Oldscout448

Aaaaand, We planned a work session/ on site practice for Saturday. The forecast calls for 3-5 inches of wet snow mixed with sleet. Did i ever mention the Ordeal site is on the top of mountain ? ( although you westerners would call it a steep little hill. ) With narrow twisty roads. The next weekend is Conclave,, the next is the district Camporee. I think I should ask them to double my pay!

Oh good, for a second there, I assumed the pain meds were making me see double in a weird vertical sort of way.

It's a long post but I couldn't stop reading it. Change the names, make it two years later, and that could have been my troop. Sometimes I wonder how we survived.

Speaking of adventure, The one story the scouts of today can't believe is true is when I tell them about the time four scouts hiked 50 miles on the Appalachian Trail in 5 days and 4 night's without an adult.

Last winter at our Klondike Derby I was visiting another Troop sitting around the campfire after dinner and one of the younger Scouts asked if I could tell stories of the old old days because I was the oldest person in Camp. Started to protest that I wasn't and then I realized that I was. Because everyone older, and wiser, than me had gone home to sleep in their warm bed instead of camping out in the snow. Sometimes it's hard to remember how many years have gone by and I wonder if I can tell the stories of the egg and the big bull, or the gasoline and the burning Arrow, or the out of control covered wagon that went crashing thru another troops campsite? I mean its not as if we actually aimed at the scoutmasters tent! ' We swore a solemn oath not to tell anyone but after almost half a century?

'Tis also no bad thing to be wary of electric fences hidden behind some brush. 7,000 volts even at a few miliamps is a bit of a shocking surprise. No, it wasn't me but I did learn some new words that day. Not to mention a few new dance steps.

Actually I may be stressing unnecessarily here. I'm sitting at home today with a screwed up right hand and my mind has lots of time to worry and fret. It does bother me that I may not be able to help out much with the physical aspects of the Ordeal. Right now it's hard to hold a pen, much less an ax. It's also amazing how hard it is to type with only your left hand.

It's more a question of safety than esthetics. The 400 yard long trail to the pre ceremony site and the area where the candidates are taken afterwards is used only by us. So it has a whole year of deadfalls, branches, and assorted trip and fall hazards. The first half is lighted by the 15 blazes,but the other half is left dark. The candidates are not allowed to use lights and we try to avoid injuries. The candidates need to be in shape for the work after all.

Oh I agree, but We usually have about 24 youth members. So 8 on the team, 6 elongomats (who need to be with their clans), 4? on the cook crew, 2 or 3 doing registration, 1 chief, 1 ordeal master. Not many left to draft. But 'tis a good idea, we will see if we can't Shanghai somebody. I was wondering why I didn't think of that before. I guess it's because we are always off in the woods getting things set up, and not hanging out at the lodge looking for idle hands.

And since I am not at work I have more time to.... well, it's pretty hard to do anything right now. But I was out in the backyard yesterday and suddenly the crows started screaming. I have heard them get upset before but this was a whole new level. Looked up and saw two big Turkey vultures circling above. Ok that's nothing. ... Wait a minute, the " vultures " seem to have straight wings and white heads! I wonder what else I have missed in my own yard.

@Eagledad. That's what I used too. You say you severed the right pointer? That unusual most radial arm saw injuries are on the left hand. Mind sharing how it happened? Maybe you should PM me if we are making others hands hurt.

So here we are yet again, after the last ordeal we had 12 people on the ceremonies team. One left because they made him senior patrol leader another because he had to finish this Eagle before he turned 18, and two just stopped coming for reasons unknown. Now we can do it with just eight guys we've done it before but it's a tremendous amount of work for that number of people. It's just not much fun for them with all the work and pressure involved. It also affects the ceremonies themselves when the team is spending hours Friday afternoon clearing Trails setting out blazes, etc.they dont have much time for rehearsing and the performance suffers. We seem to be caught in a circular pattern here. Too few people leads to overwork, leads to burnout, leads back to not enough people. Also kids just want to have fun. If the ceremonies aren't impressive and the " Come and join us you'll enjoy it" pitch is given by an exhausted , stressed out, disheveled ceremonies vice-chief, their probably not going to be signing up anytime soon.

I limit myself to one tank of gas in the big chainsaw now. My back and bad left shoulder will be sending me nasty reminders next morning if I go much past that. Old age is no place for wimps ! "Tiny wheel of sawing death" I love it! They can trim your fingernails faster than you can blink.

I'm just glad the fingers are there to heal! It's no picnic though. I took myself off the opioid faster than the surgeon recommended, but that stuff scares me. I lost a cousin to an overdose a few years back. As near as I can figure it, I have about 40,000 hours on power tools. You would think I woukd know how to stay safe by now. As for the boys getting on my case, I think it shows they like me. I have been teaching them tree felling and cutting techniques from the old green and brown field books. while admonishing them to be safe. So they are just delighted to pay me back in my own coin.

