No meetings

Remember, we don't have meetings the next two Monday's. Have a merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. We'll see you again on Jan. 5.

Caroling

We went Christmas caroling last night. Each year we visit a senior living home and serenade them with our bad singing. The funny thing about this evening is that every year the boys complain and say they don't want to go, and then they have a good time. The residents enjoy seeing the boys as well.

Last night the star of the show was the littlest member of one the families that joined us. She was crawling around and drawing all of the attention away from us!! Wait, maybe that's a good thing.

After wearing out our singing voices (or their ear drums, not sure which) we went out for pizza. Mountain Mikes in Antelope allowed us to have a fundraiser at their restaurant. Unfortunately, it didn't look like many others than ourselves came by to support us this time. It was our first time trying this type of fundraiser, so we'll see if we can't do a better job next time.

Dec. 8 meeting

Tonight was our last Court of Honor for 2008. We passed out the last few merit badges that the boys earned and awarded those boys that advanced to the next level in rank.

I was also the evening that the 2 boys that sold the most popcorn got their award of smearing me with a pie. D did a real good job. A lot was left on my face. G however, got a little cocky about his 'skills'. I was able to duck out of the way and watch the majority of what was on his plate slide to the floor. After a few seconds of chasing each other, I let him put the remainder in my face (after I got some in his hair, ha ha ha).

After that we ate cookies and laughed.

It was a good evening.

Dec. 1 meeting

We had our monthly committee meeting last night. The boys helped out in deciding on some activities for an upcoming Roundup. We also held our bi-annual elections. We have new leadership in place. A surprise to me was that R was elected SPL. I didn't know that he had been nominated. He chose D to be his ASPL. G is the new PL for the Dragonslayers, while J is the new PL for the Rabid Monkey Men. Other positions were filled, some grudingly, while a couple others were left vacant. For now. Lets hope those boys will learn the lessons that this responsibility has to offer.

Christmas Wreath Fundraiser

We have started the annual fundraiser of selling Christmas wreaths. If you haven't received your flyer, you can visit the link below-right to see what is offered and print out an order form. The proceeds from this help out the purchase or replace gear, among other things.

Nov. 17 meeting

One of the fathers from our Troop (who is an Eagle Scout by the way) gave those boys in our unit that needed it, a talk on the Citizenship portion of their First Class trail. After that, they joined the rest of us in our discussion of the Emergency Preparedness requirements. I had asked the boys to begin working on these partial merit badges back in October, and they had been reluctant for some reason to get it done. So... I took charge of it and we dove into it. They won't be able to get by the time the December Court of Honor rolls around (unless they put some effort into on their own at home), but we will get it completed.

Remember... No Troop meeting next Monday, the 24th. We will see you all again on Monday, December 1. Have a great Thanksgiving!!

Rock Climbing

8 boys (7 of ours and 1 from another Troop) joined us at Sacramento Pipeworks for a couple of hours of climbing. A couple of the boys were a little scared/nervous about it, but we were able to get everybody on a wall. Hopefully next time, we can get those boys to climb a little higher.

Nov. 10 meeting

We had a guest speaker for this meeting. Chris Wicks from the Western Amputee Golf Association paid us a visit. He talked about how he lost his leg and some of the challenges he faced, along with the hobbies he had before and after his accident.

I think the boys were able to hear a good message about not giving up in the face of adversity and will be able to call on this meeting if they find themselves facing a situation where they may feel that they can't go on.

Remember, just because you have a 'handicap', doesn't mean you can't still do those things that you love to do.

NEVER GIVE UP!!!

Rock Climbing this Saturday

We head to Sacramento Pipeworks this Saturday for some rock climbing. If you haven't turned in you waiver, bring it Saturday or you won't be allowed to climb. We will be there from 4pm to 6pm. Maybe we can do something for dinner after.

Geocaching canceled

Due to lack of sign ups, the geocaching event for this Saturday has been canceled. The organizers are looking at late January, early February for a reschedule date.

