Monday, August 5, 2013

Merit Badge Monday: Pioneering

This past weekend, all three of my Boy Scouts went and spent the day on Saturday getting soaking wet, and working on their Pioneering Merit Badge.

Some merit badges are fairly academic.  Some are active.  Some are very useful.  Some are just a bit of an experiment.

And some just scream "BOY!!" really, really loudly.

Pioneering fits into that category.  Ropes.  Knots.  Lashing stuff together to make things.  How much better does it get than that?

The downside of having friends drive them there and pick them up is that I didn't get to take photos of the bridge they built as a group.  In the rain.  It was interesting to hear about the bridge though.  Coordinating three groups to get the parts built, and then pulling it all together.  And what they could improve next time -- like figuring out how to make it so you could get more traction to make it easier to get up it.

In addition to the big project that the 16 boys worked on together, there are all kinds of other requirements.  Like making rope.  And splicing rope together in different ways.  Doesn't get much better than that, or so I'm told.

On the left is Thomas showing me where he spliced the rope.

Down below is him holding the rope a bit more taut, so it is harder to see the splice.

This isn't a badge I would have wanted to earn.  Good thing I'm not the Boy Scout.  Oh, and yes, all three earned the badge. 

I'm providing a linky for August, so if you are blogging about any sort of scouting, feel free to link up...  next week, I think I'll be posting some American Heritage Girls stuff.



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