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.