OP
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
Pat,
The level of satisfaction that I had when seeing those kids playing in the water was just off the scale. It was always my goal with building the lake to create something that lots of people could enjoy at the same time. One day, I hope to have ten times as many people there!!!
When I think back on my childhood, I don't remember TV, playing with friends, or most of the day to day stuff. If I try, it's there, but what jumps out at me is those times that we went camping. That might explain allot about who I am and why I'm here, but those trips really left a big impression on me. Hopefully you are correct and these kids will also look back at this as something special in their lives.
Since the pastor is my brother in law, they have an open invitation to come back whenever they want. He's working on the details for their next time.
Toro,
Thank you.
Rob,
Thank you. We've been very fortunate how things have worked out. More then once, I thought I had bitten off more then I could handle. I look back on the entire process and wonder what I was thinking. From the dam, you can see the creek that is my property line and then into the neighbors land. It is totally undesterbed and exactly what my place looked like before I started building Lake Marabou. I just wonder who that guy was who thought it was possible to do this?
The porta-potty was a lesson learned the hard way!!! hahaha I see them all over the place, and have used them on jobsites that I've been on, but I've never rented one of my own, so that's my excuse for not thinking of it beforehand. Like all good mistakes, it's realizing that it WAS a mistake and learnign from it to eliminate it from happening again.
Rob,
We really do have great weather here most of the year. I know people don't understand how we deal with those summer months in the 90's and 100's with the high humidity, but the rest of the year it's VERY pleasant outside.
The campfire was a HUGE hit with the kids, but of course, who doesn't love a campfire? I had a fair sized stack of wood for them to burn, but another lesson learned was to have more wood available then we think we'll need. My guess is that it will all get burned no matter how much is there!!
Kendrick,
I'm an Eagle Scout with a Bronze Palm, and I have allot of great memories of cooking with a dutch oven. My absolute favorite is the cobblers that we would make. I think blackberry was my favorite, but I like peach too. Most of the meals that we cooked for ourselves were pretty sad at best, but the cobbler was something the scout leaders would do themselves, and it was always perfect!!!!!
As the landowner, I chose to remove myself from the cooking operation of the campout. I don't like to cook anyways, so there's no way I'm getting involved in it for 25 kids!!! hahaha I sat back and played with the fire a little while watching that scenerio work itself out. All I can say is that I'm very impressed with the parents ability to stay calm and get them all fed.
Be sure to start a thread when you build your dry hydrant. Anytime somebody is moving dirt, it's allot of fun for the rest of us.
Rox,
You're right, my Dad spent allot of hours on the dozer clearing timber and working on Lake Marabou. He and my Mom are just amazing with how hard they work and their determination to stick with what they are doing. I know allot of people a quarter of their ages who give up and quit when working on soemthing that's no where near as dificult as this project was. They are my role models and heroes.
As for sending the kids out into the woods, you just don't do that here. We have allot of snakes here, and most of them are poisonous. Around the lake, there are cotton mouth's and copper heads, in the woods, there are rattle snakes and I've been told, coral snakes. Snake bites are very common here for pets and even people. I don't know of any deaths to people around here from them, but the emergancy vet here has cats and dogs coming in every night during the warm weather from snake bites. I had a cat that was bit by a cotton mouth when I lived in Tyler that recovered, only to disapear a few months later. Probably got bit again, but we don't know for sure.
A few of the parents did mention a snipe hunt, but in the end they decided against it with so many kids and the danger of snakes. It's just not something anybody feels comfortable about with young kids who don't pay attention to where they are going, to have them out running around in the dark. Better to keep them close and around the campfire.
Pat,
I was thinking snipe hunt too when reading Rox's post.
We did try to organize a few games for the kids during the day, but it was just too much to get them organized. They all broke apart into doing different things. Some were fishing, others were boating, some were fishing and some were just into exploring the shoreline. There were kids everywhere, doing what they wanted to do. We felt that was about as good as it's gonna get, so we let them enjoy themselves.
Steph's Dad called us the other day and said that for his birthday, he wants to have his party here at our place. He asked if it was alright to invite a bunch of friends and family over to go fishing, hiking and exploring this Saturday. We've been trying to get him and the family to realize that they are always welcome out here and that we want them to come take advantage of the land and what we've created. It's why we're doing what we're doing with it. He was one of the parents at the campout, and he stayed here when we went to California to watch the house, and I think it's finally hit him that this is his get-away place to escape the real world. He also tried out our hot tub, which was the first time in his life that he's been in one, and he LOVED it. Now he wants to get his wife in there this weekend since she's never been in one either.
Looks like another party for us!!!!