Not having much fun right now, ran my hand into a carbide tipped saw blade a while back. Still have all ten fingers but did some damage to the extensor tendon. I'm in PT. now and slooowly getting better. But the scouts want to cut a corner off my totin chip card! Help

《 places some dry twigs, kindling,and a hickory log or two on the coals. Ah there we go》 Now, where did I put that coffee pot?

Crazy Crow and Wandering Bull are higher priced than Wal-mart, or Michael's. But the quality and selection is much better. If you want to do some really nice loom or gourd beading the beads must be constant in size. Other wise you end up with a lumpy mess, unless you carefully cull all the oddball sized beads . If you just want to have some cubs make a bracelet or something it matters much less. I have also found that cubs have a hard time with the smaller beads.

Wow, prideful, arrogant, and condescending all at the same time! I guess I failed to include the fact that we went from " everything is normal" to " OMG, I think that guy might actually hit the kid" in about 15 seconds. Hardly time enough to calmly pack up and take out leave. Btw, I've walked away from a quite a number of fights ,that I was certain I would win,some physical, some verbal. I don't like fighting, never have. The only thing a fight solves is who is the better fighter. The primary conflict remains unresolved.

When the scoutmaster is red in the face and screaming in the OA scouts face, demanding that he fudge the vote count so that the scoutmaster's son can be elected, I am absolutely getting between them. I call that defending a 14 year old from a 40 year old bully. You can call it condescending or whatever you want.

What ? A lawyer didn't tell the truth? I am shocked, shocked !

There are few things I dislike more than telling a SM in his own troop meeting to back off and leave the OA election team alone because they are right and he is wrong. It can get rather interesting indeed! Especially when the SMers son is envolved. But I need to protect "my boys" when they are being wrongly harassed by an adult. That job comes with the white sash and the title of advisor. When the scouts know their adult leaders will back them, it becomes a lot easier for them to hold fast to what is right.

One of the problems with summer camp badges is that class size changes. One week 5 scouts, next week 17. So let's look at it from the councilors point of view. When the requirements say "explain" you can sit down with each of the 5 in turn and have them do so. Let's say it takes 15-20 minutes each. With 5 scouts this can be done. But with 17? It would take all afternoon and the scouts probably want to go swimming or something. So you have the scouts explain on paper all at the same time. Then you can go over the tests in the evening. Being camp staff isn't always as much fun as it appears

Indian lore. I decided not to take it at summer camp, I already knew more than the councilor in training who was "teaching" it. I found a old guy ( he had to be 40 at least) who taught native American anthropology at a local college. We didn't just look at pictures of tepees, we set up a 17 footer in his back yard! He kept asking me questions that were not in the merit badge book and seemed delighted that I knew the answers to most of them. Where I didn't or only had partial knowledge he patiently explained. I was actually sorry when he signed my card and sent me home. I suppose it was a case of a student who really wanted to learn, and an instructor who loved the subject.

I am just fine teaching girls,different nationalities, etc. I have done so in church groups, campfire, IWLA, and a wee bit in Girl Scouts as well as BSA Right now though I feel ignored ,dismissed, deceived, and belittled. It's pretty obvious that national made up its mind long before they "asked" our opinion in this matter, and the pitiful smokescreen they threw up makes me think they either have a very low opinion of the rank and files intelligence, or they just don't care what we think. It seems that every "improvement " (excepting GBB's ) has made it harder and harder to interest the boys. I find much to my regret and surprise that I (we) have a lot more fun when we just go camping or hiking as a bunch of buddies and leave the uniforms behind. I owe a great deal to a number of very fine dedicated men who were my mentors and examples when I was a scout. Years later I made it a point to look them upif I could find them and thank them for the countless hours they invested in us. To a man every one of them said " Just pay it forward. That is all the thanks I need." So I tried. But Ive been a scouter for over 25 years now. 11 years longer than I was a Scout. I think perhaps the debt is paid in full. I wish I could sit down with them over a cold ale or hot coffee and ask them what they think, but they are all gone home now. So when I got an e-mail today telling me that I had to take the new YPT. by Oct first, I thought of all the new headaches and protocols and thought " Screw it, I just dont need this, I'm gonna go hike some of the AT. or maybe finish up the last bit of the C&O canal" Maybe I'll invite some friends to come along and share a drop or two o' Bushmills @SSScout , how about it?

My troop had such a place back in the '40's and '50's. A log cabin in a wooded area on a family farm. From the old handwritten records the troop scribe kept, it sounded like a lot of happy Saturday's were spent there. Alas, the interstate highway 270 got put right thru the farm. Progress