The two weeks went by fast. The scouts all seemed to like Waubeeka better than Buckskin. Maybe it was the better food, or cooking it yourself that made it taste better. Maybe it was the larger waterfront, or maybe it was just the "new" experience, but all wanted to return next year.
The boys earned a significant number of merit badges which will be distributed at the first Court of Honor in September, and the adults learned that the scouts can work together and produce some great meals in addition to working on Merit badges.
We all came home with something more than we left with, and I'm not talking about the bug bites.
Here are some pictures from the two weeks that weren't included previously.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Tuesday at the new camp
We've settled in quite well at the new camp. Mr Livingston and Mr. Kaplan joined us on Sunday, our first camp meal was a BBQ put on by the staff. the camp is a little smaller and the boys are finding their way around after a few trips down the various trails.
The meals in our campsite are falling into place. Everyone is eating well, and we're finding that its a little easier to customize each meal as we cook it. the boys each have a specific duty for the day to share the load. We're cooking in two separate patrols and have a friendly competition to see who eats first.
The boys are enjoying the lake and swimming area, most of them are doing the 6:15am polar bear swim, and most of them have been in open swim yesterday and today. Painting is a new merit badge being offered at camp. Several of the boys are taking it.
Aaron's walking around beat to crap from all the swimming he is doing. Everyone is definitely ready for bed by taps at 10pm.
Ben says hi to Mom and Dad, and wonders how their doing on the boat and is looking forward to his trip up the mountain for wilderness survival.
The meals in our campsite are falling into place. Everyone is eating well, and we're finding that its a little easier to customize each meal as we cook it. the boys each have a specific duty for the day to share the load. We're cooking in two separate patrols and have a friendly competition to see who eats first.
The boys are enjoying the lake and swimming area, most of them are doing the 6:15am polar bear swim, and most of them have been in open swim yesterday and today. Painting is a new merit badge being offered at camp. Several of the boys are taking it.
Aaron's walking around beat to crap from all the swimming he is doing. Everyone is definitely ready for bed by taps at 10pm.
Ben says hi to Mom and Dad, and wonders how their doing on the boat and is looking forward to his trip up the mountain for wilderness survival.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
The Stay Over Weekend
Friday, we caught up on most of the merit badges we've been working on. Astronomy was a tough one, since every night was cloudy. The boys will work on finishing it this week, if the sky's clear. Friday evening we had a large campfire in our campsite, and we had many entertaining skits with 100% participation.
Saturday, we slept in an extra hour, prepared to do laundry and went into Lake George to the laundromat. Interesting how many scouts wanted to separate their whites from darks. I think everything was the same color anyway...dirt.
A few of the older guys took a side trip to Walmart. Kristian was enthralled by the Megatron toy in a box. He can't stop talking about it.
I should mention that we took the scenic route to Lake George by way of Canada. Well it seemed that long. It actually should only take 30 minutes, but we set a new record at 75 minutes.
We went for a pizza dinner. Tommy K. really enjoyed the Lake George scenery, you'll have to ask him for details.
Today we're setting up the new campsite and waiting for the 6 additional scouts to arrive and get set up.
Saturday, we slept in an extra hour, prepared to do laundry and went into Lake George to the laundromat. Interesting how many scouts wanted to separate their whites from darks. I think everything was the same color anyway...dirt.
A few of the older guys took a side trip to Walmart. Kristian was enthralled by the Megatron toy in a box. He can't stop talking about it.
I should mention that we took the scenic route to Lake George by way of Canada. Well it seemed that long. It actually should only take 30 minutes, but we set a new record at 75 minutes.
We went for a pizza dinner. Tommy K. really enjoyed the Lake George scenery, you'll have to ask him for details.
Today we're setting up the new campsite and waiting for the 6 additional scouts to arrive and get set up.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Thursday - Hollywood day
For the Hollywood themed retreat at dinner time, Troop 28 had 5 paparazzi photogs following a budding young starlet, played by Tommy K. He really has a future in costume design. The paparazzi also swarmed their favorite staff member and chased him around the parade field trying to get his picture. All in great fun. Other troops had a red carpet entourage, and a visit by Bruno. The staff also dressed the part, with Snakes on a Plane, another playing a "green screen" and standing behind all the staff doing announcements, and a spotlight. Batman made an appearance, along with several staff who we couldn't figure out what they were.
Dinner was chicken and potatoes, one of the better dishes. During dinner, Matt and I drove into Lake George to pick up a car load of pizza for the staff at camp. The pizza employees were a little confused when we told them we were there to pick up the pizza's but not to start putting them in the car, because we wanted to order dinner (we left before dinner was served). The staff really enjoyed the pizza, and wanted to convey their thanks to you for sponsoring it.
