Leaderboard

Oh the beauty of hiking in the land where you face shrinks so tight against the wind-chill that your eyeball's fall out. Here, backpacking dinner (preserved by a fleece wrapped around a frozen nalgene) is something like a dry-rub Delmonico steak roasted slowly on a bed of coals, potatoes under the coals, carrots/beats, bread baking on a stick over the coals, and your favorite green vegetable fried in butter with dried parsley, thyme, and marjoram and a clove of garlic. (You can try olive oil instead of butter, depending on the temperature.) Desert -- if you have room for it -- may be a mu

it used to be that if you contacted national supply, they would mail you a strip to sew over

It's important to note that the definition of friendly in "your book" is entirely subjective, and there seems to be a strong suggestion from your comments that you feel that if our faith were truly "friendly," it would conform to your ideas of how a religious organization should interact with the BSA in the future - your ideas of what "friendly" means. But that would be an unfair conclusion, and it may be misleading to those who read these forums and don't understand much of the actual situation. Our Church will not sponsor Scouting in the future. So to suggest that leaders should "organ

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What an individual unit does is within the control of the CO. COs that prefer specific program operations will ultimately drop the unit if it is inconsistent with their fundamental values. It s a "bottom up" practice none of us disagree with -- and has been a fundamental part of our business model since our beginning. My comment is centered on no longer using the national organization to force particular religious or political views from the "top down". It is a relief for many Scouters to no longer be in the middle of that.

The Nestle NIDO is similar in packaging to the baby formula ("fortificado"), not baby powder. Nestle also owns KLIM (milk backwards), another whole milk powder. This is usually found in asian stores.

I've noticed a lot of kids packing ramen as their dinner for backpacking trips. It doesn't strike me as very nutritionally rich nor calorie dense (but it sure is light, easy, and cheap...and for 1 or 2 nights, the shortcomings aren't particularly earth shattering). I think there are more options out there that I'd like to encourage boys to consider. Here are 2 lightweight, inexpensive dinner options for backpacking... 1) Knorr sides (plus): there's a variety of flavors, most based on rice or pasta. Most cost only about $1. There's more flavors than with ramen, and the sa

Various vague Valkyries indeed....." Spear and magic helmet...…"

Back in the day, everyone in my Patrol had a specialty. One Scout cooked bacon especially well. Another, flipped pancakes better than anyone else. My specialty was Mixing Drinks (!) Tang, Dehydrated dry milk, cocoa, that sort of thing.... Here are the basics: *(( The true author of this article is unknown. It is here copied from the COME HOSTELING newsletter, Sept. 1980, of the Potomac Area Council of the American Youth Hostels, who received it from Dick Schwanke, Senior PAC Staff Trainer, who read it in the APPALACHIAN HIKER by Ed Garvey, who got it from the Potomac Appalachi

Good advice!! I'd hate to sprinkle powdered milk on my kid's wet bottom...

Ooooh, thanks SO much for reminding me. HUGE SAFETY TIP: Nestle unfortunately packages the Nido whole milk so it's nearly identical to their baby-powder. DON'T CONFUSE THE TWO !!

Wal Mart around here has it near the baby food. Scouts are basically raccoons or squirrels that will eat anything left out. 😀

That is true, but sometimes convenience trumps Paula Dean input (hey ya'll, we're gonna fry some butter in butter and it's gonna be delicious) Actually they do sell an instant grits that comes in a self serve cup (you can get oatmeal also), just add water. A little bulky on the outbound leg, but they compress down nicely for the trip back. We add beef jerky to the grits and that is mighty tasty.

External frame packs are good for heavy loads. Today, unless you have some specialized trip (hunting, very cold temps) or a very long haul before resupply, there's no reason to have a very heavy load. If you do some research and shop around, including cottage industry companies like Zpacks, Gossamer Gear, UGQ, Enlightened Equipment, TarpTent, etc., you can find light, compact sleeping bags and tents that fit in the pack. You don't have to look like the Beverly Hillbillies' truck with a Thermos, lantern and ping pong table strapped to your back. Take just what you need. Choose gear

A CAUTIONARY TALE I remember when I was in Scouts, just after I became a Life Scout, we got a new Scoutmaster. And this new Scoutmaster came up with the idea of "Scout bucks," a system by which boys could earn little paper 'dollars' (somewhat akin to Monopoly money) by meeting various expectations or when caught acting "Scout-like." If your uniform was perfect, you got a buck. If you had your book, you got another book. A merit badge earned you another, and a rank advancement earned you bucks in increments of 5 (Tenderfoot = $5, 2nd Class = $10, et cetera, but Eagle earned you $50).

Online accessibility is definitely a problem -- even if we have parents who would allow the patrol to have the tech. For example, my solution (or any of the other cloud related solutions that I've proposed) requires the scouts be at lest 13. Works great for a crew or ship, not so much for a young patrol in a troop. In this case, I think Field Notes (it's actually a brand, but scouts could make their own) are a good idea. The youth would maintain the records required by their position, then at meetings have a responsible adult snap a picture and save it to the cloud. Actually, you don't ev

It sounds like an average church announcement policy, which is what many of our CO's have. What many of us may not be used to is the national church leadership mentioning bulletin boards specifically. But it does give councils an "invite" to promote scouting along the lines that they do with other organizations.

Boy. I would give ANYTHING for an adult Scouter's jacket like that in my size ...

I think it needs to be made clear that our church simply doesn't have "community bulletin boards" where people can come and post whatever events or programs they wish. So if somebody wants to recruit LDS boys into Scouting, it has to come from people acting for themselves, and in venues apart from the Church's facilities. Those who wish to remain in Scouting are perfectly welcome to go and obtain the information they need, but that is outside the parameters of Church leadership and responsibility, and it to be done outside of our properties to ensure that the separation is both amicable and un

Be prepared to find another CO. My $0.02

Despite spending all but the first 8 months of my scouting tenure below the Mason Dixon Line, I have yet to find anything that will make grits edible. The name alone is enough to make my stomach roil.