Aaron's Back 40 1/27/17

Kiowa, Gabren and Josh

A couple months ago I purchased some really nice, heavy wall  tents.  I got them from the Wall Tent Store in Moscow, Idaho, if by chance, you are interested in a good wall tent. 

 The first one is 12x14' which will be the main one that the boys use.  It is quite large and heavy.  The second one I purchased for my own use but will use it as a leader tent.  It is 10x12'.   My old wall tent was just starting to leak a little too much this past year and so its time to retire it.  I figured after 35 years it has probably done its time.  My new one is a tad bit smaller but it is higher.   Both of them have a front and a back zippered door with and overflap and buckles to keep out the wind.  Both have a chimney spot.  These tents are strong, well thought out, warm and just downright good.

My tent the 10x12.  This is set up at my house after we finished the poles.  Note the buckled flaps covering the zipper on the doors.

Very frosty.  I left this tent up around 3-4 weeks and it handled wind and blizzards well.

We took a few Tuesday night activities in December and January and built the frames and the stakes.  The frame was made out of 1 inch inside diameter stainless steel conduit pipe and the stakes were made out of 3/8 inch rebar.  I ordered a frame kit that would use 4 joints instead of 3 for extra strength in case we get dumped on in the winter.  

Our first campout with these tents was on Friday the 27 of January, 2017.  Those present were: Chase, Carson, Kaleb, Dalton, Zach, Kiowa, Andrew, Josh, Gabren, and Carson invited a friend named Gage.  We showed up about 6 behind Aaron's house, owned by his friendly new neighbor who is allowing us to use his property.  As Chase is the senior patrol leader he got with Dalton, the Tasmanian Devil patrol leader and Zach, the Napolean Dynamite patrol leader and planned the menu.  They had good intentions but all that we ate for dinner was fried potatoes and potato chips with some donut holes for desert.  Carson was scheduled to cook the chicken but he didn't get the word that he was to bring it too.  Fortunately, the leaders were assigned breakfast and we had a big nice bunch of eggs and sausage and tortilla shells.  

Incidentally, Kaleb, has now redeemed himself.  At scoutcamp he had burned the potatoes pretty badly.  At this campout they were cooked to perfection.  Chase had brought all caffeinated soda pops to drink.  Might have contributed to them being up and talking until the wee hours.

Aaron's neighbor had also graciously allowed us to use his shop which was nice and warm and had room to eat and play as well as set up to watch the movie.

I had planned to talk about conflict resolution and to watch the movie "Remember the Titans".  I was worried that everybody had already seen it a bunch of times and they would be bored.  That is exactly what happened.  Only a couple of them seemed interested.  The sound and picture were not that good anyway, as I had to use my phone for a hotspot to play the movie with my laptop and projector.  Plus I had not brought a high speed cable and so the projector was delayed from the picture on the laptop, resulting in a choppy picture.  

Fortunately, we did have a good discussion about the conflicts in our particular troop and how to resolve them and how to make everybody feel included.  I hope they remember that as well as the lesson that was taught in the movie.

After watching Remember the Titans, we let them watch Tarzan.  I didn't feel so bad when they didn't pay much attention to Tarzan either.  At least they were enjoying each other's company.

It was -4 degrees setting up the tents.  When we woke up it was +10.  This might be the coldest we have done with this group.  Each Klondike Derby for the last couple years have been relatively warm.  In the boy's tent we set up my wood stove with a pile of wood and Chase volunteered to keep it burning all night.  Smart move, that way he could sleep by the fire.  As usual they chattered until about 3 or 4 in the morning anyway.  Aaron had locked the shop so that nobody could sneak out of the tent and show up in there.

In the leader's tent I set up my "Little Buddy" propane stove.  I turned it on while we got ready for bed then turned it off as I didn't want to suck propane fumes all night.  About 6:30 am I rolled over and turned it on again and waited about 10 minutes before getting dressed.  It was quite warm by then.

They were slow to get up and their fire had gone out so rather than restart the wood stove only to put it out an hour later, I brought in my propane heater and warmed up the tent until everybody was out.  We then ate breakfast cooked by Kiowa and Josh?  I think.  We had plenty of eggs and sausage.  Before we started eating I ran home and got a gallon of milk since we didn't really have anything to drink.  

It was a little hard getting the big tent down as we had set it up the week before and it was quite frozen.  I hope this was a good experience even though camping in the Winter can be a little  tougher. 

