3. Cooking

Cooking! What a fun hobby, but in the context of this requirement, it's long and tough to do... though probably not as bad as wilderness survival will be. Well anyway, this was a rather time consuming one.

The first requirement was completed as our crew prepared to staff camporee. While they wanted to feed us anyway, I chose to cook the meals for us all. It was rather elaborate, with omelets, silver turtles, and various other interesting things to toss over fire. I ended up cooking for about 12 or 13, and never did bother to collect the rest of the money I was owed... Definitely an interesting experience - and a lot of planning involved, with food costs and meal costs per person. I would do it again, but maybe put in a better system for obtaining payment. The second part of the requirement was done with the first by simply using coals and a stove while making the meals.


While the demonstration of food safety was done every opportunity to cook, a bit of explaining what went into the planning would help.
Simply put, the way to accomplish safe food handling anywhere is to keep hot things hot, and cold things cold, while keeping raw meat away from everything. But in the interest of writing a lot and taking up a large amount of room, I will summarize the points of the USDA's website.

Firstly, avoid the danger zone (between 40°F and 140°F) because that's when bacteria multiply and can reach dangerous levels after 2 hours. Keeping things hot is difficult, so strive for cold. Pack things with a cold source; ice or frozen foods. And once the trip is finished, discard any perishable food in a cooler if there is no longer any ice in it.

Second, cleanliness! Cross contamination is a serious concern, as it could lead to some awful diseases. Keep raw meat from touching any other foods, and thoroughly wash any utensils that may have handled it. If no soap and water is available, bring it with you! And simple 1 tbs. bleach to 1 gallon water solution is a very effective sanitizer.


The fourth requirement is to show competency with a backpacking stove, which I just so happened to have obtained for the purpose. As most backpacking meals consist of boiling water and applying to a freeze-dried package, I decided to do exactly that with a package of green beans.

The set up was exactly how it would be while backpacking. 

After this picture it reached a full boil.

After pouring it in, I let it rest.

Once they're ready...

They tasted like they'd just been picked.

The next requirement was to prepare a meal without utensils with the four basic food groups. After some searching, I took this to mean meat, vegetable, dairy, and bread. So just looking at that, the food object that came to mind was a cheeseburger (or a hotdog, which in retrospect would have been so much easier). Cooking this without utensils wasn't difficult but it was a challenge indeed. The meat was mixed by hand, and moving them was as easy as touching hot meat, with the help from lifting it slightly with a stick (does that count?).

Mixed and formed by hand with a special mix of spices! =)

Tossed on the grill.

Flipped by hand with aid from a stick.

Incorporating the diary.

And the bread.

And the vegetables.

Yay finished product!

By now you have to be asking yourself, "Self? How long can this post be! It's going on forever and there doesn't seem to be an ending point." Well for you I'd just like to say, welcome to my world! I've been working on this since March! And it was a rather long requirement. But finally we reach the last requirement and celebrate as I did; we'll finish it!

The final requirement demands us to cook a bread, entree, and dessert in a dutch oven. There was a celebration of scouting skills called the, aptly named, Scout Fair last April. Our Crew did a dutch oven demonstration. We had pizza, cookies, and cornbread. Lots, and lots of cornbread. now, not to brag or anything, but we did win a silver spoon for our fantastic cornbread. The ingredients came from Walmart; in fact it was for the most part from a package with water (except for the cornbread, which was made from scratch). After some difficulty getting the coals started, we finally got the hang of it and entered (to borrow something I learned recently at NYLT) the performing stage. We churned out food for the kiddos and judges, our covered pavilion blew away, it was a blast. And a perfect way to end our cooking requirement post. (Though the last three requirements were done last... just to be clear.) See y'all after orienteering this weekend!

4. Emergency Preparedness

Hey guys. Firstly due to some... feedback... I'd like to redact my previous statement about Eagle Scouts and instead say that earning both Ranger and Silver is a fitting equivalence (even if it's a little more technically challenging). BUT I say we all just get along and be cool in our little Master Outdoorsmen club. Cheers!

But on to more interesting matters!

This unit is all about being prepared for disasters hitting the community on a family and neighborhood level. The first part wants you to discuss potential disasters and set up a family emergency plan.

