Floor it!

This December the dining hall had a makeover. The old yellow mosaic flooring was tiled over with new ceramic tiles. Its looks great and you should notice a difference the next time you come and visit Camp Squeah Retreat Centre.

The men's and women's washrooms were also tiled, but with red quarry tile (same as the in the kitchen).

Jim Nortons at the Squeah kitchen

Welcome to Jim Nortons!
In the grand traditional of the doughnuts that have bonded us as Canadians since the 1960s, our Asst. Cook/Pastry Chef Katie-Sue Stauffer created home-made doughnuts. Our visiting CMU OuttaTown group had a work day outside in the cold and were welcomed at their afternoon break by hot coffee and fresh doughnuts.

Katie-Sue trays up her creations

Chocolate-glazed and sugar-rolled temptations





Custard-filled Boston Creams

Coconut and coloured sprinkles

Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest. For some it means beer gardens and Bavarian music. But at Camp Squeah Retreat Centre it means a busy season of revolving groups in and out of camp 24/7. The kitchen ramps it up for the harvest season with pumpkin and apple pies and other special desserts, as well as the traditional turkey feasts for some of our groups.

Rachel Hannet piping up desserts.

Dizzy, our Australian import, prepping veg.

"Processing" tomatoes. They never knew what hit 'em.

Pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

Cherry cheese cake with mint garnish.

In just a short few weeks it will be over and we will enter the sleepier months starting with November. This is the time we review the past year and plan for next year.

The New Cool

On Monday, as our final group left early in the morning, we started the renovation of replacing our aging walk-in cooler and freezer units. Once the cooler box was dismantled and removed we found the interior to be in better shape than expected. Dismantling the freezer box is next, once it thaws out...

Emily Bowman and Melissa Brubacher will be supplying some feminine muscle to help us complete the project by Christmas. Thanks ladies!

Baby It's Cold Outside

Our vintage 1970s era walk-in cooler and freezer will both be replaced this December. They were purchased used from a major BC grocery retailer and installed in the brand new Squeah Lodge in 1975. After 38 years we are retiring our faithful cold storage.

Today we received the new boxes. They were unloaded and will be stored until the end of November when the kitchen shuts down over December for the renovation.

Dan Friesen coordinates the unloading of the panels.

Dave Wismath and Geoff Gould jump into action to take the crates apart.

All panels unloaded and stored until November 25th (start for our renovation).

Peter Pumpkinhead

Our new-this-year Head Chef Tony Thompson decided to give pumpkins a try this year in the Squeah garden. I had my doubts, but God made sure we got something out of the patch this Fall.

We only grew one, but it's a biggie.

Squeah Goes Whole Hog

We recently were donated 3 whole pigs from MennoFarmer Walter Bergen (6 Masters Farm). It totalled about 350 lbs. of meat. We had Johnston's Meats in Chilliwack do the butchering, but our new Head Chef Tony Thompson wanted to cut down the halfs himself. It has been 30+ years since Tony has been a butcher, but he was up to the task. Here is a photo of the 3 pigs/6 halfs that we picked up from Johnston's. Tony was surprised how much he remembered from "back in the day" and made short work of the little oinkers.