prairie

Tested my gear last night, eight hours at 10 above to 10 below. Tent: Eureka Backcountry 1 three season tent, two bettergrade sleeping bags and a 2 inch Thermarest. Had put on a nice stocking hat as well as good polypro longhandles and a light fleece zip jacket, took me 5 minuets after all settled to notice the hat was no longer on my head, pulled the jacket up for some protection but not near as efective as the hat. Still the test went well, slept warm enough including feet, tent frosted up inside but thats not supprising. A mild headache, might be from the cold or from mild dehydration.

Camp Ingawanis Boy Scout Camp Located near Waverly, Iowa, Camp Ingawanis is home to swimming, hiking, camping, shooting sports, and horseback riding. Rolling hills and winding trails make Camp Ingawanis a challenging place to hike. And this discripition from the councils website doesn't do it justice, in a state called flat this camp is on some really rough ground next to the river, heavly wooded with a dirverse mix of native fora this is a camp with a full program to offer in a setting time seems to have forgotten. Many places your cellphone wont work. Plenty of patrol cooking but the

Lead by Example I could use some posters that say that. epalmer84 and Eagledad, good input. We can't turn back time, we can use what was best back then now. Keep Scouting outdoors as much as possible. Allow failure, offer advice not blame when it happens. The sooner a Scout knows in his heart HE will make the diffrence between a good day and a poor one the better. A Scout should feel pride in a service project, he made his world a better place. Humm, can't seem to think of a way to end this posting but its time to go eat my oatmeal.(This message has been edited by prairie)

sst3rd You describe a very successfull troop with a good instatutinal (sp) memory with little need for what I'm sugesting. And yet i feel by the tone of your post you feel threatened and that was not my intent. As to the spin words, I was trying to make my view clear, could be if I had polished the text for a week it would read diffrent but the muse was on me, and that seldom happens, I'm the farmer, my sister is the wordsmith. Sure skills change with the times, as long as the reason to change them isn't because a new leader wants to leave their mark, thats good. I'm just brainstormi

"What rules inhibit the use of the patrol method, either the current or old version?" Your right FScouter, I chose my words badly, not thinking of rules written in stone but of the rules people think are there because thats how things are done. Even an hour spent on the first post was not enough for the topic. Maybe something like institutional momentum might be closer. I will check out kudu.net thankyou for the tip

Not the best title, hope I can write close to what I'm thinking. Many here are not happy with the change scouting made in the early seventys, many have written what they would like to change or how an alternate scoutlike orginazation offers a "truer" program. The question seems to be, can most troops opperate under the patrol system under the current rules. Some do now but as long as the current handbooks are used by new scouters they won't get exposed to the real patrol method until its to late, they already do it another way, and it works for them, sorta, so why change? What I am p

What I'm doing is modding the shirt so that it could be setup as a uniform shirt by having pockets just like the current uniform shirts have, only leaving off the colored shoulder loops, red squares could be sewn on but I would rather not. The other reason to change the pockets is to make the shirt look less military. Rothco made this shirt stateside, would feel better about that but one pocket was on crooked, might be why it was the one left.

Latest sewing project involves changing a BDU khaki/tan shirt to a prototype field shirt. BTW finding a plain shirt of that color is tough, most are camo pattern, the rest are green, blue or black but the 4th place I tried had a few, one in my size. Plans involve changing the upper pockets to the pattern currently in use on uniform shirts, changing the front so that the buttons show, using a 3" spacing instead of 3 3/8 for strength and better looks, innerfacing will be added for the same reason. The BSA pants button from the 1970s would be ideal but I don't have a supply of them, current sh

Lisabob, if your concerned have him do a practice run in the back yard, I plan to here in the next week to check out the gear I want to use. Good part is if the wrong choices are made you don't have to tell the rest of the troop, just go back inside and figure out what to change/add. I cringe every time I hear "cotton kills" I should have been dead many times over before I was 10, many times sent outa the farmhouse for the afternoon to play in near zero with cotton jeans, shirt, hooded sweatshirt, coveralls, gloves and rubber boots over leather shoes. Learned quick to stay warm you had t

Well the temps are dropping into the negitive range at night so today I added the 6 buttons needed to install the army field pant liners into the Switchbacks. I stitched the buttons at the bottom of the waistband, others might have to pick a higher or lower spot, will take several fittings. Also if your not happy there is no permanent change to the pants. Well worth the effort, now with a set of polypros underneath I'm comfy. New surplus liner cost $20.

