Scout Camp Day 4: Fun and Silliness but Great Accomplishments

Day 4 started the same as Day 3.  We got up and we ate breakfast and did a flag ceremony.  As usual I took photos while everybody was getting up.  I think I took the most pictures this day.  If I'm not careful I can end up taking hundreds of photos in just a little while.  Its kind of an addiction I think.

Flag ceremony was great again.  This time for the Scoutmaster's Minute I read the story about the man who gave a ride to a little boy in his Corvette.  The boy asked the man to drive to his house.  The man thought the boy wanted to show off the car to his friends, but instead the boy came out of the house carrying his crippled little brother.  He promised his brother that someday he would like to buy him a corvette just like this man's.  The man was taken aback and humbled.  If we put all other needs before ourselves, this would be a much better world.  We had a great discussion.

Merit badges started off again and we were able to make good progress.  The most progress of course, was made on the water.  It was definitely a lot more dreary to work on photography, nature and fishing than to go play in the water.  We did give them a very generous amount of free time however.  The hardest merit badge to get through was Environmental Science, but three of them stayed on course even though it was boring.  We had a great discussion on bees and the differences between the drones and worker bees and queens.  Who would have thought that bees were so interesting.

A highlight of the day was when each of the leaders' younger sons got to come over.  Quinn is my son, Heber is Andrew's son and Alex is Aaron's son.  They are all 9 years old and were going to stay with  us the remainder of the camp.  We picked them up on the dock and brought them over in Aaron's boat.  Quinn was showing off while coming over and his hat blew off and he almost lost it.  Once they arrived it wasn't long before they were borrowing kayaks and paddling around in our little lagoon area. 

One of the funniest moments of the day was when Chase had to go to the bathroom while riding a tube and couldn't wait to hold it.  Us on the shore heard a "Hurry I can't hold it" while Aaron was slowing the boat down for the smaller kids who were in the  kayaks.  Then it was "Oh no I really can't hold it" and we saw Chase slide off the tube into the water.  The ensuing conversation between a bobbing Chase in the water and the other kids in the boats and the kayaks was hilarious.  I will let you guys use your imagination.

The second funniest time was when I made donuts.  My wife was the one who brought the younger boys to the dock and when she did she brought me the things to make donuts.  I had thought the week before that donuts would be a nice surprise.  And it was.  I cleaned up one of the tables really good and spread out the dough.  I had a lot more flour than I needed so I left it in a bowl.  Teresa had also sent honey, powdered sugar, chocolate, maple and caramel frosting, regular sugar and a few more toppings.  They turned out really good, much better than I thought they would.  I had several nice comments and now I think the boys might be starting to like me.  

The craziness started after almost all the donuts were made and the boys decided to have a flour fight.  The guilty culprits were Kaleb, Dalton, Zach, Kiowa and Beau.   I am not sure who started it but somebody took a pinch of flour and threw it into somebody's face (whom I  think was Kaleb), which then that person took a handful and threw back and then it started.  The white cloud was so great that you couldn't tell where the smoke from the fire started and the flour cloud started.  They blended well together.  It wasn't long before the powdered sugar and regular sugar was added to the projectile list.  I also think the salt got taken and some licorice was even flung.  Andrew L. was sitting all nice and polite in the canopy while this was going on and it wasn't too long before they noticed him.  They dumped a pile on his head.  Fortunately his hoodie was on.  I had my camera and told them I couldn't be a target because it would surely ruin my $10,000 (they actually believed me for a few minutes, that it cost that much haha) piece of equipment.  But they did find a way to get around that by sneaking up behind me and pelting me in the back.  Its ok because I plastered whoever it was in the face.  My memory thinks it was Kiowa who was guilty there.

If you look closely those are deer butts in the middle of the night

Aaron's Tent with the moon.  This was taken with a point and shoot camera but its not too bad for that reason

Carson tells Brad he'll take care of the fire

Andrew's lips were so dried up that he could barely blow his horn.  This is the last time he blew it.  I certainly appreciate his effort.

