How to get rid of a hornet from the thunder dome - Sasha Sachs 

At Keenerville we have multiple hornets nests and they can get pretty scary, especially when the black and yellow creatures appear next to you while you’re eating your dinner. To avoid this sticky situation follow this manual written by me.

Step one: Identify the insect

If its a wasp you are better off leaving it alone but if it is indeed a hornet continue with the process.

Step two: Decide on the solution and gather your supplies

There are two  possible ways to deal with a wild hornet, you can either trap it and bring it outside or you can kill it. If you are trapping the hornet you  will need a water bottle or container and a piece of paper. If  you are killing it you will  need emotional support and a shoe.

Step three (trap):  

If you are trapping it you have to be patient. Wait until it lands on a flat surface and only then trap it. Once the hornet is trapped, quickly slide the paper underneath the container making sure there is no way to escape.

Step three (kill):

If you decide to kill the hornet you will also need to be patient and very careful. Wait for it to land on a hard surface, take a deep breathe because it may be your last. Take a step forward and start  violently smacking the hornet until it is clearly deceased. 

Step four (trap): 

Once the insect is trapped take it outside and throw the container as far away from you as possible. Next I advise you to sprint back inside and close all the doors.

Step four (kill): Disposing of the body:

Once you see the corpse stop moving you will have to get rid of the body. Take a pair of tweezers and gently pick it up. Next put it outside and pay your respects.

With these tips I hope you will be prepared for your next encounter.

 How to properly surf Odyssey- Charlotte Iles 

Step 1: You must go in upside down. This sounds scary but it's absolutely necessary ;).

Step 2: wait until it flips you upright. It might rip your paddle or helmet away but that just makes the story so much cooler when you're bragging.

Step 3: Surf. Surf. Surf. 
It's even better when you Dont actually realize you're in the hole. It might spit you out, or make you do cartwheels or flip you around and around until you Dont know what planet you're on but at least you tried.

Step 4: Get rescued, brag and write a blog about it.

 

How to deal with being homesick- Joshua Mendes 

1. Call or video call your parents.
2. Talk to your keener mom about it, they’ll likely be able to comfort you.
3. Talk to your friends about it, they may also have some ways to deal with it.
4. Get a good nights sleep, sometimes when your tired you are more emotional. That may mean going to bed before curfew, which is fine. 
5. Continue routines from home such as reading before bed.
6. Bring something that comforts you from home, such as a stuffed animal
7. Give yourself a big hug, sometimes thats all you need.
8. And finally, don’t bottle up your emotions inside.

 Sunburns: Noah Koppens 

Sunburns, what can I say about them other than they suck. I’m choosing this topic for my blog because, the first day here at keeners I managed to get a bad sunburn. We were hanging out at McCoys for the morning and we went back to “keenerville” where our cabins are to eat. After that we ran the main channel. On the first day I remembered sunscreen during the morning , however in the afternoon I forgot. So here’s a couple things I do now so I don’t make my sunburn worse and if you’re prone to sunburns as well you should do this too. Step 1. Wear something that has long sleeves. This can be a long sleeve shirt, rash guard, dry top or whatever you have to block the sun from your skin. Step 2. WEAR SUNSCREEN! I can’t stress this enough, whatever you do wear sunscreen and bring some with you on the river. If you forget or don’t have something too bring it in. Ask the people you are with if they have some, and if so ask if you can borrow it. If you don’t have any and they don’t have any your face and hands might get burnt but at least most of your skin is covered by something long. Once you have followed these steps you should be good to go on the river and not get burnt so bad that you are glowing red.

 Ear infections: Cam Richardson 

Ear infections are caused by too much time in river water. This happens when you don’t empty out you ear when you have been swimming or rolling. Trust me they hurt. I have had multiple ear infections before but this one I got at keepers was the worst one. A few things that I found helpful when treating an ear infection were: 

1. Filling a hot water bottle up with hot water with a cloth and resting it on your ear can help I lot. It relives I lot of the pain/pressure.

2. The second thing that can work is a warm 
wet cloth this sorta does the same thing as the hot water bottle but it will get
your ear wet.

3. The last tip I have for treating ear infections is STAY OFF THE WATER until you ear infection is gone! This tip can suck. However if you don’t it’s better than getting you ear wet and the possibility of having an even worse ear infection and missing out on a lot of kayaking. 

