Merit Badge Contest - March updaet

Well, here's the status of the merit badge contest we're having for the first 6 months of 2009:

Connor Wright - 2; Family Life, Personal Management
Rhett Harris - 1; Family Life
Derek Williams - 1; Personal Management

Last years pending awards:

Landon Young - Communications, Camping, Physical Fitness
Derek Williams - Geology
Quinn McClune - First Aid

Gardening and graduation

Well, tonight was interesting. I packed up pots, seeds, plants, flats, dirt, gardening books, canned foods and whatever else I could fit in the truck. My goal was to introduce the scouts to the gardening merit badge. There were 5 boys that showed up, of which one went to another class and the other went to play basketball, leaving 3 scouts and 3 leaders; great 1:1 ratio I guess. I discussed a little bit about propagating plants from cuttings as well as transplanting seedlings. I was hoping the boys would want to plant some seeds for their gardening merit badge but the interest wasn't there. We transplanted some lettuce plants and ended without too much interest. Laurie baked a birthday cake for Tyson, who will be turning 14 this Sunday. I don't know where the other 8 boys were tonight, some at basketball and others not interested. The boys finished the evening playing basketball, which most boys had great interest in, go figure.

PS. Connor Wright had his scout master conference for his Life rank advancement. Congratulations on attaining this rank. Connor has served as a patrol leader, has participated in over 6 hours of service projects and has earned the necessary merit badges. He'll be eligible for his Eagle in 6 months, pending meeting his 20 days of camping with the scouts. Go Connor!

Railroading and Coin Collecting

Well, tonight at scouts we discussed the status of coin collecting in the troop. All of the state quarters are finally out, while some new quarters for United State Territories are coming, along with four Lincoln coins celebrating the 200th birthday anniversary. Finally, the BSA is going to have a special coin celebrating the 100th anniversary of scouting in America. Lot's of fun things for scouts to collect lately!

We also, in anticipation of the annual Hostler Railroad Festival, held at Ogden's Union Station, the first weekend of March, had a wonderful tour of Bob Schaffer's model railroad at his home. What a neat hobby he demonstrated. Five of our scouts participated in this event.

For those interested, the railroad festival is conducted by a local railroad hobby group and is a fun family activity. The cost is free for 12 and under, while adults are five bucks. You may want to avoid this event in that the hobby is pretty expensive and we wouldn't want to create a burden on our budgets during this economical crisis. (Just kidding. It's Thomas time, go have some fun and see the wonderful job these hobbiests do in the railroading business.)

We lost two of our scouts to basketball tonight - they missed out on a good time.

Klondike Derby - 2009

The troop participated in the annual Snowhorse District Klondike Derby held at Camp Kiesel this past weekend. Nine scouts participated, including the following dads and leaders; Marty Stout (dad), Rick Wright (assistant scout master and dad), Eric Tuttle (assistant scout master) and John Sorensen (scout master). Weather reports predicted a cold night of 7 degrees but we believe we didn't get quite that low - it was 14 degrees at 11 p.m. and the digital thermometer quit working by morning. We met at the church at 3:30 and was off by 4:15, arriving at Camp Kiesel around 5:00. We were about in the middle of arrivals. We camped closest to the parking lot, up on the mountain top, rather than back in the camp as in previous years. Everyone put their tents up first and prepared their sleeping bags to fluff up before heading off for snowball fights and sled riding. We had chili with hot dogs and hot chocolate, followed by tootsie-rolls and other frozen candy. Crackers would have been nice, according to Marty! The scouts were rounded up and off to bed by 10:00 pm. Proper preparation, with multiple sleeping bags and blankets made sleeping through the night possible. Our noses froze at they poked out of our bags for air, but with our benny-caps in place, we survived the night. Morning brought pancakes, eggs, bacon and hot chocolate. Scouts rolled up their sleeping bags before the 9:30 flag ceremony and we were off to the Klondike Derby. Causey Dam had ice and about a foot of fresh snow on top, with slush underneath, somewhat worse than last year. Walking about was a challenge, but we got our exercise for the day. A water jug with individual water bottles with the boys names marked on them, would have been nice, but the boys improvised and melted snow in their mouths. Most of the scouts were determined to finished all of the events, rewarding them with a head-mounted light. Rhett Harris, our senior patrol leader led the scouts from one event to another and did a great job. Back at camp around 12:30, we had the scouts favorite of submarine sandwiches, soda and chips. We packed up our gear and were out of camp by 2:00 and home by 3:00 with memories of surviving the cold that mountain men and early pioneers had to survive when they migrated to the west 150 years ago. Scouts participating: Rhett Harris, Connor Wright, Moab Schiers, Noah Schiers, Derek Williams, Quinn McClune, Kaden Hopper, Tyler Stout, Stockton King.

Klondike Preparation - The Red Sled

Scouts each took a turn in painting the Klondike Sled Red at our troop meeting last night. The scouts who went to the Klondike last year were really excited to go again this year. From our discussion preparation, this is a great event for the boys they really enjoy, despite the cool weather that accompanies the winter Klondike.

Camp Bartlett - National Web Site

Check this link out. The picture on the right side just happens to be Camp Bartlett. Crazy, a picture of our summer camp location on the national web site!

http://ww2.scouting.org/100years/100years/

BSA turns 99!

Well, 99 years ago the Boy Scouts of America was chartered. That means for the next year, we will be part of an organization that is finishing up its 100th year, with a final commemoration next year. What a great opportunity to be part of a great program.