It has been a very busy time at the old Camp Chicken. My brother Chris, sister-in-law Judy and nephew Ross were here for a 10 day visit in late July-early August. They were able to spend 3 great days at camp and we had a lot of fun. Arlene, Mary Sue and Tiny joined us all this year and Tiny had even more people to spoil her.
We took a day-trip while they were here to Munising and went on the glass-bottom boat shipwreck tour. It is a definite must-see. Here's a photo of nephew Ross and his old auntie Cathy on the deck of the glass-bottom boat in beautiful Munising bay. We viewed three shipwrecks and saw an bald eagle's nest with 3 adolescent eagles in it and the Mom or Dad on guard very close by. Visit my sister-in-laws blog for some really great photos.
We also went to Miner's Castle that day and then a long drive to Grand Marais for some of the best freshly caught lake perch I have ever eaten at a very Yooper-ish restaurant called The Sportsman's Club.
As a special treat for Ross, his Auntie Arlene made him a "Marshmallow Gun". It is a blow-gun made of PVC pipe and you insert a mini-marshmallow into the mouthpiece end and blow really hard and the little marshmallow flies about 30 to 50 feet depending on your lung power. Here's a photo of Ross with his.
We all took turns with our guns trying to shoot the marshmallows into the fire and trying to shoot each other. The guns are really alot of good clean fun and the directions for making them can be found on the internet.
Of course, we had to play croquet and had several cut-throat badminton matches. We did manage to play a good many games of Attack Uno too. Tiny looks on intently as the badminton action really heats up.
That following Monday we started our most ambitious project in the history of the Camp Chicken Construction Company. We built a 12 x 12 storage shed. We had no blue-prints and no shed kit, just an idea and some drawings on legal paper. I sure wish my Grandpa Elmer was still alive to help us out. He was a master carpenter and could have drawn up the plans for it.
We used patio blocks and treated 4 x 4's for the foundation and trying to get that level and square took about 6 hours LOL.
The next weekend we brought all the 2 x 4's and OSB siding to Camp and started building the walls. We were three tired women after that chore.
I was smart enough to know that we weren't up to building rafters yet, so I ordered them made for us. It was good and bad, as pre-made trusses come with 2 foot long tails so that you can cut them off to suit your project. However, you have to cut them all the same length and perfectly level so that you can attach a board to close them in if you want to make a soffit. Arlene read up on how to make soffits on the internet. Oh my gosh, what a difficult thing that little part was.
tune in next time for more pictures of our building.
