Twocubdad

The aluminum DO is really fussy. You tend to get burned spot at every coal. You can deal with it by rotating frequently or crunching up the coals, but why bother if you have a real DO available? If your oil is going rancid, you're not doing it right. After oiling, you should reheat the oven to bake on and carbonize the oil. Flax seed oil is the best. Flax seed oil is food-grade linseed oil, which was the base for paint for centuries. I've read a couple really nerdy articles about the chemistry, polymer length, yadda, yadda, yadda, but the bottom line is Flax seed oil doesn't go ranci

1) Do you use Dutch ovens? Definitely. Box ovens, reflector ovens, sandwich presses, campfire popcorn poppers, you name it 2) Wood or charcoal? Usually charcoal, with a starter chimney. Saves a lot of time. But we will use coals from the campfire it it's ready. 3) Troop cook or patrol cook? Both. Summer camp is mostly a troop deal so guys take turns cooking campfire snacks for the whole troop. Otherwise, all cooking is by patrol. 4) Size(s) used? Mainly 12" I personally have a 16". We also have two casserole dish cast iron pans we've had metal lid made for. They're great

Love the Latest Posts/Threads/Updates box on the right side. Thanks for taking care of us, Terry.

You're going to have a blast! This will be the most rewarding and exhausting Scout training you've ever had. I been on NCS-CS faculty 12 years. One of the biggest complaints we get on the feedback sheets is three days wasn't enough time for the volume of material covered. Of course no one wants to go for an extra day, so.... And actually, it's really a two-day class. There isn't a lot of focused instruction Sunday morning, mostly review, wrap-up, a Scouts' Own service and graduation. The syllabus calls for check-out by noon. But it is VERY, VERY intense. It's like Wood Badge ex

No permit required at all if we are within the council or going to a council camp.

Just say you were employed by the State Department of Corrections. Be careful giving your tenure as "3 to 5" or that your hourly rate was 14 cents an hour.

I'd call it sarcastic, but I'm okay with "purposely obtuse" too.

I occasionally get a newer parent yelling "Do you know what word my son learned on the campout?" or "I thought Scouts are supposed to be (fill in a point of the Scout Law)." I tell them the image they have in mind is the finished product. I'm working with the raw materials. I don't think you can make blanket judgments about any group like that. Some of the biggest jerks I have in the troop are terrific soccer players. Remarkably self-centered, think the rest of the world is here for their amusement and convenience and have no clue their poop stinks. Should I make the assumption all socce

(Sigh) Since we are camping on camp property, we didn't file a tour plan. In the case of shooting sports, I specified the shooting sports director opened the range for us. In our council, only certified climbing instructors can open the climbing wall, so one can assume the other troop has a climbing instructor on hand, but we asked to be sure. And oh, by the way, we have both certified climbing and shooting sports instructors in our troop, so that's not a problem either way. We also have numerous folks trained in Safety Afloat and have sense enough not to jump in canoes willy-nilly withou

Does this not paint you into a corner? What happens when the opportunity for something different presents itself on a campout? Another troop has the climbing wall open and invites your Scouts to climb? The shooting sports director is working at the range and offers to open it? Or the campsite includes a couple of canoes? (Our troop has been on both the offering and receiving end of all of these.) Does "camping" on the permission slip cover it or do you have to decline the invitation? I'm no lawyer, but it would seem to me an annual, detailed, state-specific permission slip covering all ac

Presbyterian, Fred. What you or I think is immaterial. The CO gets to decide. Honestly, registering them as committee members was something we had to negotiate for. The church wants to put them through their own day-long YP training and charge $65 for a background check. Every few years, when a new set of deacons takes over, we have to make our case again.

Pack makes a good point I had intended to include -- while the constraints of an organization may preclude them from getting involved beyond their own parochial interests, nothing precludes an individual from dropping a dime on the kid. He is also spot on with the real, time-tested cure for bullying. No career as a bully ever survives it's first good butt whoopin'. I saw it happen over and over growing up. Remember the Scott Farcas Affair from the movie Christmas Story? That's exactly how it works. Or more currently the "Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdog" analogy in American Sniper. Unfort

I have no knowledge of the official protocol for a situation like this. HOWEVER, I wouldn't expect the council to issue such a letter. How would that possibly be in their interest? Secondly, that the bully has moved on to greener pastures really isn't the council's problem. Now I get all the arguments for why they shouldn't "kick the can down the road" or "burying our heads in the sand", but if the council WANTED to do something about the situation, what standing would they have to get involved in a school issue?. If the council executive called the school, do you think school personnel would

Our CO wants all adults involved in it's youth programs to be background checked. That means anyone who attends a campout. The church's process cost $65. BSA membership is a steal. Adults pay their own registration fee.

I don't know how pro pay grades/scales work (maybe E92 or BP can comment) but one reason for large districts with multiple DEs is it creates a justification for Sr. DE and District Director positions. This has the benefit of keeping experienced pros in the district, but also (I'm sure) increases salaries.

Not everyone is a leader. The world needs associates too. One of the great advantages of Scouting is it takes the meekest of those gentle souls and at least exposes to them to the concepts of leadership and an opportunity and nudge to give it a try. Maybe they can become a 2nd Assistant Supervising Associate.

And there are kids, especially they younger ones, who don't have cell phones. A few don't have email but more than a few have multiple accounts and rarely check them. One thing I've seen over the past year or so is the use of text groups. Now, instead of making eight calls, the post one (frequently unintelligible) text and think their done. But two kids don't have phones, another wasn't at the meeting when they traded phone numbers, another forgot to turn his back on after class. Ultimately, maybe half get the message. Kids are amazingly myopic. The world stops at the end of their fin

Even Ringling Brothers is getting rid of their elephants so they don't have to talk about them anymore.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/03/06/uc-irvine-students-vote-to-remove-american-flag-from-campus-lobby/ Resolution reads, in part, “freedom of speech, in a space that aims to be as inclusive as possible can be interpreted as hate speech.†Now I went to a good, state-supported university, every bit as good as UC-Irvine. I understand English as it was taught at my mother's knee. It is my native tongue. But please, what the hell does that mean?

So the main purpose of the merger is because no one has the cajones to get rid of the day camp director and activities chairman? What happens if those two take over the new district and apply their programs to the other two districts? We went through a merger a few years back. The stated purpose was because several districts were weak and were to be joined -- essentially taken over -- by stronger districts. All it accomplished was to average the numbers of the various districts. It was like a school reassignment where the shuffle two school districts, one with a 60% pass rate and the ot

Nikki not liking something someone posted about her?

I'm with you. I'm mostly just bustin' you chops.

Right, Stosh. But my contact is with the SPL. He can figure the delegation. I'm also assume there may be shared, troop equipment/responsibilities which he shouldn't dump on the PLs.

No. Some how BSA managed to live with (some would say "wallowed in", others "reveled in") the ambiguity until this year. The elephant showed up in May of last year.

Go without one. Hand the SPL a copy of the QM's job description and tell him he's responsible for that too. But make sure he knows the PLs are responsible for all their patrol gear. QMs probably work as hard as anyone. From time to time we've gone without.