Every Kid Needs To Master The Bow & Arrow

Excellent example of how to prop a good shot!

Archery is probably not the best choice possible for very young kids, but middle schoolers generally have a just-right amount of maturity and body strength to master the archery range well. Learning to command the bow & arrow with confidence is a great outdoor activity that every child should learn and for good reason. To be a successful archer requires a good deal of patience and concentration, plus it is an excellent exercise in hand-eye coordination and all of these attributes will have a positive effect upon their time spent back in the classroom. It's also just plain cool knowing how to shoot well.

I had about an hour with each group today at Camp Raven Knob. Archery is not as simple as it looks and only the very attentive kids will get it right upon my first instruction and safety talk. But that's OK because with most of these kids it's their very first encounter with a bow and arrow.

Very proud of his shooting!

To shoot straight and to shoot well takes lot's of practice and even more patience. And of course, a good instructor that can point out mistakes and suggest improvements makes all the difference with easing that sometimes stressful  learning curve.  This is one sport where a child can improve their overall target shooting greatly in a short period of time if the instructor is on his toes.

Out of today's 85 students, there were about 5 who were good (...v-e-r-y good) from the first shot onward. Upon my inquisition,  most of these skilled shooters came from homes where their parents had already introduced them to archery because they were deer hunters. Those kids

Another picture for Mom!

could make these little compound camp bows work in overdrive, hitting the bulls-eye of the target with a resounding 'thud' and most of the time with the kind of power that would certainly take down a deer. They had a good stance, their elbows were always high, and their aim was right-on. They could have starred in the movie 'Hunger Games' and passed without a flinch. They were just plain good and their classmates admired their skill.

Standing beside those good shooters was one little fellow named Connor. He missed the target every time no matter how many pointers that I gave him, no matter how many times that I placed him in good stance. I was the most frustrated but Connor had a great attitude, always smiling, and vocalizing that he was going to hit that target with every next shot. He was one of the smaller kids and his arms just weren't the strongest but he kept at it with a smile. The struggle didn't

Excellent shooting stance!

faze him. During the last shooting rotation Connor managed to hit the red outlining of the bull's-eye and his classmates yelled out with a resounding cheer and clapping. Connor left the archery range feeling great!

Retrieving arrows and safely carrying with two hands.

Today I saw mostly a lot of rookie kids who had never shot a bow in their lives and had trouble learning the basics of skill, stance, and technique.  But I also saw them greatly improve their confidence in shooting as they continued practicing and asking good questions. Most of all they needed someone who could just be aware of their struggle to learn and to help them improve.  They needed someone who could remember their names and cheer for them to everyone when they hit the target. They needed someone to foster their patient accomplishment of a new skill, then to acknowledge it.  Hopefully I was that person for them today. I went home tired so maybe I was.

I'm sure that even Robin Hood himself would have been very proud of today's archery classes  because I sure was. I imagine that they'll have something swell to talk about with their teachers and classmates tomorrow at school and maybe their grades will improve too. After all that's what looking at the BIG picture in life is all about and mastering the skill of shooting a bow can play a big part in that picture.

Creek Stomp: Learning To Appreciate Creek Ecology

One of my favorite 'Learning For Life' classes to teach is the Creek Stomp, where middle schooler's learn to appreciate the building blocks of clean water. Spring is a great time to get kids outside into natures classroom where they can splash in the water, learn to gently uncover rocks & leaves, then dip their nets for the creepy crawlers that make their home in this watery world.

     

Yes, we call the class a creek stomp but it's important first to lay the framework for fostering a reverence for the delicate creek life before setting the kids loose to explore on their own. Therefore, about a 20 minute discussion is integral to forming that relationship with the  creek  and I try to use several props to maintain their swaying attention and for keeping the class interesting.

 

I might start out with some trivia questions to see what they already know and to make the experience participatory and hands-on from the very beginning. During last week's classes I showed them the skulls of a whitetail deer and a beaver then asked which of these animals depends on water for their very lives. Sort of a trick question because even though the beaver spends most of its time in the water, they both depend on the water for life, but a few of the kids always got the answer right.

Watersheds are also important to clean water so I use the 3,200 acre Camp Raven Knob as my prop. Here we are surrounded by mountains and own the entire watershed so the life of our lake for swimming, boating, and fishing is safe. I put my hands together with fists' to demonstrate how a watershed works, with my knuckles representing the surrounding mountains and my fingers the valleys below. I then ask them to tell me exactly where they think that the water flows when it rains in their immediate area and they get it right as they observe the contours of the wooded terrain.

