Saturday, January 24, 2009

Badger Creek Überblick Day 3

Saturday 24th

7:30 a.m. Pack up
Well it was before that that Stephen Madsen woke me up and told me we need to start on Breakfast. He was right. He had tried to wake up Rachel, who was in charge of this ordeal, but to no avail. Everyone else in the room heard him asking for her, but they thought since she didn't respond that she had already left the room. Oops. I didn't pack up until later.

8:00 a.m. Breakfast
Breakfast was fun until they ran out of baked potatoes. The french toast was amazing and the crew worked well. then they worked even better once Rachel got in there. All of my team was down there working on it all. Finally Company C came down frozen and got some cocoa, but I had no idea no where my cider was and with that was my mixer. Just a quick overview of what you can expect to be there. No I have no idea if it's food storage, but a lot has been left behind. For food you'll find butter, syrup, pancake mix, almost any spice and vanilla extract. Gear: Stand mixer, regular and giant, (they do have a whisk, I should have gotten a picture of the one they had, it was huge.) Huge convection oven, giant griddle, gas stove, mixing bowls and tons of pitchers. They even had cups and 1000 count plastic utensil sets.

9:00 a.m. Company Time
while everyone cleaned up the place some of us went down with all the gear to pack the cars and take down the sleds. After that we met in our company and discussed what we thought our company should do. We voted on Embroidery. It worked. So no we'll have to get together and create a team and mission and financials, plus pitch the idea to the board.

11:00 a.m. Leave Badger
We left

12:00 p.m. Arrive at Rexburg
We Arived

The End!!!

Friday, January 23, 2009

Badger Creek Überblick Day 2 Part 2

Friday 23rd

1:00 p.m. 5th and 6th Team rotations and processing
This afternoon was filled with more awesome activities. We started off with a trust exercise that grew. Well we all got into two circles and one person closed their eyes and got pushed around. This is scary for me in two ways. Both of which have something to do with BIG GUYS. Number one is pushing a big guy into me (a not too little, but small enough). Then when it was my turn, number two comes into play. I think I flew from one person to another at one point. The next was an actual

Trust Fall
You know the drill 8+ people stand with arms outstretched and you stand on a pedestal and fall backwards (straight) and hope they catch you. I went first to prove to myself that I could it better than I did in scout camp many years ago. The hint on that one is this: "Pretend you are squeezing a penny between your butt cheeks." - Brother Clark. It works, it really works!

Spider's Web
Another "Rush to do it" by my company in this one. We do a really good job of it. Basic premise, bungee cords strung up web-like. Then you have to (without talking) pass everyone through holes to the other side without touching the web. the one thing that helped us was to pick a whole you knew you could go through. That's all I'm going to give as a hint on that.

Giant Swing
I went first again and like the Power Pole from the day before I was most afraid of ending it too soon. I was holding onto a short bit of rope that help my two caribeeners together and it started to slip the further/higher I got. Here is Rachel Huey going at it. This was priceless.


4:00 p.m. Company Initiatives
Now this was some fun stuff. Since this is getting long as is and I'm pretty sure you're tired of hearing about Badger Creek... What? You're not, you want more. Ok!

Rock, Paper, Scissors
Ultimate RPS fights. No strategy here so you'll just have to deal with this one on your own.

Snow Shoe Relay
Much like the ski relay from the day before, but this time it was one person on a pair of snow shows that were made out of all wood and then straps. No mesh and it was difficult to tie on and keep them on in the run. We got lapped by the other company. Why yes I am still bitter! j/k

Save the Chicken
Last one guys! You have to pick the three least talkative people to control the situation. No one can talk at all and they have to direct you. The object is to use a rope and all the people you need to get a rubber chicken from this ring of 10-12 feel (snow for us) lava, and by not touching it, rescue the "baby". We had a great idea and I'm never telling you how we did it. No I won't, even if you pay me $20 to my paypal account at acieffe@gmail.com to which I would reply by email with the way to do it. Still not going to do it. *shifts eyes*

6:00 p.m. Dinner
Such a relief to know we weren't going so far to the camp site, just to the lodge and then a good dinner. Alright I am going to openly say I was pretty stupid (Rachel, stop agreeing) about the way I handled dinner. I made multiple mistakes. All of which (except the potatoes) could have been remedied with a bit of looking around. As for the potatoes, I should have had them cooked before we came up. Potatoes take about an hour to bake, which we had the time, but I helped complain about not having enough time that it prolonged the cooking of other things to about an hour. But dinner overall was a success.

