Family camping class

Got new cubbies? Especially those who haven't been camping?
REI is having a class on family camping for beginners. Have your new families sign up to get more comfortable with the idea of a weekend in the woods!

Empire Ranch

Empire Ranch is one of the national Hands on the Land sites.

They have some fun historical tours, and they also have some great educational programs about the grasslands. They have some formal camps set up, they also have self-guided tours, trail rides, and opportunities for service projects. It's about 45 minutes from us southeast-siders, so not too bad.

If you're looking for a nice historical visit and you've been to Colossal Cave and La Posta Quemada one too many times, maybe give Empire Ranch a try!

District Cub Activities

OK, who lit a fire under our council and district? I swear, we've got more Cub activities this year than we have had for the past four years combined. Not that I'm complaining!

Upcoming is the first district Cub Day:

Come out for fun advancement activities and belt loops for all cub scouting levels! $5 for cubs, $3 for adults and siblings. Includes lunch!


Flyer here:

http://www.dgbostick.net/spanishtrails/Cub-Advance-Day-2011.pdf


Register here:

http://www.catalinacouncil.org/districts/spanish-trails-district/
 
Yes, a little more detail on schedule would be nice. I'm sure not all our cubbing families can stay 8-4. But, hey, it's a great start. Contact Stan (email in the flyer) with questions, maybe more detail will be forthcoming.

Time flies when you're having fun..

..yesterday I typed up the script the boys wrote for their puppet show.
Today I helped my son "upgrade" the hand puppet he'd made. It looks much better now!

Month 8, Tigers are supposed to do a clean-up. If you want to "supersize" your cleanup, you can contact Tucson Clean and Beautiful about any of the unclaimed parks or washes to do a one-time cleaning. They'll provide you with bags and trash pickers with a few weeks' notice.  Elementary-age kids aren't allowed to do roadside cleaning for TCB for safety reasons.  Another fun option here can be a Cache In Trash Out activity (CITO) with a geocaching group. In town there is a regular cleanup of Alamo Wash that welcomes all ages.

Behind on my 100 days!

Last week:
Tuesday: Den meeting. Finished up Engineer and started on Showman.
Wednesday: I honestly don't remember.
Thursday: Talked to a couple people about pack committee.
Friday: Still don't remember.
Saturday: Found my Webelos den leader knot form to see if I can get it signed. Is it too late? :D
Sunday: Caught up on podcasts.
Monday: Got stuff together for the Showman meeting.
Today: Showman den meeting. The boys wrote their script up, made all their puppets and props and started on scenery.

100 Days - 13

Planned out tomorrow's Webelos den meeting for Engineer. Started planning our crossover.
Last year our pack's Web's didn't cross over until May, which didn't give them much time to get assimilated before summer camp. I'd like to do ours sometime in March.

Typed up the plot outline the boys wrote for their puppet show for the Showman badge. The plan is to perform it at next month's pack meeting, which will probably be our last meeting.

Sent out an email about upcoming day camps. With the council's website reorganization, I can't find our district's info. Hopefully it will show up soon.

100 days - 11 and 12

Chatted with a parent who contacted us through BeAScout. For those units who haven't "personalized" the unit contact information through myscouting.org, I'd encourage you to do so. Those contacts reach you a lot faster when they show up in your email box, than when they show up with someone at council who has to act as a clearinghouse.

Yesterday was Vail Pride Day. I ran into a few fellow scouters there. One of the elementary schools had scouters helping out with their booth. Every year it seems the debate comes up about whether to have a cub scouting presence at VPD but we haven't worked it out yet. Maybe with a new DE it's time?

The thing is, there are a lot of kids in Vail school district. Not just the kids who are in the community packs down here, but a significant number of the kids in church-run packs as well. Some of those churches are obviously within the boundaries of VSD but several are not. Maybe it's time to tally up again and make sure we've got the right balance to serve the communities with the alternate school schedule. I hear we may be having a day-camp this coming fall during our school's fall break, which would be most excellent.

