CEDAR LODGE

December 2007 Updates

December 10^th: Auntie Em 

Chris and I are at it again. Buying young horses that we don’t know where to stable in our every increasing barn. Meet our newest member, Auntie Em here. We hope that Em will be with us for a long, long time. 

December 1-31: Barn building: Em wasn’t the only new addition to Cedar Lodge. There was Joe in December, Rhyme and Tess owned by new boarders Dave, Catherine and Brittany, Taylor bought a young prospect which she named “Taylor”, not to mention there was a horse owned by our vaulting advisor, Jane Egger that I had promised to break, and Earl, our “borrowed” advanced Vaulting horse came back for winter camp. If you had asked me in October, I would have told you with determination that we were set for winter. We had stalls for everyone in the barn, and several outside stalls for the guys to use when they were cleaning others. In November I wasn’t so sure, and in December I was down right quiet. 

With increasing glares from Chris, I finally started taking notice somewhere in November, that we may not be in as good as shape as I thought, and I started building. Well, maybe not really building, as that applies to new construction. Rather, utilizing what we had to it’s full potential. 

-First on the list, the outside box stalls that face the lake got closed in for winter use. There were already three there that we could use, I finished the last two, so now there are five. That gave me two.

-Second, the funnies summer box stall was totally revamped. Usually, we only use it during the summer and move them inside during the winter. The sides were closed in and they were given a new, solid sliding door to keep out the wind. That gave me one.

-Third, the sawdust room, next to the boarders tack room was stripped down. This area was the equivalent of two box stalls. With a bit of building, we had two to add to our total, giving us five.

 All this building has gotten me at least temporarily off the hook, but spring is coming and people are calling. What can I say? Cedar Lodge is just becoming a happening place! By summer I might have to come up with another five. I have no idea where, but you can be assured to be the first to know when it happens.  

 December 20^th: Backpacking trip

Craig and I were at it again. Just for a long weekend and this time the pick was the Manistee trail, in upper, Lower Michigan. The conditions were less than favorable with 8-10 inches of wet, slushy snow covering mud. That made for impossible to keep dry feet, which turned to cold feet at night. As usual, unsavory conditions leads to more thinking about how to have better conditions and by the second day, Craig and I had devised a plan for the second night, but it was not to be. We arrived early to our first check out point, and with a call to Craig’s parents we were updated to a major storm moving in for the next evening. The decision was made to be picked up, spend the night in a hotel to get an early start back home before the storm. It was a disappointment, but the hotel with large hot tub was a welcome trade off.

PS. I don’t know what I’m telling Craig in that second picture, but my guess is that I’m telling him something about not being slow this time and keeping up with my pace

December 27^th-Jan.1^st: Winter Camp: Great pictures, Great staff, Great time, Great kids. This year was no exception in our fun. We were luck enough not to have just one Edwards girl free for Winter Camp, but all three. That certainly made all of our lives easier! With staffing taken care of, and a full house of campers, we were well set up for anything the week would bring.

As it was, we had very little snow (though the kids did manage one night of sledding. I hear Kendra needs to learn to avoid trees), and temperatures we would call moderate for December. That left time for lots of riding, outdoor and indoor games, vaulting, hiking and arts and crafts. Allison took a group out to the “Land Beyond” and Becca managed to fall off one of the log bridges doing an Amy imitation (brilliant Becca).
Kali and Kendra offered lots of vaulting on both the barrel (moved to the heated comfort of the dining hall) and on Earl. They even managed to drag non-vaulters out for a try, including Amanda! Did you know that in all the time that Amanda has been to camp she has NEVER TRIED VAULTING? “How could that be?” I asked in amazement. “Just too busy doing all that other horse stuff.” Was the answer with a shrug. To no amazement to any of us, Amanda turned out to be a natural, as did Hillary and many others that gave it a try. I hope in 2008 they will expand their horizons for another try or two.
With enough advanced vaulters to make it worth her time, we called in an advanced vaulting/gymnastics coach that some of the neighboring teams use for their practice. Jillian has wanted to come work with our team for quite some time and was more than willing to come down for an afternoon. Just an afternoon, mind you, but the vaulters (and coaches) were so sore afterwards that they whined for a day. Good thing she came late in the week!
Allison took another great hike to the big field and made some super snow angels that stayed there until the next snow and the arts and crafts area was busy every day. Topping off every day were great evening programs that we just can’t do during the summer because of the amount of campers we have. Programs like Barn Soccer, Sardines and Singing with Sally made the perfect endings for the perfect days. I have to admit, that New Years eve, we did NOT venture down to the lake. Kids were tired, and topping that off, it was snowing. Not a nice little fluffy snow. A dumping of large, soaking wet flakes. We went out side and started a small camp fire in Stella’s portable fireplace. Even that was almost impossible to start, because every thing got sooooooo wet, sooooooo fast. Even so, it was enough to yell “Happy New Year!” at the appropriate time and shuffle off through the snow to our beds. It was sad to see everyone leave on Jan. 1^st, but they all had great fun, had their fix of Cedar Lodge that they hoped would last them for a couple months, and promised to do it all again next year.