SR540Beaver

I don't have a chicken recipe, but my son adapted his mom's recipe for sausage and potatoes for this past weekend's camp and it was a hit with his patrol. The other patrols were coming over to check it out and they even got kudos from the adults for doing something different. Use 1 to 1.5 potatoes per boy. Peel potatoes (if you have a kid who won't eat the peels) and cube them into chunks. Cut up half to a whole onion. Salt and pepper the potatoes and onions. Use half a package of smoked sausage per boy and slice into bite size pieces. Put the potatoes and onion in a dutch oven. Cover the potatoes and onion with the slices of sausage. Put coals on top and bottom. At home in the oven, it takes about 1.5 hours at 400 degrees to cook. So apply coals accordingly. The fat and oils cook out of the sausage to bathe the potatoes with some great flavor. It is a simple one pot meal of meat and potatoes. The boys were so happy with it that they started talking about variations. They discussed putting in items like corn, green peppers and diced tomatoes and trying other sausages like italian or brats. Note: No liquids go in the recipe. Just the meat and potatoes.

Come on guys. Let's say you work for a company with several divisions. Another company comes along and says they want to buy your widget division. You've worked for the company for 25 years and they've always had a widget division. In fact, they have a proud tradition of making the finest widgets in the world. You've always been a company man and they'll divest themselves of the old widget division over your dead body. You start to protest in front of the company. You decide to take legal action to stop the sale of the widget division. just how long do you think the company is going to keep you on the payroll when you are publically working against them? Retribution? Really? Who struck the first blow? Not the perceived first blow, the first actual blow? Does the company have the right to sell the division regardless of how the employee feels about it? Can the employee expect to continue being employed when he bad mouths the company?

Is smoking an ethical decision? Other than for underage persons, smoking isn't against the law. It is a health decision, but is it an ethical decision? I've seen plenty of Catholic Priests who seemed to have no problem with it when they lit up in full view of anyone. I've been a Southern Baptist since I was born. I've been taught all my life that dancing and drinking alcohol was a sin. Before my time, my mom was taught that playing pool and playing cards (any card game) was a sin. I'm willing to bet that there are a few scouters here that have cut a rug, had a snort and played a game or two of poker down at the pool hall in the past. Why heck, I'll bet there are still some who do it today. Do you think you are being unethical? Where I came from, you are flirting with the Devil and have one foot in Hell and the other on a banana peel. Obviously, tobacco use is not a healthy thing just as overeating is not a healthy thing. We should lead by example to the boys by living a healthy lifestyle. But to call smoking unethical is a bit of a stretch in my mind. It may not be the best personal choice, but it isn't against the law.

I'm with NJCub on this one and have consistently maintained in these forums that BSA needs to spell out a prohibition if that is their intent. While it seems crystal clear to some that MAY means PROHIBITED; to others, MAY means MIGHT. The easiest way to solve the problem is for BSA to spell it out in much more clear language than they currently choose to do. I am a former smokeless tobacco user. I quit cold turkey when we went to National Jamboree last summer. I am however not one of those "reformed" users that hammers everyone else who continues using tobacco. It is best to not use it in front of the boys, but I don't think it is going to warp them for life. My thought was the same as MaScout's. We have a boy who has aged out and is now an ASM. To look at him, you wouldn't think he was a day over 16.

I've worked in data processing for 25 years and we use the 24 hour clock. I've never warmed up to it. I've always found it much easier to say it is 7 PM instead of 19:00 hours. Why have to stop and calculate the math when it can be communicated quicker and easier? Of course I'm one of those landlubbers who can only remember port is the left side of the boat because both words have 4 letters.

Congrats!!! How come you didn't get to chose the time and place of your beading?

Hopefully it improves. My first shirt had the seam come unsewn on one shoulder within a month of buying it. Another shirt had the seam come unsewn down the side in about the same amount of time. I won't mention the buttons that have fallen off.

Oh boy!!! .... --- ..- ... - --- -. + .-- . + .... .- ...- . + .- + .--. .-. --- -... .-.. . --

Eagle, Do you have an internet link and what did they set you back?

I agree with the green roof and brown building, but the door needs to be red.

