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Roarin' Forties
 40th Hartlepool's Monthly Newsletter July 2008
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GSL's Ramblings
Section Meetings
We are now well into our Summer term programmes, it is nice to see all the Group taking part in outdoor activities, survival camp, District Sand Castle building, Beaver District Fun Day ,Expedition challenge badge, hikes and walks, and much ,much more. We have to thank all the Leaders who give up their time and energy to run these activities. One way of thanking them would be to volunteer your help every now and again, and don’t leave it to someone else.
Survival Camp
A Scout asked me the following question about 4.30pm on the Saturday “What time is tea?“ I told him when you get it ready! and then gave him a whole rabbit to prepare -not quite what he was expecting!
40th History on DVD
Stephen Williams, our Chairman, arranged to convert some of the Group’s film and video archives into DVD format and these were shown at the recent anniversary celebrations on 11 May. If you would like a boxed set of the three DVD’s, at a price of £15, please contact Stephen on 01429 223838.
Alan Hodgson, Group Scout Leader
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Beaver Report
Following our visit from the miniature ponies, we held another ‘animal’ meeting. We started off with a Tiger Hunt; almost the same as the real thing, just on cardboard.
Time for a sing song. Anne taught us the first song - We’re all going to the zoo tomorrow and we had great fun doing the actions. Next task was a bit more difficult. Do you know the name of a baby swan? If you didn’t know cygnet, you couldn’t match the pairs. I think we all got there with a little help.
We then had our craft activity to find the animals in the maize and colour them in. A second song, What became of the Monkey? (Not the Hartlepool legend and, no, this one did not become mayor) and it was time to go home.
Back after our half term break, we have had two meetings working on our concentration, dexterity, patience, flexibility and team working. Can you guess what we have been doing? Every game you can possibly think of that you can play with a ball. Tennis, non-stop cricket, keepy ups, bouncing, throwing, catching, fielding, bowling; we have tried them all. We had great fun and what a pleasure to finally get a day when we could go outdoors.
Our most recent meeting is in the spirit of the European Cup. We have been to Italy. We started with a game called climb the leaning Tower. I think everyone knows that the tower is in Pisa, Beaver legs made the different sections and it was a race to the top.
Do you know parents that you never need to go to Pizza Hut again? Our Beavers can make much better pizzas for a fraction of the price. Well done to everyone who managed to roll out the dough and choose their favourite toppings. It’s easy, isn’t it, Beavers. There wasn’t quite enough time to eat the Pizza, so I hope you all enjoyed them at home. A little apology to the Beavers who have been awarded badges, I have forgotten the list, but I promise that I will ask Heather to write them all down for me for the next report. Welcome to our new Beavers, Aidan and Daniel. I really hope that you enjoy your time in the Colony.
Jackie Donley,
Assistant Beaver Leader
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Cub Scout Report
3 June
Games Challenge. This was all about new games, Terri brought a number of new games along that the Cubs really enjoyed.
10 June: Puncture Repair / Fitness Challenge
Mark started the night off showing the Cubs how to repair a cycle puncture. Parents, if you ever need a puncture repair carried out ask a Cub they are now experts.
We then went onto the fitness challenge.
A number of weeks ago the Cubs set their own targets, this was the time to see if they could do more than they did the first time. We wait with baited breath to see if they beat their scores.
17 June: Outdoor Cooking
Alan organized and ran the meeting. The Cubs made dough and wrapped it round a stick and cooked it over an open fire, they also had marsh mallows, everything seemed to go down well.
Can I thank Terri and Mark for all their help.
Akela
Bread and Ships
At the beginning of the evening we played a game called Chair Island. We had to try and get to the end of the hall aka the ship. To win the game we had to work together and help each other to get to the end of the room. The chairs were the ships the Leaders were the sharks. We had to get past the sharks without getting eaten or falling into the water. We had to stand on the chair and each time someone was eaten we had to start again. It was lots and lots of fun.
Then we went outside to make some bread. First we made some dough out of flour and water. We mixed it together in a pan and kneaded it into a ball. We used some old bamboo sticks to wrap some dough around. We put it over a fire, which the Leaders had lit outside with some bricks around on the floor. It took 20 minutes for the bread to cook. We had to keep turning the stick to make sure it cooked all over. While the bread was cooking we toasted some lovely marshmallows. Yummy! When the bread was cooked we ate it. It tasted like pizza dough, it was quite nice. We had some orange juice with it. The we played a quick game of Catch and Head, which is a really good game. After that we went upstairs and did Pack, Pack Alert, Pack Dismissed.
