First service crew weekend

It's always been my intention to set up a service crew down at our hall and whilst we've done work days down there before, they were nothing compared to the half day we had down there this weekend.

I'd been at a wedding down in Kent the night before so not only did I have to organise the day, but I also had to travel back to the hall before everyone arrived!

At 12 sharp we were assembled down the hall and I walked the crew through the jobs we need to do as soon as possible.

Before work could commence on chopping down trees etc I did a short seminar on the use of knives and saws and signed off the scouts certificates.

The first item was the building of a service crew hut round the back of the scout hall. There has been the remains of a shed there for several years and it was time to make it into somewhere for tea and coffee and most importantly of all, darts.

First we had to remove our kayaks from behind the hall where we were going to be building the shed and emptying them of water. In a relatively short time we tackled the bushes of stinging nettles and laid out the shed. We broke for lunch and then within half an hour or so had the shed up.

We chopped down a couple more Elderberry trees and one of the PLs showed a new member of troop how to light fires. We then used his fire to burn some of the smaller green twigs and leaves rather than adding to our rather large pile of wood.

We finished off the day by tidying and sweeping the hall, cleaning out the shed, mounting the dart board and putting out the fire (and emptying the cold remains into the ash bins)

Next crew we'll be in a more artistic mood painting our metal racking and service crew building as well as finishing off their axe and saw qualification. Roll on next troop night...