Serious Firewood....

Each year we have a couple Saturdays in the fall dedicated to processing firewood for the coming year.  I spend quite a bit of time, ahead of time, getting logs and trees identified, hauled out of the woods or someway or another prepared for these two days...so we can make the most of the volunteers who come to help with the processing.  This year we had quite a bit of wood to process, for several reasons.  First, we sell and use quite a bit of firewood here at the camp...so, if the trees and logs do not present themselves in one way or another, then we have to go out and find appropriate trees or logs.  This year however, we had a lot of wood to work with, provided in a couple different ways.  Last winter we harvested some trees here on the grounds (see the separate story on this by looking at my Jan, 2010 blog entry).  As a result of this harvest, we had a lot of "tops" of trees to deal with, along with other trees that were damaged in the logging process.  In addition, we also had quite a few trees damaged by storms this past spring and summer, so as a result...a fair amount of wood was naturally provided for firewood. 

Nevertheless, on these two work days, the primary object of the day is to process firewood.  Whether cutting or splitting or hauling or whatever.   This year...splitting was the main thing, due to a fair amount of cutting that had been done ahead of time by my loyal volunteers, Walter Pettifor and Johnny Coontz.  The volunteers that showed up on the Oct 30 work day did a great job...and on the Nov 6 work day...well, a small army showed up.  Besides a hand full of the regular volunteers, we also had a group of 26 SAU guys come out and have a retreat on the Friday night before the work day, and then they all pitched in and helped create a small mountain of split firewood in the 4 hours they all spent working together.  Plus, several of our local firefighters and our local police chief all came out the same day too.  Needless to say, it was a great day!

GC Homecoming, 25th Class Reunion & Emily @ "The Turret Cafe"

Emily is working at "The Turret Cafe", owned by our friends Dave and Bernie Jack (whom I also worked for back when I was in college) and there is a whole room dedicated to Dad and his baseball history.  Here are a couple links to the Turret Cafe : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenville-IL/The-Turret-Cafe/141171705903662  or http://www.turretcafe.com/index.html

Class of 1985 - 25 Year Reunion

It was great seeing old friends at the GC 25 year reunion, and we all gathered at Tim & Lori Place's place at their newly restored home, formerly  Baker House, which they purchased and restored for their own kids to use for the next few years as they attend GC.   It was great to see their project and all the work they put into "this old house".

 

A Fun Weekend - Homecomings, Marching Band Festival, Date Night & a Buck!

We started this weekend off with the VCL Homecoming Parade, with Zack in the Vandy Marching Band, and Caleb was riding on the Cross Country Team "Pick-up Float".   The Homecoming football game itself was a bit depressing, with a big loss and several guys getting hurt.  I feel pretty bad for the team this year. 

Saturday morning brought a call from Caleb telling us he had shot a deer and was heading back out to track it with his cousin Scott.  (Caleb and Zack had spent the night at Grandpa & Grandma's house, so Caleb could get up and hunt and Zack could be taken early to Marching Band Festival).   By the time Rene' and I got over to the Osborne Ranch, Caleb and Scott had found the buck and were in the process of field dressing it.  Caleb had made a nice shot and the buck had only run about 70 yards. 

The Band Festival was a lot of fun, even with a light rain.  All the bands seem to want to make it fun and light hearted...which made it a lot of fun for everyone.

After the Band Festival, the boys hung out until their plans later in the evening, when they were both attending the Western High School Dance, as guests to some friends at Western.  Rene' and I were headed for a wedding at JFM and then a date night in Lansing, and a trip to one of our favorite restaurants, Cheddar's.

These guys are TOO MUCH!!!

Yes, there is a story about these guys and why they are "TOO MUCH", but it is too long to tell here...so you will have to ask me personally sometime.  Anyway, these guys (Brent Shaw, Dave Disch, Jeff Todd, Greg Groves, and myself)  comprise the "TOO MUCH CLUB", which has been our name for ourself since 1986 or so... when we first started getting together for reunion campouts every other year.  We all grew up together in Greenville, IL and are proud to have this longstanding history together as friends. We have met in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin at different state parks and private campgrounds over the past 25 years or so.  It is generally "too much" fun being with these guys as we tend to turn back into youngsters when we are together, and usually come away sore and tired as we have tried to do all the things we did when we were young, all in a 3-day period.   These activities include, but are not limited to the following:  hiking, rock climbing, canoeing, football, frisbee golf, TRIPOLEY that lasts all 3 days(a poker-type board game), camp fires, movies, EATING, SNACKING, exploring, broom ball, basketball, volleyball, carpetball and I am sure there are some I have forgotten...BUT, that's OK, because there is a HISTORY.  Greg has kept a history of our times together, down to the snacks we ate and other details we will want to know one of these days when we all have lost our memories and want to re-live our times together  (better get a copy for each of us soon). 

Needless to say, a good time is had by all, and we are blessed by our mutual friendships! Long live the TOO MUCH CLUB !!!

 

25th Wedding Anniversary!!

Rene' and I actually celebrated the actual day of our 25th Wedding Anniversary while we were up north camping with our family (what a great place to be).  We are planning a special trip for sometime in the winter to actually have a get-away celebration trip for the two of us.  But, while we were down in Greenville taking Em down to begin her second year at G.C., we were surprised by my parents to have several of our friends be at Mario's Pizza when we showed up there.   It was fun to see them there...and the pizza was good too!

A tiny crack...a day-long project

At 7:00 on this particular Thursday morning, I realize by a puddle and bubbling water out of the ground at the dump station, that it is going to be "one of those days"...but I did not expect it would take ALL day to fix it.  Actually, it took almost half the day just to find the crack...which ended up being 5 and half feet deep, when I expected it to be maybe 2 feet deep, since this is a seasonal dump station.  Rain also made this little project a little crazy, as if the ground was not already saturated enough from the leakage all night, but now it was super saturated with rain.  It made cave-ins and some serious mud to work in.  But, I do need to count my blessings because the timing was actually a good thing.  There were hardly any campers needing to use the dump station on this day, and had it been one day later, it would have been REALLY BAD...like lots of RV's rolling into the campground, as in the Friday of Labor Day Weekend.  So, I am very thankful for the timing.

Young State Park & Emily to GC

Our end-of-the-summer family vacation was once again at our ole stand-by campground up north, Young State Park, in Boyne City, MI, where we have been going for the last 12 or so years.  We love it up there, and this year was once again, very relaxing and a great time with my family.  Check out the video my kids made if you want to see the boys in action out on the hiking trail
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JnrsndjzpU
As soon as we got home, we unpacked the camper and then immediately re-packed and left the next morning to take Emily down to GC for the start of her sophmore year.  We arrived in Greenville expecting to have Mario's pizza with Mom and Dad...and ended up having a surprise 25th Wedding Anniversary party for Rene' and I, with friends gathered to help celebrate.