kenk

Actually, it isn't ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL but ONE NATION UNDER GOD, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL There is no comma after nation. Unfortunately most people have learned the Pledge incorrectly. "One nation under God" should be read as a single phrase, not as two distinct ideas. I heard an interesting comment made by the former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich. He pointed out that our country was founded on the idea that our rights are given to us, not by a government or mankind, but by God. From the Delaration of Independen

There may have been some misunderstanding. I was speaking of the BuckTool, which was Buck's equivalent of the Leatherman multitool. This particular model made by Buck Knives is no longer in production. Info on it is available at http://www.finest1.com/bucktool/ . Equipped.com did a review of it at www.equipped.com/bucktool.htm . Buck Knives, the company, as you say, is very much alive and well and living in Post Falls, ID. They defintely make some GREAT knives. I especially like the Summit, though I don't have one. I wish it had some form of scissors on it. One of my favorite folders

Pack Committee Chair Though the Pack leaders know - and deaply appreciate - how much work they do, most of the parents seem not to have a clue that they even exist. Unfortunately the Cubmaster gets all the parental recognition and glory. I should know, I was a Cubmaster with a GREAT Committee Chair.

The best this Scout can do at this time is to donate to the American Red Cross ... and that's what I did. My company is matching 1-for-1, so my donation was doubled. I can only wish I could do more to help.

I just got both Boys' Life and Scouting today (9/3/05). By the way, I never realized that Boys' is plural. Ever since I was 11 years old (30 years) I though of it as a "boy's life" (singular). Hmmm. That's OK, it wasn't until a few years ago that I noticed that the somewhat popular singing group wasn't really "The Beetles".

Yeah, I also have a Buck Tool. While the handle folding mechanism was interesting, but it simply doesn't work well. It appears Buck & its customers recognized that since the Buck Tool hasn't been in production for quite a few years. I think you'd like the "new" Leatherman Wave. You can tell the difference between the old and new versions by the removable driver bits. The old version didn't have them.

Canoing the Boundary Waters is a wonderful experience that doesn't have to cost a lot. Some quick Googles: http://www.boundarywaters.com/scouts.html http://www.elyoutfitters.com/nonprofit.htm http://www.canoeit.com/scouts.cfm http://www.vnorth.com/vn/nichols000807/index.html http://www.gunflintoutfitters.com/scout_groups/testimonials.cfm

The Wilderness Survival merit badge book lists the follow types of natural shelters: fallen trees; hollow trees; boulders; piled up snow; caves; tree pit (naturally sheltered area around the base of a large evergreen where snow hasn't accumulated; small gulley, under a tree, large shrub, or rock outcrop; hollow in soft ground. They describe propping branches up against a boulder, weaving smaller branches horizontally, and then draping a rescue blanket or large sheet of plastic over the branches and weighing them down with rocks. They say if you lack a ground cloth to use a substanti

If it helps, here are two very good reviews from Equipped.com - a not-for-profit organization. Doug Ritter is well known in the personal survival arena, and provides an independent point of view: Leatherman Charge & Wave: http://www.equipped.org/lm_charge-wave.htm Gerber 800 Legend: http://www.equipped.org/gerber_legend.htm

I tend to lean toward Leatherman multitools - my personal favorites are the LM Charge Ti and the Wave, though I have more than several Gerber knives. I have also heard good things about the Victorinox SwissTool and SOG multitools. Some of the current Leatherman models are designed such that the main blades can be opened directly, without opening the pliars. On my "must have" list of multitool features: Locking Main Blades Pliars Wirecutter Scissors Can Opener Lanyard/Cord Atttachment Screwdriver - becoming more complicated as the variety of screw heads out there incr

I stumbled upon this for my Cub Scout den: Take three strands of yarn - I prefer three different colors so that the boys can see what happened better. Insert a small eye-screw into the end of a drill. Cut 15 foot lengths of each color of yarn and tie them to the eye. Using the drill, twist the yarn as much as possible while someone is holding the non-drill end. Now the cool part - have the person holding the non-drill end carefully let go just enough to let the rope twist. It will automatically turn into rope.

