Camp

F is for...

This has been a weird fall. It started off with relentless rain. Then the leaves decided to fall about a day before the first big snowstorm. Then we got buried in snow. Now it is all melting away.

I made it to camp just before the first snow came to spend 14 hours raking, blowing tarping and dumping leaves from our three perfect acres of camp.

I finished up as the first flakes of snow were falling. Two weeks later and we have gone from perfect fluffy snow to a muddy, icy mix up there.

With warmer temps for the next few days I expect most of the snow up there to melt away before it eventually gets buried by late December/early January.

I did get a chance to take advantage of all of the late-November snow, though. I sent it up to Sunday River in Maine during a 20”+ storm and it did not disappoint! Endless knee-deep pow and zero lift lines make for some epic times!

Did not stop much to take pics but here’s one from the slopes!

The drive up there was a bit hectic though! The typically 2.5 hour trip took 4+ with various stretches of ice, slush, deep snow and snow plows doing their job.

Here’s a stretch of…road?

Here’s to winter in New England! If winter isn’t your thing just count down the days until camp starts up again…(203 days from today).

-Evan

Fall at the lake

Camp is always gorgeous but we are currently in that not-so-sweet time in NH after the leaves have turned brown and mostly fallen and before the snow has covered the ground.

Tomorrow I will be getting started on fall cleanup around the property and then hopefully we will have a fresh blanket of fluffy snow by the weekend!

fall projects

This is always a fun time of year for us at camp. There is a brief window between our busy summer season and winter recruitment where we can focus on our long property maintenance to-do list!

Last week we tackled a project that has been on the list for years: a brand new fire pit. Campfires are always a good time at camp and our previous spot was not 100% ideal.

Step one was removing the big rocks that lined the old pit and filling it in with dirt.

We rented a tractor to do the heavy lifting for us on this project. It took a ton of work to move the big rocks and then five full scoops of dirt to fill in the old fire pit. The above pictures show where we dumped the rocks, the old pit filled in with dirt and a POV shot of us scooping dirt!

Next was prepping the future fire pit area. Previously there were two giant piles of stone and dirt which we smoothed out to create a flat spot to build the fire pit. We then used the rocks from the old pit to create our new one (with the tractor’s help of course).

The finished product! The new fire pit is way in the corner of our field overlooking the property. We are ready for fires, s’mores and ghost stories next summer!

These were my helpers for this project. Finn and Kai may not be driving boats yet but they are awesome tractor operators!

Boat design contest!

It it tough to come up with color ideas for all of our new boats! Help us out by heading to the MasterCraft website to design your ideal 2019 NXT 22.

The winning design(s) will not only get to see their boat come to life but we will also send you a camp SWAG package in the mail.

  • Follow this link --> MasterCraft <--- to get to the NXT22 boat builder site.

  • Choose your colors for the hull and interior. (Don't worry about other options, we'll take care of that.)

  • Submit your design to Evan@watermonkeycamp.com by October 20

If you don’t contribute your ideas we may just have to build the rasta boat!


Wrapping up a perfect summer

Hello campers, friends and all other readers!

Sunset at the end of the summer.

We are back from camp! Our campers left on August 11 but we were super busy from then until last weekend with private lessons and fun on the lake. We will be posting a season re-cap soon but until then here are some shots of how we have been wrapping things up!

We sold our Calypso Green NXT22 (a.k.a. Green Machine) after camp and used the Jetstream Blue NXT22 (a.k.a. cookie monster a.k.a. bluey) until last week. On the last day in the water I took a break after private lessons to snag this picture of the gorgeous, empty, still-warm water and bluebird ski.

Some serious work starts when the boat gets out of the water. Both boats need thorough cleaning inside and out. That means taking out all of the life jackets, paddles, first aid kits, dock lines and other assorted ‘stuff’ that accumulates throughout the season. From there we wash out the inside and then wash and wax the outside.

Lifejacket Party!

Once the boat is shiny inside and out it is ready for the winter! This year we sold both of our 2018 MasterCrafts so instead of winterizing the motor and putting it away for storage we are delivering it to its new owners! Green Machine will be living on Winnipesaukee now and Cookie Monster will be heading to Mississippi!

Of course I have had a helper through all of this work!