March is such an interesting month, weather wise. There are some years where its so hot, you wish you could go swimming. Other years, its so cold you sit there and think to yourself "What happened to spring?"
Since last month we cancelled our trip to snow, mostly I was thinking "Mother nature is sort of a b*tch." March - normally a time when things start getting a little warmer, the animals start to emerge from hibernation, and humans are getting ready for spring break, and Easter. In our case, we stood around wondering why it was March and there was 2" of snow on the ground and everything was freezing, including the tents.
Needless to say we survived, but I think everyone underestimated the weather just a bit - even if it was a simple as wishing they had brought their slightly heavier boots, as they were attempting to cram a 2-sock covered foot into a temperate combat boot.
At any rate, this month's journey finds us in Blairstown, NJ at Yards Creek Scout Reservation, run by Central New Jersey Council. I nice little camp that is actually a part of the Yards Creek Pumping Station grounds which is run but New Jersey Central Power & Light. While the camp is not huge (I believe it is less than 100 acres all told) it is in a quite little area on the eastern slope of the Kittatinny Mountain Range, which is home to the NJ portion of the Appalachian Trail, and within spitting distance of the Delaware River. This camp is actually one of two (the other being Kittatinny Mountain Scout Reservation) that is owned by CNJC. Sadly, we learned this weekend that in an effort to cut back on costs, CNJC is selling KMSR to the state, which plans to fold it into the Stokes State Forest property. CNJC has not run a summer camp program in many years, and this is just one more sad state of affairs not only for CNJC, but also BSA as a whole, especially in the NJ area. CNJC had a program that I had intended to make use of once I felt our Scouts were ready, and that was hiking from KMSR to Yards Creek on the trail - but it doesn't look like that will happen. (I guess this is a fine example of "use it or lose it".)
Getting past the weather (which was cold, but not overly windy) we actually had a nice quiet weekend despite the leader training and their incessant chanting and singing down in the lower site. Our new SPL, CJ, got to cut his teeth as a boy leader, and while he has a bit of a way to go, is definitely moving in the right direction. For his first time, he did pretty well. Food as usual was great, with a breakfast of French toast (buy the "Texas toast" cut - works much better) and bacon, a lunch of pie iron calzones (with pepperoni, mushrooms and onions) and dinner of (of course!) corned beef, potatoes and cabbage for St. Paddy's Day.
We also had a new desert - bananas with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips inside, baked in tin foil in the fire. I have no idea what to call it. However, it was enjoyed by all who tried it and it seems to be on our list of items to have make another appearance on our next trip. Two scouts and 1 adult went through a whole bunch of bananas that night!
The Scouts practiced their lashings (which they decided they needed work on) and we managed to make a cooking apparatus (we referred to it as a "swingset" or a "bi-tripod") as well as a tripod for the water jug and a flag pole. More practice is needed, but I have to give them credit - the lashings were correct, but cold made the fingers less than useful by the end of the day - which is why they had to do dishes with hot water.
For our first trip out in over a month, we seem to still have this whole camping thing under control.
Now to clean and stow the gear, and on to the next adventure!
Friday, March 22, 2013
2013 Winter Court of Honor
Once again Troop 101 had its annual Winter Court of Honor & Dinner. We had our usual fare with all the parents lending a hand a cooking a dish so no one person had to do all the work, and with a buffet this year, everything went quite smoothly.
Congratulations to the three Scouts who attained the rank of Second Class, as well as the merit badges that they completed together: Emergency Preparedness. (A special thanks to Mr. Berg who made that happen).
We also had a special presentation: since all of our Scouts are roughly the same age and rank, I had been doing double duty as both scoutmaster and senior patrol leader (with occasional temporary help). Now that our Scouts are moving up in rank, the time has come to start getting back to our roots as a boy-led troop. So, I would like to congratulate CJ as our new Senior Patrol Leader! The boys will now work (through CJ) to start planning our meetings as well as our events on camping trips to make sure that they complete and understand all the skills they needs as they work towards their Eagle awards.