The discussion continues with the ecology of the area surrounding the creek and the effects of   pollution. We talk about the uses of water and sometimes the discussion even leads to the Saura Indian tribe, the first people to live here in our valley many centuries ago which leads to other great discussions. Sometimes our talk becomes so interesting that I have to pinch myself to stop so that the kids can get into the water and practice what they've learned before our precious time is gone.

The group is paired into teams of two and they're assigned a small minnow net and a cup for collecting what they find. On shore I have three trays with a little creek water in them for the 0-1 legs,  2-4 legs, and for 6-8 legs. After a short demonstration about how to gently lift the rocks and leaves in the stream and how to move around gently with a reverence for the creatures living there, I then set them off on their own creek ramble to see what they can find.

 These kids are smart and not only quickly learn to respect the environment around them, but also begin to understand the origins of and the importance for clean water. Now they have a very powerful hands-on experience that their teachers can expand upon back in the classroom. In the Great Outdoors learning once again becomes 'real' again.

Foil Pouch Cooking- The Original Cowboy Feast

One of the best things about a weekend camping trip is cooking your food in the hot coals of an outdoor fire. It's been a while since I have enjoyed this more primitive form of 'roughing it easy' but last weekend I re-kindled my love for cooking a foil pouch meal while on a boy scout camping trip.

Foil pouch cooking in the scouts is one of the most popular forms of outdoor cooking and it's also one of the most efficient methods for preparing a super-delicious meal in the outdoors. While I've always enjoyed having a foil pouch meal around the campfire, I never considered bringing this creative form of cooking indoors... that is until this evening.

When I came back from a day of working on my land, the thoughts of a foil pouch meal dominated my head as I thought about this past weekend. Looking at the wood heater in my kitchen, I opened the door to a huge orange glow of hot embers staring me in the face and thought about just cooking my supper right in the stove. I've cooked a lot on top of the stove but I've never thought about utilizing the chamber of the stove... until now.

As seen in the pictures to the right I went ahead and prepared my favorite ingredients for a chicken breast and veggie meal. I chopped up a small potato, a stalk of celery, some onion, and a little bit of broccoli.

I then put all of those veggies in a screw-lid Nalgene container, then added some Teriyaki sauce, some Balsamic vinegar, and a good shaking of lemon-pepper seasoning. I just pour and shake the seasonings onto the veggies until I think that's enough for me.

On a camping trip I like to marinate the veggies overnight in a cooler but tonight I just used them right away. I shook up the veggies in my Nalgene container as seen in the picture to the left.

Next, I placed a completely frozen chicken breast out of the freezer into the first layer of my aluminum foil wrap, then sprinkled the veggies all over and around the chicken as seen to the left.

With this done I then folded the foil over the top and folded it in an overlapping fashion to lock in all of the marinating juices. I then did the same to each end of the foil pouch on both ends. I like to double wrap my meals to help ensure that everything stays together so I repeated this step one more time.








Using my metal coal shovel I shifted the coals inside my wood heater and placed the foil pouch meal into a nice spot with an even layer of red hot oak coals on the bottom. I then used the shovel to deposit another even layer of glowing coals on the top of the foil pouch.

I then closed the stove door, dampered down the air flow to the lowest setting then went on to do other chores. My foil pouch meals usually cook completely in 40-45 minutes but you might need to experiment until you find the best cooking time for your meals.

Knowing how to cook a meal in a foil pouch can be a life saver during a power outage and an excellent opportunity to show the kids or the neighbors that you don't have to have electricity to live like a king, or better yet like a cowboy on the trail. This is some mighty fine eating, Pardner!

Bernard Queneau: 98 Year Old Eagle Scout

It's not every day that you get to meet a man who was working on his Eagle Scout rank way back in 1928 but here's a video that will open up that window for us. Mr. Queneau talks about winning a contest as an Eagle Scout and being selected to travel 7,000 miles across America at a time when there weren't any Interstate Highways. He was part of a 4-boy team leading exhibitions on safety, first-aid, making fire by friction, and other Boy Scout related topics.

Mr. Queneau later became a Commander in the United States Navy, earned a PHd in engineering, and was in charge of quality control at U.S. Steel Corp. He says that he owes a lot of his success to his early Boy Scouting experiences, especially when it comes to being "truthful" and "working hard" for what you have. Today we live in a much different culture where more and more people depend on anything other than their own hard work to succeed. It's nice to be reminded about some of the values that led America to producing the largest middle class in the history of the world. I sure hope that we can hold on to these indispensable values in an ever-changing world that appears to be headed into the opposite direction.

