It seems like I had more scout things to do this week than norma. In fact, that’s basically all I can think about right now so I apologize in advance if this seems a bit one sided. (Also Sarah’s in bed already trying to avoid getting sick so she’s not here to help me remember.)
Tuesday for scouts we did a canoe practice out at Lake Pflugerville. After asking for a canoe for several weeks, I finally found one from a family in another ward. I ran over their house before scouts and threw their canoe on our van and took it to the lake. We talked about safety afloat and then had each of the boys buddy up and go out 50 yards and back to the shore. We had an adult in a kayak with the boys to coach them. For some of them this was their first time in a canoe and they struggled. The wind was blowing pretty strongly and that didn’t help either. I think it was a good activity.
On Thursday I spent the evening running around gathering up a bunch of kayaks from people in the ward for us to take on our weekend campout. We had four leaders going and each of them needed a single kayak so I had to round those up. I also planned meals this time for the adults so that took some time and preparation. I finally bought a box to keep my camping things in so I don’t have to gather them every time.
Friday evening and most of the day Saturday I was out at Lost Pines with the boys. We had some grand times. Before we went to bed on Friday, we told the boys to make sure all their food was secure so that racoons wouldn’t get into them. Around 1:00 am I was jolted awake by three boys who were totally freaked out by the coons that were in their camp. To hear them tell it there were hundreds of racoons descending on the camp like it was the coon-pocalypse. I think they may have been up most of the night trying to not be scared. The adults actually had a coon get into our food also but in the middle of the night I heard him and decided that I wasn’t going to be outsmarted by an animal and I turned our box with the bread upside down under the bench that was wedging it shut. I didn’t hear the coon after that.
Saturday we did 4 hours on the water in the canoes. We did a mile out to a park on the other side of Lake Bastrop and then came back to the scout camp. The boys were pretty exhausted by this. The wind on the lake is pretty constant blowing from the southwest and the boys had to fight it on the way out and on the way back. There were some good gospel analogies that the boys came up with about the wind. We also had the boys practice swamping their boat and doing a buddy boat rescue. All in all I think it was a successful activity.
I was so tired last night after we got back from the camp that I didn’t get shopping done or anything — I just crashed.
Sorry that’s all I can think about right now. Maybe Sarah will be able to add a bit more tomorrow when she reads this!