Does that mean that I have less of a job to do? Of course not. It means that I can shift some of my attention into recruiting more boys for CJ toboss around lead on trips and at summer camp. We are always looking for new recruits and if you know anyone interested that is between 11 and 17 come on down and see us on a Friday night! (Info is on the right side of this page).
Not an 11 year-old? or a boy? We run programs for everyone! Our Pack is one of the first to now have a Lions den - a den that is for kindergarten age boys who can work their way up through the pack and eventually join the troop. It is the first in our district, and only the third in our whole council! The Pack can now accept your son from kindergarten (age 6?) to 10 (or 6th grade) and then they can join the troop. Our High Adventure Crew will take your son or daughter and basically go and do rock-climbing, white water rafting, and we'll teach them basically everything our Scouts do. (Which makes it fun to have Scouts vs. Crew events...)
Best part of all? We all meet at the same place on the same night of the week. One stop and drop all your kids off and have a night at... Dunkin' Donuts. Yeah... that's where you'll be...
Did I get off topic?
I wish I could end this post on a happy note, but we had to give Mike "Foot" Kane the boot... (insert rim-shot here). Mike turned 18 and we now have to find a nice place for him to pasture. If you would like a former Boy Scout and sci-fi aficionado, please let me know. He's house broken and can operate small machinery and supposedly has a provincial driver's license. In all seriousness, we wish Mike the best of luck in the future, and we hope that he meets a nice girl, gets married, and... brings back sons to add to the Pack and Troop.
Congratulations to everyone who earned something!
Congratulations to the three Scouts who attained the rank of Second Class, as well as the merit badges that they completed together: Emergency Preparedness. (A special thanks to Mr. Berg who made that happen).
We also had a special presentation: since all of our Scouts are roughly the same age and rank, I had been doing double duty as both scoutmaster and senior patrol leader (with occasional temporary help). Now that our Scouts are moving up in rank, the time has come to start getting back to our roots as a boy-led troop. So, I would like to congratulate CJ as our new Senior Patrol Leader! The boys will now work (through CJ) to start planning our meetings as well as our events on camping trips to make sure that they complete and understand all the skills they needs as they work towards their Eagle awards.
Does that mean that I have less of a job to do? Of course not. It means that I can shift some of my attention into recruiting more boys for CJ to
Not an 11 year-old? or a boy? We run programs for everyone! Our Pack is one of the first to now have a Lions den - a den that is for kindergarten age boys who can work their way up through the pack and eventually join the troop. It is the first in our district, and only the third in our whole council! The Pack can now accept your son from kindergarten (age 6?) to 10 (or 6th grade) and then they can join the troop. Our High Adventure Crew will take your son or daughter and basically go and do rock-climbing, white water rafting, and we'll teach them basically everything our Scouts do. (Which makes it fun to have Scouts vs. Crew events...)
Best part of all? We all meet at the same place on the same night of the week. One stop and drop all your kids off and have a night at... Dunkin' Donuts. Yeah... that's where you'll be...
Did I get off topic?
I wish I could end this post on a happy note, but we had to give Mike "Foot" Kane the boot... (insert rim-shot here). Mike turned 18 and we now have to find a nice place for him to pasture. If you would like a former Boy Scout and sci-fi aficionado, please let me know. He's house broken and can operate small machinery and supposedly has a provincial driver's license. In all seriousness, we wish Mike the best of luck in the future, and we hope that he meets a nice girl, gets married, and... brings back sons to add to the Pack and Troop.
Congratulations to everyone who earned something!
February Campout 2013
So, I'd like to say that we had a wonderful time camping in February.
I'd also like to say that I won the lottery, but if that was the case, I'd be writing my resignation post on a beach somewhere as oppose to my drafty office in NJ.
That being said, the truth is that our trip down to the Franklin Institute in Philly, PA was canceled due to inclement weather. A massive winter storm decided to descend on us that weekend, and our parents felt that it was better to stay home and keep warm then go camping.
After further discussion the weekend after, it was determined that we could probably all get together at the church to load the trucks, but we wouldn't have gotten much farther, despite the fact we were going south to the area that was getting the least amount of snow.
