could be with elevation changes. None of the rest of us would have been able to make this all make sense and work in a great way to control the flow of run off water, which is always a big concern. In the pic below, you can see where they made a path area that will lead to the stairs. It has retaining wall on the left. Eventually, the area on the right will be even (where there's a hump now) and that area will be blocked in as well, as the pitch there is pretty steep.

This is a closer shot.

This is from the bottom looking up the stairs. I just took this picture today, but it's already out of date as the retaining wall already goes across the stairs. This isn't all going to make sense, so you'll just have to figure it out with the future pictures.

Molly and I have both been in the Christmas mood. We both took advantage of the warm weather last week and hung up outside Christmas lights. Molly finished hers this week. Plus she's been working a bunch on the camper's Christmas cards. It takes time (and some racking of the memory) to figure out exactly which picture goes in each camper's card. Camp Daniel has been sending Christmas cards with a picture of each camper for years. Of course, every year the list gets longer and our memories are having a hard time keeping up!

I started putting up decorations in our house, which makes the kids very happy. I'm thinking that a fun December blog will have to be all pics of the staff houses Christmas decorations/trees.

The question was asked after the last blog about what the white rectangles are on the gable ends of the dorms. Good question, and maybe there's others wondering the same thing, so I thought I'd blog the answer. The white that you see is Tyvec house wrap. Those areas don't have any siding, but have a 2x4 frame around them. Each dorm has 4, one on each elevation. They will have a sign in them indicating which building each is. So the signs will say either "Lumberjack Lodge" or "Trapline Lodge". They each have lighting over them. I will be painting those this winter, and I'll be sure to blog them after they get hung. By each dorm room door is a place for a much smaller sign that will indicate the name of that room; Red Oak Cabin, White Birch Cabin, Bobcat Cabin, etc. Many of the Camp Daniel staff, after all these years, still don't know the names of the cabins at Lake Helen. So this will avoid that scenario when we have camp on our own grounds!

Saturday November 13

2010-11-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

We have continued to excavate and smooth out dirt, and plant trees too. The area in the pic below is between the two dorms but closer to the Lumberjack Lodge (women's dorm, or one that's further along). Last weekend this was not ready to go. Tony did a bunch of excavating with the bulldozer to get proper pitch and elevation all around this dorm. It was then covered in about 4 inches of top soil, then planted with trees. We've pretty much established where the paths will be, so those areas are just sand. The planted areas are roped off to keep cars, golf carts and people off.I didn't get many pics in the last blog, so some of these are from last Saturday's work day. The shot below is from the Trapline Lodge (men's dorm) looking at Lumberjack Lodge. This was taken on a new burmed area.

The pic below is looking the same direction. Every tree you see was just planted in the past two weeks.

This picture is looking at the south end of the Trapline Lodge (men's). The road that goes around the property is on your right. Most of this area was planted with grass, but there are also many small trees in there as well.

This is standing on that road and looking north. You can see both dorms. This is what we call instant woods. It makes Little Tony very happy.

This is another shot of the burm that's next to the road by the Trapline Lodge.

Moving to the other end of the property: This view is taken from Jo and Tony's driveway. It's looking down on Lumberjack lodge. This was the area that Tony excavated.

This is George after I woke him up. George, and the rest us, all knew that 3 days of sunny 60 degree weather in November in this neck of the woods is something that must be appreciated and taken full advantage of. We all did a lot of last-time-before-it-snows cleaning up. Karol cleaned up a few more gardens, laid some concrete garden edging and took the tags off of all of the trees. Jen did some raking, and Marceaux was working on the tractor while it was warm. Tony was on the bulldozer until it was borrowed by someone. Tim and the guys did more work on Molly's roof as well.

Molly's roof is now pretty much all green. Still lots of trim and edging to do though.

Below is the garden area that was planted last weekend, and the brick edging put in this week.

The guys also worked on insulation in the Trapline Lodge. It's amazing how much little stuff there is to do when preparing for winter! We've put away the picnic tables, benches and all tables and chairs. Grills were put away. Leaves raked, gardens cut back, trees mulched, and the list goes on.

Sunday, November 7

2010-11-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

shortly after the last blog, Tim and the guys installed the roof on the pump house portion of Molly's house. Then the rainy weather came, and they moved indoors, where they've done most of their work since. The men's dorm (Trapline Lodge) needs to be heated for winter. To get the heat going, it needed to be fully insulated. To insulate, all of the ceilings needed to be drywalled. Most rooms had been done, but the bathroom ceilings were done this past week. They finished insulating the walls as well. Then Tim rented a hopper machine that blows the insulation. It made quite a dusty mess. The guys had to take the plastic wrapping off of the bags then feed them into the machine, which blew it thru the hose, where Tim could direct the insulation.

The other big job done since the last blog, was planting of trees. Again this fall, we were blessed to get a huge donation of trees and shrubs from Green Bay Nursery. It has taken Tony and Tim many trips to Green Bay with the trailer to get the 140 plus trees and shrubs here. Also included in the donation, was 4 truck loads of mulch, and three loads of retaining wall block. Many of the trees were huge - not balled and burlapped, but with large metal cages around the root ball. Many of these trees weighed upwards of a couple hundred pounds! With each tree, we had to decide where to put it, dig a hole, remove sand from hole and replace with dirt, plant tree, water tree, and mulch. All of this 140 plus times! Tony and the guys got a lot done, then we had a work day on Saturday. Two college students from Concordia came and helped all of the Camp Daniel staff finish planting the trees. We got all of the trees in the ground, but some still need to be mulched. The job now will be getting them adequate water thru the fall. It's great to have instant forest with all of the large trees planted. We got a mix of deciduous and evergreen trees. The mix will give us great diversity. Dave Detloff also came up for the work day. He put up trim in the women's dorm.

Karol and Tim have been organizing the last work day of the year, which will be next Saturday.
Karol has also spent time finding fabric for the curtains in the Lumberjack Lodge. She wants to find fabrics for each dorm room that represent each room's theme. Some were found at a Green Bay fabric store, others will be ordered online.

Jen and Marceaux made it back safely from their trip to Montana. They had a Special Olympics bowling tournament last Sunday. One of the Able teams is moving on to state!

Jen, Marceaux, Molly and the rest from Able in Action did a service project. They raked leaves for an elderly woman from Living Hope Church. They also helped someone who needed help moving last Friday.

In addition to these Able activities, Molly's been doing some weeding, planting and fall clean up. She sent thank you notes to her supporters, and sent another newsletter/support letter to those on her mailing list. Every week Molly lays out and prints the bulletin for Able. And she was in charge of the women's bible study on the Tuesdays that Jen and Marceaux were gone.

Monday, October 25 2010

2010-10-24T19:58:00.000-07:00

Tony spent a good 40+ hours over the past week on the Megarusalem room at church. It was never fully finished last year. Tony finished the mural that was started by a professional muralist, but never completed. With Karol's help two of the days, they also added a bunch of other details. I'll take pictures and blog them at a later date.

Tim, with the help of the guys, hung the cabinets and finished the shelves in the second dorm where the work shop will be. He's also hung shop lights in there, and started organizing all of the tools.

Dave Detloff came two days last week to finish the tongue and groove in the dorm room that he started a few weeks ago. That room is now ready for polyurethane and paint on the ceiling.

Molly's been working on editing pictures that she' taken for people.

Chrissy, with the help of Jen (before she left) printed labels for the 800 newsletters we had printed. They also had to put on the labels and organize all of them by zip code so that they could go out bulk mail.

Karol spent the better part of two days designing wood bunk beds for the dorms. There are two guys who have volunteered to build the beds for us, so it was time to nail down exactly what they should look like. It took online and code book research to get the overall dimension guidelines, then decisions had to be made on built in storage. Then precise plans were drawn up so that they could be built from the plans. Since it ended up being such a complex thing, we decided to have Tim build one prototype to make sure that all of the details are how we want them.

Before the rains set in, Tim and the guys started to reroof Molly's place. Nick and Richard took off some of the old roofing and the metal trim and edging. Then they were able to start putting on the metal roof.

We had a work day on Saturday. Mike Waldrop and Dave Detloff came for the day. They hung drywall on the ceilings in the second dorm.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

2010-10-20T14:36:00.000-07:00

Wow. We had probably the best work day ever last Saturday. We had a huge group, numbering over 35, from Cedar Grove, WI., and a smaller group of about 5 from West Bend. They got a ton of stuff done, and Tim did a great job of organizing so many different jobs and getting all of the tools ready for them. There were always at least 6 different jobs going at a time, so knowing that I'd never remember everything on my own, I took pictures of each.

Below, Marceaux is putting the finishing touches on the lift that he built for the washer and dryer that he and Jen will be using, located in their basement. He used treated lumber to build the platform that will keep the appliances off of the damp floor and any water that may end up there. Jen is excited at the prospect of not carrying her laundry up to the Hartley House every week!

They also started on the exterior of Molly's house. In the plans are a new roof and all new "siding". They started on the pump house, which was changed around last year. In the pic below, you can see a couple of ladies digging out the ground on the backside of the pump house. With the house being in the hill, there's always concern for proper water drainage. After digging out the dirt against the wall of the pump house, they put a plastic barrier against the wall to keep out ground water, then refilled the dirt with the proper pitch so the water will drain away from the building.

When comparing the pic above and below, you can see that the volunteers also firred and sheeted the exterior of the pump house, covering over where the old door had been.

They also firred and sheeted the exterior of the house that will be covered with cedar shakes. The entire exterior will basically be shakes and stone.

These guys spent the day doing masonry work. Richard mixed the mortar for them to apply the cultured stone to two of the porches on the Lumberjack Lodge (women's dorm). There's still one porch to go, then the mortar between the stones (like grout).

This gentleman worked mostly by himself in one of the unfinished bathrooms in the dorm. He drywalled the upper two feet of the room, then got a better part of the durarock (needed for tile) on the lower part of the walls.

The smaller crew from the West Bend church worked on the porch of the craft cabin (temporarily Jen and Marceaux') The did beautiful work on the tongue and groove that they put along the edge of the porch.

Looks good, huh?

Sorry, not the best picture in the world. This crew drywalled the ceilings in the dorm rooms of the Trapline Lodge (men's dorm). The Hartley House guys had already put up the plastic and much of the insulation and with the "lids" on, Tim can soon blow insulation into the ceilings, which is critical if we don't want to go broke heating this building this winter.

Below is our super speedy crew that installed the "buffalo board" (rigid sound insulation, so that future campers won't hear their neighbors snores in the night). On top of this board will be the tongue and groove. If I recall correctly, this crew got 3 1/2 rooms done.

Naturally, a fall work day is going to include raking leaves. And many a leaf did they rake! Molly and Jen headed up this crew, and I know that they were pretty pooped at the end of the day!

Raking this solid carpet of leaves made for a landscape of piles as far as the eye can see. A small crew used the tarp and pick up truck method to move the piles to the burn pile at the back of the property.
This gentleman worked with Dave Detloff, whom came up on a whim, on the tongue and groove in the room that Dave had started a couple of weeks ago. This is the last room in the Lumberjack Lodge that needed the tongue and groove. They didn't quite finish, so Dave came back yesterday and finished the job! Poly time.

A group of women started the day in the third room of the Lakeside Lodge. Karol had applied one coat of Polyurethane the previous week, so that they could start off by sanding the walls lightly, dusting off, and putting the second and final coat of polyurethane on the walls. This room will soon be used as a workout room. The circuit equipment we had donated a few years back has been in the nature center, but since that building isn't heated, it will be set up in this room. (Eventually, the equipment will be in a permanent exercise room in the new garage.)

The ladies also had to move an immense amount of tongue and groove from the dorm bathroom to the porch, then a pick up was pulled around and it was loaded into it to be moved to the other dorm where it will be used for the dorm room walls. The sand near this dorm was very soft, so both trips of wood that they loaded onto the truck weighed it down just enough that the truck, even in 4 wheel, couldn't get out without a tow from the bulldozer. It was worth it though because it was a lot of wood to move by hand.

These guys worked on trimming out the bathroom of the Birch cabin (black room in the Lumberjack Lodge)

Wednesday, October 13

2010-10-13T12:44:00.000-07:00

Here's what's been happening since our last blog:
Dave Detloff (from Living Hope Church) has been up 3 times to work on trim and tongue and groove in the dorms. He has the trim in one room done and two walls done (with tongue and groove) in another. We really appreciate all the hard work he has put in!

Last week, Tony and Jen spent a lot of time preparing for our trip to a Joni and Friends disability summit in Palos Heights, IL. They taught a class on The Able Church. They both spoke on the philosophy and practical matters of the church. Tony and Jen took video footage at Able and made a 7 minute video showing how Able uses people with disabilities to lead the church. It was pretty powerful and many people got alot out of the class. Some people that work with people with disabilities don't see the leadership potential of people with disabilities, so I'm sure that it was an eye opener for many. Especially when they saw on of our campers, Jesse Towne, preaching. It was awesome!
Regarding the trip, Tony, Karol, Tim, Chrissy, Jen, Marceaux, Molly and Tim Mandich all loaded into the bus after Able last Friday and drove to IL for the conference. We all went to different break out sessions and each gleaned some valuable information from the conference. We got home pretty late on Saturday, but it was well worth the trip. Tony's been spending a lot of time on the bulldozer this past week. The two proceeding pics show some of his handiwork, but like I said before, it's really hard to appreciate all of the earth moving. The area behind the dorm in the first pic below shows the finished grade for that area. The top soil spreading, started during the youth weekend, was finished and seed was planted in the area. Richard's been watering every other day since.