Pioneer Lashing Sparks The Imagination

I very rarely meet a kid who doesn't like to be part of building something from the natural materials in the woods. Using only freshly cut poles or bamboo I've seen (or helped to construct) everything from 30 foot towers, sleeping shelters, Indian tepees, bridges, tables, or like in the picture to the right a catapult.

Pioneer lashing is one of the funnest classes that I teach in Scouts where if a kid can imagine it then he can build it. For those industrious kids who really develop a knack for the craft, they can proceed to learn a very high level of mastering the lashing skill, including how to make their own twine and rope, by pursuing the Pioneering merit badge.

As seen in the picture to the left all lashings start with either the clovehitch or the timberhitch knot so this is the first thing that my lashing classes learn. Also, I've found that during those first classes it greatly helps to have a lot of visual aids handy such as those seen in the pictures to either side. Pioneer lashing at Scout summer camp is always a popular activity and there you'll find tons of neat projects to spark the imagination. However, I teach this skill year-round as part of our educational program so it helps to have some props. As you can see I first made several scaled down examples of how to tie a square lashing, a diagonal lashing, a shear lashing, and all the other lashing including my favorite the tripod.

If a kid can see it, small or large-scale, then they can learn to build it is a fact that has proven true almost 100% of the time over the years so if you can't build the real thing, then come up with several scaled down models to tickle their brains into action.

 If you're looking for a fantastic activity that beats the daylights out of TV, video games, or ipods, then I would strongly suggest trying your hand at teaching kids some pioneer lashing. Learning how to maneuver rope and poles into something fun, useful, or just plain interesting is another great way to spend quality time with kids. These are the kind of experiences that will develop meaningful memories and they will be very grateful for your leadership as the years in their lives transition them into the kind of adults that will find great pleasure in passing on the skill to the next generation.

Supporting Our Troops

At a recent Scouting event one of the busiest stations around was putting together care packages for our soldiers who are the real heroes of this generation. This station was one of the required service activities toward earning a patch for the day and putting together just one package was the only requirement. The true pride of this station was watching kids and adults go through the line, over and over again in a non-ending "tour of duty".

As seen in the picture to the left each pass through the line began with writing a thoughtful letter of gratitude and appreciation to a soldier at random. The letter was then placed in your box then, as seen in the picture above, you would work yourself down the line and place the allotted number of items into your box. It was then sealed and packed away for shipping to Iraq or  Afghanistan. This was a great service project where we had an opportunity to express appreciation for something bigger than ourselves AND something other than ourselves.

This activity reminded me of another project started by two 12 year old siblings from Massachusetts several years ago to provide Cell Phones for Soldiers. I've been following Robbie and Brittany who are young adults now as they have inspired the donation of almost $2 million  and distributed more than 500,000 prepaid calling cards to soldiers serving overseas. They started the project with just $21 of their own money then nurtured their plan into something huge.

Everyday I find more reasons to be inspired about the next generation.

2010 Spring Fellowship @ Camp Raven Knob...and a New Arrowman

Last weekend was Spring Fellowship for Order of the Arrow's Wahissa Lodge 118 at Camp Raven Knob where several hundred Arrowmen met for a weekend of cheerful service. The main focus was setting up tents in all the campsites preparing for summer camp that begins in just a few weeks.

This was a unique weekend because there was an unannounced Ordeal going on at the same time where 4 new candidates were participating in a 24 hour ordeal to be Arrowmen in the OA. As seen in the picture to the left, today I just completed decorating the arrow worn by one new Arrowman which I hope will be a long-time memento as he grows into a man during the coming years. If he can somehow hang on to it for 40 or 50 years, one day it will have significant meaning in a way unexpected far down his path in life. I woodburned his name and date of the Ordeal on the rear side of the arrow so that he'll never forget and I'm anxious to present it to him in a couple of weeks.



The picture to the right was taken just after the OA ceremony and if you look closely, the wood arrow that was worn during the 24 hour Ordeal is hanging around the neck of the new Arrowman in the center. If you're wondering why he's wearing a buffalo head dress then take a look at the other pictures just below.

The Indian on the left decided that it would be a great picture if the Scout was wearing his head dress so he put it right on his head and what a great picture that this will be for his scrap book! Although the ceremony where a Scout transitions into Order of the Arrow is quite secret, I can assure you that it's very impressive. The ceremony is usually held at a special spot deep in the woods but due to a violent hail storm this afternoon, we had to move it inside near a fireplace "campfire".

Throughout the weekend we had a great time of fellowship and cheerful service as Arrowmen worked together in cheerful service to prepare Camp Raven Knob for the 2010 session of summer camp. The various chapters worked together in groups and in competition to set up the most tents.