After dinner, some went to go sledding. I chose to stay and chat and relax. I had enough fun in the kitchen for the night. I did find a cool book about frontier toys. After the sledding those that did not go to bed, played card games or talked till about 12:00 or even 1:00. I stayed up for a while talking (ok I just listened) with Brother Clark and listen to Jonathan Sarlo's "How I Joined the Church" story. I really enjoyed Brother Clark's transition from politics to, "So Gabby, where are you from?" that was funny. After that I went to bed. Good Night and Good Luck.

Badger Creek Überblick Day 2 Part 1

Friday 23rd
I woke up multiple times during the night. It was rumored to be less -5 F. I finally woke up at about a quarter to 6 am. I knew I would and winder if I basically told myself to do it. But I was freezing. I had one sleeping bad rated at 5 F. and I did ok. I decided to change into my clothes for the day and start packing up. I tried to not wake people up, but even though no one else moved, most everyone was awake. By the time I stood up to pack my sleeping bag, Brother Wescott came in and told us to rise and shine. It wasn't until 7:45 that we all were ready to travel down to the lodge to get breakfast. Here are some pictures of the tent and the Yert (inside and out). Sorry everyone, those were the last of the pictures. My battery on my phone was dead except for a video that was completely worth taking. I feel a bit bad, I wanted a picture of a tree that had fallen and broken over a little cabin. Oh well.

8:00 a.m. Breakfast
Breakfast was not very exciting, the food was good, but no real morals found here with breakfast burritos.

9:00 a.m. Company and Team Time – Sheets
So we left the lodge with a few things to put in the cars and some water bottles for the day ahead and pushed/pulled the sled to the L.C. We went upstairs and drew on a sheet, well we traced Tyler Harper and put words we wanted to be manifested in our company inside his outline and outside were things we didn't want in our company. That was fun. We then went over our individual team company ideas. We had horse drawn sleigh rides, funnel cakes, button and t-shirts, embroidery, some one mentioned valet service and a Bigger and Better game. Anyway we narrowed it down to the sleigh rides, funnel cakes, and embroidery. They gave compelling arguments. Then Brother Holt came up and told us the rules...
12:00 p.m. Lunch
It was lunch time and our teams needed a cheer to get lunch. Now No one was prepared and both companies were upstairs now. A couple teams went but got rejected. Yes Brother Holt and Brother Clark will reject your pathetic lame and otherwise stupid cheer and you will have to do it again. Or they will tell you to do something completely different. We went third but were the first to go down to get food. Subway sandwiches, chips, and snickers. And all the water you could fit in your bottle. There were two honorable mentions in the cheer contest outside our own. C4 (get it) did this circle around the caller:
caller: C1
team: What?
caller: C2
team: What?
caller: C3
team: What?
caller: C4
team: BOOM! (and they jumped back as if to explode)
The other team D7 did this in a line.
caller: I don't know what I've been told
team: I don't know what I've been told
caller: Team D7 is really bold
team: Team D7 is really bold (to which they tried to walk past Brother Holt and go get food) that was Ballsy!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Badger Creek Überblick Day 1 Part 2

