What Doesn't Kill You.......

Last week was a very hard week.  The camp had very strong winds this winter that felled many trees.  They have also cut down many that posed a danger in the camp.  It is our job to get the trees off the challenge courses and out of the camps in time for the open house this Saturday.  We worked long and hard several days in a row.  Luckily the Challenge Course missionaries pitched in and saved our bacon.  We have 5 missionary couples on our team, they have 20. 

This huge pine tree came down in Camp Esther

It took out the roof of the Honey Bucket

The tree came down on several quakies and a snow bank.  It was a tangled mess to trim all of the branches off the trunk

Elder Adams standing behind the tree

Elder Oliekan taking a much needed break.
I had to help him get up!
Using a chainsaw all day is back-breaking.

All of the branches that are cut off and the slash are hand carried- by us- off the mountain and fed into the chipper.

Sharpening the saw!

The big trunks are blocked into sections, carried to the trucks and saved to be split into firewood.  

"The Ants go marching one by one...."
(missionaries hauling logs to the chipper)

"The Ants go marching two by two..."

The chips from the chipper are spread throughout the challenge courses to provide a safety cushion for the activities, and along some of the hiking trails.

Saturday, we got smarter and formed a "bucket brigade" of sorts, to pass the wood down the mountain.  We didn't have to climb up and down the mountain, running into each other and tripping over all of the underbrush.

Elders Oliekan, Elswood, and Adams,
taking a break at the end of a long day

 We all worked very hard.  I don't remember ever being so tired. They say that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  I don't think I'm dead yet, so, I must be getting stronger.  Sister Elswood told me it takes 3 weeks to start feeling the "stronger"... only two weeks to go :-).  
Luckily, today we had a much slower paced day and our tasks were not so tiring.  Maybe we will survive!

Also last week, we celebrated Mother's Day.  Elder Oliekan is the High Priest Group Leader.  He was in charge of getting the Mother's Day gifts for the sisters. (We got Mrs. Cavannah's Truffle bars). He also got to speak in church along with the Relief Society President and our managing director, Brother Hatch.  It was a wonderful meeting.  The talks were all very well done.  

We were invited to Dayna's for dinner, so we went down to Saratoga Springs for the afternoon and evening.  We had a yummy steak dinner cooked and served by Greg and Hunter.  Robyn's family joined us for dessert- (candy cane brownies made by Hunter).We enjoyed our time together, and I love the whirly-gig garden sculpture that they gave me.  Later I was able to talk to Travis, and e-mail with Taryn.  It was a great day.