"Can you knot?"
My teenage son is a boy scout and a few years away from his eagle scout. I am the merit badge range instructor. If you want to learn how to string a bow and shoot an arrow, you talk to me. I'm also the range instructor for firearms as well as merit badges for woodworking. I have decades of experience with woodworking, cabinetry and building construction. However, I have zero experience carving or whittling anything. At our local camp which we share with other troops, there are several totem poles carved by the individual troops. However our troop which is nearly 70 years old doesn't have a totem pole. While we were there last weekend cleaning and preparing for summer camp some of the scouts commented about our lack of a totem pole. One very young scouts ( a Webelo) asked innocently if we could just change the numbers on one of the other totem poles to ours? I let him know it would be like stealing, and we can't do that. But that made me think, if I'm the wood working merit badge instructor if anyone was going to carve a totem pole I guess it would be me? Ask me to help you build a barn, I've done that, twice... Custom oak furniture... takes time but I can build anything with wood or so I've always said. I guess time to put on my big boy pants on and tackle carving a 20 ft tall redwood log. Slow your roll folks, there's no way on God you're in Earth I'm going to be using bone chisels and rocks. Milwaukee, DeWalt and Ryobi power tools. I guess it's all about time as I don't have FOREVER to carve this. Just not sure if I'm biting off more than I can proverbly chew. Any encouragement would be appreciated.
It’s that time of year, folks. I’m having trouble deciding which ones I want this year, especially since they got rid of Thanks-A-Lots, which were always a sleeper pick. Also, I get the hype behind thin mints, but mint has never been my thing.
Anyway, here’s my list:
- Tagalongs
- Do-si-dos
- S’mores
Bonus hate list:
- Samoas
What about y’all? Should I try any others?
Edit with a minor update: I expected much more hate directed at me for my thin mints take, but I’m absolutely shocked at all the love for Samoas
I'm in scouts BSA and I definitely think that they should remove requiring a belief in God. I think that by removing it, more atheists will feel comfortable joining. A lot of ranks also require having a duty to god, and I just don't feel comfortable having to say it.
Like the title says, this story is about a boy who’s camping in the woods (I think he’s really upset and maybe his mom made him join Boy Scouts?), that jumps back and forth each chapter between him and a young Native American boy from the 1800s who’s struggling to become a man in the very same desert.
As a Boy Scout, I see counselors dressed as natives at almost every camp I go to, I know the BSA is rich with Native American history but I’ve never known why or how this came to be considering the BSA was founded in 1910 and came from the UK.
… We’re in a plane over the mountains when the pilot came over the intercom and said. “Ladies and gentlemen. I have some bad news. We are having a major mechanical issue. The plane is going down and there’s nowhere to land before it crashes. And more bad news. We only have three parachutes. Since I’m the pilot I feel I should go down with the plane”
The President jumps up and says. “I’m the President. I must survive”. So he grabs a parachute and jumps out. The lady jumps up saying. “I’m the worlds smartest woman, I must survive”. She grabs a bag and jumps.
The Rabbi tells the scout. “ Son, I’ve had a long and satisfying life. I give you the last parachute so you can do some good in this world”. The Scout says “ Rabbi. Don’t worry about it, The nice Blonde lady jumped out with my backpack”.
Their last handful of releases have been mid. What do y’all wish they would bring back? I’ve noticed on Twitter people are saying they sold out and ditched the essence that makes them, them. I just think they want to be big in the US. What do y’all think? What’s the tea 🍵
If the answer is yes then your child is one of thousands and please call a help line, there are many specifically designed to control lawsuits of parents of abused children against the BSA. This sexual abuse behaviour of the BSA cannot continue.
Before I say anything, I was fortunate to be in a troop that protected kids from sexual preparatory and myself nor any other kid in my troop was harmed, sadly I’ve met a lot of people who weren’t so lucky. This post is not commentary on that but I figured it warranted that preface to avoid comments around that and more focus on the survivalist side of scouting.
Admittedly I was very embarrassed being in Boy Scouts in the 90s and told barely anyone. I did not get my eagle, which yes I do now regret as the only thing I had left was my Eagle Scout project which looking back on could have just raked some leaves at a school for goodness sake.
Anyways, I learned way more than I realized as I am beginning to teach my partner about it and today we go out so she can start an emergency car kit and her first bug out bag! I’m more excited for this than I was for Christmas.
It got me thinking, my favorite badge was wilderness survival and I’d like to get back into that.
Are there groups, classes, organizations you’d recommend not just for teaching skill sets but also just going out and camping along more wilderness survival style?
I’ll google it and yes, I am reviewing posts here in the past, just figured I might get some insight from former scouts who may have good recommendations!
Thanks!
Edit: grammar
Hello there. I was doing some research on Boy Scouts Of America, and I found out that they did not allow atheists to participate. In scouting rules, it states that a member must profess a belief in God.
However, rules actually don't define what is meant by the term "God". Confusingly, the organisation claims to "not allow atheists", yet allows members of atheistic religions to participate, such as Jains and Buddhists. (yes, I know some Buddhists believe in deities, but others don't).
Do you find this hypocritical? Should I e-mail them for clarification? Can you think of any semantic ways they could justify this?
Thanks.
Late last year, I enquired about the merits of using a CZ 457 Scout as a compact rifle for an adult shooter. A couple of responses mentioned that a Ruger American Rimfire Compact would be a cheaper alternative.
In Australia, I can find the RAR Compact for ~$650-700 AUD, while the CZ 457 Scout is close to $800 AUD at the few dealers that have it. The RAR Compact's fibre optic front sight, adjustable stock inserts and 10 round magazine out of the box are nice, but the CZ 457 Scout has better fit and finish.
Either rifle would need to have their length of pull extended by an inch or so. The RAR Compact can be easily adjusted by swapping stock inserts but the local Ruger distributor advised me that they do not sell the stock inserts separately like ShopRuger.com does. The CZ 457 Scout would need a bit more work in comparison, but it's far from impossible.
What other features are worth comparing? Is there a clear winner out of the two?
As a kid up until recently I didn't like Boy Scouts. I didn't like the stupid traditions like having to memorize the Boy Scout motto or attend weird award ceremonies. I thought the hoops to get badges were mostly a joke. I thought it was really strange that Boy Scout leaders were callings from God's representatives on earth, or sexist that the girls in my ward didn't get to participate. Not to even mention the sexual abuse scandals. Thank goodness I got lucky on that front.
I still think those things, but now I'm looking back to hiking, river rafting, camping, being with friends, etc... Most of my favorite memories from church were just being with friends while not doing church things. Every scouting trip was mostly a nonsecular experience. Sure, the leaders might bear their testimonies around the fire at night, but it wasn't planned or forced. I even felt like most of the mutual activities I went to weren't spiritual by any stretch of the imagination.
I think Boy Scouts is to thank for that. Scouts was an anchor that brought normalcy to nonsecular activities. It sounds like mutual nowadays is almost exclusively about becoming more entrenched in the church and not as much about having fun experiences with your friends. I think my childhood would have really sucked had I been raised in the current church.