Eddie
The level of satisfaction that I had when seeing those kids playing in the water was just off the scale. It was always my goal with building the lake to create something that lots of people could enjoy at the same time. One day, I hope to have ten times as many people there!!!
When I think back on my childhood, I don't remember TV, playing with friends, or most of the day to day stuff. If I try, it's there, but what jumps out at me is those times that we went camping. That might explain allot about who I am and why I'm here, but those trips really left a big impression on me. Hopefully you are correct and these kids will also look back at this as something special in their lives.
Since the pastor is my brother in law, they have an open invitation to come back whenever they want. He's working on the details for their next time.
Toro,
Thank you.
Rob,
Thank you. We've been very fortunate how things have worked out. More then once, I thought I had bitten off more then I could handle. I look back on the entire process and wonder what I was thinking. From the dam, you can see the creek that is my property line and then into the neighbors land. It is totally undesterbed and exactly what my place looked like before I started building Lake Marabou. I just wonder who that guy was who thought it was possible to do this?
The porta-potty was a lesson learned the hard way!!! hahaha I see them all over the place, and have used them on jobsites that I've been on, but I've never rented one of my own, so that's my excuse for not thinking of it beforehand. Like all good mistakes, it's realizing that it WAS a mistake and learnign from it to eliminate it from happening again.
Rob,
We really do have great weather here most of the year. I know people don't understand how we deal with those summer months in the 90's and 100's with the high humidity, but the rest of the year it's VERY pleasant outside.
The campfire was a HUGE hit with the kids, but of course, who doesn't love a campfire? I had a fair sized stack of wood for them to burn, but another lesson learned was to have more wood available then we think we'll need. My guess is that it will all get burned no matter how much is there!!
Kendrick,
I'm an Eagle Scout with a Bronze Palm, and I have allot of great memories of cooking with a dutch oven. My absolute favorite is the cobblers that we would make. I think blackberry was my favorite, but I like peach too. Most of the meals that we cooked for ourselves were pretty sad at best, but the cobbler was something the scout leaders would do themselves, and it was always perfect!!!!!
As the landowner, I chose to remove myself from the cooking operation of the campout. I don't like to cook anyways, so there's no way I'm getting involved in it for 25 kids!!! hahaha I sat back and played with the fire a little while watching that scenerio work itself out. All I can say is that I'm very impressed with the parents ability to stay calm and get them all fed.
Be sure to start a thread when you build your dry hydrant. Anytime somebody is moving dirt, it's allot of fun for the rest of us.
Rox,
You're right, my Dad spent allot of hours on the dozer clearing timber and working on Lake Marabou. He and my Mom are just amazing with how hard they work and their determination to stick with what they are doing. I know allot of people a quarter of their ages who give up and quit when working on soemthing that's no where near as dificult as this project was. They are my role models and heroes.
As for sending the kids out into the woods, you just don't do that here. We have allot of snakes here, and most of them are poisonous. Around the lake, there are cotton mouth's and copper heads, in the woods, there are rattle snakes and I've been told, coral snakes. Snake bites are very common here for pets and even people. I don't know of any deaths to people around here from them, but the emergancy vet here has cats and dogs coming in every night during the warm weather from snake bites. I had a cat that was bit by a cotton mouth when I lived in Tyler that recovered, only to disapear a few months later. Probably got bit again, but we don't know for sure.
A few of the parents did mention a snipe hunt, but in the end they decided against it with so many kids and the danger of snakes. It's just not something anybody feels comfortable about with young kids who don't pay attention to where they are going, to have them out running around in the dark. Better to keep them close and around the campfire.
Pat,
I was thinking snipe hunt too when reading Rox's post.
We did try to organize a few games for the kids during the day, but it was just too much to get them organized. They all broke apart into doing different things. Some were fishing, others were boating, some were fishing and some were just into exploring the shoreline. There were kids everywhere, doing what they wanted to do. We felt that was about as good as it's gonna get, so we let them enjoy themselves.
Steph's Dad called us the other day and said that for his birthday, he wants to have his party here at our place. He asked if it was alright to invite a bunch of friends and family over to go fishing, hiking and exploring this Saturday. We've been trying to get him and the family to realize that they are always welcome out here and that we want them to come take advantage of the land and what we've created. It's why we're doing what we're doing with it. He was one of the parents at the campout, and he stayed here when we went to California to watch the house, and I think it's finally hit him that this is his get-away place to escape the real world. He also tried out our hot tub, which was the first time in his life that he's been in one, and he LOVED it. Now he wants to get his wife in there this weekend since she's never been in one either.
Looks like another party for us!!!!
Eddie
