Homemade Firestarters

Homemade firestarters work really great!  You'll have a blazing fire in no time.  First is a tutorial for an easy way to recycle egg crates, candle wax, and dryer lint into firestarters.  Next, are the instructions for using pinecones from the yard to dip in scented candle wax and give as a gift basket.

Save cardboard egg cartons and keep one nearby the dryer when cleaning out the lint.  Place the lint in each egg opening.

I use stubs of candles and leftover candle wax.  Place them in a metal can inside a pan of boiling water.

When the wax is melted, pour it over the lint so that it soaks thoroughly.  They are easy to tear apart when you need to build a fire.

(photo from Gooseberry Patch Christmas 3, p. 52)

One thing we have plenty of around our house are pinecones.  These can be dipped in leftover candle wax that's already tinted to make a lovely fireside gift.  To de-critter, be sure to bake the pinecones on a foil-lined cookie sheet.  Space the pinecones evenly and bake for 35-45 min. at 250 degrees.  Watch carefully and handle with care.  Do not use for 24 hours.

Pinecone Firestarters Gift

Red or green wax dye (optional) 
Paraffin
"Christmas" scented oil (optional)

(or instead of the first three items, use leftover Scentsy or candle wax that's already scented and dyed)

Double boiler

Dry pinecones, free of any sap residue (see baking instructions above)

Wire or candle wicking

1.  Heat wax or paraffin in a double boiler to approximately 140 degrees.

2.  Hook a short length of wire onto pinecone.

3.  Holding wire, carefully dip pinecone into hot wax.

4.  Set pinecone on its base, and allow to cool and dry for a few hours before using.

How to Love Scouts

By the time my daughters were in Young Womens at our church, my son was beginning Scouts.  Before that, I did  Tiger Scouts with him on our own because we couldn't find a troop in our area.  This worked out fine for us because we were starting to homeschool kindergarten and I treated Tiger Scouts like another subject with fun field trips the whole family took together.  I wish I would have thought to take pictures of this but since we were not in a troop it didn't occur to me.  They wore orange shirts with matching caps.

When Bryce began Cub Scouts, I made sure the leader had something Bryce had accomplished at home to record at each meeting.  Next thing I knew, I was called to be the Cub Scout Leader for our church Cub Scouts.  We went on field trips, but mostly I helped the boys get caught up and advance.  At one family meeting there was a fun obstacle course to complete in the gym.  We did a Cake Bake where father and sons (without the help of a female) made and presented a cake and held it out at the church pavilion.  Everyone received an award.


We also had a Court of Awards where I went all out on the decorations!  I made these lanterns as centerpieces and used them at several Court of Awards.  They were made with painted Popsicle sticks and wax paper with fleur de lis (Boy Scout symbol) cut-outs on each side.  This was the second time they were used.  I used battery operated tea candles to light them.  I found all kinds of ideas just by Googling Cub Scout decorations.

When my son was in Cub Scouts, they really encouraged families to be involved.  This is a recipe holder that Bryce made with his dad's help.  I've used it ever since!

When planning a Scout meeting of any kind, I always tried to fill the entire time (60-90 minutes) and even practiced the activities ahead of time.  Because of this, most meetings (involving several short activities) transitioned smoothly and kept the boys from becoming restless.  See MORE of my Boy Scout photo gallery by clicking on Read more...

This layout shows a box car rally and field trip to a local fire house that the recent tornadoes just demolished!  There's also pics from our Blue and Gold Banquet.

Here's the Cake Bake and Relay Race from two separate family events.

This shows the boys at the Stake Raingutter Regatta and the second Blue and Gold Banquet that I did.

My husband took Bryce and Sam to the last Cub Scout event before they turned eleven and became Boy Scouts.

Rickwood Caverns is a great place for a Boy Scout over-nighter (just get permission from the Boy Scout office first!)  There are caverns to tour, a pool, group primitive camping, lots of pavilions, etc.  Here Bryce and Sam are working on many beginning requirements such as lashing, swimming, cooking, etc.  They also went to their first Boy Scout Camp near Mentone, Alabama at Top of the Mountain.  Those are the top three pictures of this two-page layout.