Simple enough. Common things that go wrong here in Houston are, in no particular order, hurricanes, house fires, thunderstorms, floods, and long power-outages. For the things requiring evacuation, we can shut off the water (we don't have gas), grab the newly created disaster preparedness kit (more on that later) and be off before all the traffic hits. For all else, we can board up the windows, break out some books and sit tight while the gales toss around objects, small animals, and dolphins (hey you never know). Additionally, we have one neighbor that's a nurse and another that's an EMT. They would be able to care for any injured people (oh did I mention my stupidly large amount of medical supplies? I feel like I did) while my other neighbor who happens to be a HUGE survival buff would be able to assist anyone who needed help due to lack of proper equipment or what-have-you. So given that, we would be able to wait out the apocalypse I'd imagine.

The next step was to build a family emergency kit. This was shockingly easy for as it turned out I had most of the things already and just had to get it all in one place/find a lovely bag for some of it. Firstly, here's a picture of the assembly (water not pictured):

These items would fit into the bag the items on the right are sitting on. Pictured is a box of MRE's, my large first aid kit, rain gear, boots, a rope, small sleeping bag liner, flashlight, money, soap, toiletries, knife, hand-cranked radio/light/siren/flasher, more money, paper plates... stuff like that. 

Other things that should be in the house: some gloves, a hat, plastic tarp, plastic containers, bleach, matches that haven't been put in a waterproof container at the time of this picture, paper, pencils, a phone acting as a compass, foil, a waterproof box for important documents, medicine dropper, fire extinguisher, tape, flare, emergency shelter, trash bags, and more that is around and I forgot to put in the picture, I'm sure.

That's it for the pictorial information session of today. Now on to a helpful video summary. Huzzah!

2. Communications

EDIT: As it turns out I managed to confuse the 15 minute requirement with 10 minutes. Go figure. Oh well, the presentation/slideshow thing turned out well anyway. In fact, our entire open house was a resounding success! Those that came had a lot of fun.

For my communications requirement, I chose to count my many, many months in the French club. We practice the language, enjoy the culture, and stuff so it counts as communication.

The next part, presenting a 10 minute audio/video presentation will be taken care of on April 22 at our Open House with the slideshow I'm putting together.

The final requirement asks for a presentation on communication equipment in the wild. A good source I found came from this website about fishing, hiking and stuff. It appears to be a guide from Costa Rica, but hey... it is nicely written and seems reliable. Information also supplemented from the BSA's Fieldbook.

6. Leave No Trace

In order to satisfy the requirement for Leave no Trace, I must have been on 3 camping trips using the principles of it. Camporee is my first one, as it was just chuck full of us cleaning up everything at that site. Rendezvous was the same way, and I would feel comfortable saying we followed the principles there as well. The third one has not occurred yet, but soon the campout at Inks Lake will complete the trio.

What follows is my presentation to whatever "group" wants to watch it. A summary is provided after the video.

There are 7 simple steps to camping in a way that leaves the environment enjoyable for everyone:
- Plan ahead and prepare.
- Travel and camp on durable surfaces.
- Dispose of waste properly.
- Leave what you find.
- Minimize campfire impacts.
- Respect wildlife.
- Be considerate of other visitors.

1) If you fail to plan, you're planning to fail. It's a popular saying but it holds true. Part of journeying into the outdoors is recognizing the need to be prepared for whatever can happen, and hopefully mitigating the possibility of something bad happening. Limiting group size, observing area regulations, hiking at a pace comfortable to the least skilled hiker, all of these things are considered proper prior planning. It's also important to be aware of the weather and to allocate enough time to get to the designated campsite as well as planning meals appropriately to keep minimal trash.

2) To avoid unnecessarily destroying the land, it is important to walk on established trails, or when in a remote area to spread out to avoid accidentally creating a new trail. Also while camping, it is important to set up tents on things that won't leave a permanent campsite, such as gravel, boulders, snow, dry grass... moving camp daily will also help lessen the impact. Preferring forests over meadows and staying away from rivers will keep from deterring animals that may rely on those areas for their sustenance. The goal is to make it seem like you weren't there when you leave, so anything that permanently damages the area is a no-no.

