Service crew

We were very, very lucky this weekend with the weather.

Our hall is blessed with many odd additions, the most

prominant is an old metal lampost which is nestled in a holly tree by our entrance. The light has been somewhat sporadic during the past fifteen years, finally giving up the ghost about three years ago and last year when an unsupervised & unauthorised electrician ran amock in our hall, now sports a 'FAILED' sticker.

The main reason for this is the wire which was dug down approximately a foot into the ground (a normal housing wire) surrounded by a metal pipe has rotted/rusted away. It's not even really earthed. So probably a good job it's spent the last three years unplugged.

This weekend the service crew dug a trench between the hall and the lamp post and exposed the old wire. Our frendly neighbourhood electrician (the cub leader) is going to run an armoured cable in its stead and once again we'll have a nice bright beacon in the darkness.

Similarly the tyres from our successful altar fires were drilled and bolted together to make a tyre run for the assault course we're planning. We still need to add a few, but we're on our way.

The scouts also managed to wash out all the patrol boxes and put a gloss finish on one of them which will make it much easier to clean.

Finally our upcoming ASL restored one of the donated PCs and rigged it up to our free internet connection - along with our printer and provided us with a functioning router so visitors can also plug in. It was also rigged with plenty of free

software including a child protection filter!

Edible lashings

Started tonight off with baracades (a game where the entire hall is littered with chairs and tables and the objective is to get from one side to the other without being shot in the face with a beam of light.) followed by edible lashings. Breadsticks and in this case apple laces (a long stringy sweet/candy) to do a square lashing. Next week I expect them to make an a-frame.

Photos to come!

Apple Fritters. I wish...

Well last night yet again was a troop night.

I spent a lot of time preparing badges, updating record cards, arranging programmes for the newest member and sorting out Axe and Knife (and saw) certificates (download http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/forms/c-a-p-01.rtf) for the five patrol leaders that passed in October and the one whom passed during the weekend service crew.

I even went as far as to take down my tool kit and repair the patrol boxes.

At 7:30 everyone was arriving and I er... left. Why? Crouch Valley district leaders meeting and I was the des. leader for the night. So I have no idea how the night actually went! (See, I do have an alibi)

Service crew again!

Bacon sandwiches were had by all (cooked by scouts over an open fire) curtosy of tescos cooking bacon which I don't really recommend for bacon sandwiches but they were vaguely edible.

The order of the day was to raise up the two railway sleepers which when damp were lethal for slips and falls (especially considering anyone who slipped landed on the pointy ends of the canoe trailer) and build a woodpile.

It took only a moments work to pull up the railway sleepers and we set straight to work building the woodpile. It was finished (as you can see below) with a slanting roof made of fence panels, the body from pallets and cross braced at every opportunity. We even made a small box on the roof, though we've no idea what that was for.

Our woodpile also keeps our altar fires dry, holds our ash & water buckets, spades and in our roof box a set of bread baskets which kids can load up with wood to carry off to their altar fire.

After the event I was on my way home when I went past a skip piled high with plastic crates - seeing the builder responsible for renovating the property I asked if I could pinch them to which I was told to help myself. Twenty crates later we've got lightweigh altar fire seating for 10 big kids or twenty small ones. Bargain!

Fires!

It's the time of year when we're actively encouraging firelighting outside. Which is fortunate because I'd lost my scout hall keys.

After a quick visit from our GSL who opened the main security gates things went a bit smoother and the scouts grabbed themselves an altar fire and bricks and got down to the business of burning things.

Everyone finally managed to light a fire and some groups managed to light one two or three times.

AGM

Our Annual General Meeting is always held on the Tuesday before bonfire night to conincide with the beaver/cub night.

Whilst there wasn't an overwhelming number of scouts, we did get a few and the guy competition helped raise our bonfire to a blistering temperature (as well as scorch a wide area of grass!)

Unfortunately no-one returned their forms for the swimming gala or could make our service crew DJ night, so we'll have to reschedule the latter and try harder for the swimming gala next year.