Cooking in Camp...expectations

[evmori]

Not unscoutlike at all, I told Ed and Bob not to post in this thread anymore and I meant it. I did not mean to imply Ed posted did anything scoutlike

 

OGE (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

[schleining]

WOW.. that must have been a doooooozy to be totally edited out...

Very unScout like if you ask me.

 

Come on guys- its a discussion on Cooking...

 

Jerry

[OldGreyEagle]

Ed did not post anything unscoutlike, I had enough of his and Bob's back and forth and thought it was time to let everyone post in this thread, thats all. Ed was not unscoutlike

[AnneinMpls]

Hey Seattle Pioneer

I've appreciated your postings. The hotdog episode I find intriguing. You've got lots of folks here telling ehat you should or should't have done...but I'm curious...

What did the scout have to say about it? Ever ask him afterwards about it?

See, I can see it playing it out in a few different ways...maybe it came off as good humor...maybe it felt heavy-handed...maybe it was about time for this PL to finally get the point that he has a patrol he serves and needs to think of...but we weren't there. We don't know, we can only infer from the small amount of info given...

Anne, curious in Mpls

[schleining]

OGE-

Great, I am glad to see that. They are both good contributors to this forum. Hate to see things come to that.

The way it appeared would leave wonder.

Glad it is no the case.

 

Happy Scouting!

 

Jerry

[dan]

Where was the SPL? Why was he not working with the PL and the SM? was?

How come the SPL did not go over and rip the hot dog off of the stick and throw it in the fire? Not a patrol method troop?

[GopherJudy]

Ed,

 

I tried posting this yesterday but was unable to, computer was toooooooooooo slow!

 

Regarding your reply to my post on page # 4, I have no clue if the troop is planning a backpacking trip & that's why the boys were told to bring canned items to cook for themselves.

 

 

If anyone knows if what I posted on page 4 about how my son & his troop will be cooking on the campout this weekend, will fulfill the Tenderfoot requirement # 3 I'd really appreciate it. I called his SM & left a message. Thanks.

 

Judy

[SeattlePioneer]

Thanks for the additional comments on the hot-dog-on-a-stick incident.

 

Dan and at least one other person suggested using the SPL as a way to deal with this problem, rather than having the SM take the heavy handed approach of ripping the hot dog off. That's a good observation, and an option I hadn't considered.

 

However, I still don't feel too bad about that incident. As I noted, I was SM for four or five years and almost never had to pay attention to what the Scouts were doing for meals. Even if that was an error of judgement I suppose we Scoutmasters are entitled to a mistake once in a while.

 

 

Seattle Pioneer

 

 

[Hunt]

Seattle, I think even somebody who thinks grabbing the hot dog was an error in judgement (as I do) can understand the strong urge to do so in such a situation.

[evmori]

GopherJudy,

I'll bet they are.

 

Vicki,

Make sure the DO you are bidding on is a cast iron one. The aluminum ones don't heat evenly & can warp. If you have a Sam's Club near you they usually have good deals on Lodge cast iron cooking gear.

 

You can cook anything outdoors you can cook indoors.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

 

(Edited by Ed for formatting)

(Ed and I reached an agreement, he is back OGE)(This message has been edited by a staff member.)(This message has been edited by evmori)

[Lynda J]

Before we set our cooking policy we had a patrol that planned no hot meals for one camping trip. It was in March and it got very cold. THey were complaining about not having hot food. I ask them who planned their meals and of course they said they did. They ate cold meals the entire trip. I didn't step in and "cover their rears". I would never allow boys to go hungry, if they simply don't plan enough food, but they planned their meals they ate them. The next camping trip they cooked every single meal. Including lunch which we almost always will allow sandwiches.

 

We always take lots of trash bags. If a scout does forget his rain gear he can come and ask for one, but I don't furnish it without his asking.

 

So many times, as adults, we want to make things easy for our kids. We don't want them to "fail".

But failing is part of succeding. Unless we fail we do not understand the value of succeding.

If a boy gets wet he gets wet. Most of mine could care less.

My wonderfully wise Gran use to say, "we should raise our children like the birds do. Have them, feed them, teach them to fly and push them out of the nest and make them use their own wings." She was a very wish woman and over 40 years after her death she is still my hero.

 

 

 

[SR540Beaver]

Lynda,

 

Thank you for "getting" the concept of allowing boys to fail in a controlled environment. You teach them, you train them and you allow them to make decisions. If they choose to ignore the training and make a bad decision, they get to suffer the consequences and learn the lesson the hard way. It has a whole lot more influence than the book learning. Allowing boys to fail in a controlled environment does not mean allowing harm, danger or sickness to come to them. Obviously an adult steps in if that is going to occur. But when a boy purposely decides to leave his rain gear in the tent at summer camp and allow himself to get wet, let him. He'll eventually get tired of being wet and when he realizes that no one is going to bail him out or feel sorry for him, he will put 2 and 2 together and put his rain gear on. The difference of when/if you step in is if the temps are 95 or 35.

[jr56]

Hi again, I posted a few days back that my troop had a policy of only letting the boys cook a given meal once a year to encourage variety.

To answer a couple of questions that were directed my way,

#1 Yes, the policy was implemented by the PLC

#2 Does cooking a particular menu item only once a year mean they will never get proficient at cooking it? Well, I guess that is a valid way of looking at it, like any other idea you could try, it has its advantages and disadvantages.

[Lynda J]

IMHO the only time a boy or an adult fails if when they don't try.

I don't know a single boy that tied a double half hitch right the very first time. Does this mean he failed. NO. If simple means that he hasn't learned to do it yet. If he quit trying to tie the knot it would mean that there was failure on someones part. And not necessarly the scouts.

I heard a leader at a skills event tell a scout he was stupid because he couldn't tie a knot, he did this in front of a group of other boys andleaders. I pulled this guy apart from the group and let him know that in no uncertain terms was he to ever call a boy "stupid". Little makes me madder than hearing an adult tell a kid he is stupid and especially in front of others. Kids aren't stupid. They just haven't learned everything. After talking to this guy I went and talked to the Director of the event.

Come to find out this is a leader who after two years has yet to take anything but SM basic. Seems he doesn't think he needs training since he was a 1st Class scout growing up. The membership in the troop is dropping off and parents are complaining about the amount of yelling he does at the boys.

So this is a unit that is in trouble because the leader doesn't see the need for training.

 

[evmori]

We went cabin camping the weekend before Thanksgiving one year. The PLC asked if the adults would do the cooking. We happily agreed but told the PLC we would give them the shopping list & the Scouts would be responsible for buying the food. The PLC agreed. We decided we would have turkey with stuffing & mashed potatoes & peas & cranberry's. When we gave the shopping list to the Scouts who were doing the shopping one questioned why we had bulk sausage on the list. We explained it was for the stuffing. "Eww! I'm not eating that!" was the response. Well, we asked what their mom used in her stuffing & the reply was "It isn't sausage"! Well, the Scout's mom who responded was in the room so we asked what she used in her turkey stuffing. Among the ingredients she named was sausage! You could have driven a train through the Scout's gaping mouth!

 

My point of relaying this is a lot of the time, the Scouts don't understand what make up certain things we cook. I think this is one of the reasons they tend to stick to the prepackaged stuff like mac & cheese & ramen. Part of our job as leaders to teach them how to cook & how easy it really is to make something that is very good & tasty! Another part of our job is to teach them not to always look for the easy way. Sometimes a little more time & effort makes a big difference.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10