Jack Mulcahy
Puncture Repairs and Fitness
Before we started we had to repair a bike puncture. Then we started our Fitness Challenge. We had to run, skip, do sit ups and star jumps. We had to see if we were fitter than we were a few weeks ago when we started the challenge. I finished well on all of them. Then at 7.30 I had a drink of orange. Then we played some games in the hall. Then we got our neckers back on and went home.
Rachel Mould
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Scout Report
This month has seen us spend rather a lot of time cooking without utensils out of choice. We were not just being lazy and not wanting to wash up.
Backwoods cooking was on the agenda at the start of the month which saw us having to change the format of the evening to get everything in. Out went the games and after first parade we started building fires, so that we had time to allow them to burn down, as we wanted to cook on the embers. The food was a complete surprise and a variety of different cooking techniques were tried.
We attempted eggs cooked in oranges and potatoes, sausages in bananas, twists around sticks, mushroom kebabs and anything else Alan could find. Remarkably it all tasted really good and there was no washing up.
The following week there was no usual Scouts meeting, as we were to go on our survival weekend. 11 Scouts met at HQ early on a Saturday morning, some not entirely sure what they were letting themselves in for. An hour later and they were dropped off 3 miles from the site, shown where to go and left to get themselves to the site.
To keep in contact they were given radios, but the Scouts tended to forget that we could hear everything! Eventually, after being put right a couple of times they arrived at the site and then they had to build bivouacs, otherwise they would be sleeping under the stars.
Equipment provided was limited to black bin liners and string and definitely no tents, not even for the leaders. This tended to take the rest of the day, and a wide variety of styles and effectiveness of shelters were built. One even had to apply for retrospective planning permission it was so huge.
Alan appeared and it was time to think about dinner. No tinned food was allowed, so we had to resort to recently shot rabbits, which needed skinning. After a demonstration on one, it was the Scouts who had to skin the other five – some seemed more into it than others.
We decided to stew the rabbit, in one huge dixie and over the next two hours potatoes, carrots, swede, beans and peas were added. My buying was not that accurate and some of the potatoes were still being eaten late into the following weeks. It turned out to be the best rabbit I have ever had and well worth the wait. Dessert was cooked apples.
By the time we finished, although after 10:30 it was still not dark, so we had time for a wide game and then everyone turned in, although what seemed a good idea at the time, now did not look so good when you had to sleep in the shelters we had built and the midges were out we vengeance in mind.
After warning the Scouts not to get up at 5.00, we all slept until 7.00 when I reluctantly decided that I needed to move, and so should everyone else. Breakfast was the full English –Sausage, eggs, bacon and tea.
To get more practice at map reading, we devised what we thought was a simple circular walk around the area, mainly on tracks which should have been fool proof, but unfortunately the Scouts are not fools and soon found new ways of walking around in a circle. I should have foreseen this when I asked them if the Sun is in the south at midday, then which way is south? Answer, any directions but south were given as possibilities.
Everyone safely returned and it was food time again – Fish cooked in foil with potatoes and corn on the cob – I was amazed when someone said they had never had it before. Simple, but great food. All too soon it was time to pack up and return home.
My thanks to all the Leaders and Martin Wooldridge for volunteering to come along to the weekend – It was apparently not quite what he had expected! A great time was had by all.
Following the revelations of the mapping skills within the Troop we spent the next week studying contours and there uses. These skills will be put to full use during the weekend expedition.
Iain Walton, Scout Leader
Great Day Out
Firstly we met up in the Raby arms in the beautiful Hart Village with the rest of the Scouts. Collecting the maps my group began to leave.
Carrying the old maps, I walked past the pub and began to turn. Next we walked down a steep smooth hill. As we got further the path became more cobbled. Walking further and further we came to a river which had a large bridge. After crossing the bridge my group came to a clay hill and then a walkway of garlic flowers. Coming to the greyhound cages, we met the other group walking the opposite way.
Strolling past a horse we came to a wood. Shortly after we came out of the wood and me and my group walked past the power lines and headed for Hart. Turning the wrong way we started to go in a circle.
Going past land marks we had already gone past we started to realise we went the wrong way. As we got to the place were we got lost, a jeep came looking for us. Because there was not enough room in the jeep, Adam and I had to walk back however a car luckily came for us.
Finally we got back meaning we could go home. To summarise, even though we got lost, every body had a great time.
Mathew Russell
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Family Camp
Friday 27th - Sunday 29th June 2008
Woodhouse Farm Country Park, Ripon
Contact Alisom Eaton on 01429 223910 to reserve your place. |
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