Its Me

Went there two summers ago and did back country and communitee campground camping. I could go back every year just to see new parts. When you arrive scout out a ranger and check when the best time to see wolves are. When we were there it was early in the morning in the North-East corner of the park in Lamar valley. The hike to the Yellow Stone river along Deer Foot trail(?) was really neat as you started in open countrty and ended at the river in thick forest. The only animal we didn't see was a pronged sheep. All the rest wolves, grizzles, elk, moose, coyote, deer, buf

Bob you appear to have diverging concepts. One is for the BSA to take on more responsibility for traininng and running the units, while leaving the CO with all the liabilty. If our concept is to encourage the CO to get more involved then expect more customiztion of the porgram. If the BSA gets more involve then expect less involvement by the CO.

Here is why I like the Win All You Can game. The game tourments the poor soles behind the card flasher who must decide to whose allegence he will subscribe. What a great parallel to what a youth must go through every day. Unlike adults, a child's identity is not yet solidified. So he/she is torn by things like "do I go with this group or that group? Do I hold strong to my beliefs, or do as my peers/patrol wants? The men and women who play the game are torn. One from my patrol almost walked out and left the program. An argument between the patrols even erupted. Why did I like all

Take your boy's scout book and bring it with you the to the first weekend's meetings. We never had time to return to our camp once the day got started. The book will be needed to look for patrol project ideas and Ticket items and concepts.(This message has been edited by Its Me)

How dare you all say disparaging remarks about the American breakfast icon known as POPTART. Seriously, there is nothing wrong with eating poptarts for breakfast while camping. There is no prep or cleanup and it gets you back on the trail faster. Now don't get me wrong I have my shave of cast iron cookware in my camping bins, but traveling light has some distinct advantages. At woodbadge we were supposed to be pretending to be back packing anyway so food choices could have been geared that way. I will confess that three coolers and a fully loaded 8'x10' trailer brought to our campsi

Least favorite parts I would have to say I did not see the value in either movie, October Sky or Mr Holland's Opus. I am not sure that movies belong in this course. I liked that concept of forming patrols and seeing the issues as a youth would see them. For this reason, I liked the Win All You Can game. The first weekend had twice the benefit of the second weekend. By the second weekend the project has been completed, the meal plan is done and you either have developed a patrol or not. Our patrol guide was great. Out of the eight patrols, I would say that 7 looked like

I will second the 12" & Deep, Dutch oven by Lodge. It appears to be the Standard barer(sp) of Dutch Ovens. Nealy all recipes are based on this size. Bigger isn't worth it unless you know exactly what you will cooking. I think you would be better off to get two Dutch Ovens than one giant Dutch Oven. Two dutch oven will cook faster and allow for different meals. I bought mine on-line from Cabelas and even with shipping it was still cheaper than any one else.

My DE saw me at a recent campout and suggested that I write him a letter requesting training at Philmont. I had met him before but to consider myself an insider would be a strecth. A big strecth. I deferred his offer to another summer, as I was taking wood badge this year and my vacation time is limited. So I don't think its that hard.

Ed's logic is right on. The floor becomes lost when one starts saying the government if funding a religion. Its preposterous to consider a tax break for a religious youth group as the direct establishment by the government of a religion. For me that is a giant leap. And once the ACLU wins the direct funding they will argue that the BSA cannot use public lands, parks or roads because the said use of these properties is the establishment of religion. BSA is a legal organization and as such has the right to petition i.e. solicit the government for funding. The government has the rig

Tuna fish in the foil complete with crackers and mayonnaise has worked for us. Cheap Manchurian noodle soup. Easy Mac-n-Cheese is another good economical choice. For back packing a stove, a spork and a SS Cup is pretty much your entire kitchen. I like those cheap Wal-mart SS cups over any I have seen at REI and the likes. Back packing food is pretty much just heat water and rehydrate. No cans or even those microwave ready made meal as they add too much weight, but I bet you knew that. I like to add dehydrated S-hitake mushrooms to the Lipton ready-mades and other meals. It just

To my detractors I can say that I run a solid den filled with energy, enthusism and learning without using the program helps. Our pack seems more den focused than others as the CC has little input into the running of our dens. She is a great person and in my opinion does a fantastic job running the pack. To the committee control freaks out there we are both glad we do not share the same pack. 5570xr2, I don't know why your pack is suffering. The program helps and unifying the pack and den meetings will likely not be enough. Scouting should fun with a purpose and the helps just ar

As an adult leader can you wear a patrol batch e.g. Fox, Bobwhite on your everyday leader's shirts?

hehehehe Fotoscout I am sorry about that. I was in a hurry and the edit feature has now timed out. For the record, I agree with Fotoscout's "assessment".