Thursday 22nd
After lunch we went upstairs in the "L.C." and we went over more things about what to expect with this retreat. We learned that there was going to be an activity then a discussion about what we learned and how it might relate to business. (by the way, we were supposed to have read Good To Great Chapter 1-3 by the time we got there. We didn't even mention it once. Alright, we did once but it was in reference to an activity, we didn't have a quiz or anything at all. The only thing I can think of that we needed from it was the "Level 5 Leaders" thing and not even that.)
Before we could get going on our activities, we had to build sleds which would be used for activities and for carrying our gear up a long hill. This is the making process and then a picture of a finished product. These were 5 years old and had been made and then taken down each year. Only for the winter, so it's not that bad. But you could almost tell which screw hole came from what year. A tip on how to accomplish this task is to have your team pick a diagram reader. Identify each piece and have two people working on each side and one working on the middle pieces. It will run smooth. Make sure each person knows their job. (this would have been easier if you had a cordless mini drill... I'm just saying)

12:30 p.m. 1st and 2nd Team rotations and processing
Our first stop on our wilderness survival camp out was with Brother Wescott. He showed us these nifty things. The device is used by groups of people on avalanche areas. If one person goes missing, the rest turn their devices to search and they should be able to find other transmitting device. There are some problems. The device transmits in a butterfly pattern and not in a radius. So you can easily be thrown off course. The trick is to follow the numbers and not really the arrows. Here's a picture of Jonathan Sarlo and Rachel Huey searching for the hidden transmitter. Also in our time here, we played with a rope trick. Nope, I'm not telling you how to do it, but I will tell you this... You don't need to contort yourselves.
Next section was another duo set of games lead by Brother Clark.
Prison Wall:
You have to get everyone up and over this wall. We tried a few times. One of these pictures is of Jonathan trying to jump up as the last person and failing. We couldn't speak while the game was going on, but we could when not and revise our plans. We finally figured out a great strategy that got us everyone in a record time. Now I don't mind the time thing, but we started a trend in our company that I didn't like much. We rushed into things too quickly. I understand that if you fail fail fast and learn from it. But as an entrepreneur, I learned that we don't take risk, we manage it. It's not my style to "Ready, shoot, aim!" We did this with almost every activity.
Life Raft:
Here we were to swing on a rope over a little bit of ground "freezing river" and land on the raft. All 17 of us were to fit on the wooden area "raft" to survive. "No child left behind" So we tried again and again and failed. I came up with a plan that failed even worse (getting on shoulders does not help... it hurts). I think one thing that did help is that we started to get hot and some of us started to shed layers. 15 people on that thing in full winter garb was tough, 17 with a little less worked barely. Here's a picture from inside the group and one from Brother Clark's POV. No Electronics my patootie!

3:00 p.m. 3rd and 4th Team rotations and processing
John Colter's Run:
I only have one picture of this. The other got warped by tilting the camera too quick, but Here we heard a quaint story of running that hardly had anything to do with what needed to be done. Then the race began. This section will be completely blank as to details because it is best left a secret. I'll tell you this in warning, "running, fire, listen to directions carefully". Plus a shout out goes to Gabby for... well she knows! Hey if I told you, that would be cheating.

Power Pole:
Are you scared of heights? Do you hate falling? Then this is for you. Oh wait. NOT for you. Actually I take it back. This might help you get over it. Here we got strapped up and climbed a tall pole and jumped off trying to hit a tennis ball about 5 feet in front of us. Not all of us did it. I did it, but I couldn't say it was a stretch for me. I'd been cliff jumping and other things to realize, the gear is good and I'm not afraid. But I was afraid. I found a new fear. A fear that grips me in my daily life. The fear that it will end too soon. I climbed up the pole, much like the pictures of Stephen here. I got to the top and turned around and at that point I found myself scared. Not of falling, but falling too soon. What if I fall and I don't get to jump? What if I lose my footing and end it now? I hated the thoughts. I did get up there and stood tall and yelled, "Oh Captain, my Captain!" To me it was a moving moment, but many younger than me would not get the reference. I was touched by the movie "Dead Poet's Society" to live life. Here's the ending sequence of the movie. Rent it!
6:00 p.m. Dinner
After running in the John Colter's Run and jumping off a tall pole we were not ready to experience our trip to the top. We got our gear from the cars and ventured up the hill. It was dark and the path unlit. It was tough to pushing a sled up a hill for an unknown amount of time. There could be some real nice symbolism, but I'll let you draw that. We finally made it up to the camping area. There were a couple of regular tents, one huge tent and a yert. Did he say "yert" I believe I did. I'll show you later the picture. We had dinner, talked for a bit, but everyone seemed to be too tired to really do anything else. I went to bed, but had a tough time getting to sleep. My body was tired, but mind full awake. Plus it didn't help that a couple of guys were talking about farts for most of the night.
And that's where I'll leave you... till morning!