Friday, we'll spend the day finishing up whatever is left to do on the merit badges for the week, and start to think about packing up camp.
Henry and William just walked by, and are on their way up to cooking to finish up their menu's. William is finishing up some kind of green candy which he's called an airhead. He's rubbing his stomach to indicate that its good, or maybe giving him a stomach ache. I can't tell. He's only on his third shirt for the week, and pretty proud. He forgot to change them every day. I guess he was too busy.
Henry has built up his stamina by running from area to area every day. He wants to work on passing the swim test for next year.
We're looking forward to the rest of the troop coming up on Sunday. Some of us have visited the other camp, and it looks really fun. We'll be moving in their on Saturday, then going to Lake George to do laundry and maybe a game or two of lazer tag.
Thats all for now.
Dinner was chicken and potatoes, one of the better dishes. During dinner, Matt and I drove into Lake George to pick up a car load of pizza for the staff at camp. The pizza employees were a little confused when we told them we were there to pick up the pizza's but not to start putting them in the car, because we wanted to order dinner (we left before dinner was served). The staff really enjoyed the pizza, and wanted to convey their thanks to you for sponsoring it.
Friday, we'll spend the day finishing up whatever is left to do on the merit badges for the week, and start to think about packing up camp.
Henry and William just walked by, and are on their way up to cooking to finish up their menu's. William is finishing up some kind of green candy which he's called an airhead. He's rubbing his stomach to indicate that its good, or maybe giving him a stomach ache. I can't tell. He's only on his third shirt for the week, and pretty proud. He forgot to change them every day. I guess he was too busy.
Henry has built up his stamina by running from area to area every day. He wants to work on passing the swim test for next year.
We're looking forward to the rest of the troop coming up on Sunday. Some of us have visited the other camp, and it looks really fun. We'll be moving in their on Saturday, then going to Lake George to do laundry and maybe a game or two of lazer tag.
Thats all for now.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Wednesday and Thursday
The weather cleared up, no rain for either Wednesday and Thursday, so we hung our towels up to dry for the day. The boys had a mandatory clothing change today (Thursday), as most of them still had the same clothes on since Monday. Eli won the fire building competition with a time of under 10 seconds to burn through the twine hung above the fire pit. I think he's been saving up fire starting materials since June in anticipation of the competition.
We ended up not participating in the dutch oven cooking contest, as there was much indecision over the ingredients.
We found out what Bradley looks like when he doesn't take his allergy medicine and pets a guinea pig (see pictures). A trip to the health lodge and Benedryl brought him back to normal size. The boys are looking forward to the Hollywood theme night tonight, more on this tomorrow.
On Wednesday evening, Chris and Steven left for their Wilderness Survival overnight trip, where they spend the night in the woods with the other boys in their merit badge class and the counselors with a rain poncho, knife and a bottle of water. We took pictures of what the looked like before leaving, just in case (see link above). They were back this morning in time for breakfast. I guess we didn't pay the counselors enough to leave them on the mountain. We'll have to adjust this for next week.
Tonight the troop and you, are sponsoring pizza for the camp staff. Its been the talk of the camp for this afternoon. Most of the staff is looking forward to some "off camp" food for a change of pace.
The first year scouts are enjoying capturing the many amphibians and newts that we're finding around the campsite (also see pictures above). We'll do a luggage check prior to leaving to make sure all the animals make it back to their natural environment.
Thats it for now.
We ended up not participating in the dutch oven cooking contest, as there was much indecision over the ingredients.
We found out what Bradley looks like when he doesn't take his allergy medicine and pets a guinea pig (see pictures). A trip to the health lodge and Benedryl brought him back to normal size. The boys are looking forward to the Hollywood theme night tonight, more on this tomorrow.
On Wednesday evening, Chris and Steven left for their Wilderness Survival overnight trip, where they spend the night in the woods with the other boys in their merit badge class and the counselors with a rain poncho, knife and a bottle of water. We took pictures of what the looked like before leaving, just in case (see link above). They were back this morning in time for breakfast. I guess we didn't pay the counselors enough to leave them on the mountain. We'll have to adjust this for next week.
Tonight the troop and you, are sponsoring pizza for the camp staff. Its been the talk of the camp for this afternoon. Most of the staff is looking forward to some "off camp" food for a change of pace.
