two timber rattler, one bear, few raccoon..  and couple of hundreds of boys.. lots of hike up and down steep hills.. 7 days/6 nights.. and i'm back at home checking the figs trees. 

seems like there were some strong winds few days ago, per my wife all the trees were knocked down. some were in need of water. some main crops have water damage.. otherwise, they look like they will all make it. 

i think a hot shower and few beer will do me good tonight. 

Welcome back, Pete.  I'm not going to camp this summer other than to take my son tomorrow for a volunteer spot on camp staff for three weeks.  Since he earned his Eagle Rank in January it seemed like the best thing for him.  We've got some other newer leaders in our troop and they will go with our boys to camp.  Hope your young men behaved at all times, they can try a guy's patience by the end of a long week.

Pete, sounds like you and the boys had a good week. Drink the beers and rest up. You can start on the figs tomorrow. They waited on you for a week. LOL

harvey, 

yupe. there are few eagle scouts from our troop at this camp we go every summer. most of them are in program director position. i would be nice for my boys to get to experience that when they are in high school for couple of summers. 

boys were not too bad. they are just being boys. tho, i don't understand some of them. when i clear show one of the boy punching the other, he still says "i didn't do it". go figure. i guess i'm too old for him to think that i can see more than few inches from my nose.. lol

there are few boys from our pack who crossed over, and their parents along with me are rather involved with scouting so we all went. it's nice to share responsibilities. 

this camp has some nice OA tap out ceremony. i thoroughly enjoyed it last yr, and i think this yr it was even better.  

mike, 

already watered the figs and they are bouncing back :) Black Madeira and Col de Dame Blache is putting on nice figs along with Calvert. i hope they will provide some thing to snack on soon. 

Enjoy it Pete they grow so fast.
I recall going with our son to camp slept in tents shooting only pellet rifle's that week.
Mom's another time had there turn with the sons and they all shot 22's and slept in cabins - just not fair !

martin, 

they do grow fast.. too fast. i still remember my 12 yr old when he was a baby.. we had bow and arrow, .22, and 12 gauge at this camp, but i decided not to shoot. mainly i'm really bad shotgun and i didn't want to out shoot my kid with rifle. but looking at his grouping, he might have embarrassed me.. lol 

lol Pete they have better reflexes and better eyes when young.
My old 12g has an accu choke at end of barrel lets me cheat as i can adjust the pattern from modified to full choke.

Pete, was just thinking I should share this with you. :)  My son is 15 and working a 3 week shift on staff at summer camp this year.  Since he's a bit young to be away from home for more than a week, my wife and I decided to go visit Monday night and catch the staff campfire program.  It's a camp from our council at about 6,000 feet located almost 3 hours away.  That got rained out and they were rained on pretty good for a couple of days but weather cleared shortly after we left around 2pm Tuesday afternoon.  We shopped on the way home so we got home around 6pm.  We stayed up late working on some planning for another upcoming trip and got a call from camp shortly before midnight.  Their radio comes through like a telephone somehow (fancy stuff I don't understand).  They called to let us know that Michael had been involved in "an event" and had become unconscious after being taken to the medic lodge and he was en route via ambulance to the hospital.  Yikes!  But they did say his vitals were normal.  We gathered our things and made the drive to the town of Sonora (what a strange set of streets to navigate in the middle of the night to get to the hospital!).  We got there and were greeted by two camp staff who let us know that Michael had regained consciousness before getting into the ambulance but that they didn't think the symptoms were that of dehydration so they wanted him checked out.  They also gave us more details on "the event".  Michael had felt dizzy during that night's rescheduled campfire and they had laid him down and then he said he was okay and he said he'd walk to his tent but they then discovered he had only made it half ways and was delirious so they took him to the medic lodge.  We entered his room and he seemed fine other than being a typical dirty Scout from camp.  The doctor said all the EKG and blood work results were normal and that she was sure it was dehydration.  Michael said he had drank plenty of water and the doctor said that his electrolytes may have gotten low and that he should be drinking some diluted Gatorade, etc.  She said to let him rest up and he could resume normal activities.  We drove him back home and got home at 5:30am and I got about 1.5 hours of sleep but let him sleep until noon (he had slept in the hospital and in the car ride home).  He felt fine so we left around 2pm for another trip back to summer camp with stops for Gatorade and dinner and we got there at 5:30, just in time for a staff meeting.  He had a nice warm welcome from staff so I'm sure that lifted his spirits.  Then I made the drive back home.  Again.  I plan to pick him up in a week and hope there are no early trips this time!

Of course, during the ride to the hospital there were lots of scary thoughts in our heads and we prayed a lot.  I don't think we take him for granted but sure appreciated the blessings of a good healthy boy a bit more after all of that.

glad to hear your boy's ok harvey. those boys and girls (there are always handful of girls from venturing crew) work hard and play hard. 8 weeks of commitment is long time for younger staffs. but, yes.. good to be young and healthy.