The blog has moved!

Today we launched a completely new revision of our camp website -- just about everything has changed! As a result, we've decided to move the Construction Blog over there, so we can keep the blog updates, upcoming events, fundraising announcements, and so on, all in one place.

All of the blog posts and photos have been moved to the new address, which is:

http://www.cherith.ca/category/construction/

See you over there!

Mid-camp update: we're having a blast!

First things first: I apologize for the lack of updates recently. All of us have been so busy getting camp ready for the kids, and now we're right in the middle of it all, so we haven't been updating the blogs or the website as much as we wish we could.

We have a new Twitter account that you can follow for general camp updates: www.twitter.com/Camp_Cherith.

So, while the focus of this blog was primarily on the construction of our campsite, we want to give you an update. Weeks 1, 2, and 3 have finished, and tomorrow is the beginning of Week 4 -- our final week of summer camp!

Camp has been going really well! The weather has been all across the board. Week 1 saw cooler, wetter weather, Week 2 endured the heat wave that blasted through much of Ontario, and Week 3 was just right -- hot by day, cool by night. For the hotter days, we enjoyed lots of swimming to cool off -- including cannonball competitions! -- and during each week we set up the biggest slip-and-slide you've ever seen! (We knew that surplus roll of vapour barrier would come in handy!)

Many of our improvements for camp this summer have been behind-the-scenes. One example is our new staff parking area, back in the maintenance area. Not very exciting? Maybe not, but it keeps all the cars away from where kids run around and opens up much more room in our main play area. It also keeps cars protected from flying balls and other play equipment. A safer, more enjoyable camp experience for everyone!

This year we also changed the flow of traffic for when parents come in to drop off and pick up their campers. Again, this keeps traffic away from the dining tent and play areas, and allows our staff to control the entry and exit of vehicles and provide organized parking instead of a haphazard arrangement of cars. On closing day, our staff can watch the driveway loop to make sure all campers are deregistered with the Camp Director before leaving the campsite. All of these steps help us monitor the safety and well being of our campers and staff.

We'll continue posting updates when we can! Remember, there are several ways to keep track of how we're doing up at camp:

• This blog is primarily for updates on our campsite, including new construction projects, maintenance, property enhancements, and opportunities to volunteer during work parties.
• Our camp Twitter account, @Camp_Cherith, for overall up-to-the-minute status updates, including links to videos and pictures from summer camp sessions.
• Our camp YouTube account, LaurentianCherith, for video clips from current and past summer camp sessions. (We posted a video from Week 2 -- experience the sheer bliss of a rainstorm to end the heat wave!)
• Our main camp website (www.cherith.ca) for camp-related announcements!

Hope you are having a great summer, and if you were at camp recently (or are coming tomorrow) we hope you have a blast!

May 21-24 Work Weekend!

A few of us went up to camp for the May 21-24 long weekend.

The weather was beautiful! Too beautiful, in fact -- it was unanimously decided that work would pause in mid-afternoon so we could swim and take the kayaks and canoes down on a tour of the Clyde River. Did you know this was Jay's first time out on the river in a canoe?

The focus this weekend was on cleaning up the property. We mowed -- and mowed and mowed -- and got rid of a lot of the brush and garbage piling up from our construction and renovation projects. There was also some more painting and some more bunk work -- still more to do, however!

We're looking forward to having all of our staff up at camp for pre-camp training in just a few weeks, and the campers begin arriving in just 34 days! There's still much to be done, so keep watching for updates!

Happy Victoria Day!

May 14-16 Pictures!

As promised, here are some photos from the work weekends!

We start with the guys who worked hard clearing trees for our future work shed:

The area in and around the Health Care Center becomes a window factory:

One of the completed, painted, grading-improved washhouses:

Working at replacing the deck on the main washhouse building:

Completing some final exterior construction and then painting the buildings:

Finally, here's Hawkeye enjoying a hearty breakfast!

Thanks to all the great volunteers who came out to help! We had a great time and we hope to see you again next time!