Badger Creek Überblick Day 1 Part 1

Thursday 22nd

7:00 a.m. Leave Rexburg
I went a picked up Colette Brown at her Apartment at 6:50 am and met up with Shane Ririe. The others in the team met up with us there and then we left for Badger Creek a couple of minutes after 7:00. The drive was clear and weather was fine. Shane Colette and I talked the way up about our aspirations and we got to know each other a bit better.

8:00 a.m. Arrive at Badger and Ice Breakers
We arrived at 7:50 and were the fourth car there. After waiting for people to show up and getting our snow gear on, we started the activities. Companies C & D gathered around in a big circle and Brother Holt spoke to us about what the days events would entail... sort of. He told us we would be working in companies and teams and then have our packed lunch at some point and then do more stuff and then get ready for the night. Vague I know! He then introduced Bensky and his wife who are the student "managers" of the Badger Creek "resort" and then introduced us to Brother Wescott. I'm pretty sure this is him, but he has aged a bit, covered in snow and has a mustache. Anyway he talked to us about staying warm, how we react to cold, and then got us doing activities to break us out of our shells and stretch.We then played a couple of games: name games, pass the hoop around the circle of people while hands are held. We then played a couple of competition games. First off was a ski relay race.The point was to show us how to work in a team. For each game there was something to be learned, but it would take too much to explain what everyone got out of each... That's what comments are for! Next game was a snow tower building contest. Our company won that one by building the tallest and in the time limit. You can see here Doug Guptill in the center walking away from our tower. The last game before lunch was a snowball slingshotting into buckets to pour into another bucket.

11:30 a.m. Lunch
We then ate Lunch. Poor Shane and Chris forgot theirs. I would recommend for those reading this for future companies, bring extra. inevitably someone will forget. Share the wealth!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Days Before Badger Creek

Monday was a Holiday. Tuesday we met together as a group for our focus group and found out our ideas were only half good and half bad. That is 50% liked one idea and 50% liked the other, and neither were liked well enough. Wednesday, we went shopping for all the goods. The results of the polls for food was Unanimous for French Toast and Bacon for breakfast, to which I found a recipe for Denny's Style French Toast. But for Dinner we were at a standstill, so I had some help deciding on Cordon Blue, baked potatoes, rolls, salad and Orange Julius. Here are the recipes for the French Toast and Orange Julius for you to make at home.

Denny's Style French Toast
Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 slices Texas toast thick bread
• 3 tablespoons butter
• powdered sugar
• butter
• syrup
Directions
1 Mix together the eggs, milk, flour, sugar, & salt with vanilla & cinnamon mixture.
2 Heat a large skillet, or griddle.
3 When the skillet is hot, add 1 tablespoon butter.
4 If the butter smokes, your pan is too hot; turn down the heat.
5 Dip each slice of bread into the batter for 30 seconds on each side.
6 Let some of the batter drip off, then put in skillet.
7 Cook each slice 1 1/2-2 minutes per side until each side is golden brown.
8 Add more butter, if necessary, to cook all of the slices.
9 To serve, put on plate, dust with powdered sugar. Serve with butter & hot syrup.

Orange Julius
Ingredients

• 3 ounces frozen orange juice concentrate
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 5-6 ice cubes
Directions
1 Blend all ingredients. (duh)

Most of the food was bought at Winco in Idaho Falls and we got a few items at Broulim's in Rexburg. Now all we had to do was transport ourselves, our gear and the food up to Badger Creek the tomorrow morning.