Hey guys, it's back!
It was great, that for sure, just a bit of a pity the weather wasn't cooperating. Summer camp has always been my favorite scout camp of the year; it's so relaxed, a week of scouting with just our own organization and best of all- no parents.
Our campsite was in a large forest, and the owner of the forest had turned it into a camping. He doesn't care much about it I think; he let us do things most campings would never have allowed us to do. For instance; we've had to pull out a gate because our tractors couldn't pass through, and he said we could remove anything that was obstructing us, we were also allowed to push over/ tear down dead trees for our fires which is illegal in almost all other places. Bets of all was that we finally had a latrine again! My first summer camp was the first and last time I ever had a latrine for doing my daily business. Now we were allowed to dig a hole again, to sh*t in, and for the ladies to pee in as well. We were such happy campers :)
The only real downside for the terrain was that it had rained a lot, and the entire main camp site which we decided to use in advancehad turned into a mud pool and we had to reorganize the position of the scouts and cub scouts' sleeping tents, which meant a 5 minute walk to the main camp from where we had our tents. Very annoying. Besides that, the main latrine that was dug the first day- before the kids arrive- was also on the main camp site, and thus a 5 minute walk. Undo-able for the children, so I and the scoutmaster decided to build a new one between the scouts tent site and the cub tent site. The first latrine wasn't very deep, a meter and a half at best, the size of a small scout. We set out with shovels and made a hole about a 1,5 meters long, and hardly 40 centimeters wide: two spade widths. After the first layer of humus, roots and leaves (we were in the middle of a forest) we came to a hard- almost solid- sand layer. That was about half a meter deep, and the layer we knew of the other latrine was the hard part to get through. When we got through that things went fast; and we never met the layer of rock hard sand that stopped the diggers of the first one. At one point we were switching turns digging while the other lowered buckets to get the sand out of the depths. We also noticed our shoulders were a bit broader then two spade widths, which also made digging harder. We stopped half an hour after reaching the ground water level, because the sides collapsed in the water. We reached an estimated depth of 2,5 meters, people were shocked.
Anyway, it's fun to hear your browns plummet into the depth. Besides that a lot of things happened and there is a lot to be done when I'm a scout leader; they're afraid of thunder for instance. But that's a long story I won't bother you with; instead; I'll sum up some happenings:
- First of all the 2,5 meter deep latrine which we lowered some cubs in for fun. Oh, we did get them out again. Filling it the last day left a nice hill on top of it; due to the size, I associated it with a grave, and thus I made a cross to fit it.
- We had some air rifles which gave a lot of challenge to the children as well as to the leaders.
- A lightning strike was seen by a scout patrol on hike which brought panic to their leaders who then brought all patrols back to the main camp. A big mistake because the chaos that followed got them a lot of bad criticism. They badly overreacted.
- Rumors were spread about a core member that would have slept and have had a shower with a scout girl, none were true, however, the relationship between him and his girlfriend (also a core member, and my future fellow scout leader) was badly injured.
- The main theme lacked enough leader support, and didn't have a growing story nor a real climax. The theme was Ranch, but all leader had voted Scotland; so the leaders had to be motivated for the theme first, which never happened. The kids had fun with the games never the less.
- We built a large cable slide, attached to a medium difficulty training lane. (A training lane is a series of ropes and obstacles to go over, without hitting the floor unless you're supposed to. It's a very important and fun part of scouting.) With a large rope bridge over the large mud pool that dominated the main camp site.
- We experienced how bad it is not to send the parents a packing list by mail or give them the paper via the kids; instead we had a far too standard Internet version. So we had kids without enough underwear, already halfway on the week which we noticed on washing day (Wednesday) when we washed all kids in a primitive shower, built by ourselves of course. Also the children didn't have enough socks, which is something you really don't want to happen on scouting.
- We had a marvelous transfer ritual with the rowans (scouts undergo a ritual when being transfered to the next subgroup: the Rowans) of which I can't tell you any details because it is a traditional secret.
- We had flower worms (edible) to dare the kids and for them to score points for their team. The leaders ate for honor, and I can tell you they taste like nothing, and if you try them: don't try chewing on the leggy part of the bug after the rest explodes in your mouth, because it's not gonna budge, tough little thing. 18 of 21 cubs ate the creatures (alive), the others were vegetarian.
