GimletBlog

Friday night Team Gimlet drove to Camp Pigott for the last time (for the summer) to pick up Thing One and his gear.  His first year of camp staff is over!  We haven’t had time to hear much about it, but it must have been an overall positive experience, because Thing One already is planning on returning to camp staff next summer, and would like to work on weekend winter camp staff as well.

There was barely enough time to do laundry and catch a little sleep before Thing One and the Gimlet were on their way again, headed to Camp Sheppard for a week of NYLT staff.

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See all the photos from this year’s scout camp in the Gimlet Gallery.

Another summer camp has come and gone.  The staff at Camp Pigott is great and the facilities outstanding.  I am not just saying that because Thing One worked there all summer!

Monday August 1, bright and early we gathered 16 scouts from Troop 175 and headed off to Camp Pigott.  It is about an hour drive there.  We arrived just in time for the flag ceremony and breakfast.

After breakfast, the scouts quickly dropped our gear at our campsite and headed off to merit badge classes.

Once the scouts were on their way, I had work to do in my capacity as District Training Chair.  I headed down to the chapel where I was helping to teach an Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills course.

An experiment in providing the course to Scoutmasters and Asst. Scoutmasters at camp.  On Tuesday I taught knife, axe, and saw safety.  I had to bring my axe unsheathed because the sheath that was on the axe disappeared once my scouts got hold of it.  “Imagine there is a sheath on this axe.”

On the topic of safety, our most serious injury during a Scout camp occurred this year.

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Every week we’ve been sending a care package of homemade cookies to Thing One while he’s working on camp staff.  This past week the Gimlet was at camp too with his troop, so we baked a double batch.  Little did we know where the cookies would end up!

A Japanese scout troop from the Hyogo Council was settled in the camp site next to the Gimlet’s troop.  The Gimlet will write up his scout camp report with more details about their neighbors later, so for now we’ll just mention Thing One’s part in the story:

The Japanese troop needed to leave camp one day early to catch their return flight home, so the two troops met for patch trading Thursday evening.  When Boy Scouts from other states, regions, or countries gather together it’s traditional to exchange patches, neckerchief slides, and other small souvenirs.  For example, Thing One exchanged patches and troop T-shirts with scouts from other states at the National Jamboree last year.  At World Jamborees, scouts will usually bring extra unworn uniforms for the sole purpose of exchanging their country’s scout uniform for those from other countries.

In addition to patches (hastily mailed from home along with the cookies, which were shared with the Japanese troop), Thing One brought one of his Jamboree uniforms to the exchange.  It not only featured the Jamboree patches and shoulder tabs, but also the special T’Kope Kwiskwis Order of the Arrow 100th anniversary commemorative patch, an NYLT patch and of course his Eagle Scout rank.

Several of the scouts were very interested in trading for this uniform with so many unique patches, and one of the girl scouts moved faster than the others to seal the deal.  They signed the backs of their uniforms, and the exchange was made.

With the help of this scout patch guide we were able to figure out that she is the equivalent of a First Class scout and a patrol leader.  We don’t know what the little blue and yellow patches with trees represent, or the little round number pins.  Thing One earned similar number pins in Cub Scouts as part of the pack’s literacy program but these were probably earned for different achievements.  The Gimlet’s best guess is that the pins designate number of years in scouting.

Thing One was already pleased to have his staff hat and jacket as souvenirs from his first year of camp staff, but this uniform and the patches he traded for are unexpected and very special mementos.

• Hyogo Tourism Guide
• 23rd World Scout Jamboree in Japan, 2015

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While he’s working at scout summer camp, Thing One gets to come home Saturday afternoon, spend the night at home, and then The Gimlet drives him back to camp Sunday morning.   His usual work assignment is in the Trading Post, where he makes a lot of popcorn and reports that pocket knives are the top selling item.  He also does extra work around camp as needed, with the result that for the time he is home, our utterly exhausted Thing One does little more than sleep and eat.

The past two Saturdays he’s fallen sound asleep in front of the television after dinner.  It’s a milestone in parenting when mom or dad (or even mom + dad working together) can no longer pick up a sleeping child from the couch and carry him to bed.

All teenage first year staffers have to take a turn running the industrial dishwashing machines for the camp, otherwise known as working in the Dish Pit.  Last week was Thing One’s turn.  It was also the week that the camp was filled to capacity, with over four hundred scouts and scoutmasters using plates, bowls, cups, forks, knives, and spoons for breakfast, lunch, and dinner … and the cooks using pots, pans, and cooking tools to prepare food for them all …

Needless to say Thing One is very glad this week is over, and if he had ever entertained thoughts of a career as a commercial dishwasher, he is now considering other options.   Doing dishes at home doesn’t seem so bad now, either.

Thing One was able to come home a little earlier this week, so he arrived home just as we were heading out to pick up Thing Two from a friend’s birthday party in the park.  Thing Two was delighted to see his big brother and show him off to his friends (a few of whom have big brothers, but not BIG brothers).  And after his long week, Thing One didn’t mind playing with his little brother for a while.