Interjecting from another thread.......if Gern's theory holds any water, whose sandbox rules applied, the BSA's or the CO's?

I'm not sure what the "book" says, but I made the mistake about 25 years ago of doing a float trip after it rained. It was a disaster all the way around. My older brother and his wife's canoe was impaled on a submerged log within about 300 feet of where we put in. They had to ride in our other canoes. I watched a 75 foot cottonwood tree at a bend in the river have its roots washed out and fall across the river on top of about a dozen canoes. My sister walked out on a log jam to aid a small child, had the logs roll and almost pull her under. Getting on the river after a ton of rain probably isn't by the book. I'll never do it again.

I've only been with our current troop since around October and have only been thru one election cycle. At first, I thought it was kind of overkill until I really gave it some thought. In our troop, we have various age and rank requirements for POR's. Everything is in writing along with the job description and what is considered active in the troop. The boys interested in serving in a POR are given an application whick they fill out with 3 positions they would be willing to fulfill. If they are not elected to a position, there name goes on a list for appointed POR's they are interested in so they can be selected for the POR. As I said, job duties, qualifications and activity expectations are all in writing. Both the scout AND his parent must sign the application. The parent signifies that they understand what their son is getting into and pledges to support him in his POR. A mandatory JLT is held within about a week of elections and appointments. It does not matter if you have been to 4 or 5 troop JLT's, if you have a new POR, you come to JLT. The result has been a very committed youth leadership corp and we seldom have a problem with a parent or boy concerning earning credit for a POR. They both walked into it with their eyes wide open.

According to a couple of biography pages on Argall, he is a member of the Executive Board of the Hawk Mountain Council and an Eagle Scout. I agree, there has to be more to the story. http://www.berksgop.org/argall.htm http://www.daveargall.com/?sectionid=5&sectiontree=5

James, Our troop is taking 2 crews to Northern Tier this summer. The Altama jungle boots are highly recommended by our SM based on his previous experiences at NT. He basically has said the same things to our boys that Mooseman has said here. I picked up a pair of Altama jungle boots for my son at one of the local military surplus stores this past weekend for $59. Altama was the company that made boots for the US military until recently. They lost their contract when they moved their factory to China. There are questions about what kind of compromises in quality may have been made when the factory moved and they no longer supply the military. I'm sure the older inventory is still out there in the surplus stores. Beware of cheap imitation jungle boots. Our SM has seen imitations fall apart in a couple of days at NT.

Didn't we have a certain "leader of the free world" and a young intern who didn't consider their actions as sex because they didn't do the "deed"? They are still catching daily grief over that on talk radio. If it quacks like a duck.......

Remember that last year BSA came out with the activity shirt in a tan color. It is basically one of the vented nylon fishing shirts you can find thru most outdoor companies. IT IS NOT a Class A though. I don't know what material these activity pants will be, but they are activity and not Class A. I do have a good buddy in scouting who bought a pair of Class A pants and took them to an alteration shop and had them converted into zip offs. He is the envy of many scouters. I can vouch for the Cabelas pants. I have a pair of their 7 Pocket Hiker Shorts. There is also a pants version. Both come in a women's version as well. They are a 7 ounce cotton canvas. The "cargo" pocets are as small as the pockets on the scout pants. They come in 8 different colors. My favorite Cabela's pants are their Trailhiker Pants. They are an 8 ounce cotton fabric with large bellows cargo pockets. They have double knees and wide belt loops. They come in five colors. They have a women's version as well. I am not sure if they have a shorts version. These are the pants I will recommend to our Venturing Crew that is getting started. Neither style of pants comes in a zip off version. Both do come in a fleece or flannel lined version for cold weather. Both also have a seperate knife pocket. Both run around $29.95 for the pants, which is much cheaper than the flimsy scout pants.

OK, look......nowhere in the G2SS does it say we can not put the boys in tin foil hats, holding an extended fork in one hand and a spoon in the other while standing on an open hill during a thunderstorm!!!

