Took the 6 year old camping this weekend - just overnight, but he's never been camping, so it was special to him. Here's the campsite: and another view: I even put the tent up by myself: It started drizzling, the a light rain, but I managed to get a fire started anyway - using lots of lighter fluid: But, the next morning, I was able to start this fire without any accelerants:
Awesome. If he is 6 years old have you considered Scouts? I would highly suggest it. Dr. Evil Jr. have loved it. This march he transitions from Cub Scout to Boy Scout. The kid is chomping at the bit to get out there on his own. Another thought, try to camp with other friends or family, both of whom should have kids of a similar age. It makes it so much more fun
Fuck the scouts, they steal all your bowl-a-rama and bottle drive money for fucking pot, porn, and Oreos, and don't buy the troop new equipment like they keep promising.
Paw Paw River Campground in southwest Michigan. Yes, he's been wanting to join for a couple years. His older cousin in Boy Scouts now. I think Tiger Scouts begin in 1st grade - which is the grade he's in now. We were originally going to with my cousin, his wife and their two kids - his mother has an RV at the above mentioned campsite, we were visiting her - but their kitten was sick and needed urgent veterinary care and since my aunt was looking forward to the visit and the 6 year old was looking forward to camping, we went without my cousin's family.
Yep at 6 yrs of age and being in 1st grade he would be a tiger in Cub Scouts. His school should have had some flyers by now about joining up. If not you can go to https://beascout.scouting.org/ and search for a local pack. Again I think its a great organization and your son and you will get so much out of it. Scouting is a family organization. This means that you dont drop your son off and leave him for one hour a week. you attend meetings with him and partake in the activities side by side. Ditto for camping trips. Do your self a favor and dont listen to asshats who have never been involved in the organization.
Yeah, as long as you get a good bed of coals going, it's relatively easy to restart a campfire. Last weekend, even with lots of rain showers we were able to restart our fire numerous times because of that.
The fire the next morning wasn't at the same place. I'd broke camp and drove over to where my aunt had her RV parked. She hadn't made a fire there before - she doesn't know how to start a fire, so ... After her attempt to start a fire in the grass, I dug a little pit, and started it for her. Rolled up a few pieces of paper towel and put some little twigs on top, lit the paper towel, then slowly and steadily added bigger twigs. Once the sticks that were about an inch or inch and a half in diameter were burning, I set the two big logs on either side, then put another across the top. Then, when it turned all black, I very carefully turned it sideways into the middle of the bigger logs on top of the embers of the bigger twigs.
"I like to singa, about the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a." I had lots of good times in the scouts as a kid. Also 4-H camp, although there was that time I lost my shoes and had to wear moccasins from the gift shop for the rest of my stay.
Moccasins? That sounds comfortable. My boss was completely unimpressed just now when I told him I started a fire by myself.
Off-topic, I never really got on those survival shows why they fuck around with the most stone-age firestarting methods when they could make a bow-drill. I mean if you've got the materials to do a more primitive method you've got the materials to make a bow-drill. And if you're wearing boots with laces you pull off a bootlace to make the bow. While not as simple as matches, I'd argue that it is as simple as flint and steel--maybe simpler.
See, I see even the bow-drill to be a stone age method of starting a fire. They make so many things like magnesium fire starters that there is really no reason to use the bow-drill. Just bring one of them, have some cotton balls that were dipped in wax for kindling and presto, fire. Don't get me wrong, the bow-drill could come in handy if your plane crashes on a pacific island and a good skill to have, but really, what are the chances of being in that situation, especially when you know you are going hiking / camping.
This weekend, I taught my son how to start a fire with dryer lint, a magnesium stick, and a pocket knife. I think I bought that magnesium stick at Bass Pro Shop on the way to the meetup with Frontline. Took him about a half hour, but he finally did it.
I'm leaving tomorrow for a short two-day scouting trip up to middle/northern ID in preparation for hunting season next month. Since I'm taking the dog with me I'll be tossing the camping gear in the back of the jeep. (As opposed to automatically plan on staying in a motel somewhere) I'll see if I can't score some nice pics.
Since our dove hunt/camp out was cut short by the weather last weekend, we may try to go again Thanksgiving weekend. It's in between the two dove seasons (one ends on 31 October and the other goes from Christmas Day through 18 January), but it is during quail season.
Beautiful and a hell of a lot better than what we have down here. I am taking our senior cub scouts (JR. and Sr. Webelos) camping in the big bend area of the state. We have never been there so this ought to be an adventure. I'll try to take some pics.
Nope, no sasquatch. No bears or cougars, either, and as far as I can tell I did not get anally probed by extra-terrestrials. Tell you what, though- that was the first time I ever went camping just by myself and I fell off the grid pretty hard to get where I was. Camping 'season' is officially over up here and there were not very many people about at all. It was quiet, idyllic, and peaceful, but at the same time I can honestly say I've never really felt quite so isolated. Of course, I had the dog and a .45 so it was all copacetic.
The most isolated I've ever felt on a solo camping trip was Alaska. It was fly-in/out only and I had a rubber raft. The area was a huge system of lakes, twisting channels and streams, etc. So if anything happened to my raft, I would be screwed. This was way before cell phones. And the pilot who dropped me off would only have a vague idea of where I was. Yes, there were plenty of bears (black, not brown thank goodness) and I had a .357 which seems like a pea-shooter when push comes to shove. Was I close to a bear? I would say 10 feet is close enough! Did not have to kill it though.
Same with my trip. There were no other tent campers, but still some RV campers and, although they weren't too far away (two or three football fields), I still felt alone with a small child.
Here are pics from our trip this weekend Manatee Springs in Chiefland, FL. The water stays a constant 72 degress. During the winter, Manatees head here to stay warm. Just for Elwood Cool Banana Spider Our Tent The rest of the camp site Kids had a blast. They learned land navigation, how to make a motor and compass from a battery, sheet metal screw, paper clip and wire. They learned how to make a fire with steel wool and a battery and how to make a Mentos / Diet Coke rocket. On the down side I have never seen ticks in Florida as bad as I saw them this weekend. Also one kid who didn't listen to us went where we told him not to and got nailed by 20 yellow jackets.