Unfortunately I didn't take a lot of great photos.  I had wanted to get one of the tents and the frost but I completely forgot.  Here are a few while we were eating inside the shop.

Carson is a blur walking by.  Gage in the back with Dalton and Andrew to the right

Kaleb, Gage and Dalton

Kiowa, Gabren, Josh,  Andrew L. and Andrew S.

Carson saying something smartalecky and Aaron

Smoke Leads the Way: My Backyard Campout. Nov. 11-12

Open this picture up on a large monitor and you will see it.  The boys are sleeping in their bags around the fire.  The smoke originates from the fire that the boys are huddled around.  The boys are in a circle around the fire as if it is a life force of some kind.   I set my sleeping bag up in a recliner camp chair next to my house and I watch the smoke raising from the fire.  At first it is all spread out and blowing whichever way as campfire smoke does, but after a little while it condenses and forms a more solid smoke path.  I am also noticing that the big dipper is nice and bright.  After a little while the smoke is arching toward the top of the big dipper, and as most people know the top two stars in the dipper point to the North Star.  That is when I grabbed my camera and captured this.

Sometimes you sit there and in the weirdest times profound thoughts hit you.  The boys in a circle around the fire and the smoke originating from the center of them and trailing toward the North Star.  The North Star is a constant and a direction.  People have been using it since time began because it is reliable, firm, and always shows you the way.  The only time at night you cannot see the North Star is when clouds come in front of it.  In our lives there are a lot of times we let those clouds come in and block the path we are supposed to be on.  This night the stars were clear and the path was clear as was highly suggested by the smoke.  I took two things away from it:  The first, what a powerful reminder to me that God is watching over me and letting me know that I am on the right path with these boys. The second was that it is a reminder to stay on the right path and do my best to keep these boys on it.  When you see things like this you recommit and gain energy.  This is something I needed as I sometimes struggle with keeping everything together.

This was an impromptu campout as I had originally planned to be gone that weekend.  I had filled my elk tag sooner than expected though, and with Kaleb's urging and help we threw this together.  What a fine young man Kaleb is and I appreciate that he feels the need to keep things going.  In some sense, he has been a right hand man.  He was definitely put on and preserved on this earth at this time for a reason.  I hope he can find his calling in life and fulfill it the best he can.  He also just got his Eagle Project finished.  Congrats to Kaleb.


Another funny snapshot video of the boys around the campfire.  If I had enough memory on a card I would record the entire evening but that would take hours and tons of memory.  These snapshot videos are a nice way of catching the essence of what is going on.  Those present were Kaleb, Carson, Chase, Zach, Antonio and Kiowa.  The funny thing is they all showed up to my house on either a 4-wheeler or side by side and parked by my Wildcat.  I wish I would have taken a picture of that.  They also had a lot of fun with glow sticks and at one point wanted to ding dong ditch David K. but they didn't quite make it.  We roasted hot dogs and then in the morning we cooked breakfast on my stove.  Kind of cheated a little but hey it was thrown together at the last minute.  The frost was thick on our bags in the morning but nobody froze.  Another funny thing is Zach and Chase both showed up without a sleeping bag.  Lucky I had a couple.

Horseshoe Canyon Sept. 9 and 10

Andrew L. all bundled up in the morning.  I'm pretty sure I had that same sleeping bag in my outfitting days.  

This is the camp-out we were on before we helped Bridger with his Eagle project.  I'm really behind getting these camp-outs up on here.  We decided to go to Horseshoe Canyon to camp based on Zach's suggestion that we could go help his family go round up cows.  I really don't think they would like a bunch of scouts chasing the cows around but it is a good place to camp.  I got out some butterfly nets so the boys could capture some insects for their nature merit badge.  It turns out they used them to catch minnows in the creek instead.

Those who came were Zach, Carson, Kaleb, Tucker, Antonio, Chase, Kiowa, Beau, Josh, Andrew.  Aaron brought Alex as well.  We camped in the same spot that we had camped a couple years earlier when the 11 year old scouts had freaked each other out so bad that they started singing primary songs in the middle of the night.