The Bald Eagle is back

Zach what did you lose?  I say that a lot

Gathering for the morning meal

Gabren, Zach and Aaron

Zach says "Yeah, my sister is always kicking my butt on the 4-wheeler".  Gabren does his best to console him.

"What the sun is up?  I slept with my sunglasses on so I can't tell"

Carson says. "I wish my girlfriend could see me in my uniform.  Then she will never break up with me."  Dalton says, "Wait, I think I buttoned my shirt uneven"

Kaleb perks up when he hears the word "girl" mentioned.  "There's girls here?  I better get up!"

Beaubiwan Kenobi, Jedi Master, carries his scout shirt so that he can leave it on a chair somewhere later.  The focus in his gaze is amazing.  Great things are going to happen today.  Meanwhile in the back Gabren is still trying to counsel Zach with his sister problem.

Zach says "Gosh all she does is spin donuts and whooshes right by me like I'm standing still.  Gabren is empathetic but incredulous "But Zach she's a girl! What are you letting her do that to you for?!"

Chase, not quite awake, thinks.  "If I close my eyes maybe the bad man will not see me."

Oh its only Chad.  I'm not scared now.  

Kiowa starts a mighty stretch.  

"I'm pretty sure a buck was walking around me all night.  You should have seen his horns!"  Little do they know there was a bunch of does around them most of the night

"I haven't changed my contacts for three days!"

"Ouch this contact is stinging my eye.  My hands are cold!"

Tucker, Aaron, Andrew and Andrew starting breakfast

Leave no trace exercise.  Everybody line up side by side and walk straight and pick  up any garbage you come across.  Incredibly straight line guys, but at least we were clean.

Gabren, Carson, Kiowa, Chase, Dalton, Beau, Zach, Kaleb, Josh and Andrew

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Pancakes for breakfast under the watchful eye of Tucker

Kaleb feeling accomplished and in the zone like Michael Jordan.  Carson bragging about his girlfriend while Dalton is thinking "yeah right".  Kiowa is back there looking for tracks while Chase is contemplating if he gets raw fish today.

Tucker and Beau learning to cast a fly rod

Tucker and Andrew L. as we are heading to the dock to get the younger boys.  We let Tucker take a few practice runs

Kiowa's little frog friend.

Thats Chase off the tube and in the water after announcing that he couldn't hold it any longer.  Notice the boys out in the kayaks which is why Aaron had to slow down.  You c an see Chase's little head in the water.

Aaron circles his boat not believing what he is hearing.

Lots of giggling and laughter.  I got a video with my phone of most of the conversation.

Tucker and Chase in the water.  Josh by the tube.  Kiowa in the back left kayak.  Quinn in the bright green kayak with Heber in the blue and Alex in the gray one.

The excitement over, the 3 younger boys move off on their own.  Uh oh, they are headed to the secret spot!!  Don't tell Carson or Dalton

In case anybody is wondering Kiowa can swim like a shark.

Possibly my favorite scene of the day is watching these three boys who looked like they were in heaven.

Quinn, Heber and Tucker is their guide.  Tucker watch that you don't go to the secret spot!!

Dalton, dazed and confused about what that camera is doing pointing at him.

Quinn and Tucker

Gabren and Alex.  One of these days Gabren will grow

Andrew is reverent and Josh looks at the fire

Zach says "Here Beau let me tie your shoes for you."

Chase all wet and exhausted from his bathroom dip in the lake.

Gabren and Alex hot for minnows

Heber and Quinn have lost Tucker and Alex and so they paddle by themselves for awhile

Heber and Quinn getting accustomed to the kayaks.

Just a nice shot of the shoreline.

Heber is always serious

"Oh no, can't hold it, can't hold it, can't hold it, hurry legs!"  "I'm not going to do what Chase did"

Ahhh, all better

Heber, Quinn and Alex eating dinner.  It was great to have this floating dock so handy.  We had to push it out into the water a couple times as the level was dropping but it was awesome anyway.

There's that dang camera

The Yacht Club eating dinner.  This is where you go if you want to talk about girls if you can't go to secret area 1 and secret area 2.

Stop taking photos!

We'll just eat harder.  Alex hides.

