Our Jungle Camp Adventure Begins

We're excited to move up to our Jungle Camp home today. We'll be living in our new home for four weeks.

Here is just some of what we brought with us:

We started moving our stuff up at midnight and by 2am we had made three trips.

It was exhausting! I stumbled in to bed at 4:30am and Dennis did another trip up alone. I think in total we will have made 10 round trips taking our stuff up. We have a few last minute things to pack out of our fridge and we'll need to grab Squeaky and Buttons' beds after naptime.

Our days in Jungle Camp won't be boring. There are some activites planned for us during that time, which include a week of extended Bible study. The men are to study for six hours a day while the women with children will be studying for four hours. Another thing we have to look forward to is a chicken kill; learning how to go from squawking chicken to succulent chicken meat on our plates. We also have a few classes with the two staff couples who will be living up there with us. We will also have a hair cutting class, the women's hike, an open house for NTMC staff and the big open house that you all are invited to!

Three things you can do for us in the next month:

1. Pray for us! This time will be stretching in many ways as we combat bugs, dirt, and small children eating bugs and dirt. You can pray that the Lord will use this experience to grow us up in Him.

2. Write to us! We will be getting snail mail delivered to us daily. You can use our normal address.

313363 Hwy 6 S
Box 707
Durham, ON
N0G 1R0

3. Visit us! Our open house weekend is July 5-6. Please come and see us at any time during those two days. Contact the main office at 519-369-2622 for directions on how to get here or for more information.

We hope to see you there!

Final Day of Building- What a Mess!

Up until now I felt like maybe we were on top of things but after spending many hours up at Jungle Camp working today I feel like there is just more and more to do. Everything is such a mess and I'm constantly saying to Dennis, "Where's the box knife? Where's the scissors? What about the staple gun, do you have it?" Things are taking shape although we've hit a few snags here and there.

Our outside plastic and screens are all on now. Dennis was working on a door this afternoon. I finished up the counters and started working on covering the foam on our benches. That was where I hit the snag- not enough material. Tomorrow we have a big shopping trip planned for last minute supplies so I'm going to pick up some plastic tableclothes to staple onto the back of our benches.

Another problem is that these curtains (Jungle Camp hand-me-downs) are not all the same length. Whoops. So I have to figure out a way that I want them tied up.

This is our shower! The bucket will be rigged up to a pulley and has a spigot with a shower head on the bottom. Well it doesn't yet, but it will.

You'll have to wait until Jungle Camp is over to see what the place looked like when it was all finished. :) Or just come to our open house (more info to come on here tomorrow).

We start moving up tonight at midnight. We are not allowed to drive or use anything with wheels, so Dennis and I will be carrying everything up on a "stretcher". We have to have everything up there by 5pm tomorrow night. It'll have to be liveable by then! I don't think we plan to do any more building tomorrow; we'll just focus on moving in and resting up. I think we are going out for lunch tomorrow during our shopping which will be a nice break. Supper will be a potluck up in Jungle Camp provided by the staff. So I'm off the hook with our clay oven until Sunday.

Hiking the Bruce Trail

Dennis returned from his big hiking trip last night, tired, smelly, and happy to sleep once again on our pillow top mattress. I didn't have the heart to remind him that in two nights he will be sleeping on an air mattress for a month! ;)


He brought back some tales and pictures of the beautiful scenery along the trail. The Bruce trail is part of a trail system that goes from Niagara to Tobermory. The section of trail that they took is known to be the most riugged. The part they took runs along the coastline of the Georgian Bay, on upper edge of the Bruce Peninsula.

He had a good time and is quite tired today. It rained on them a good part of the second day, along the hardest part of the trail. The last day they hiked for 21 kms straight before reaching Tobermory. They celebrated by eating ice cream and going out for supper.


What do a bunch of guys do at a campsite in the middle of nowhere with nothing but what they carried in? Throw rocks at rocks and have a skipping rocks contest (which Dennis won by a large margin, thanks to all his practice out on the Gaspe in Quebec).
A beautiful sunset the first night:

The trail going up and over some rocks. Dennis said this was very typical. Imagine going up over that with a 25 lb pack on your back! Some of the guys had packs up to 50 lbs. This is the same trail that we girls have to do in a few weeks, so Dennis was getting pictures so I'd be prepared. Remember though, we don't have to carry the packs.


Some breathtaking views:

Yellow Lady's Slipper:
Tenting in bear country (they didn't see anything bigger than a garter snake, though):
At the end of the trail... gasp, wheeze... Dennis said there was an observation tower at the end. They all took their packs off and raced to the top because they felt so light. All in all, they went over 30 kms.

Building Day #9

This is what I did on the house while Dennis was away. Since Squeaky was sick I didn't get to spend as much time out there as I had hoped. Yesterday I made it out during their naptime and two friends were wandering around in the pouring rain looking for people to help! Yay! So Deanna and Fred (who happens to be from Lincoln, NE too by the way) helped me put up some poles and screen and built a blazing fire in our stove! I realize now that I need to put another layer of clay on that thing. Sigh. Sadly, the buttons had to come off for now until I can get more insulating clay on.

