Phase Two of the weather station project was completed today. It was a long leap - but Internet has been run to the waterfront to allow weather data to be shared with others. Thank you AGAIN to Jim & Pat Yeilding for the advanced weather station at the end of our pier. The maps show how our little stretch of the Salish Sea is now covered. Soon - a camera for a seagull's eye view of the Sound. https://www.weatherlink.com/map
You can save 15% by registering BEFORE January 1.
Read MoreFor years, the wooden floating dock migrated from the inner lagoon to the end of the pier in June and then back again by Labor Day. For the past eight years, this routine has been forced to change due to a deteriorating pier as well as the need to run boating for three seasons to accommodate schools visiting for outdoor education. We have run boating successfully in the outer lagoon for the past two years and are happy with this sheltered location.
Pierce County has also restricted new dock construction and repairs of old docks for our section of the Key Peninsula. This, along with an agreement made with the Nisqually Land Trust, necessitated demolishing the heavy floating dock by 2024. We took advantage of our resident AmeriCorps NCCC to accomplish this early.
The lagoon was, even during the project, a working waterfront. Boats had to be shifted.
The big Grumman “peace” canoes are heavy - even for a hearty team of eight NCCC members.
That’s a big, heavy dock in two sections. The dry weather had already lifted many of the boards and they were easy to pull up.
But the tide is creeping in.
Over the years, staff tried anything to keep the boards down. The team members spend a lot of time yanking out bent nails and avoiding splinters.
Starting to rip out the structural framework. This was the hardest part and the team resorted to chainsaws eventually.
One section is “deboarded”
We figured there were 196 tires when the dock was new. Several were missing - having worked loose over the years. Tires are no longer allowed for floats in Washington State.
Boards were 6 foot, 8 foot, and 16 foot. The team worked hard to sort and stack them once nails were pulled.
Tires had to be pulled out of their framework More often than not, the framework would stick with the tire. The tires were stacked away from the boating area and high enough to survive the high tides.
The Topper company is still in business but they don’t make tire dock floats anymore.
One corner of the dock was built with substantial, modern floats. This corner used to support the ramp that came down from the pier. The team saved this section to make a work barge.
Before re-decking the work barge, the team had some structural work to do.
With lots of boards to choose from, the team finished the deck of the work barge. Later, the lifeguard chair was added for summer camp boating.
The outer edges of the dock were especially heavy requiring the team to work together to move sections. The chainsaw came in handy.
Lots of 2 by 6 and 2 by 10 pressure-treated lumber - stacked and sorted.
Really hard sometimes to get at them.
You wait for an exceptionally high tide and herd them into the inner lagoon.
..you pull.
…with a smile and a positive attitude. This work is fun!
The tires keep coming.
With the high tide, it was easy to get them out of the water and onto the grass - assuming they didn’t try to escape.
The tires were hauled up to another part of camp. Over the winter, the staff will strip them of the wood pieces before finding an economical way of disposing of them. If you have any ideas, give us a call.
After AmeriCorps departed, the staff began the process of making picnic tables with the dock lumber. Boards were cut, sanded and painted before they were assembled.
8 tables have been completed - one for each Shire cabin.
We have LOTS of dock lumber remaining. Perhaps you, your family, your group can come out and build some more picnic tables. We have more places to put them.
We didn’t get a whole lot of snow this week, but enough for Steve, our winter caretaker, to take some pretty pictures.
This is the time of year when we register summer campers, sign up schools for Outdoor Education, and think up some creative new (and established) programs and events. Looking ahead …
Yes - and Fundraising is also on our minds during the “lean” winter season. Please consider a generous end-of-year gift to Sound View Camp. THANKS!
For 2023, we have scheduled the three sessions of overnight camp to begin earlier than they did in 2021 & 2022. Here are the reasons why …
Read MoreEnjoy a cozy and safe New Year’s Eve at Sound View Camp. There will be fun things to do, inside and outside.
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Register for a session of overnight camp BEFORE January 1 to save 10% ($52.50)! All that is required is a $100 deposit.
By allowing the hillside to regrow and eventually absorb rainwater, the hope was that the waterfront road would not experience its annual washout.
Read MoreEven with cooler temperatures and on windy, rainy days, the adventurous family can find plenty to do during a weekend at Sound View.
Read More… the campers looked up at the closed static course and asked when it would be open again. They learned and understood why it was closed and I shared my dreams of it reopening with 21st Century upgrades, and I promised them that it would be soon.
Read MoreIt is crazy-hard running a camp in the 21st Century! I need your help.
As regulations change, prices rise, and expectations evolve, we will lean on financial (sustaining) gifts to keep Sound View afloat. It is my sincere goal that in the next few years, we can claim that 10% of our revenue comes from donations - especially monthly giving. A healthy non-profit often requires an even greater percentage - especially if the goal is to serve more people while keeping rates affordable.
To end this year and in the days leading to Giving Tuesday, we aim to do the unusual; running two campaigns at the same time.
One campaign, as detailed in an earlier post, will hopefully encourage new monthly givers for the Sound View Fund. These donations will help with many of the financial obligations that make running camp “crazy-hard”. I really hope that you will be able to make a generous monthly gift.