I hope these tips helped and stay safe on the water!

How to swim in rapids: Deacon Therrien 

First thing to know about a rapid before swimming it is 

A) is the water deep

B) are there any rocks

C) where am I swimming to

And D) is there anything or anybody in the rapid. 

Once you have cleared all those and are ready to swim you want to know how to swim, there are two different ways you can swim a rapid.

1- aggressively, this is where you face the rapids and are on your stomach swimming to them and through them. (This one is great because you can see where your going and you have more control over where your going)

2- defensively, this is where you are laying on your back, then letting the current take you into the rapid while having your arms out on your side controlling where you are going. (This one is less fun but more safe)

Once you have chosen which form you are swimming the rapid you want to slowly walk into the water this is called wading. Once you can’t touch or once you have a clear line on where your going through rapid you start your swim. Later during the swim you will go into one of the swimming techniques and try to get to an eddy or shore. 

Have fun swimming rapids!

 The Tornado: Nahla McNair 

It was a stormy night at Keener ville when the Keeners were settling down at the dinner table. They watched the lightning strike the trees on the other side of the river. The thunder started getting louder and the wind picked up. As Luke opened the door to get his camera to take pictures of the lightning, it ripped the door off the hinges and flew away. They start to realize that maybe this isn’t just a storm. They sprint to Robertson’s and hide in the rooms because they thought a tree was falling on the Thunderdome. “Get under the beds!” Savannah exclaimed. They quickly crawled under the beds and waited out the swirling tornado. Luckily everyone was fine and it was a happy ending.

 How to make the best scrambled eggs: Deacon Therrien 

Step 1: first you need to know how many people want eggs and how many they want. 

Step 2: secondly you wanna get everything ready to cook. First you wanna get all the eggs together cracked and in a bowl. Grab milk or cream to stir around with the eggs this will make them fluffy. 

Step 3: now you will want to turn on your the stove and get a pan heating on it. After you will want to put either vegetable cooking oil or butter to spread all on your pan this makes the eggs not stick to the pan. 

Step 4: time to cook your eggs. You will want to pour all the eggs on to the pan once you have done that now you want to stir/slush around the eggs until they are fully cooked. Now that they are cooked you are ready to serve your meal to all the other hungry keeners. 

Extra step: if wanted add salt and pepper while cooking.

 How to do a spin: Cam Richardson 

1. The first step of doing a spin is actually getting in to the wave. This step usually depends on the wave but considering the water levels right now the best surf wave to learn a spin is on Pushbutton. 

2. Getting on the wave can be difficult. However the best way to get on the wave is coming on the wave not too high and not too low of an angle. coming in on the left side of the wave using strong forward paddle strokes. Once your comfortably on the wave now you can start your spin! 

3. The first thing you do when you start a spin on your right side is a good powerful forward sweep stroke on your left side. Of course with a bit of down stream angle. 

4. Once you are back wards on the wave and looking up stream you will switch your angle and look up stream on the other side of your shoulder. While looking up stream you will take a big backward sweep stroke on your right side and Finnish your spin!

5. After you do your spin make sure to celebrate as you tell all your friends about your new skill of whitewater kayaking on the Ottawa river!

 How to overcome fear: Nahla McNair

Kayaking can be a nerve-wracking sport but remember it always ends up being a blast on the water! 

Step one: Breathe

Breathing is very important. Take as many deep breathes as needed to calm your brain and body down. Loosey-goosey baby!

Step two: Visualize 

Visualizing your ride can really help because you can prepare yourself for different scenarios. Which leads me into the next step…

Step three: Think of the worst scenario (but be realistic) 

This can insure that you will be ok, even if the worst thing happens. For example, the worst thing you can do is swim.

Step four: Be confident 

It’s important to believe in yourself and train your brain to be positive.

Step five: Face your fears

Now it’s time to just do whatever you were worried about and have fun facing your fears. Good luck!

 

How To Catch Garb- Joshua Mendes 

There are two ways to catch garburator wave, surfers right and left. In this blog I will be explaining how to catch the wave on surfers left. First, it is helpful to know how to surf smaller waves such as pushbutton and corner wave. Then you want to make sure the level is -3 to 0, but for the first time it is best to catch it at around -1. Next you are going to charge upstream close to the pour-over facing 11:00 while lifting your right edge. Then you keep paddling to jet ferry across until you are just past the small diagonal hole. After that you put a small left sweep stroke so that you are facing 1:00, lift your left edge, and start paddling upstream. Then lean slightly forward just as you hit the wave. Then if you want you can carve to the right side where its smoother. 

