Looking back at the year

This morning at breakfast Sarah and I decided it has been a good year. I've uploaded some pictures of our journey through the last year.


Our house at Houghton shared with Ethan and Queena was a year of life that the four of us will never forget: good food, friends coming over, and playing games.



Last year this time I had completed my college classes and was looking for work. I ended up driving an hour one way to work for minimum wage doing a job that was boring beyond all imagination. Somehow I actually miss working at the ski lift at Holimont Ski area.

Graduation was a happy time. Sarah was co-salutatorian of our class and Ethan was the junior class marshal (that's what the white gown is about)

This is me turning 25 on the Black Forest Trail. Myself and the Mast family men explored the trail during our "Men vs. Wild" backpacking trip. It is the best trail I have ever hiked.




Moving day from Houghton to Camp Deerpark. We could not have done it if Dan and Steve had not randomly showed up to help. With all of our valueless things in the U-Haul we left for Westbrookville, NYon May 21st.

Some of the camp staff took a long weekend in Cape May NJ before the summer season started.


Construction on the new cabin project (our future home) dominated much of the fall.

Nine cousins and Nelke spent a week hiking slowly through the Delware Water Gap National Recreation Area in New Jersey.


Sarah and I spent a week at a resort in FL with her family and grandparents. A good time was had by all. Nelke spent the week in her homeland of Pigeon Valley, NY

The cabin project is starting to shape up on the outside. The inside still needs drywall, paint, flooring, and a kitchen.

Free to a good home

I happen to have acquired a wireless card for a laptop. It is brand new and I have the CD for it. I'm looking to pass it along to a deserving person. Also willing to trade it for canoe related things, new crocs (or knocks).

My rants and raves (If you read the whole way through then you must have nothing to do)

Rant #1
It was not that long ago that the word "communist" carried the connotation that "terrorist" now does. We fought communism with democracy. Our post 911 strategy is to let democracy sweep through the countries that hate us. Even as we do that our Government has begun regulate our economy. First it was an economic stimulus, then the bail out of banks. Soon it will be an auto industry bail-out which carries conditions for manufacturing certain types of products. This is not communism by any measure, but it is a move towards it. If communism is so bad, why are we leaning that way? Why don't we practice the democracy that we preach?

Rant #2
The prospect of the auto makers being bailed out has me thinking. Generally in business if you are a bad business person your business fails and you look for work in another sector. I consider this to be natural selection in the free market. This process should be motivating people to make better business decisions. If the government does bail out the auto industry, I'm concerned that the motivation to make good business decisions may change. I'm also worried that a government regulated industry will not produce the best possible products. (For example: if GM and Ford went under, foreign auto makers would have a larger market and we would have cars with better fuel efficiency)

I have to stop now so Sarah can use the computer. I realize that some people think I'm nuts for spending my time posting these kinds of things. Sarah says my poor grammar and spelling undermines whatever credibility I might have had. But I say: "This is my blog and I can say whatever I want to (except for threats and hate language which I think might be illegal) and you keep reading it."

It's november

Its November and the elections are over. I'm not happy that Obama won. I voted for Bob Barr and he did not win. Before you criticize my vote I want to know who you voted for. Today I passed a sign in someone's yard that read: "I'm a bitter gun owner and a I do vote"

The construction on our new dwelling is continuing. We just got back from FL where we stayed in an nice resort, didn't go to Disney world, harassed large alligators from a canoe, and had a generally good time. Pictures of FL are on facebook.

Help!

Somehow my start menu and blue tool bar ended up on the right side of my monitor. How do I make it go back?

some pictures and some thoughts

We started construction on the new staff housing project this week. Nelke is checking out the foundation location of the addition that we will live in. I've taken a holiday from program related work and have been spending my days helping to dig footers, haul fill away, and set the forms.

Below is the view this morning from the porch of the house we live in. The fall colors are hitting their peak this week. I did some thinking as I walked the dog this morning. It is all of our senses working together to create the specialness of fall. Simply seeing the fall colors, or feeling the cool air, or smelling the damp leaves doesn't trigger the "its fall" instinct in us. All of those things must happen at the same time. Anyway, that's what my mind was doing while Nelke was doing her thing.

