Stosh

If you look closely under the leaves of the jewel weed plant you will see a little fleur-de-lis showing BSA endorsement for stinging nettle poultice products.

I had a scout who couldn't do a pull-up to save his soul. He got credit for TF requirement because he got his elbows to bend a little bit. One had to look closely, but it did show "improvement". He went on to Eagle. How he got through personal fitness I don't know. He also went on to play Big 10 football as a defensive lineman on a championship team..... Saw him a few years back at an alumni gathering of scouts and asked him if he ever figured out how to do pull-ups. Nope, never did.

I only named one car in my lifetime. Well, it named itself. It was a 1970 Buick and the letter "I: fell off the front of the hood so it was thereafter called "Buck".

Like stinging nettles, they are edible, but one has to learn how to handle them. After all habanero peppers are toxic to humans, too.

For the past 20 years I have been doing historical research and my 2800 page Word document is not copyrighted. I have a copy and the local archives of the Public Library has a copy. I have gleaned thousands of references (links) in the document for people to use in their personal and family genealogies. Anyone coming in does not get any information from any other source other than what links to the internet or in cases where I have copied directly it is from resources prior to copyright laws and thus available for reproduction without permission. I do not sell any of my work, but if an individual is researching a particular person I have in my research they can have the information for free. If they wish to have it in printed format, they pay the per/page cost set by the library's use of their copy machine. It would have been far easier to simply cut/paste the information, but a simple reference link works just as well and is within the boundaries of the law. I use free or paid subscriptions for any information I get off the internet and still I do not copy/paste. The subscription is for me, not others that will read or want my materials. I have an extensive Excel spreadsheet for use by scouters using the Patrol Method to keep track of advancement, activities, memberships, personal information, etc. because it was created prior to TroopMaster and other cost/subscription resources. I have given copies to others but told them they will not receive tech support from me and they are on their own. I'm not going into the business of selling software. If I put that much energy and time into my work, only to have someone else take it and make money off of it, it is theft pure and simple. I wouldn't appreciate anyone doing it to me, nor would I consider doing it to someone else. Sure there might be times when unknowingly someone "breaks the rules". They are few and far between. Others have no qualms about taking something that doesn't belong to them. They tend to be more the norm than the exception, but things are a bit different today than when I was getting the training as a young boy. They always say, "Nice guys finish last." But then there's the whole notion that, "The last will be first and the first shall be last." in some circles.

Not knowingly..... with trying to live by the Scout Oath and Law (and 10 Commandments) the horse ain't all that high.

Around these parts of Wisconsin, this plant is known as Wild Parsnip. It goes by a number of different common names. Heracleum mantegazzianum is it's true Latin/scientific name.

I thought that too, until the prof said that would mean I was so boring I just put myself to sleep.

Better yet, learn what poison ivy looks like, stay away from it and one doesn't need to treat anything. Just went through this with my boys this afternoon. And while we were at it, I pointed out a plant for them to identify and one boy went up and touched it. It was stinging nettle. He learned a valuable lesson on being safe. Second lesson was when I took and grabbed and handful of jewel weed growing next to the nettles and told him to rub the leaves between his hands until the sting was gone. I don't think the boys will forget poison ivy, stinging nettle and jewel weed anytime soon.

One has to take into consideration the various "features" offered for the various tents. 1-2-3-4-8 man tents and their dimensions and height. Remember a 5' x 4' tent has the same sq ft as a 2' x 10' tent. It will make a difference to a 6' sleeper. 1 or 2 vestibules 1 or 2 doors Rain fly to the ground Material quality Pole and zipper strength and maintenance Ventilation Weight and storage size To me, having a check list of these features decided up-front will narrow my search to begin with.

Let it go legal. That legalese letterhead will definitely catch their attention and they won't assume this request will just go away over time. By the way, how does one hold high security clearance for a job and get rejected as an ASM for a scout troop? That's gotta be some strange politickin' going on there.

With PDF format, it is more difficult to make changes to the material at the local level. After all, if there are those out there putting copyright material on the internet illegally, they care capable of just about anything else.

A CO can eject an application for any reason it so desires. It is under no obligation to the BSA. A little common courtesy would be in line here, however. An explanation would be appropriate as well as a wee bit of honesty. Unfortunately, a CO does not need to adhere to the BSA's Oath and Law, only provide a venue for the BSA program. It might go better of the SM and CC were to chase down the paperwork and explanation. Good luck with that. It would seem that in this day and age, common sense and common courtesy isn't as common as one would assume.

@<3My2Eagles Sorry for the gender confusion, seems to be some of that floating around this forum lately. I may have assumed the wrong gender, but I know for a fact that moms are just as proud as dads when it comes to having done such a good job of raising great kids. Well done! Congrats!