The boys had a lot of fun catching minnows and chasing each other around.  We cooked hot dogs for dinner.  Everybody wanted to sleep out so we did.  Zach, Andrew and Josh decided to clear out the floor of the trailer and slept in that.  Carson, Kaleb and Antonio slept on the ground around the fire.  Tucker and Beau had their cots which, since I have known them, have always needed a crow bar to pry them together.  Those cots are tight.  Chase and Kiowa slept in the back of Aaron's pickup.  They also slept on a screwdriver all night which I am not sure how they didn't feel it.  Andrew L. slept on the ground off aways and I slept out in the meadow.  I had brought the cover off my Wildcat and wrapped it over me to keep the frost off.  Aaron slept on the ground on the other side of his truck.  About 11 o'clock Tom showed up to give Andrew some clothes but didn't stay.

I took a snapshot video (at least that is what I call it) of them all before they went to bed.  Its pretty funny.  I will post the link here.  You got to watch it as it is hilarious.  Carson is so cute in the end as well.

As usual, in the night I was awoken a couple times.   One was because some of the boys wanted to brawl with the boys in the trailer.  I guess they feel they are coming of age and need to prove something.  And the other time was because Beau threw up.  What is with all the throwing up lately?

Carson in yellow, then Kaleb and then Antonio on the ground.  Tucker on the right and Beau on the left in the cots.

After eating bacon, eggs and pancakes for breakfast we hustled and packed up and got down the mountain so we could help our good man Bridger with his Eagle Project.  You can read about that in an earlier post.   The next few photos are when we were hustling out of the mountains to get to Driggs.

My favorite picture of the day.  Tucker using my phone to take a picture of the Tetons.  In the meantime he captured himself and Kaleb also taking a picture.

Photobombed by a guy standing by the road.

I'm the driver

Not sure what I'm doing there.

"Mamacita ow ow!!"

Beau in his pj's

What a dirty windshield

Really Rainy October Campout Oct. 14-15

Kaleb, Dalton, Carson, Antonio, Zach, Tucker, Beau, Bowdy, Josh, Kiowa were present.   Me and Andrew L. met them all at the parking lot with the trailer and off we went.  We were a little crowded for space since Aaron had to be at a game for a little while and would come up later.

I was a little bit disappointed that the rain was coming down so much.  We had gotten an invitation from Vern Woolstenhulme to camp by his pond and fish in it.  He has a lot of nice fish in there.   The rain was coming down so much that nobody really tried to fish.

I had suggested we put up the tent before it got dark but I gave them the choice to play now and pay later or get it up and be safe.  As in typical boy fashion they chose the play now and pay later option and boy did they pay.  The rain was even worse when it was dark and they finally started getting on the tent.  It was difficult to set it up in the rain and the dark.  As we were in a pasture there was also some cow pies to avoid.  The tent was also broken in some spots and so we had to fix it in the dark.  Fortunately, Ryan Webster came up as we had been talking about doing board of reviews during the campout and helped us put up the tent.

A few of them fished but Tucker was the only one to catch one.  It was a really pretty Brook Trout and was in its spawning colors.  Dinner was bring our own cans of soup or whatever to cook on the fire.  Tucker cooked his fish and ate most of it which helped him complete his fishing merit badge.

We ended up tarping both of the tents as water was just pouring in.  I had set my little tent up on the bank of smaller pond and was out of the standing water and muck.  Andrew L. had put his tent back in some taller grasses and was safe as well.

We ate some dessert  provided by Ryan and went to bed.  At night I was awakened by coyotes howling and yapping right outside my tent.  I was also awakened by Kaleb when their tent collapsed on one side.  I groggily got up and came out and helped secure it.  Zach had gone home earlier as he was sick and sometime while I was helping Kaleb with the tent Bowdy left.

Breakfast was pancakes and then we packed everything up and went and helped with scouting for food.

Scout Camp Day 5: Its Hot and We are Tired

I must admit that I did not have a lot of ambition to accomplish much on Friday, the day before going home.  It seemed like everybody was in the same  mood.  We didn't play as hard or work as hard on merit badges. 

Friday just felt like it should be a nice lazy day.  Mostly I just observed the boys and asked if they needed help on anything they wanted to work on.  I felt like it would be good to just give them the day and let them decide how to do it.  I have the feeling that the other leaders felt the same way.  Some of the boys did a little work on merit badges but mostly it was kind of a quiet enjoyment of the area, as I think everybody was realizing it was the last day and that they had to go home tomorrow.   Rather than running or boating, the boys were walking and talking.   All week most of them did not touch their kayaks but actually a few of them got in and paddled around slowly.  I did not take very many photos, unfortunately.  I took a nap up in the trees about mid day and felt kind of guilty and selfish that I disappeared, but I got over it.  It was probably 10 degrees cooler in the trees than down on the beach.  