Some more thoughts: The Election. I think we should all vote for Ron Paul even though he isn't running. This week the building inspector came and told us specifically how we must frame the footers of the houses. I noticed that the existing structures hadn't been constructed with any of the standards we are required to use and they were still standing. That is when I decided that our government is too large and too involved with stupid details. I still don't know why we have to pour a concrete floor in a crawl space.

Some more thoughts: The Economy. Here is what I think happend: Greed and materialism were the driving ideology at both the consumer and corporate levels. Or, to simplfy things: Too many people chasing the American Dream at the same time.

Now it's nap time on the sofa Sarah recovered

Election thoughts

After watching the debate last night (thank you to fox5 for postponing your normal pointless programing) I'm realizing Obama and MCcain are very alike. The PBS guy would ask a question and Obama would respond, then MCcain would respond with slight variations same answer. What if I don't like their answers? What if I don't want a President micromanging "Main Street" by bailing out "Wall Street"?

The gas station down the street has over 10 choices of cold cereal. In a country this big, can't we get at least half a dozen parties? Apparently half of americans would like some more choices.
You and I can't instantly start a party that competes with the two leading parties. But we can vote. The internet has given us access to a halffull of other canidates position's on issues. By putting our vote on the issues that matter to us (as opposed to the lesser of two evils) we give power to those smaller parties and take it from the larger ones. We also force the big canidates to rethink their position on the issues we leave over.

Anyway, that is ramblings.

So we had a little fun the other night.

It was a good time

Backpacking food

Sarah and I are going backpacking with some cousins. This is the food we will take for 5 days

Nelke is coming backpacking. This is what she will eat for the 5 days.

Wake me up when September comes

Summer camp is over, has been over, and will stay over for several more months. In the mean time, I am faced with a to do list that is over a page long. Things like: "Hire staff" and "build a challenge course element" each taking up a single, 12 font line.

How to raise leaders? That is the question I need to be able to answer by next spring's training. I was one of them once and someone saw my gifts and put them to work. Now I have to do the same.

I have had the vague phrase "lead by example" bouncing around in the back of my mind. I'll lead them by example, and they will lead theirs' by example, while we all follow His example. I guess that will be my plan.

Next week Sarah and I will be backpacking on the AT from the PA/NJ line north toward home. For me it is a way of extending a trip that started in the fall of '02 when Jeremy and I hiked from the point south to Camp Hebron. For me this trip is much better planned than the trip of '02, I have training, experience, equipment, and a degree in the area. We will be accompanied by an entourage of cousins who's skills range from advanced to first timers. This group is generally good at two things: problem solving and getting hurt. I'll post pictures about the former if I don't experience the latter.

Unattended

Last night Sarah and I were looking for some Christian Brothers. We stopped at a convenience store with a liquor store attached. When we poked our heads into the liquor store there was no one there, not even a clerk behind the counter. I'm not sure how you stay in business if you prop the door open and don't stay behind the register

Missed the Ice Cream truck in Brooklyn

This week starts the last week of regular camp. I'm 12 nature classes, a back 40 hike, 3 sessions at Freedom Farm, and 1 rafting trip away from relaxation. I've accumulated enough comp hours that I can take a backpacking trip in the catskills.

Good night!

Nature Deficit disorder "don't let the ticks or bears get us"

I took this picture last week as I was preparing to lead a hike. It was a warm sunny day. Somehow campers had been told that ticks were a dangerous issue. As a precaution this girl tucked her pants into her socks, wore two shirts, a sweat shirt, bandanna, and sunglasses. (I'm still not sure what the sunglasses do)

Shortly after I took this picture I asked for someone to pray. This girl volunteered and her prayer went something like this: "Dear Jesus, keep us safe from all the wild animals as we hike. Don't let the ticks or the bears get us. Help no-one get hurt and I hope we all are alive to come back"

While not a clinical term, Nature Deficit Disorder is a phrase that has been used to describe a type of life style which most of our campers live. It is an environment characterized by technology and where the only living things are humans; no trees, animals, plants, or untamed areas.

I think this little girl was beyond Nature Deficit Disorder. She was genuinely fearful to go into the woods. Her views of the wild, and especially bears had been shaped by Disney. Even a small conversation about the need to check for ticks by her consoler would re-enforce her paranoia of nature's danger.

I would encourage your comments

Rembering Matt

For those of you who don't know, my cousing Mathew Garber drown in Costa Rica on July 1st. Death isn't somthing I've grown up being surrounded by so this is kind of a new thing for me. I'm struck by how many memories suddenly come back as soon as a person is gone. I've posted a few pictures of Matt that were taken on my wedding day.

