Slowly Moving Forward

First I want to say thank you to those of you who have reached out to me since I wrote my first post here. I've received many comments from folks who have connections to the Boys' Home - either growing up or working there. Some of you have sent me great photos, which I'm saving to use in a future post. If anyone else has some they'd like share, I'd love to see them.

We've been jumping from one project to another since there's so much to be done, and many of the jobs can't be completed before getting approval or help from others. The sewage treatment plant is being decommissioned so we're putting in several septic systems. Miss Utility came out this week and we can begin digging. We'll be doing this in stages, installing what we feel is most important to at least get a small campground up and running. We met with the Department Of Drinking Water 2 weeks ago and need to do some things to be sure the water is safe to drink. We're learning a lot about what needs to be done to meet the Health Department's requirements to open a campground. Our plumber can't come for a few weeks and our list keeps getting longer for him.

We had someone come out to talk to us about plans for getting better cell service and some wifi out there. There are very few places we can get a few bars on our phones, which is fine for us, but won't be fine for campers.

Adam will be living in building number 5. For those of you who have never been there, all the buildings are numbered. Numbers 3, 4 and 5 are the first 3 buildings you see as you approach the camp. Building 5 was divided into 2 residences but we've begun removing the wall between the two to make it into one home. I'll try to get some photos posted so you can follow along.

Near the top of the list of things-to-do is getting the bath house fixed up back at what used to be called Camp New Hope. The bath house is attached to the pavilion and is the only place with power back in what will be the campground. This is what it looks like now.

After connecting hoses and pipes, etc, I turned water on this week and it didn't go well. Ok, so we've got a ways to go. The vinyl is coming off the walls and I removed much of it.

Nine of my family members came to visit this week and try out the very primitive conditions and some of the cabins. It was a lot of fun and no one complained about using outhouses or having to bring in water from elsewhere. One of the outhouses is adorable (at least I think so), if an outhouse can be adorable.

The lawn outside the BRidge cabin is large and some of us played badminton and corn hole and cooked some tasty meals over one of the fire pits.

Cots in the cabins and screened shelters were pushed together and made things feel cozy.

James has been making screens for the windows in the log cabins. I have to admit, my favorite structures are the screened shelters, where the breeze can blow through. To be fair, I haven't slept in the log cabins yet, just 2 of the screened ones.

This is probably getting long enough, so I'll save more for another post.