Rosemary Scouts

Today we had planned to hike out to these waterfalls that are supposed to be big enough that you can swim beneath them. It was a five mile hike but when we looked into it we realized that the falls dry up in the summer time. We didn't want to hike five miles in to see a mud puddle and then hike five miles back so we planned a trip to the beach instead. After a full day in the sun yesterday no one was up to exposing too much of our red skin to the sun again so we ended up walking on the beach and having lunch beside the water. It was a great day. I just love being with my kids. We picked out a few beach houses that we think we will buy. Well, maybe it will have to wait until after I make my millions.
=================================================

Not long after we moved to Rosemary they called me to be the scout master. This was a problem since I knew absolutely nothing about the scouting program. I did know a lot about scouting however so I accepted the challenge with enthusiasm. To make matters worse, the scout group committee met on the same night as we had scouts. The group committee was the one place I might have received some sort of training to be a scout master but I guess that wasn't to be. As a kid growing up I loved the outdoors. Lester and I used to hike into the mountains in Waterton Park and throw our sleeping bags down anywhere. I seldom worried about trails and we never worried about fire rings or that kind of nonsense. We also never took a canteen since there were many streams and we'd just drink out of the streams. I also don't think we ever owned a tent, we just took our chances. We did have a scouting program in our ward but all they ever did was play floor hockey in the gym. Every Tuesday night we played floor hockey. I hated it. I also never earned any badges but not because I didn't care, it was because I was never given a chance. My scouts were a varied bunch, some loved sports and some hated sports. I didn't want my non-sports lovers to go through what I did so half the weeks we'd play a sport and the alternating weeks we'd do something I loved. We didn't work on badges because I didn't know anything about them but I gave them the kind of scouting experience I had. I remember one week we put aluminum foil in a pop bottle filled with water and Draino (NaOH) and put a balloon over the top of the pop bottle. The reaction produced hydrogen gas which filled up the balloon. We'd then tie the balloon and let it float to the roof of the gym in the church. That soon got boring so we taped a string to the balloon and lit it on fire. When the fire reached the balloon it ignited the hydrogen and made a nice fire ball. We timed it so that the balloon would explode in mid air before it hit the ceiling. I wasn't too worried about black marks on the ceiling or it burning because hydrogen doesn't do that but I didn't want to take a chance. There were times when I was afraid the explosions would attract the attention of the people in the group committee but if anyone came in the gym we had our ropes there and we just pretended to be working on scouting stuff. We also made hot air balloons. If you dip a cotton ball in alcohol and hang it under a dry cleaning bag and light it, it will fill the bag with hot air and it will float. One day when we were doing this it was too windy so we went in behind the church (3) where we were sheltered from the wind. It worked fine until the balloon floated above the church and the wind caught it and sent it for a loop. The balloon stabilized but by this time the bag was on fire. We now had a fire ball flying through the air. I was worried about a brush fire so I sent my scouts running after the fire ball. It landed in Bob Henderson's (11) stubble field and by the time we caught up to it the stubble was on fire. It's a good thing we had a bunch of us there because it took all of us stomping to get the fire out. I swore all of my scouts to secrecy and told them if they ratted me out I'd probably get fired from my scout master job. I don't know if any ever told or not but I never got in trouble. We also went on camp outs which was my favorite part. Looking back we were terribly unprepared but we camped the way I used to camp as a kid. I remember one time we drove up to the mountains and when we saw a likely spot we pulled over to the side of the road, found a good place to leave my car and we hiked into the tree's. We found a good spot by a stream and there we pitched our tents. I think we had tents, but maybe we didn't. Another time we did a winter camp out on lake Newell. We took fishing poles and went ice fishing but I've never been able to catch fish. A couple of the boys caught some nice pike but I didn't. I tied a lot of hooks though. It was a very cold day (below -20) and I couldn't believe it but one of the boys brought a coat with a broken zipper. I might not be prepare like I should but I always brought good equipment. Another activity that I remember well is one night we went out to Leonard Dressell's farm and pulled the kids around the yard behind a truck in the snow. Leonard had the hood of an old car that he pulled behind his truck. That was a lot of fun. I think I even took Kira on that activity. I guess the Lord knows where my heart is because even now, more than twenty years later I'm still the scout master in our ward. My boys now usually make "Eagle" and I know how the badges work but we still go camping and learn how make fires properly. I love it.