100 days - 10

Started setting things up for our 2nd Engineer meeting for Webelos.

Month 7 for Bears is a Recycling Facility. Yep, we've got 'em. First of all there's Recycle America. They do tours on weekdays, depending on their work schedule they may not be available on the weekend.

Also, if you stretch the definition a wee bit, there's the Habistore.  You can just go for a visit to see what interesting things they have, or you can make arrangements with Habitat for Humanity to do a project for them. Cubs can make welcome baskets or key-hangers for new families, or give them a call to find out what else is available, as they are a BSA partner.

100 Days - 8 and 9

Tuesday was our den meeting.  It went OK, but one of the scouts had a little trouble with the catapult building.  You never know what is going to get one of them frustrated and what's going to breeze right through.

Yesterday I took a couple phone calls about setting up some spring recruiting soon.

This is Month 7 for our pack. Both tigers and wolves can visit a veterinarian or groomer. Petco does field trips at their store.  There are also some great local vets to visit. Another option is a nature preserve: Sweetwater Preserve has some nice trails, you can do a hike of pretty much any length. Sweetwater Wetland also has a self-guided instructional trail, or you can call and see when they are scheduling guided tours.

100 Days - Day 7

Today I'm prepping for my Webelos den meeting for the Engineer badge. We're going to be building bridges and making catapults.

Part of the badge is to talk about the different things engineers do. I'm pulling some info from Discovering Engineering. They have some great info on the types of engineers, career profiles, etc. I also love me some Design Squad. I pull info from their website when I do classroom presentations, too.

If we have time this month we may go to a field trip but we're kind of pressed for it right now, so this may be a "stay in" kind of month.

Sunday - 100 days

Today I sorted out the leftover boxes o' stuff from the banquet. Some of it was my personal stuff but much of it belongs to the pack and needs to go to someone else.

I spent some time with my own scout. My parents came down for the banquet so we had some family time.

Started planning for our Engineer activity badge--we're doing this one and Showman, I think, to finish up. Then crossing over. This is actually a good time of year to do Engineer because Engineering Week is coming up. The Engineering Student Council at the University of Arizona usually has a schedule of activities to watch, and sometimes has some outreach events as well that the kids can join in on.

And..I totally forgot to go to pack committee meeting.

Blue and Gold

Today our pack had our Blue and Gold banquet.  I think it went well--there were a couple slow moments, getting everyone's tacos took a little longer than I thought it would.

We had some really great Star Wars characters visit us from the Mos Eisley Rebel Base. We did some fun games and had tacos. Our Cubmaster gave out some nice volunteer awards. We had our Arrow of Light ceremony done by the Papago Lodge ceremony team--they did a super job for us.We also had a couple of Eagle scouts come and visit us, who used to be part of our pack. That was a lot of fun.

So..that's my thing for today.

Day 4: Even More B&G

• Finishing up my playlist for the banquet.
• Tried to download the BALOO registration form for some of our pack's leaders. No success. :/ Yes the new website is prettier but it is apparently not fully functional yet.

Bascom Affair / Ft. Bowie

Ft. Bowie is offering a "hike into history" tomorrow:

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/article_e82fa95f-f19e-5356-9d19-911457024c17.html

Fort Bowie is a National Historic Site. This is the first time in a while they're doing a program, but hopefully they'll continue to do so. They do have a Junior Ranger program and support the Webranger program. These are both fun programs for Cubs and Girl Scouts, so check them out if you get the time.

Day 3: More B&G

Finished printing the programs, and set up the voting sheets for the B&G centerpieces.

100 Days of Scouting

I've decided to participate in 100 Days of Scouting. Partly out of curiosity--do I really do scouting stuff every day? And partly to see if I can motivate myself to record more of the useful stuff.

So, yesterday I did our pack newsletter. Today I did the programs for the Blue and Gold banquet. Who knows what tomorrow brings?