My husband took advantage (with a little help from moi), of all the camping opportunities for new scouts.  The stake had an 11-yr.-old campout that Sam and Bryce went to and were able to sign off quite a few requirements!

Chief Ladiga Trail in Cleburn County, Alabama is such a great place to do Cycling Badge.  They guys loaded up their bikes and headed out on several trips to the trail to finish a total of 50 miles!  They're legs looked awesome (see below pic!).

Winter Camp (right after Christmas) is a good time to get those badges that can be completed at camp (so Mom doesn't have to help you finish them at home!)  I never minded my husband taking the guys to camp (using up rare vacation time) to spend quality time with his boy and helping the other young men from church advance in Scouting.

My husband had volunteered to be the Scout Master because otherwise they weren't planning on doing Scouts--just in time for my son to become a Scout!  Apparently, not too many people at our church do 11 yr. old Scouts, even though the Stake has an event for them.  So with my help (record-keeping), my husband took on not only the new guys like Bryce and Sam but anyone else who wanted to do Scouts.  There were only a handful of us--believe it or not only 3 families!

Spencer's dad volunteered to go to summer camp and ended up writing the skit our troop was to do.  It sounded like they were very successful.  They did pretty much everything you could do at Camp Sequoyah near Mt. Cheaha.  Before they went, we did a preclinic were we got some Camping Badge and other requirements completed (see top three photos, left page).  In fact the Young Women actually ended up attending this as well.

Girl Scout Favorite Things

HJournal wishes Girl Scouts a HAPPY 100th ANNIVERSARY ;-)  (3/12) These illustrations are from the Girl Scout Handbook, circa 1949 and Cadette Girl Scout Handbook, circa 1963.  I was hoping this post might be of interest to fellow Girl Scouts enthusiasts.  It's kind of a collection of my favorite Girl Scout Memoirs.  I also like to collect old Girl Scout and Boy Scout books and memorabilia.  

Parades

I was in charge of the t-shirts for our local Girl Scouts.  They might be plain, but they hadn't made t-shirts in a few years and I really didn't have anything to go by.  We had them in time for the Peanut Festival Parade, Dothan, Alabama (fall 2000).  Our first parade was the Peanut Festival Parade in the fall of 1998.  Shown with Mrs. Alabama and in the second photo--our troop leaders:  me and Mrs. Lolley.

Then we moved north to Ozark and my troop and a sister troop sponge painted sweatshirts (a badge requirement of course!) for the Christmas Parade '01.

Thinking Day

My husband helped us by cutting the Eiffel Tower out of cardboard.  Then he lit it up with Christmas tree lights. It was a sight to behold in the dark.  I had my girls make the display for a homeschool project.  I found striped fabric with France's flag colors.  I helped with one Thinking Day '01 and made these "passports" for the girls to get stamped at each troop's booth.  Every troop had a different country.  I remember we did Ireland and France.  We actually had a girl from Ireland in our troop.  She was my daughter's best friend.  We gave a Bon Bon candy to each "visitor" to our France booth (Feb. 2002).

Patches and Badges

My co-leader, J. Lolley, came up with this cute idea for our Daisies' and Brownies for a simple uniform.  We decided not to use the Daisy smocks.  That's why I put all of Elise's patches on a banner (shown above).
One of the girls from our troop, actually won the G.S. card design contest for our district.  Woo Hoo :0)

Uniforms

I worked real hard with the parents to make sure the Try-its and official insignia were properly placed.  With kids, it's real important to receive badges as soon as possible.  It's not practical to have a full-blown ceremony every single meeting so we would announce at least two ceremonies a year and lock in the date.  Badges earned in between those dates would be recognized as part of a regular meeting and the girls could go ahead and get them on their sashes.

