Tree Decorating

Hometown Troops - Tree Decorating Volunteering

Different organizations put up trees at the local nursing home. This one is Hometown troops!

Lighting the tree

First ornaments

The whole group

Finished Product with our "care packages" below! 

Hometown troops - Volunteer

November 10th - Care packages

Gum Drive - I was asked to collect packages of gum to
go into care packages.  Overall, I collected over 300 packs of gum!

Some of the completed bags stuffed with candy, chap stick and everything some one might need :) 

Me, helping to load the bags.

Taking a doughnut break. Those big boxes in the back... we will fill over 50 of them with donations... including mini Christmas Trees and hats.. 

Pet Care!

Started: Oct 1, 2012
Will complete: January 31, 2013

2 Springs ago

I started raising chickens two years ago.  I think that is why this Merit Badge is taking FOREVER! The requirements are easy for what you write up. All you really do is explain how you take care of the animal BUT you have to track your care taking for 4 months! UGH!!!! So the paper work is done and other then the daily checks I put into the chore chart... I am done... plus I thought you wouldn't mind some pictures of some Chicks :)

This years chicks 3/12

In the basement til feathered 

Coin Collecting Merit Badge

Started: 10/15/12
Completed: 11/1/12


This was interesting. I got to go to a coin shop and ask all sorts of questions. My Mom gave me her coin collection which made the badge pretty easy. You had to collect 50 coins from 10 different countries as one possible requirement.  This sounded harder then it was. Most coin shops sell foreign coins in bulk by the pound I already had a good start from my Mom's coins it didn't take much. It was fun looking at where the coins came from. If you need help the US Mint has tons of information on the US Mint Site.

Personal Finance Merit Badge - (E)

Started: 10/09/12
Completed 12/09/12

Okay, the Personal Management badge is really hard and long...but it's an Eagle Badge so that is probably why.  Anyway, you have to come up with  something you want to buy and a goal for how to get it. The thing I wanted to buy is a bigger TV and the goal was to save $25 a month. When I discussed it with my family and we decided to change it to $50 a month so it could be purchased in a year. The reason its long is you have track your predicted expenses, actual expenses predicted income, actual income for 13 weeks.

Computer Merit Badge

Started: 10/5/12
Completed: 10/21/12


This was an interesting merit badge. It says to give a short history of the computer so we had to rent a movie and watch it but the movie was kind of cool. We used the internet to find a lot of information about computers and even how the internet works.  Explaining the way computers store text, sound, pictures, video files was difficult. It was written in 1967, however, it will be discontinued at the 2013 Jamboree which we didn't realize until after we started it.  I started this blog as an option for this Merit Badge.

Surveying Merit Badge

Began: Sept 30, 2012

Finished: Oct 14, 2012

This is a neat Merit Badge. There are two different kind of surveying equipment that I used. One was called a rod and level and the other was a total station. With the rod and level you take a really long pole and put it on each (4) point. This measured the relative elevation of each point.  With the total station, you could move it sideways and up and down. We sighted magnetic north and set that to 0 for the first point. We then sighted to point two, moved the total station to point two and measured back to point one and then measured to point three. We did this again until we had measured all 5 points. Drawing our site to scale was hard.  My favorite part was using the equipment... not all the math and paper work. 

New from the top...

Scout Oath and Law
So now they're changing the Scout Oaths to one common oath, even though the Cub Scouts and Venturer's  have had there own oath. Cub Scouts and Venturer's will also now memorize the Boy Scout Oath and Scout Law. Venturing will change over by early 2014 and Cub Scouts by Mid-2015

Eagle Changes
They are adding new Eagle required merit badges and they are Cooking and Sustainability Merit Badges. Cooking used to be an Eagle required badge but then it lost its' status but now it's coming back by 2014.

New Merit Badges
They're coming out with new merit badges and you want to know the requirements right? Well I'm sorry to tell you I don't know the requirements either because they're ALL TO BE DECIDED!!! Sorry. But here they are:

Game Design
Sustainability
Programming
Digital Technology (will replace Computers)
Animation
Signs, Signals, and Codes
Multi-Media
Computer-Aided Design
Advanced Computing

Popcorn! Oh Popcorn

Popcorn! Get your Popcorn online at Trailsend.com or if you like make a silver or gold military donation and send  popcorn over seas to the troops! So far it's been pretty hard selling popcorn. I've done a total of 7 hours selling over the period of 4 popcorn outings. My goal is $650, however, I'm at $550 SO be sure to stock up on popcorn.  Maybe it's because I am not a cute Bear anymore... Those Tigers have it easy!

