willysjeep

snowing, about 15 degrees at 2 in the afternoon, beautiful. Ya know, we had some trolls up at my summer camp last year, Camp Hiawatha. Elk Rapids Troop 46 IIRC. wouldn't be from around there, would ya?

At our camp we have permanent frames for the patrol flys, so we have just a piece of 1.5" pipe cemented into the ground. There's a slightly larger diameter short pipe welded to the bottom of the stove that drops over the cemented in pipe. We also have temporary setups with a pipe cemented into a large bucket. Helps reduce any chance of the stove getting moved too close to something like a tent or picnic table. Basically, our stoves are a rectangular cube about 10 inches tall, 24 inches deep and mabey 18 inches wide. The sides are of I believe sheet metal of about 18 gauge, mabey a little

The problem with LNT is that most people implement it either all or nothing. You can make a fire and make it so the site will heal within a few years, or you can make a stealth fire over some sand on a tarp and have no evidence at all. I live where there is no great massive high impact areas. Everywhere in the Hiawatha national forest is not too terribly impacted, but it's durable! If you dig a large enough pit for a fire and only go through the topsoil, keep the fire somewhat small, and replace the topsoil afterwards, watering it to boot, you have in effect put some nutrients back INTO the so

Most of our sheep herders are built from scratch I think now. If you have a steel dealer by you chances are they can cut the plates you need. If you can locate somebody (volunteer) who can arc weld you are all set. PS, don't use aluminum pipe for stovepipe. My camp got this 3" aluminum conduit to use for stovepipe. Unfortunately our sheephearders burned hot enough to melt the aluminum pipe at the base. The heat also caused air bubbles and cold shuts in the pipe to expand, and when they pop the liquid aluminum flys everywhere. Only stovepipe from now on. If you can, get the top plate a little t

we have "footsteps" at Camp Hiawatha. Basically it's a little pavilion where first year scouts pretty much just show up to work on basic ranks and skills. It isn't scheduled so you can do it whenever you decide to, unless you set up a time or something with a counselor. There are a few old comissioners and other old farts that hang out there and offer some guidance to whomever comes in. Basically it's a one on one tenderfoot, 2nd clas, 1st class workshop area. Of course in the Scoutcraft area, where this pavillion is located, the staff puts on totin' chip and firem'n chit sessions whenever a f

Run ons and various skits I have heard that were kind of neat: guy with a small soda bottle. He opens it and looks inside the cap "Please try again" so he screws the cap back on, unscrews it again "Please try again!" repeats process again and again, muttering and walking off stage. Guy comes out frantically yelling "Watch" and making a fool of himself. After a few laps he ends up at center stage, when he points to his wristwatch or a big pocket watch and says in a calm voice "watch" Guy with an old pie pan or pot lid, with a big, big pole barn spike shoved through the c

With all of the possible outdoor activities for scouts these days I often see troops getting specialized. I know of a troop that approaches each and every campout as though it were a low impact backpacking trip. All hiking equipment, backpacks, "hiking" food. And I think to myself "great, but when did hiking become the high pincale of camping?" I guess the bug bit me when I met a man named Mr Oslund. He had a canvas lean-pee set up and had a big group of people captivated with a rope trick he was performing. All I could think of at the moment was "whoa, that's a cool tent". Now I realise

In light of the recent situation I would like to propose a new plan for our old beloved summer camp. Taking Camp Hiawatha *wink wink* as an example I would like to 1) do away with the dining hall as it does nothing to support the patrol method. Instead I would like to require patrol cooking. Of course we would need to have some equipment available if the troop requested it, but no more of this dining hall nonsense. 2) I would like to see that every campsite is equipped with only a latrine and fire pit. Dining flys, and tents should be available from the camp quartermaster if a troo

If you want to go some place up north, Isel Royal is a great trip. If you take the boat from Houghton you will go right by the porkies. Mabey you could make it a combined trip. I have only been to the porkies a little, even though I'm only a few hours away. The scenery is as beautiful as anywhere in the Upper Peninsula. Isle royal is also a beautiful spot, but don't expect to scale any cliffs or anything. It is some of the most beautiful country I can imagine everywhere around here. There really aren't any scout bases or anything over there. The closest scout camp would be either BearPaw in W

Ok, I started posting here just after I turned 18, and I was still sort of looking for my new place in my troop. I'm over the whole merit badge bent. I think somebody told me that they did change the eagle badge rules recently, allowing adults to wear the actual badge IIRC. if not then it has become a troop tradition, so either way I guess I'm coming to terms with my age.

OK, I have a similar question to pose here. Who knows what all of those knots mean besides the people who have already earned them. If a cubscout sees a person with the AOL knot on their shirt it just looks like another knot, but if he sees the arrow of light patch that he wants to get on his cubmasters uniform he is bound to know what it means. Likewise with the eagle badge, only eagles or those who make it their business actually know what the eagle knot looks like, but everybody in scouting can figure out that somebody is an eagle if they are wearing the eagle rank patch. It serves a better

Bob White, I was under the impression that liability didn't become an issue until parents wished to seek legal retribution. I think that a lot of parents would happily sue anybody they could if their child were injured. The abuse of the legal system these days are so gross that if any of these organizations were to fall into the crosshairs of a greedy lawsuit slinging parent who wanted to take advantage of the situation they would soon be bled dry. The organizations that are liable would really only have a problem if the parents chose to sue, which they are pretty likely to do in this day

