Stakes

Steaks!  I was going to start my blog by saying - "who doesn't like a good steak?"  But I stopped myself just in time because a lot of people don't like steaks.  And that's OK.  So I'll start by saying, "I like a good steak!"  The one thing I don't like about steaks - is BBQing them for company.  You see I haven't quite mastered how long to cook them.  I have this guide from Lobel's (some sort of fancy meat company from New York) that I get out every time.  I pull out the tape measure, faithfully measure how thick the steaks are (and then ask Bev to confirm), check out the chart as to how long to cook them, and inevitably the steaks are either still mooing or completely done in.  I have a hard time finding that sweet spot in the middle of the steak.

So the only thing I really like BBQing for company is pre-cooked farmer sausage from...Super Store.  You read that correctly.  Now I know I work at a Mennonite Camp and consider myself fully Mennonite, so I should be talking Winkler or Rempel farmer sausage from Downes Rd in Abbotsford.  But here's the deal, both Bev and I prefer the "Mennonite Style" farmer sausage from Super Store!  Easy to buy, easy to cook, and if you have - let's say almost your whole family over for lunch - you can cover the entire grill with sausage and not worry about giving anyone the gills because you forgot to rotate the meat.  But as usual I digress...

The steaks we're talking about in today's blog are stakes!  Our survey company (it's not like we own it) Al-Tera was on site Wednesday to survey the new lodge, the grease trap, the road way, and the new 10,000 gallon exciting and dynamic septic tank.  Bob T,  Don, Rolf and I (well I actually didn't do a lot!), were the roadies who tied survey tape to long spikes and then pounded them and the stakes into the ground. The picture below of Rolf, Don, and Bob T, is a little misleading.  At this point we were still waiting for Corey (Al-Tera) to finish setting up, and were just giving him some friendly advice.

It took Corey quite a bit of time to get ready to survey the lodge.  First thing we had to do is find Julia to get her to move her car (Mazada not a Honda as we thought) because last time Corey was here he left a spike in the ground to help connect to a satellite.  So he set up his $85,000 machine in the parking lot, headed over to where the new lodge is, set some reference points, came back to the parking lot for his machine, set it up near the new lodge, and we were ready to go.  It seemed like it took longer to set up than to actually survey out the lodge.  (I can sense a blog coming about how long it's taking us to get ready for the new lodge vs the actual time needed to build the new lodge!)

Within a couple of hours and after a great lunch (a good tasting potato and bacon chowder made by Autumn - thanks Autumn!) we were finished.  I can now take you to the four corners of the new lodge, show you where the grease tank is going, and yes, we can actually stand right where the fabulous septic tank is going!  (As someone once said, 10,000 gallons is a lot of poop!)  Some of us on staff saw the stakes for the lodge and thought, that looks smaller than I was expecting.  Others thought it looks pretty big.  One thing is for sure, the new lodge will allow us to not only grow, but to serve our guests, campers, and staff, so much better.  I can hardly wait!

We are still waiting (patiently...) on the Alberta government to respond to our septic system plan and well water licensing.  The bids for phase 1 and 2 of the septic upgrade are due in at the end of the month with construction slated to start April 15th.

When people ask how is Reaching Higher going?  My response is great!  We have been working as hard and as fast as we can from day one - April 7th, 2015, up to and including today, and not once has finances slowed us down! How cool is that?

Thanks for your ongoing support.

Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director

Duck Wrangling 101

By time the new lodge is built we should be quite proficient at wrangling ducks in a row here at Camp Evergreen.  In response to the seemingly never ending number of ducks waiting to be lined up, we have begun discussion on adding duck shooting this summer as an activity to help keep the ducks under control!  Just kidding!  But it does seem like the ducks keep on coming.  Or maybe they just keep getting out of the row.

Case in point.  Our new septic system duck.  We just found out that the county will not give us permission to build the new lodge until our septic system has been approved.  We knew all along that we needed a new septic system, and that it needed to be approved by the ministry of environment, but news that we had to have approval before starting construction - was a new duck to us.

Things often don't move very fast on government desks so we would ask you to pray for favour, and a speedy (positive) decision.

The second duck is our ground water evaluation.  I mentioned this duck before and this is the one duck  that keeps growing until the point our friend Bob Thiessen started calling it a goose.  When  all is said and done the "evaluation" part will cost us $50,000.  All our wells need to be up to today's standards which means the best case is upgrading our wells.  The worst case is installing new wells.  Upgrading our wells is a cheaper option, but it means that at a certain point we'll be in the middle of our busy guest group season without water!  The new well route will be more expensive, but less disruptive.