Tim spent a good day filling the dump truck with top soil, driving it to the area between the two dorms, dumping, driving back to the dirt pile, transferring from the dump truck to the excavator (which, although sold, is thankfully still here) and using it to fill the dump truck again. I won't even hazard a guess as to how many times this process took place, all to get the top soil to where Tony could use it to sculpt the earth. After Tony was done with the dozer, then he used an ATV to drag a metal bed frame to smooth out the dirt and bring up the large pieces of rock and debris. The second order of seed was delivered today, so pretty soon this area will be seeded and rolled. Lucky Richard, in having another couple thousand square feet to keep watered!

Jen, Molly and Karol have been taking advantage of the warm weather by cleaning up the flower beds on the grounds. Jen also finished staining the Hartley House deck. There were some parts that they didn't get to on the youth weekend.

Tim and the guys have been working in the Trapline Lodge dorm. They've been insulating the ceilings and getting them ready for drywall. Also, there was a bunch of stuff stored in there, that was moved to the storage unit down the road.

The guys from Ideal Air were here yesterday and today installing the furnaces for the Trapline Lodge.

Chrissy got the newslette off to the printer. She'll be picking it up tomorrow and hopefully addresses will be done by Friday so it can be in your mailbox by Monday. If you don't receive our newsletter, and would like to, please email us at info@campdaniel.org and we'll get you on the list.

Monday, October 4

2010-10-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

This past week has been more quiet around here than is usual. It reminds me to be extra thankful for the blessing that being a missionary is. Granted, there are many weeks that we, at Camp Daniel, work double and triple time, but it really is nice to be able to have a week like we did last week. Molly was able to go to her parents' and visit with a family friend, whom is dying of cancer. She was visited with an uncle, whom lives out of town, that she doesn't see much. Jen and Marceaux spent the week in Green Bay. Sunday and Monday nights, Jen spent the night at a hospital in Green Bay to minister to and be supportive of, Judy, Amanda's mom, as Amanda's grandmother was dying. On Monday, Jen helped Amanda and Sarah work on speeches that they were go give at the Down Syndrome Awareness walk last Saturday. Amanda's grandma, Evelyn, did die on Tuesday, and Jen helped with funeral arrangements the rest of the week. Tuesday evening, Jen, Sabrina and Sarah went to Amanda's to visit with her. They made dinner, and watched a movie together. Isn't all that what friendship and ministry are all about?!
Early Wednesday morning, Jen, Marceaux and Tony headed for O'Hare Airport for a day of round table discussion with other disability ministers from around the country. After the meetings, they drove to downtown Chicago, as Marceaux had never been there. He was impressed by the sights. Then they stopped for dinner at Ed Debevic's, a fifties diner style restaurant. Afterwards they headed home. It was a long day, as Tony didn't get home till after midnight. Earlier in the week, Marceaux was working on the Mega Micro Mini Bus. The disability walk went well on Saturday.

Also last Saturday, was the second annual Mega Car Show for Kids. Tony spent the better part of last week preparing for that. The weather last Saturday was better than last year, but not as pleasant as we would have liked. We're already preparing for next year.

Tim Kelly spent the better part of last week with his mom in Green Bay, as she had surgery on Wednesday, went home on Thursday to start recuperation. Again, what a blessing to be able to take the time to take care of family and be a blessing for others. Today, Tim is finished drywalling the ceiling in the dorm and started plastering it. The goal is to have the next work day group paint that ceiling, so that the work room can be moved into that room.

Chrissy has been working on the newsletter this past week or so. It's getting close. We are not writers around here, so the editing is pretty heavy. As a matter of fact, Chrissy just asked me to go over it again.

Wednesday, September 29

2010-09-29T11:07:00.000-07:00

Well alot has happened since our last blog last week, but I think I'll focus on the youth work weekend we just had. The Faith Presbyterian Church (Crivitz) youth group sponsored the work weekend. We also invited all of the younger counselors that we had at Camp this summer. Most of the kids came Friday night and worked thru Sunday at noon. The above picture really captures this group. Getting stuff done, while never losing sight of having fun and being a bit dramatic! There were 15 to 20 workers here, and let me show you how much they got done:

Joe T, Pat Neitzer and Nick hanging drywall in the Trapline Lodge dorm room that will be used as a work room this winter.

Nick and Brian were able to do some plastering under the mentorship of Luke Kotecki.

Luke did all of the high plastering after they taped all of the joints and put the metal corner pieces on the outside corners.

Here the kids are "working" at spreading topsoil around the Trapline Lodge. Looks like they're having too much fun..

Tim had Pat do some caulking on the Trapline Lodge.

Now we get to the bulk of work that was done. Staining. Here Molly and Emily Neitzer are staining a porch on the Trapline Lodge. They did three of the four, as the fourth one had too much stuff in the way to get to the siding.

Karol bleached the eight dormers on the Lumberjack Lodge where the siding had turned black from the snow sitting up against the wood. After she was done, Nick Sterry, Johanna Hensler, McKenna Kelly and Emily braved the dangers of being on the roof and stained all eight dormers.

JoJo was a bit nervous, but she did great!

The kids found a great way to have fun. A hose and sand. Really, the possibilities are endless.

Staining..

More staining...

Did I mention that they stained?

Last Friday, Anthony got to drive the excavator all by himself, for the first time. Tony stood outside the cab and told him what to do. He moved loads of gravel into the dump truck, to be used on the roads.

Also here on Saturday were Jerry Reiss, Dewey Sessler and two of his boys. They started the plumbing in the Trapline Lodge. They ran supply lines, and ran lines to where the furnace and water heaters will be. Also, a faucet was installed so that we have water in that dorm now for construction purposes. It was a huge jump start to getting that building done. Tim also had them move an outside faucet on the back of the craft cabin and install the washing machine in the basement of said building. We're always extra appreciative to have skilled labor here on work days. Tim was not about to let either of these guys touch a staining brush!!

So when the dust settled, and the staining brushes were all clean, here's what the teens did in a weekend: stained the entire Lumberjack Lodge, stained the logs on the Trapline lodge, raked out dirt, stained the Hartley House deck, stairs and lattice, filled in the trenches from the buried propane tanks, drywalled one ceiling, got about half done on the plaster work for ceiling of dorm in Lumberjack, caulked some of the Trapline Lodge.

Monday September 20

2010-09-20T09:18:00.000-07:00

Tony and I have always said that there's so much work done that no one will ever realize. Some of that is just brain time; time spent thinking about the best way to do something, and some of it is physical work that goes unnoticed because, in the end, it just looks "right". The main example of this phenomena is the excavation of the grounds: knocking down hills a few feet, making a level area larger, easing a grade difference, making low areas for run off water to gather in, etc. Well, this past week there's been a lot of this kind of thing going on. Tony and Tim have spent a lot of time in the bulldozer and excavator, respectively. Don't forget to give Marceaux credit for keeping those old beasts running! So it all started with the need to dig the trenches for the lines that will carry the propane to the dorm heaters. (Remember that the propane tanks were installed a couple of weeks ago) That led to the need to decide where poured concrete walkways would be, which, in turn lead to Tony bulldozing to get to a finished grade. Once he started he realized that the second (men's or Trapline Lodge) was a good 2-3' lower than the other dorm. This required a way to grade change without all of the water running in towards the building. So he cut away a bunch of the fill and he and I spend the better part of the day trying to decide how to grade the property. Of course, one thing always leads to another, and what started out with sidewalks turned into where every upcoming building would be. And after all of that, we didn't really make firm decisions on much of what was being contemplated. Kinda overwhelming, really. So in the end, he dozed away a lot of dirt. I wish I could guess at how much, but I cannot. I can tell you that Friday, while Tony was dozing, Tim would get in the excavator, load the dump truck with fill that Tony had piled up, then get out of the excavator, and into the dump truck, which he would drive to the round about and dump. Over and over and over. Saturday, Mike Waldrop came for the work day and ran the dump truck while Tim ran the excavator, so they probably got twice as much moved as Friday. Still, over and over and over. And after all that..... It just looks "right". I know that this pic is boring, but here's a shot of a couple of the truck loads of fill that were moved.

On Saturday, we had a work day for the people of Able Church. About 6 of the girls came to Camp Daniel after Able on Friday and spent the weekend. About a 6 more people came for the day on Saturday. They really got alot done. One of the main jobs (which they finished by noon!) was to dig the trenches for the propane lines. They also started spreading top soil by the dorms, which is a huge job that will probably take the rest of the year.

They also finished staining all of the cedar shakes that we have!! If you've ever helped with this job ( I know that many of you have) you can understand the elation that tore thru this group upon completion of the last shake. This was a seemingly never ending job, that's been in progress for about 3 years. (I didn't have the heart to tell them that we'll probably have to buy more to finish the building exteriors)

Molly and Jen got started staining the Hartley House deck railing. The rest will be power washed this week and hopefully stained this weekend.A week or two ago, when Tony was working on the rock and mortar, I showed pictures of the new Camp Daniel sign. Well he worked on it on Saturday, and a few hours on Sunday. He had help from Anthony, Karol and Richard. Below you can see Anthony using the XL belt sander on the 6x6 posts that were used for this project. That sander is a beast, but Anthony had it well under control!The sign is almost done. A roof will go on still and the mortar between the stones needs to be done.

Sunday, we stopped and looked at a used Bobcat on the way home from church. It has the rubber tracks that we need (which are hard to find). Tony googled reviews of the machine and it seems to be a good choice for us, as it doesn't do damage to finished areas (grass, black top, etc). Tony inquired about the machine, and the guy called me today, so I asked a few questions, but I think that they're asking more than we can afford right now. Bummer.

I spent some time last night researching grass seed for the dorm areas. We're looking into planting a fine fescue blend, which is considered a "no mow" grass. It's natural looking without being tall and "weedy". And this type of grass likes sandy soil. Hip Hip Horray, cause we are all about the sand around here. Tony will go to Stein today to see if they carry a fescue blend. If not, we'll probably order it online from a place in Wisconsin. There really are not many "no brainer" decisions. Everything seems to involve either a lot of contemplation or a lot of research.

Today Jen is finshing the staining of the Hartley House deck railing, Molly is working on Able stuff, Tony is at meetings at church, Tim is drywalling the mechanical room of dorm 2 so that the plumbers coming this weekend have plumbing work to do, and well, you know what I've been doing. So I think I'll stop and get some other stuff done while we have nice weather!

Tuesday, September 14

2010-09-14T16:18:00.000-07:00

Since blogging last, we've been doing a lot of little stuff. Ya know, cleaning this, mowing that, finishing the details on the other. There was a fun push to get stuff done before the picnic last Saturday, so here's some of that. Tony and Richard did a lot of rock and mortar. This pic shows the bocce ball court with the cultured stone all on, and the cap stones on as well. The caps and the rocks both still need finishing mortar in the joints, but it already looks awesome! Tim put additional coats of poly on the floors of the two finished dorm rooms. Then he put two coats of wax on them. The wax will protect the finish from scratches. We got bunk beds out of storage, cleaned up and put together in the two finished rooms. Now you get a much better view of how the room will be used. Although these are not the bed we will be using when we have camp here, they will work for now for work days and any other times that people want to stay on the grounds. We bought these beds a couple of years ago from Habitat for Humanity's ReStore in Appleton. We got a great deal on them, and we're appreciative to have them to use for now.

We are in the middle of a sale of the excavator, trailer and dump truck. Which is great news as that gets us quite a bit closer to getting a Bobcat (plus Senior is happy to have less mess to look at around here!!) So before the excavator is gone, Tim is getting everything done with it that we need to do. We have a huge pile of top soil, that's been where the new garage will be going, for a number of years. We've used only a portion of it so far. Tim used the excavator to break it up and move it closer to the road so that it can be spread out by the dorms. Tony was using the bulldozer today to sculpt the land around the dorms so that it's ready for the dirt.

Marceaux has been fixing lots of different things. What a blessing to have a mechanic here. He works on everything, from the golf carts, to mini vans, to heavy equipment. He's also taken on mowing the majority of grass on the property.

Karol worked on a garden adding dirt and transplanting some things. She's also working on polyurethaning in the dorm baths. Jen's been working on Special Olympics stuff. There's really quite a bit involved in running a team. Lots of paper work, etc. Molly's been working on post cards and other correspondence for Able. Chrissy has been working on the email list for work days. We have many addresses wrong. So if you haven't received an email for work days, and would like to, please email Chrissy at kellys@campdaniel.org She's also working on the next Camp Daniel newsletter, and organizing meals for upcoming work days.

Tim and the guys have also been working on the second dorm. They drywalled the ceiling in the bathroom that will be used to store tools. Today Tim got shelving up so that we can stay better organized. The plan is to get all of the work stuff moved over so that the first dorm can be finished by the end of winter.

Wednesday, September 1

2010-09-01T15:01:00.000-07:00

The time has just flown by since camp ended. Jim and Rhonette Hukill stayed at Camp Daniel for 4 days after camp, then we all helped out with the Extreme Home Makeover Concert in Green Bay on Friday. The Saturday after camp all of the staff went to the Renaissance Faire in Bristol. We went for fun and Tony wanted everyone to experience the thoroughly immersive themed environment that you experience there. It's what we want our theme days/meals at camp to be like. As staff, we should be committed to our characters and themes. Like we'd be a cowboy weather everyone else were there or not. We got back to normal work after that. Tim and the guys started preparing the dorms for the work to be done this fall and winter. Jen, Marceaux, Karol and Tony went up north to Tony's family cabin for three days as a time to get to know one another better. This week Tony started mortar work. In the pic below, he's working on the new sign at the entrance to Camp Daniel (the old wood one rotted and fell down last fall. The sign has been on a temporary holder, as you can see in the picture) All of the block will be covered with cultured stone. We ran out of corners, so it'll get done in the coming days.