Halloween Party

Much pizza was consumed. Many sodas were drunk. Apples were bobbed. Donuts on a string were chased. A lot of Guitar Hero was played. It was fun.

Eagle Court of High Honor

William Fox, Eagle Scout. Congratulations!

Oct. 20 meeting

The boys planned more of the Halloween party for next week. Sounds like we will have a good time. They also did some more work on the merit badges we have been working on. That is going a lot slower than I thought it would. We'll keep working on it until we get them completed.

Don't forget this coming Sunday, October 26 at Spinelli Elementary School (see link below for a map) is William Fox's Eagle Court. Be there no later than 1pm. The festivities begin at 1:30.

Oct. 12 Orienteering

4 boys and 3 adults traveled to Martinez for the 'Scout-O' that is put on by the Bay Area Orienteering Club (see a link to their web site in the Useful Links section) each year. This is an annual event that is scout focused and also a scout orienteering championship of sorts. There were a few hundred people at the event, everything from Tiger Cubs to Venture Scouts.

It all started after an initial hike up, up, up, and up some more to the starting point. It must have been an elevation gain of 400 to 500 feet in a span of the same distance. That was a workout. The boys split into two groups of two and set out to try and follow their maps. The adults had a separate course that we took. For me, it reminded my of being a boy again. I used to set out on a summer day or weekend and just wander through the hills and woods behind the house I grew up in. We trapsed over fences, under tree roots, over hill tops covered with prickly bush, down steep embankments, under other fences, across streams...

The boys successfully completed their courses. We did too. After it was all done, lunch at In & Out was very tasty!!!

Oct. 6 meeting

We started the process to have everyone in our Troop earn their First Aid and Emergency Preparedness Merit Badges. Only a couple of the boys currently don't have the First Aid MB and as stated in previous posts, we had a few boys come short of earning the Emer. Prep. MB. Counselors have been located that will allow us to earn the badges in a similar way to the camporee we attended. So, the boys that failed to earn the badge at said camporee, or any other boys that didn't attend, but would like to earn it, now can. Hopefull we'll have that done by the end of the month, early next at the latest.

The boys also picked a date for our annual Halloween Party. It will be at the October 27 meeting. You are all invited to join us in the fun.

Sept. 29 meeting

Court of Honor. A time to recognize those that have worked hard and earned some merit badges or advanced in rank. We had a fantastic turnout last night. Only a couple of our boys didn't make it to the meeting. Everyone that did show up, brought most if not all of their families. And that's what it's all about, sharing your accomplishments with those closest to you.

We had ice cream with many different toppings, and the boys (with my help) performed a couple of skits. Sounded to me like it went well and everyone had fun.

Because this is the first court of honor following summer camp, we had a bunch of merit badges to hand out. We also had three boys advance in rank. G and S earned their 2nd Class rank, while D advanced to 1st Class. Congrats boys, you are doing great!

Coming up... refresh our orienteering skills and finish up the pottery merit badge from summer camp and emergency preparedness from this past weekend.

Are you prepared for an emergency?

Fall Camporee has come and gone. We spent the weekend in Ione with our brothers from the Amador District that put together an excellent Camporee. There were every imaginable emergency unit available to visit with. From the police and sheriff to Cal Fire and everything in between. They even had an evacuation helicopter land and the boys were able to climb on and look at all of the gadgets available in the cockpit.

Each of the visiting teams took charge of teaching the boys a specific item toward earning their Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge. Everybody seemed to have a good time. The only complaint was that there was some confusion and time constraints at a couple of the stations and all of the needed information wasn't passed along. Due to this we only had one boy actually earn the badge at this event. But the others are most of the way along the path to earning this badge. We will work on finishing it during the month of October.

We also did some dutch oven cooking for dinner on Saturday. We made a beef stew that everybody seemed to enjoy. After dinner we had some ice cream. It was a very hot weekend, and a hot day followed by a hot dinner deserved something cold and refreshing.