I had a psychology professor once that told us that if one can't sit in a darkened room for an hour by oneself and keep oneself entertained, they are socially boring to anyone else who has to be subjected to you. Does that mean there are a ton of people out there today that are so socially inept that they can bore themselves to death and other around them as well unless they have some sort of electronic device? I thought this was the stuff of science fiction.

The neighbor friend of my sister had her mother come over for a visit. This neighbor was born in Norway herself but now lived in the US. Sis and her friend both live on the lake and when mom saw it she wanted to go swimming. My sister started back to her house to get her swim suit when she noticed that both mom and daughter were already in the lake so Sis followed suit without a suit. Only in America do we have over-sexed prudes.

I am really sorry I have not been following along with this very confusing topic. So please help me get this straight. BSA is a white privileged all male program that exists to develop young men into useless member of society who only know how to abuse and put down other people with their arrogance and intolerance. ....and thus every young girl in America wants to join in on the program? I think I might have missed something along the way.....

Went to Houston last weekend, stayed in hotels, still took the Gold Bond.

We're a new troop. We have hand-me-down tents from both the military (one man tents) and 2 or 4 man Eurekas. The tent I slept in last camporee was a hand-made canvas "dog" tent. Hand sewn grommets, button holes and hand sewn buttons. The rope is hand-made from twine and the poles are split poles with tin tubes to secure the poles. Tent pegs are whatever one can find in the woods. Boys that complain to me about the zipper not working on their tent get very little sympathy from me, but I will offer to trade tents for the night if they wish. No takers so far.

Ever tried to do a 50-miler virtual reality hike? Ever tried to cook dinner in a virtual Dutch oven? Ever kept warm in a virtual tent and sleeping bag? What happens to life as they know it when the battery goes dead? I have spent thousands of hours reading Civil War history books, I have toured national battlefield sites and studied the tactics and played CW games on computers to hone my tactical skills. But it wasn't until I stood on a national reenactment field with 30,000 other reenactors, listened to the bugles, drums, cannon and musket fire, smelled the burnt powder, and tasted it because I bit the cartridge too deeply or tried to handle a muzzle reload of a gun so hot one couldn't handle it anymore with bear hands, with officers yelling commands, soldiers pushing you "into the right place", and all this wearing a heavy wool uniform in 100o+ heat brings one quickly to the realization that the world of books and computers is no substitute for the real thing. I learned to tie knots, do first aid, cook, work a map and compass, camp and start fires for a reason. Making a working bow and drill fire starter beats reading about it in a book or looking up on the internet for instructions. Real adventure requires real life.

I have attended camps where there is a remote family camp area. By remote I mean a dedicated site away from the Cub Camp area and the Summer Camp areas. It's quite a hike between these 3 different areas, but if one gets a good night's sleep on a RV mattress, they should be able to do quite well making the trip. I used that area to dock my kayak for the week and would walk over there to get my kayak. Only the most daring of boys who made the trek around the perimeter of the lake would even know about the 3 different areas offered up by the council for specialty camping. Someone could have set up an RV over there in the family camp and no one from the Summer Camp area would even know about it.

One would think that if BSA got out of Luddite Mode they could "sell" the MB books through a paid download process. Without the glossy expensive printing costs, they could cut the cost, include worksheets, and have the latest-and-greatest version of the booklet available in real time. It they had 5 minutes they could call up the Kindle people and see how nifty this works.

I carry needle nosed pliers, work really great. My boys work really hard not getting ticks so they don't have to face me with my trusty pliers. It works better than DEET.

For a number of reasons the patrol method can do quite well and/or flop miserably. Forthe purist, there's a real challenge. For someone with an understanding of small group dynamic it holds promise. I have worked with youth my entire adult life. For Boy Scouts it's a mandatory part of the program. For Cubs it's pretty much waste of time, it's all adult led except for the token gesture of Denner where the boy's only responsibility is to wear the cord and feel you have succeeded in something important. With Venturing, I incorporated the concepts of leadership responsibility without actually calling it as such. Individuals were singled out according to their skills and interests. No badges or patches, but every one knew if they needed something, they knew who to go to. I do the same thing with my church youth group. They are currently broken into 4 leadership teams that plan and implement the program on a rotating basis. Maybe Team 1 plans the program, but Team 2 plans the meal and Team 3 cleans up. The name of the game is to get every one involved in a responsibility like GBB's patrol model requires. Kids are more apt to keep coming back if the feel they are a value to the group. No, I don't think the patrol method can work well outside Boy Scouts, but much of its dynamics can be adapted.

I live in a wooded area and haven't had a tick in years. Wife gets them, but she wears t-shirts and shorts. I prefer the dorky.