Veterans Day

Veterans Day is a great chance to show visuable support.

We gathered on the square of our small town to wave flags for an hour and half.

Coy in front of the court house.

Some of the Boy Scouts standing with the cub scouts.

Shiloh Camping Trip

Shiloh has become a trip we enjoy making.

As a national park it's very well kept up. Shiloh is full of great trails and historical markers.

This great tree is in the cemetery and has the best leafs it drops.

CubScouts on the river.

Church on Sunday.

Touring the museum and cemetery.

It was a great windy day, and the flag was flying so beautifully. Veterans Day was right around the corner so who could not like this picture.

New EAGLE SCOUT!

This is my second Eagle Scout. And it's my son. He has worked harder and been more focused than any other scout I know. And he has loved it. Well most of it......

I couldn't be more proud. He can't wait to be old enough to start a venture crew.

Below is a rifle I had engraved for him. Turned out very nice.

This is a piece I made for our court of honors. Not pictured is the table, and windows that matches it.

New Fire Ring

Man it's been busy. However at NOAC I saw a fire pit that I thought would be awesome for the lodge. Here's a few steps of me working on it.....

That's my Trust and Honor bill next to the side to show size.

Welding hinges on it for assembly.

2 coats of high temp paint.

And in use, not how I planned them being used, but it turned out very nice!

The Experence!

Have you ever had one of those scouting experiences where the message and theme just clicked?

NOAC was one of those events. 16,000 arrow men all together was an event of a lifetime.

It has been the best scouting experience of my scouting career.

The "hub" was the main focal point of fun during the day.

Philmont and northern tier both had tent areas set up. Philmont showed up with a great display.

Battle bubble ball! What an awesome game! These guys were flying everywhere once hit. I had a great time just watching them.

My roommate and our room, luckily it was nice outside because there was no air conditioning, what's wrong with people?

At night we had shows in the stadium, and it was wonderful. People singing and having a good time. 

The Order did a great job putting this event on.

The only problem was, that everyone couldn't attend. It was a great reminder of what we are suppose to do. To serve cheerfully.

Waterproof what????

After my last canoe trip, and the swamping and flipping of my canoe..........many times. My Wally World Outdoor Brand water proof phone bag failed me allowing the buffalo river to invade my phone, I descided to "look into" different options.

Most of the waterproof bags are not waterproof like we think. Read the back panel on the package.

They are splash resistant.  That doesn't work for us outdoor folks. Who knows where our scouts will take us? Or when they will dump our canoes?

So I hit the web looking for deals and some stores looking for options.

 

The BG bag and the ECase came from REI. The NO Limits bag came from Academy sports.

The BG bag is your typical roll and buckle bag.

The ECase is a double zip bag.

The No Limits bag is a double zip and snap down bag.

The test consisted of my sink, spraying water all over them and then sinking them.

A folded up piece of tissue, would tell me what got wet.

The BG roll top bag, didn't survive. Well the bag did, the tissue didn't. It wasn't swamped, but it still got wet. This is a splash bag only!!

The ECase did pretty well, no water made it through the double zip. However, I don't like that it only zips close. That makes me nervous. It also has a speaker cord build in though for head phone or whatever.

The No Limits bag did well. Water made it between the  two zippers but not in the bag. Maybe I didn't have the first zipper closed well enough.

What did I learn? You can't be careful enough. I don't trust ziplock style lunch bags, though 2 together may work, double bagging it.

I will place some tissue between my device and the top of each zip top bag.

The BG bag will only be used to store something that has a ziplock bag over it. Like a first aid kit, fire kit and so forth.

The No Limits style bag is what I will use. I like that you can double zip it. This is a must! And I like that you can snap it closed to help it not un zip itself.

Whatever you choose, be careful. I think I may buy a waterproof camera and leave the iPhone in the truck!

Gear?? Heck yea we want gear.

Do you like that new gear smell, mmmmmmmm me too.

Bam new gear smell all the time, well maybe.

I had to try it ;).

Now too the real gear.

Water Shoes.

I like water shoes about like I do  knife's. Don't ask why because I don't know. But I've been looking for the perfect pair. It's important while canoeing to have a good pair of shoes. You have big rocks to climb on and sometimes pea gravel to walk through. Regular sandles don't really protect your feet.

These are my current water shoes. 

On the right are the five fingers, which I love, their only downfall is the lack of support on the bottom. In soil or sand they are hands down awesome! On rocks, not so much. The rocks can poke the bottom of your feet and make hard to walk after a bit.

In the middle are the new Keens. The cool factor is really high with scout geeks and these! Who doesn't want shoes made from paracord!

On big rocks these shoes are awesome! On small rocks, they get stuck in your toes causing problems. Not so much fun then. They are pretty comfortable though. And the lacing system is very nice.

On the left is my newest additions. The Adidas boat shoe. So far I like them, they have good support and they drain well. I don't like the laces, so I'm going to put a bungee style lacing system in like the Keens. 

Anyway maybe this will help you find your perfect canoe shoe, in the mean time I'll keep looking and let you know what I find.