Tampa Turtle

I used two Blue Pads so my shoulders were covered and baked like an oven in 42 degrees. Keep the rain fly tight and you should be fine. Trick is to not let your unpadded torso touch the fabric. If it does--you'll know..the heat will suck right out of you! Should be fun and I bet your back will thank you. If you can it is easier to set up in daylight until you get the hang of it.

Dang that LNT! We missed out on a great learning/cooking experience. I like to think of "rigging" the Hammock like a boat. Glad we weren't dinner; paddled by a LOT of gators. One canoe of newbies T-boned one in the water; gator was pretty scared. Was great incentive to NOT over-turn the canoe.

My ASM paycheck was when one of the boys ran up to his Mom after we came back from a in-the-boonies canoe camp-out saying "Mom, mom the sky was AMAZING!".

I used my Hammock this weekend at 51 degrees and a 25 knot wind. It was pretty cold until I lowered almost to the ground and battened down the fly. Had a wild (small) boar brush against me at night. Apparently I was parked over a favorite spot.

I would recommend Troopmaster if you can afford. Really makes it a lot easier to pump out reports for meeting with boys.

I think BALOO is valuable apart from IOLS in that there are things you probably do not do with cubbies and vice versa.

Maybe it is just me. We have a large Troop and are pretty organized. Seems like no matter how much we plan, hand out permission slips, etc. there are always some boys who show up as we are loading or email the night before and say they are going. As you can imagine it makes grub planning and seat transport planning difficult. How do you handle it? Seems to bug me more than the other scouters and they say we should accomodate them. I understand sometimes it is the parents and many boys are over booked. I have advocated having a cut off date with forms and payment and putting any others on a waiting list in case someone drops out or one of their folks volunteers to drive.

Set up is quicker and knock down is very fast - I can do it under 3 minutes if need be. I once camped a little too close too shore at a beach camp out and woke up to the sea under my hammock but I was dry. Because I hang all my stuff up or in my backpack on a tree nothing got wet. As long as you take off your boots before putting them in the Hammock (I hang mine on the line -never inside -stinks too much :0 ) I find that it stays very clean and dry. My messy son has his pretty clean as well. Yes there is a learning curve but that is the fun of it.

In an ideal world the Mom (and boy) could just do a mini-mini-presentation to the group. Talk to the mom about it. In my experience (both as a parent with a similar boy and as a leader) the longer the delay the more misunderstandings develop.. Still it is up to the parents. Our family has always been pretty open about it. Others think it is no ones business. I have had some parents in serious denial. So as the others said, talk to her and be as accepting as you can.

Our former bear of a SM did a practice Hike with a HUGE dutch-oven in his backpack (partially for Philmont training) so he could pull it out at the first stop and say he should try to bring a backpacking stove next time. I saw a (otherwise excellent)scout try to take on a one pocket survival overnighter: 2 tents -a 2 man and a 1 man for his gear. 12 x 18 Blue Tarp Sleeping Bag 4 pairs of clothes camp stool camp stove Was pretty funny when the MBC went through all his stuff and handed him what he could take that fit in a ziplock bag.

Agree with in-person. High touch will go along way. Sad when Scouts is used as a weapon--if that is. I missed a boy for a while and it turned out in a span of 3 months two grandparents died with messy estates and the mom got gravely ill. Scouts was the last things on their mind but after contact (I walked up to her in the store) he came back --when reminded they wanted the normalcy.

Packsaddle, As a person who impaled his arm in the woods without a First Aid kit I am now a believer. I was wondering if in a pinch some tent poles could work? Have to redo the elastic later but not a biggie. I like the inflatable splints, you can use them for a pillow too. Water Bladders a good idea, too Beavah.

