A New Entry (and Exit) for Illahee!

One of my favorite things about the off-season is looking at all of the things we can do to make Camp Illahee’s physical site more attractive and great for camp. I have been looking forward to this year for a long time, because there are LOADS of projects that I have been wanting to do for a long time. An aging (dying) oak tree was the catalyst for our new gate and entry project, and one thing led to another…well, you know. We took out the old stone gate, widened the entry, and are installing new gates. This past week has been glorious and our rock masons took advantage of the warmer weather to get a head start on them. They are going to look amazing. I am going to use camp’s portable sawmill to cut the lumber for the new swing portion of the gates…circle of life and all you know! There will be lighting, new landscaping, and  the result will be an entry worthy of the BEST summer camp around!

A new entry can’t stop there. So, we’re also going to repave. We widened the entry road where some maturing poplars were starting to crack the pavement, and as soon as we can count on an extended run of warm weather, we will repave. It’s going to look terrific. While we were in the rock mood, we decided to tear up and rerock the dining hall front porch so that it will be flat and smooth, with no ankle benders. There’s some other repair work going on in the dining hall, the office has seen some changes and a new color, and the staff area downstairs has a new ceiling, some lockers, and a change in layout. Stay tuned for more of our projects. This spring-like weather has finally gotten us very excited for the summer of 2011…the BEST SUMMER EVER! (and made me wonder why I did the Sliding Rock Challenge so early in February)…I guess March is right around the corner!