Quinn and Alex are now both reacting.  Heber is oblivious, either that or he doesn't care.

Put you tongue in boy!

What a peaceful sight.  The American Flag was great to have along.  We took good care of it.

Some nice fresh donuts cooking.  I can still taste them.

We made weird shapes with the left over dough

And the flour fight starts.  Not sure who did this but it was either Dalton, Kiowa, Beau or Zach.  Those 5 then commenced to rampage and pillage each other while involving me and Andrew L.

"Who hit me in the face, you got it in my eyes!"

My licorice stogie

Dalton surprised by the camera

"Take another shot, I need one for my girlfriend"

Zach joins the fray

Kiowa and Zach

"Hee hee nobody has got me yet"

Zach there's something on your face

"Oh I guess somebody did get me"

La la la

Dalton circles to find the best advantage

Kaleb enjoying some licorice and a face full of flour

Kiowa you got clean too soon

Bam, he's covered again

Not sure what Kaleb is up to here

Sideswipe

Kiowa lives up to his name.  It looks like war paint.

"Hey, stop photographing me!"  "But you kinda look like the dog from the Little Rascals."

Nice clear picture of the pole

Dalton overjoyed for some reason

Blurry flour face

Andrew L. takes a load on his hoodie, shakes it off and finds a safer zone

Zach gets pelted as Kiowa runs off

"Hey, remember when I got my face painted all white when we were painting  kayaks?  This is so fun to do it again!"

"Maybe if I rub it in it will be good sunscreen"

Still rubbing

"I'm coming to get you Zach"

"Hiyi yi yi Hi yi yi yi"

Time for a group hug.

Beaubiwan Kenobi pops into the camera frame showing off his delicious donut.  Before long he too will be plastered.

"I'm covered the most.  No I'm covered the most.  No I'm  covered the most."

Time out

"Yay, time for a group hug again.  Lets share flour particles"

"I love you Dalton.  I love you too Kaleb.  I love you Kiowa.  I love you too Zach."

Look at the powder flying

That's getting to be a long hug you guys.  Time to break it up.

I'm so happy I got to play with flour

Beau uses camouflage and like an abominable snowman, steals another donut.

What a smug look

"Oh no its in my ear"

Wink Wink

"Stop taking pictures!"

Kiowa thought he should get a pic of me too

Here's my flourey back

Time to wash off

And the end of the day is near.  Time for campfire and stories.

We had a great day and a great campfire.  We mostly told scary stories.  I told the story of Hugh Glass and then told some stories about some haunted houses that we had seen when I was in Alexandria, Virginia.  We all slept really well except those who were scared of the scary stories. 

Bridger's Eagle Project

Saturday the 10th of September, right after a scout campout, we helped Bridger Clark finish his Eagle Project which consisted of moving a non-profit organization from an old building into a newer larger one.  The non-profit organization was our local thrift store.  They have been busting out of the seams in their little store for a long time now.  Rather than putting goods on the shelves in the store they have been consigned to garages where nobody can see them.  They cannot be sold if they are not accessible to the public.  The project consisted of moving items and cleaning out the garages.

The new space used to be a lumber store so there is plenty of space inside and out.  We counted at least 35 kind folks that gave up their Saturday morning.  Most of our scout troop came as well as a lot of the young men and their leaders.

Most all of the people who helped with Bridger's Eagle Project

Day 3: Norming and Bonding

Day 3 was Wednesday.  We woke up bright and early, had breakfast and did the flag ceremony.  We had a very nice flag ceremony and had a good discussion about a painting by Norman Rockwell.  I can't remember the name of the painting but it showed an Eagle Scout saluting.  He was the model for what scouts were supposed to be like back in the 40's.  The discussion led on to talking about what older scout in each of the boys' life had the most influence on them and best exemplified what a boy scout was supposed to be.  Kelton Kearsley left on his mission a week ago (thats how far behind I am in writing this).  I believe it was Carson or Chase who pointed to Kaleb and said, " Your brother is the best scout I've ever seen".  Now that we had a person whom all the boys knew and could relate to, the realization hit them and the seed was planted in their minds how they should be.  I would echo that Kelton is a dang fine scout as well as many others in our ward and the valley.  If everybody chose to live the Scout Law and Oath, I don't think we would have the problems we have today.  I think when they swear in a President of the United States, they should have to swear to live by the Scout Oath and Law.

