Last Week

We've pretty much settled into a routine at camp.  I get up around 5:45 most mornings to start breakfast; they ring the bell at 7:25 and, theoretically, breakfast starts just after 7:30. (We have to hear a long speech and list of instructions before every meal.  This kind of irritates me because I try really hard to have dinner on the serving table on time, and then it just sits there during all the talk.)  Then everyone heads off to their particular areas to work until lunch time —12:15, and then again until dinner at 6:00. I have to start preparing meals one to one-and-a-half hours before the meal.  After dinner is open time for scouts to work on their merit badges, so I don't see my family again until at least 8:30. Bruce and I usually roll into bed between 10:30 and 11:30, depending on how long it takes our cabin-living family to get ready to sleep.

Theater

Last week our little girls got together with Stephen Eborn's little girls (who have also been staying up at camp) and they wrote, practiced, and performed a play: The Princess and the Pea.  Due to other excitements I haven't gotten to see their play yet (although I've been promised a command performance), but I did overhear them at one of their practices saying that someone could squirt ketchup on her shirt for blood.  I told them I didn't think ketchup on shirts was a good idea, and then I wondered —what part of The Princess and the Pea  includes gushing blood?

rehearsal

Inspection

Last Tuesday was a little different because our camp was going to have an inspection.  Some uppity-ups in the BSA came to see what was good, that the camp was really good enough to work with, and what needed fixing. The lady who inspected the kitchen was really impressed that I could work in that kitchen with those tiny fridges.  We talked a little bit, and then she asked the hard question.  I've had some of my teachers at school ask me this question, and it always puzzles me; I never know how to answer it:

"What is the hardest part about this job?"

That question always stumps me.  The job isn't hard; I don't really think anything I do is hard.  There's always a learning curve, but then I figure it out and it's not hard.  So I didn't know how to answer her. 
A few hours after they left, and my brain was working again, I realized I should have said that the whole commissary thing was the hardest part.  Oh well.

Bug Trouble

Last week we had a little epidemic; everyone had sore throats and coughs; some had low temps and a few had fevers.  The EMT's were a little freaked out, but I kept thinking that it was just like the first few weeks of school.  You get a bunch of people together, and they share their germs, and everyone is sick for a little while, and then everything is fine again.

Lindsey got a little, tiny bugbite last week; she doesn't know what bit her.  But her hand kept swelling, so we drove down the mountain, through Kamas, and into Park City to take her to the ER.  They said that it was probably not the bugbite causing the pain and swelling, but an infection that entered into the little hole. They gave us a prescription and sent us on our way.  Unfortunately all pharmacies were closed by the time we were done, so Bruce and I drove down the mountain and stopped at a pharmacy in Kamas (closed), another in Park City (also closed), and to a grocery store before we were able to fill her prescription (at 9:45 p.m.).  Her hand is looking normal now.

You can't really see the swelling in this picture. The little red circle surrounds the original bugbite.  Lindsey drew circles with pen to outline the swelling as it grew.  By the time we went to the ER, the swelling filled the green circle.

Fridays

Every Friday we have a Scoutmaster luncheon; we serve them steaks and baked potatoes.  This gives the camp directors a chance to talk with them about Camp Steiner and find out what they like and what they think should be improved.  It's a good idea.

The trouble is that the Scoutmaster luncheon is at 11:30, and our lunch is at 12:15.  This means I have to prepare two entirely different lunches right on top of each other on Fridays.  Cook the baked potatoes, the steaks, and whatever else I'm going to serve, serve it up, and while the Scoutmasters eat I cook the staff lunch.  When the Scoutmasters are done with their lunch we rush out, clean up and set out the staff lunch.  The first week this was a huge mess; I made home-made chicken noodle soup and rolls for the staff (bad idea), so the kitchen was a disaster all through both lunches.  This past week I made hoagie sandwiches for the staff; that worked much better.  Even so, I was in the kitchen on Friday from 5:45 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. straight, Then I had to be back by 4:30 so I could make dinner.  It's a long day.

Saturday morning we send the scouts home, clean up the camp and then go home ourselves to take care of the disasters around here.

And that's how our weeks go.