The first year scouts are enjoying capturing the many amphibians and newts that we're finding around the campsite (also see pictures above). We'll do a luggage check prior to leaving to make sure all the animals make it back to their natural environment.
Thats it for now.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Tuesday - The second full day
We had another early start today - 6:10am. No Polar Bear swim, so everyone showered and managed to get up to the parade field on time (7:45) for the flag raising and breakfast. Merit Badge classes are going well. All the scouts know where to go, what time to be there and are well organized. Today is designated toothbrush day, since I have not seen anyone brush their teeth since we got here, we're going to have a group session. See pictures
The camp store is proving a popular meeting place. I'll have to take a survey on what the favorite treat is, but the frozen Charleston Chews seem to be popular, judging the the empty wrappers Mr. Lauriero is constantly reminding everyone to pick up around the campsite. Most of the boys have Camp t-shirts, which already are going to need a good washing.
The dam building has stopped due to some over zealous scouts not being able to control where they were tossing their buckets of water. We had to come up with a creative way to keep them out of the water, so we told them the stream was a result of the runoff from the dining hall septic field (ITS NOT, so don't worry). I don't think anyone has gone in since.
We had one inductee into the Order of the Oar, since his birthday fell within our visit to the camp. Congratulations Billy. Unfortunately a technical malfunction prevented us from having any digital pictures, so we'll have to wait until Matt gets his film developed over the weekend to see the documentation of Billy being smacked with the oar by his Scoutmaster.
As I'm writing this, Henry is at the soda machine trying to feed a dollar in for a soda, and holding a Milkyway bar. I'll have to remind him that there are no sweets allowed until after 11:00am (its 9:45). Maybe he'll let me hold them for him.....
It started raining around 4:00pm. and continued until well after midnight. The good thing, we have all new tents in our campsite and none leak, so everyone slept dry. The rain prevented us from Rock Climbing, since the rock faces are wet, we'll try and reschedule. Instead some of the Scouts participated in the pie eating contest. We didn't win, since the winning technique consisted of flipping the tin over, dumping the pie (pudding and whipped cream in a pie tin), onto the table and eating it off the table with your face (hands are held behind the back). I guess our scouts have better manners...
Mr. Lauriero and I had a leaders meeting with the Merit Badge Counselors last night to see how the boys were doing and make sure they're all showing up. All received good reports. While we were gone Chris C. decided to tell the ghost story of the local murder who killed his family and two brothers. Chris insists the boys wanted to hear it even though they knew they were going to be scared. Of course when we got back to the campsite, we found all three of the four first year scouts sleeping two to a bed, with four scouts in each of the two person tents. Benton slept through the story, so he missed the whole thing. Thanks Chris, Kristian and Steven for providing the evening entertainment. We woke everyone up and got them back to their tents and the rest of the night was uneventful, with no nightmares, everyone woke up well rested.
Wednesday looks to be a good day, the weather is supposed to clear, we have a dutch oven cooking contest, ice cream social in the evening, and a triathelon, silver bullet, and robin hood competitions.
The camp store is proving a popular meeting place. I'll have to take a survey on what the favorite treat is, but the frozen Charleston Chews seem to be popular, judging the the empty wrappers Mr. Lauriero is constantly reminding everyone to pick up around the campsite. Most of the boys have Camp t-shirts, which already are going to need a good washing.
The dam building has stopped due to some over zealous scouts not being able to control where they were tossing their buckets of water. We had to come up with a creative way to keep them out of the water, so we told them the stream was a result of the runoff from the dining hall septic field (ITS NOT, so don't worry). I don't think anyone has gone in since.
We had one inductee into the Order of the Oar, since his birthday fell within our visit to the camp. Congratulations Billy. Unfortunately a technical malfunction prevented us from having any digital pictures, so we'll have to wait until Matt gets his film developed over the weekend to see the documentation of Billy being smacked with the oar by his Scoutmaster.
As I'm writing this, Henry is at the soda machine trying to feed a dollar in for a soda, and holding a Milkyway bar. I'll have to remind him that there are no sweets allowed until after 11:00am (its 9:45). Maybe he'll let me hold them for him.....
It started raining around 4:00pm. and continued until well after midnight. The good thing, we have all new tents in our campsite and none leak, so everyone slept dry. The rain prevented us from Rock Climbing, since the rock faces are wet, we'll try and reschedule. Instead some of the Scouts participated in the pie eating contest. We didn't win, since the winning technique consisted of flipping the tin over, dumping the pie (pudding and whipped cream in a pie tin), onto the table and eating it off the table with your face (hands are held behind the back). I guess our scouts have better manners...