World Post Day

World Post day (repost from postcrossing)

Actually, in some countries you can even get free goodies (like free postage!) so be sure to check the website for the post offices of your country (hint: if you don't know the link you can find it in your country page in Postcrossing).

Tomorrow is World Post Day, did you know? It's celebrated every year, on the 9th of October and it commemorates the founding of the UPU (Universal Postal Union) in 1874 in Bern, Switzerland Capital.

So across the world, post offices will be celebrating this special day in many different ways. This includes: special philatelic exhibitions, free entrance in postal museums, introducing new products and services, special cancellation marks, seminars, workshops and more!
Let us know your findings in the comments of this post, and we'll keep it updated for others to see!
So, go out, buy some postcards or some nice letter paper and write to all your friends and family; remind them that the post is a very important part of our lives.

Court of Honor

October 7th: Court of Honor

Okay, so I progressed from Scout rank all the way to 1st Class scout.  The rank advancement goes Scout, Tenderfoot, 2nd Class Scout, 1st Class Scout, Life Scout, Star Scout, and then Eagle scout. I did a lot of this when I was at camp and did the road to 1st Class program there. Plus, I have been on every outing with the Troop since I joined. 

The rank advancement wasn't all that hard but some of the Merit Badges were really hard.  I hiked and biked 220 miles this summer to earn those two Merit Badges. I also earned Horsemanship, Geo-caching, Genealogy, Chemistry, Reading, Railroading and Citizenship in the Community.  Altogether, I have already earned 3 required Eagle Merit Badges. I am working on Person Finance right now and with that I will well on my way to Life Scout.    

Rank Advancement

Merit Badges

Citizenship in the Community Merit Badge (E)

Started May 14, 2012
Completed Sept 29, 2012

As an Eagle Merit Badge the requirements on this take a while.  One, you have to volunteer for one organization for eight hours.  I volunteered at a place called Community Hope which is a non-profit organization that helps low income with temporary food and rent aid. I moved donated clothes and items from the donation area to the sales floor and I helped people load their cars.

I also read a book on our town's history and created a chronological power point. This was shown at the town library for a day on their large screen. I had taken a lot of local pictures that I added to the power point.

You also get to watch a political movie with this badge.  I watched Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, which I really liked.

Probably the most boring part was sitting in on a school board meeting. It was a long meeting and they were talking about anti-bullying curriculum.  I think that these meetings could get interesting  I just wasn't at one that was.

I will fight no more!

Refinery

Reading Merit Badge

Started June 24, 2012
Completed Aug 24, 2012

This wasn't a hard merit badge. You mostly read and I like to read.  I used some school books to help me finish it. It was time consuming since you had to read six books and keep a log on them. (Which I wasn't good about remembering to fill out.) I also volunteered at the Library for eight hours even though I only needed four. The Library was having a book sale so I helped set it up and moved a ton of books.

Genealogy Merit Badge

Started July 2012

Completed July 2012

The boat Great-Great Grandma Larson came on 

This was kind of a weird merit badge because it involved a lot of computer usage, not that I minded that. There were some interesting things, like the family tree on mom's side went back to the early 1600's late 1500's. It turns out that I am distantly related to Theodore Roosevelt and that one branch of my family came on William Penn's boat and were Quakers. We went to the local genealogy center at a Mormon Church and we found a book there that had meeting notes from the Quakers in Pennsylvania . There were the names of my mom's ancestors in that book.  We used Rootsweb.com, familysearch.com and ancestory.com. On ancestory.com we found censuses, birth and death certificates, draft cards and lot of other stuff that was neat.

(*Genealogy is studying ones ancestors until it comes down to a specific person.)

