What I learned today (or maybe they are rumors)

[dan]

The old 3 pan washing method method, which is within the handbook. Is no longer the correct way for scouts to wash dishes.

The new method to 2 pans both hot water with sani tabs in the rinse pan.

 

Fire Buckets by tents are not to be used anymore.

Because of West Nile and they say it would not do much good if a tent was on fire.

[JimmyD]

At our summer camp we have gotten rid of the fire buckets by the tents years ago becuase of west nile. Instead of that they have the boys fill up a big barrel of water near the latrine of our site and cover it with plastic.

[evmori]

We use the 2 wash pan method with sani tablets in the rinse pan. We still use fire buckets at each tent. There is a fire barrel at the latrine but is a tent caught fire, it would be gone by the time someone got to the fire barrel & back.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Fat Old Guy]

"The old 3 pan washing method method, which is within the handbook. Is no longer the correct way for scouts to wash dishes."

 

Does that mean that my dishes are no longer clean?

 

I'll stick with the three pan method, that first rinse water gets nasty pretty quickly.

 

FWIW, I can't find the three pan method in the current handbook.

 

 

[acco40]

If one would care to look at the mosquito reproductive cycle, a weekend campout with stagnant water in the fire buckets provides no benefit to the mosquitos.

 

"Because of West Nile and they say it would not do much good if a tent was on fire." I'm missing something here. How does West Nile disease have anything to do with the ability of water to put out a fire? Has your fire department gone to another source for extinguishing fires?

 

Only a certain type of mosquito carries the West Nile virus. The heavy rains that the midwest experienced this spring will ensure a bumper crop of mosquitos but will greatly REDUCE the threat of West Nile because the type of mosquito that harbors the disease doesn't do too well when the storm water basins are repeatedly "flushed out" by heavy rains.

(This message has been edited by acco40)

[Bob White]

The 3 sink method described in the current Boy Scout Handbook is the same method required of restaurants by most State and local health codes (according to a health inspector who taught our sanitation portion of BALOO in one course).

 

It is a widely accepted practice for cleaning and sanitizing dishes. If your wash and rinse water is getting nasty odds are you are not scraping dishes well enough prior to washing them.

 

Acco40 is correct in his information on fire buckets and mosquitoes. Sand or dirt in the buckets is the content recommended more rather than water.

 

 

 

(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[packsaddle]

We have sand AND water buckets for each. The West Nile virus thing isn't really much of an issue unless you leave the water standing for longer than the insect's life cycle. In my experience, the life span for a bucket of water near a tent is measured in hours, not days. Sand seems to last longer though (maybe a source of sand trout virus).

[EagleInKY]

Hmmmm, the 3 pan method is recommended in the brand new BSA Fieldbook.

[Fat Old Guy]

" If your wash and rinse water is getting nasty odds are you are not scraping dishes well enough prior to washing them."

 

Scrape? I don't scrape, I cook so I don't have to wash dishes.

 

"The 3 sink method described in the current Boy Scout Handbook"

 

Would someone please tell me the page no. for this information. I've looked for "dish washing," "washing," and "sanitation" in the index but cannot find it.

 

Packsaddle said, "In my experience, the life span for a bucket of water near a tent is measured in hours, not days."

 

Do you have clumsy Scouts?

 

 

[ScouterPaul]

FOG

Page 282 Boy Scout Handbook

Page 126 Fieldbook

[Fat Old Guy]

Scouter Paul, thanks.

 

I wonder why dishwashing isn't in the index of the current handbook but it is in the last handbook's index. Could it be an editing error? Naaaaah.

[Fat Old Guy]

FWIW, when I worked in a restaurant and washed dishes by hand, we did the sanitizer as the last step.

[packsaddle]

FOG, let's see....long, swelteringly hot days, a bucket of water for every two boys. Oh, yeah, that's it - they're clumsy. Ooops!

"OK, you guys need to refill those buckets when you're done!"

[Still Scouting]

In my 13 years of Boy Scouting we only ever used fire buckets at summer camp (and then only at one of the two camps I went to). The camp that did use the buckets got rid of them in the mid 90s. The worry wasn't West Nile, but what might happen if there actually was a fire. Having boys fight a tent blaze could easily end up getting them hurt. I have always been taught (even when we had fire buckets) that it was better to get everyone out, and let it burn than to risk injury.

[RobK]

Wow! And to think B-P thought boy scouts should form fire fighting brigades in their home towns...