I too enjoy a good hang. I use a Hennessy Hammock Asym model for 2 years and have been very satisfied with my purchase. Mine has a built in bug mesh cover, enters through the bottom, and has a rain fly. There a few pro's and cons. Pros: -Don't have to crawl in and out of a tent. -My back feels great in the morning. -Opens up more sites to camp. -Is pretty small and light for backpacking. -The boys think it looks its cool. Truth be told my Boy Scout saw our old SM have one and asked for Christmas. HH had a buy one get one free sale (usually around Christmas every year). Cons: -I get tree anxiety every campout-will I find big enough trees the right distance apart? -The Hammock's have a weight limit (before the fabric tears not the rope). So when I weighed 236 and my hammock had a limit of 250 I sweated out how much my clothes weighed. They do make hammocks for bigger guys. It was a great incentive to loose weight. -The enclosed ones are great but can feel a little confining. -The biggest problem can be keeping warm in the morning. The underside of your body gets colder than on the ground. I get around this with a blue pad that wraps around my shoulder. This is less an issue in Florida. If you are an experienced camper Hammocks open up a whole new world of fiddling and gear to you. I recommend lurking around hammockforums.net.

In Florida I have tarped in winter when the bugs were down just to make a point but usually use a hammock. A few older scouts have gone to hammock to save on backpack weight but if two many do you can run out of trees! I love it when our old SM does the "pack shake out" before a long hike with the new boys. I am amazed at what some boys think they "have to have" just in case.

My lesson learned was to have a backup plan. We could have hiked instead or something. Moving the date gets very difficult when you start getting into the November-December holiday season.

Man we just had to cancel our campout this weekend-flood conditions on the river. Will have to wait a couple of weeks.

When we canceled we did not want to have 20+ boys doing canoe swamp drills for the 1st time with 30+mph winds blowing the canoes away from them. We had a lot of 1st years with us. Our SM went kayaking that day and got blown all over the place. That said if it was just me and my boys I might tough it out but there is another standard of care when you are dealing with other people's children.

Always a tough call to make. We cancelled a canoeing MB class when the winds were predicted to be 20-30mph the next day with some storms.

I would never say never but would argue against it. 1-They could watch at home. 2-It is a more passive activity than participating in a sing-along. 3-A lot of cities do this anyway--so why is scouts unique. 4-Never estimate the power of a campfire. 5-A lost opportunity for (good quality) skits and songs. May be the only opportunity for some boy to EVER do this. 6-If the reason for having a movie is a substitute for the leaders to put on a great outdoor program (which is some work) then I would not do it. A shared movie is a great group experience, and outdoors feel it is somehow special, but seeing the movies outdoors is actually a pretty poor venue. Sound is bad at least. I would expect the boys to run around a lot.

I think the main problem with the "Boy Scout style" meeting for cubs is that the cub based program is an age-based program. "Graduating" to the next year and not doing "that little kid stuff (you did 12 months ago) is a big incentive. I suppose a very small Pack this is a lessor evil; but ours had 8-10 dens with parents; really hard to meet. Also, for example, Webelos need to meet more frequently than Bears to work through the program. The "great gathering of the pack" should be kept as a special occasion IMHO.

I have to agree that I would hope at a Scout forum we would be more respectful. I am a pretty die hard democrat but when a scout or adult says something disrespectful about Florida Gov Scott or (former) president Bush I remind them that we aspire to live in a civil society and if you do not like it remember to vote. Respect the office and work to change things through the process.

Beavah, I am not sure I totally agree with the bubble metaphor but does merit some mulling over...

After our "re-boot" we have been hitting patrol competitions pretty hard and it really seems to work.

90 minutes to 2 hours.

I believe that the uniform should be worn properly; that was taught to me and demonstrated to me by Sue Nunn at Scoutmaster training and that is good enough for me. However alienating cubbie mom's on this issue is not the hill I would choose to die on. Leave at gentle reminders and move on. I think that there are gender differences toward uniforming...my wife wears the same dress as another at church it will never come out of the closet again, two guys show up with the same tie and it's a thumbs up and "looking good!".