The guys have been working in the men's dorm (Trapline Lodge) getting ready for winter. They've been insulating one bathroom and one dorm room. When the insulation is done, Tim will help them drywall the ceiling (or lid, as Tim refers to them). Then these two rooms will be the new work room. We are currently using a room in the other dorm (Lakeside Lodge) for this purpose, but we want to finish all of the room in that dorm, so all the stuff has to be moved. Both dorms will be heated this winter, which will enable work all year! Just think, warm and toasty work days! How can you pass that up! We'll be looking to see you all in January.

This is the dorm room. It just has plastic because after the "lids" are on, Tim will blow in the insulation instead of using blanket insulation. Tony also did mortar work on the bocce court. He had to add concrete block on the ends to match the heights. Then he put cultured stone on all of the block work, which covers three sides of the court.

Monday and Tuesday Tim used the excavator to dig large holes for the propane tanks that will service the two dorms. We're happy to have these out of sight as they are an eyesore that's hard to hide.

August 8, 2010

2010-08-08T06:12:00.001-07:00

So, this trailer was donated years ago by Cherylee Hamilton. I believe it was a car trailer, intended for moving vehicles. Well we put sides on it and used it for a number of years as a trailer to bring much of our stuff back and forth to camp. About 3 years ago, on the way to camp, the axle got bent and rendered it unusable. We then got enclosed trailers and didn't really need it for camp, so it wasn't fixed. Then last year, Tony had the idea to turn it into a traveling sound trailer to use at camp for the Two Night Show, talent show, outdoor movie, etc. So the guys removed the walls and the floor so that just the metal frame was left, and John brought it to a "guy" that was going to donate a paint job. We waited until after the Africa trip, but it still wasn't done, so John picked it up and Marceaux did a fabulous job painting the trailer (and his hands!) black. Then a new floor was put on. Then Tony and the guys started to build up.

In a matter of a couple of days, the walls were done, roof was on and the shelving was built on the inside. The trailer has a roof off the front that folds down for travel, and is light weight. It's made from corrugated plastic panels that let in some light, which is great for inside the trailer. There's a ton of storage for sound equipment. Everything that we need to run a show is wired thru the trailer: mics, speakers, dvd, lights, disco ball, video projector, etc. In the pic below you can see the large window on the right. That's the sound area. The large window on the left is a puppet window for Georgie and his friends. We put a dutch door on the end and a window for people to talk to whomever is running sound. So over the course of the three weeks of camp, we've continued to work on the trailer. The second week of camp, a group from Honey Rock Camp/Wheaton College came to Lake Helen and worked for a day. A group of girls got the siding of the trailer painted black. Then between the camps, Molly and Karol primed and painted green the trim. The doors were primed and painted black, as well as the posts and frame of the roof. Then, during the third week, Tony and Karol got the curtains up. Also, by then Tony figured out better what we needed and he rewired and fine tuned some things.

It's really been a great addition to camp. It adds to the quality of the camp, while making our jobs all a lot easier.

Friday, July 30 2010

2010-07-30T08:59:00.000-07:00

The youth group from a Catholic church in Des Plaines, IL has been coming to Camp Daniel for one week work missions trips for a number of years now. It all started with Cherylee Hamilton at the opera. She got to talking to a lady next to her whom had a home on a lake somewhere around here, and she hosted this group every other year while they did work at the Rainbow House in Marinette. She got us hooked up with the group. For a few years they alternated between Rainbow House and Camp Daniel. Then that lady sold her house, so the group started coming to work at Camp Daniel every year. They are very organized and really know what they're doing. They have a great system down of breaking the group up into "families" of 5 with a college age leader. Each family takes turns doing meals and chores. And each family has a project to work on for the week. Their youth leader, Deacon Jim, comes out in the winter and a couple of times in the spring to decide on projects for them do to and to order stuff from Menards. They raise all of the money needed to do the projects. This year they worked on four different projects:
I have only one picture to represent this massive job. They put capstone on many many running feet of retaining wall. Many had to be cut to fit and they were all glued into place. The capstones really finish off the walls. They put in a nice gravel path from the Hartley House deck stairs, thru the wildflower garden and to the sidewalk near the nature center. They dug up the grass/weed/dirt that was on the already established path. They used concrete edging pieces and filled the path with compacted gravel.

The most difficult project that the group worked on was a simple gazebo or shelter. It has a gravel floor. Eventually, we'll build in benches between the posts. The shelter will be used for prayer and nature studies.

Finally, they installed a long retaining wall at the edge of the sand between the dorm and Tony and Jo's house. There's a huge grade difference between the two, probably 8 or 10 feet, so this retaining wall will hold back the hill.

They did a great job, and this group is such a blessing. They all include the guys in whatever they're doing. Of course, George is in heaven with all the people around, too. We've been doubly blessed to have some of the kids come back as counselors at camp. We hope to have more, and look forward to next year!

July 26, 2010

2010-07-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since I've last blogged, that I don't really know where to start. So I guess I'll try to go back to the last entry. I gave it a quick look before starting this one, and I saw that I said that the water was coming any time. Well things didn't turn out quite like planned. In the pic below the well guys were running lines for the well. In the sandy soil, to get 15' deep, you have to go pretty wide. The next day the other crew came to finish the process, but they dug up the power lines going to the dorm (not their fault, as the lines were not where everyone thought they were). So this happened in the afternoon on the Friday before 4th of July weekend. We were able to get the power company to come turn off the power that day, but we didn't get power restored until after we were already at camp, so that's over a week. When the power lines were ripped out of the box that's connected to the building, the guts of the box got all busted up. So Tony spent the rest of that Friday calling around trying to get what we needed asap. It was hard to even get a hold of people as many were already on holiday. Tony finally got the sole person at the place that makes them in Milwaukee. It was gonna cost $1,200. Tony didn't even give the lady a sob story, but he did give her our website, which, we assume, she must have looked at because we got the part donated. Tony found out later that she has a child with a disability. Tim Mandich was able to pick up the part in Green Bay that day. Pretty cool ending to a really crappy scenario. Even after getting the part, it was a slow process getting all of the utilities up and running. The hot water wasn't running until today because the lines had to be pressure tested first. Tomorrow a culligan man will be coming to adjust the settings on the water softeners, which don't appear to be doing much of anything right now. So while the power was out, the week before camp it was all about tiling and grouting. Some days it was just Tim and I, and some days we had the help of many on the Camp Daniel staff. I worked thru the Wednesday before camp, but I had to stop at that point to get camp stuff ready. Tim and the guys kept at it. Tim built the stall dividers, hung the doors, finished trim, installed trim, and did a bunch of mechanical stuff that I don't know anything about. He did have the help of Jerry Reiss, a plumber from Crivitz. He put in a lot of hours setting toilets and sinks and working on the instant hot water heaters. I think he also hooked up the used water softeners that were donated to us by the Catholic Church in Wausaukee. His help was a Huge Blessing! We were also very appreciative of Rick and Carol Bub, whom helped trim the Silver Birch dorm room. Both the Bub's and Jerry even worked while we were at camp. Tim was also able to sneak away on the Monday of each camp. He also worked on the day off between the camps. When we broke camp on Saturday, Tim came back to Camp Daniel in the morning to finish things up. I jumped in when I got back at about noon. It was crazy how much work was left to do. The place was a disaster and many things still needed to be installed, including the shower curtains. You wouldn't think that shower curtains would be that big of a deal, but you would be so very wrong. It's hard to explain verbally, but we needed to divide the shower area into 4 sections; two shower areas, with two dressing areas. All needed curtains for dividers (for certain wheelchair situations). It took Tony and I probably two hours at Menards figuring out how to do it and which materials would look the best and be durable. Well, it all made sense at the store two weeks ago, but yesterday, it was just a blur. It didn't help that some of the parts we bought got separated and lost. Well, we struggled thru and got over half of them up yesterday, but then we needed more parts. When you live in Athelstane, there's no quick runs to Menards. Tony's getting the parts we need today. (He had to go to Green Bay anyways for a meeting with the Hilliard Foundation. We're raising funds for the kitchen/dining hall) So as soon as he gets back, we'll get that done, so that the youth group can have some privacy in the showers. Our Lady youth group got here at about 6pm, which was another blessing, because I was afraid they were going to show up at 4, which wouldn't have been pretty. We had done what we could when they got here, but they didn't have hot water and the dorms reeked because of the coat of poly protectant that Tim had put down in the Red Oak bath just two hours previous. They couldn't walk on that floor til about 9 last night. Below is the pic of the Silver Birch dorm room. The adults from the youth group are staying in there.

Below is the pic of the Red Oak bath. Oh yea, forgot the mention that the mirrors were delivered on Saturday and installed on Saturday too. Also forgot to mention that Joel Bosaki helped Tim trim on Saturday for a few hours. Every little bit of help helps.

Below you can see the shower area and water closet stall doors in the Red Oak bath.

I didn't really say what the deal is with this youth group. In summary, this youth group, from DesPlaines, IL has been coming up to Camp Daniel for a week long missions trip for about 3 years running, and about 2 or 3 times when they were coming every other year. They are a great group that raises all of their own funds for the supplies for whatever projects that they are doing. They are an organized and friendly bunch that are a treat to have around. They are self sufficient enough that it's not a hassle to have them here the week between the camps. And for me, the best part is that they feed all of us all week!!!!! The guys, and George all love hanging out with the kids. I'll blog again later this week and explain more. I'm sure that you're sick of reading this by now anyways.

Oh yea, almost forgot, we had two weeks of camp since I last blogged too!!

Friday, July 2

2010-07-02T07:07:00.001-07:00

It's been a busy week, and the days will only continue to get busier and more hectic. It's different this year, from most because of the deadline to get the two dorm room/bathrooms and new sound and stage trailer done before camp. All on the heels of the Kenya missions trip to boot. So Molly's been doing all of the computer work and data entry for camp. Plus figuring out all of the special diets, which is quite the job, in and of itself. Tony's been working on camp stuff. Finalizing camper/counselor matchups is a major undertaking. Yesterday he had two meetings in Green Bay, then did a bunch of errand running. He's working on the theme for the chapel for camp, buying clothes for the dummies, etc. Tim and Karol have been tiling. After Tim leaves for the day, then Karol works on camp stuff. Unfortunately she's behind on getting camp crafts done and packed, but is now moving along. Yesterday, Bob Wegman came out after lunch to help tile. What a blessing that was. A lot was accomplished and pretty soon the grouting can commence. Below you see Anthony helping out by taking out the stabilizing screws that have to be used to hold the tile up til dried. Tuesday the well drilling company came out to drill the well for both dorms (the bathrooms won't do us much good without water!!). The pump guys are here now, so hopefully we'll have H2O today.

The guys played lumberjack when the well trucks were here. We have this pile of huge logs that will become posts for the dorm porches, and it was in the way. Each log was rolled off behind the dorm.

Anthony and Tony have been collecting treasure for months. Well this week they took a quite plain trunk (yea for super clearance at Hobby Lobby) and transformed it into a super treasure chest. You really need to see it in person. Lots of awesome detailing. But hey, that's what makes Camp Daniel, right?!

Marceaux got the new axel on the trailer that will be the sound and stage trailer (I'll explain more later). Jen helped Jo with the immense amount of patch sewing that needed to be done. We buy plain hats and shirts and order the patches, then just attach with glue and sew. Tim Kelly and his crew of the Hartley House guys do all of the cleaning, setting up and tearing down at camp. They're called the Pit Crew, so we went with a racing theme and got them a "uniform" of matching hats and shirts in red with black and white. Anthony is excited to join the team this year.

Monday, June 28

2010-06-28T18:14:00.000-07:00

Jen and Marceaux came back this past weekend from their two weeks at Joni and Friends camps. John and Sue are staying upstairs with the guys. Tony, Tim, Tim, Chrissy and McKenna came home from their Kenyan missions trip Saturday night. Everyone laid pretty low on Sunday, but things were in full swing today. Tim was out to Camp Daniel early picking up where Karol left of on tiling in the dorm bathroom. Tony was working on all sorts of camp things. The phone rang off the hook. Cherylee Hamilton (who grew up going to Salvation Army camps on our property) came with her family for their annual picnic. Wendy Kolbusz came to bring some items that she and her husband wanted to donate after cleaning out their garage. Laurie Hucek came to weed her adopted garden. Molly's mom and grandma came for lunch and to bring Molly a new kitchen table and chairs. The electric company was here moving an electric box. Chrissy and the kids came over for a while to touch base regarding camp stuff.

After high school, Molly moved to Georgia for two years to nanny for a girl with mental disabilities. We've heard lots about Molly's time in Georgia with Leah and her family. Molly is very excited to have her here for a month. She'll be staying with Molly until camp starts, then she'll be at two weeks of camp before her mom flies back from Georgia to pick her up. We're excited to get to know Leah, as she's such an important part of Molly's life.

Last Saturday was the annual Able picnic at Bay Beach. There was lots of food and fun for everyone in attendance.

