We left Kentucky for Ohio on June 22, giving us enough time to settle in at Marmon Valley Farm before heading off to a Cub Scout campout. It was fun to meet up with old friends again, and I am so proud of how the new leadership of the Pack has taken the reins and is keeping the Pack strong. The children enjoyed fishing, BB shooting, whittling, volleyball, and building a survival shelter. Eli got a bullseye with the BB gun, while Adam skipped the planned activities and kept a fire going most of the day Saturday.
Sunday morning, Adam, Ian, Owen and I packed up early to head to summer camp with their Boy Scout Troop. This was the first time I have been able to camp with the Boy Scouts, and it is most definitely different from camping with Cub Scouts. The boys are expected to be responsible for themselves, to include choosing the activities they participate in and when – an advantage of Chief Logan Reservation’s open program. CLR did an excellent job providing a mixture of fun and learning, especially considering they were over capacity the week we went. Sure, there were a few glitches, but things went relatively smoothly with the largest contingent Troop 148 has had in many years. While the older boys worked on Merit Badges and some worked on CLR’s Frontiersman program, we had four patrols of first year Scouts going through the Foothills program. This program has a two-fold purpose – to help the boys earn as many achievements as possible toward their Tenderfoot, Second Class and First Class ranks, and to help them learn to work together as a patrol. The first couple of days, working together was a high priority for the group I was working with, but by the end of the week, many of them had come close to finishing their rank requirements, and one completed them all.
There was lots and lots of walking, and then we walked some more! On Thursday, two of the boys needed to go on the five mile hike, so I went with them. It was challenging, but fun, and we got to see a rock with the partial signature of Lewis Merriweather who lived in the area many years ago. Owen was excited to have been able to start a fire without a match, and I enjoyed learning more about some of the local plants, especially the edible ones. It was great to meet the members of Owen’s patrol for the first time, and both Owen and I are looking forward to participating in Troop activities over the next month that we are here in central Ohio.
After arriving back at Marmon Valley, showering to get rid of the mud from the mudslide that was the hill to our campsite and catching up on sleep, we went back to West Broad Church of the Nazarene on Sunday morning. It was a joyful homecoming! We have missed our church family, and were thrilled to be able to worship with them again.