Camp

first storm o' the season

The weather in NH is notoriously shifty. Two weeks ago I was hustling through bike trails in near-perfect conditions and then out of nowhere the temperature dropped about 100 degrees in one day and we got walloped with a great early season snow storm.

The storm started out on Saturday with some rain and by mid-day it was sleeting and we thought it would fizzle out entirely. By late afternoon, though, the wind was howling and the snow was flying sideways. My boys, the dog and I had some fun in the first flakes of the season. Visibility at the lake (above left) was just about zero.

By early evening it was clear that this storm was going to linger and make a mess. We lost power around 3:30PM and it would not be restored for three days. No problem, right? My wife cooked up an amazing meal using cell phone flashlights and the propane burners and we built a ‘campsite’ around the fireplace for the guys to stay warm. On Sunday we woke up, packed up and escaped to where power and heat were more plentiful. With the car running I hopped out to grab one gorgeous picture of the sun hitting camp:

We came back on Monday to check on camp and make sure no pipes were freezing (and have a blast outside).

With Tuckerman zooming around we explored, dug out and ate lots of fresh snow.

Here’s to winter!

And…the calm after the storm.

Camp Update

Hello Camp Friends!

We have not posted in a few weeks so this is just a quick update.

First, a word on enrollment for 2021. We are currently accepting enrollments from any families who were signed up in 2020 when we had to cancel due to COVID-19. On November 25 we will start accepting enrollments from all other families. At this time all of our weeks have spaces and we do not anticipate any weeks filling before enrollment opens up to everyone. If you have questions about signing up, availability or anything else regarding camp please feel free to get in touch!

Next, camp is just gorgeous this time of year.

Stunning sunsets, courtesy of mother nature.

We have been closing up the property for the past few weeks. That entails winterizing every building and lots and lots of raking leaves! I have had some help, though…

My boys, Finn and Kai, are loving fall at the lake.

Going forward we will be finalizing our staffing for 2021 and solidifying our COVID-19 protocols for campers and staff. We could not be more excited to reopen next summer.

That’s it for now! Get in touch with questions and we hope to see you all at camp in a few short months!

Torn flag charity raffle

Hello campers and friends!

For the first time ever we are raffling off a piece of camp history! This flag hung proudly at the entrance of camp for eight seasons and was displayed slopeside at all NH USASA ski/snowboard events from 2013 to 2019. All of that use has definitely taken a toll on this collector’s item!

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We will be raffling off this flag to raise money for our favorite charity, Cooleffect.org! As a zero-carbon summer camp we have used this charity to offset all of our CO2 emissions for years. Their projects are innovative and exciting and they use all donations to fund their goal of combating global climate change.

Raffle steps:

  1. Make a donation to cooleffect.org by December 1, 2020. Use this link: https://www.cooleffect.org/content/donate.

    • For every $10 you donate you will get one raffle entry! There is no maximum number of entries.

  2. Email your donation receipt(s) to me at evan@watermonkeycamp.com.

  3. We will randomly draw a winner after the raffle closes on December 1, 2020.

  4. The winner will receive this awesome flag in the mail!

Let’s raise some money for a great cause and give this flag a new home!

-Evan

Just splittin' some wood...

A friend of camp had to cut some trees down at their house and they donated some wood to us! Time for a fun project!

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First step, getting all the wood to camp. It took two trips with the ol’ F-150 to get all of the logs here to the property. Then I borrowed a wood splitter and cleared the schedule for a day.

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(But first!) I needed somewhere to store the split wood. A quick stop on the interweb pointed me to this remarkably sturdy yet cheap and easy wood storage rack concept. I used scrap wood from around camp and two (then three) cinder blocks to create the rack. It will keep the wood up off the ground so it stays dry, stacked and ready to fire up!

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Whoa the wood keeps multiplying! One day of splitting turned to two but talk about instant gratification!

A quick break to see us committing wholesale genocide on an ant civilization. (Sound off, it’s just the log splitter roaring in the background.) I had a lot of surprises while splitting open logs (mostly grubs, beetles and ants) but these guys were next level. They immediately began ejecting their eggs and trying to save each other…it was crazy! Sorry fellas.

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Oh just me in lumberjack mode.

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The finished product. One tree sure yields a lot of wood! That stack is roughly six feet high by eight feet wide. Plus the mini stack in front and another bin full of wood a little further away. Lots of fun campfires in our future!

And now…a grasshopper:

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Wintery Camp

Last week I had a chance to spend some time up at camp. It was blanketed in snow…as expected in February in NH!

It was a beautiful bluebird day at the lake and I started by doing my rounds of the buildings and making sure everything was OK. This has been a super mild winter so far with not much snow but enough to look nice!

The cabins were all in great shape. As I finished checking on everything I grabbed the below shot from the porch on cabin 5. You can see the frozen lake beyond the trees.

With a bit of time to spare I decided to run up Mt. Molly (the mountain that many of our campers have climbed with us to take in views of Merrymeeting Lake).

The path up was mostly untouched so we (Tuckerman and I) had to break the trail. Once up top it was limitless views and lots of sunshine.

On the way out I stopped for a quick shot in front of the clubhouse.

Views for days.

It’s always fun to get outside!

-Evan