We've considered games such as this for Cub Scouts and the boys have had absolutely no interest in them at all. Scout young and old just don't seem to like SPAM at all. ;-D

Some more ... http://www.troop41sg.org http://www.members.aol.com/yorkvilletroop40/handbook.html http://troop2bsa.org/pt_handbook.html http://home.swbell.net/eaglesct/parents.html http://www.frontiernet.net/~troop292/

They're all over the web. Try doing some Google searches and I'm sure you'll find some. Here are some possible links: http://www.troop849.org/memberGeneral.html http://www.bsatroop891.org/join891.html http://home.comcast.net/~mycales/445index.htm http://www.troop623.com/index.htm

Is there anywhere on the internet where I can get the requirements for the Junior GS Badges? I find a bunch of sites with links to topic information - research sites, but I cannot find a list of badge requirements.

Glad to help. Don't forget to look through http://www.equipped.com and share what you find with your whole family. It is a great site devoted to saving people from the unexpected. The forum is great too, though you will find some visitors who tend a little too much toward survivalist thinking (preping for "the end of the world as we know it" or TEOTWAWKI). Ken

Though I am a Cub Scout leader, I am interested in survival methods so a few weeks ago while visiting the summer camp I bought the merit badge book and entered the list of items into my Palm, which I happen to have with me. By the way, an EXCELLENT reference is http://www.equipped.com - it is listed at the end of the merit badge book. Doug Ritter, who runs this site, has put together a Personal Survival Pak that contains much of this stuff - the highest of quality items - at a fairly low price (about $25). This PSP is described in the web site. You local outdoor shop probably carries it.

My family attended a Cub Scout campout at our council's summer camp, and seeing the wall tents brought back a rush of memories from my own days at Scout summer camp. My wife was surprised that there wasn't any mosquito netting on the tents and wondered how the boys survived the buggy nights in those tents. I recall that we used rectangular mosquito netting that we put over our cots, but for the life of me I can't remember how these were hung inside the wall tents. I thought there might be some grommetted tabs or tie-offs, but there weren't. How do you hang the mosquito netting

John D. Are you in NE Illinois? Your description sounds exactly like Cub Scout Day Camp at Camp Oakarro. My son would have been going to his 4th year of Day Camp next week, but unfortunatly broke his collarbone while at the Cub Scout Fun-with-Son at MaKaJaWan last weekend. Bummer.

Not sure if you'd heard, but apparently the lost Scout that was recently found said he'd seen several searchers but hid from them since they were strangers. Teach your kids to stay put as soon at you don't know where you are (not 30 minutes later), make themselves visible, blow that whistle, and don't be afraid of strangers - they are helping mom & dad look for you. Oh, and don't try to climb stuff (trees, rocks, cliffs) and don't try to wade through water (lakes, streams, wetlands). Stay put!!!!! I also had my Bear den put together fanny packs and developed my own version of Hu

I used to e-mail lots of pictures to the parents of my Cub Scout den. At some point I even started burning CDs. I finally gave up and got an account on Smugmug.com, which is a picture uploading site that costs $30/year. They provide unlimited storage, but apparently limit the bandwidth - which is simply the number of hits per time on your site (not a problem if you're not running a public sales site). I can even order a CD that contains the pictures - as a kind of backup. Now I take lots of pictures, then I upload the ones I like to my Smugmug.com page and parents can view them, down

If you haven't read it, I heartily recommend "98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive" by Cody Lundin. It is a fun and informative read and could save your (or someone else's) life one day. I wish the father or leaders of the Scout currently lost in Utah had read this book (assuming he is simply lost).

It is kind of an oddd thing, but I find myself unable to purchase a Silva compass in the U.S. because of the history behind them: In 1996 Silva SE (of Sweden) bought Brunton (of the U.S.). It turned out that the U.S. trademark on "Silva" was owned by Johnson Outdoors (who also owns Eureka! tents and Old Town canoes), who had distributed Silva compasses for Silva SE (of Sweden). Johnson Outdoors would not give up the U.S. trademark, so Silva SE couldn't sell compasses in their own name because they didn't own the U.S. trademark. Now in the U.S.: Compasses made by Silva SE (of Swe

Sounds like fun! Just make sure scavenger hunts are allowed in the camp. Our local state park, which we use for our Pack overnights, specifically forbids scavenger hunts.

I'm curious how many boys were eating breakfast that morning. As a Cub Scout Den Leader I've only had the pleasure to eat with Boy Scouts twice, and both times I was kind of surprised to find them cooking at a pack-level. As a matter of fact there was no sign of patrol-level anything. It would seem that a patrol would be small enough to make it fairly easy to make sure each boy got food. I do like the cooks eat last idea too. Also, both times the adult leaders were VERY involved in the cooking. That surprized me. When I was a boy, us boys did ALL the cooking by partrol and