Sunday, June 20

2010-06-18T05:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Anthony mowing the lawn for the first time. He did a great job! And Karol was happy to have help mowing, with almost everyone gone from Camp Daniel.

This week, Karol's sister, Janice came to camp to help Karol out with camp stuff. They went thru all of the dresses for French Night and sized them. They pulled out a bunch to fix and shorten. They also went thru all of the prizes for the carnival and bingo. They also helped Molly paint her bedroom ( the pic below)............. and the living room/kitchen/dining area/hallway.

Jen and Marceaux are still at Joni and Friends camp, Tim, Tim and Tony are in Kenya, & John is in Minnesota. Sue came back from MN this week, and Molly spent half of the week at the Kelly's, watching Micah and Kaden.

Monday, June 14

2010-06-14T04:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long since the last blog. Thing have been pretty hectic. Tony and Tim were very busy getting ready for the trip to Africa by getting as much done on the grounds as possible, getting stuff ready for camp, buying supplies for the trip, and packing 2 plus weeks worth of stuff into one 50 pound bag. On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, the missions group had a huge rummage sale and church. On Sunday, Tony, John, Jen, Molly, Marceaux and Tim Mandich all loaded into the bus after church to make their way to Minnesota for Special Touch Summer Getaway. I believe that this is their 4th consecutive year at that camp. Tony, John and Jen were the speakers for the morning chapels of the physically disabled group. Molly and Marceaux were counselors. Tim was supposed to be a counselor, but his camper couldn't come to camp at the last minute, so Tim worked with the sound crew, and got to see the inner workings of a camp. That camp ended on Friday, June 4. Tony met up with Karol and the kids in Chicago for a family wedding. On Sunday, they went to the Museum of Science and Industry.

After the weekend, it was time to get all of the details done before leaving for Kenya. Tony spent two days working on camper/counselor matchups before leaving. Tim had to buy 21 totes, fill them with tools and pack 'em up. They stayed up all night before getting on the bus at 4 am on thursday morning. Tony's goal was to sleep as much as possible on the airplanes.

Before leaving for Kenya, Karol and Tim did get further in the dorms. Below shows the tile partially done in the shower area. The floors are now done in "Silver Birch". The dye used was black and brown. The bathroom floor and counters match. The two dorm rooms are now clean and ready for bunkbeds for the group that will be using them this summer.

Tony, Karol, Annissa and Anthony at Ed Debevic's in Chicago. The kids loved the authentic 50's feel and the sassy waitstaff. Not too often that it's okay to shoot straw wrappers at the waiter!! It got them excited for 50's night at camp.

Jen and Marceaux have left for Joni and Friends summer camp in Michigan. Since getting back from camp in Minnesota, Molly moved from the Craft Cabin into what was John and Sue's place. The Koch's have a few pieces of furniture left, but they're essentially moved to MN. After we paint, I'll blog some pics of Molly's Place. She'll be busy with guests this summer as Sue will be staying in there while she's here for camp and work. Plus, Leah, a girl that Molly nannied for, in Georgia, will be coming for a month this summer. Tim Mandich left for Africa on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon was the Living Hope Church Neighborhood Picnic. It's an outreach to people in the area of the church to get them familiar with Living Hope. Free bouncy things, food, sno cones, cotton candy, etc. Jen and Janice ran the Able booth, and Marceaux was in charge of the Mega Micro bus. Molly was the official photographer, and Karol helped in the welcome tent a little bit.

Friday, May 28

2010-05-28T19:54:00.001-07:00

Well, the rush and confusion of comings and goings is firmly upon us, here at Camp Daniel. The Bury's have been on their honeymoon all week. They'll be back on Saturday. Tony Sr. and Jo went up north for a few days.
We're trying to get as much done as possible. Tony will be gone starting Sunday for four weeks. So he's trying to get everything in order to be gone for that long. Camp stuff, grounds stuff, prep work to speak at Special Touch summer camp and prep and pack for the missions trip to Africa. The Africa trip is also pressing on Tim and Chrissy. They've been preparing this week for a large rummage sale at church that will raise funds for the trip. We had our meeting on Tuesday, then we all pitched in to clean the garage. We donated a trailer full of stuff to the garage sale, and just plain straightened and organized. Chrissy also went thru all of the kitchen totes to get organized for this summer. On Wednesday, Karol and Chrissy went to Omro to the food bank to get stuff for camp. That's pretty much an all day event. Two hours each way, 1.5 to 2 hours there, then after getting back to camp, unloading, inventorying and organizing everything. Chrissy also inventoried the food supplies that will be used at camp. Thursday, Tony, Tim Mandich, Molly, Nick and Brian went to Helen Keller School in Green Bay with the Mega Micro Bus. After several glitches getting the bus to the school, it talked to the kids from every grade. They were there all day spreading the word about Mega. Tim, Karol and Richard spent the day prepping the floor in the dorm to be dyed. They had to be rid of building materials, etc, swept, vacuumed, cleaned with a buffer, mopped and dried. The walls had to be taped off to protect against stray dye. It took most of the day to do this to the dorm room "white birch", it's bathroom, and the central mechanical room. Then Tim dyed birch midnight black and chocolate brown in the dorm room, the bathroom and it's countertops and the mechanical room. He also dyed the counters in the bath of "red oak". (when we dyed the floors, the countertops hadn't yet been built. The below pic was from today. Tim put a coat of finish in the mechanical room and a portion of the bath. It was a water based epoxy with no voc/hap (no smell). It goes on white and dries clear. Here's the dorm floor. The logo hadn't been dyed yet, that's the plain concrete color you see.

Here's the red oak countertop

Today, Chrissy and Karol prepared the food order for the first week of camp. Karol cut the grass. Still lots left to cut. Maybe tomorrow....

Tuesday, May 25

2010-05-25T11:41:00.000-07:00

Tony and the guys put the docks in. The water is so low that the ends of the docks are in about 2 or 3 feet of water. You can see how much sand there is in the pic below. The year we first looked at this property, there was no beach at all. It's never been that high since, although it does vary.
Jobs that are included with putting in the docks are putting out all of the tables and benches on the lakefront areas and hooking up the pump that we use the water the grass by the lake. Well, I'm happy to say that God is a plumber, too. (I suppose He'd be a Master Plumber) The day before, someone had donated a barely used well pump, which Tony Sr. accepted, even though we didn't have an immediate use for it. Tony didn't know anything about this. What he did know was that he spent 3 hours trying to get the pump we used last year going, only to find out that the housing was cracked, rendering the pump useless. When Tony told his dad that we'd have to buy a new pump, he learned that God already knew all of this and had already had the replacement pump donated. Tony and the guys worked on the rocks for the craft cabin. In the pic below, you can see Tony's new gadget that I mentioned before that is used to tuck point (grout) the rocks. He was very happy with it. It was much easier on the hands, and a bit faster. Also in the pic below, Karol painted the concrete wall green to finish this area off.

Tim started some of the posts for the stairs and, for lack of a better word, pergola. This north end of the craft cabin will have open trussing over the patio area. It'll be strictly aesthetic, tying in the other porch to this end of the building. Really, it's quite hard to explain, so you'll just have to see it visually, as this job progresses.

The rock around the doorway helps to emphasis the door as a focal point.

Also finished this week was the roof of this building. Karol painted coats one and two of the green trim. Molly is staining tongue and groove that will finish off the deck. Jen and Marceaux are on their honeymoon in Waupaca.

We all enjoyed their wedding on Saturday. The weather was nice and everyone had a good time. There were many people from camp and Able Church in attendance and as a part of the wedding. DJ, Brian, Richard, Nick were ushers. I don't have any pics now, but I'll get some on here for you later.

Tuesday, May 18

2010-05-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

We had a work day last Saturday. They were a quality crew from a church in Appleton. All work was done on the exterior of the craft cabin. The main thing was putting up the split cedar shakes. In the pic below, you can see that he's putting up the shakes around a white rectangle. We are going to eventually name this building (going to the highest bidder, if you're interested!! :) ), so this is where a sign will be with the name and logo.

The utilitarian overhang got a tongue and groove ceiling and standing seam metal walls (which is the roofing material). Now has an attractive and durable finish.

more shakes! For anyone who's had the pleasure of staining some of these beauties, you can really appreciate how many shakes are needed.

It's really coming together around here!

The weather's warmed quite a bit and we're doing a lot of outside work. Molly's done a ton of weeding, as has Jo. Jo and Tony are putting out all of tables, chairs and benches down by the lake. Karol took advantage of the lack of wind and spray painted a bunch of craft stuff for camp.
Tony and Anthony are up north for the day after opening day of fishing. Jen and Marceaux are quite busy with wedding stuff and today, his family got here from Montana. Tim's been doing a roofing job in Green Bay.

Friday, May 14 2010

2010-05-14T18:38:00.000-07:00

Here are the highlights of this week. We were able to pick a non-rainy day to pour concrete. We got one load of 7 yards, which completed the path to the blacktop in front of John and Sue's. It was a monumental occasion. When we started the concrete in front of the Hartley House however many years ago that was, it seemed at the time that it would be forever to get to the blacktop. Our concrete crew was on the ball this time. I think we've hit our stride. The driver even complimented us on our speediness. In the pic below, you can see the concrete touching the blacktop. yea!! We also started a secondary path (3' wide, instead of 8') that will connect to the stairs that will lead to the dorms. The plan is to have the Our Lady Youth Group do that project next summer.

In the shot below, you can see the existing stairs that lead up the hill. The new stairs will be in the general area, but leading to the left as it goes up.

The Craft Cabin, shown below had a lot of exterior work done again this week. The roof was finished on the right, and the wall brought up to it. Soffit and facia work was done. It looks pretty crazy right now, but trust me, it'll all make sense in the end.

the overhang on the right will be utilitarian. There's a faucet and just plain storage area.

this is the backside of the building. since it's set against the hill, the exterior is more durable and less interesting than the other facades.

Well, the countdown is on for the big wedding! Just over a week now. Although the groom and bride are busy, they both seem pretty relaxed (don't ask me how they're doing it!) We're all pretty excited for them.

Monica,I mean Molly is back. We're very proud of her and the help she's been to the Weidner's and the Kocian's, but we're glad to have her back at Camp Daniel. (She was gone so long that Tony forgot her name, and now calls her Monica)

Saturday, May 8

2010-05-08T07:21:00.000-07:00

Well we poured concrete again on Thursday morning. The path to the lake (below) is now done. We didn't pour all the way to the blacktop, as that would have been too much. So the picture below was the second section we did. The total for this pour was 6 1/2 yards. We'll pour again next week.

No sooner had we put away the concrete tools, and Tony, Tim and the guys started on the craft cabin. The exterior still needs alot of work done. We're hoping that the upcoming work days will give the workers to finish this building. First, there's a lot that Tim and Tony needed to do to get the building to the point that others can work on it. In the pic below you can see the roof that was added on to the right (or back) of the building. This goes less that half of the length of the building, and covers a utilitarian area. It also visually balances the building. When the overhangs, and other details that I don't even know about are done, then volunteers can come in and put up soffit and cedar shakes. The building looks pretty crazy right now because it's so choppy, but we know that it will come together. As a craft cabin it should be a bit whimsical and eccentric, right? On the other end of the building, Tony put up soffit, trim, and wire mesh for the rocks. They still have one more day of work to get this building ready for volunteers.

Karol spend some time every day this week polyurethaning the walls of the dorm room that will be Silver Birch. Since they now all have two coats, the next step in that room is to dye the floors, and counters. Then it'll be on to tile, which there's lots to do. We have to have these two baths done by the time they leave for Africa, so we'll keep working as fast as possible.

Below is the newest addition to the menagerie that is Camp Daniel. Anthony bought a pet corn snake, which he's named "Fang", which is an appropriate name for a snake even though, he's really named after a dog from Harry Potter!

Other notables of the week:

We got new cereal dispensers donated for camp. They won't even crush the corn flakes!

Tony got a new mortar gun for cost. I cannot express how much this tool will help. Think about all of the rock on the facades of the buildings, well thus far, all of the mortar that's between the rocks, was hand squeezed in with a heavy duty pastry bag. It's very tiring on the hands and quite time consuming.

Molly is back! Micah Weidner is done with school, so she'll be back to full time at Camp Daniel.

Tim Mandich has been learning a lot about the financial workings of Camp Daniel from Tony Sr.

Able has lots of fun things in the works, including a summer picnic, and a fall Oktoberfest.

After much research and phone calls, Karol is close to having the top layer that will finish the bocce ball court. We've narrowed it down to a baseball inflield mix (in Waupaca) and granite fines (Milwaukee area).

2010-05-03T17:05:00.000-07:00

This week Tim worked on the tile border in one of the dorm bathrooms. In the pic below, you see the two toilet stalls. The divider wall will be built after the tile is done. In this pic, you can see that Tim has removed the styro forms for the sink holes and cut the circle out of the plywood below as well. This concrete counter still needs to be dyed. We didn't come up with the plan to do concrete counters in the baths until after the red floor was dyed. So we'll dye the counters to match their respective floor. This one will be a little off, as we used up most of the red dye. The remaining counters will all be dyed at the same time as the floor. The tile border continues around the entire bathroom. The border is all that can be tiled until the counter is dyed. (In case you're wondering, the things on the counter are upside down trophies. They're for the winners of the talent show at camp this summer. They come pretty light weight, so we add mortar or adhesive to the base to make the trophy more substantial. Tim had some left over concrete today, so the bases were all filled, then turned over til dry)

Yesterday Tim built the forms for an 8" deep floating shelf for each bathroom. There will be a large mirror above each shelf. It's basically a primping area. There are outlets between the shelf and the mirror for hair dryers, shavers, etc. Notice the nice round edge so that no one (especially one in a wheelchair) can hurt himself on a sharp concrete corner. The concrete was poured today and troweled to a smooth finish. The forms will be taken off tomorrow, and these shelves will be finished with the other concrete.

