Star Gazers

Early September, we had astronomers come to Whisper Canyon. For the previous eight years they had used Lake San Antonio. I hear it was a barren 5 acre parking lot, but the viewing was pretty good being away from city light. What was fun was they camped in new and creative places. Below is one site just below the shop in Kavanaugh creek.

 Many of them just camped next to their telescopes.

 This was Thursday PM as they were rolling in

  They did have some pretty nice scopes, as one would expect. These folks take their star gazing serious. This scope had a mirror to capture the light. There might have been 8 of these with minor variations.

Carl was a digital photographer of the stars. Home was just outside of Albuquerque NM. He has rigged up this cart to move his equipment in and out of his van. It has batteries underneath and a

winch to move it up and down his ramps.

Saint Elizabeth Catholic Church, Milpitas

   

This weekend we hosted a group of young folks from Milpitas. There were about 80 students from 7 to 17 years old. They have a club called TNTT which promotes God as well as teaches about their culture.  They were supported by about 40 parents which worked the kitchen and assembled a stage and worship tent. This was a student lead program.

 Above is the stage they erected. the projector was behind and it was well secured for the breezy conditions. Below is a place of worship and prayer. They also had Eucharist in the tent/gazebo. 

 

Good thing I leave a milk crate in the kitchen area, when you put a 50 quart pot on it , well, stirring it can be a problem 

They ate in shifts. First the  students got a meal then the adults ate. We were concerned about the limitation of the dining quarters but their system worked well. 

They had prayer bags where you could drop off a note to someone in the the group. They originally were under the blue canopy by the worship gazebo. This is similar to PBCC having a Barnabas board for leaving encouraging notes.

Saturday AM they had different stations they went to. Skits were practiced songs were sung.
The weather changed Saturday night. The lightning was visible about 10 PM and lasted till dawn. It got close enough to add thunder about 2:30 AM into dawn  the rain started then as well. We got over 1/2" during the night, and another 1/2" between 10AM and 4 PM. Hopefully, it will help some of the trees, which are drought stressed.

 So the activities Sunday morning were in the dining pavilion. They held mass and we heard "How great thou art" being sung several times.

We had one motor home on the soccer field which make it off successfully.  This car had some challenges with street tires. Fortunately, he had some friends.

1ST Baptist of Stockton

This was the third year this group of Jr highers choose to visit Whisper Canyon.

It was unusually cool for a July visit. Which actually was nice. There were about 40 in the group with their leaders.

Last year they helped disassemble the steps to the water slide. I made a couple trips down during the year, to remove the wood but it needed two more trips this week, to haul it out of the canyon and stage it for the dumpster. They helped move the carport frame back to the side of the shop, hauled about six loads of branches from a fallen grey pine and racked 3 trailer loads of leaves from behind the boathouse. This was a working vacation for them.

Last year their was a fire just North of camp as they arrived. This year it was a fire to the south. Nether fire got close to the camp, still they are disconcerting with the dry conditions.

Home Schoolers

Some families from Atascadero area came for a class in creation science.

The kitchen is an important part of the camp experience

 

The merry go round is always popular with the students

Framers came for a weekend

We had the some of the framers come back to Whisper to share the camp with their families back in June.

Sweet time having them at camp. Of course Salvador wanted to work, so he made some steps to one of the Yurts

They came out looking very nice. Here they are with his son, grandson at the railing.
He also rebuilt the seating around the upper fire pit. It looks very good

Comunidad Cristiana de Fe

 This group come from King City. It is a ministry reaching out to students giving them alternatives on Friday nights

They had some teaching times and just enjoyed the camp and hanging out.

Way back at March

PBCC is our first group of the season. They come in and hold Vacation Bible School with several of the churches in King City. Here is some worship time at the camp.

 Charlie from Mount Hermon was their teacher this year

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They formed up into teams prior to the trip. Here they are praying prior to heading into town. They teach bible verses, sing songs and just love on the younger students in town. The real story is what happens in King City, But that is for them to tell.

It was a four yurt day

Decks were ready and volunteers contacted. So the assemble started early Saturday morning.

 Here we are as they guys ate lunch. The above yurts are to the east. Below are the two yurts nearest to the driveway/pole barn.

 

We had a charging station set up for the drills and various tools

 We had about 25 guys and gals helping on this project. They kept moving so they were hard to count

 Ken and Jim worked on this yurt, then helped with another one

Below you can see we have supplies for making the railings on these four new decks. This will give us 8 yurts with four bunk beds in each.

The yurt on the left has the insulation up, the outer skin is the next step. 1st Baptist of King City worked on the right hand yurt.This is their 3rd trip up to the camp working on this project. Their efforts made this come together.
This yurt has already been nick named Canyon View , Terra Redondo is clearly in sight from the deck

Framers returned

 

One deck is getting framed while the far one has the yurt floor installed. The storm of 3 weeks ago did no damage, just postponed things a bit.I did have a tarp on some plywood with 2 pallets holding it down. The winds blew the pallets off.

Marking out the 10' radius. Terra Redondo is in the background. Great view to the east from this Yurt.

 

Here they are installing the Trex decking. Most of the pieces have to be cut with a radius end so it fits up to the raised deck.

Then there is food. Not very cold but the fire is a nice addition. The dome in the back right is the top to one of the new yurts