The Bloggers
Original site: scouterjeff.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab) ↗
Showing 151–200 of 308 · page 4 of 7. Each title opens the post in a new tab.
Spent the lunchtime hour at a wonderful Eagle Scout Court of Honor for one of the troop's scouts. It was a great ceremony with lots of the scout's friends and family, and they added many personal touches. I'll have to put together a page of Eagle Court of Honor ideas I've seen over the last…
Sitting here watching the movie Unbroken , I figured it was time to write a review of Don't Give Up, Don't Give In by Louis Zamperini. If you don't know who Zamperini was, he's the main character in Unbroken . The movie (I haven't read that book yet) tells of his story as a WWII prisoner of…
Several years ago when I served as Pack Committee Chair (back when Thing 1 was a Tiger) I had all kinds of ideas of things I thought would make us more organized. Some of them worked well, others not so much.
Thing 1's troop is on a roll. They started in 2004 or so, and have finally hit that stage of consistency and critical mass where we are seeing a number of scouts reach the goal of Eagle Scout each year.
I got my first browse through the new Webelos Handbook. The new program looks interesting, though a lot of the required stuff for Arrow of Light looks like things our den has already covered working toward the old Webelos requirements, so we'll probably finish off with the old book since we have that option this…
I received the following news on the Philmont Mailing List : "A sad day for the Phillips family, and a sad day for our Philmont family. Elliott "Chope" Phillips was the son of Waite Phillips who so kindly donated the land to the Boy Scouts that we now call Philmont.
I created a page to list all of the " Saturday Book Reviews ." There should be a button/link at the top of the site under the header image. Alternatively, you can click on the "book review" labels in the list of most common labels on the right-hand sidebar (if your viewing on the web version, but…
The new Cub Scout books are showing up around the country. I've seen twitter posts from councils that have them for a few weeks now. Stopped in my local scout shop today and they were just unboxing them, I might have bought the first copies locally.
Published in 2009, ArrowCorps5 - A Higher Adventure is another coffee-table style book that commemorates the work of thousands of Arrowmen (5000) over a 5 week period in 2008 at 5 national forests. ArrowCorps5 was one of the largest service project the Order of the Arrow has performed in a single combined effort (over 280,000 combined…
Walking into work today, I noticed the flags were at half staff. I didn't recall hearing of anything in the news about a tragedy, so I wasn't sure why. Thank goodness for Google and the website www.halfstaff.org . It turns out, today was declared a "Day of Remembrance for President Abraham Lincoln."
Today in Scouting History - April 14, 1970 It was on this day the memorable words "Houston, we've had a problem" were spoken by the astronauts on the Apollo 13 mission. You can see the entire transcript of the mission here .
Philmont - Where Spirits Soar is a coffee-table style book capturing the majesty and beauty of Philmont. I think it is out of print now unfortunately, as it was published in 1989, though it can be found online from a few sellers.
Well the blog ticked past 10,000 views this week and has just about 150 posts. Not too bad for the first 9 months. Hopefully I can keep it going. Feel free to share with your scouting friends and post comments on the blog page.
I had the opportunity to visit the New Orleans area this week. The French Quarter has some amazing history and unique old architecture, but Bourbon Street isn't a place I'd recommend taking scouts... The trip was for work, so I didn't get to check out many scout related places, but a cool stop might be…
As recounted by Jackie Freeman (adult leader, trek 813 E 1991): Day 10. [Aug. 22] The entire day was spent on the train. Some like Jon spent most of the time sleeping, while others played Battle Tech or just sat and watched scenery.
As recounted by Jackie Freeman (adult leader, trek 813 E 1991): Day 9. [Aug. 21] The final day at Philmont had us up, pecking, hitting the trading post several times, and out of the tents by 10:00am. We visited the museum and were impressed by the books and the Ernest Thompson Seton paintings and the…
As recounted by Jackie Freeman (adult leader, trek 813 E 1991): Day 8. [Aug. 20] Day 8. We got up, ate, packed, and were on the trail by 7:30am. A record for us. The hike up to Shafer's Pass was very UP and very slow.
As recounted by Jackie Freeman (adult leader, trek 813 E 1991): Day 7. [Aug. 19] Deer had been in the camp in the early morning and the dining fly was partially knocked down. Nate found his jacket. We ate breakfast and picked up quickly resolved to have a better day.
As recounted by Jackie Freeman (adult leader, trek 813 E 1991): Day 6. [Aug. 18] The most ridiculous and frustrating day of all. We woke up and cleaned up camp quickly since there was no breakfast. One advantage. Went down the trail past the staff cabin and up to the corral for horseback riding.
As recounted by Jackie Freeman (adult leader, trek 813 E 1991): Day 5. [Aug. 17] The start of the Weekend from Hell. It had rained and stormed all night so we checked for anything left out that might have suffered.
As recounted by Jackie Freeman (adult leader, trek 813 E 1991): Day 4. [Aug. 16] The day began with showers and clean clothes. We presented Teri with a NEO council patch which we had ail signed. She left and we were on our own.
As recounted by Jackie Freeman (adult leader, trek 813 E 1991): Day 3 [Aug. 15]. Breakfast gave us an introduction to MOG bars (meal on the go) which weren't too terrible. After packing up we began our hike toward Cimarroncito.
As recounted by Jackie Freeman (adult leader, trek 813 E 1991): Day 2. [ Aug. 14.] Met Teri for breakfast and then off for the rest of the processing. We started at the Health Lodge, then we were issued our crew gear, tents, and first day of food.