Tony and the guys have been working this week on building the forms for another concrete pour. This is the last section to be poured, as it will tie into the blacktop that's in front of John and Sue's. We'll be pouring on Thursday.

I don't mention it every week, but the Camp Daniel staff has a meeting every Tuesday morning from 9 am til at least 10:30. With so many people working in so many different areas of ministry, the meetings get everyone up to speed on what's going on. Through all of the communication, lots of decisions are made. After that meeting is done, those directly involved in The Able Church usually meet for about another hour. We often all have lunch together, then off in many different directions. Of course, Able has Family Night on Tuesdays, so Jen, Marceaux and the guys have a short time between the meeting and Able. This week, Chrissy and Karol spent a couple of hours going over new food items that will be added to camp this year. You'd probably be shocked at how much time is involved to just make sure that we have all of the food we need for camp. The calculator always gets a good work out.

This is the grill area behind Tony and Karol's house. This picture was from a few weeks ago when Tony and the guys were still applying rock. Karol, with help from Tony and the guys built this shelf from scrap pieces around the camp. It hides the utilitarian storage area that is under the guys deck. Here you see it in place with the basic paint done.

This pic shows the final distressing/antiquing and some accessories. This shelf makes this area much more of a pleasant place to be.

Monday, May 3

2010-05-03T14:02:00.000-07:00

Much work has been done on the Camp Daniel grounds since I last blogged. Below is the new sidewalk and area around the firepit. Tony and the guys worked for a good two days to prep the area. We (Tony, Nick, Richard, Brian, Tim, Karol, Marceaux, and Jen) poured on Thursday. It was a little different than previous pours in that we laid large slabs of slate and some other kind of stone (thanx again to Green Bay Nursery) into the concrete around the firepit. Troweling around the stones was tricky, as was keeping everything pitched properly.

All of the sod that was in the new paved areas was carefully cut out, stacked into wheelbarrows, then relaid by the bocce court. It was quite a puzzle

Tim prepped and poured the countertops in the two dorm baths that need to be done before camp starts. In the first picture you see the plywood base, which stays in place. On the front is a 1x3 board that hold the front edge. That piece gets removed after the concrete is

set up. The circles are two inch pieces of foam. These will be cut out to receive the drop in sinks. The countertops will all be dyed to match the floor in each respective room. Not shown in this picture is some pieces of rebar to give the whole thing strength and reduce cracking. For this project, Tim tried a product made specifically for concrete countertops, made by quickrete.

It was a wet and soupy mixture, and it took a long time for the cream that rose to the top to dry. After that, Tim was able to trowel the tops for a nice smooth finish.

Last Friday, Marceaux and Karol gave the ceiling of bedroom three two coats of paint so that Dave Detloff could come back on Saturday, and work on the tongue and groove. A large percentage of the walls were already done, so we thought it would be good for him to just finish it off. Of course, all of the hard parts were left, so he didn't quite finish.

The second bedroom's walls were sanded by the guys, poly'd by Tim and Karol, and sanded again by the guys.

Marceaux's been putting up the fluorescent fixtures in the baths. Next will be lighting in the mechanical room and the third bedroom.

Also, Tim started to tile the bathroom. I didn't get a picture yet, but I'll be sure to get it on the next blog. He started with the two border tiles that run around the entire room. He can't do more tiling until the countertop gets dyed, and the dying cannot be done until the walls are done. Everything really has to be done in the right order.

Last Tuesday Chrissy and Karol went to the Reinhart Food Show in Green Bay to get new products to add to our camp menu. Of course, many samples were had by both, and they found some yummy new additions for camp!

Sunday, April 25

2010-04-25T11:06:00.000-07:00

Last week, the guys went on their annual vacation along with Tony, Karol and the kids. This year they chose to go to the Wisconsin Dells for 4 nights. They played in the waterparks, went to the House on the Rock, Ripley's Believe It Or Not, Tommy Bartlett Exploratory and Knuckleheads for games, rides, and bowling. Getting ready to play laser tag. It was a lot of fun!!

Saturday, we had a work day. The Green Bay Community Church sent a great group of about 15 volunteers. They got so much different stuff done. What a blessing this work day was. The ceiling of the craft cabin porch is now all done in tongue and groove.

They got a bunch of rows of shakes put on the gable end of the craft cabin.

A couple of bundles of cedar shakes were stained.

Lots of painting got done in the dorm. Bath 1 was primed and two coats of paint. Bath 2 rec'd one coat of paint. The mechanical room received two coats of paint (pic below) and dorm room 3 was scraped down and primed.

The second bathroom was fitted with the stall divider wall, which was covered in cement board, taped and mudded.

Nancy List also put in a full day's work (which is the same as most people's two days of work) before heading to the office for a Camp Daniel bored, I mean board, meeting.

Not pictured, but also worked on:

The soffits of every dorm porch (8 in all ) were screwed to prevent bowing

The lights and ceiling fans were installed in two of the dorm rooms, and the first light was put in bathroom one.

David Detloff from Green Bay has put in many long days working on finishing the tongue and groove in the first two dorm rooms.

The cedar shakes on one section of the craft cabin was started.

Also worked on since I last blogged:

Tony and the guys got the rest of the Hartley House cultured stone mortared on. This took many days, and was a lot of work. They've also started the tuck pointing which will take several weeks to finish. They also finished the shed under the deck, minor landscaping, and also worked on trim work on the porch. Tim touched up the exteriors of the dorms, which both needed caulk and screws on some of the log siding. We've all also made many a trip to Menards for materials. Tim stopped in at Daltile to pick up a tile donation. The tile will be used on the walls of the dorm baths. He got it while the Hartley House crew was on vacation, so he ended up spending a half a day just to unload the 1,800 square feet of tile and stack it in the dorm. That was a day he needed the guys help! He also did a bunch of work in bath one of the dorm to get it ready to tile. I'll spare you the details and just show you the pictures when the fun stuff starts. Tony has been working on donations of tile, adhesive, and grout and was successful in getting two pallets of adhesive and grout donated. He also has met with Van DeYacht well drilling who will donate the wells for the dorms along with many of their suppliers.

Tony Spent time working on the bus fuel line and video system and Karol has been learning to use the new program and vinyl cutter to make graphics for the bus and Camp Daniel Signs.

Tony , and DJ spoke at the Presbyterian Church in Crivitz, who was Camp Daniels first supporting church.

Marceaux has spent much time doing spring maintenance on the heavy machinery and vehicles of camp. he also put in somedays getting the MEGA Bus ready for the Memorial day parade in Depere. Jen and Marceaux and Jen's parents went to Montana for the week for wedding showers and visiting Marceaux's family. Tim and Chrissy left for Minneapolis Friday for a Missions Convention at Bethany College. This capped a two week long blitz of fundraisers, meetings, and frenzy for the Kenya Missions Trip they are directing and Tony and Tim Mandich are going on with them. Check out the Living hope Church Missions blog at (www.lhcmissions.blogspot.com) for more info on the trip.

Tony Spoke at Living Hope Church to invite the church to be counselors at Camp and made an official announcement that Tim Mandich is coming on board full time with Camp Daniel. As John and Sue Koch open the new Able Church in Rochester MN, Tim will take over the pastorate of Able Church with Jen, Marceaux and Molly as his assisatants. Tim also is taking on the title of Development Director of Camp Daniel. He has ben working the last two weeks with Little Tony on a master proposal to get out to foundations asking for donations to the phase two building Capitol Campaign. He has met with several foundation directors and is pursuing grant opportunities. Tim will work with Chrissy in this department. Tim also is learning the accounting and office procedures from Tony Sr. in order to help run that side of the Camp Daniel Ministry. Tim has been voted in to the Camp Daniel Board, and will take the title of secretary, working with Tony Sr., little Tony, Jim Hukill and Nancy List.

Friday April 9, 2010

2010-04-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

Gotta love Wisconsin!! In how many places can you wear shorts on Monday and be shoveling snow on Thursday! We awoke Thursday morning to 5" of the wet heavy stuff. It was actually quite pretty (especially knowing that it won't last long) Below is the wood shed that Tony and the guys made this week. It holds lots of wood, a bin for paper, and it has a counter for s'more making. On the side are handy contraptions to hold the marshmallow sticks. With a lot of scrap 2x4's and scrap siding, Tony made his niece, Molly, a play house. He and the guys started it on Easter, and are bringing it to Appleton today. He cut metal for the roof,which will be attached on location. He also put the metal on the roof of the wood shed, and on the back of a workbench that's on the porch.

Tim got the floor done! Two coats of finish, a sanding, and a final coat, gave this floor a beautiful, durable sheen. We absolutely love it. Karol ordered the additional colors that we'll need for the remaining cabins this week.

Before winter returned, Tim also did some trim work on the craft cabin so that volunteers can finish the exterior during our upcoming work days.

2010-04-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

Since Annissa's room is done, I thought I'd show you some pics of the finished product. she's very happy with the end result. And the orange ceiling is pretty cool in person, so stop by for a visit!

Below is a chair that Karol and Tony picked up from the St. Vincent DePaul store in Green Bay. The wood was cleaned up and touched up with stain, and waxed. The seat cushion, although in good shape, was very dated, so Karol made a new cushion cover to match the living room.

Tony and the guys were masons over the weekend. Richard mixed the mortar, and Nick and Brian brought rocks and mortar to Tony while he applied the rock veneer to the downstairs exterior of the Hartley House. Of course, the bad part of the job is still to come in tuck pointing (filling in like grout between the rocks). They also cleaned up underneath the guys deck. They put in a shelving unit that Karol made last fall, a bike rack for everyone's bikes, and they put up lattice to hide this utilitarian area. All of the summer furniture was under the deck as well. That was brought out for summer use.

Thursday, April 1

2010-04-01T16:35:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we had a work day, but only Crystal Johnson came to help. So she and Jen worked outside cutting back perennials, and they also repaired a bad spot in the retaining wall by the garage. They also helped Karol with lunch because she was working with Tim in the dorms. They applied a first coat of polyurethane to one wall, and a second to the remaining four. The guys gave the walls a light sanding between coats, so they now have a nice, smooth satin finish.

Tim finished the polyurethane on Monday and he and the guys buffed and cleaned the concrete floors in one cabin and bath to prepare it for a

"dye job". Tuesday morning was the weekly Camp Daniel staff meeting. While Tony, Tim Mandich, Jen and Marceaux went into phase two of the meeting, which was planning for The Able Church, Karol and Tim got started on the floor. The cabin they were working on will be "Red Oak Cabin." Each cabin has a distinct color and a logo to identify it. The logo for this in an image of an oak leaf, and the color is red. So Karol projected the image of the oak leaf onto contact paper and cut out the shape with an exacto knife. The negative of the image was placed on the floor, then, using the contact paper as a stencil, she painted the image using green and yellow.
The contact

paper was then pulled up, leaving a leaf on the gray concrete. Then she used the positive piece of contact paper to protect the leaf from the red dye that Tim would be applying to the entire floor. The dye is a powder that's mixed with some liquid something or the other, and acetone. Just image a nail polish remover factory. Respirators for everyone in the room! Tim applied it with a pump sprayer. The bath and cabin were done in about 7 minutes. One gallon was the perfect amount. Then he switched to a second reddish color and applied a second coat. As you can see, the effect is quite modeled, which will be forgiving to dirt and dust bunnies.

The positive contact paper piece was pulled up. The leaf came out pretty good, but we thought it needed some detail, so on Wednesday, Karol took some oil based black paint, thinned it considerably, and applied an outline to the oak design.

When Tim was about finished with the second coat of dye, Bob Wegman, from Living Hope Church, stopped by, for a first time tour of the grounds. Tim and Chrissy gave him the tour. Chrissy had just finished the newsletter, and the Able meeting was still in progress.

Tim spent Wednesday in Green Bay running errands before going to youth group. Karol continued work on the exterior signs for the Camp Daniel gift shop and did a bunch of little stuff. Tony left for Appleton, where he spoke at a men's bible study group from Fox Valley Christan Fellowship. His brother in law, Jason, is a member of the group, and got Tony the opportunity to speak to the group in an attempt to get counselors and helpers for work days. Today, he put a new sink and toilet in Lora and Jason's downstairs bath, and went to the restore (Habitat for Humanity resale store) in Appleton, and was excited to find toilet stalls that we can use in the dorms. They are red, so they'll have to be either painted another color, or stripped to plain metal. We were just discussing the other day what we were going to do for dividers. New commercial stalls are quite expensive, so we were thinking we would have to do homemade ones. The timing couldn't have been much better!
Today, Karol gave a last coat to the yellow lettering on the exterior store signs, and worked on camp crafts. 120 picture frames needed to be spray painted. And she spray painted a super cool giant football helmet that Tony had found at Goodwill. It'll need a few more coats, but it's on it's way. Tim and the guys applied polyurethane via a sprayer to the 1x4" trim that be used in the dorms and also to the door jams for 4 interior doors. With this technique, the poly dries super fast, and is super fast to apply. Three coats and a sanding in one day! Tony picked up the finish that will go on the concrete floor while he was in Appleton. I'll be sure to show you the end result.

