Spring Opener

We took a drive out to Camp Freedom this weekend to see if it was still winter there or not. Definitely not! There is still some ice in the pond, but there was open water around the edges. I saw a bald eagle fishing in the shallows! There are many geese that live on the pond and something else that makes a very loud and strange call. We never knew what it was until now - cranes! They are so beautiful but LOUD! Sleeping in is not going to be an issue up there. The entire place is covered with some kind of wild onion and there is a very strong onion-y scent in the air. The snow is all melted and little onion plants are starting to poke out of the ground. Our goal for the day was to get the tent set up on the platform and put the outhouse together. We hauled the walls, floor, roof and seat up in the little trailer. We underestimated how much time both those jobs would take. We did get the tent standing, although it still needs some tweaking. We left it up there all winter in its storage chest. We wrapped the whole thing in tarps, but I worried all winter that we would unwrap it and find a moldy mess. Not the case - it was in fine shape. It looks quite at home there - much better than in my backyard. It took several hours, but now it can stay up for the rest of the season. We have shelter! But the outhouse is another story. We got all the pieces there which is a huge deal. Not having that in my garage anymore is great. Here is Thor putting the finishing touches on it the night before we moved it. We had the excavator dig the pit for us last fall, but we sort of forgot that we needed to reinforce the hole. We needed to build a simple frame to fit down into the pit to keep the walls from caving in over time. Luckily, there is a great hardware store 5 minutes away. (One of the selling features of the site - that and the emergency room!) We were able to buy the wood we needed and the guys there even cut it all to size for us. We put the frame together and got it in the hole, but we were out of daylight by the time that was done. We stacked up the outhouse and left it up there. Putting it together should be a relatively simple job now that this foundation work is done. All in all, not a bad day's work.