Well, it took even a few days longer than I thought, but we finally finished framing in the Great Room. It is now no longer one “Great Room” but rather 6 smaller but more functional rooms.

Getting Framing Done

I’ve mentioned how Julie is our best worker, right?

Joshua helped out a lot, but I think he tried even more not to.

Steven and others were helpful bringing tools to us when needed. Yes, the pool table in the background has morphed into our work table.

Putting the finishing touches on the sheetrock backing in the ceiling.

I know it is hard to tell what you are seeing when you can see through the walls, but that last picture is with all the walls complete. After this pic we also added all of the headers that you might notice are missing (if you know what they are).

Upcoming Work

The HVAC guys said they “might” be in this week to put in the venting, most likely next week though because of the holiday. We can then do the electrical and finish plumbing for the shower/tub. We also need to add the insulation in the outside walls. By the end of next week we might be ready for sheetrock.

The kids have been quite helpful in small spurts. We’ve found they are most helpful when we only take 2 of them. If we have them all then they ALL want to be the one in charge of JR. If we leave some at home and rotate 2 different helpers each day than they work harder, learn more (I think), and have better attitudes. Even when we have them all though, they are all quite good.

With only 49 days to go until school starts we better work quick or we aren’t going to be done in time.

I went to scout camp on June 12-17. We went to camp Tifi up next to Mt. Pleasant. The camp was up in the mountains so at certain places you had a very good view of everything. There were ten boys and a couple leaders. The boys that went with me are Dallin, Caleb, TJ, Jaeden, Charles, Liam, Clint, Sam, Braiden, and me.

Monday

Monday was our first day and we spent the first half of the day taking a tour of the camp. Our camp assistant was Ben Barlow, but because we were all twelve (and slightly immature) we all called him Barley. In our tour we saw all the different camp sites, all the places the different merit badges took place, the pool, the trading post (this is where you bought stuff at), the mess hall, the zip lines, and basically everything there. Afterwards, we went and set up our tent at the camp site and decide who would sleep where.

After we had camp all set up we went to lunch at the mess hall. The main course was pizza but it was very pasty and gross. Thankfully there was much more to eat. It was basically a very large buffet. You could have as much cereal or salad as you wanted. There was cake and pie and lots of juices. They had chips, soups, and sandwiches. We all probably ate our weight in cereal and everything else that week. So meals were some of the best times we had at scout camp because we are boys.

Merit badges

After lunch we went to do our separate merit badges. I did survivor with Caleb and Liam on Monday and Tuesday. The survivor track contained the merit badges, Pioneering, Indian Lore, and Wilderness Survival. We only got the Wilderness Survival badge signed off because the Indian Lore cost thirty dollars and the Pioneering teachers didn’t like our knots. For the Wilderness Survivor badge we had to do some fire starting. We had to start them with flint and steel, nine volt battery, and a magnifying glass. Then we had to show the leader our seventy-two hour kits. Then he signed of our badge.

Tuesday

On Tuesday we had to go down to the lower field to do a flag ceremony. After the flags were posted the commissioner introduced us to the spirit stick. Every flag ceremony he would give the spirit stick to one troop who could take back to camp and put an item on it to decorate it. Then the next morning at our flag ceremony he would give the stick to someone else. The method our commissioner used to chose which troop to give the stick to is having each of the troops do cheers. The troop that was the best got to take the stick for that day. We never won the cheering contest.

So after breakfast we all went to our merit badges where we finished them and got them signed off by the teacher. Then we had a time called troop time. During troop time your troop got to sit at camp and do whatever. So usually my troop either played mafia or wrestled in the dirt for fun. But every time we would sit around the smoldering fire and watch it. Occasionally someone would spray it with bug spray, which was fairly dangerous, but thankfully no one started on fire. We also had a time called open program. In that time you could go to your merit badges to finish them, go to the shooting ranges, sit at camp, go to the trading post, and mostly everything you could do there.

Wednesday- Thursday

On Wednesday we all changed merit badges. Now almost all of our troop was doing the waterlogged track. It contained Swimming and Lifesaving. Everybody who did the track got both of the merit badges. Wednesday they taught us all the strokes. We had to do the sidestroke, freestyle, backstroke, elementary backstroke, and breath stroke.

There were seventy kids so they split us into three groups and taught us in rotations. One spot taught strokes, one taught lifesaving, and at the last one you had to dolphin dive nine feet, grab a brick, and bring it back up. After the merit badge time ended and free time started none of us went anywhere because were so worn out. So we all sat around the fire with a can of Axe and bug spray until dinner.

On Thursday we had to swim 550 yards doing all of the strokes. They had us do 150 before lunch and then the other 400 after. While you were swimming if you stopped for more than five seconds then you had to start over. After we finally finished the swimming and the lifeguards signed off our merit badges, my troop was dead. We went back to camp and sat and talked for a while until we got up the energy to go sit at the trading post. Then dinner rolled around and we sat up there for a hour or two. We went back to camp started a fire and played games in the woods until about 10 o’clock. Then we had reflections of the day and went to bed.

Friday

On Friday we didn’t have any merit badges to do because it was the game day at camp. After lunch we went to the COPE and did the rope course and the zip lines. You had to be a certain height for the rope course so only three of us did it because the rest of the troop is short. But the short guys could still do the zip lines. On the rope course you were up forty-five feet and had to walk on small ropes to get to the other pole that you could stand on. You had two carabineers to catch you if you slipped but it was still really freaky. The whole thing was scary except the zip lines but that is what made it so much fun.

After the zip lines we all went to the shooting range for about two hours. We did the rifle and the archery. On the rifle we all did pretty good. Our leader hit the center on about every shot every time he shot. On archery we all shot we about the same. We couldn’t get the bullseye, but we did miss the target plenty. But we all got a few on the target. After we finished that we went to Swords of Helaman.

Games

We had to go the middle of the field and get these foam swords. We were split into teams and then we were told to kill each other. If someone’s sword hit you anywhere you were dead. That was a blast. My troop was on the same team so we stayed in a pack and slowly moved around the field to kill once all the teams had spread out. We killed many men that day.

That all ended after a good hour and we all went to lunch. Then we were able to watch the boat race which was pretty cool. Then we did the Swords of Helaman when it started again. It was just like the last one. We went back up to the shooting range once that ended and had fun up there. Then we had dinner and went to the camp Campfire.

Campfire

We all watched the skits that were preformed and laughed and talked. We had a skit but it didn’t win the competition to get into the Campfire. Then the staff members had a slideshow of pictures of everything that went on that week. After they finished the commissioners came and had the spirit sticks to show us. They talked about the enthusiasm that was with all the cheers and how much fun they had. Then they said they would give the spirit stick to the troop that had the best cheers and enthusiasm on everything throughout the week even though they had never won the cheer contest. After they finished building tension they announced that our troop got to keep the spirit stick. We had been sad during the week that we never won, but this changed it all.

Leaving Camp

Then they sent us back to camp with a final goodbye. We sat around the fire and talked about all the fun things that had happened at camp. After about an hour of that we decided to go to our tents because we had to wake up early to take down camp. My tent stayed awake for another hour talking about all the people and all the fun things we did.

When we woke up the next morning we took down camp and left for home. On the drive we all slept until we got to PG. Now every time we see each other at church or for our Wednesday meetings you can always hear something that happened at camp come up in our conversations. We all enjoyed it and we wish we never had to leave.