Raven Scouts

It's been quite some time since we last posted but life has been a bit crazy - a new job, dealing with a new cat, getting into birding and possibly most importantly, learning to kayak.  The general consensus with kayaking is that you can jump right in and start paddling.  By and large, this is true.  But what if you want to up the ante a bit? We'll get to that shortly. Bobcat got a head-start when it comes to the Raven Scout kayaking adventures.  Not only did she go out on the water ahead of the rest of us, she ended up purchasing a kayak!  For Wolf and I, we started out with some rentals at a local reservoir with Bobcat showing us the ropes.  Our first day out, we learned some basic paddling techniques and got a major upper-body workout.  We also stumbled upon this amazing tree! After a few times out, Wolf and I decided it was time to get our own kayaks and we went with a sit-on-top model (no whitewater rapids in our future).  The mode...

Mouse:  There are two merit badges around pet care, with one specifically focusing on dogs.  Since we already have a dog, we decided to get a new pet in order to complete both badges. Or at least, when we decided to get a new dog, it sort of worked out that we could focus on both :) Allow me to introduce you all to Badger, our Bernese Mountain Dog mutt! Mouse:  Badger was found in a junk yard where he had either been tethered or where he retreated after being tethered.  He was found with a rope wrapped around his neck and body, surviving off whatever he could find in the junk yard and covered in ticks. Needless to say, he was extremely excited to be a part of a loving family.  This is how he slept on my lap on the way home from Georgia. Wolf: I was in Canada for about a week, and Mouse found Badger online just before I left. I thought for sure I would return from my trip and have a new dog. Somehow he held off and we made a weekend vacation to to p...

Mouse: Today I was fortunate enough to go on a 7 mile hike as a component of our hiking merit badge.  Bobcat and Wolf accompanied and we trekked into the Eno River State Park on a beautiful Sunday morning with a cool breeze and a light rain.  We decided to enter at the Pump Station Trail-head and connect with the Laurel Bluff Trail before looping back the way we came. Wolf: Side note: the Laurel Buffs Trail is kinda confusing, because it actually is three distinct parts, and it's all part of the Mountains to Sea trail. That's fairly unimportant, but it's mostly cool because we got to spend some time on the MST today, which makes me really happy. We hope to hike the full thing when it's finished as footpaths, someday (of note, over the last ten years or so, each year about 15 miles of footpaths have been added to the path; they have almost 700 miles of footpaths now, with an additional 500 of connecting roads...so it will take some time...). Additional side note: the b...

We got home and I immediately began to map out our options with Wolf and Bobcat.  All the merit badge requirements can be found here: http://www.scouting.org/ with handy-dandy pdfs breaking down what to do.  This, combined with the Boy Scout handbook and Internet search engines were all the resources we needed to get started.  We wanted to start out by looking into the Eagle Scout requirements... from a Merit Badge stand point, Eagle Scouts have to earn the following 13 badges: Camping Cooking One of: Swimming, Hiking or Cycling (though we planned to earn them all) Citizenship in the Community Citizenship in the Nation Citizenship in the World Communication One of: Lifesaving or Emergency Preparedness One of: Environmental Science or Sustainability Family Life First Aid Personal Fitness Personal Management In addition, an Eagle Scout would need to earn 8 elective merit badges.  The merit badges that peaked our interest either individually or a...