I really wanted the girls to learn to sew on their own badges once they became Juniors.  Occasionally we would use meetings to go over this.  The girls were given needles and corresponding thread and we would sit in a circle on the floor while I went around to show each girl how to sew them on and give them help if needed.  If there were a lot of badges to put on, I would sew them on myself rather than let them get lost.  I rarely had to reorder badges because of this.

Activities

Every year we asked the girls what they wanted to use their cookie money for and the number one answer was, "Go to the Beach!!!"  We never did do that, (except when we lived in Port St. Lucie-2000!)  but we did use the money for practical things like going to Girl Scout Camps as a troop to earn badges.  And of course we had parties.  We went on a trip to Florida Caverns State Park, Mariana, FL which is close to Dothan.  

Our troop did a lot of activities at Landmark Park in Dothan, Alabama.  My Daisies and I were actually asked to be in a Girl Scout commercial for Alabama and it was filmed at Landmark Park!  This was taken at Girl Scout Day at Landmark.  Little Brother was a tagalong to many Girl Scout functions.  We also gave service to Landmark Park '02 when we showed guests how to make Cornhusk Dolls.  In 1998, the Dothan troop planted daylillies  at the elementary school's garden (shown on bridge).

Making Corn Husk Dolls

Meetings

Meetings were usually held at a church or a leader's home.  Most of the ones in Ozark were held at my home 2001-2002, but when we needed more room to make quilts for the children's hospital we held meetings at the local library's meeting room.

Swaps Collection

Swaps are small crafts that G.S. give as gifts or trade with other scouts.  They are sometimes referred to as potlatch.  Their origin is Native American.  POTLATCH is the ceremonial exchange of gifts practiced by Native Americans of Northwest Coast tribes. The custom stems from the legend explaining why birds have colored feathers.  As the story goes, two Indian girls plucked feathers of a magic bird and distributed the multicolored plumage to the colorless birds living in the forest.  From that time on, birds have had brightly colored feathers, and those gifts were remembered at potlatch ceremonies.
Swaps can be simple or complex, cheap or expensive, whatever the maker desires.  Each girl needs to decide how many swaps she wants to make.  This is the same number she will receive.  Larger troops may want to make several kinds of swaps so that the girls will have more opportunities to trade.  Probably 10-15 per girl is a good number to aim for.
Swaps can be made during a troop meeting, during a special meeting called for the express purpose of making swaps, or examples shown at the meeting, with the swaps to be made at home.  One suggestion,which might be helpful for younger gilrs, is to have a mother/daughter evening to mass produce the swaps in one night.
You can demonstrate some of the ideas listed below, or just provide an assortment of beads, ribbons, felt, pipe cleaners, etc. and let their imaginations run wild.  Or you may want to have your group plan a swap and then consider the cost, materials needed, how long it will take, etc.  Swaps are usually only an inch or two in size and attach with a safety pin.  Traditionally they are pinned on a swap hat.  This hat could be part of your troop identificationNall a certain color, with troop number decorated on with fabric paints.
On the day of the swap, each girl will come with a shoebox (or something) with her swaps in it, and will mingle with other girls, trading her swaps for others that interest her.  Hopefully, the swaps will have small safety pins attached and can be pinned to a swap hat or jacket.  Leaders may want to come prepared with a few extra swaps for girls who were absent when they were made.
Why swap?  To promote friendship.  To learn to talk to other people.  To have mementos of a good time.  To share our handiwork with other scouts.  Girls on wider opportunities and adults at national meetings swap patches and handmade items.  These often reflect the area the scout lives in.  Camp swapping is a great background for this.  (This was found on the internet many moons ago!)

I have a few more Swaps shown at my post: Some Favorite Campy Things.

First Aid Kit

Autograph Book

Bed Roll

Buddy Burner

Caterpillar

Clover

American Flag

Friendship Knot

Mess Kit

Peppermint

Peanut Baby

Pretzel

Scottish Bonnet

Warm Fuzzy

S'more