Then today I went out again during the girls' naptime and got some more fun decorating type things done, as well as covering one whole side with black plastic. I felt so handy and powerful with that nail gun in my hand. Cha-ching! Cha-ching! Oh, yeah!

This is the curtain in the girls' bedroom. Those are cats on the material. The tie is actually just green twine. Rustic yet trendy. Heheh.

This is the front side of the change table. This part is facing the larger play area in our main part of the house. I think I will usually have the curtains hanging straight down instead of tied up, but I wanted to keep the fabric out of the dirt for now. We will be putting tarps down on that floor and possibly some carpeting. There will be room under that change table for their toy totes and some other storage for us. The top half will be covered in black plastic to enclose their room.
My kitchen, not sure if I like this yet...
I hung the shower caddy (whoo!) and some black plastic. Don't worry, there will be more.
And finished a little more of the side plastic.

Look at This!!!

Ok, so not much has happened with our Jungle Camp home while Dennis has been away. Squeaky has been quite sick to her stomach since Sunday afternoon and I was sick yesterday... and today it is pouring rain.

But....

Look at this!!!!


Poor Daddy missed out!

What is in store for us this week?

The guys are taking a three day hiatus from building, starting today. They are all going on a rigorous three day, two night hike. It is an interesting choice of timing as all we can think about right now is building our Jungle Camp home!

The guys have to carry everything they need on this hike. They've carefully planned what they will eat at each meal and divided up the load so that each guy carries a part. They will be tenting and cooking over a campfire.

Apparently the route they are taking along the coast is quite beautiful. I've sent along a camera with Dennis. The ladies will be taking a similar hike in four weeks (during Jungle Camp) although ours is only a two day, one night hike and we don't have to pack our stuff in. Someone will be bringing our food and supplies in by car and setting up our campsite for us.

But for now, the girls and I are here to carry on the work out at Jungle Camp. This ought to be interesting, trying to juggle home life, normalcy and frenzied work on our house. Also, this morning I woke up with a bad upset stomach and a clear understanding that I won't be going far from our modern conveniences today. Normally I wouldn't mention such things on here- but I'm really needing prayer as the next three days stretch out before me and my mind and body are stressed. Thanks!

Day Six- Details

Today we worked on making our house look more like a home. This part is more fun for me, because I am able to jump right in without doing a lot of measuring and cutting. Dennis has told me several times that he is finding this fun. Hard work, but fun!

Squeak is posing beside a little green caterpillar on the stool.

Here is our shower with the supporting poles up. Squeaky is posing again.

Hanging out in our dining area:

This is a nice shot of what we got done today before I came back home with the girls. Dennis stayed up until dark so I imagine that he got more plastic up on the outside walls. We put screen in on the one side of the seating area and black plastic on the bottom. That will be secured by burying the bottom in 12 inches of dirt. In this picture the plastic is blowing up in the wind.

This is my start at decorating. I'm hesitant to do too much before we have the walls up. I would be so sad if the cushions for the bench (which will be on both the bench and against the backrest) got wet in the rain. We've had some pretty big blowy type storms this week, especially at night.

Tomorrow is Sunday, so we are taking a day of rest! I've never felt like I needed it like I do right now!

The girls did a couple of videos for you to enjoy over the weekend.

Day Five- counters, benches and beds

Today was very hot and humid. Under the trees it was quite nice though, with a pleasant breeze blowing all the smoke around. Smoke is a good thing- it keeps the bugs at bay.

Dennis went out early again, and the girls and I came along midmorning. I did a bit of decorating on the stove. I really like these buttons on there and no, I don't know if they'll melt or not. :)

Our shower floor:
Our bed skeleton:
Benches for around our table, which you can see propped up in the background:
Kitchen counter and sink area, not quite finished over there by the sink yet:

The poles around a tree by our lot have been sorted through, creating a small fort for the girls to hide away in. In this picture the girls were sitting on their "tuffets". Dennis said, "Our girls must be the only children their age who know what a tuffet is and ask to sit on one."

You will also notice Squeaky's bug jacket. She can actually make it look cute.

Tying these counters is a lot of work, especially if the person tying them has a bit of a problem with being perfectionistic...

Here is how our house looks so far. It is very messy and I hope it doesn't look like that all the time! The two close poles in the front of the picture is our doorway. On the right of that is where our table and benches are. To the left is our kitchen. Beyond that in the back right corner is the girls' room and to the left is our room. The shower is right behind the stove between it and our bed. The 'big' space between the dining area and the girls' room is a play area. And that's about it! We have many more shelves to do yet. It is coming together though! Some of our classmates are doing really well and are able to take a little time off tonight and tomorrow. We will be working all day. :)

Here's the view from our front door.