Friday, March 26

2010-03-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

Jen's week: She worked on her newsletter on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Printer problems made her task harder than anticipated! With the wedding not too far off, she's been doing "wedding stuff" like dress fitting, cake decisions, etc. Jen also fit in doing therapy on Sue's neck and Nick's knee. And the funnest thing of the week must have been starting her taxes.

Marceaux's week: Marceaux started a job working with the census. He been working everyday, and in his freetime, he worked on the old van with the wheelchair lift, trying to get that running again. He also did work on John's van and Jen's car.

Karol's week: She edited the working draft of the Camp Daniel newsletter. She also started painting the exterior signs for the gift shop. Thus far; primer, two coats of green and first coat of yellow lettering. Two more coats of yellow to go and a few coats of a white directional arrow on each. She took advantage of nice weather and cut back the remaining plants from last year that were all around the Hartley House. She sewed a cushion for a thrift shop chair and cleaned up the wood on it. (I'll post a pic after the finishing touches are done)

Tony's week: He just found out that he was successful in acquiring, from a church in Ohio, a used commercial quality camera for making videos.
He worked on the sound system for camp. Every cord, wire, sound board, video, etc, were brought out, checked and reorganized. He sold some old equipment on ebay and at a sound store in Green Bay. He made a camera for the Two Night Show with Georgie Pongerins so that we can get a few more countries on our outgoing satellite feed.

Tim's week: He fixed the exterior siding on the girl's dorm. There was a section that didn't get attached properly. He finished the last (top) row of tongue and groove in room one of the dorm, and started to apply the polyurethane finish that he picked up in Green Bay on Wednesday, along with stain and supplies needed for upcoming workdays. He also picked up some tiles from Menard's and went over the prospects with Tony and Karol. There were also decisions made regarding the flooring, and many other finishes in the dorms.

Tony and Jo are coming home from Florida today.
Molly had a birthday on Thursday!!
John went out to Minnesota to address some issues on their new house, and Sue's been working. She took the guys to the library on Thursday.

Thursday, March 18

2010-03-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

Maiden voyage of the Camp Daniel bus! We were on our way for a day of fun at Silver Birch Ranch in White Lake, WI. (about an hour west of us). Below is pictured, Chrissy and Tommy Kelly ready to go out on the trails.

The rock climbing wall was a hit. Here, we see Jen and Marceaux having a race to the top. (Jen won, but I think that Marceaux went easy on her at the end.)

New to Silver Birch is the "Leap of Faith". It's in the climbing tower. You jump off the ledge and try to ring the bell that hangs from the ceiling. You are rigged to the ceiling, but it was still scary.

John and the guys have, twice this week, gone to help the Rakowski's (a local family) with the sap buckets on their maples.

Tuesday, Tony and Karol went to Green Bay to take a class that's needed for continuing education, which is required by the state for the adult family home licensing.

Chrissy and Tony have been working on the next newsletter, which is set to be mailed in mid April.

Today, Tony, Karol and Chrissy sat down and had a two hour meeting on the food and kitchen needs for camp this summer. Some fun changes were made to the menu!

Tony's now working at trading our excavator for a skidsteer. He's found someone on Craig's list, who's interested. It's hard to express how much such an acquisition would make Tony and Tim's day!

The guys have been taking advantage of the great weather by raking the grass, sweeping the winter sand off of the walks, and doing some general outdoor cleaning.

Friday March 12

2010-03-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

The search is finally over!! Last weekend Karol and Tony went to Chicago to look at two more buses, and were happy to close the deal on one. Tony was very happy with the quality of the bus for the price we paid, he said he would have paid $2,500 more for the same bus! He explained to the seller our needs and what we do do and he was able to knock the price down for us. It's a 15 passenger Ford 450 diesel engine, which we will add a kitchen grease burning kit at some point. The interior is a lot nicer than most of the buses we looked at during the exhaustive 3 week search. It has a wheelchair lift and tie downs for multiple chairs. It gives us the freedom to head to church in Green Bay carrying everyone in one vehicle instead of the three we take now. We'll be taking it on its maiden Camp Daniel run this Saturday, as the Camp Daniel missionaries are all going to Silver Birch Ranch Camp for a day of retreat fun. More on that next week.

Last Saturday, the Able Attack basketball team had a tournament in Menasha. They went one for one, but lost the lottery to advance to the next level tournament. So their basketball season has, unfortunately, ended for this year. They had a final practice and season wrap up on Tuesday.

Tim has finished mudding the dorm. (for a few months anyways) His shoulder is quite glad to be done with that for a while. On to finishing up tongue and groove.

Marceaux and the guys finished taking down the shack by the church in Athelstane. They salvaged the excellently weathered corrugated roof, and most of the crackled paint wood that was the walls. We'll be able to do some cool stuff with the salvage. Actually, we already used some. Last summer, the "rock bath", Tim made the chair rail and mirror frame out of the wood. He'll use more to make a door for the closet in that bath.

Marceaux has also been working on the Dodge wheelchair van, as it will go for sale now that we have the bus.

Today, after finishing the plaster, Tim prepped the third room to be used as a paint room. He then cut out the boards that Karol will use to make signs for the Camp Daniel Christmas gift shop and for the dorms.

This week, Karol and Tony have been busy trying to fill Tony Sr's shoes. Lots of mail, phone messages, bills to pay, application requests to send, camper parents to call back, etc.

Tony has been working on getting ahead of camp preparations as he leaves with Tim and Chrissy for Africa on June 10. He also has been sending out letters asking for partners in prayer and finances for the trip. He has been doing cleaning and maintenance on the sound systems and lights, getting ready to start rehabbing trailer into a new outdoor stage and sound both for camp.

Karol ordered vinyl for the new diecutter machine that we were able to purchase from donations via the newsletter. We'll be able to make professional vinyl logos for the new bus and signage. It's exciting, and a little intimidating. It's a complex computer program that is used with this machine. You just don't think about the amount of time and research that goes into so much stuff around here. Vinyl. Who has the best prices? Which brand? Which colors? Do we need the 50' rolls, or the 10'? Do we spend more on the high performance grade, which costs more? How about the transfer tape? How does that work? How much do we need? Then we had to order window cling vinyl for the signs that go on the glass doors in the office. Such a major production. I'm pooped just thinking of it all. And in the end, it was a good couple of hours work. Which is why sometimes when people say "what do you do all winter?", I'm momentarily speechless.....

Monday, March 8

2010-03-08T15:47:00.001-08:00

Last summer we had a bear donated. He was a 300 pound black bear that had fallen out of a tree, injuring his hip and died from the injuries. We took him to a taxidermist in Three Lakes that's been very good to us in the past. He's been working on the bear when there's extra time, as he's donating his services. We decided to give our bear a visit, and give you an update on his status. They are working on the mold cast for the fiberglass. He will be standing on his hind legs and reaching up with one arm toward a beehive. The below pic is his hind end and legs. Yes, those are playing cards. Mitch said that the cards are embedded into the clay so that the fiberglass will have seams.

This is his head. It's pretty funny looking without the ears, but the nose is very bearish.

This is his torso and one arm that is reaching up.

Molly, Tony and Karol went to Three Lakes on Monday to get a used auto part that Marceaux needed to fix a Camp Daniel van. They also went to visit Molly's mom, Robyn, whom works as a cook in the kitchen of Honeyrock Camp. Everyone at Honeyrock was very accommodating, and answered all of their questions quite patiently. Karol and Tony are currently working on the plans for Camp Daniel's future kitchen and dining hall, and the more information on what to do and what not to do, the better. Honeyrock's dining hall seats about the same about as Camp Daniel's will, so it was confirming regarding the planned size of the kitchen and the dining room. Honeyrock also donated over a 1,000 plates, mugs, and bowls, and over 1,400 cups. The van was riding pretty low on the way home. Karol was happy to have such a great storage spot for them in the attic of the dorm.

Tim's still mudding. He probably does it in his sleep. The second bath is done, and the furnace room is done. He and the guys are currently on the third room.

Marceaux and the guys are taking down a very old, small wood building with a corrugated metal roof. It's next to Cornerstone Church in Athelstane. They've taken a number of trips back to Camp Daniel with the good stuff and the non usable wood that will be burned.

John and Sue came back from their trip on Monday, and on Tuesday, Tony and Jo left for three weeks in Florida.

Monday, March 1

2010-03-01T08:21:00.001-08:00

Last Friday, Rick Bub and company came out again and worked on tongue and groove. You can see in the pic below how awesome it looks. We're so glad that we put the dormers in each room, as they let in so much light, and make the rooms feel so much larger than they actually are. Tim, Marceaux, "the mud mixer", and the guys mudded the furnace room. The official workday was last Saturday. Below you see Jen and Crystal (Molly, although not in the pic helped too) mudding the joints of the cement board in the bathroom. Prior to this, they taped all of the seams. A small group came with the Wieds for the work day. They put vapor barrier up in dorm room two and started the tongue and groove. They also prepped dorm room three to receive tape and a first coat of mud on the ceiling, which Tim and co. will start this week. Brian, the electrician from Living Hope Church, finished the rough electric in the second dorm, then finished some wiring on the furnaces in dorm 1. Tim and Co. mudded coat one in bathroom 2. It's very exciting to see the rooms taking shape!

Karol made Annissa's headboard on Friday and Saturday. Annissa was very happy. Good thing it's only a twin because it's pushing 50 pounds!

I forgot to mention in the past, Tony and Anthony have been working over the past few weeks on a very special project to be unveiled at camp. I won't show any pics or give too much behind the scenes info, so as to not spoil the magic. But how cool would it be if Georgie could roll around camp in his wheelchair and interact with the campers?...........

...........you'll have to come to camp this summer for the details.

Last week Karol did research on the best way to do the doorknobs in the dorms. I know what you're thinking, but nothing is as simple as you'd think. The issue was how to do the door that goes between two dorm rooms. It needs to lock, but be unlockable from both sides. Thankfully, Schlage makes a double cylinder deadbolt. It has keyhole on both sides. This will be used in conjunction with a closet (non-locking) lever handle. Menards had the lever handles on sale, so Karol took advantage of that and bought the handles for two of the rooms.

Tony's search for a many passenger van continues. I'll keep you posted as things develop. They are currently many irons in the fire.

Friday, February 26

2010-02-26T06:20:00.000-08:00

We had a work day last Saturday. A small group of guys came up from Living Hope Church. While Chrissy and Jo were preparing lunch for the entire crew, George Caylor painted the ceiling in the second dorm room. Dave Detloff put up tongue and groove on the walls, and Brian Reynard was working on electrical stuff. Jen, McKenna, and some girls from Able helped out by moving all of the paint, stain, and finishes from the nature center (where there's no longer heat) to the dorm (heated). Then they primed the bathroom that Tim mudded last week, and then moved on to hanging sheet rock in the second bathroom. On Monday, 5 guys from Silver Birch Ranch came again to help out. They finished hanging the sheet rock that was started previously, then they sheet rocked the entire central furnace room. Rick Bub, from Athelstane, also came out again with two add'l guys from Cornerstone Church. They installed more tongue and groove and had the not-so-fab-pleasure of moving many 12' sheets of drywall from dorm 1 to dorm 4.

Over the weekend, Tony and family, joined by the Cleereman's, took advantage of the kids having Monday off of school, by going "up north" to the family cabin. They had great winter weather to enjoy a walk to the lake and an adventure to the bottom of Bond Falls.
Since returning, Karol and Tony have been working hard on camp stuff. The schedule has taken on many changes and is almost finished. For those of you who attend camp, you may be interested to know about theme night changes: German is out for this year, and a tailgating party has been added. So you now have lots of time to get a jersey or NFL t-shirt. I think it'll be a great addition to camp! Tony has the camp theme logo done and t-shirt color picked out. He's also been spending a lot of time searching for a much needed minibus or large van. The blue diesel one that I blogged about a few months ago is no longer available, so we're trying to find another vehicle to fill that need. Karol's been researching new two way radios for camp. The ones we've been using are ancient (in two way radio years) and because of a change in FCC rules, will no longer be usable. A lot has changed in two ways since we last purchased them and there's a lot of choices to sift through. Karol and Tony have also been spending many an hour on the plans for the kitchen/dining room. The kitchen, which will be in the existing garage, is pretty well laid out, now we're focusing on the 4,000 sq ft addition that will be the dining room. Floor plans aren't so hard, it's the third dimension that gets tricky. That's a whole lot of roofline to make work.

Yesterday, Tim, Marceaux and the guys mudded the seams in the attic. This means that it can now be used for much much much needed storage.

Last weekend, after leaving the Weidners, Molly went home for a visit with the folks. We look forward to having her back this weekend.

Jen and the Able Attack had a basketball game last Tuesday evening. Jen has been working some in Pound, plus she and Marceaux have been putting in a lot of hours on wedding arrangements. Marceaux worked on a van with a wheelchair lift that we have, but aren't currently using, for a possible trade for a vehicle with more seats, with someone that Tony's been talking to. Marceaux's now on the hunt for a used fuel pump for it.

