boomerscout

When are you going? First week of July we were glad we had a bag

Why not just sew one? Take a piece of cloth and fold the top edge over about half an inch. Sew along the edge to provide the channel for the drawstring. Fold the cloth over. Stitch the bottom & the open side. Insert a piece of cord for the drawstring. Turn the sack inside out and you're done.

Don't give her any money. Tell her you will pay the glass shop directly for her (cheaper than a dealership glass). Once she drove off your lot the first time, it kind of lessened her claim. A chip could have already been there, and just decided to expand at that time.

In any case, work thru her insurance company if you can.

So, how do you overcome inertia on their part when fear and possible discomfort may be part of the "problem"?

"Both scouts just decided they did not want to go to summer camp.

Hmmm, free week of sumer camp, I think I'll pass. No value."

Too many do not like change. Some can't handle change at all. Even if the "new thing", such as summer camp, is perceived as good, and they want to do it, they sometimes can not bring themselves to step up to the plate and git'er done.

I've seen this at college. Students with good grades get to the senior year, or even to the last semester, and then just walk away.

Obcviously, the amount of change that can be handled is different for each person.

Anyone know how to overcome this?

It's tough getting kicked in the teeth (or wherever) like that. That it has happened to others before you doesn't make it any less bearable.

Do I pay the way for other Scouts? No. I may kick in a ten or twenty to make up a troop shortfall now and again. Even our camperships require parental skin in the game. They (the parents) may not be able to attend summer camp; they will lead some other activity whether it's a trip to the nature center, or managing one of the fundraisers or something else where they have to make an effort. Sorry, that's just the way it is; we look on Scouting as a family activity and not as a babysitting facility. If the parents absolutely refuse, the troop, admittedly, has backed down, but that's only if it is the troop has some spare coin and not any individual Scouter. (If the parents want a campership from the council, that is between the council and them)

As to sports and band we realize the Scouts are not going to be around for that part of the year. We do see sports and band as important. The Scouts know in advance they give up/don't receive a POR covering that time period.

I do sometimes wonder why each district cannot form a Scout band that plays in high-profile venues.

Middle school is nothing if it's not peer pressure. The five days a week of school is often many times stronger than the one night a week of troop. Schools have football and band.

Did the Scout understand what was to be expected of him after he came back from NYLT training? I am wondering if something happened at the training that scared him, or if he did something he doesn't want known.

Four weeks of summer camp will run any adult ragged. It may have been in the past that if you didn't step up, then it didn't happen. For the health of you, your family, your troop then from now on it doesn't happen. Just announce this well ahead of time

Any good program has value. Don't let its value be demeaned by allowing parents to run roughshod over it. However, that may be just me who doesn't mind getting in people's faces.

Don't put the vitamin C in too soon. The iodine needs time to work

could you have them try the iodine water while still at home before the trip?

we generally count Philmont as 12 nights as long as the tent is in a different place each night. Of course, by the time they get to Philmont, they probably have more than 20 nights

"I don't want to be in Scouts any more. My friends have mostly dropped out."

This is the crux, as has already been mentioned. Boys like to hang out with their buddies, and his buds have left. Perhaps there should have been more High Adventure offered each year to retain them all. Now, in the troop, he gets to hang with the "little kids"; that's not going to cut it.

I don't believe there's much you can do unless you talk him into doing some kind of special project for the troop. Perhaps get him to plan, organize, make all the arrangements for 3 weeks on the AT for a group of older scouts

Some battles are just not worth fighting. This scenario seems to be composed of a long chain of screwups by several. After the upcoming PLC, in which I would make them understand all the "wrongs", I would let it rest.

The next time something similar happens, I would just put the gear into the "special locker" and not say a word until after they created and used a work-around one time. After the event is over, a big smile and,"Look what I just found."

Someone else asked about trustworthy. If we were all born trustworthy, then we wouldn't need a Scout Law in the first place. Learning the Law is more than a one-time sign-off where it automatically becomes firmly embedded; it takes time and repeated lessons. This was more a case of didn't think, it was convenient, instructions were misunderstood, assumptions were made such that more than one fell down

Another case of where no-one is at fault. Ha! True, the patrol stoves did not walk out of the equipment room by themselves. Who unlocked it in the first place?

Did not anyone from patrols 2 & 6 notice their stoves were out on the table? They are color coded?

I would have a chat with the demonstrater and his PL (and with the SPL for inadequate followup).

Still, I find it hard to make these two patrols suffer for the actions of others -- especially if they did not even know.

"Storage: Repeated and long-term compression wear out a sleeping bag faster than anything else. Never store a sleeping bag in a stuff sack of any kind. Either hang it up, lay it out on the floor, or put it in the large storage sack provided with your bag. "

The theory, which I've not researched further, is that compression puts enough torque on the textile fibers to weaken or even break them causing the textile to wear out more quickly than normal

Of course he should advance to Eagle. It was the second troop that failed, not him.

not cruel, but I would have done it separately from the troop meeting

I surmise that in the "olden days" adults taught the boys actual bird calls and other actual animal sounds.

When going to the Jamboree, we wanted to be the Playboy Patrol. I was readying a letter to Hugh Hefner for permission to use the bunny symbol when higher-ups quashed the idea. Our patrol yell was going to be, "hubba-hubba!"

They raise the flag indoors whenever we medal in the Olympics. Not exactly on a flagpole, but is not the principle the same?

If we get center position (gold medal), plenty stand up, salute or cross their heart

You've never been on a snipe hunt?

Letters nowadays are just more junk mail. That you actually took the time to call in person will have more meaning

no letter; nothing in writing. In this lawsuit happy nation a lawyer can parse any letter twelve ways from sunday in order to initiate a lawsuit.

You and one other need to visit the parents and have a face-to-face chit-chat.

Back in the early 1950s Boys Life ran several articles on dehydrating foods.

For those of you who would like to start, I recommend

Dry It - You'll Like it by Gen MacManiman

Camper's Companion by Rick Greenspan & Hal Kahn (this book is also a useful beginner's adjunct to the handbook

Amazon bookbuyers seem to like:

Backpack Gourmet by Linda Yaffe

Trail Food by Alan Kesselheim

Back when water from the Boundary Waters was safe to drink without treatment, we carried an unsliced slab of bacon in a denim bag. Each evening we dipped the bag in the lake water, reinserted the bacon, hanged the bag; bacon was kept cool by the bag's evaporation. (That the bacon was cured probably helped.) It lasted about a week

The box fan dehydrator appeals. Did any of the paper filters soak through such that liquid got into the motor housing?

Thanks for th info.

The "A Scout is Loyal" I thought from the 60s or 70s was a re-issue of the 1942 version.

Interesting how the Scout in the 1932 version is practicing ultralight backpacking

First thing I would do is gather ye Scouts and ask them why they are not camping. What is it they are looking for? What expectations are not being met?

As for the Scouts leaving early, perhaps they feel the games are pitched to boys younger than they

Do they still have to serve as altar boys? Nowadays, asking for that kind of time commitment seems to be too much.