- I've had a lot of laughs with a guy (Dave) that I'd been messing around with for years. He wouldn't believe I was gay, and through making sexual jokes we ended up with a fun concept: the hay shed and hay fever. Over here the pair of balls a man owns is regularly (though rather rude) called a seed-shed. The sexual jokes got us to the subject of our full sheds (it was almost a week since the last emptying) and eventually to the hay fever. So yes, we got somewhat horny.
- I spent the night with him the last night of camp, after the kids had left. We tear everything down the last day including the small tents. Most leaders slept in the huge core tent, which was quite cozy I heard (everyone was sleeping on top of each other) but I got a place in Dave's tent, which was cramped as well, but just with Dave.
- We went to a tree information place with the cubs, which had a route through the tops of trees; very high, but loads of fun. And our children were not afraid of heights, good training.
- We had a horrible ceremony to celebrate our new scoutmaster; a woman. She does not possess any skills, but someone had to do it, and she was the only one. This is bad for scouting, and has already started to bother me greatly.
- Over all it was great fun, we had loads of beer, fun, mud, and dirty children. A success!
It was great, that for sure, just a bit of a pity the weather wasn't cooperating. Summer camp has always been my favorite scout camp of the year; it's so relaxed, a week of scouting with just our own organization and best of all- no parents.
Our campsite was in a large forest, and the owner of the forest had turned it into a camping. He doesn't care much about it I think; he let us do things most campings would never have allowed us to do. For instance; we've had to pull out a gate because our tractors couldn't pass through, and he said we could remove anything that was obstructing us, we were also allowed to push over/ tear down dead trees for our fires which is illegal in almost all other places. Bets of all was that we finally had a latrine again! My first summer camp was the first and last time I ever had a latrine for doing my daily business. Now we were allowed to dig a hole again, to sh*t in, and for the ladies to pee in as well. We were such happy campers :)
The only real downside for the terrain was that it had rained a lot, and the entire main camp site which we decided to use in advancehad turned into a mud pool and we had to reorganize the position of the scouts and cub scouts' sleeping tents, which meant a 5 minute walk to the main camp from where we had our tents. Very annoying. Besides that, the main latrine that was dug the first day- before the kids arrive- was also on the main camp site, and thus a 5 minute walk. Undo-able for the children, so I and the scoutmaster decided to build a new one between the scouts tent site and the cub tent site. The first latrine wasn't very deep, a meter and a half at best, the size of a small scout. We set out with shovels and made a hole about a 1,5 meters long, and hardly 40 centimeters wide: two spade widths. After the first layer of humus, roots and leaves (we were in the middle of a forest) we came to a hard- almost solid- sand layer. That was about half a meter deep, and the layer we knew of the other latrine was the hard part to get through. When we got through that things went fast; and we never met the layer of rock hard sand that stopped the diggers of the first one. At one point we were switching turns digging while the other lowered buckets to get the sand out of the depths. We also noticed our shoulders were a bit broader then two spade widths, which also made digging harder. We stopped half an hour after reaching the ground water level, because the sides collapsed in the water. We reached an estimated depth of 2,5 meters, people were shocked.
Anyway, it's fun to hear your browns plummet into the depth. Besides that a lot of things happened and there is a lot to be done when I'm a scout leader; they're afraid of thunder for instance. But that's a long story I won't bother you with; instead; I'll sum up some happenings:
- First of all the 2,5 meter deep latrine which we lowered some cubs in for fun. Oh, we did get them out again. Filling it the last day left a nice hill on top of it; due to the size, I associated it with a grave, and thus I made a cross to fit it.
- We had some air rifles which gave a lot of challenge to the children as well as to the leaders.
- A lightning strike was seen by a scout patrol on hike which brought panic to their leaders who then brought all patrols back to the main camp. A big mistake because the chaos that followed got them a lot of bad criticism. They badly overreacted.
- Rumors were spread about a core member that would have slept and have had a shower with a scout girl, none were true, however, the relationship between him and his girlfriend (also a core member, and my future fellow scout leader) was badly injured.
- The main theme lacked enough leader support, and didn't have a growing story nor a real climax. The theme was Ranch, but all leader had voted Scotland; so the leaders had to be motivated for the theme first, which never happened. The kids had fun with the games never the less.
- We built a large cable slide, attached to a medium difficulty training lane. (A training lane is a series of ropes and obstacles to go over, without hitting the floor unless you're supposed to. It's a very important and fun part of scouting.) With a large rope bridge over the large mud pool that dominated the main camp site.
- We experienced how bad it is not to send the parents a packing list by mail or give them the paper via the kids; instead we had a far too standard Internet version. So we had kids without enough underwear, already halfway on the week which we noticed on washing day (Wednesday) when we washed all kids in a primitive shower, built by ourselves of course. Also the children didn't have enough socks, which is something you really don't want to happen on scouting.