Fotoscout, I agree with your assment. I would take it a little further in the way the campsite is reserved. If I said we are getting a group of campsites at High-N-Dry State Park and you have to see me for a campsite number. That places different families at different sites. Now maybe two families could share a single site but the distance between campsites would prohibit group cooking or certainly restrict it. But if I said we are getting the youth campsite at High-N-Dry and I expect dens to stay together, then the dens should do meals together.

The den follows the program as outlined in the specific rank book. You want to pick and choose the particular elements that a den should be doing? As a den leader I would tell you to take a hike. The parents, the boys and I determine which elements of the program we will complete to meet rank requirements. I beleive it is the den leaders responsibilty to lead the youths through the program. Whether that is setting up a den/requirement or scheduling other parents to take on a den meeting/requirement. Cohesion of the pack will occur through solid and cohesive dens. Not vic

The thing about wood badge is that although you all see and do the same things everyone walks away with an individual experience and individual ticket.

Some adults have no problem getting the training and accepting the responsibility. Others run from it. Example: If the safe swim course is offered in a ten minute online course, and we have a campout next to a large body of water, why wouldn't the adults (not just guys in tan shirts) take the course. Why won't some of the leaders take the online course? I suspect two reasons 1) Because if they don't know, then they didn't break any rules 2) Because they don't want to be held responsible for kids that are not their own. What say you?

A little off topic. We have our Blue and Gold in mid April and I prefer it then over February. The latter date gives us more time to complete requirements. Allows kids who have missed a den meeting to catch up. And this year we will have a campout in early May and a den party at the end of May. As a den we met at least once a month during the summer always at a park or similar venue. Our pack had summer outings as well but these were not well attended.

For our up comming pack campout we have asked dens to do their own meals. Is this too much to expect from our den leaders? Should we ask den leaders to submit a meal paln prior to the campout? Should we conduct a campout meal planning pakc night?

Just curious. Have you used the patrol method in the business world? How does it fit?

Wood popcicle sticks work very well have some on hand. I excepted any animal carved in soap. The quality of the carving is not as important as the safe handling of the knife.

I will offer this also, besides the small craft advisory and a canoe fits this description the second failure was an emergency action plan. No I did not know that 911 would not work outside your home cell phone area. I am not sure that is true. The report says the wife in Georgia was directed to call 911 and of course she would get her local police. He did not summon rescue until he lost flashlight contact with the wayward canoe. Also only then did the go search for that canoe. In OSHA, the communication system that will be used to call for rescue must be verified prior to

[besides bad weather what went wrong?] Stranded teens feared for lives Darlington students tell of their rescue from the Gulf of Mexico at 3 a.m. Sunday morning. 03/02/05 By Matt Tuck, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer What would you do if you were on a boat, drifting in darkness on the open sea, miles from civilization, cold, wondering about two of your friends who were alone in turbulent waters? Darlington senior Matthew Payne, Rome, said he came to grips with his mortality and focused his attention on helping his friends. I basically had come to the r

I also have a Coleman Exponent stove that uses PowerMax fuel from Coleman. I now have two single burners Coleman Exponets. We use them for pakc packing and car camping. They do a great job heating pots of noddles, coffe pots and skillet cooking. 20lbs of propane would last us from Webelos to Eagle. That just seems like so much weight. Here is the one I have two of. Notice a hose connects the cannister to the stove. This provides more stability than a direct attach. (sorry if this is so obvious) Coleman detached http://store.colemancampingstore.com/coexxpst.html Here i

SM: . Some boys become so obsessed with them that it distracts from the program. Its Me: We have program time and down time. During program times we agree that no card playing should take place. But after activities for the day have wound down a card game can bring the boys together. SM: Because the cards have value, it can create problems, with trading, loss, damage, and even theft. Its Me: Boys have their own personal equipment now and are free to trade with one another. It has not been an issue in our troop. And of course value is only true for Yu-Gi-Oh card not standa