 Swimming in Whirlpools - Charlotte Iles 

Swimming in whirlpools is fun but sometimes you get taken a little too far, usually, they take you in for a bit but eventually decide they don't like you and shoot you back up to the surface. But sometimes, just sometimes they take you to a dungeon where even the fishes know to stay away.

When you get sucked into the dungeon beware of the trolls! If they find you, you will never get to the surface ever again. The easiest way out is to find the magic key. But to do that you need to go to the deepest part of the dungeon, where the most dangerous prisoners are kept, and answer their riddles (but beware! They will not be easy). Once you have answered the questions properly they will tell you the way to the magic key and that will teleport you back to the surface.

Now that you know how to survive a trip to the deep dungeon of the Ottawa river, make sure your friends don’t get sucked down there too 

 How to punch Chopping Block- Noah Koppens 

Right now the water level is -1 and Chopping Block is a hole on Butchers Knife. Chopping Block is in the middle of the rapid, so when you are running Butchers Knife, instead of sticking left and going around Chopping Block, you can go down the middle and through Chopping Block. The first time I went through this hole It was with Kalob Grady and another keener. This is what Kalob told us about punching this hole. Kalob said that Chopping Block is on an angle so when you hit it you want to either be leaning towards the hole and face downstream, Or that you can turn yourself and your boat so it’s pointing head on with this hole. Then Kalob told us that right before you hit it, you want your last stroke to be a big forwards stroke on your strong hand, and then lean forward against your boat and put your paddle beside you in your roll set up position which is called the tuck and duck. Once you get through this hole you can feel accomplished with yourself that you did it.

 Isaac Scouten Keener blog week one: Top eight things I learned this week.

       This was my first week at Keener camp and here are the top eight things I learned in order of

importance. First I learned that the flamingo of shame water wings turned into the flamingo of glory

with the right trick. The next thing I learned was that paddling 6hrs per day got better with time. Friday

was way better than Monday. In addition, with everyone else I learned that Tornado’s do happen at

Wilderness tours (never happened before in 45years, but it does when I show up) but at least for the

little ones, hiding under the bed works out. Next on the list nearly as important as living through a

tornado, is finding out they have spare nose plugs!! Mine broke the first day which was a major

tragedy. Getting new ones was almost as good as getting the flamingo of glory. Moving down the list

the next two items made me quite happy. On Monday I got my first spin ever! Next time it will be

intentional. I also got my first surf in Garb ever. Garb has always scared me a bit so it was lots of fun

catching it and being OK. I also got my first back surf in Garb. Next time it will be intentional. Finally it

was really great finding out that everyone at Keener camp is friendly and fun to paddle with. This place

is great and I’m looking forward to week 2.

 Cooking at keeners: Sasha Sachs 

Cooking at keeners is kind of like mandatory fun, there’s no way of avoiding it. Savannah and Kalob will force feed you if that’s  what it comes to. To avoid being force fed it is important to know how to cook by yourself and clean up. Over the  past few days of keeners the other girls and I have been trying to make hot meals. For breakfast we made scrambled eggs and the next day we made french toast. The obstacles with cooking in Yakistan are that our fridge is broken so every time we need to get  something we have to take the long, dreadful, and terrifying walk to white house. The other obstacle is that you won’t always have all of the ingredients and you will have to  learn how to substitute. For example we didn’t have cinnamon or vanilla while making french toast so we improvised and used Nutella. Substituting ingredients takes a lot of food knowledge to ensure what you’re making won’t cause an explosion, we wouldn’t want to set Yakistan into flames…again. This fine Saturday morning everyone is in first aid, I decided to take on the challenge of making pancakes. The pan has to be at the perfect temperature and the mix cant be lumpy. It takes strength and initiative to not give up. At keeners some of the goals are to make us independent and intelligent. Learning to cook can help with both of those things. You are no longer reliant on others and if someone is mad at you simply make them a good meal and they will forgive you. All in all cooking is a very important life skill so why not learn it sooner rather than later.