Camp Card Fundraiser

To my Fort Wayne area friends (or those who have friends/family in the Fort Wayne area): We are now engaged in a fundraiser to help my son raise money for various Boy Scouts related outings and gear. We are selling discount cards, which sell for $5 each, and provide the following:

1. Do It Best – Save $5.00 off a $20.00 purchase (single use)
2. Applebee’s – Save $5.00 off a $25.00 purchase (single use)
3. Pizza Hut – Free reg. order of Garlic Sticks with purchase of large pizza (single use)
4. Crazy Pins – Free Combo Pack, $14.95 value (single use)
5. Tokens-n-Tickets – Buy $5.00 in tokens and get $5.00 in tokens free
6. Firehouse Subs – Purchase any sub with a bag of chips and receive a free 22oz. drink
7. Freedom Firearms – Save $5.00 off any one-hour shooting session
8. Cartridge World – 25% off ink refill
9. Summit City Bicycles – 5% off a bicycle or 10% off any accessory (one time use)
10. Best One Tire Service - $10.00 of your next purchase of $100 or more

The cards cost $5 to purchase, but any one of those discounts would make the card pay for itself.

This is a Boy Scouts fundraiser, and allows my son to raise money to help pay for his camps, high-adventure trips, and gear. Please get with me if you want one or if you have any questions. Thanks!

Man Make FIRE!

So, I am somewhat ashamed to admit that despite being an active Scouter since my son was a Tiger Cub (he’s a Boy Scout now and I am an Assistant Scoutmaster is his troop), I have never successfully built a fire that didn’t require the use of matches or a lighter. I carry a magnesium fire starter in my pack, but I’ve never actually managed to use it to start a fire.  I’ve tried a few times, but to no avail.

To be sure, I have built lots of fires in my day. When we take the boys camping, it is often my unofficial duty to manage and maintain the campfire.  I carry a hatchet in my pack for splitting kindling. I even have an old walking stick that has gotten shorter and shorter over time as it has seen active duty as a fire poker. Everyone knows it’s mine and not to make off with my fire stick.

But, I still hadn’t built a fire without matches.

This is a lack of skill that demanded rectification. Being able to make fire is a basic survival skill that every man should master. So, yesterday afternoon I set out into the grand wilderness of my back yard, magnesium in hand, determined to not return until fire had been made.

I am quite happy to report that I am not still out in my backyard. I did in fact manage to build a fire using nothing but the magnesium, my pocket knife, and leaves and sticks that I found laying around my yard. OK, in the interest of full disclosure, there was one small cheat in effect. We’ve had a lot of rain and snow melt recently, so most of the natural material laying around my yard was pretty wet. So, to help things along, I did employ the use of a cotton ball soaked in petroleum jelly to get things going. But, I carry those in my pack also.

At the end of the day, I checked off another box on my mental list of manly skills. Now, let’s grab some hot dogs and marshmallows, get some friends together and enjoy some campfire time!

 

UPDATE: As I thought about this post, I decided that I should put together an actual tutorial on fire-building. Not sure when that will actually happen, but it’s on my list for sure. I’ll get Will to help me out with that.

Labor Day Weekend Camping Trip

This past weekend, I took my son and a couple of his friends on a camping trip, partially as an early birthday present (his birthday is today, Sept. 2).  I had decided to go the Family Camp Weekend at the Anthony Wayne Scout Reservation so that we could take advantage of some of the activities that the boys enjoy there, but don't get to do much of when we go for Cub Scout Resident Camp.  For example, they open up the BB gun and archery ranges, which are both popular activities with the boys.  During Resident Camp, however, they usually only get to do each of those one time, which is kind of a let-down after the waiting around they have to do.  This weekend, though, we were able to pretty much do as much shooting as we wanted, within the three-hour window when the ranges were open!

We went up Friday night, got registered, and had camp set up by 7:30 or so.  We spent the rest of Friday night just hanging out at the campsite, enjoying a nice fire, and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.  The boys also enjoyed throwing a football around for a while.

Saturday, we ended up being pretty busy.  The waterfront opened up at 9:00 A.M., so after breakfast we got our swim trunks on and headed down.  We swam for a half-hour or so, and then got dry and grabbed a canoe, loaded our gear in, and set off across the lake.  By the time we got back, it was pretty much time to head back to our campsite to have some lunch.  After lunch we grabbed some bait from the trading post and hiked to the far end of the lake for some fishing.  We didn't catch anything big, but we had fun anyway.  We hiked back to camp around 1:45, changed back into dry clothes, and hiked over the shooting ranges so that we could be there when they opened at 2:00.  By 4:45, we were getting pretty hungry, so we went back to camp and started a fire for dinner.  After a dinner of hamburgers and hot dogs grilled over the fire, we enjoyed a relaxing evening of hanging out at the campsite, throwing the football around some more, and of course, s'mores and hot dogs.

Sunday morning, we ate breakfast, broke down camp, and headed home around 10:00.  All in all an awesome campout!  As much as I enjoy camping with our Scouting unit, it was nice to just have a small group, no outside schedule, and much less responsibility and structure.  We were able to just do our thing and have a blast.  It's pretty likely that I'll go back for the Family Camp Weekend over Memorial Day.

Here are a couple of pictures I took with my phone (next time I'll take a better camera).  My son (Will) is the one in the yellow shirt: