Now where was I?

One of the problems I've had with blogging this year, is that I got really busy mid-last week, got behind in blogging and tried to cover what I had missed when I finally got time. But while I was doing that, I got behind in now. So, I'm just going to go back to real time, and maybe throw in a few older things as the opportunity presents itself.
One of the scouts was just at the table getting so Calamine lotion. Whenever we talk about poison ivy (there's a lot of it up here), someone invariably mentions the Myth Busters episode where they wanted to try out some poison ivy remedies, but had trouble finding people on staff that would react to it. Not everyone reacts to poison ivy. Well as you can imagine, two boys took that as a challenge. They decided to test a patch on their arms. They learned two things from that experience: 1) the poison ivy plant oil tends to get spread around once you get it on you, 2) that was not a bright idea.
Well, they say what doesn't kill you will make you stronger.
It's 7:30 and everyone is busy getting ready for breakfast and assembly in one hour. The troop campfire was last night, so everyone is pretty tired. I had better go do some Scout Master like things (drink coffee) before they fire me. I will try to get back to blogging after the scouts head off to class. That's all for now from Many Point Scout Camp. YIS...Jon Yearous

A Fish Tail if I Ever Heard One

It's Wednesday night at 10:30 and most of us are gathered around a table in the leadership area watching Mr. Oas cleaning fishing. Sabias went out on the pontoon and caught a 21.75" Northern. Mr. Oas and Mike N went out in Mr. Oas' boat and caught four Walleye, one Sunny, and one Bluegill. The largest Walleye was caught by Mike and was 19" long.
It's 11:20 now and another first; I'm blogging from my sleeping bag. Gunnar is still finishing up with Mark's help, but I need to get up early, so I'n hitting the hay. There Alex H, Elliott C, and Josh want to go to Polar Bear in the morning, and I thought I was on the hook to go with them. However, Mr. McGrath has gratiously offer to go with them so I can help Wayne with the food. Hopefully we'll have pictures tomorrow.
I'll try cover Tuesday and Wednesday more fully tomorrow.
That's all for now from my sleeping bag at Many Point Scout camp. YIS...Jon Yearous

Starting Over

I started a post this morning at 6:45, but then got distracted with the days events and put my Blackberry in my pocket. Somehow, I deleted the hour's worth of typing I did about Monday, so I guess I'll have to start over.
First, let me say something about haircuts. We have a saying up here; "the differance between a good hair cut and a bad haircut is two weeks". Several years ago, a couple of the older scout started giving each other mohawks and other "unique" hair cuts at camp (go back and look at previous year's pictures). The younger scouts look up to the older scouts, so naturally thay have started asking to get haircuts. There have been some pretty interesting designs; diamonds, hearts, double mohawks, and other designs. You can see some of these on the website. They did refuse to give any of the first year scouts a hair cut (for fear or reprisals), but figured that parents of second year and up would know about this from previous years. Worst case, buzz cuts are in. I hope you have as much fun looking at the pictures as the kids had getting them.
Back to Monday morning; it was typical in that the food came at 6:30, Wayne gave us a tray of Granny' caramel rolls and the scouts were mostly on time due to the very simple cold cereal breakfast. The scouts had three hours of their new second week merit badges and came back to camp about 11:30 for lunch.
After lunch, Alec D, Ben O, Adam H, and AJ headed off to C.O.P.E. at Flintlock. This is a teambuilding and leadership course that ends in the high rope course and zip line you see in all of the Many Point videos. The course is eight hours long.
While they were at Flintlock, the rest of the troop had troop activities including Ethics in Action, Volleyball, and Turks Head Knot tying (a new one for us).
Then it was back to camp for dinner. After dinner, it was freetime, including Troop 346 time in the Sauna. The sauna is a shack down by the beach with a wood fired stove. Very traditional. Some of the guys got to use it Saturday night too, after the staff used it.
Then at 9, the scouts came back to camp and played RISK (the board game) and 500. These have been very popular past times Sunday and Monday night, but are resulting in tired scouts in the morning and a cranky acting Scout Master who has to use ear plugs to get to sleep.
I'm going to close it out here at the close of Monday, so I don' loose work again. It's about 8:45 some scouts are drifting back in from freetime, some are building the fire for tomorrow night, and four scouts (Alex H, Jonathan, Hunter, and Trevor) are headed out to sleep in the shelters they built for the Wilderness Survival merit badge.
That's all for now from Ft. Bill at Many Point Scout Camp. YIS...Jon Yearous

Getting Caught Up

It is Tuesday morning, about 6:45. Everyone else in Ft. Bill is still asleep and will get up in about 15 minutes. A few people from Troop 99 next door in Two Harbors are beginning to stir. I usually try to get up about 6 so I can go help the food delivery guy unload. While helping is its own reward, he has been known to give troops that help something extra. Yesterday he gave us a tray of Granny's caramel rolls and today we got a tray of cinnimon rolls.
Back to Saturday...right after the bus rolled out, I hopped in the car and headed "up north" (to admin) to settle up week one and to pick up Nick. We're suppose to check out by 11, but we did not get the final paperwork from our commisioner until 10:30, so we were a bit late. Checking out a troop our size always takes a while, so it was noon before I finifhed and went to get Nick. We headed back to camp to try to get organized. While I was gone the Scouts had gotten all of their stuff situated. Mr. Dewitz went golfing with his son, and drove three of the older scouts to the Paul Bunyon Bike Trail to go biking for the day. Fotunately, Mr. Fischer was able to stay and extra day, so we had enough drivers to take everyone else into town. I had Nick and five second year scouts. We went to Zorbas Pizza in Detroit Lakes and saw Mr. Oas and Mr. Broberg there with their crews having Pizza too. After Zorbas we went to Walmart for some $1 movie candy and other essentials. Then we headed off to a 3:50 showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
After the movie we headed straight to Ice Crackin for out traditional Saturday night dinner of THUNDER BURGERS (or the 1/4 pound kids meal in my case). The kids love being back in a video game/pool table environment, even if only for one night.
After Ice Crackin, it was back to camp for some much needed sleep.
Sunday morning, everyone was up rather late, but once we started frying bacon, scouts magically started appearing from their tents. Mr. Broberg treated us to some of his Mother's receipe Deep Fried French toast. We made it with Great Harvest Pancake mix, eggs, milk, vanilla, and some powered sugar we bummed off the staff. Everyone agreed it was really great and tasted like something you would get from the state fair.
After breakfast, Nick and I headed off to Family Camp for a shower and to do laundry, since we didn't have time to do it when we were in town. We ran a little late and had to race back up to Buckskin to get Nick back to work in time. Mr. Broberg, Mr. Dewitz, and Mr. Fischer took off for home Sunday morning. Mr. McGrath to a load of Scouts into town for a while, and later in the afternoon just about all of the Scouts rode their bikes to Tamarack (a near by resort). People at lunch kind of late when they felt like it. They gave us chicken chunks, mash potatoes, and corn, but we decided to make chicken tacos with left-over tortillas, lettuce, and cheese. We can get creative with cooking when we try. Sunday dinner was cheeseburgers again. The menu is pretty much the same each week, so except for the occasional reference, I won't repeat the menu on week two.
We met with our commisioner Sunday afternoon, and got rid of some extra equipment we still had. We had some parent visitors on sunday too. Hunter's parents stopped by to visit and AJ's parent stopped to drop him off. Things get kind of sloppy over the middle weekend, with all the activities during week one, all the moving around, and the relaxed atmosphere on the weekend. It is not unusual for campsites to get pretty sloppy, so Sunday late Sunday afternoon we start working wit (on) them to get their sites cleaned up for fresh start for the new week. By bed time we usually have them in pretty good shape. Since this is our second week, we were allowed to skip the campwide tour, but I did sit in on the Scoutmaster intro meeting at 7. Our second week officially started at the opening campfire at 9:30. Last week, the staff was out of propane lantern fuel, so they used Many Point Red (kerosine) laterns to light the skits and we could not see what was going on. This week, they used two propane lanterns in each reflector, and we could see! We also did something we had never done before! We sat together in the first three rows. We could see AND hear what was going on. We still showed our scout spirit by doing all the traditional chants and songs. Sitting in the front row on the other side was Mr. Oas' old troop and we got quite the chant going back and forth between them (especially the I got Spirit chant). Having these twqo troops in the front row basically made us the pre-campfire entertainment before the staff came in. Besides hearing and seeing better, the skits actually were better. The theme of the skits was the same (superheroes), but the addition of the nearly random Lawnmower Man was hilarious.
After the campfire we headed back to camp, and bed.
I'll cover Monday and Tuesday (today) in the next post, I'm almost caught up. It's 2:15 right now and the Scouts are off to the Climbing Tower.
That's all for now from Many Point. YIS... Jon Yearous

Will Week One Ever End?

Back doing a Blackberry update from in front of my tent in Ft. William. It is 9:15, scouts are coming back from free time, touching up haircuts (more on that later) and some scouts are getting ready to go to the Night Skys program, while the mosquitoes are attempting to saturate the air.
Back to Friday afternoon. After lunch, it was time for our Reflections Troop activity. This is kind of like Thorns and Roses, where we talk about what we learned and liked about the week, and things we would change.
Then it was off to our last couple of troop activities and off to the last fourth hour class. The last few people got a chance at the rifle range at 5 while everyone else started dinner. Raw pork chops, potatoes, salad, and Little Debbies. Almost all the meat we get here is pre-cooked and only needs to be warmed up. But Friday night we get raw pork chops. Needless to say I went around to all the campsites to make sure everyone was cooking their meat completely. Everyone was doing a great job. In the Second year site I saw that they had a leafy seasoning on their pork chops and asked what they were using. They toldme they were using sage. I asked them who and brought that and they told me thay had picked it. Sure enough, they had an edible plant book and had found a patch of sage. They confirmed it by look and smell, and used it to cook their pork chops. Now that's what I call out door skills.
After dinner, the patrol dished were cleaned and the patrol boxes that were going back on the trailer were packed up one last time. The scouts were encouraged to pack up as much of their stuff as possible to make it easier Saturday morning.
Some scouts take down their tents and sleep under the star or under their dining fly (and their mosquito netting).
After cleanup, they headed off to their last freeime, which was limited by weather. Flintlock Sailboarding was canceled Thursday and Friday evenings due to wind and rain. The trading post was a popular final destination. After free time it was more packing and then off to bed.
The second week change over is always and interesting balancing act, trying to take down and send back as much equipment as possible, without packing up or sending back anything we need (like the coffee one year). We occupied Ft. William and Two Harbors the first week, but just Ft. Bill the second week. The second years stayed put, Jr. Leadership moved in with Leadership, the fourth year patrols moved into the space vacated by the first years (who all went home), and the adults moved into the Ft. Bill "alley" and now eat with Leadership.
If you can imagine the chaos at the church when we left, multiply that as boys are looking for where they scattered things over the previous week. The trailer was packed, tents and tarps taken down, stoves inspected, and personnals moved by 9:30, so we could have our breakfast of donuts and juice, before the bus arrived about 10:00. The trailer was hooked up, the bus was loaded, and left about 10:45. I heard it got to the church at 4:00.
More about our weekend tommorow. That's all from Many Point. YIS. Jon Yearous

First Week Wrap Up

I'm going to wrap up Week 1 so I can try to get back to real time blogging. This is another Blackberry update from the "office" table, so excuse the typos. I ran up the admin today, editted some more picture, added a bunch of captions, and uploaded them to the website. Be sure to check them out (including pictures of our office).
Wednesday night after free time was Merit badge round-up, where the staff meets with the adult leaders, to give us a status of who is showing up for class, how they're doing, and what they have left to finish. With 66 scouts, this took about 1.5 hours.
Thursday was back to a fairly normal schedule. If it's Thursday, it must be Pancakes and sausage for breakfast, followed by the usual three hours of classes. Thursday lunch was grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. It was cool at lunch time, so for the first time in several years, the soup was a welcome addition.
The weather this year has been quite unusual, much cooler and rainer than usual. But today was just plain weird. We kept alternating between bright sunshine and rain. It seemed like every half hour is would alternate back and forth.
The Scouts had three hours of Troop activities (or in site freetime), followed by fourth hour merit badge. There were a few troop activities scheduled from 5-6, which was new this year, and not very popular. It cuts badly into dinner prep time and makes it difficult for the new scouts to get to freetime on time. We'll have work something out next year.
Dinner was spahgetti, sause, meatballs, and granny bread. Very good to eat, but messy to clean up.
7-9 was freetime, followed by what everyone was waiting for...the Troop Campfire. I headed out about 8:30 to head north to pick up Nick at Buckskin (where he's working) and pick up Matt O. & Mr. Devitt's nephew, who were both counselors in training (CITs) and the Ten Chiefs Camp. We made it back in time to say hi to everyone before the lighting of the fire. There are a number of pictures on the website now of the fire and skits. Some of the staff joined us (and performed a skit) including Taylor S., who is working at Buckskin with Nick. The main fire was followed by the Happy Birthday and a piece of birthday cake. Everyone who is celebrating a birthday this year was asked to raise their hand (a few adults did not raise their hand). While returned Nick, Matt, and Harrison back to their camps, Erik O regailed everyone with his telling of the Yeti story. Per tradition (weather permitting), most of leadership and a few others slept around the campfire under the stars. Needless to say, they were pretty sleepy by morning.
Friday morning was sausage egg muffins and juice. In the adult and leader areas, we usually hold over a few leftovers to augment our meals with. After assembly, it was their last set of merit badge classes for the week, followed by a lunch of sliced turkey on buns with carrots. Since the remained of the wrap up, has to do with getting ready to leave for the first week group, I'm going to take a break here to rest my index (typing) fingers and post this much for now. Hopefully more after a short rest. Thatks it for now from Many Point Scout Camp. YIS...Jon Yearous