The activity of the boys was also slower as there were more people on the water, it being a Friday.  Their attention was quite drawn away whenever a boat came by with a girl water skier.  And if that boat stayed in the area there would be no luck even talking to them.

 I am proud of the three boys who stuck through the Environmental Science merit badge.  One criticism I have of regular scout camps is that I feel like some of the harder merit badges are signed off way to easy.  Environmental Science is one of those merit badges which seem to be almost given away and that is the reason I signed up to be a merit badge counselor.  It is a hard merit badge and even though I felt like I was being really lenient it was still hard on them.  But they did learn something.

I am also proud of all the other boys that got merit badges.  I think they all got at least one and some of them 3 or 4.  Its definitely a lot harder to get merit badges doing it this way and so I think next year we should go back to Treasure Mountain.  We may want to even consider Island Park Scout Camp.

Paddling in the kayaks.  Tucker helping the little boys.  I can't tell who are all out there but Heber is to the right of Tucker and Quinn is in the bright green kayak.  I'm sure Alex is one of them and it might be Andrew or Kiowa out there.

Andrew L.  helping Tucker get out

Such a nice lazy day with blue skies and fluffy clouds.

Heber and Alex playing on the dock.  One of the highlights was catching the minnows that found their way inside the docks.

Tucker

Looking down the shoreline.  Our flags are in sight.

Holding down the canopy.  We did not want to have another episode of that thing uprooting again.   The wind started whipping  hard and you could really feel the canopy starting to lift up, even with us heavy weights on there.

Brad, Andrew, Mike, Me and Aaron on the canopy.  Josh, Andrew S. Carson and Quinn are the boys in view

Aaron takes them out one more time

This is where I took a nap.  The grass was so lush and the shade so nice.  What a view.

Nap place without my foot in there.

Still seeing wolf tracks

Notice that this one is on top of some of the boys' older footprints

I wouldn't say its a large wolf but again you can tell its a heavy animal.  I've seen tracks much bigger than that and I knew they were wolves.  But if it was a dog I am sure we would have seen it.

Some more boys out in the kayaks.  I am unable to tell who they are.

I started taking a walk around the shore to an area that looked like a Spring.  When I got over there the water was kind of warmish.  I have heard there are hot springs in the lake and this could possibly be one.  You actually cannot see it in this picture as it is behind me. 

I should have taken a photo of all the moose, elk and deer tracks over by this spring.  And I should have taken a picture of the spring as it was kind of unique but instead you get a view of our camp from the spring.

After I got back from my walk around the lake we packed up and did clean up.  We spent the afternoon getting gear together and putting things away.  We loaded things into the boat and took a couple trips to the dock and loaded those things into the trailer.  Things such as the canopy, stoves, coolers, and anything that we didn't need for breakfast the next day was taken and packed into the trailer.  All that was left was just personal stuff.  I should have taken a photo of how the camp looked after having only a few tents and no canopy and cooking areas.  It started to feel lonely and sad.  I wonder if the land is sad now that there are no longer going to be boys and their laughter.  I feel that the earth is a living being of some type that was made to take care of man to allow him to fulfill his purpose on this earth.  As we learned in Environmental Science we need to take care of this earth.  I do not subscribe to the idea that man needs to stay out of wilderness and not cut down trees and not hunt and not use the land.  We just have to use the land wisely as God intended.  Use it, enjoy it and not take more than is necessary.  We learn this as Boy Scouts.

Back in camp as evening is falling.  We had a gorgeous sunset which was satisfying.

Getting dark and we say goodbye to this view.

A close up of the clouds when the sunset hit them heavy.

At the campfire that evening we had a good discussion on diversity.  This fulfilled part of one of my Woodbadge goals and one of Andrew L.'s goals as well.  Andrew led the discussion and never a finer discussion was had around a campfire.  We talked about each other's talents and how each contributed to make us a stronger group.  We complimented each other and thanked each other.  We went home a stronger and more cohesive unit than we had been when we came.  After prayer we went to bed thanking the Lord for all his blessings and being grateful for the experience we had had this week.