Extremely madeover...

My family and I and a few others from Argonia, just got back from a week at Camp Quaker Haven south of Arkansas City, Kansas. The whole lot of us spent a week with 80-some others at EFC-MA's Extreme Camp Makeover - a week of hard labor for the Lord. It was amazing how much work we got done in just seven days. Trails were cleared. All eight cabins got new windows and siding and a coat of fresh paint. Their interior walls and ceilings were painted too. Two amazing views to the Arkansas River which the camp overlooks were cleared out. The pool house got a face lift. (And much, much more was done!)

My wife and daughters, along with two others from our church, spent most of their week painting. They helped with demolition work on Monday and trail repair on Friday, but the rest of the week was spent with brush and roller in hand. They had fun most of the time and their paint-splattered clothes spoke of their dedication and exuberance for their assigned duties.

I spent the week with Doug and a parade of others. The reason for the parade? We wore out our help! Two teen boys from our church began the week with us. While Doug worked on wiring attic fans in each of six cabins, Jasper and Fitch and I hung and wired ten 8-foot florescent light fixtures. We were pretty slow at first, requiring numerous refresher courses from Doug, but picked up momentum as we gained experience. The last fixtures went in quickly.

The best part of the two days of wiring came on Tuesday afternoon. While we worked on fixtures below, Doug fell asleep in the attic. We discovered this after hanging the first light. We needed to switch breakers so we could work on the other side, so I yelled at Doug through the attic access. "Are you done yet, Doug? We need to switch sides." His response was classic. "I'll be done in just a second. I fell asleep." We ended the day Tuesday hauling scrap lumber and trash for some of the other groups.

After two days of electrical work, we lost Jasper to the welding crew on Wednesday. Fitch, Doug and I spent the day on various and sundry tasks. (Just had to throw 'sundry' in there even though I seldom use the word. It popped into my head and begged to be used.) We did concrete work, cut off old volleyball poles in the middle of the basketball court, carried sheetrock for the pool house crew and tore down the rickety climbing wall. The destruction of the wall was by far my favorite activity of the day. I got to swing a sledge hammer. Yippee!


Wednesday night was interesting in and of itself. I awoke sometime in the wee hours of the morning to a scritch-scratching noise. I opened my cell phone to shed light on the room, but couldn't see anything. So I hopped out of bed and went to investigate. I finally located the source of the sound. A mouse had been caught by its hind legs in one of the two mousetraps near the door. I swept him outside and went back to bed. A minute or two later I heard the destinctiv snap of the other trap. A quick look revealed a very dead mouse. Two in one night! Who'd have thought it?

The next morning - Thursday - Doug, Samuel and I and our next teenaged helper - not sure which poor soul we suckered into helping us that day - spent the day putting in undergound power lines. We also put up light poles for the basketball and sand volleyball courts. That evening I helped my family paint the ceiling in one of the cabins.

Friday we spent with shovels in hand. We trenched in several hundred feet of water line, digging portions that the Ditch Witch couldn't by hand. When that task was finished up, we helped weld a stabilizing pipe to the sand volleyball poles so they wouldn't sag in the future. We finished the day's work cutting lumber for one of the carpenters and clearing a trail entrance of limbs. Chapel that night was a celebration of all that 80+ people did in five days. Great time!