Woodbadge from Dawn to Dusk

 We arrived at Wood Badge on a beautiful morning.  The sun was bright but it was a little cold.  Our stuff was quickly thrown on a trailer to be brought to our campsite.  We walked across this bridge with the sun in our eyes, promised by this sign that the next 6 days would be well worth the time.  My mind was fresh and I was anticipating good things but also dreading the pile of things that was building up as I was going to be gone.  As I walked across the bridge with the sun in my face, it didn't matter, as I knew that I would be blessed for my efforts.  The sun was bright, a symbolism of great knowledge and light.  Look how it invites and beckons.  This light and knowledge can be spread to others, just like the rays of sun are spreading and radiating out in this photo.  It is just like the pebble that is thrown in the water making ripples that radiate out.  The effect can be felt and magnified to all people surrounding the individual and the resultant generations.

There is something that I've always noticed and I feel like I should share.  Anytime I take off time from work for a worthwhile event, my business does not suffer.  Other than the large pile of things to catch up on, it is like the time lost never existed and the business picks up from where I left off as if I never took the time off.  The business seems to just stop in time, while my life goes forward and doesn't restart until I'm back.  The bank account seems not to waiver even a fraction.  I do believe that Heavenly Father gives us back blessings for helping him try to save our youth.  There are fewer and fewer people involved in good causes and we need more than ever to teach our youth good things and hard things.  They will have times later in life as they are hit with storms to make decisions on which path to take.  If we have been effective, they will take the right path.  As we learned in Wood Badge, we are training our replacements.  We have been given a huge amount of trust by our Heavenly Father and we should endeavor to work as hard as we can so that those under us will return back to him.

The bridge on a hot day at midday.  

The bridge is hot, we have now come back for a second time.  Wood Badge is like this hot bridge.  The bridge is collecting lots of heat from the sun.  We do that as well at Wood Badge.  During the middle of the course we have collected a lot of information and it feels like your  brain is overheating.  It can be hard and it can be fun, but notice the sign is still there and the saying means the same thing.  If we persevere the meaning behind the sign will become  clear.

The sign at dusk.
The bridge has now cooled down.  This is how it is later in life after we have been away from Wood Badge for awhile.  Maybe our memories will dim or our abilities will become less as we age.  But the sign is still there, we still need to persevere.  The meaning will still be the same even though our minds and bodies will age.  Let us all mentally cross this bridge every day or every time we find ourselves in a teaching situation with youth.  Let us always remember and mentally "Run the 12" no matter what situation we face.

I invite all who read this to Wood Badge, to take the time as I did and find the meaning behind the sign.  The man on the sign is Lord Baden Powell, who started this as well as the Boy Scouts.  You will feel his spirit and the same inspiration he felt.

Canvas is on the Kayaks

The first kayak to walk out the door was Chase's.  He reports that his is all painted like a shark and has named it the Sushi Searcher.

Just a report on the progress of the kayaks.  The canvas is on all of them.  We just need to paint them now. If there is anybody who has not taken their kayaks  home to paint, it must be done this week.  We are going to try to put seats in them this week and build the paddles.  Thanks to all the leaders who have helped. 

Don't forget Scout Camp is coming up quickly and we will want to get them in the water the week before for a test run.

Wood Badge.... Stay tuned for a full report

My Wood Badge experience started at 5 am on Thursday June 16 when I woke up to take a shower and load my gear.  I picked up Andrew at his house and us two tired fellows left the valley heading for Krupp Scout Hollow close to Rigby, Idaho.  Ryan, from my same troop in Teton Valley, and the Scoutmaster Tom Barry met us bright and early as we arrived about 7:20 am.  We threw our stuff on a trailer and was ushered right into the program.

Ryan was going to be the Senior Patrol Leader which is some of the reason why I picked the June session.  Unfortunately Teresa couldn't make it as we ended up having a lot of plans fall through and nobody to take care of our kids.  It turned out for the best though as some of them came down with strep throat which we would not want to spread to our poor would-be babysitter.

Like a dummy I didn't take any pictures until the last day of Wood Badge this week.  I do plan on remedying that this next week as we are going back on Thursday.  The staff have been taking tons of photos so I am wondering if by chance we can get copies of those.

For now I am just posting a few photos and will write more as the week progresses.  This little bit is just a primer for what I will eventually add.  I can say that it has been a great time so far and I have learned a lot.  A good majority of this has been turning the light bulb back on and letting me know that I have been slacking in my duties as a Scoutmaster.  I will shortly remedy that as well as I have a lot of things to consider and improve on.  One good thing that I will mention right now is that one of our assignments is to create a vision of something we want to accomplish over the next course of a year or so.  We create specific goals to accomplish this.  I will expound on what I am doing later but I promise it will make these boys great men and leaders.  I also promise to do my best to not fail them.

I've only known a little about Lord Baden Powell and have learned a lot more here.  I can say he was a fantastic man and leader and probably inspired by God to form the Boy Scouts.  I think I will find a book about him to learn more.

We have played a lot of great games, all with meaning.  I wish I would have at least taken a photo of our rocket we built.  It shot pretty far but wouldn't hang in the air as long as we would have liked even though it went way across the field.  I think it was too aerodynamic with the amount of  weight we had in it so it didn't waste any time letting the air push it around.  

We learned to set up camp stoves and tents and to work as a team.  We have learned how to hold proper non-denominational meetings with a wonderful simulation (which I was always curious about). Communication and team building exercises are predominant among many other important things. We had a good discussion on productivity and morale in a team.  We watched great movie clips and even a full movie all with a purpose. We are making good friendships that will probably last a lifetime.  

Some of the games will hit you in the gut.  I was actually a little mad at the situation after one of the games.  I felt like my integrity had been compromised and that people were looking at me as if I was a traitor.  You could tell by the way other patrols would groan as we progressed through the game.  At first I didn't recognize that the groans were directed at us.  I had an idea that maybe we weren't doing something right toward the end but I did not take time to look at the scorecard to figure out why it was going bad.  We thought we were actually winning and as we had been kind of the butt of a few jokes, it felt good to be ahead for once.  In the end we found out we had not won at all and if this had been a real life situation, would have let a lot of people down.  I was definitely upset and I had to go out and call Teresa and talk it over with her to kind of sort it all out.  

I have never quit anything in my life  and am ashamed to admit that the thought crossed my mind to just leave.  I said my prayers that night and read my scriptures and it just happened to be a section of Isaiah that talked about hardships and that God gives you hard things because he loves you.  I have done a lot of hard things in my life, things a lot harder than Wood Badge.  I have patients that sometimes think I am a traitor and call me names on the internet.  They call me names because I won't give in to a request that would affect my integrity or harm them.  They do not understand sometimes that they could be harmed if I give in or that I could potentially be breaking a law or break the ethics of an Optometrist.  They will then put a bad review on the internet.  It makes me sad, but I feel ok because I know my integrity did not break down.  This game was different and I did not feel ok because I felt like it was an attack and a deception and my integrity was harmed and a lot of people saw it.  In reality it was a really good game and after thinking it over I realized I had learned a lot about myself.  I was apathetic to the situation and found out the reason why apathy is bad.

Anyway, tune in to more stuff later as I have a lot more to add.  I am actually not sure if I can be specific to what we actually did so I tried to make this more general and not specific.  

Tent building exercise

Some of my patrol, the Bobwhites

Class Time

We had great food and it was surprisingly more healthy than most scout camps

Staff did a great job.  Notice Ryan to the far left over there.