Sept. 22 meeting

Tonight the boys discussed the competitions for this weekends camporee some more. We will have 11 boys and 3 adults attending. Good turnout. We also had a visitor to our troop this evening. A young man that is involved in Cub Scouts looking for a troop to join. He seemed to get along with our guys pretty well. Hopefully we will have another scout added to our unit. Hopefully I'll get to write after I get home from camporee. If not, after our next meeting.

I didn't fall!

That would have been a bad thing, trust me. I have returned from my rock climbing training class. It was a lot of fun. I learned a lot. Mostly that I don't know very much about it. But, I am confident that with the help of an experienced climber, or another troop that has experience, we will be hitting the rocks really soon. I am hopeful that sometime after our Spring Camporee we will make our first foray up an inclined slope using rope to protect us. Good times, good times.

Another training class

I leave today to take another training class. This one is to learn how to set up a safe environment for rock climbing. I was inspired to do this after earning my Joe Climber knot at summer camp this year. The knot is for doing the items required to earn the Climbing Merit Badge, but since I'm an adult and can't earn the badge, they give you a knot to show you did too! Pretty cool. Anyway, I had a lot of fun doing it. It is very challenging and can teach you something about yourself. I want our boys to be able to have this opportunity, so here I go. Troop 22 can look forward to venturing out and climbing some real rocks shortly.

Sept. 15 meeting

An easy going meeting last night. We talked about the upcoming games that will be played at camporee and how important it is for the boys to take it seriously and work together. After this some of the boys worked on their patrol flags and shirts, while others worked on duty rosters.

A short entry for today. I'll have a couple more entries next week I'm sure.

Sept. 8 meeting

Good meeting tonight. Some of the boys finished going through the new tents and selected the ones they would like to use at our next outing while the rest worked on their patrol flags for the new patrol that was formed a couple months back. We have a camp menu and a plan for the next couple of meetings to work on things for Camporee. Excellent work.

We also had our monthly committee meeting. I was unable to attend, but I didn't hear anything negative, so we'll let it go at that. I missed the committee meeting because I was at the committee meeting for our Chartered Organization, the Retired Sergeants Association. The Chartered Organization is the group that allows our Troop to exist.

I went over there to introduce myself and ask them to help us out with donations for new gear. They agreed to help and I will be putting together a list of items we would like to have to deliver to them.

I also informed them that we are available to help out at any functions they may have. Similar to the things we do with the VFW post. Look forward to some more opportunities for community service down the road.

That's all for now. See you next week.

Gibson Ranch campout

We had a great time at Gibson Ranch. It was a tad on the hot side, but thankfully we had a nice shady area (see post below). The boys worked on a scale version of the gateway we are going to build at our next outing, the Fall Camporee. It's a simple gateway, but one that our young Troop can easily handle. Small steps before you try to take big ones. I see a grandiose gateway somewhere in our future.

Our Troop received a generous donation of some tents and other items from another Troop that folded a few years back. I brought the tents with me and had the boys set them up after our gateway practice to see what kind of shape they were in. To our surprise, there were about 12 tents, and a few of them had never been used before! We now have new tents for our boys to use at our many upcoming outings. A BIG thanks to Troop 562. Your spirit will live on in us.

Dinner was excellent and the boys worked together pretty well in preparing the food. After dinner was time for the real reason for the outing, capture the flag under the light of the moon. The boys were off and we could hear them trying to keep quiet so the other team wouldn't hear them. It sounded like they had a great time.

One of the benefits to camping at Gibson Ranch is that once the park closes, there's nobody else there. You are by yourself.

We finally settled down to get some sleep. I had challenged the boys to sleep the really old fashioned way when we arrived, no tents. Even though we had all of these nice brand new tents, each of the boys took my challenge and slept under the stars. I think they enjoyed it.