It was like a well oiled machine as gear lines formed naturally to shuttle beds, mattresses, and tents into their proper place. A lot of laughter, jokes, songs, and highly spirited attitudes from everyone made the day a fantastic experience to remember.

Normally at spring fellowship there is a carnival that afternoon but a very dangerous hail storm kept everyone safely confined in their campsites. By 8:00p.m. the storm had passed and everyone met in the dining hall until near midnight for a CrackerBarrell which included good food, fun, patch trading, and as you can see in the picture to the left, Native American dancing is always a highlight.

Camp is now set for a successful summer session and Wahissa Lodge has gladly done their part again.

Flint Knapping: Centuries Old Hands-On Learning

As I have so often mentioned in many other postings, the Boy Scouts is a mecca of hands-on opportunities for kids to explore the connections between their hands and brains... an area that modern schools are failing miserably.

At two different Scouting events this spring I have found the craft of flint knapping and the lines of kids to try their hands at this ancient art are always long. It's one thing to find a nice arrowhead point while scouring the banks of a river, but to actually learn how the Native Americans made them hundreds of years ago is education at its best.

 To watch a skilled teacher of the art so precisely chip a raw piece of flint into a working tool is a joy to watch, learn, and absorb. As new "knappers" learn the ways of chipping their own stone while listening to stories about the living history of the people who once depended on this skill for their very survival brings full-circle an education more complete and more meaningful to a young mind than any classroom lecture could ever compete.

As you can see in the pictures to the left and below, one of the Scouts in our troop at a recent event quickly found himself enthralled with the flint knapping station where he learned how to make his own flint and obsidian points. Back in campsite he was very proud of his newfound skill and was showing off his two points. Not only did he learn a new skill but also a hands-on lesson that will stick with him for a lifetime, unlike any classroom lecture that he will ever endure.

The picture to the right is of me in 1983 while leading a 28 day canoe trip on Georgia's Ocmulgee-Altamaha rivers. During our four weeks on the river we taught the boys a lot about Indian culture as we dug daily in the rivers bank finding tons of broken pottery and chippings.

On one such dig I found the greatest point in my life as seen in the picture to the right of a perfect intact arrowhead. Even today it amazes me that another human being held this same stone hundreds of years ago. I still wonder who that person was and wish that I could meet him.

Classroom lectures are perhaps part of the equation in eduction, but when you're in the "real" world making dirty hands, listening to first-hand stories, while learning an ancient skill by chipping your own stone into something useful you are taking education to a new level. If you're trusting the educational bureaucracy with the education of your own children then they're probably being left behind at some level. Take matters into your own hands and get their hands "dirty" learning about the real world in a real way. The Boy Scouts is a good place to start looking.

An Intro To Basketry With Bonnie Byrum

I recently had the opportunity to attend a short basketry workshop with Bonnie Byrum who is a friend and supporter of Boy Scouting in North Carolina. The workshop was short but it was her goal to inspire young and older hands to the wonderful world of basket weaving and her enthusiasm was more than contagious.

A newcomer could be easily intimidated from browsing around at her magnificent collection of personal weaving but her helpful demeanor quickly put everyone at ease. On the table Bonnie had four containers holding red, yellow, blue, and green dyes with short reeds soaking in the mixture. Everyone was given four of the reeds with each color.

The reeds were wet and thus easy to work as Bonnie guided us through the weaving of a wonderful symbol that represented our membership in Order of the Arrow. As seen in the close-up pictures below the blue reed represented us. The red represented our lodge chapter, the yellow our lodge, and the green our section.

At first it was a little tricky to get a knack for the weaving but I soon caught on. Although the picture to the right doesn't show it, I later decided to trim the four reed ends to a shorter length and at an angle for more visual effect.

This was a wonderful hands-on activity and I didn't see anyone that didn't have a great time. We also left with a great craft and a much better impression for those who weave.

Old Hickory Council 2010 Centennial Celebration

Whether it was finding a way to get 20 gallons of fresh water to campsite from the water buffalo or lashing together a 3-pole tripod strong enough to support a swinging Scout, the Old Hickory Centennial Celebration last weekend was 100% pure hands-on activity from sun-up to sun-down. In an era when hands-on learning is disappearing from our schools the Boy Scouts continue to offer a quality program where a boy can feel secure and safe just being a boy... and boys like to build, saw, swing, hammer, and whatever else that is involved with action and activity. The Old Hickory Council made this opportunity available once again last weekend for 1,400 council Cubs, Scouts, Venturers, and Explorers where a lot of kids chose outdoor activity over brainless video games and TV
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 The event was held last weekend at the scenic and spacious Jomeokee park and campground which is also home for many area bluegrass festivals... but this weekend it belonged to us. Large spacious fields as far as the eye could  see surrounded by beautiful picturesque mountains, particularly nearby Pilot Mountain, is what made this an ideal location.