My Great Great Great Uncle Bishop Cameron

Buffalo Bill Cody Camp - Chemistry/Geo-caching MB

Started July 22, 2012
Completed July 28, 2012


I spent a week at Buffalo Bill Cody summer camp in Wyoming. It was a lot of fun and I completed my "road to First Class" and my Chemistry and Geo-caching Merit Badges. It rained... It was windy.... It was camp...

Hiking Merit Badge (E)

Started March 12, 2012
Completed Aug 27, 2012

So if you think that 50 miles on a bike is hard then try 20 miles on foot! For this merit badge you have to do 5, 10 mile hikes and 1, 20 mile hike.

Find the snake! 

The weirdest/coolest hike was "Bear Trap Canyon" along the Madison River in Bozeman, MT.  Anyway we saw a snake going across the path and then 1/2 an hour later we saw a rattle snake at a rock outcropping. We were so close that it rattled at us! That's when we decided to turn around. We finished the 10 miles on the gravel road.





The prettiest hike was Hyalite Lake. As you hike up to the lake you pass 11 water falls and gain 2,000 feet in elevation.  Since, we had done Bear Trap the day before we were tired but it was a pretty hike!

Aspen Falls

The hardest one was the 20 miler because it was the longest but it was the most rewarding at the end. We hiked up Sourdough Canyon to Mystic Lake.  The hike was flat and a popular one because it was so close to town.  We left the trail head at 6:00 am and were at the lake by 10:30.  Did I mention it was 34 degrees at the trail head, in August! It took us a long time to come down the hill because of some foot problems and we were ALL so tired!

Did I mention it was 34 at the trail head in AUG!

At the top of the Mountain

Mystic Lake 

Eating Lunch! 

Horsemanship Merit Badge

Started August  10, 2012
Completed August 28, 2012


Okay the Horsemanship Merit Badge has got to be my favorite merit badge so far because I really like horses. As we found out I'm allergic to them, but that didn't stop me. I got my horse back riding lessons from a really nice horse named Legacy (Legs for short). Since I was getting horseback riding lessons I decided to do the Horsemanship merit badge. The hardest part of the badge was reciting the parts of a horse and saddle. There was a lot of reading with this merit badge, you had to cover fire safety, types of horses, common diseases, hoof care as well as be able to ride and care for a horse.

Hoof Care

Cycling Merit Badge (E)

Started May 16, 2012
Completed Aug 19, 2012

I started the Cycling Merit Badge with a trip to a local Bike Shop.  They went through the safety checklist and helped me make sure my bike was ready to go for the rides. My bike was in good shape and just needed some oil and minor adjustments.

For the Cycling Merit Badge you had to do two 10 mile bike rides, two 15 mile rides, two 25 miles and one 50 mile bike ride. The tens were kind of fun especially the one were me and a friend went to the zoo together. We looked at the animals then swung for a bit on the swings. Then I rode back home. The hardest ones would be one of the 25 and the 50. The 25 was hard because it was up hill both ways! That was the one with the troop. The 50 was hard because it was long. Dad's bike broke down at mile 30. The shaft that holds the pedals became thread bare and the crank shaft wouldn't stay attached. I finished the last 20 miles by myself. When I was done I almost fell asleep in the back seat of mom's car. On all of the bike rides mom was always behind me and on the 25 milers and 50 my Dad went with me. But anyway mom was there looking for cars, since the speed limit on all the roads by us is 60 mph, and I had attached a walkie-talkie to my bike and mom had one in her car.

End of 50 Miles. Walmart looked  so good!

6:00 Start on my 50 miles

Railroading Merit Badge

Started July 6, 2012
Completed July 18, 2012

This Merit Badge began because we totaled our car on the way to visit my Grandmother.  Since we had to find a way to get there we decided to take the train.  We went on Amtrak. We started in Malta which is an unmanned station, which means it was 92 degrees and the station had no air conditioning and it was a LONG way from where we live. After a day or so on the train, many delays because of the rails buckling in the heat,  we ended in Milwaukee. (Where we spent a week with my grandma bought an car. Semi vs Toyota who wins? Semi.)

 

We went to the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay.  I spoke to the Merit Badge Councilor there and took a ton of pictures of different types of trains. I learned that on the back of the train there are ether flashing lights or flashing lights that send out a signal  to other trains within a certain radius saying hey I'm here.