Wombat's Guest Post

Wombat’s Blog

When Trillium called me up and asked me to go on the pre-out trip with the LIT RC’s Flare and Solstice and the Out-Tripper Axis I was super excited! I got to camp last Wednesday to help pack up and then we left bright and early at 7:00 in the morning the next day. It was exciting to see the may staff this year and see the new renovations of the site, but while I was packing for the trip I couldn’t think of anything but how fun the trip would be!

When we arrived at the Rain Lake access point we met up with Trillium’s brother Jamie and we were ready to go! We had one portage right off the bat that seemed to take forever, but luckily that was the longest one of the trip. It was good to get that out of the way first because once we did the longest portage we knew we could do the other portages no problem!

The first night we arrived at our campsite at Casey Lake at around 4:00 so we had lots of time to set up tents and make dinner. We picked a nice breezy campsite so we could keep the bugs away – it was Black fly season so we returned with lots of itchy bug bites! The second day we canoed through the beautiful Petawawa River and picked a campsite on Misty Lake. By the third day we stayed at Jubilee Lake and then in the morning completed our trip back to Misty Lake. It was an awesome trip with lots of challenging aspects but our group worked very well together and we all felt a great sense of fulfillment when we finished our trip. Jamie also did an awesome job teaching us what we needed to know and other things that helped to make future trips easier – Thanks so much Jamie!

Now that I’m back from the trip I’m here at camp getting ready to rock Watercraft again this year – I’ve got some new ideas and more experience this year so I know it will be a blast – get excited for lots of canoeing and Kayaking!

See you in the summer

Wombat

Guppy & Almond's Guest Post

Almond and Guppy here! We are the official May-June babysitting team and so far Ella, Lucy, and Anna have been taking good care of us. Everyday our routine goes as follows: breakfast, clothes & hair, moringin adventure (things like changing diapers, walking all over camp, and making visits to the office, beachtime), snack time as well as Anna's naptime which is starting to disappear as baby Anna gets bigger. We always try to fit in one more adventure just to be sure they'll have a good nap after lunch.

We've been enjoying our time here at Kintail in May and seeing, as Ella would say, the "blowers" grow on the trees. In our spare time we've been hanging out with everyone and going kayaking on calm evenings. We can't beleive May is almost over! Soon more staff members will be here and we'll all be getting ready for the summer to begin & cameprs to arrive!

Hopefully more to come!

In the words of Ella and Lucy, "God bless everybody!"

Blogging from Cabin Hill

Good morning. Ocelot here on cabin hill. I arrived at camp just last
week and things are looking great. Tundra Bonsai looks awesome and
the rest of the site stayed classy all winter. Last Sunday we
worshiped at St. Mary's presbyterian church and next sunday we're
going to Stratford! It was a blast! I'm super excited to be planning
for the summer, working in the new office is great. I can't wait for
summer to begin. Capture the flag is hard to play all by myself.

I can hear Yeti fixing things so we're ready when campers come. Maybe
later he will frolic the lane with Wombat, Axis and I. Or we could
play risk and beef up our conquering skills.

Yesterday, I moved equipment to the Shanty in traditional Indiana
Jones style. Running through the forest, jumping over the rock creek,
sneaking past Guppy and Almond and heroically driving into the shanty.
My adventures have been epic but delicious. See you all soon.

-Ocelot
Oliver G.

Kintail Cookies

When Flare came back to Camp after her time off, she brought us some special Kintail cookies. It didn't take long for them to disappear, but here are a couple of shots of us enjoying them!

Almond and her cookie.

Flame loved hers.

Ella was very intent on eating her cookie - I think she ate four in one day!

Pre-Trip

This morning at 7am, Axis, Solstice, Flare, and Wombat heading out from Kintail to Algonquin Park. They are heading out on a pre-trip with pro-tripper Jamie McDonald to hone their tripping skills before the summer. They are trying out a route and learning some new menu items. THey should have a fantastic time and we are looking forward to hearing about their adventures.

