It has become my goal to make your camping experience at the "Hole In The Wall" Recreational Area as pleasant and memorable as humanly possible. The "shelter" that was fully utilized and enjoyed by all will be erected and ready for occupancy prior to your arrival, weather and water level permitting. Many hours of labor and material has went into the "multi-purpose" building, giving you a safe, clean environment to reflect and contemplate life in general. I will ask that you keep it clean so Donnie will not have to spend much time doing clean up chores each day during his fire watch. This will be an added asset this season, the facilities was less than desirable last year. It is very difficult to hide under the willows in order to spy upon the clans when ladies are utilizing the facilities right behind you. The wood pile was also less than desirable, without my direct supervision, the wood was not stacked properly and was precariously leaning which was a potential safety violation, especially for the little people. To correct this, a firewood rack will be installed prior to your arrival which will permit you to stack the wood neatly and off the ground. The rack will be located in a different spot this season, currently where the wood storage area was located last year, is under three feet of water, it is the lowest point in the campground area.
Being the born leader that she is, Heidi came up with some very good suggestions in her Blog posting yesterday pertaining to useful things that you can do to make camping a little less stressful, especially when it is raining and three trucks are stuck in the middle of the campground.
I have also come up with several other ideas that will make you more comfortable with the some of the basic amenities that you enjoy at home. Water: Good quality and quantity of potable water has always been a problem regardless of where you camp. However, this can be easily remedied. At some location in LA, since they have went out of style, there are a good number of "water bed" mattresses that you can acquire for a few dollars, less than $10.00. A twin size water bed mattress is slightly smaller than the bed of a pick-up and will hold a couple hundred gallons of water. Two mattress should provide all the water that you will need to sustain life for several days. By draping a "blue tarp" over the bed of the truck, you would also have a great tent and bed for the little people to sleep instead of the hard ground in their tents!
ELECTRIC POWER: Although not a real necessity, it would be nice to have power inside the campground without having to stretch 1.5 miles of extension cords from the "Eagle Nest" to the camping area. We have two young ladies that are constantly working on their muscle toning, loosing a few pounds and getting in shape for the wrestling season. We also have two very well qualified "shade tree" mechanics and one electrical lineman, between the tree of them I am sure they can come up with an idea of how to install a "generator" on your mothers stationary bike. With Brit and Noe taking turns peddling they should be able to provide enough amps to meet our needs. During the darker hours, if we had a second generator, we could install one on your mothers treadmill and I know she could generate the power that we need, especially if we hook up some batteries to stow the excess that she and the girls generate. FIRE PIT: The clan fire pit, although meets or exceeds state approved fire pits, I was concerned throughout the summer that we would have one of the kids hurt if they tripped, as it turned out, Homer was the only one to fall intothe fire! I will try to improve the fire pit this season to insure we do not have an accident. However, all camping trips the smoky fire has always been a problem. Within a few minutes everyone smells like wood smoke. This is caused from wet wood or the fire not burning hot enough. Again, we have the talent within the clans to correct this. The solution would provide a hot fire and utilize less firewood. The Plumma also has a very good knowledge of heating systems. To me, it would be a simple process to install a underground line from the "methphane" pit bringing it to the surface under the fire pit. There is constant source of gas being generated from the pit that is going to waste and should be utilized. At the commencement of the season, we will need to insure that "Homer" spends a lot of time in the multi-purpose building in order to have a constant flow of gas until sufficient deposits can be made. MUD AND STUCK VEHICLES: This was a major problem this past season and will remain a problem as long as we enjoy the privacy of the bowl area. We not only have to contend with the rain but also the drainage from the high ground that surrounds us on three sides. In my walk about yesterday, the area that I laid the typar this past year and all of you were so kind as to haul in gravel to cover it, that area has a remained intact this year and undisturbed from the water level. During the GS cookie sales campaign, there was some controversy pertaining to the payload of the Chevrolet compared to the Ford. Each of my four children drive Chevrolet's so this will provide them an opportunity to demonstrate their payload capacity. I figure that if each Chevy makes 9 trips to the beach and returns with a full load of gravel, which would be a total of 36 loads, it would be sufficient to cover the entire bowl area with fresh, clean gravel. Just yesterday, I took my old Chevy pickup that I use to plow snow and discovered that it will also work as a "poor man's road grader" by back blading. I smoothed out my driveway utilizing this method. As you haul in gravel, I can back blade it into place and it will eliminate a lot of raking, although that would also be good exercise for Brit and Noe. Remember, we also have a new clan of "Woodpeckers" plus a very big Buffalo Calf that should be fully utilized in this operation. As you can see, I have given great thought in identifying some problems we have had in the past, serious consideration as to how we can make your camping adventure pleasurable, and as a good leader, have also provided the solutions to those problems. It is now time for you to take action!
-22°F in Deadhorse, AK
8 years ago
