This week I’m actually not at the Honda shop, but at a summer camp. For several years now I’ve spent some time each year working at camp. I usually work with the facility maintenance guys. We do stuff like work on buildings, cut down trees, split firewood, and fix anything that’s broken.

To do all that we have plenty of tools. I love the giant mix of tools we have, from all kinds of brands. Whatever tool we need, we probably have somewhere. Some tools, like hammers, we have like ten of, cause on a big building project a lot of guys need a hammer.

But what I really love is the camp vehicles, starting with the truck. These are junkyard trucks, not road worthy, but free when we trade in our last junk truck when it’s finally good and dead. Every truck has its quirks. The one pictured here had no muffler, both side mirrors were broken, and it had bad shocks. I loved rumbling along, bouncing down the roads.

The truck we had before it was an extended cab Chevy with the rear window busted out. Because there weren’t rear doors it made it a lot easier to get in the back seat, because we could just climb through the window.

Currently we have a Ford, and a couple weeks ago someone broke off the key in the ignition. We got it shoved in farther so we can still start it, there’s just no key you can take out.

Oh, the Gator. One of the most coveted vehicles to drive. My favorite it always getting to put it in 4WD, low range, and lock the differential and go slogging through a muddy trail. Last summer I got to use my mechanic experience on it when it needed a new coilover shock installed in the front. It was fun getting to work on something so different and yet similar than a car.

The tractor is the one vehicle I don’t drive. However, I’ve spent a lot of time around it, hooking up log chains to drag around the trees we cut down. It’s always fun watching them pull down trees using a long cable attached to the tractor. Last summer I got to help with replacing the rear window. It was pretty tricky, trying to get the hinges lined up right to get the nuts on.

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-Dan