Camping and Cooking and Climbing

Dear Scouts,

Thanks to crew chief Nathanial and scouter Mrs. McLeod, who was our Ramblewild honcho, we had a great trip to the Berkshires last weekend. We had somewhat soggy and wet weather, which forced us to postpone the Mt. Greylock ANE hike to later (next spring?) but it was still had an excellent time camping, cooking and climbing at Ramblewild.

The campfire took some doing, but with Grady’s persistence, got it lit despite the wet kindling, and it developed into a very hot fire. We had to dry logs by the fire so they would burn. As a reminder, lighting a fire seems easy but never is, and sometimes is downright frustrating and smokey. This was one of those cases. Despite several attempts with flint, steel and various teepees and such, it did light and tool some fanning to get it going. Good team work in a challenging environment!

The meals were well prepared and the adults even got to taste the patrol cooking which was excellent. Long gone are days of Raman noodles, now replaced with Smashburgers a la Marcus and Steaks a la Matt ! Good meals and good fire and good night sleep!

As usual, Ramblewild was challenging and we did four runs including the blue. What makes this course really hard is the last runs are the hardest because they have you progressively show competence. So you start with easy ones, spend a lot of energy and keep going to the hardest at the end. By end the end, I was tired but kept going and glad I did. The cargo net was challenging but I made it.

Every scout was zooming through the courses at great speed and taking on challenges. I thought the team work and encouragement was heard everywhere and this is certainly a favorite trip.

Advancement Corner
Congratulations to Ethan, who passed his Board of Review for Tenderfoot and is well on his way to Second Class Rank, in a matter of days. 
Charlie led the troop on a hike Tuesday night to show us where his Eagle project will be built. The ground was a bit wet and soggy making a good case for his project on trail work. The short hike was very enjoyable for the scouts.

Family Life Merit Badge Meeting Schedule: November 7, December 12, and January 30, 6:00-6:45PM at Monument Hall
Family Life met earlier in the week and next meetings are: Nov 7, December 12, and January 30, 2024 - all sessions will take place at 6pm at Monument Hall.  In the meantime, everyone should be doing chores, family project, individual project and having a family meeting.

Warners Pond Update
Cole presented some thoughts on Warners Pond. This is where Scout Island is and has been the subject of much discussion lately. Cole presented an outline of the options to the Troop and we are arranging for guest speakers to present to the troop and then get feedback from the scouts on the issue. All who attend (in planning now, tentative for early November) will earn Citizenship of the Nation requirement 4 as shown below.

• Choose an issue that is important to the citizens of your community; then do the following:
  • Find out which branch of local government is responsible for this issue.
  • With your counselor's and a parent's approval, interview one person from the branch of government you identified in requirement 4a. Ask what is being done about this issue and how young people can help.
  • Share what you have learned with your counselor.

Here’s some more information https://www.savewarnerspond.com/.  https://concordma.gov/1677/Warners-Pond-Information   https://concordma.gov/615/Natural-Resources

There is a Warner’s Pond Public forum planned for Wednesday November 8 at 7pm. The scouts will learn about the alternatives and we are stakeholders in this and encourage engagement.

Finally, thanks to Grady and Adam for rewriting and rerecording the Troop 132 Public Service Announcement (PSA), which will be played often at CCHS's WIQH-FM all year long. We hope it will work to attract prospective scouts Troop 132!. 

Do your good turn daily.

YiS,
Mr. Duggan, Scoutmaster