Pictures

Pictures from the Cape May tripThe house we stayed in was right in the heart of the historic part of Cape May

The beach was nice in the evenings but the bugs were really bad.

On our way home we visited the Cape May County Zoo. It was small, but free.

Forward Momentum

Life doesn't seem to slow down. The heat of summer is here and the campers will be too soon. Oh boy!

My job is going well. My first project was compiling and submitting paper work to the NYS health dept. There was a lot of it and it took me several weeks. Now I'm out in the field more working on redoing part of the low ropes course which is fun. I get to build things, haul wood chips in the gator, and generally decide how I would like things to be.

Our social life is improving somewhat. We have been visiting churches and hanging out with some of the other camp staff. Sarah is part of a Tuesday morning book discussion and is meeting ladies through that.

This past weekend we went with Sean and Kim who live above us to a vacation house in Cape May. His Grandpa owns a 1848 row house that is nicely located next to big fancy hotels, the strip, and the beach. Among other things I: ate over priced ice cream cones, made a half finished sand castle, kayaked in the surf, rode bike around the town, went running after midnight, watched a horse race on T.V., and splashed around in a very cold Atlantic Ocean.

Pictures coming sometime.

Some notes

We have been in our new place for about a week and things are starting to clean up. The cabnates are stocked and I think I know were everything belongs. I've included some pictures. I had some reallly great ones but had technical issues and didn't want to fight it. But you can imagine me learning to use Camp's Wood Miser, our living room, and our lovely kitchen. Below is the packing scene in Houghton.

Some of our new fish in our new tank (30gal high)

Nelke in the Bathroom

The bed room, sorry the rest of the house didn't work out.

This morning Sarah and I planted our garden. There is a little fenced garden plot that no one is using this year. The soil has been improved over the last years and seems to be very nice considering everything else is a rocky gravel. Soon we will have all kinds of good things to eat.

Flip the tassle, over the hill and through the woods to Camp DeerPark we went

So I hope that this post will break a long streak of non-posting. Now that my living situation has changed and internet is at my doorstep (literally, it isn’t in the house but almost) I hope to be able to get back to my regular routine of posting.

Graduation happened not long ago. Sarah graduated co-Salutatorian (that means tied for second best grades of the 250+ class) and I was more of an honorable mention. My parents and youngest sisters came up for the event. A good time was had by all.

Backpacking happened the next week. The Mast men and myself took on the Black Forest Trail. It is a 42 mile loop in and around the PA grand canyon. It would be better named “The Slate Run water shed tour”. The trail followed tributaries of Slate Run to and from their origins, and then up and over mountain to find the next trickle. It was beautiful, miles of hiking by babbling brooks and cascading waterfalls. The views were very viewable. It was also a brutal hike. To go between creek and vista the trail was constantly making 1000 foot climbs and drops. Actually, about 2/3 of the time was spent going up or going down. The pictures show some of the beauty, but I really haven’t found a trail this challenging and rewarding this side of the Rockies.

Our sweet tarp set up. There was only one half-ok tarp site so we improvised on a wet night.

Creek crossings totaled over 20. I rocked the Crocs and kept my boots dry.

A typical view except for a cloud of gnats around your head

Ethan mastered the stove quicklyOne of the better views. The two black spots in the image are gnats circling my head and camera as I took the picture

(Above) Micah strikes a pose after a creek crossing (Below) I took a shower in the waterfall on my 25th birthday eve. It was cold.
This week has marked our move to Camp DeerPark. We arrived with our embarrassingly large U-Haul (I recommend not doing business with U-Haul, they are not very upfront or customer friendly) and began the task of moving into our basement apartment. We quickly found a very open handed approach to our furniture which helped things fit. Currently the place is very cozy and walking space is limited. Nelke is adjusting and has even been going back into her box. The transition was very difficult for her and tiring for us. Hopefully she will forgo the howling this time. Who knows, maybe she is howling now.

its been a while

We don't have internet in the house, so updates require some treking through the snow to campus. I'm not finding myself with lots of time so somethings have to give. Here are a few pictures with comments, see if you can figure out the story that goes with them.

A mosaic (above)

The oldest piece of glass known to man (below)

Sarah and pretty things

Jared goes up the pile, Asher strikes a pose

Inside and out