That's it right there! liability! SO many activities have been frowned upon by parents because Junior might get a boo-boo playing football or something. I bet now if a scout troop were called upon by a government entity for help like serving on a fire crew, filling sand bags in a flood area, helping to clear fallen trees after a windstorm, or even something as simple as helping the injured to medical aid in an emergency area their parents would probably throw a major temper tantrum. Those types of things aren't necisairily that dangerous or technical, but because of the miniscule chance of inj

I just thought of this. All throughout scouting, scouts pitched in in emergencies. They have acted as couriers, forest fire crews, as emergency search and rescuers, and many other important jobs during emergencies. In fact, the saftey MB still requires a practice troop mobilization. My thought is are the current rules of scouting preventing these scouts from pitching in during emergencies, or are local scouters just stepping back and letting professionals do the job. I really have never in recent times heard of a troop serving as a group in an emergency, only of individual volunteers. Are sa

Even if it's not a utility issue, there is no way to justify it as a saftey issue so there is no point to making a rule aganst them. Besides, I like to get a tool that will serve under abuse ten times greater than I will ever give it, not one that will get the job done only if used mildly. Everything has it's place and I think the outdoors is the right place for sheath knives. By the way, I don't dig with mine, I make a digging stick. I really don't want to dull the edge on a big chunk of rock. One big plus of a sheath knife is it fills the gap between pocket knife and hatchet quite nicely. Yo

No to be rude either, but just how does campin adversely effect asthmatics? I can understand how hiking or canoeing could put extra strain on somebody spurring on an attack, but what parts of other types of camping can cause problems? I would think that in car camping would not place a large physical strain on a body, and I would also think that the fresh air and open spaces of the woods might actually be better for a person with a respiratory condition than at home in the house. If allergies were the trigger for an asthma attack then the trip date could be ajusted to better conditions.

Hi, I have just completed a project from the Handicraft section of the 1948 scout handbook. It is a 9 foot by 9 foot canvas rectangle with tie tapes and grommets in strategic locations so it can be pitched in many diferent ways as a tent. I used RIT tan dye to color the fabric and waterproofed it somewhat with silicone water guard spray (I hope it works otherwise I need to spend morme money on waterproofing, but the garden hose test tomorrow will tell) and sewed it together from medium canvas that was in the $1/yard bin at the local WalMart. Who else actually made one of these ev

Dat'l Do It Devil Drops made from the Datil pepper of FLA. Good stuff. Has a mild first taste and then the heat hits you. HOT! And of course my good friend Mr. Habanero, I grow a few in my garden for the people I don't like, and for special batches of chile.

You must bear in mind that there are three or more "offical" wall tents available with diferent, yet somewhat similar dimensions. You should also remember that mosquito netting cot drapes are only so large too. Also, my summer camp has a few older discontinued diferent yet size wall tents. Mabey fitting the PVC to a commercially made mosquito net for a cot would be better, it'd be small enough for any scout tent just about, instead of fiting it to the tent and building the net for it.

I just found out that a few supply houses make eagle whistles out of turkey bones! In fact, a ready made one is going for 50 UK pounds on one site, but I don't want to pay that much. I think I'll get a butterball and mabey buy a little resin cast whistle to use as a pattern. Thanks again for the ideas but it looks like I found a good economical option. Same thing for turkey feathers, I'm OK with them now, given the time period I would be shooting for.

Did a little research on the laws, Eagles and hawks and falcons are pretty much off limits to me as near as I can tell. My local tribe would have been the Noquet, but the Ojibway would also be very close. I plan on making my regalia as close to the Ojibway style as possible. As it turns out the Ojibway did not traditionally use too many feathered head dresses, they would have worn an otter turbin or possibly a porcupine roach, but later on just about every tribe would have worn the eagle feather head dress as it became immensely popular in the early 1900's. By then immitation eagle feath

That is a good point, I am not native american by birth, so I really have no right to use actual eagle parts, the law actually forbids it unless I am a member of a reckognized tribe. That is in part why I was asking about alternate feathers. Using dyed turkey feathers as eagle feathers may look right, but I don't think that native americans would have. I want to make my regalia as correct as possible without offending anybody. Dyed turkey feathers I guess could have been used before the 1900's but they would not have been used in the place of eagle feathers. I would imagine they would ha

I'm not quite sure who can answer this for me. I would like to know what feathers other than eagle or immitation eagle can be used appropriately in a head dress. I am thinking about seriously updating my regalia(sp?) and I don't want to "fake" anything this time around as long as I'm putting all this effort into it. I know eagle feathers were used because of the noble qualities of the eagle and the reverence the natives have for them. With endangered species laws and the scarcity of eagles around most of the stuff that would have once been eagle feather is now dyed turkey feather, and I don't

For those of you who aren't in the OA and reading this: The practices of the OA can not be kept a secret from you on an offical level. If you absolutely must know the details of everythign that goes on you can ask at your local council office and I believe they must tell you. Having said that, there is no rule to make anybody privately tell you what is going to happen. The OA is not a cult, the ordeal is not some kind of frat enitiation, and there is nothing done there that wouldn't be acceptable at a normal scout function. The OA was once treated as a secret sociotey. I feel t

Look in an old 1970's or earlier scoutbook for some great made from scratch ideas that are simple enough, yet not too common, for everybody. Cooking over an open fire can add a new dimension to the whole experience too. Grilling steaks, a ham, or even cornish game hens on strings are all fun and taste great. Dehydrated ingredints can be fun to work with too, and can be prepared weeks in advance at a troop meeting as long as a parent comes back to check on them the next day. Dried beans and fruits are more of a traditional ingredient and can make some pretty hearty meals. Adding refried beans