Damp - Ecology - Fox Run

Ben's second day of Ecology Camp was still damp but at least brighter as they pulled threads from trees and wove them to make cord, stamped and rounded copper for rings, took a canoe trip and did some pond dipping. Lunch was yummy tacos. Friday it rained again, all day. That did not thwart the fun though as they made their own apple cider and played lots of game: Camoflague, Don't Touch the Rope (strategy), Red-Green-Black, which brought the children back to school with Indian stripes on their faces. They were split into teams Red were meat eaters, Green leaf eaters, and Black ate either. They scoured the 100 acres for buckets of beans that were marked as water or food. At the end a twist was thrown in as they counted up points, some food items had a black dot on them indicating they were poisonous, points were substracted for those if you had more than five. Pizza for lunch, rated MUCH BETTER than the school pizza. Definately a big success for Mrs. Smieleski & Mrs. Smith's class, what a wonderful program Pete McCreedy runs.

While the kids were at school Friday I was preparing for an overnight camping trip to Wagener County Park, I had reserved a site and borrowed a tent but as the weather continued to be disgusting I made an executive decision and called the campground to see if there were any cabins available, there were! So, for twenty bucks more we were cozy and warm, there's nothing I detest more than having to set up a tent in the rain! I was also making calls during the day trying to figure out some things with the Willsub website, long story short, a job came through about 11:10 for a 1/2 day job in the elementary where I have been trying to get in at, I quickly accepted it on the site, called the school to check that she still needed someone, got a yes, showered, dressed, and boogied my way up to town. I get there and there is already another sub there. She accepted the job by phone. So the system assigned two people, I still have it listed on my accepted jobs list (curious to see if I'll still get paid for it). I conceeded to go home after the principal came and talked to us but said yes, I'd like her to call Willsub and see who grabbed the job first. Interesting. Apparently they've had several glitches in the system. Expectable I suppose. Anyway....

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Picked the boys up from school, got up to Harbor Beach, unloaded everything into the cabin and took them to eat at a local Inn with an overpriced, so-so, buffet and lousy service. Came back played some Boogle and Quiddler, then zzzzzz.

In the morning Rob got hot water going for coffe and cocoa on the cook stove then whipped up some sausage and scrambled eggs, plus we had the camping standard: Pop Tarts. Fox and I went out and walked the course,while the little guys played and got totally soakin' on the playground; Rob putzed around the cabin. Little bit misty during the walk-thru but thankfully the sun broke out for race time. The course was very cool, but also extremely muddy, not any hills at all. Our cabin was right along the course so I waited there for everyone to come by on the first loop then moved down to the finish to watch them come into the shoot, this was the first time I didn't watch the start. Fox was aware of this and approved. He really surprised me this time, I was waiting for him to be at the back of the pack and he zoomed up more toward the middle group with a strong pace, steadily pickin' people off and passing. He commented afterward he just felt more determined today. Came through the shoot #109 out of 137 runners (boys and girls combined) and coach gave an unoffical time of 16:49. YeeHaw! Monday - Brown City after school.