The other campaign will raise money to repair, refresh, and revamp the high ropes course. A LOT has changed since our course was built in the early 1990s. Not only has technology evolved which renders much of our course obsolete, but the trees have grown (which affects everything). Our program has grown too! We need to be able to run the course year-round with a smaller staff which requires 21st Century changes. From now to Giving Tuesday, I will talk about the ropes course in future posts so you can learn more.
We hope to raise $50,000 to get the course up and running by this spring. Your generous gifts will make this happen.
We depend on donations of to keep Sound View thriving and affordable. Without funding, we could not very well maintain our one-hundred acre site, nor could we guarantee that all kids can come to Sound View, regardless of their family’s ability to pay.
Right now, we hope to significantly add many more monthly donors.
Sound View Fund: Monthly gifts are crucial for the overall camp operation. Taking good care of a large wooded property with all the pitfalls of keeping it “real and rustic” requires money. We work hard to be thrifty and good fiscal stewards while at the same time responding to what nature throws at us to keep trails, shoreline, buildings, and program areas looking their best.
In 2019, the Sound View Camp Outdoor Education program was the "new kid on the block" and just beginning to take off when the pandemic struck. We developed our program to be an affordable option for those shut out of the larger, more established camps because of price or availability. Sound View is pretty remarkable - not fancy - but not set in its ways to keep a school from doing what curriculum/activities are best for their students.
I am so excited that the Outdoor Education for All Bill passed the Legislature. Throughout my forty years of camping, I have seen how kids react to the out-of-doors and know that the hands-on learning of an OEE experience benefits students, teachers, and the future. It was sad to see so many schools cutting back on this worthwhile experience because of the lack of funding. The new bill will hopefully lead to growth of outdoor learning.
I am also happy that pre-pandemic schools are beginning to grab dates for next spring. We have more prime dates, both spring and fall, available for others as well. Please let me know if I can help you get started with planning, a tour of camp, or to answer any questions about our program.
The Americorps NCCC Gold 8 team arrived on Friday afternoon and got straight to work on Saturday and Sunday. The ten-member team, from the East Coast and Midwest are excited to experience our Pacific Northwest rain after spending the last few months in sunny California.
Gold 8 will be at Sound View for over six weeks and will be undertaking a lot of environmental projects including trail management, timber harvest cleanup, waterfront projects, signage, and numerous other things that can only be done by an enthusiastic national service team.
Saturday (in the sunshine) and Sunday (in the pouring rain), the team inventoried and restacked the lumber shed so they and others can easily find wood for various projects..
Even when serving multiple groups spread out within our nearly 100 acres, a small, talented staff team strives to offer programs and opportunities to appreciate this remarkable site.
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Our high-fenced garden is pretty cool! Thanks to heroic efforts by AmeriCorps NCCC, and Nancyrose Houston (and friends) the garden is easy to plant and easy to maintain with the help of all of our campers and guest. For 2022, it will have two purposes.
Fresh veggies will grow in the raised beds. Our wood-fired pizza oven is a popular family camp activity and building a pizza with the freshest of toppings is an added bonus.
Fall camping means pumpkins. Decorate your campsite or cabin porch with a Sound View Pumpkin!
Each of our spring weekends has time allotted for families to help prepare,plant, and weed the garden so everyone can enjoy the harvest time. Make a point of camping with us as everything turns green again.
It’s a sad day. Today we lost the patriarch of the Sound View Farm. Bilbo has lived at Camp since early 2017 when he was rescued with our original menagerie of sheep and goats. Bilbo was their great Protector, always aware of the surroundings and their safety. Bilbo was a favorite of our staff and visitors. We will miss him terribly. He was loved and spoiled these past five years, as it should be. He was elderly and began to suffer from arthritis. We sat with him and gave him his final hugs and love as he crossed over the rainbow bridge. There will be no more pain. He is at peace. We will miss you Bilbo. We love you. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Bilbo Memorial Fund to help support Bilbo’s last home and final resting place.
Every kid deserve to be outdoors when spring finally comes. Starting April 2, Camp Sound View will offer a day camp each Saturday so everyone can enjoy some great adventures outside with friends, old and new
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Check out what’s going on at Sound View for youth and teens this summer!
THREE SESSIONS of overnight camp for ages 9 to 14
FIVE WEEKS of our unique Day by Day Camp for kids, ages 6 to 12.
LEADERS IN TRAINING (LIT) is back. This summer, they will be working with day campers..
When we introduced our new Outdoor Environmental Education (OEE) program in 2018, we wanted to make sure that kids whose schools did not provide this valuable experience has a chance to learn in our program. So, we offered the same adventure during the weeks of spring break. Not only did the participants benefit, but the Sound View spring staff gained some great “kid experience” to prepare them for the busier months of OEE.
Because we were safely able to run summer camp in 2021, we feel that we can once again offer two Spring Break camps using what we learned to prevent COVID exposure. This includes requiring proof of vaccination, testing, and establishing sleeping and program cohorts early. With spring break camps being a mostly outdoor experience, this is easy.
Because our family campground is in place, we also can offer the ability for some spring breakers to participate while lodging with their families that book Shire cabins over spring break. All can enjoy great food in the dining hall and shared evening programs.
Sadly, we know that schools may not be offering OEE trips for their students this year for various reasons - all related to the ongoing pandemic. However, we are fortunate to be able to reboot our own successful program to fill the void.
