Guest Blog post from Jerry Dreesen:

Kitsap Forest Theater has been a great way to spend time with my family. I can't think of any other place in the Northwest where a dad, mom and kids can spend time camping out in the woods, meeting other interesting people AND performing on stage together. 

Both my wife and I had theater experience before we met, and after we got married it only seemed natural to introduce our kids (we have 3 of them) into theater. When our oldest son landed KFT's role of “Beast” in Beauty and the Beast, he shared his experiences with us and suggested we give it a try. With our daughter in elementary school, it seemed like a great chance to go through the experience and the four of us were together on the set of The Sound of Music.  

We have been in a few other shows since then too, and the experience is always the same; great people, great hiking (and great food), and a chance to “live outdoors” for a few weekends - along with building memories with the rest of the cast, as well as my wife, sons and daughter. 

You’ll need to experience what a truly unique opportunity this is first hand. I personally invite you to audition as a family for one of the Kitsap Forest Theater shows. You'll build a unique bonding experience with your family, as well as fond memories to share over a lifetime.

On November 30th, Craig McCoy spent the day filling in the electrical ditch and spreading gravel around the site. We now have electricity ou=t to the site, and gravel walkways all around. The deck and ramp are almost finished, and Craig put gravel right up to the shed, so we don't need any stairs.

We still need to figure out what lighting fixtures we want for the outside and inside of the yurt, and we will need to complete the electrical wiring to the yurt. We are also researching floor options since we now just have a plywood floor. 

We are hoping to have everything finished and ready for occupancy by the spring.

Thanks to the many volunteers, and our contractor, Mac Smith, for all of the work to get us to this point. We are excited about all of the possible uses in the coming years.

We had a productive two days at the Kitsap Yurt site this week. On Friday Craig McCoy and his tractor dug the 100' trench from the main electrical box to the yurt site and he also prepared the site for the shed we bought off of craiglist. Thanks, Craig!. Mac Smith, our contractor,  worked on the ramp to the yurt.

On Saturday we had three different projects going at the same time. Kalen Spees, Brian Lindvall, Jimmy Paulsen and Gary Spees split all of the wood at the yurt site (2 cords worth) and stacked the wood in the wood shed. This was an all-day project, using a nifty electric splitter that Jimmy borrowed for us. Thanks, guys!

Scott Eby laid all of the pvc pipe and electrical wire from Toutle (the flush toilet building) to the yurt, and did all of the electrical connections at either box (a 10 hour job). Thanks, Scott!

Then three wonderful guys delivered a shed to us and spent 4 hours putting it together on site and putting on a new roof. We now have ready-made storage for the yurt. Thanks to Cody, Toby & Tighe.

All-in-all, a productive week at the Kitsap Forest Theater. Check out the new pictures posted on the Photo site under "Yurt at Kitsap".