May 14-16 Work Weekend

Thanks to all the volunteers who came out to the second work weekend in spring 2010! We had a great time and got a lot of work done! The weather was fantastic (no snow, unlike last weekend!) Pictures are worth thousands of words so we'll let them speak for themselves. Here's a summary of what we did over the weekend:

• A completely new deck was built at the entrance to the washhouse.
• All cabins' remaining exterior sheathing were completed.
• Several picnic tables were refurbished.
• Grading was improved around both the boys' and girls' washhouses, including patio stones at the entrances.
• All the cabin and washhouse exteriors were painted to protect them from the elements.
• 4 more cabin floors were painted with floor paint.
• All of the remaining leaders' beds were completed in the girls' cabin area.
• A number of window shutters were produced, assembly-line style. These are being put together into completed, ready-to-hang window shutter assemblies.
• Cabins 1 and 5 were each partially outfitted with completed shutter units, including two prototypes of "swing away" screens that we'll use to access the exterior shutters from inside the cabins. We'll start converting all of the cabin screens to this style.
• Cabin 1 was outfitted with screen assemblies for each window.
• Tree clearing was started in the area where the new quonset hut will be located.

Pictures to follow!

Camp Cherith thanks everyone who came out to help! We look forward to seeing you again in the future!

“Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail..."

The work weekends have begun! Spring work parties are a tradition at Camp Cherith, and now that we own a property we certainly have no shortage of work to do. We are so thankful to all the volunteers who share the workload!

That being said... brr! Our first volunteer work weekend of 2010 featured a bit of everything -- sun, wind, rain, even hail and SNOW! Still, lots of work got done and we enjoyed eating, sharing, and laughing together throughout the day. Many thanks to the 18 intrepid volunteers who made it out!

Here's a sampling of what we got done this past weekend:

• Felled logs were chopped into firewood
• Cabins and buildings swept out and cleaned up
• Additional work on bunk beds in the girls' cabin circle
• Replaced temporary screens with proper framed screens
• Beginning of work on building window shutters for cabins
• Repairs and conversion of Nurse's trailer to stop leaks in the roof

There's still lots to do, including painting the cabins inside and out, window shutters, clearing land for the installation of the new quonset hut storage shed and staff parking area, raking, new electrical work, and lots more. We hope to see you at our next work weekend this coming May 14-16! Please email us at info@cherith.ca to let us know when you're coming so we can make enough food to feed everyone.

Site Improvements Planned For 2010

Last spring was a huge push to have all of the "big stuff" built in time to run summer camp in July. We thank God that we were able to get so much done last year, both before and after camp. This spring we will be focusing our attention on some of the finer details:

Cabins and bunks: We will replace the temporary screening with permanently mounted screen windows, with swinging shutters so that windows can be closed to block out light and rain. Each cabin's floor will be painted to make it easier to sweep up, and the exteriors will be painted to keep them weatherproof. The few remaining unfinished staff beds will be completed, and bunks will be sanded to remove rough spots.

Wash stations: Look for the installation of hose-down vinyl floors, a completed steel roof, improved odour control, and -- finally -- permanent electric lights at all wash facilities. No more LED flashlights!

Landscaping and bug control: We will be doing general work around the campsite to improve water runoff and drainage as well as open up areas that are attractive to mosquitoes. The cool weather and incredible amount of rainfall last year led to an equally incredible amount of mosquitoes -- hopefully with improved weather and these site upgrades, we will have a more pleasant experience this summer! We will also be working hard to eliminate weeds and other pesky plants like poison ivy.

Maintenance Storage: Our tractor finally has a home! We are installing a metal "quonset hut" which will become a storage facility for equipment such as the tractor and lawn mowers, off-season equipment storage, and an area for maintenance work.

Woodworking Shop: Once the maintenance building is installed, the existing storage building will be converted into a woodworking shop for the campers! For the first time in our camp's history we will have a dedicated space for our woodworking tools and projects! This will also free up space and reduce noise and traffic in the Dining Tent, which will benefit the other activities too!