- We had a marvelous transfer ritual with the rowans (scouts undergo a ritual when being transfered to the next subgroup: the Rowans) of which I can't tell you any details because it is a traditional secret.
- We had flower worms (edible) to dare the kids and for them to score points for their team. The leaders ate for honor, and I can tell you they taste like nothing, and if you try them: don't try chewing on the leggy part of the bug after the rest explodes in your mouth, because it's not gonna budge, tough little thing. 18 of 21 cubs ate the creatures (alive), the others were vegetarian.
- I've had a lot of laughs with a guy (Dave) that I'd been messing around with for years. He wouldn't believe I was gay, and through making sexual jokes we ended up with a fun concept: the hay shed and hay fever. Over here the pair of balls a man owns is regularly (though rather rude) called a seed-shed. The sexual jokes got us to the subject of our full sheds (it was almost a week since the last emptying) and eventually to the hay fever. So yes, we got somewhat horny.
- I spent the night with him the last night of camp, after the kids had left. We tear everything down the last day including the small tents. Most leaders slept in the huge core tent, which was quite cozy I heard (everyone was sleeping on top of each other) but I got a place in Dave's tent, which was cramped as well, but just with Dave.
- We went to a tree information place with the cubs, which had a route through the tops of trees; very high, but loads of fun. And our children were not afraid of heights, good training.
- We had a horrible ceremony to celebrate our new scoutmaster; a woman. She does not possess any skills, but someone had to do it, and she was the only one. This is bad for scouting, and has already started to bother me greatly.
- Over all it was great fun, we had loads of beer, fun, mud, and dirty children. A success!
Here are some pics to support the text:
Me, flippin' burgers and other corpses.
Cub-scout leaders in debate, and me on the right drinking milk :)
The latrine, before use and before the bench was constructed and the tent placed over it. -Oh, and with a cub scout being lowered in it.
The "tree-top-route" at 22,5 meters above the ground.
The flower worms, also used by fishermen... ...for fishing.
The rope bridge- or Indian bridge as we call it- with the training lane behind it in the forest. The tree on the left is the tree from which the cable slide started, and new safety regulations made us keep our children secured by a safety harness when entering and sliding on the cable slide. The guy in the blue scouting overall is the securer who holds the climbing rope while the person is climbing towards the cable. 
And the child' grave, it looks rather creepy, and I wonder what the terrain owner will think when seeing this. I had a lot of fun, and so did the kids, so the camp was a success; besides, wankin' is very rewarding after growing the haystack for a week. 
Lightning storm season has started, and I'm writing these words while flashes and thunder dominate the outside of my window; but as you know, I like thunder and rain. See you later folks, I'm relaxin the rest of the day.
Me, flippin' burgers and other corpses.
Cub-scout leaders in debate, and me on the right drinking milk :)
The latrine, before use and before the bench was constructed and the tent placed over it. -Oh, and with a cub scout being lowered in it.
The "tree-top-route" at 22,5 meters above the ground.
The flower worms, also used by fishermen... ...for fishing.
The rope bridge- or Indian bridge as we call it- with the training lane behind it in the forest. The tree on the left is the tree from which the cable slide started, and new safety regulations made us keep our children secured by a safety harness when entering and sliding on the cable slide. The guy in the blue scouting overall is the securer who holds the climbing rope while the person is climbing towards the cable. 
And the child' grave, it looks rather creepy, and I wonder what the terrain owner will think when seeing this. I had a lot of fun, and so did the kids, so the camp was a success; besides, wankin' is very rewarding after growing the haystack for a week. 
Lightning storm season has started, and I'm writing these words while flashes and thunder dominate the outside of my window; but as you know, I like thunder and rain. See you later folks, I'm relaxin the rest of the day.
4 comments:
it is always good to hear your updates; I remember being in scouts - I had the hots for the scoutmaster.
Haha! Well I'm planning on becoming a scoutmaster as soon as possible to save what little tradition is still left. Now we have two female scout masters, which I find a disgrace and certainly not something I'd get the hots of. But the scoutmaster that left this camp and with whom I dug the latrine is kindah hot, and single. But just a little too old.
Welcome home from Scouting.
You look like the "Camping Master Chef" in your picture.
Lot's of people don't realize just how much goes into planning and administrating one of those camps.
I imagine the haystack had built up some formidable pressure after a week at camp!
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