Building the first set of camp chairs.

This weekend we built a double camp chair with a table. We then took it to camp and Katie, Tonia and I spent our first night there. Sara stayed home because she had a birthday party to attend. Tonia had a blast playing in the dirt. We also built up the back side of the fire circle and created an area for water. We placed our jug of water on the tree stump and put some flat rocks at the base. This weekend we took down the caution tape and marked trees that we would like to clear with red paint. We plan on making at least 2 or 3 more chairs. One will be a bench that will seat 2 or 3 people and the others will be single chairs. The leaves were turning fall colors and the Brook was higher than I had seen yet.

Double chair with a table.

The new picnic table 

10 by 10 standing room tent without canopy cover.  This tent holds a queen matress, a twin mattress and a nap mat for Tonia with plenty of room for gear and walking room. 

you can get your own here: Standing Room Tent 

Our water stand.  Charles took down 3 dead trees close to the turn around area we used one of them as the water stand. There is no well or water at our camp so we need to bring it in. We have two of these jugs and they usually get us through. We have tossed around the idea of building a well but we feel it will be too costly for us at the moment. For now we can use the water jugs and use paper goods to reduce the amount of water used washing dishes. 

Building the Picnic Table

This weekend after we built the first tent deck we decided to build our picnic table. Our bodies were screaming for rest but we didn't listen. We were considering just purchasing a table pre-made from Lowes because they had them for $98 with an additional $10 for assembly but we noticed only the legs were treated lumber. We purchased all of the materials to build the table for about $80. Charles looked up the plans on the internet and I will somehow try to put them up here in case anyone wants to build their own table just like ours. The table took us about 4 hours to build. Unfortunately for us the entire time we were building the table our van ignition was turned to auxiliary mode and our van battery was dead when we were done. Once we had finished making the table we loaded it up on the trailer to take it up to camp, packed our dinner and s'mores and jumped in the van. Ready to go meet with friends for Sunday dinner and bonfire we turned the ignition to click click click....sad face... With a little help from our neighbor and his huge, I must be compensating for something somewhere truck, we were off to a nice evening BBQ dinner with friends at Camp Criscione.

Here is a link to the picnic table plans:

Picnic Table

Building the Tent Deck

Today we built the tent deck. Here is the finished product:

Charles went up last night with the lumber, generator and the tools. We joined him for dinner and s'mores at the bonfire and then came home. Charles will be sleeping in the van tonight. the ground is rocky and there really is no flat spot without gravel to put tents on. This is why we are in need of a tent deck.

 Here is the first Campfire ever at Camp Criscione:

The girls and I got up to camp one hour before Charles with no tools to cut wood and darkness setting in. My Girl Scouts and I made a fire with our bare hands and the fishing pole lighter Mama C gave to us. This includes finding the rocks for the fire ring.

 Awesome Girl Scouts right here!

When we came back in the morning Charles was awake and had started laying out the deck where he wanted it.

And then we had a sad boy... the generator would not run the saw. He had planned on a deck built in two sections that could be taken apart so we could move it easily. As he did not want to hand saw all those planks in half we scrapped the easily movable deck for a deck with 10 foot planks.

Here is what his Oh Shit moment looked like: 

 Here is the frame of the deck.

 One cute helper with screws, not as helpful as one might think! 

 The deck is Roxy Approved!

Here is a link to the deck plans

Deck Plans