WOW Wednesday: CAMP BEGINS AGAAIN!

Oh WOW. Camp is underway in a BIG way and I am finally able to sit down and update this thing :) I will try to update every couple of days but the first camp is going to be really busy. I actually have to leave halfway through for a wedding so I have to turn over my many reins to others... and apparently I am not the only one who is going to be gone! Camp is always a mixed bag of experiences; that's why I love it.

Well, to start with, a couple days before I left for camp I sheared off my mane of long brunette locks.

Change is good, my friends.

I was able to arrive at camp early and settle in to both my staff cabin and of course the infamous Rockland craft  cabin. I love taking the time to organize and arrange all of my supplies, projects, and new finds in the cabin. I was even able to move in all my houseplants (nearly) at once and incorporate the loom and woven rug into the cabin decor.

It is WAY neater now...promise.

New rug :) Made by yours truly with some help from friends and family

teachers desk

Cézanne's new tank fits PERFECTLY onto my desk

this is the face of someone who is not completely overwhelmed... yet

The first week we all moved back to camp was dedicated to clean up and preparation of the various sections at camp. Kitchen, maintenance, crafts, grounds, and other areas were all cleaned and organized and INVENTORIED in the first few days. We washed dishes and mowed and worked on to-do lists (my personal favorite because I'm strange).. camp was starting to come together fairly smoothly! The best part of the day was when I could work in my craft cabin and after dinner when I could go out and FISH

glamour shot

seriously.. skills.

beautiful lake full of beautiful fish. I don't want to overwhelm this post with fish pictures lol

I did a lot of odd jobs around camp... everything from raking and washing dishes, to restocking the craft cabin, to buying bug spray for the whole camp...

the health cabin really wasn't as daunting as this photo makes it look...
but there was a lot to clean and organize

the new director wanted a unique sign for her cabin -
so I worked on that one afternoon! 

the lake in all its picturesque..ness

  The new director at camp really wants us to explore our interests and embrace our strengths as staff and as individual personalities...so I brought up the idea of archery and fishing programs. AND LO AND BEHOLD....

A big ol' pile of fishing and archery supplies!

I will be teaching beginner recurve archery as well as kids and teens fishing programs! I bought 5 bows, 4 for kids and one for myself as the teacher. I will actually be teaching some staff how to use the archery equipment Wednesday for a quick demo and some fun :)
I also purchased two targets, three kids fishing poles, and three junior (SUPER NICE) shakespeare poles along with a small tackle box put together for panfish. Most of the kids who are interested in fishing at camp have their own gear and we also have a handful of poles in the maintenance garage... I have a lot of work to do in there.. more on that later.

My Friday attire: spraying for bugs... DIE BUGS DIE

Saturday was Camp Michigamme Day, which is basically a camp-wide open house for our sponsors, campers, and donors. We host a luncheon, offer camp tours, highly encourage enrollment and registration for the camps, do crafts, and have balloons and bounce houses and sometimes I wonder how we ever keep functioning hahah! It was an INSANELY BUSY TWO DAYS. Friday before CMD we had to rake, mow, spray for bugs, cook, clean.. ayiyi! It all was nearly accomplished, with only one mower fuse called to rest before we turned in for bed that night.
I finally got to spend some time in my craft cabin on Saturday :) We created tiny canoes out of popsicle sticks and sheer will power haha. Hot glue guns.. I am no longer afraid of you! Kids did a great job handling the new tool and impressed me with their designs and ideas. Kids always impress me.. but no one canoe looked like the last that left Rockland.

Cézanne was ready to craft, too!

the first two canoes of the day!

My friend Erica made this one as a teacher sample

Cézanne getting friendly with Tabytha lol

Camp Michigamme Day was a resounding success! We held an auction to support the programs at the camp as well as fund bigger projects for the future and current season. We had twice as many people show up than did last year and the dining hall was FULL of families and happy visitors. Rockland was bustling most of the day with little campers and prospective scampers as well - I even had parents coming in to buy gimp! Such a busy day :) And after that we were all able to relax and unwind until Monday morning.. when it was Back to Work!

one "fleet" of canoes 

Update from this week thus far...

On Monday I was promoted! We have a couple of maintenance workers and one of them was the 'head' of the department. I was informed Monday that I would be the "Assistant Director: Head Maintenance, Program Director, and Arts and Crafts person - one big wrap-up of my many talents, I think :) The new director has put a lot of faith in our staff and I have been stepping up to the new challenges of my position, most definitely. Right away on Monday I was in charge of working on a to-do list for maintenance and grounds and unpacking the craft cabin AND helping with other odd jobs. It was a busy day to say the least. 