Would it be possible for you to call ahead with your order and questions? Be a real time saver to have your order gathered and ready for you. I ran into this last week, just stepped into the shop and got a phone call telling me I needed to be somewhere shortly, what I forgot was minor and for me not the troop, always be a next time.

Guess I should have mentioned i'm in my late 40s. I gave up on a couple of clubs that required long travel times and/or very late nights so felt the need for something to fill the void. I drifted out of scouting at 16 and a Star, I think partly because I was the oldist one there plus I'm best suited as a 2nd banana. Chippewa29, even at my "advanced" age I'm keeping my eyes open, proablem is in the late 1970s the girls in this area all left as soon as they were outa high school, never to return, single in the city looked better than married in the country? It's been intresting reading a

Thanks for the replys, they have followed what people have said in person to me. I am a merit badge counselor, I just need to poll the Scouts to see what badges I could help with, Astronomy has already been earned by most and nobody is intrested in Ag Mechanics so far. Ours is a tiny troop, quite possible for only one scout to be in the building at a time, not for long but the rules don't have time limits. I welcome further replys.

I don't yet have kids or a wife, judging from the other posters here that makes me unusual as a Scouter. How common is the solo Scouter? Do they serve for longer periods? Any proablems their single status causes? Any troop/pack events they avoid to protect their good name? I do follow the child safety rules like my life depends on it and try to act in a manner so that other Scouters are in compliance as well. Not too hard at this point as my use to the troop is mostly me being at meetings so there are at least two adults present, nobody is intrested yet in the merit badges I

Kudu, replace "outdoor" with "field" and I can whole heartedly agree with you, in my mind outdoor might mean suitable for walking from your vehicle to a building while field means an extended stay in the woods, grasslands or other wild area. BTW, my secret wish is supply would offer at special order a collarless short sleeve shirt patterened on the old green version with the renforced neck, yoke and button area, and cut in a way that your shirt won't come untucked when you put your hands over your head, made of a fabric suited for hot weather. Maybe the boys won't want them but easy to

Well thats almost as heavy as the handbook, and my camping equipment budget for a year, or two. Guess I better buy every pre 1971 handbook I can.

I dread the day I will need batterys to read my handbook in the field!

I feel lucky to own a 5th edtion SM handbook 11th printing, I really like the smaller 7x4.5 size for the portability however I wonder how long it will last. Be nice to find a hardbound one or a reprint. Yes, its 37 years out of date but contains info not found in the later books. Maybe somebody needs to edit a Scouter's Field Guide with all the old good info and only minor corrections to bring it up to date(LNT,ect), plus it should work for SM ASM or any other Scouter activly involved in the troop. The only book I have seen for a TC is 30 years old and slim pickins. BTW, I showed my ha

I can find no mention in my BSA 2006 Insignia Guide of such a knot. Could you tell me what the border, background, and cord colors were? Also was it a square knot type or one of the other designs? I have no real opionin on whether a GS Gold should be recognised on a BSA Scouter uniform and no clue what if any youth awards a GS leader might wear. I definatly don't want to be known as a uniformpoliceman, much rather be squared away myself and willing to help the boys where I can. Prairie

I wonder, might starting Scouting too soon burn out the youngsters and their parents before they are even old enough to do the Boy Scout program?

Controlled Risk or maybe Managed Risk would describe the program I knew in the 1970s. I think its imposible to deliver a good outdoor program totaly risk free, part of becoming a good Boy Scout is knowing the risks, dealing with the proablems and learning skills to keep the dangers to a minumim.

Knives, I still remember as a boy that a bigger knife was a status symble, seemed that the 4 to 5 inch bladed ones got just as much work done though. My two accidents both were from using a bow saw, some boys might have gone home but I just bandaged up my finger tip and kept camping. Now adays I use a small lockblade and a Vaughn shingle hammer. It would prolly help if adults and other leaders avoid wearing large knives, ie: lead by example. The conceled carry of larger knives of any sort would be my concern.

Lisabob touched something with her #3, it is a hugh change to go from a adult led group of boys your own age to a troop that includes boys far older (11-17), what to the older boys might seem like tame horseplay might frighten an eleven year old into never coming back. Hopefully the older boys understand the life of the troop depends on recruting new boys.

Ouch, your just 4.5 years older than me and I too remember when we became just "Scouts", still have one uniform shirt from those days case my memory plays up on me. Regarding Miss Hilton, she is like a train wreck that takes years to happen, you know the result won't be pretty but looking away is tough..

Heck, I'm still looking for a good turnip twaddler so I can play CalvinBall properly!