Mt. Aetna Retreat Center

08/27/2026

First night of new White Pine front step lights being fully installed and working! Love the work of David, Edgar, and Denis!

08/22/2026

Mushroom rings are growing!

08/14/2026

Had a frightening thing happen at the pool this week.

One of the major safety rules around pools is "NO GLASS ITEMS" inside the fence. If glass is broken around the pool, or even worse, in the pool, you can't see it. It's invisible in the water.

Our staff are trained to watch for glass containers.

Just before pool closing on Tuesday a teen approached a lifeguard and stated that he had cut his foot on something in the pool. The cut was long, but not deep. The guard cleaned it and wrapped it in gauze, as it was longer than a Band-Aid would cover. They closed the deep end and searched the pool bottom for a cause. Found nothing. A few minutes later, as everyone was departing, another guest mentioned that a friend had broken their swim goggles in the water. That raised eyebrows.

We started tracking down people and stories. Turns out an attending family bought two pairs of snorkel goggles from Walmart a few weeks ago. One of the children dove into the deep end of the pool from the edge of the pool. The goggle lens disintegrated when his face hit the water. Miraculously none got in his eyes. We tracked down the remains of the goggles and found that they were made of tempered glass. I’m not a skin diver or scuba diver, so I don’t know if glass is normal for dive gear, but it’s certainly not normal for kid’s swim goggles.

I've never considered inspecting or banning swim goggles before but will do one or the other in the future.

We've shut down the pool for the season, as the prescribed solution is to drain the pool, clean it and refill. No sense doing that now and letting the new water sit all winter. Will have to do it next May when we re-open the pool for the summer.

I found the goggles on the Walmart website, but they don’t allow non-purchasers to post reviews.

Today the county inspector came by and picked them up. She’s going to pass them to the head of the department so they can present them at the state level meetings later in the month.

07/01/2026

Horses are back for Summer Camp. They bring them in each morning for morning trail rides.

06/12/2026

06/05/2026

Invasive species number....?

06/04/2026

Seeing lots of little ones in all parts of the campus. If you're visiting, please drive real slow!

Mr. Ethan took this picture yesterday at High Challenge.

06/02/2026

We've seen this on several peoples posts. Perhaps we need to hang a variation of it in our bath houses?

05/06/2026

We have robins nesting on the upper beams of the office front porch! Enter with care or you may get dive bombed by concerned parents.

04/26/2026

My longtime friend KS sent me a link to this story. We'd love to have this young man come and teach us!

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?mibextid=wwXIfr&v=3868412896714973&rdid=yry8oE42WrbJbfN4