Friday, May 17, 2013

WE'RE GETTING READY!


               What do we do these couple of weeks after we arrive on the  Mountain.    One might imagine that we sleep in, ride ATV’s, have parties, etc.  Nope!  We train, work, clean, paint, move boats, put away new life vests.  Yep, we are getting ready for those campers who will soon be here.

                All the canoes and paddle boats had to be cleaned, moved, and put into the water.  This was fun as we ladies got to paddle the boats over to the dock.  Before we could move them, the men had to put new “bushings”, whatever those are, in each paddle boat.  They then had to go and get the rubber raft, inflate it, and make certain it still floats and still runs.  The next boat they had to  get  was the big pontoon boat.  It had to be launched into the lake and all the missionaries had to learn to drive it.
 

                We had to train the new Sisters how to load and unload campers from the paddle boats.  There is quite a technique, using boat hooks, to  make certain no one ends up in the lake instead of the boat.  Next we had to train them in the use of our suction system that is used to clean the water out of the paddle boats after they are used or when it rains. 
 
 I had made certain that I told the new missionaries that we never get wet.  I cautioned them carefully about positioning their feet and hang on to the poles on the dock, to be certain not to be pulled into the water.  Well . . .I was in one of the paddle boats, cleaning it.  I pulled up one of the seats, and stepped back to put the seat down, only to find  that I had completely misjudged my position in the boat.  Instead of stepping into another area of the boat, I stepped back and found myself in the lake, wet up to my waist.  In the process, my glasses fell into the lake, but sweet Sister Smith saw them down in the water, and using a grabber , and laying on her tummy was able to retrieve them for me.  She got big hugs for that.
 
 

                A whole huge shipment of new life vests came that all had to be unpackaged and put away.  All the old vests had to be removed.  This was quite the project, but it looks so splendid to have so many new vests.  This year all the missionaries will be wearing beautiful blue vests.  Fancy!!!
 

                See, Getting Ready #2 for the rest of the story!

               

2 comments:

Tracy said...

I love the snow in the back ground of your first picture. You hadn't mentioned your glasses fell off when you fell in . . .was the water freezing?

MikesDork said...

looks like you are getting things together for all those girls and families! I hope the water was not too cold!