It's safe to say that the rules and regulations today are far more strenuous then back in the late 1970's when the current lodge was built.  In anticipation of the ducks getting in a row we need to sense the urgency and follow up with our commitments.  Now is the time to support the financial duck!  :)

Foothills Outfitters kitchen continues to move forward.  The funds have arrived and the first load of lumber has been purchased and delivered.  We're pretty excited about how this kitchen will vastly improve our food and eating experience across the creek.  Rolf is busy tongue and grooving (we think Rolf is pretty groovy!) the base together.  This afternoon as a staff we were able to celebrate Rolf's 10ish years here at Evergreen.  Thanks Rolf for all you do for us!

Another exciting thing to report is the number of summer kitchen volunteers we already have lined up.  We set a goal this year of 4 kitchen helpers per week to make the cooking load lighter for everyone.  That means everyone will have either a morning or afternoon shift.  We're only looking for six more volunteers, two for each of the following weeks:

July 7-12
August 11-16
August 18-23

If you can join us in the kitchen or need more information please connect with Lane in the office.  At this point I'm very excited to share that all our summer staff are in place!  Thanks program team for your hard work and to God for providing our staffing needs for another summer.  Please remember to donate to our CSJ fund as we were denied federal staff grants for a second year in a row.

Speaking of dates - these should already be in your calendar but one of the practical ways to support us is by attending one (or more!) of our events.

June 8 - Tough Camper Run
June 22 - Annual General Meeting followed by the Open House followed by the first Alumni Day
July 17 - Alumni Afternoon

As always it's helpful for us to know if you're coming so we can have enough ice cream on hand!  Please call the office if you're planning on attending.

Thanks for your continued support, we appreciate it very much.  If you're ever in the neighbourhood please stop by I would love to show you around.

Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director

What's In A Mug?

You can answer that question one of two ways.   The first way is the obvious way.  You look inside the mug and whatever is in there - is in there!  A lot of people who come to Camp Evergreen will put coffee in their mug.  I've tried coffee several times in my 54 some odd (key word being odd) years.  I like the smell of coffee - but not the taste of coffee - much to the chagrin of my lovely wife who would like to "have coffee" with me!  I'd say I've had maybe 3/4 of a cup - total - over my life span. 

I'm happy with hot chocolate in my mug or even tea.  Happy with Mug Root Beer in the mug of course, but most often at camp I have milk in my mug.  This usually happens when I plan on starting to drink coffee, pour the milk in first, and then find out there is "too much" milk in the mug and no room for coffee.  Of course you can never have too much milk so I just end up drinking the milk.

If you haven't noticed we have new mugs here at Evergreen.  In the catalogue and on online they looked distinctly lime green.  However, when they arrived at camp, they looked more lime yellow - if in fact lime yellow is actually a colour!  We decided to splurge this time and get the logo on both sides of the mug!  I know, crazy!  Now it doesn't matter if you are left or right handed, when you hold the mug up high enough, that logo is staring you right in the eyes!

The second way to answer the question, "What's In A Mug?" is simply this.  We like to celebrate things here at Camp Evergreen and a new mug is something to celebrate.  We have all sizes of projects on the go.  Big ones like the new lodge - now that's a big project.  Another big project is our new septic system.  No one really gets excited about a septic system, but we've been told in no uncertain terms that before we get occupancy of a new lodge - we need a new septic system.  So we're doing our best to get excited about sewer!  Yippee!

We have some smaller projects.  Cabin 15 is up on skids ready to be moved so John, our Activities Director, has a new office/workshop.  Just one look at his desk and you can see he needs more room! 

We've installed the new beverage counter which looks great!  Thanks very much to Stephen at Legacy Kitchens and our own Rolf for making this possible.

So in the grand scheme of things a single mug would be one of the smaller new projects we're celebrating, but we're celebrating.  So what's in a mug?  Our camp logo - Camp Evergreen Reaching Higher.  Yes I know it's technically on not in, Kevin!  :)

Why do we want to reach higher?  Well today is the last day of early bird registration for our summer camps.  We have 736 campers already registered!  Seven hundred and thirty six!  (Looks more impressive written out :).)  That's 105 campers ahead of last year at this time.  Six of our camps are full.  We have campers on the waiting list.  We need to reach higher so we can share the life changing Good News of Jesus Christ to more children, youth, and families.  It's as simple as that.

Thanks for your continued support and I invite you to reach higher with us in 2019.


Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director