Timber!!!!!

The menu during week two is the same as week one (if it's Thursday, it must be pancakes) so I won't bother with the food report this week. Opening campfire was Sunday night as usual. The same staff skits, but with different people playing the roles for variety (ooo-la-la, wee, wee). Amazingly, AC (our Voyageur Camp Director) has told a different story every week, it's very nice for the staff and the troops staying more than one week.
Monday morning it was back into the same routine as first week, only with a lot fewer scouts. With 59 scouts last week, there was very little time for special projects, as most of the time was taken up with paperwork. Of the three major projects I brought up to work on, I have only gotten half of one done and will probably only finish two before we leave. But other things have come up as you will see in a minute. Our SPL (Ed Beck now) and the adult leaders meet with our commissioner (Peter) every morning to review our schedule for the day and any special programs or needs we have. Be sure to ask you scouts what programs the did (or did not) attend this week.
Things get a bit lax the second week, with some older scouts figuring that if they have done most of the programs, they can just sit around all week. Needless to say, we try to discourage that...with some level of success. The staff has requested that if there are older scouts with nothing to do, that they help the course staff teach the courses and help at the beach, but that request mostly falls on deaf ears.
In the afternoon, we have three hours of troop activities. We request which troop activities we want at the beginning of the week, and get assigned slots at the different activities. Last week our two groups of 30 scouts each got assigned activities for each troop activity slot (unusual). With a full camp this week, the slots are harder to come by, so we only had 10 of the 14 slots filled and ended up with four in site troop times. These will be welcome duff times by the boys and time to get ready for the troop fire on Thursday. If I remember correctly, we had Archery and Greasy watermelon on Monday. We had the usual dinner and free time Monday evening. We did have two scouts go to COPE on Monday. This is a team building Flintlock program that includes various team buidling activities and culminates with a high rope challenge course that is a lot of fun. Our good friend, and former Voyageur Director, Al Barnacle is filling as South Cope Director this week. The program runs from 1-9 and the guys had a great time.
Tuesday was the same program as usual only with a more difficult time rousing everyone out of bed. We have continued to keep up the tradition of having someone from Troop 346 up to meet the food truck at every meal to help Wayne unload the truck. While lunch and dinner comer while scouts are (suppose) to be activities, there is nothing to stop them from getting up early and helping with Breakfast. Unfortunately, last week and this week, it has only been Troop 346 adults up helping. As a reward for folks that help him, Wayne often gives us Granny rolls. Last week, we got rolls twice (and probably would have more, if it hadn't been for the power outage), and this week we got rolls on Monday and Tuesday. Last week, we had 10 crates that had to be picked up for the camp, but this week, we only have three. Last week, we drove a truck up to get the crates and this week we started doing that out of habit. However, with only adults getting food and helping with the unloading, I have decided to donate all future rolls we get to the camp staff, unless there are boys helping and will let them come and carry down the three crates, as our neighboring camps do. The rewards will go to those that earn them.
We had noticed that there were several dead trees in the Ft. Bill site, that if we ever had a BAD windstorm, could be hazardous. It turns out that one of the Scoutmasters over in the Ely campsite is an arborist that donates his time each year to help clear out dead or dangerous trees. He came over with his equipment Tuesday morning, and took dead branches out of one of the big pine trees and felled a dead tree in the area the Dragons stayed in this year. He came back in the afternoon and felled another dead tree in the area down by the lake that we've been clearing out. He may be back today to take out a dead tree near the latrine. It is facinating to watch him work, as he climbs the tree, taking off branches as he climbs, and eventually topping out the tree and eventually felling the major trunk. We helped by moving braches and pulling on the guide ropes to get the tree to fall where he wanted. He did a great job of dropping the tree between other trees with minimal damage. This was one of those activities that has come up to get in the way of other projects, but it was worth it. We won't have to go far to get firewood for Thursday's campfire. It is great to see other adult leaders volunteer time to perform projects at Many Point.
Tuesday afternoon was more troop activities, with vespers at 7:00 and free time after that. We have about 5 scouts all trying to complete the Super Scout requirements, so they have been busy running around during free time, trying to get requirements completed and signed off.
We had two boys off to the new Internation Shooting Sports Flintlock outpost from 1-7 and they had fun also. This is a new program and has been very popular. We had ten guys who wanted to do it, but were only able to get 2 slots.
Gunnar went out fishing with Father Tom and caught several nice sunnies. They have gone fishing to a near by lake that is reportedly stocked with tousands of Walleye, so we may be eating walleye this afternoon. Gunnar stayed up with some of the scouts last night with a couple of pie irons and made apple and cherry pies around the campfire (made with some of the topped out trees).
Morning came early for some of the boys after staying up, but it was the usual program again. Tom and I headed north to drop off the Lifeguard students and so he could attend an Ethics in Action course at the admin building and I could do this. We stopped at the conservation lodge on our way up and waved HI to Nick teaching his Weather Merit Badge class and toured a few other buidlings on the north side. We're heading out shortly to pick up the boys and head back for lunch. There will be more activities this afternoon, including Loon Lore, and have an hour off before the beach bash, while Tom, Jesse, and I head north for the adult appreciation dinner at the Buckskin Dining Hall.
That's all for now from Many Point Scout Camp.....Jon Yearous