For the last several years, our troop has gone to the Trappers Rendezvous put on by the White Buffalo District in the Quivera Council up in Kansas. It is held the 3rd weekend of January and has been going on for 29 years. It is attended by 4,000 scouts and scouters. In 2005, it was snowing and the high on Saturday was around 10 and the low was near 0. In 2006, it was sunny with the high in the mid-50's and the low was in the 30's. You just never know. In fact, in 2005 the temps had been in the 50's until a cold front blew thru the day before the event.

Beavah, I won't disagree with a lot of what you said. The CO is responsible for recruiting and approving leadership and they can further restrict membership to their unit than what the BSA standard is. In the agreement they have thru the charter, they have those rights and many more in how they run the unit. There are many things they can't do as well. Bottom line, the BSA can refuse a selected leader over what the CO approves. Think background checks. They can also pull the charter or refuse to recharter the CO the following year. Ultimately, they trump the CO. BSA can't exist without CO's. But without the BSA, CO's couldn't have a unit. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? No BSA, no Boy Scouting. It may be the CO's sandbox, but it is the BSA's playground.

Lisabob, Your point is taken about the cold...but keep in mind that it is a big country. Our March campout was climbing and rappeling and we were in t-shirts during the day and fleece pullovers at night. On the other hand, we have had snow and ice in March. Most snow we get today is gone tomorrow. Usually, our two coldest camping months are January and February. You can get some cold weather in December and March, but it is a 50/50 deal.

Beavah, The CO receives their charter from BSA. They agree to operate a unit in accordance with BSA standards. The BSA gives a certain amount of leeway to the CO in some areas. However, the BSA can remove the charter. That makes it their sandbox. If I buy a McDonald's franchise, I can not paint the arches purple and serve hot dogs. I can, but it won't be a McDonalds for very long.

Our council (Last Frontier) has 6 properties. Slippery Falls Scout Ranch is where Boy Scout Summer camp is held for 5 weeks. Camp George Thomas is where 8 half week sessions of Cub and Webelos Resident camp is held. They run Sunday thru Wednesday morning and Wednesday afternoon thru Saturday. There are 2 sessions that are Wolf and Bear only, 5 sessions that are Webelos only and 1 session that is Cubs and Webelos mixed. Cub Day Camp is held at the district level rather than the council level. Out of 10 districts, 4 will use 2 other council properties while the other 6 districts will use parks and facilities closer to their district.

Well, I just happened by this thread and found that my comments were what started this thread. Beavah, I never said we don't practice adult relationships in our troop. Life isn't always black and white. The fact that our adults operate as a "model" patrol on campouts does not mean we do not interact with the scouts. Month before last, we were climbing and rappeling at a wildlife refuge. Who do you think ran the program? We didn't send 18 newly crossed over scouts out with the older boys and tell them to have at it. The older boys taught skills in the troop meeting leading up to the camp out, but the adults rigged everything and ran the climbing. Our 18 new boys are split into two new boy patrols. Each patrol has two troop guides who are older and experienced scouts. I am one of three ASM's overseeing the new boy program. I step into their skill sessions, patrol meetings and campsites very often to see how things are going. We do that with the other patrols too, just to a lesser extent. We have enough uniformed adults at meetings and campouts that a boy can hardly turn around without running into one of us. There is a lot of adult interaction, but we do try to use the patrol method and let it work. We do expect our older boys to lead and return what they learned from other scouts to the newer scouts. Our troop (boys and adults) learn something new all the time, but I like to think we have a few things figured out too. Along with the patrol method and adult association, another method is Leadership Development. "The Boy Scout program encourages boys to learn and practice leadership skills. Every Boy Scout has the opportunity to participate in both shared and total leadership situations. Understanding the concepts of leadership helps a boy accept the leadership role of others and guides him toward the citizenship aim of Scouting." A boy can't lead if the adults are always in the way.

Alpineer, I just had a thought. Instead of the boys hunting each other and shooting each other, how about introducing tracking. It used to be taught in scouting. I don't know how easy it would be to find someone who can teach tracking. But if the boys learn to track, they can play a high level hide and seek game of trying to cover their tracks and trying to hunt their game. I have a feeling that if you take the gun and shooting element out of it, they won't be interested....and I think that is why the BSA does not allow it. Tracking could be fun and useful.