Nurse's: We will be rehabilitating the Nurses' accommodations, as the existing structure was damaged from all the rain we experienced last summer.

Other stuff: We have lots of ideas about how to improve other areas of camp too, including waterfront, archery, and Gobbler Green!

You can help! If you'd like to help with any of these projects, please come to one of our volunteer build weekends in May. We're currently planning for the weekends of May 7-9 and May 14-16. Come out for the entire weekend or just for the Saturday -- your choice! Meals and fun fellowship are provided! Many of our camp crew will be around for most other weekends in April, May, and June as well -- we'd be glad to have you join us!

Winter Camp Visit

On February 22, 2010 Daffy, Feecho and myself (Hawkeye) did a day trip to camp to make sure all was in order. Although we found many different kinds of animal tracks (deer, fox, rabbit, squirrel, turkey, dog/wolf?, snowmobile) there was no apperent sign of damage or trespassers. The strong wind did blow some of our widow covers of as well as the soffit covers on the Phoenix (Cabin 10). Both Daffy and I were a little concerned about falling trees and branches but all was good.

Seeing camp again has made me even more excited about this year!

Four Weeks of Summer Fun!

This year's summer camp was fantastic! We enjoyed four great weeks of camp, and you can check out the photos on the website.

We've also created a slide show video featuring some of our favourite photos from last summer! Check it out on YouTube:



We're already looking forward to some great things happening for summer 2010! Hope to see you there!

We Did It! We Built A Camp!

OK, I admit, this blog entry is long overdue. As you can imagine, we got a little busy with many, many things as our 2009 summer camp weeks came up! So the last entry showed a site plan for what the campsite was shaping up to look like. So how did it go from there? And where are we going to go next?

Cabins: We did it! We built 10 cabins, five "down below" for the girls, and five "up the hill" for the boys. What a relief it was to finally see these buildings (mostly) completed, passed inspection, and ready to go! Now I say "mostly" completed because we did have to take a few shortcuts -- window screenings on many of the cabins were quickly stapled on, for example, because we didn't have enough time to complete all of the screen frames. We discovered that these required frequent maintenance under constant barrage from excited campers, and we plan to have these all replaced with stronger frames -- with shutters to close the windows entirely -- by this summer.

Bunks: When I (Jay) volunteered to take charge of building the bunk beds, I had no idea what an enormous undertaking this would be! It's one thing to build one set of bunks... but to build 100 individual bed frames and put them up into 40 sets of bunk beds... wow! I am so grateful to all the volunteers who worked with me to build the frames, cut endless sheets of plywood, and drive in thousands of screws, nuts and bolts. I was still assembling bunk beds literally up until camp started, and a few lucky campers got to watch their new sleeping accommodations being built right before their eyes!

Wash Stations: We built two wash stations by the cabins, with sinks and outhouses in each. These are relatively temporary affairs -- the long term plan is to install septic facilities and exchange these for real flushing toilets -- but they will see steady improvements over the coming years.

Water System: This one wasn't so obvious, but it was a huge (and expensive) undertaking. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment places very strict regulations on the water quality for a children's summer camp -- and so it should be. We are pleased that our newly installed water system passed all the tests with flying colours!

Kitchen: We converted the existing lodge -- we affectionately called it the "social building" -- into a kitchen big enough to cook for 100 people at once. In addition to cooking and dishwashing, we also used the building for storage of tuck, camp suppplies, and a temporary camp office. This building was also our dining room for all of the volunteer build weekends, a place of fellowship and rest after a hard day's work!

Dining Tent: We were very lucky to have access to the large, blue-and-white striped "circus tent" that became our temporary dining hall! We ate our meals, played games, ate tuck, and ran activities like Newspaper, Movie Making, Arts and Crafts, Woodworking, Drama, and Guitar in various corners of this massive tent, and it also became our stage for events like the Talent Show. In Week 3 we even had sleepouts in here! Of course the long-term plan is to build a dining hall, and we hope to begin construction soon after a bit more fundraising!