Wednesday, February 17

2010-02-17T17:30:00.001-08:00

Well, over the past week, Tim has been plastering like a madman. He, the guys and Marceaux plastered both dorm rooms. In the below pic, you can see the detailing of the ceilings. Both rooms have two coats of plaster. Then, during the work day last Saturday, the one room was primed and painted, while Tim finished the plaster on the second room. During the work day last Saturday, Jen, Molly and Crystal pitched in to get one bathroom sheet rocked. In the below pic, you see Tim plastering the ceiling and upper walls. (We'll be tiling the lower two thirds of the walls)

Tuesday, Rick Bub brought 4 guys from Cornerstone church in Athelstane out to start the tongue and groove on the walls. They are doing a beautiful job, and will be coming back next week to continue this large job.

Karol's still plugging away at Annissa's room. The closet doors are now done, so that completes the painting, and now it's on to other projects in the room.

Last Friday, The Able Church had a spaghetti dinner before the service that was attended by over 100 people. Guest speaker from camp, Larry Campbell, preached.

Molly's still going to the Weidner's every week. I think they're falling into the groove now. Be sure to check out Molly's blog. (Revolutionary Love)

Chrissy's sent out emails to announce the work days. If you didn't get one, and would like to be on the list, just email info@campdaniel.org. We need all the help we can get!

On Tuesdays we continue with our weekly "Family Meeting" or Camp Daniel staff meeting. It is an opportunity to go over the weeks events, plan the coming days, weeks and months, share our triumphs and burdens, and grow in our prayer and devotional time.

After the family meetings Tony, John, Jen, Tim Mandich, Molly and Marceaux have a second meeting for the Able Church. They have been picking sermon themes and discussing how best to present them to our group with mental disabilities. The time is entertaining and educational as it becomes loud and discussion ensues on theology and presentation. The group has also been working towards translating the book of John into an understandable form for the culture of mental disability. Tony and John met with Wycliff in Flordia 2 years ago about the need and getting help with this project, so this is the begging stage of that.

Tony and Tim have bee working at LHC installing some new equipment and redoing the entire sound system for MEGA and the Able Church. Tim and Chrissy have been putting in allot of ours of preparation the Kenya Missions trip. Just getting 25 plane tickets has ben alot of work! Tony and Tim Mandich will be with them on the trip, so they have been meeting regularly for that as well as starting their first round of many shots and getting their passports in order.

LT, Karol and Sr. Have been working on camper and counselor applications this week. they will be back from the printer Friday and then will b folded and labeled for mailing next week. Also Tony has been working on the Camp Logo's and speaker packets while karol has worked on the schedule and details of camp. Chrissy has begun this week,writing to kitchen volunteers and planning the menu.

The Able Church Attack BB team has played its first tournament, they scrimmage at Aspiro next week in preparation for the regional tournament coming up. Jen, Marceaux, Jon and Molly are all working with Coach Roger Wied to bring it all together.

Tony and Karol have also been working on the plans for Camp Daniel's dinning hall, it is a big job to include everything needed yet keep the building affordable but interesting.

Jen, Marceaux and the guys are in charge of our recycling program, one of the many jobs to keep our small community going. Papa Tony and Jo oversee the office which is the central point for everyone at Camp Daniel. Making sure there is propane in the tanks, the septics are scheduled for cleaning, the phone and electric bills get paid, and insurance is up to date for the 10 buildings on the campus is a big job. Sr and Jo also oversee the CD Gift Shop which they recently relaunched with a Christmas and north woods theme. It is now called the North Pole Gift Shop. We invite you to come out and shop... all proceeds help Camp Daniel operations.

Tuesday, February 9

2010-02-09T08:09:00.001-08:00

There seems to be alot going on at Camp Daniel for the middle of winter! We like to think that things slow down during the first few months of the year, and often people ask what we do during this time of year (my reply to that is now, "do you read our blog?"), but we're staying plenty busy.

So, Tony and Karol were in Florida. The first leg of the trip, as I mentioned in the previous blog, was work, but the second half was more about fun, (although there was still much ministry discussed, and some architectural inspirations revealed) The above picture was taken in St. Augustine, which is the oldest city in the US. Talk about architecture! It's an amazing city.

But, back to the snowy grayness that is Wisconsin...

Last Thursday afternoon, a group of 18, from Silver Birch Ranch, came for a work day. They worked Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. They accomplished much. The first pic is representative of all of the materials that they moved from one location to another. All of the tongue and groove that will be on the walls was moved from the women's dorm to the men's. They also moved about 150 cases of paper products from the garage to the dorm where they will soon be stored in the attic space that is above the bathrooms. We are currently working on the women's dorm only, so as to finish it by this summer. We really need it done so that the youth group, of about 30, can stay in it this summer when they volunteer a week of labor.

In the below pic, you can see some of the work that Tim and the guys did in the past two weeks. With the help of Marceaux, they blew insulation into both dorms, the craft cabin, and John and Sue's place. It was a big messy job. Where's Mike Rowe when you need him?

So, with the insulation done, the ceilings were ready to be drywalled. Most of the drywall had been done in recent weeks, but now they could be sealed off all the way.

The Silver Birch group had some fun with insulation. We had walls that needed fiberglass insulation put in. Then they put the "buffalo board" on the walls. It's the black stuff you see in some of the pics. It's a noise barrier. The tongue and groove will be installed over it.

Hey, we have heat! The working conditions are so much better now in the dorms.

Tim is setting up a work shop in one section so that he can do some woodworking projects that need to be done.

As usual, the Able Church has lots going on... Last Friday, they had a girls sleepover at Living Hope. Sixteen girls were there to watch "One Night with the King", which coordinated with the Bible study they just finished on Esther. The Able basketball team had their first tournament on Saturday, and are looking forward to the next, which will be next month. Jen, Marceaux, John and Sue continue to visit many of our campers at home, and at work shops.

We're so appreciative to have so many different things happening at once. Building the grounds, and building relationships are so important to what we do. The missionaries at Camp Daniel are doing a great job at both!

Monday, January 25

2010-01-25T20:14:00.000-08:00

Well, during the winter, there's not much in the way of physical work to put on the blog, so I thought I'd share Annissa's 13th birthday bedroom redo. Well, what's been done so far anyways.
This is her room before. This is the "inspiration". Bedding we found online. The background is chocolate brown, but you can't see it in the pic.

Who doesn't like an orange ceiling?

The walls and edge of the ceiling are an off white. The teal border is wallpaper that was already there, it just matched the light blue of the walls and ceiling before. Now it definitely pops. My neck was "popping" after painting that!

In addition to the teal and orange, we bought purple and an olivey-limey green. (if crayola made that color, I'm sure it'd have a better name) We decided on stripes. (There's stripes on the reverse of the comforter and the little pillow. see pic above) The silver and yellow contraption in the foreground is a laser lever thing. You adjust it til it's level, set the height and a red laser light spins around the room perfectly level. I used that line to apply the blue painter's tape. This job would have taken about 3 times as long without it. (Actually, now that I think about it, the job wouldn't have even been tackled without it!)

Here's Annissa applying coat 2 of 3 in the purple. Only a true fashionista wears clothes to match the paint job!

Here's a closer shot before it was done. A purple stripe is now adjacent to the orange.

After we moved the furniture back.

There's still much to do. Annissa wants her name painted above the closet doors. The closet doors still need to be painted. An upholstered headboard and a scrapbooking paper bulletin board are also on the to do list. Annissa is very excited with the results thus far, and will surely keep on me until it's all done. I'll be sure to show you some pics when we get further along.

Saturday, January 23

2010-01-23T14:57:00.000-08:00

Molly
Last week Molly worked on the Able Church bulletin and postcards for the Able Valentine dinner. She spend some time writing thank you notes to her supporters, and she continued her work on putting together a Bible study on Corrie Ten Boom that she will be starting soon with the girls. This week Molly went to the Weidners from Tuesday night after Able Family Night til Friday evening before Able Church. She forgot how much toddlers can wear a person out!

Tim and the Guys
They've been working in the women's dorm installing drywall on the ceilings and insulating. Tim met with the "heating guy" this week. They'll be installing the heat next week, which is great news because it's not too warm in there, plus we have many work days coming up.

Did you catch that? Work days will involve a heated interior.....how can you NOT come and help???

Jen and Marceaux
Last week Jen gave the Hartley House guys haircuts. She and Marceaux visited with some campers between working on Able Church stuff and fixing Weidner's van. Like Molly, Jen sent out thank you's to supporters and volunteer drivers for Able. Jen did the sermon at Able last Friday too.

Tony
Last week Tony tied up alot of loose ends before leaving for Florida. He also spent many a day cleaning his office and getting his new computer ready to use. If you've had the pleasure of an encounter with Little Tony's office, you may understand the full extent of the job. Tony left for Florida on Wednesday. He is staying with Jim and Rhonette Hukill. On Thursday he attended a meeting with leaders in the LIFT Disability Ministry Network. On Friday the Northland Church Disability Conference started and Tony taught one breakout session the first night. Saturday the conference continued and he participated as part of a 3 person panel to answer questions on disability ministry agenda. Saturday night he went to a dinner with other disability leaders and pastors that included disability ministry pioneer Ginny Thornburgh (who's article appears in the Christianity Today This month) and pastor Joel Hunter of Northland Church. Sunday morning he will travel to the coast to preach at The Special Gathering Chapels and spend the evening with Linda Howard, Richard Stimson and Carmine Dibiase who are Special Gathering Pastors and all have been Camp Daniel Speakers. Monday he will be getting together with Joni and Friends Regional Coordinators and having a birthday dinner for Laura Lee Wright with the Hukills.

Karol
Karol worked last week painting a living room for a friend of a friend. She's been getting some things organized for camp and just doing lots of little stuff like taking DJ to the doctor for a check up. Since Tony left she's been painting Annissa's room. She wanted her room redone for her birthday, which is February 1st. I'll blog some pics for the next blog. It's taking longer than expected and the "to do list" isn't shrinking fast enough considering she's leaving for Florida on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday, January 12

2010-01-12T14:47:00.000-08:00

We're hoping to purchase the below pictured vehicle. It's a Dodge Sprinter. Tony's had his heart on one for quite a while, because it's such a great fit for our needs. It's a turbo diesel, so it get great gas mileage for it's size, which is large. This one has seating for 9, plus an additional 8' in the back where we can install a wheelchair lift and a couple of tie downs. The ceiling is raised to accommodate standing room. The van, which type is hard to come by, is available thru a dealer in Green Bay. Lucas, from LHC, works at the dealership and is helping us out. We recently rec'd a donation of a large dump truck (requiring a CDL to drive) so Lucas is trying to sell that for us so that we can get closer to affording the van. As you probably know, Camp Daniel doesn't take on any debt, so we need the entire purchase amount up front. If you're familiar at all with the chaos that is driving people around here, you'll appreciate how needed a vehicle is that can accommodate more than 7. We often have to take multiple vehicles to church, Able events, etc.

This past weekend, many of us took turns running a booth for Camp Daniel at an Evangelical Free youth conference in Green Bay. Molly and her parents have been involved for many years, so Molly suggested that we could advertise to get counselors there. We were one of about 30 booths, ranging from camps, to colleges to Compassion Int'l, to books for sale. We made small brochures and stapled them to individually wrapped cookies and let the kids take them. We gave out about a thousand. There were about 3,000 kids there. We also had a few sign up for add'l information. We'll be following up with those people, plus all of the youth pastors that were participating in the weekend's activities. Of course, we saw the Three Lakes E-Free group, led by Eli, there. We're hoping to get one youth group interested in a Camp Daniel missions trip.

Otherwise, Jen and Marceaux have been doing a lot of visiting of campers lately. Marceaux always seems to have some vehicle that needs something done. Right now its the plow truck. Some switch went out on the 4 wheel drive. It's extremely difficult to plow in 2 wheel, especially with all of the ice we've had. Gotta love it.

Tim and the guys have been working in the dorms putting up insulation. The goal is to get the one dorm all drywalled, then blow in insulation, so that we can heat the building. There are workdays planned for the 13, 20, 27 of February, that will be centered around the one dorm.

Saturday, January 2

2010-01-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year from all of us at Camp Daniel!

We celebrated New Year's Eve with campers, Amanda, Crystal and Sarah. Amanda's family brought them all here and visited with us for a few hours. The girls spent the night at Molly/Jen's. We played games, ate junk food and watched funniest home videos. Then we all slept in the next day.

Yesterday, the Kelly's ended their 26 hour journey from Montana and ended safely at home. We all miss them, but are glad that they had a good time visiting Tim's family for Christmas. In the morning, Tony went to their home to bring their dog, Patch, back and plow them out.

In the afternoon everyone left to go to Able, where we're still being stretched. Molly led worship, and did a great job.

Marceaux was busy this week. He helped Tim Mandich with mechanic work on his car, did the bible study with the guys, and joined Jen and Tim M. at Aspiro. Tuesday they went there to have lunch with many of our campers. It was Tim and Marceaux's first time, so they got the full tour. The trips to Aspiro have been a great way to keep in contact with campers, get new campers and even some volunteers. The workers and volunteers at Aspiro all know and like Jen, so she's been the face of Camp Daniel to many of these people.

Jen is still working quite regularly in pound doing therapy.

Tony set up an email account for Marceaux. It's marceaux@campdaniel.org He also spent made a blog for Jen and Marceaux. It's jennymarc.blogspot.com Check it out! Also this week, Tony spent a bunch of time working on a brochure for the 3rd annual Mega Super Bowl party that Living Hope Church. It's a great blend of newcomers to Mega, long time attendees of Living Hope and Able Church members.

Everyone seems to be catching up on paperwork this week. Lots of bills, forms, and budgets are flying around!