In the end, my parents made the decision to keep their scouts home, and that's fine with me. I may not like cancelling, but I also know when the time has come to cancel because it is just to dangerous to be out there. I make decisions on going or not going based on the info I have at hand. I watch the weather for the week leading up to the trip, and I listen to my adults who live in the town we meet in. While I grew up there, I no longer live there - I live 45 minutes south, and sometimes that can mean a world of difference in the weather.
If you are reading this and are a current parent you already know this - and if you are thinking about joining a troop and this is your "research" then this is something you should know: I won't make a Scout do anything I am not willing to do, or have not already done myself.
I am an Eagle scout, and went through everything that your Scout has and will go through - sweating it out at summer camp in a canvas wall tent, freezing with three layers of clothes on in February with the wind howling; cooking over an open fire, cooking on a sheep herder stove, loosing feeling in your fingers trying to tie a knot to hold down the tarp during a snow storm - I, and my adults, have done all that and more.
I've also been there when the weather is perfect, the Scouts get their work done, and we spend hours around the fire talking and joking and having a nice evening.
The other leaders and I can all do these things - and so can your Scout. Its my job to make sure that they learn the skills they need to reach Eagle, but to also take them out of their comfort zone so that they know that while they might not be comfortable, they can make themselves. Cold at night? Ask Santa for a new and better sleeping bag. Fingers cold from tying knots? Either get better gloves or learn to tie the knot so fast you won't even notice the cold.
That all being said, if you as a parent don't want your Scout going out in foul weather, then it is your right to keep him home - nothing we do is mandatory, and he can always make up what he missed next time. I'm not willing to put myself in danger either - I like all my fingers where they are, and don't need to loose any to frostbite - so if I feel that the weather is too bad, then I'll cancel.
Camping isn't for the lazy - its hard work - but that doesn't mean we can't have fun doing the work either (and be safe about it as well!).
I'd also like to say that I won the lottery, but if that was the case, I'd be writing my resignation post on a beach somewhere as oppose to my drafty office in NJ.
That being said, the truth is that our trip down to the Franklin Institute in Philly, PA was canceled due to inclement weather. A massive winter storm decided to descend on us that weekend, and our parents felt that it was better to stay home and keep warm then go camping.
After further discussion the weekend after, it was determined that we could probably all get together at the church to load the trucks, but we wouldn't have gotten much farther, despite the fact we were going south to the area that was getting the least amount of snow.
In the end, my parents made the decision to keep their scouts home, and that's fine with me. I may not like cancelling, but I also know when the time has come to cancel because it is just to dangerous to be out there. I make decisions on going or not going based on the info I have at hand. I watch the weather for the week leading up to the trip, and I listen to my adults who live in the town we meet in. While I grew up there, I no longer live there - I live 45 minutes south, and sometimes that can mean a world of difference in the weather.
If you are reading this and are a current parent you already know this - and if you are thinking about joining a troop and this is your "research" then this is something you should know: I won't make a Scout do anything I am not willing to do, or have not already done myself.
I am an Eagle scout, and went through everything that your Scout has and will go through - sweating it out at summer camp in a canvas wall tent, freezing with three layers of clothes on in February with the wind howling; cooking over an open fire, cooking on a sheep herder stove, loosing feeling in your fingers trying to tie a knot to hold down the tarp during a snow storm - I, and my adults, have done all that and more.
I've also been there when the weather is perfect, the Scouts get their work done, and we spend hours around the fire talking and joking and having a nice evening.
The other leaders and I can all do these things - and so can your Scout. Its my job to make sure that they learn the skills they need to reach Eagle, but to also take them out of their comfort zone so that they know that while they might not be comfortable, they can make themselves. Cold at night? Ask Santa for a new and better sleeping bag. Fingers cold from tying knots? Either get better gloves or learn to tie the knot so fast you won't even notice the cold.
That all being said, if you as a parent don't want your Scout going out in foul weather, then it is your right to keep him home - nothing we do is mandatory, and he can always make up what he missed next time. I'm not willing to put myself in danger either - I like all my fingers where they are, and don't need to loose any to frostbite - so if I feel that the weather is too bad, then I'll cancel.