3) If you pack it in, you must pack it out. Be it food, waste (sometimes... places like caves and desserts and some national parks will require this. Others will be fine with catholes), or something else. Dig catholes 6-9 inches deep and 200 feet from campsites. When disposing of dishwashing water, strain it first to pack out the remaining food particles, then dispose of the water (with biodegradable soap!) 200 feet away from water sources.

4) "Take only photographs, leave only footprints" or something like that. (We sure are going through a lot of sayings, aren't we?) Coming across a stripped campsite is no fun, so leave everything like you found it so others can enjoy it as if it was the first time it was discovered too. In some places it may even be illegal to remove things. Also, minimize site alterations and return the everything to where you found it if logs are to be used as camp furniture.

5) Overuse of camp fires lead to an overuse of wood and subsequent stripping of an area. To avoid this, it is better to use backpacking stoves and lanterns for cooking and light, respectively. Although if a fire must be used, try to use an existing fire ring. Burn only wood as thick as your wrist and burn things to completion. Remove unburnt trash and pack it out. Be certain the fire is dead out by drowning it in water until it is cool to the touch. Be sure to check with the land manager to see if fires are allowed.

6) If you are close enough to an animal to where it alters its normal behavior, you have stressed the animal. Like humans, animals don't like stress either. So observe only from afar, and store food and garbage safely so they can't get to it.

7) People who go camping might be doing it to get away from everything. Including people. Be courteous by keeping your distance and keeping noise at a minimum. So leave music players at home, don't be rowdy, and try to blend into the environment. Be respectful of others' privacy.

Elective 3 [Shooting Sports]

Back in February, we took a little trip down to... well I'm not quite sure WHERE it was, but it was rather close to Austin. Anyway, I digress, we had a campout to learn to shoot some weapons. Well mostly. Everyone else who was able to go sat through the gun course and prepared to enjoy some handgun and rifle action (while surviving a night of pouring, tremendous rain). Myself? I was right in time to develop my archery skills. The training for that took little more than 10 minutes, and after some practice shots it was time to shoot for qualification. While the exact numbers escape me, I made the goal and passed. I knew the range commands (whistles), the safety rules, and even the parts of a bow. I was ready.

Later in March, the second part of our campout occurred where it was time to Turn and Teach. Yaaay! The Mustang District Camporee was a fantastic time to man the shooting range, teach the kids the same thing we went through and watch them get their little bull's eye... well mostly. Well sort of. Well maybe a couple. Point is we taught those kids how to shoot and they seemed happy about it. Some even seemed good at it. We were quite fantastic.

Elective 2 [Lifesaving]

Yet another thing I happened to luckily already possess: a lifeguard certification!

How fantastic, and what a thrilling return on such a challenging course.

A family first aid kit was easy to build since I have a hospital's worth of medical supplies just lying around (hey, be prepared and all). That being said, it was sort of a given I knew how to use it already. Being a Trainer for 4 years kind of helped with the whole "first aid" thing. It really has proved useful.

As for teaching another person to use and make a kit, it just so happened my friend got a car and wanted to have a kit for it, it was easy enough to go to Target and purchase some things, and donate other supplies to her. And an afternoon practice session complete with some fun scenarios wrapped it all up!

1. First Aid

Well although this blog is new, I've been working on the requirements since December... so let's just go ahead and catch everyone up, shall we?

The first core requirement is simple, "Complete a standard first aid course or the American Red Cross Wilderness First Aid Basics or equivalent course."

Now personally I've taken so many of these things that it's ridiculous. Easy, done. Bam! Next.

The Humble Beginnings

In the Boy Scouts of America, there's a coed, youth program called Venturing. It's kind of like scouts, only not... It's youth-led, more independent, and a lot more fun.

The Ranger award is highly sought after and some would say harder to get than the Eagle Scout rank... except maybe some Eagle Scouts who would argue that point fervently. But they don't matter much. It's a tough thing to get, with 8 separate core requirements and 4 electives to fulfill.

Most requirements stress the Turn and Teach aspect of it, and this blog should help with that... it's a lovely place to store the videos I'll be making soon.

So join me on my adventure! (All like four of you who will be seeing this)