Making a Movie

On the Monday morning after Dinner Theater was completed, John and Diane Windle, along with all the members of Hairy and Company descended upon the beautifully constructed set to film their second movie.  April and I enjoyed working with John and Diane and the puppets for four full days of shooting.  I cared for the lighting, sound, and shooting and April was our “Best Boy”! Her responsibilities ranged from operating the second camera, to helping with meals, and caring for the puppets’ costumes.

Now that the majority of the shooting is done, I have been working on the editing.  We still have several items to shoot, but the rest of the time will consist of editing the shots, overdubbing the puppet voices, and cleaning up the colors.

It was really a learning experience and I enjoyed working with John and Diane on this project.  We don’t have an official release date yet, but I’d anticipate it would be sometime late spring.  Keep tuned in for more details and a preview soon.

Break a Leg!

The was the fourth year that Camp has been able to present a Christmas Dinner Theater for our community.  This years’ production was titled “Stranger in the Attic” and was a complex story regarding several families getting together to celebrate their final Christmas on the farm.  It dealt with personal aspirations, familial relationships, and the grace of God extended to sinners.  It was truly a deep and colorful performance.

I am certainly not good at acting, so instead of helping as a cast member, I was able to run the lighting and the sound effects.  You should have seen how people would jump when I would cue the shotgun sound effect! 

My sisters Hannah and Katelyn working on the “Dinner” part of the Dinner Theater

Makeup!

Rebeccah Hopkins played “Lois”, an eccentric, organic food-eating spouse. Quite humorous!

If you’d like to join us for next years’ Dinner Theater, make sure to order your tickets right away! We sold out all five performances and had a large waiting list as well!  Next year we plan to do 7 shows, so let us know if you’d like to come.

Fall Deer Season 09

Memories were made that will last a lifetime during this year’s fall deer season!

I have had the privilege of joining Mike Poulos and Larry Guthrie at Harvest Home Farm.  On the Thursday evening before season started I traveled down to the farm.  Friday was spent smoking some chickens with applewood in my smoker.  They made for a terrific dinner!

5:30 on Saturday morning I headed out with all the guys to the deer stands.  The place I was sitting was on the edge of a field.  As we left the house we realized that it was very foggy!  After fumbling around in the dark and fog, I made it up into the stand.  It was certainly an eery scene to watch it get lighter.  Two does came out on the edge of the field but it was too foggy to make a shot.  They only stayed in shooting range for a few minutes and then disappeared into the fog.

At 7:40 I heard some sounds off to my right.  Craning my neck, I tried to see what was making the scratching and rustling.  I probably looked that way for 3 or 4 minutes before I realized that I should probably scan the field to see what might be out there.  I slowly turned my head back to the right and to my absolute astonishment I saw a deer that had large antlers walking straight towards me.  He was only about 40 yards away but still was masked in some fog.  I quickly raised my rifle, picked a spot through the scope, and pulled the trigger.  He turned and ran into the tall grass and shrubs.  There was some crashing and then it was quiet.

I was so excited so I called Mike on the radio… “Mike, I think I shot a big one!”  He told me to stay in the stand for at least 10 minutes to let things settle before going to check out the buck.  I made it 7!

So, here are some pictures

Mike Poulos and me

Larry Guthrie and me