Knives, knives, and another knife

Every scouter will tell you he likes knifes. It goes with the outdoors. It goes with being a man. It goes with being a boy! I remember one of my best boyhood knifes. A spyderco. I loved that knife, it had a large opening for your thumb to help you open it quickly. Over the years, I have no idea what happened to it. I kinda expect it to show up one day when my son comes home from Grammys with extra stuff.

I've been wanting a new knife, really bad. I've had that urge to buy one. Not just any knife The perfect knife. Ive looked at stores, shopped the internet, even dreamed of a knife stuck in stone like the Excalibur just waiting for me.

Cue the angles from above and turn on the spot light to shine through the clouds, I think I found her.

The Spyderco Air.

I love the hooked bill of this blade. It has great curves!

The main frame of the knife is Ti, and the handles are glass fiber, and the blade is a special high carbon alloy.

The knife however does not have a pocket clip. I'm a little worried about it being so lightweight ( just a little over an ounce) that it might not stay in hiking shorts well. I wish it had a spot to place some para cord on it for a lanyard. 

This is the spyderco air and the SOG mini Aegis side by side. The SOG is a very nice knife. It has a speed assist opening which some people might not like, but has a great locking blade. It's also very light weight and has a pocket clip. This is my sons knife, and he learned about it at summer camp last year and just loved it. It's a little heavier than the Spyderco Air but not by much.

In my quest to find "the knife" I also bought these CRKT knifes. They aren't bad but I wouldn't suggest them unless you got a good deal on them like I did. I think on WOOT they we're around $20, that's not too bad for a descent knife. 

The Japanese looking knife, is hard to open. That thumb grip on it, doesn't work so great. The handle is also kinda thick.

The green CRKT knife has a ball and spring in the thumb assist. Not a good idea. I've had sand and dirt get in it and stop it from working.

Even though it has that problem, I still carry it a lot. Mainly because I don't really care if I loose it.

Is the Spyderco Air going to be my favorite knife? I don't know. Right now I like it a lot. However the price of the knife may stop,me from carrying it much..........all that being said, that's an awesome blade design, I'm sure it will be a great knife.

A Wilderness Survival Weekend

Our wilderness survival weekend usually has our troop out in the woods sleeping under tarps and eating backpack food, while we learn different types of survival tips and just hang out.

This year we added a night hike and slept on the beach of a local lake at winter pool.

This is our happy group of scouts!

We had to use a couple crossing tech methods bc of sinking sand. This one we just put a bunch of sticks on top of the sinking area and got across as quick as we could.

After the treck through the sinking sand and crossing the creek, we stopped for some dinner and a fire to warm our feet and drop your socks.

Mr Jerry he has a great way to teach you to keep your feet dry, he burns holes in you're socks by putting them too close to the fire!

Here's our camping spot for the first night, that's Mr Jerry and I in the hammocks, the scouts make a shelter out of plastic.

Mr Jerry weaving a seat from grass.

Scouts doing some scouting!

We all took a break to do skits in front of this great back drop.

Whoa is me! How much farther! We must have walked a mile so far!

Enjoying a nice break for this night, seems to be a great spot.

Evening campfire on the beach with the cub scouts. It was very nice!

Overall what a great weekend! We learned some lessons, got to try some new gear, we got mad, disappointed, and we helped friends in need.

We got to cook together, hang together, play fresbee together. Best of it all, we got scout together!

Busy busy weekend!!

First our weekend started with our pinewood derby. There was a funeral that booted us out of the gym, so we had to make due in a large room.

I will say, it was a great derby, excellent sportsmanship shown all around. Afterwards we had a potluck lunch for our blue and gold.

47 racers isn't too shabby, the race went really well. It lasted for around 2 hours.

Plenty of trophies are given out.

1st -3rd overall.

1st in each den.

1st in Outlaws.

1st-3rd Siblings.

Best paint.

Scouts choice.

Slowest car.

I even ran the race this year, the car was fast! It almost came off the track it's first run, which knocked me down to 3rd place.  I pretty fired up for next year though!! Better look out!

Not to shabby for starting my car 2 days before the race. 

After the race I headed to my troop at Winterfest. It's held in army barracks and is a lot of fun.

That evening I got to help run the blast car race. This was my first time with blast cars. They were pretty awesome. They make a good sound and run pretty fast.

Then during an OA call out that had 100 new members, I received my wood badge beads.

Overall it's been a very busy week!