Mr. Lauriero and I had a leaders meeting with the Merit Badge Counselors last night to see how the boys were doing and make sure they're all showing up. All received good reports. While we were gone Chris C. decided to tell the ghost story of the local murder who killed his family and two brothers. Chris insists the boys wanted to hear it even though they knew they were going to be scared. Of course when we got back to the campsite, we found all three of the four first year scouts sleeping two to a bed, with four scouts in each of the two person tents. Benton slept through the story, so he missed the whole thing. Thanks Chris, Kristian and Steven for providing the evening entertainment. We woke everyone up and got them back to their tents and the rest of the night was uneventful, with no nightmares, everyone woke up well rested.
Wednesday looks to be a good day, the weather is supposed to clear, we have a dutch oven cooking contest, ice cream social in the evening, and a triathelon, silver bullet, and robin hood competitions.
Monday, July 20, 2009
The First Day of Camp
My day started at 4:30am with the bear that somehow found its way into Mr. Cotters tent and took over his bed. Oh wait, it was just him snoring. I'll need to move to a further tent tonight.
Everyone else woke up at 6:00 and got ready for a shower, (see pictures for proof) with the exception Tommy K and Noah, escorted by Mr. Lauriero, who somehow also managed a dip in the lake. Somewhere along the line, we neglected to wake up Bradley and William R., so they got to sleep in a little later. The campsite morning chores were done quickly and we raised our site flag, and then participated in the morning Flag Raising, then on to Breakfast, which was scrambled eggs, ham, hash browns and cereal.
Merit badges started at 9:00, everyone attended and knew where to go. Good job to the Senior Scouts for helping the new scouts out with their paperwork and camp setup.
Somewhere during the day, the boys discovered the stream which runs behind our campsite. The dam project is well under way. We'll be generating our own power by the end of the week.
Dinner tonight is Shepards pie, and as always, PB&J on the side.
Tonight is the staff hunt, where the staff hides around the camp property, while the troops go and look for them. Upon finding a staff member, the scouts tag them, and then get to accompany them to the waterfront, and push the staff member off the dock.
Tomorrow, in addition to our normal daily activities, we are Rock Climbing in the evening, guided by the camp expert climbers.
My day started at 4:30am with the bear that somehow found its way into Mr. Cotters tent and took over his bed. Oh wait, it was just him snoring. I'll need to move to a further tent tonight.
Everyone else woke up at 6:00 and got ready for a shower, (see pictures for proof) with the exception Tommy K and Noah, escorted by Mr. Lauriero, who somehow also managed a dip in the lake. Somewhere along the line, we neglected to wake up Bradley and William R., so they got to sleep in a little later. The campsite morning chores were done quickly and we raised our site flag, and then participated in the morning Flag Raising, then on to Breakfast, which was scrambled eggs, ham, hash browns and cereal.
Merit badges started at 9:00, everyone attended and knew where to go. Good job to the Senior Scouts for helping the new scouts out with their paperwork and camp setup.
Somewhere during the day, the boys discovered the stream which runs behind our campsite. The dam project is well under way. We'll be generating our own power by the end of the week.
Dinner tonight is Shepards pie, and as always, PB&J on the side.
Tonight is the staff hunt, where the staff hides around the camp property, while the troops go and look for them. Upon finding a staff member, the scouts tag them, and then get to accompany them to the waterfront, and push the staff member off the dock.
Tomorrow, in addition to our normal daily activities, we are Rock Climbing in the evening, guided by the camp expert climbers.
The Trip up to Camp
We arrived at camp at 12:30 after an uneventful trip up. The camp was ready for us, and we went through the check-in process with ease. Everyone swam for the swim-test, and the lake was a little refreshing, even for the adults. The waterfront director was impressed because we had a near perfect pass rate for the troop.
The boys got unpacked and set up at the campsite very quickly, and were extremely pleased to see that we had a new latrine. Believe me, so were the adults. The bug netting is up on all the beds and the gear is all stowed.
We had a great chicken parm dinner prepared by the camp chef, who has returned year after year. No problems with anyone not eating, no-one is hungry. After dinner we worked on reviewing the schedules and having the boys fill out their paperwork in preparation for Monday's start of classes.
No campfire tonight though, we'll save that for tomorrow. The boys were in bed by 10:00, and all the talking had finished by 10:20. 6:00am is the wakeup time so we can get the campsite cleaned up, and ready for our first full day of camping. We're not sure who is going for Polar Bear swim at 6:45, but the boys have the option of a hot shower, or a cold jump in the lake.
Pictures from our first day
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
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