So, our Scout Troop is doing a weekend camp starting tomorrow. It is the first one for this Scouting year. The Scouts decided they wanted to focus on skills. You know scoutcraft, woodcraft, bushcraft. Whatever you call it, I think it was a wise choice. With so many new Scouts in the Troop this year, it is good to get a head start.
Now with Scouts Canada there are four areas that require "permits": knife, match & fire, axe & saw, and stove & lantern. Basically, the Scouters, who are adult supervisors of the Youth, need to ensure that the Scouts get the proper training before being allowed to futz with the kind of stuff where inadequate knowledge or skill can get someone very hurt, very quickly.
In addition to some "permit training", they are also focusing on pioneering, which is lashing, knots and using that for constructing various contraptions. And of course there is orienteering: map and compass.
So, I am supposed to teach match & fire. However, with the possibility of a burn ban due to the heatwave, even though it appears to have finally broken, I also need to be ready to teach knife as a replacement. I have been all day organising the gear for the two permits, plus my gear, and sadly some of the boy's gear. The only reason I am sorting his flotsam, is that he has had something on the go pretty much every night this week and has actually had homework. (He usually gets it done in class or on the bus.) Hard for him to pack then, and tomorrow we take off within the hour he gets home from school.
He packed his clothes and his bits and bobs, but I organised tents, sleeping bags, camp chairs, that kind of stuff. No time tomorrow as I am busy right up until we leave for the weekend. We probably will not see the wife/mum until Sunday when we get back. Sucks for me.
Hopefully, the boy and I have not forgotten anything. Not a big deal, it is a static camp not far out of a small town, bigger than my town, but not a metropolis. So, if I truly need anything, I can probably pick it up. If it was a back woods camp, I would have laid everything out, checked it at least twice, then packed it. Then probably unpacked it, checked it one more time, then repacked and, except for water, would be sitting ready to go at least two or three days, if not a week, before departure. However, I have learnt, no matter how diligent one is with packing, usually one item is overlooked. Normally, it is not a big deal. When it is a big deal though, you are hosed.
I did still manage to make a soup from scratch, total scratch. I made the stock a couple of weeks ago. I also made the boy's lunch. I keep saying I am going to have him make his own lunch, but it still has not happened. Yet, no time to cut the grass. I did call around yesterday for a wasp assassin, but have not heard back from the guy I was interested in using. Our original guy from a few years back, never got back to us after several emails and phone calls. It must a hell of a year for stingy bugs.
Well, still a few things to sort, then a good night's sleep, I hope. Tomorrow, I sweat my ass off all day, then Scouting all weekend. That's the life! blbbl
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