As recounted by Jackie Freeman (adult leader, trek 813 E 1991): Day 1. [Aug 13] The sights from the train became more interesting on Tuesday. Kansas was full of sunflowers. We spotted an old abandoned Spanish mission on a hillside in Colorado.
As recounted by Jackie Freeman (adult leader, trek 813 E 1991): Aug. 12. We met at 5:30am in downtown Painesville ito be sure everyone was ready and then headed off to the Amtrak station. When the train arrived, they didn't have enough empty seats for all of us to be together so they allowed our…
I found a nice write-up my mom had written about our trek to Philmont in 1991 . I'll give a day-by-day recount of what we did. I'm sure things have changed there a little since then, but I'm sure a lot has stayed the same too.
Well, my troop got a pick in the 2016 Sea Base lottery. Not for the Out Island Adventure I was hoping for, but we got two crews for Coral Reef Sailing which should be pretty amazing too. The deposit has been sent, we've got 13/16 spots filled, and now to start saving up some money.
I like to create documents. One of my favorite jobs at work is creating test plans and test reports. I think I like the structure of it all. There's a framework and methods to follow to create them. And then making them pretty with fonts and images.
Thing 1 and I joined the troop on a trip to Dillon Beach, for a weekend full of good food (at least for the Grumps, the scout's menus didn't look too bad either), sand sleding, kite flying, hiking, and sandcastle building.
3-23-15 Den Meeting recap: We continued working on Craftsman requirement #4 to make some useful things. The first project was a simple basket. I had a kit left over from day camp several years ago that another parent had picked up back when Thing 1 was a Webelos.
Last Thursday was the District Awards Night instead of our normal Roundtable. I make it a point to get to this event every year. It's good to show support of the district volunteers and the adults that put in their free time to keep the program running in the background.
I read a great quote today on Ask Andy 's blog: " But I’d recommend letting it alone. Yes, you can try to “fight city hall.” But, if you do, keep in mind that whatever energy you put into this will subtract from the energy you could be giving to the Scouts of the troop you…
It was an 'interesting" troop meeting. Probably more so for the parents in attendance than me. I attempted to hold my first "parents meeting" to set the tone for how I view scouting to happen. The punchline: I try to follow the Scoutmaster Handbook.
Trying to catch up as you can see. Last week's den meeting (3/9/15) we worked on the craftsman activity badge. Specifically leatherworking to requirement #4 to make four useful items. We started with a simple wristband that they could use various stamps and punches to but designs or words on.
2-23-15 Den meeting We continued working on the Showman badge. [The scouts had a homework assignment from the past meeting to bring a song from an American composer to share with the den. req't 12] We started off with a guest Boy Scout (Thing 1) to talk about music and explain 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 time…
Here's another fun Pack meeting idea - bring a HumVee to the meeting! This was another favorite of the scouts, what young boy doesn't like seeing military vehicles. We had a military chaplain come talk as a special guest (he's also one of the dad's in the pack).
This week's review is of an old volume I found in my dad's collection of scout material. It is about Dan Beard, one of the BSA founders. It is a collection of short stories or tales about Dan's life, from when he was a young boy in Kentucky, through the end of his life as…
From the Freeman Archives (what I call my collection of scout memorabilia from my father and me) I present this map of Camp Stigwandish in Madison, OH. It doesn't give a date, so I can't tell exactly when it was made.
Very proud of our scouts today. In a field of 15 or so teams, they took first place in the sled race at Klondike. Way to go! (this update is a day late, apparently the cell phone didn't connect to the network well enough to go through)
And we even got snow (about the first all year)
More from the Freeman Archives. Camp Stigwandish was where I spent many of my summers going to a week of summer camp, and many more weekends throughout the years as a scout. Klondikes, Camporees, OA Ordeals, where all held at Camp Stigwandish for our district.
Well, yesterday in history, but I got busy with stuff and missed it...ah well. So, on this date, in 1992, I received my Eagle Scout. Hoorah!
Feb 22 is BSA's Founder's Day in honor of Baden Powell's birth date. A good article on the topic can be found here: http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2012/02/22/founders-day-celebrates-baden-powells-legendary-life/ What's your unit doing to celebrate Founder's Day?
A snippet from the Painesville Telegraph article on Dec. 2, 1957. Anyone who's son is having their Eagle Court of Honor should send a photo to the look paper or invite them to the court of honor I think. It's good press.
With Klondike coming up, winter songs could be sung (even if the weather in spring-like here). One of my scout made this song for our Court of Honor back in November. It is very reminiscent of our Webelos Woods campout judging by the items he included.
With Presidents' Day upon us, let's reflect on the relationship of the President and the Boy Scouts of America. Since the BSA was established in 1910, we've only had ten Presidents who been able to be Boy Scouts (by age: Johnson, Reagan, Nixon, Ford, Kennedy, Bush, Carter, Bush, Clinton, Obama).
I gave this as my scoutmaster minute the other day (you can deduce the date). I can say I've retyped the words exactly, I don't rewrite these things down, I mostly ad lib them after things about them during the day.
For this week's installment of Throwback Thursday, check out this group photo of the 1987 National Jamboree contingent from Northeast Ohio Council (now part of the Greater Western Reserve Council). This was Troop 1912. As I recall the number was important in the history of scouting, possibly when the first units in the area were…
Since this blog was started as a way to share my family's scouting adventures, I thought I'd add a new feature called "Meeting Mondays". All our den and troop meetings are on Mondays (along with other stuff like which makes them Mega-Mondays).
On today's date, in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was official incorporated. Happy 105th Birthday BSA! Learn more about the BSA's Founders here .