Time to Breathe

Sorry for the lack of updates. It's been a very busy time the last few days, especially as the week drew to a close.

Wednesday afternoon, various subsets of the troop rotated through three hours of Troop Activities. The Troop Activitie are a little bit of everything, including Ethics in Action (Team Building), Sailing, Rifle Range Archery, Greasy Watermelon, Water Polo, Super Troop Service Project, etc. I'd have to look back at the schedule to remember the specific ones they did on Wednesday. Throughout the week, everyone gets to pretty much do it all. After Troop Activities, they normally go straight to their fourth hour merit badge class, but today they had an hour back in camp to rest up for: "THE BEACH BASH" at 5:00. Actually we had folks scattering several ways. All 17 First Year Scouts went on a FIVE MILE HIKE with about seven of the adults, the rest of the Scouts went to their fourth hour class and then to the Beach Bash, while the remaining five or so adults went to the adult appreciation dinner at the Buckskin. The Adults and non-first year Scouts were both done about seven (for freetime), but the First Year Scouts did not get back from their hike until about 9:00. Needless to say, they were TIRED! I'm at Ice Crackin' right now, and my food is here, so I'm going to sign off for now from Many Point Camp, more later. YIS Jon Yearous

Picture Perfect

Yesterday's most was heavy on words, with no picture. Today is going to be mostly pictures with just a few words. I will be posting pictures to: http://picasaweb.google.com/troop346/2009ManyPoint#. Please note, I have about five adults taking pictures and giving them to me. I started this morning with about 500 pictures and have whittled it down to about 400. I apologize for the large number of pictures but: a) I don't have a lot of time right now to be sorting, and b) YOUR kid may be in the picture I leave out. So we will whittle more later, but for now just flip through them and enjoy. We may even have some videos later.
After freetime a bunch of Scouts got together around the campfire ring in the new Scout area and did round after round of the "Sock Song." Everyone finally settled down about 11:00 and went to bed. Got up at the usual time and get breakfast ready: Scrambled Eggs, Hash Browns, raspberry-apple juice, and smokey joe links. They appreciated the warm breakfast because it was nippy this morning. The sky is partly cloudy and it is warming up quickly. After breakfast and assembly, everyone was off to their merit badges and other classes.
Last night we had ten of the older boys go off to Flintlock for high adventure overnights: six to the Huck Finn rafts in Flintlock Bay, and four to the Treehouse overnight. They left at 4pm yesterday and we picked them up at 7am this morning. They were a bit chilled and tired, but everyone had a great time.
It's 11:30 and time to head back down south for lunch (Chicken patties on buns, carrots, bug juice, etc.), so that's all for now from Many Point....YIS Jon Yearous