Another reason for those permits...

...is so that when you arrive at your campsite, and there is somebody laying claim to your site because they have been sitting there reserving it since dawn and tell you that you will just have to find another spot, and then tell you to call the Park Ranger because you disagree with them, you can show your permit to the Park Ranger and he will ask THEM to leave. Sweet.

2010 Scout Jamboree

Are you planning on attending the 2010 National Scout Jamboree? Are you not sure if it is for you? The kickoff meeting September 20 will answer your questions. This Jamboree is the celebration of the 100 year anniversary of Scouting in the United States. The meeting is at Edwards Harris, Jr. Middle School, 8691 Power Inn Road, Elk Grove, 95624. I have linked a map to this location in the Useful Scout Links section of this site. See below and to the right. The meeting starts at 9am. Stop in and see what all the excitement is about!

Camping this weekend

We have an outing this weekend at Gibson Ranch. We're going to work on gateways, cooking and stargazing. But the real reason for this outing is to play capture the flag under the light of the moon! I'll let you know how it went next week.

The wind up, and the pitch...

Our last meeting was a bunch of fun. We took it easy and pitched horseshoes. There was much laughter heard from each of the pits as many of the boys had never thrown a horseshoe before. It took a little time for them to figure out where to release, and how hard to throw it. Me thinks we need to work on this some more...

We also had another scout move up in rank. S advanced to 2nd class. Congratulations! He isn't very far from 1st class as well. Keep up the good work.

Canoe trekking

Well the day came and we went on our canoe adventure. We had 11 boys and 5 adults. It was a hot day and we all seemed to have a good time, even those of us that got pretty good sunburns. We did 12 miles on the Feather River. It is an interesting river. Extremely shallow at points and then deep enough that you can't see the bottom in an instant.

We were able to find a nice little spot to stop for lunch and some frolicking in the water. All in all, a good day. When I got some pictures, I'll post them.

Has it really been that long?

Man, when you don't have time to do something, time really passes. Sorry for the lack of posts here recently. We have had some good meetings the last couple of weeks. The boys have been working together pretty good. Hopefully we can keep it up and it will show itself at the Fall Camporee in late September.

We go on our canoe trek this coming Sunday. Hopefully it won't get to be too hot, but I'm sure it will be fun either way. I'll be sure to post how it all went next week.

Short but sweet for now. I still don't have a bunch of time to sit at the computer.

July 28 meeting

It's early I know, but I hope this proves useful in the long run. I've been laid up with a nasty pinched nerve in my back and haven't been able to do much here recently. I've made some additions to the links and calendar on the right side. Please leave comments, or shoot an email to let me know what you think.

Last Monday at our meeting we had an array of good things going on. We had two boys advance to their next rank! D earned his First Class Scout rank and G earned his Second Class Scout rank. Congratulations to both of you!

We began the meeting by reviewing canoeing techniques. Mr. F. had the boys sit in chairs positioned as the seats in a canoe and had them work on different strokes for maneuvering. I think the boys now have a little bit better understanding of what to do the next time we are on the water. Which by the way is on Sunday, August 10 for our next practice session at Lake Natoma.

After this practice session and while the Boards of Review were going on, we had the boys that have already earned their Fireman Chit teach those boys that don't have it. At our next meeting we should have three more scouts prepared to start, maintain, and douse a fire.

That's all for now.

Can you canoe?

Yesterday was the first of two practice sessions before our day long trek coming up at the end of next month. There were 5 boys and 6 adults to take in a nice day on Lake Natomas. We were on the water for about two hours getting used to being in and handling our canoes. We noticed some shortcomings in our techniques and will be working on those at our next couple of meetings. The next practice session is on August 10, also at Lake Natomas.

To the boys... take note... you MUST attend this next practice session (if you weren't at yesterday's) in order to take part in the day long trek. So hopefully we'll see you there.

When I get some photos of our day, I will post them.