Sending a catapult – 邮寄罗马战车

暑假即将开始，此时庄园仍未使用，而我们只剩下几天时间可以真正为那里的夏令营做准备。

The summer holidays are close to starting and at this moment the estate is still not being used while we only have days left to actually be able to prepare for summer camps there.

作为乐观主义者，我仍然认为我们可以在那里开设大胆鸭的总部。 但是九月或十月似乎比今年夏天之前更有可能得到这个地方。 尽管如此，拥有草地、森林、湖泊和巨大豪宅的庄园非常适合我们的户外活动，绝对值得付出努力甚至等待 🙁。

Ever the optimist, I still think that we will be able to open Daring Duck’s Head Quarters there. But September or October seems to become more likely than getting the place before this summer. Nevertheless, the estate, with grass fields, forest, lake and huge mansion is so perfect for our outdoor activities that it is ABSOLUTELY worth the effort and even the waiting 🙁.

但是无法控制事情，我不得不承认，我不承认，这既令人沮丧（因此上方是黑暗的天空），也不是我的操作模式。 所以这周我在想我还能做些什么。

But not being able to have things under control, which I have to admit, I don’t, is both enormously frustrating (hence the dark sky above) and is not my mode of operation. So this week I was thinking about what else I can do.

我从写下对我们有利的方法开始，这既很多又少得令人尴尬。

1. 我们充满乐观，看到了无限的机会，直到最后一扇门关闭我才放弃。
2. 所有者没有计划如何处理该位置。 它只是闲置在那里。 他已经 2 年没去过那里了，当我友好的瑞士代表拜访他时，他没有表示他知道该怎么做。
   （这是我们拥有的最重要的正面物品。从他开始使用这个地方的那一刻起，我就可以接受这个位置不在我们的卡上。但是现在放弃，没办法。）
3. 他不想出售，但当他听说我们想将庄园用于青年活动时，他对这个想法略微持开放态度。

I started with writing down what works in our favour, and that is both a lot and embarrassingly little.

1. We are full of optimism, see endless opportunities with the location and I do not give up until the last door is closed.
2. The owner has no plans for what to do with the location. It is just sitting idle there. He hasn’t been there for 2 years, and when he was visited by my friendly Swiss representative, he did not indicate that he knows what to do with it.
   (this is the most important positive item that we have. The moment he starts using the place, I can accept that this location is not on our cards. But giving up at this moment, no way)
3. He didn’t want to sell but he became slightly open to the idea when he heard that we wanted to use the estate for youth activities.

现在让我们看看我能做什么。
第 1 项，乐观主义，只会导致沮丧，因为看起来今年我们不能在那里举办夏令营 :-(。
第 2 项太棒了 🙂，但我必须让所有者采取行动。 行动是他的。
剩下
第 3 项，他的软肋。 他似乎喜欢青年活动，所以让我们在那里做点什么:-)。

Now let’s see what I can do.
Item 1, the optimism, only leads to depression since it looks like this year we can’t do summer camps over there 🙁.
Item 2 is fantastic 🙂, but I have to get the owner to make a move. The action is his.
That leaves
Item 3, his soft spot. He appears to like youth activities, so let’s do something there 🙂.

战车竞赛 – The Catapult Competition

大胆鸭的夏令营以在营地最后一天进行的激动人心的弹射比赛而闻名。 在营地的前半部分，参与者学习了一些最有用的结，例如丁香结和方形绑扎的制作。

Daring Duck’s summer camps have built a reputation for the exciting catapult competition on the last day of the camp. During the first half of the camp, participants learned a couple of the most useful knots such as the clove hitch and the making of a square lashing.

在后半段的训练营中，每支队伍都利用这些技能制作了一个5米长的弹射器，可以将水气球弹射给其他队伍。 这是我们众所周知的充满活力和令人难忘的活动之一。 此外，它还展示了每个团队开拓技能的质量。测试是：

“你的弹射器能在战斗中幸存下来吗？”

During the second half of the camp, each team used those skills to make a 5-meter long catapult with which they could catapult water balloons to the other teams. This was one of the energetic and memorable activities that we were known for. And, in addition, it demonstrated the quality of each team’s pioneering skills. The test was:

‘Can your catapult survive the battle?’

由于业主似乎喜欢青年活动，有什么比向他展示我们将在该地点开展的一项有益活动更好的办法呢？

Since the owner appears to like youth activities, what better thing to do than showing him one of the useful activities that we will do at that location?

上周末我开始研究它。 我制作了一个 15 厘米的微型弹射器，得到了一个小木箱，并于星期二寄给了我们在瑞士的代表。 给她一个借口再次拜访主人而不被视为 PITA (a pain in the . . .)。

Last weekend I started working on it. I made a miniature catapult of 15 cm, got a small wooden box and sent it Tuesday to our representative in Switzerland. Giving her an excuse to visit the owner again without being seen as a PITA (a pain in the . . .).

在盒子里，我还放了两张弹射器制作和使用的图片。

In the box, I also placed 2 pictures of how the catapults were made and used.

现在已经结束了，希望这将帮助所有者决定这是对庄园的更好利用，而不是只把它留给独自留在那里的鹿。

Now it is over to hoping that this will help the owner to decide that this is a better use of the estate than leaving it only to the deer that are left there all alone.

如果没有夏令营可以组织，我会绞尽脑汁想办法解决未来几个月的房租和伙食问题。

And scratching my head about finding a solution for how we can pay our rent and food during the coming months if there are no summer camps to organise.

PS (post scriptum):