Enjoying the View

This will be a short and typo laden post, since it is via my Blackberry from in front of my tent. No pictures tonight,maybe tomorrow when I head to admin.
The Scouts enjoyed freetime after dinner (and cleanup), going out to some to the camp activities such as rifle, archery, swimming, etc. They were back in camp by 9 and most headed to bed quickly, as they were pretty tired. We had a short 1/2 hour rain shower, but it has been dry since. The temperature has been cooler, but nice. It was about 50 this morning, sunny most of the day, and about 58 at 8:30 pm.
This morning was French Toast and Sausage with milk for breakfast. We had troop assembly at 8:10, camp assembly at 8:30, and three hours of classes in the morning. Lunch was at about 11:30 and was hot dogs, beans, and canned fruit. After lunch some did knots and some gathered wood for Thursday troop campfire. Then everyone headed for and hour of greasy watermelon (think rugby, in the water, with a greased up watermelon for a ball). At 3:00, they had fourth hour classes, and at 4:00 was the IRONMAN race. The canoe, swim, and run. A lot of the boys participated, and I'm told that 346 boys came in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.
After IRONMAN, it was back to camp for dinner. TACOs tonight, with Spanish Rice, Granny Bread (homemade Sourdough bread), and pudding. Somehow, the adults came up with some BBQ Ribs, too. Because the leadership patrol, and Jr. Leadership patrols are so large (14 & 11) and we have so many adults (11 to 16), we decided to have an adult cooking patrol, instead of having leadership cook for us.
After dinner, we had a non-denominational Vesper service for 1/2 hour, and then free time until 9. The scouts will be pouring back in momentarily. We had our first Board of Review tonight, and Alex H. Is now a Second Class!
I will be heading up to admin tomorrow and will try to post pictures and update more then via the highspeed link. That's all for now from Many Point Scout Camp. YIS. Jon Yearous

LIVE - From Voyageur!

We're here! We made it! We're still alive! The bus arrived at Many Point at about 1:00 after a quick stop in Park Rapids for a quick last lunch in civilization. The Scouts all arrived and quickly changed into their suits and headed to the beach for swim qualifications. When they were done with that, they headed back to camp to set up their dining flys, their tents, and their cots and to get their personal gear situated. The food arrived at about 5:00 and the boys had their first opportunity to cook their own food (cheese burgers, chips, and fruit). The troop guides were very busy instructing the new scout patrols on how to st up their equipment, cook their food, and most importantly, how the clean the dishes. After dinner the Scouts and new parents went for a guded tour of the Voyageur Camp, including the brand new shower house. Then they had some in camp free time before the camp wide welcome camp fire. During the free time, it sprinkled lightly and stopped just before the campfire at 9:30. Fortunately the rain held off until after we got back to the campground, but then the sky opened up. It rained for several hours and had stopped by morning. All of the tents stayed up and ironically the only tarps that fell over were the Leadership tarp and the Adult's tarp. Everyone stayed pretty dry. Today has been mostly sunny, relatively cool, and a nice breeze has come up to help with the bugs. The mosquitos have been about as agressive as I have ever seen them, but the bug spray helps to keep them at bay.

Fortunately, the breakfast Monday morning is very simple, cereal, poptarts, milk. Troop assembly and announcements were at 8:10 (see the picture above) and the Campwide assembly was at 8:30. Then the boys were all off the merit badge classes. The first year Scouts were taking Fish & Wildlife Management/mammal Studies first hour and then they were off the First Class Adventure 2nd and 3rd hour. The older Scouts were all off to various other merit badges.

At 11:30, they were back to camp for lunch. We had Ham & Cheese sandwiches, Frito Chips, and carrots for lunch. Then the Scouts assembled at 1:00 for troop activities. These include Ethics in Action Team Building, Archery, etc. I headed up Noeth to the admin building to install the new front counter logo and to update the blog. It's about 3:15 now. At 4:00 the boys will be off to swimming or afternoon merit badges classes (the new Scouts will be attending First Class Aquatics). Some may have a troop activity at 5:00, but everyone will be back to camp for Dinner (Mac & Cheese with Ham I think), and then they will be off to free time from 7-9. I suspect most Scouts (and adults) will be hitting the sack early tonight.

That's all from Many Point for now. Someone will be updating the Blog over the next two weeks.

YIS...Jon Yearous

The Adventure Begins - Soon

Sunday morning at 6:30am we will be gathering at All Saints to prepare for our adventure to Many Point Scout Camp for another summer. As you can see from the picture above, Troop 346 has added to the Welcome to Voyageur sign. The trailer is all packed and we're just about ready to go. When you're packing remember that a scout should be prepared...for anything.

Keep coming back to this blog for updates over the next two weeks.