The day progressed on and we worked on our merit badges. We played in the water on the boats and the tubes.  Some of the boys were braver and were able to handle the tube, but mostly because I slowed it way down.  We were sitting out there in the water just talking and it was dang hot.  I started bantering the boys to jump in, because they were getting a little smelly.  Fortunately, most of them did.  I finally decided to jump in and like a dummy forgot to take off my super expensive sunglasses.  I hit the water, (and it does this to me every time), and felt all the wind leave my body from the cold.  Its like my lungs turn into a plastic bag with a vacuum sucking them inside out.  I'm not sure why it does that but I think its stupid.  And then I look like a gulping guppy with a broken back stuttering how cold it is.  The good thing to this story is that despite all my thrashing, the sunglasses stayed on my face.  I lumbered onto the back of the boat and flopped like a turtle on its back for a minute or so.  Dang, I'm getting old.  At least I was cooled down and felt a heck of a lot cleaner.

At some point, me and Aaron were in the same boat with a bunch of boys.  I think we were filling up the water jugs at the Calamity entrance and were headed back to camp.  We saw a couple of huge planes swooping down and skimming off the surface of the water.  We determined they were planes gathering water for the fire that had recently started in Bondurant.   One would come in first and swoop down and skim on the surface for quite aways and then the second one would swoop down right after it.  They would then lift off and fly into the distance.  About a half hour later they would return again.  We decided to bust over to where they were scooping water so we could get a closer look.  I drove the boat up around the corner of the lake from our camp and we found a good spot to wait.  Pretty soon they came again and I videoed it with my phone.  I think the boys thought it was cool.

That night after dinner we had skits and a campfire.  It was a lot of fun and the boys came up with some super funny things.  We played the game called Zulu toss, which is where you have a circle of between 5 and 6 boys.  They have to toss the balls to another boy while I kept feeding them more balls into the circle.  They had to see how many balls we could keep going in the air without dropping them.  We had two groups and I think each of them got up to 5 balls in the air at once.  It was pretty funny.

Bedtime came and Andrew tried to play Taps but alas his lips were done for.  I went to my bed thankful for the time I got to spend with these young men.  The boys are coming together better as a troop hence the title. It certainly makes one closer to God while doing a trip like this.

Sunrise on the lake

Kiowa and Carson having an early morning staring contest.

Sleepy heads

Looks peaceful.  I had gotten up before everybody else to take these photos.

Might be a buck

More sunrise

Andrew enjoys the quiet stillness before the day starts.

The Pelican track is almost as big as my hand.  Is this a wolf track?  At first I thought not but as the week wore on I kept seeing new tracks.  We had not seen any stray dogs around.  The animal is awfully heavy as you can tell by how deep the track is compared to the pelican track.  Later when I saw these tracks on top of a boys footprint I decided that yes this is a wolf track.  If it was a dog, I think the dumb thing would have showed itself.

There's a bald eagle clear up in the dead tree on the left.

This morning Kaleb came back from a doctor's appointment and brought some aloe vera.  The boys were very grateful and immediately started applying it.  I think they learned a really valuable lesson about sunscreen.  The next day when Kaleb woke up he had huge blisters on his shoulders the size of an apricot.  Most of the boys got super red and burned but I think Kaleb wins the trophy for the biggest blisters.

Sorry to use you as a kleenex Kiowa

Does Kiowa know there's a huge slimy thing on his neck?

Zulu toss younger boys.  Brad came up this day to stay the rest of the week.

Zulu toss older boys

Getting ready for the skits and campfire

The motorcycle gang skit where they keep beating up the same guy

planning on how they are going to make fun of the leaders

Waiting for the next skit

The invisible bench skit.  They also did the Peanut skit which I don't think I got a photo of.  The poor kid who was the volunteer.  I think it was Tucker but I am not sure.  I wish I had taken a photo of every skit but I did not.