Bigg'n and J-Bo and a Lurecrest sky

We don't call him Bigg'n for nothing folks. Our maintenance director Nate Larson is 6'4" weighing in at just under 300 pounds. This ladder unfortunately is only rated to hold 225 pounds, but Bigg'n can't read too well without his glasses. Today they had a fight... well, really Nate stood on it for half a second and it collapsed. I guess that's why there are weight limits on them, huh. Oh well, looks like from now on we better get stronger ladders.

This is J-Bo, the intern here at camp. He and Bigg'n are the two that make up the core of the maintenance team this year. As we mentioned a few days ago we had some guys up here from Neff Tree Service cutting down some trees that could have caused us problems in the future. This is all that's left of what was a big beautiful old oak tree... but it was dying and sitting right between cabins 1 and 2. This picture unfortunately doesn't do justice to the size of it... the tree lived 93 years according to it's rings.

Often times during the winter here at Lurecrest we wish more people could be up here... you're our family and we love you all. Thought we would share this with you, that you would know you are missed and that we eagerly look forward to seeing you here with us again.

Back-ho in action

This last summer Big Nate and Bryan Irvin spent a few days trying to unclog this culvert near the Russell Cabin. Eventually they just gave up because it was essentially a 15 foot solid tube of gravel and mud that wasn't washing out. So we decided to just dig it up and put a new one in. We eventually found out what the problem was... a stupid soccer ball. Wow, awesome picture of the Backy getting ready to tear up some more dirt. Rather imposing isn't it.

This is the new one that we put in, we covered it up with some more dirt and will pour a little concrete on the top end to ensure that it won't be clogged again, barring another soccer ball accident... sometimes crazy things just happen.

Hotdog Macaroni and Cheese Salad?!

Yep, today's breakfast for Mr. Drew Jones. Just thought you might want to see this one. Hotdogs nuked... Mac'n'Cheese cold. He topped it off with a good helping of texas pete... no salad dressings here, he's on a diet.
Here's a tip too, Drew doesn't like carbonation in his drinks, so to nix the fizz he shakes up his energy drinks for about a minute and then pours them into an empty gatorade bottle. For all of you who like your soda flat or are just plain tired of the way it tickles your nostrils give it a try.

February Begins

Another Monday here at Lurecrest... and yeah, we began the day by getting more tires. In fact... we cleaned up a whole bunch more, almost got all the ones we needed to get rid of. 93 were picked up and taken to the recycling center today... so we have picked up 153 tires all told at this point. There is only one left at the bunker... he is so lonely but we don't care... we were happy to see them go. Lots of other good stuff happened today too. Drew raked more leaves and we made a fire, that was pretty cool.

Neff Tree Service came to cut down some of our more difficult trees. While we here at the maintenance team love cutting down trees, at least the pine trees that tend to fall on everything, some are a little too big for us to manage or are near buildings and need to be limbed. We don't really feel like climbing up there like that guy had to... he is at least 35 feet off the ground there.

Nate unclogged the dishroom sink... and found 2 kitchen knives and a hairball in the trap... pretty cool huh? If you look very carefully you can see some pieces of corn... yummy.

Jeremy has been working on some small renovations in the Garden Terrace Apartment and was doing some finish carpentry work on the Shop workdeck. He spent the better part of the day cleaning up the mess he made and fixing a bunk bed there that has some major issues.