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Thing One may or may not be swinging from the rafters in the Quartermaster’s store, but this weekend he reported for duty on his first day of staff at Camp Pigott.  But first, we had to take a base measurement so we can see if he grows any taller while he’s away for the summer.

We discovered that Thing One has grown half an inch in the past two weeks, putting him at 5’11½”. (Since he spent last week doing little but sleeping, eating, and catching up on Doctor Who, this growth spurt is not too surprising.) Thing Two is fast approaching the 4′ mark as well.

Then, it was time to load up the car and take another picture.  Thing One is already getting into the staff spirit.

We had originally invited Bopa to come along to see Thing One’s camp, if he were feeling well enough to make the trip.  Instead, Hå joined us.

While Thing One and the Gimlet were signing in, the rest of us took a walk along the lake.

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Last Saturday I went to the Order of the Arrow’s Hyiu Chuck chapter of the T’Kope KwisKwis lodge service project for Camp Pigott. We moved firewood from the side of the road to the firewood cover. Then, we went to Scoutcraft and moved poles into a truck. We also made a trail to the Wilderness Survival merit badge area. Then, we had lunch and talked about the parts to play in the pre-ordeal ceremony. Then we went shotgun shooting with clay pigeons (which I did never hit, but my dad actually got one) for about an hour. Then, we had dinner, cleaned up and left at about 7:00 pm.

I had fun doing this and I would like to go to another one. I met new people and also one who goes to my school and was staff at Camp Parsons. I liked shotgun shooting the best.

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See this year’s Camp Pigott photos in the Gimlet Gallery.

The Gimlet reports: The troop earned more merit badges in one camp than ever before.  Then Sunday we had a number of the boys complete boards of review for their next rank advancement.  It was a successful camp and great fun.  Reports are that all the boys enjoyed camp.

Thing One completed the last requirements for his last two required merit badges for Eagle and will be seeing the merit badge counselor tonight.  It certainly makes this Scoutmaster happy.  Now if I can just get another adult leader to commit to WashJam next weekend we will be set.

At 6:00 am Monday morning, we met at the church building to go to Camp Pigott.   When everybody loaded their bags and themselves into cars, we drove off. The merit badges I signed up for were mammal study, and fish & wildlife management (combined classes), leatherwork, small boat sailing, and space exploration. Not much happened on the first day of merit badges, but it started to rain, and ever since, it started raining on and off, without wind (bad for sailboat). In the week, I also earned fingerprinting.

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On June 28-July 3, I went to national youth leadership training (or NYLT) held at Camp Pigott. When everybody got there at noon, we were shown around the camp and played Frisbee. Then, we were set up in patrols. Since the scout who came from China was in our patrol, we were The Foreigners, and I got to design our flag, which I got to take home at the end of NYLT.

We cooked our own food throughout the week on a camp stove. Unfortunately, on the first day our stove didn’t work. Finally, one burner did work, but then the end of the propane hose connected to the stove caught on fire, so we had the can of beef stew cold. The next day, we got another stove. Despite occasionally burning food, my patrol’s food was good. To teach about communication, we ordered what we wanted for lunch one day, and if we weren’t specific about amounts of food, we would not get everything correct, fortunately we were more specific that other patrols and got almost what we wanted.

Throughout the week, we had presentations by the staff with acronyms to remember leadership skills, and games with teamwork, like the spider web, where you would have to get through the holes in the ropes, only using one hole once and not touching the ropes. Another activity was where one person looked at a Lego building and described it to the rest of the patrol.

We also used GPS’s for a geocaching game. We followed the coordinates and used the hints to look for clues all around the camp. I found our troop guide in a forested area around our coordinates and then we had root beer floats. Another activity was the house of nails, where there was a nail stuck in a block of wood and we had to use all the nails not putting them in the wood and use balance. We almost finished it, but they fell over and it was time for the next game. We also made ballistas and would use these to catapult sponges at the staff. We did make one that was good, but it fell apart.

Every morning, there would be a weather report where a staff would throw a rock with drawings of suns and clouds on the sides in the air and say “it’s sunny” or “it will rain cows” depending on which side was up. There was also a joke of the day which either was or wasn’t funny.  There was also the word of the day, where everybody would say “N.Y.L.T!!!” and somebody would say “What’s that spell?” and people would either say “nylt!!” or “Nothing!!”

All the patrols did skits involving a leadership skill; my patrol did a skit about a Korean mountain climbing crew in 1818. One of the setbacks was when my character broke his arm, so they had to change the plans for the climb to work around my broken arm.

On the last full day, we did outpost, where we camped with our patrols in one of the Camp Pigott campsites for that night. Then in the morning, we left, cleaned up the camp, and prepared for the 6:00 feast. At 7:00 PM, there were the closing flags, and we also got folders with the NYLT patch, a note card with all the acronyms, the trained patch, and a certificate. It was a good experience, and even though the presentations were boring (which everybody agreed on) I know more than I did before about leadership.

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