The kids are enjoying their time off of school. Anthony's been doing science experiments that he finds on youtube and Annissa's been relishing in sleeping in every morning. One of her highlights has been the sleepover she had with best friend Ruth Hucek, her sister Grace, and Emily Neitzer. Emily and Grace were both counselors last year at camp and the younger girls really look up to them.

Sunday, December 27

2009-12-27T15:08:00.000-08:00

Today was much like other recent days, in that it involved a lot of shoveling and plowing. We weren't able to make it to Green Bay for church this morning, as we could not get plowed out because the inch or so of ice under the snow is making it near impossible to plow. Tomorrow we will head over tho the town hall to get sand mixed with salt to spread every where to make some traction in order to plow. Tony worked on a new logo for the Able Church and a brochure for Living Hope Church's new Megaruselum program. All of us watched a little football! Jen and Marceaux where in green bay and attended church and came back to Camp Daniel in the afternoon. Molly is in Eagle River with her parents still and spent the afternoon finalizing our plans for the booth at Evangelical Free's Youth Convention in Green Bay coming in 2 weeks.

Saturday, Jen and Marceaux had Christmas with Jen's family. John and Sue were (and are) still visiting their children in Minnesota. Tony, Karol and kids slept in and enjoyed a day off except for some snow plowing.

Christmas day at Camp Daniel involved lots of food and family. We had 35 (10 people weren't able to come) for a Christmas dinner homemade ravioli, mostaccioli alfredo and ham. We had a lot of fun visiting with Camp Daniel staff, friends and family. Molly and her parents made a heroing trip from and from Eagle River.

On Christmas eve, the Piantine clan went to church at Cornerstone Assembly of God in Athelstane, then ate and opened presents. All of the other Camp Daniel missionaries were out of town with their families.

Thursday the 23rd, Jen and Marceaux went to Green Bay to help the Mandiches with a meal outreach at a building downtown.

Last Tuesday, the Kelly's left on their roadtrip to Montana to celebrate Christmas with Tim's youngest sister and her family. Thankfully, their 24 hour drive was crisis free, (other than a few "are we there yet"s) which wasn't easy with Tim not being fully recovered from jet lag from his trip to Kenya. Tony and the guys spent the day in Green Bay helping prepare the sanctuary for the Christmas Eve service by building a stable and setting up lighting.

Last Monday Molly left to visit with her parents in Eagle River for about a week. Jen stopped by the Kelly's after work to work on both Tim and Chrissy's shoulders injuries. Then she did some paperwork for the Able Special Olympic basketball team. Marceaux led the Hartley House guys in a bible study on John chapters 4 & 5, then worked on a discipleship handbook that he's putting together.

On Sunday, the 20th, Molly and Jen stayed after Church with some of the girls from Able to bake Christmas cookies. The cookies were trayed up and given to the needy at the Thursday meal outreach. Marceaux and Tim Mandich put a hitch on Sally Kelly's (Tim's mom) van, so that they could pull a trailer to Montana. But really, the most important thing that happened on this day involved a Steeler victory over the Packers! Karol insists that the touchdown pass by Roethlesberger to win the game was a birthday present. Tony worked some more on the Camp Daniel website as well as on blogs for our missionaries.

Friday, December 18th, was the Able Christmas party. They presented a living nativity story and and Tim and Janice Mandich presented a christmas out reach . That service is a special one that's loved by everyone.

Thursday, December 17

2009-12-17T12:53:00.000-08:00

News from Camp Daniel:

Molly will be helping out the Weidner family this winter. Micah and Sabrina Weidner, and their kids Elijah and Lydia, are part of the summer camp staff, and really, just part of the Camp Daniel family. Sabrina works full-time at a school working with kids with disabilities, and Micah is in his last year of schooling to teach the visually impaired. For the upcoming semester (which is Micah's last), he has to be in Milwaukee, leaving the family in Luxemburg. Lydia is two, Elijah, whom as down syndrome, is 5, and Sabrina whom is pregnant, could use some help with dad away. So Molly will be staying with Sabrina and kids for 3 days a week starting in January, helping out in whatever way is needed. Molly is really excited to be able to serve, and I'm sure that the Weidners are anxious for the love and quality of help that Molly will bring.

Yesterday, Sue Koch took Brian, Richard and DJ to the Piggly Wiggly in Crivitz to ring the Salvation Army Bell. This is the third year in a row that the guys have volunteered a shift during the holiday season. Afterwards, all the guys and John and Sue had dinner together, then made Christmas cookies. It was a special evening for them all.

Speaking of special evenings...The Camp Daniel missionaries went on a Christmas outing Monday evening. We all met at the China Buffet in Green Bay, then went together to the Meyer Theater, downtown. We enjoyed a free Christmas concert put on by the Allouez Village Band. We all had a great time, and found the quality time together to be worth the snowy drive home!

The whole of Tuesday morning was flew by during our weekly "family meeting." Among many other things, we discussed the future of Able Church; what makes a church, a church; how to do the Able Church in a new location; what is the goal of Able Church, and many other questions not to be answered in one sitting. The Able Church is so revolutionary, that much thought and discussion go into most every aspect. Nothing is taken for granted or assumed. This whole subject is far from closed.

Tuesday night, of course, involved Able Family Night. The Able Attack basketball team played a scrimmage game against Aspiro, then it was back to Living Hope Church for pizza dinner and bible study.

As we speak, Tim and Mike are on their way home from Africa. Chrissy and the kids are anxious to pick Tim up tomorrow. If you haven't yet, you should read the blog about the trip. The link is at the top of this page, on the left. But, hey, finish this one first!

Speaking of blogs, Tony's been working on building one for Marceaux. Details forthcoming. Tony also spent time today hooking up the heater in the basement of the craft cabin. This will be more efficient and will heat up the cold tile floor in Molly and Jen's bathroom. Tony spent much of Wednesday at church meeting with a number of different people.

Monday, December 14

2009-12-14T08:01:00.001-08:00

Here's a picture of the Hartley House Christmas tree. We're all ready for Christmas at Camp Daniel, snow and all. Since our last blog, it feels as though it's been all about printing. Printing problems, that is. All day Thursday and Friday were spent buying ink of every imaginable variety, dusting off old printers, and trying everything we could think of to get the two sided picture page for the newsletter done. And if the printers weren't being temperamental enough, the computers starting acting up as well. After much frustration, we did get all 800 pages printed, inserted into the newsletter, and mailed out. What a relief! Now we're extra appreciative of the fact that Molly got the campers' Christmas cards done early.

Marceaux's been quite busy as well. It seems like as one vehicle is fixed, another breaks down. He's been doing a great job of keeping on top of it. We're very blessed to have those mechanic's hands here at Camp Daniel.

Chrissy called last week and asked Tony to bring over a dryer that was in the garage and replace the one that she was using. He got it over there and got it going, then found out that the washer was spinning the clothes at all. She had clothes hanging all over the house so that her family could have clean and dry clothes to wear. After the printing issues were settled, Tony and the guys brought over a washing machine and switched it out. (Of course, even the simplest of plumbing jobs involves and bucket and many a towel)

Karol has been working on the new signs for the Christmas gift shop at Camp Daniel. It's been renamed, North Pole Gifts.

It's snowing lightly this morning, so shoveling has commenced.

Wednesday, December 9

2009-12-09T10:32:00.001-08:00

Well, our area has received, or shall I say, "is receiving", the first snow storm of the year. The kids are all very excited. It's been a blustery affair that has turned our campus into a winter wonderland. The guys actually didn't mind the snow because that means that they're officially done with planting trees and raking leaves. Tony and the guys spent the better part of yesterday preparing for the impeding blanket of white. They fixed up all of the shovels. Some needed new handles, and most needed grinding of the ends to level them out, so as to not shovel two skinny stripes. They put new sideview mirrors and the plow on the blue truck. Marceaux got the snow blowers up and running. Tony showed the guys how to use the snow blower.

Yesterday morning we had our weekly Camp Daniel missionary meeting. We were pleased to have Tim Mandich with us again this week. He's getting a better idea of how things work around here, and getting to know us all better thru these meetings. We concluded with the 4th part of a bible study called 40 Days of Love.

Molly has been working hard on her support letter. She's hoping to get it out soon so that she can get closer to her monthly support goal of $1,500 per month.

As I said, Marceaux was working on the snow blowers yesterday. Prior to that, he fixed the brakes on Karol and Tony's van, fixed something on the white work van and fixed multiple things on Jen's car.

Last Saturday, Jen, Marceaux, John, Tina Russell, and the guys went to Waukesha for the State level Special Olympics bowling. Richard and Nick placed 6th, and Tina placed 7th. The competition must have been really stiff, because the Able bowlers all had great games. We're very proud of them this season!

Jen is still filling in for an injured therapist, and working on Able.

Karol printed labels for the upcoming Camp Daniel newsletter. The program we're using is inadequate. We're excited for the customized Access program that Ken Bork is setting up for us. It will combine all of our databases into one that everyone here can use.
Tony's been trying to print the insert for the newsletter. It's a two sided picture page that doubles as a Christmas card. Unfortunately, his printer is not very happy about this large job, and it won't print more than a page every couple minutes! Frustrations galore!!
Tony's been plowing all day. Not necessarily because of the quantity of snow, but because he gets motion sickness badly, while doing it. Tim, where are you? Oh yea, he's in Africa, where it's 80 degrees. Please see the blog following this current trip to Kenya. There's a link on the left column of this page. Titled LHC Missions.

Earlier this week, Tony worked on the gravel roads on the property, putting up reflectors and grading. He also bulldozed some areas under construction.

Thursday, December 3

2009-12-03T08:14:00.000-08:00

Sorry, going back a few weeks here. On Saturday, November 21, Green Bay had their annual holiday parade, and the Mega Micro Bus had it's debut at this parade. Many kids and adults from Camp Daniel and Living Hope Church came out to support our entry. Unfortunately the bus had a few mechanical issues, so Tony ended up pulling it with Karol's dad's ATV. The large Santa hat turned out well, and with everyone in bright orange, our entry was a sight to behold. This parade was a bigger deal than the Memorial Day one we did in that it was televised in Green Bay. All went well, and we're looking forward to participating again next year. The bus is currently sitting in front of the church with the hat still on. We're hoping that people will remember it from the parade and stop in to check out Mega.

Mega and Megarusalem have been doing great. Lots and lots of new kids come every week!

Back in Athelstane, we are glad to report that the last of the donated trees are planted, watered, and mulched. Usually the guys dread winter because of all the shoveling, but this year, I believe that they're looking forward to snow, so as to stop planting and watering!

Tim buttoned up the craft cabin before he left on Wednesday for Africa. He'll be on this scouting trip for just over two weeks. Tony built a blog for his trip. I have a link for it on this blog. It's lhcmissions.blogspot.com We at Camp Daniel are all pitching in to help Chrissy in whatever she may need during this time.

Marceaux's parents finished their trip here on Tuesday. They had a good time getting to know Jen and her family. They did a lot of sight seeing around the area.

Jen's now back to work filling in for an injured occupational therapist in Coleman. And Marceaux has been working on the work van and Karol and Tony's van. While his dad was still here, he and Marceaux put in a few days working on the Mega Bus, and got it up and running.

John has been working with Tim Mandich, getting him more involved in Able. The new church restructuring gave Tim many different areas of supervision. We're all very excited to have the Mandich's help and guidance.

Tony took his last trip to Green Bay to the nursery. This time for a load of blue stone. They're large flat rocks that will be installed around the new fire pit. Plus, there should be enough to make a sidewalk to the fire pit as well.

Tony and Karol are in the middle of redoing the signs for the gift shop. It's now primarily a Christmas shop, so the name and logo needed to be reworked.

Karol and the guys put up some of their Christmas decorations upstairs. The tree and nativity set (the two big projects) will follow. I'll be sure to give you some pics.

2009-11-29T18:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, the Camp Daniel missionaries are still working! Sorry for the long absence. Tony has continued to work on Megarusalem, doing detail work. The Megarusalem program has been going for about 4 weeks. It's been very successful. The kids love it.
Below is the money changer. The sign above is a spin off of the Wells Fargo logo. "We'll Go Far". The horse and carriage were replaced with camels and a chariot.

Tim and the guys have been working on Jen and Molly's cabin.

Included in this project, was the stairwell leading to the basement that's under the bathrooms. The black doorway that you see is at the opposite end of the stairwell, and leads to a storage closet that goes over the top of part of the stairwell.

More pics of Megarusalem.

As you can see in the pic below, some of the building fronts have signs painted on the facade. This is the Megarsalem Pottery and Basket

It's awesome how great this boat turned out. You really need to see it live and in person.

John and Jen have been working on organizational changes for the Able Church.

John and Sue and the Mandich's (Tim and Janice, from Living Hope Church) went to downtown Green Bay to serve a Thanksgiving meal to some homeless and struggling people. They were encouraged by the experience and are looking into having members of the Able Church do this once a month as an outreach. Marceaux's parents, Ben and Ginny, flew in from Montana for Thanksgiving. We were happy to have them, Jen's mom and Molly's parents, all for Thanksgiving dinner.

Tony and the guys have also been spending a lot of time planting the many many trees donated by Green Bay Nursery. I've lost track of how many loads of trees Tony's brought up from Green Bay. We've been blessed with a mild fall that has allowed for outside work much longer than usual.

Chrissy has been busy with Camp Daniel newsletters. The Christmas edition is at the printers now.