By 7:56 this morning, a Saturday, I was sitting in the gym at North Seattle Community College. The noise from the crowd already indicated a level of excitement for the day to come. I was there by myself, attending the Chief Seattle Council 2011 Program and Training Conference. There was every kind of person waiting for the opening ceremony. I'd like to have talked to some of the older men, the ones who may have spent thirty years or more as Scout Leaders. I'd like to have heard their stories.
I'm glad that Mike encouraged me to sign up fun stuff. I decided on a class about safe wilderness outings, new scout orientation, kayaks and canoes, and skits and songs. It was a good day.
I came home, wanting to tell Mike as much as I could about the good ideas I'd heard. I learned about a troop that, instead of focusing on achieving Eagle Scout, rewarded instead, the boys who had camped more than 100 nights in the wilderness. The presenter said that it wasn't much of a surprise that the ones who had camped this much were usually the ones that achieved Eagle anyway. The Scout Master's theory was that any boy who'd spent that much time out in the wilderness, getting to camp, cooking and cleaning up after himself and others, setting up a tent and sleeping in it, was prepared for what the world was going to offer him. When I close my eyes and add up trips, I can get up to about eighty nights in the wilderness. I haven't counted car camping or sleeping in the camper that my dad bought for my mom because she hated the whole thing so much. At about eighty nights, I suppose that I'm mostly prepared for what life will throw at me, though I have more to learn. I'll be doing those next twenty days with Mike and Nick.
I stopped by at the Dutch oven station between classes and talked to the woman there. I found out that I needed to store Mike's Dutch ovens with a paper towel across one side, holding the lid up just a bit, so that they wouldn't get rancid as quickly. Other than that, the woman said I was doing it right. Cool! She also said that she'd just read that the best oil for seasoning them was flax seed oil. I can give that a shot. I'd been using lard, but apparently the polymerization isn't as complete with lard. I like when chemistry crosses into camping.
Today, I learned where we can rent canoes in the area, but what I'm worried about is how I'll do trying to sleep out on the ground at night when I haven't done that in a while. Will my cranky old bones get used to it after a couple of nights? As the men told their stories about their trips and showed their photos, I started to feel that old ache to be out on the water again. When the man asked if anyone had taken multiple-day trips in a canoe, I raised my hand. He said, "I imagine you have some stories to tell then." I realized that I do. Mine are the stories of how I fell in love with Mike. Most of that happened on the water, in our canoe. Did you know that after five years of paddling with Explorer Scouts, we paddled our canoe in Maine with our dog for our honeymoon? Oh, those were golden days and I was right there in them as I looked at these pictures of men and boys paddling on the Puget Sound.
Now that I'm home, I'm suddenly tired. I had a good day. In February, when Nick moves from being a Cub Scout to becoming a Boy Scout, I'll be a little more prepared. My Dutch ovens will be well seasoned, Nick and his friends will be able to practice paddling nearby, and hopefully they'll have a safe and exciting time exploring the dizzying array of wilderness that we have all around us here in the Pacific Northwest.
Thank you for listening, jb
I'm glad that Mike encouraged me to sign up fun stuff. I decided on a class about safe wilderness outings, new scout orientation, kayaks and canoes, and skits and songs. It was a good day.
I came home, wanting to tell Mike as much as I could about the good ideas I'd heard. I learned about a troop that, instead of focusing on achieving Eagle Scout, rewarded instead, the boys who had camped more than 100 nights in the wilderness. The presenter said that it wasn't much of a surprise that the ones who had camped this much were usually the ones that achieved Eagle anyway. The Scout Master's theory was that any boy who'd spent that much time out in the wilderness, getting to camp, cooking and cleaning up after himself and others, setting up a tent and sleeping in it, was prepared for what the world was going to offer him. When I close my eyes and add up trips, I can get up to about eighty nights in the wilderness. I haven't counted car camping or sleeping in the camper that my dad bought for my mom because she hated the whole thing so much. At about eighty nights, I suppose that I'm mostly prepared for what life will throw at me, though I have more to learn. I'll be doing those next twenty days with Mike and Nick.
I stopped by at the Dutch oven station between classes and talked to the woman there. I found out that I needed to store Mike's Dutch ovens with a paper towel across one side, holding the lid up just a bit, so that they wouldn't get rancid as quickly. Other than that, the woman said I was doing it right. Cool! She also said that she'd just read that the best oil for seasoning them was flax seed oil. I can give that a shot. I'd been using lard, but apparently the polymerization isn't as complete with lard. I like when chemistry crosses into camping.
Today, I learned where we can rent canoes in the area, but what I'm worried about is how I'll do trying to sleep out on the ground at night when I haven't done that in a while. Will my cranky old bones get used to it after a couple of nights? As the men told their stories about their trips and showed their photos, I started to feel that old ache to be out on the water again. When the man asked if anyone had taken multiple-day trips in a canoe, I raised my hand. He said, "I imagine you have some stories to tell then." I realized that I do. Mine are the stories of how I fell in love with Mike. Most of that happened on the water, in our canoe. Did you know that after five years of paddling with Explorer Scouts, we paddled our canoe in Maine with our dog for our honeymoon? Oh, those were golden days and I was right there in them as I looked at these pictures of men and boys paddling on the Puget Sound.
Now that I'm home, I'm suddenly tired. I had a good day. In February, when Nick moves from being a Cub Scout to becoming a Boy Scout, I'll be a little more prepared. My Dutch ovens will be well seasoned, Nick and his friends will be able to practice paddling nearby, and hopefully they'll have a safe and exciting time exploring the dizzying array of wilderness that we have all around us here in the Pacific Northwest.
Thank you for listening, jb
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