Camping isn't for the lazy - its hard work - but that doesn't mean we can't have fun doing the work either (and be safe about it as well!).
Klondike Derby 2013
Holy cow and am I behind on my blog posts! Sorry everyone, but I didn't realize that I hadn't updated in almost a month and a half.
Let's go back a little in time here and focus on the major events that I managed to not update you all on, starting with the Annual Klondike Derby for Ramapo Valley District.
As usual, we find ourselves on the frozen tundra that Sheppards Lake in Ringwood State Park turns into every year for the Derby. As always we had troops from all over our district, and judging by the amount of troops involved, we have a rather large district! The expected turnout for the event this year was somewhere around 1000 participants - that's not including the staff that is running the place, the leaders that show up to keep an eye on their troops, or the members of council who show up to...um...do... whatever it is that people from council do at these things.
Come to think of it, I'm not sure what they do in their own offices, nevermind wandering around the Klondike Derby looking cold. But, I digress...
So, the theme this year was "zombies" and of course, almost everyone showed up as "zombie slayers" as oppose to "zombies". Though, one troop did show up as Jedi Knights, which makes me wonder if they even got the memo... or were they zombie Jedi? As we saw when we went to the Asbury Park Zombie walk, I guess anyone and any profession can be a zombie - Jedi included. Irregardless, T101, having already done the zombie thing in previously, decided to go as slayers (mostly because the makeup would have taken too long) but also because we all seem to be fans of the show "The Walking Dead" and wouldn't you know it, we actually have accurate portrayals of all the main characters? One of our Scouts even made a "Merle" arm. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, use that little text field in the upper right corner of the screen and type in "The Walking Dead" and see what comes up.)
In the overall standings we did about average - I think our Scouts just haven't had enough practice putting the book knowledge into hands on work - and that's my fault. However, I am happy to report that if one troop hadn't closed up shop early, we would have actually gotten to ALL the stations - which hasn't happened in I don't know how long. (Some people just have no tolerance for the cold.)
All in all I was pleased with the results - they did the best they could for a troop that for the most part has only been at this two years. Using this as a lesson, we will be taking measures to rectify that situation immediately.
Pictures can be found here.
Let's go back a little in time here and focus on the major events that I managed to not update you all on, starting with the Annual Klondike Derby for Ramapo Valley District.
As usual, we find ourselves on the frozen tundra that Sheppards Lake in Ringwood State Park turns into every year for the Derby. As always we had troops from all over our district, and judging by the amount of troops involved, we have a rather large district! The expected turnout for the event this year was somewhere around 1000 participants - that's not including the staff that is running the place, the leaders that show up to keep an eye on their troops, or the members of council who show up to...um...do... whatever it is that people from council do at these things.
Come to think of it, I'm not sure what they do in their own offices, nevermind wandering around the Klondike Derby looking cold. But, I digress...
So, the theme this year was "zombies" and of course, almost everyone showed up as "zombie slayers" as oppose to "zombies". Though, one troop did show up as Jedi Knights, which makes me wonder if they even got the memo... or were they zombie Jedi? As we saw when we went to the Asbury Park Zombie walk, I guess anyone and any profession can be a zombie - Jedi included. Irregardless, T101, having already done the zombie thing in previously, decided to go as slayers (mostly because the makeup would have taken too long) but also because we all seem to be fans of the show "The Walking Dead" and wouldn't you know it, we actually have accurate portrayals of all the main characters? One of our Scouts even made a "Merle" arm. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, use that little text field in the upper right corner of the screen and type in "The Walking Dead" and see what comes up.)
In the overall standings we did about average - I think our Scouts just haven't had enough practice putting the book knowledge into hands on work - and that's my fault. However, I am happy to report that if one troop hadn't closed up shop early, we would have actually gotten to ALL the stations - which hasn't happened in I don't know how long. (Some people just have no tolerance for the cold.)
All in all I was pleased with the results - they did the best they could for a troop that for the most part has only been at this two years. Using this as a lesson, we will be taking measures to rectify that situation immediately.
Pictures can be found here.
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