Through out the day the Boy Scout patrols, lead by their Senior Patrol Leader, competed with other patrols in  a full spectrum of events that included everything from using a crosscut saw to saw a log in half to working as a team to put up a canvas tent. Since Scouts is mainly a youth led organization I spent most of my time in the field at each station cheering on the Scouts and looking for opportunities to encourage teamwork and good sportsmanship.

One popular event and opportunity to score points working as a team was the crosscut saw competition. Believe me it's not as easy as it looks. To saw off a chunk of wood in the least amount of time possible, both sawyers had to work in almost perfect synchronization with the push/pull or the blade would easily bend and stop sawing. The fellow sitting on the log above the saw in the picture to the right did a fantastic job, all day long, patiently working with the boys and teaching them how to do it right. It's adults like this that are the true heroes!

If you look closely at the picture to the left you'll see a thin piece of twine stretched across the fire bucket. This was the fire building station where the kids competed to test their fire building skills to burn through the twine in the least amount of time possible.

The teams were timed on how long it took to burn the twine then their points were determined. Sometimes frustrations ran high when once a flame quickly went to smoke and cinders. The "Flaming Beavers" patrol in the picture to the left took almost 15 minutes to burn the twine but they never gave up.

As seen in the pictures below, another station was the tripod lashing where a patrol had to connect three pieces of bamboo then use a non-supporting knot to swing one group member off the ground. Kids absolutely loved this event perhaps because their contraptions resembled something out of the jungle. Best of all every member of the team was important to their success, because if they were using the best possible strategy they would use their smallest member to swing from the tripod. This activity generated a lot of group spirit and pride as the crowd cheered them on.

Another challenging event was found at the knot tying station. Each member of the patrol randomly drew a card that had the knot they must tie written on it. As seen in the picture to the right the Scouts could use their Scout handbook for reference but I only saw one patrol that had theirs. Knots included the bowline, two half hitches, taut line hitch, square knot, and a clove hitch. This event required some patience if your knot tying skills were rusty.

For a locally led Council event I was impressed with this Centennial Celebration where everyone had a safe, active, and very hands-on weekend. Other events included first-aid, map & compass, numerous games, fishing contest, and setting up a canvas wall tent. Once again the Boy Scouts of America has come through in meeting these critical hands-on activities that every boy should have the opportunity to explore.

Every troop had way too much fun finding creative ways to transport their cooking and drinking water about 200 yards from the water buffalo to their campsite. The group seen in the picture above must have collapsed 10 times from laughing so hard at their own efforts and at their hilarious water shuttling contraption.

Tying My First Fishing Fly

Another one of my favorite stations at Conclave 2010 was fly tying. When I  approached this activity the first thing that caught my attention wasn't the fly tying, but instead it was the intense focus of the participants. Unlike other stations that had more action involvement, the fly tying had these folks brains in full gear.  It was a joy just to watch that focus between the eyes and hands as their small fly creations gradually transformed into works of art.

After several minutes I couldn't stand it any more and just when one of the instructors of the fly-tying wanna-be's invited me to take a seat and give it a try. That's all it took and I was off to doing something with my hands that I'd never before experienced and something that I hadn't planned to do.

I was a little skeptical at first and a bit hesitant, perhaps because I've always just picked up my flies and lures at the bait shop when I hit the lake or streams. And besides, I was completely absorbed with just watching the intense focus of the other participants. That was reward enough for me but now I had to shift my brain from observer to participant, from teacher to student.

My coach guided me step-by-step through the process and my eyes were so focused on the small hook clamped securely in the little vise. When you're tying a fly I learned about the intense concentration that is required to get it right so I had little opportunity to look my instructor in her eyes. Perhaps it was also just the "fumble and bumbe" that any new student has when learning to do something new with their hands. It was sort of awkward being in the students chair when I was more comfortable being the teacher so I had to make other adjustments too.
After about 15 minutes of patient personal instruction I gleamed with pride after completing my first fly. I was so excited that I now didn't want to leave the station and I proudly walked around showing off my fly to other onlookers.

Now, I must admit that it's going to be another monumental task for me to pluck that fly from my hat because I just want to show it off. Perhaps I will make another one to actually go for the big one, but I have a feeling that this fly-made with my own hands- is going to be on that hat for a very long time.