I also offered a job to my friend Jackson in Marquette on Sunday and he started on as another Maintenance worker on Monday! He is really handy, creative, and likes to tinker - perfect fit for camp! I have been keeping him running all over the grounds with little repair jobs and grounds work. I am not going to lie.. it's really fun being able to direct people to different areas and jobs at camp haha. There is always something that needs doing here and so far we have not had more than an hour of rest during the day - it's kind of insane but it is SO satisfying to check items off the lists and be able to start anew the next day.

Last night we all gathered in my craft cabin to make buttons and get more acquainted. It seems like every day now we have new staff and on Tuesday another lifeguard joined our crew. She has lived all over the world and is a great sport with all the odd jobs we all have to do to help!

she and my snake became fast friends

Each staff member made a name tag button (or two.. or three) so we have some other more fun form of identification for campers and volunteer staff. My friend Jackson, the new maintenance kid, is super talented and drew me up one for my new job title. Pretty sweeeeet!

So like... he makes me want to quit art.

Today was another busy day.. we had kayak-moving-duty. We had to move the kayaks from one side of camp to the other - OH NO BIG DEAL. Thank goodness we had the camp truck and trailer.. we had to put together the dock today for the waterfront area, do some mowing, take stock of repair jobs to do down at the beach, and do some safety procedures and drills for the beach. 

The water felt AMAZING after raking, moving kayaks, doing cabin checks, swim tests, and all sorts of other things. Camp is really coming together beautifully and we get three square DELICIOUS meals each day to look forward to for breaks and reconvening to go over jobs for parts of camp. The list is starting to dwindle and decrease but each day we find new tasks and tinkerings to work on. It's a fun challenge and it's good experience for me managing others and teaching them to prioritize. For example.... one of my main tasks to accomplish today was holding an archery lesson for the staff members after dinner! I had a list a page and a half long for the day so I waited til right before dinner to enlist the help of other staffers in plotting and planning the range on the field. 

setting up the archery range!

 It was a lot of fun teaching my fellow staffers about target archery, safety, drills, and technique. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE hit the target on the second go round. I enjoyed going around checking on each person to teach them about anchors and form. Seriously.. I have some great archers working with me this year :p They were good listeners and good sports haha

So I am a little out of practice..

I am glad the staffers came out to help me, too, learn about what I needed to change in my instruction and tips on teaching such an 'exact' sport. I am gonna try and get a whistle so I don't go hoarse from calling out commands - AND I need to be sure to demonstrate very thoroughly form and technique before the kids loose ANY arrows.

Kitchen, Lifeguards, and Maintenance all represented!

 We spent a couple of hours after dinner shooting on the range, perfecting our form, learning commands, and obviously becoming master archers. When I teach the campers I will have to spend lots of time on safety and shooting procedures/commands. I might also do handouts for the parts of the bow to save time explaining those during 'class'. I AM SO EXCITED :D I have to sit down with camp deans and figure out the best times to teach archery and fishing... my thoughts are fishing might be an after dinner activity since the majority of the campers that bring fishing stuff go out after meals...archery will have to be given time between crafts and maintenance. I'm trying not to stress about it too much because there are so many factors that come in to play! I live by the schedules in front of me.. so hopefully everything will fall into its right place.

selfie fail - sorry Jackson!

In the meantime I am enjoying my new increased responsibilities and really enjoying watching camp come together behind the wheel of the golf cart and riding mowers :) I feel more involved with camp this year and that's making more stress, but also much more fulfillment. Each day is a new challenge and a new list of tasks to accomplish before sunset.

awwww look at the dead deer target lol

Tomorrow I will be taking the maintenance workers to the transfer station to drop off trash (WOO HOO) and then we are taking a staff hike up one of the local hills/mountains to have a picnic lunch and do some reflections about camp thus far. I have mostly good things to say and think about, apart from the bugs and the itches, but those are unavoidable- and mostly manageable with enough DEET. The director has been providing us with daily schedules (YAY) so I can plan out my maintenance to-do lists as well as go around the table to ask about problems/areas that need fixing around camp. We go through nearly an entire page of lined paper per day and my boss said we could ask the campers to rake around their cabins which will cut down on the work we have to do.. thank goodness. Instead we will just have to weed whack all the things... and keep spraying for bugs and ants and bees and creepy  crawlers.

On that note! I need to take a shower, wash off all this bug spray and sunscreen, and get some sleep. Tomorrow is another camp challenge cleaning crazy day (I think I could have thought of more C words..) and I need to rest and be prepared for ANYTHING. We have volunteers returning to work on remodeling one of the bathhouses and maintenance needs to be available to help them and find tools/parts while they work. I believe we will also be fixing a leaking roof tomorrow.. the lists never end. But they ARE getting mowed down. I am not even sorry for that pun; I earned that pun.

Time for some pages in Game of Thrones, a shower, and sleep. I just saw the schedule for tomorrow.. yes, time to rest haha

Until next time..

Ms. Kanak - Assistant Director, Head Maintenance, Arts and Crafts Director, and Program Director
Remember, I earned that pun!