Long Weekend Round-up

The long weekend started out with a big thunderstorm but each day got progressively better. We hosted the annual PYPS May Camp and a group of volunteers from Knox, Monkton. PYPS had a great group out learning about relationships with Heather "Hickory" Paton, a Kintail alumni. The group from Monkton worked on putting new board and batten siding on Tundra, Bonsai, and the Nook. It was a great weekend with a lot of fun and jumping over puddles! Johnathon and Bill beginning work on Tundra and Bonsai.

Yeti working on the cabins. PYPS saying good-bye at the end of the weekend.

Happy Friday!

We have had a busy week up at Kintail! Several volunteers came up and a lot of maintenance work was accomplished by the staff and volunteers. The exterior of MacDonald Lodge is now complete and we have been working hard at finishing the interior of the office. We should be moved over on Tuesday so look for us at the front of the Lodge.

Today we welcomed the Men's Fellowship Group from Knox, Goderich. They brought us enough campfire wood for the summer from Knox Forest in Auburn. Thanks for your generosity!

This week, Bethany (our Administrative Assistant) and I went to the Grey-Bruce-Maitland Presbytery as it was just down the road at Ashfield Presbyterian Church on Kintail Line. We were glad to recieve a couple of beautiful and warm quilts for Feathers (our Health Centre). Thank you to the women at Lucknow Presbyterian Church for the great addition to Feathers!

Orientation Weekend

We had a fantastic Staff Orientation weekend from May 8-10th. It is the first time the staff of the coming summer are together. There is lots of time to go over expectations, policies, and plan for the summer ahead. We do work on the site to get ready for our weekend retreat guests and the summer campers. We worship together and share in communion. We also play and laugh and dance! Orbit, Lily, Nile, and Clementine - all first year counsellors meet on the porch of Harmony House on the first night.

Everyone pitches in to help in the kitchen - Scott, Ocelot, Trillium, and Quasar.

All of the program staff had a chance to talk to the counselling staff about their program areas for the summer. You will note that we are inside the Lodge as it was pouring rain all Saturday afternoon. It was a very cold weekend!

To warm up we all did a Richard Simmon's "Sweating the Oldies" video!

On Saturday night we played the best game ever - BUNKO! It came from Camp Douglas in BC and is a great staff game.

Quasar and Flare demonstrate the joy of BUNKO!

A big part of Orientation is called "Down & Dirty" when we clean up the site. Bacon, Tinder, and Kamani were part of the brush clean up crew.

Almond and Marine were painting.

Wolverine and Ta Ma Lar are busy working at clearing up some brush.

Our girls were excited to see all the staff! They can't wait for the summer and for all their friends to arrive!

WMS General Council

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the WMS General Council at Crieff Hills Conference Centre. Anna and I met women from across the country who have a heart for mission and a love for the church of Jesus Christ. It was inspiring to hear of the stories of local WMS groups and the work that they do across the church. I had the chance to briefly address the group and asked who in the room had been a camper at a Christian camp as a child. I was taken aback when almost the entire room held up their hand. Many in the room had also served on camp boards or camp staffs. There is a connection to attending camp as a child and later involvement in faith communities. A week at camp can make a difference for the rest of a camper's life. The faithful women at General Council are a testament to the faith found and strengthened at camp. I was lucky to meet Lottie Sutherland who directed girls camps at Kintail in the 1950s. She was still up at the front leading energizers for the women!

Flame's Guest Post

Class is done, exams are finished and furniture is moved. Look out Kintail here I come. I can’t believe I’m heading to Kintail today! I don’t think I will ever outgrow the anticipation and excitement of going to Kintail. Over the past few weeks I’ve talked to many of this summer’s program staff (like Lunar, Pacific and Ocelot) and I know that they are super pumped for this summer too.

For the next few months Trillium, programme staff and I will be working hard on developing programmes for "Love Changes Everything" so that we can all have the best summer ever! At the beginning of June more programme staff will be joining us at camp and by the end of June the rest of the counsellors will be up here at Kintail rockin ready to go! I know that everyone (counsellors, LIT’s and campers) are counting down the days till we can meet again at camp.

We will be visiting some of your churches in the next few months. We’d really like you to come help us sing some of our camp songs so feel free to join in on any or all of the songs. When the service is finished make sure you come and say hello to us. We’re looking forward to seeing some of your familiar faces.

Till next time, later days!
Flame
Desert and Flame 2008