A full house at the lake this weekend for the holiday stretch. The roster included:
Drew O’Brien, his son Jack, and their Goldendoodle, Rosie.
Patrick and Dublin (Rosie’s littermate—the doodles had the run of the property).
My sister’s boys, Brian and John, who put on a clinic playing poker before packing up to head out late Monday afternoon.
Maggie, who joined the fray Saturday afternoon and braved the camp layout before heading back early Monday morning.
⚓ Camp Operations & Activities
Despite a torn right knee meniscus leaving Patrick pretty useless and entirely dependent on the crew to wait on him hand and foot for most everything, the camp team made serious headway getting the property ready for summer.
The Exit Strategy: The remaining crew is locking down the structures tonight, looking to pull out and head south tomorrow morning, Tuesday, around 10:00 AM.
Heavy Lifting: Brian and John crushed the seasonal setup, getting all the chairs out onto the farmer’s porch and completely setting up the eastern shore furniture. Meanwhile, Drew and Jack got the fabric top successfully mounted on the “martini” hut down on the eastern shore. Solo Drew got the tarp warp off the eating porch.
The Camp Chef: Brian stepped up in a major way on Saturday, cooking three straight meals. Breakfast was a massive spread of scrambled eggs; lunch featured red hot dogs with Brian’s custom sautéed red onions; and dinner was a round of hamburgers that he and John went out and bought.
On the Water: Drew conquered a massive nine-mile kayak loop around the lake. The entire team—including both Goldendoodles—piled onto the pontoon boat for a cruise before the heavy weather rolled through.
Camp 2.0: The groundwork for Drew and Helena’s new camp officially felt real this weekend. The team took several walks out to the site, and Drew and Jack even charted a path into the raw territory with the new Bronco. Standing on the plot, structural drawings were reviewed and design ideas were debated. One great mystery remains: what street number will this new camp actually get? Up here, matching a plot to an address is a total black art left entirely in the hands of the local fire department.
The Weather: Memorial Day didn’t cooperate. The clouds opened up and it rained hard across the point on Monday, prompting Maggie’s early departure around 9:00 AM.
⚡ Infrastructure Status Report: “Tech Corner” Fully Restored
After an intensive troubleshooting pipeline over the site-to-site network link, the camp’s primary infrastructure layer is completely stabilized. WiFi has been updated, all Access Points are functioning. Both the main ISP (Fidium) and the back up ISP (Hughes Net) are working
