Woggleknot.com – An Explorer Scout's Blog

The Field Gun competition was tonight. The “Field Gun” was a bit better than the one we used at Bradley, and it could stay in one piece without anybody having to hold onto it.

I was supposed to be helping the leaders, but one scout troop didn’t have enough people in the team so I ended up actually taking part in the competition.

The obstacles were really good, and it was a bit similar to the stuff you could see in the video I posted last week. The scouts began by dismantling the field gun. There were three obstacles on the course. The first was a small wall with a hole in – equipment was passed through the hole and the scouts had to climb over. The second obstacle was barrels stacked up in a pyramid shape – the scouts had to climb over and pass the parts of the field gun over. The third obstacle was a rope and pulley which the scouts used to pull themselves and the field gun parts across from one side to the other. Once all the parts and people were across, the field gun was rebuilt and the scouts had to run back to the beginning of the course.

It was slightly embarrassing being quite a bigger than all the other scouts taking part, but it was still fun.

I’ve been thinking about some activities I’d like to do which will help me get achievements in scouts.

For my physical recreation section of my Duke of Edingurgh’s award I’m thinking about doing hiking. I could buy an OS map of the area and think of some routes to do, gradually building them up to be harder and harder. I could also go somewhere a bit further away to hike and camp at least once a month.

For my skill section of D of E, I’ve decided I want to do drawing. I’m not very good but I enjoy it and it’s something I would like to get good at.

If I do drawing for three months, hiking for six months and continue with being a young leader for a year, I’ll get my Duke of Edinburgh Silver award.

I’m doing my grade 4 rockschool electric guitar exam soon and I’m thinking of combining this with the Musician Stage 4 badge. Part of earning the badge is performing publicly so I should benefit from the experience.

Also, I’ve decided I’m going to learn lots of “scouty stuff” like knots and making fire and stuff, just because I’d like to learn how to do it.

I’ve heard something about scouts no longer being able to carry knives on camps. And I couldn’t help blogging about how stupid the whole situation is.

When I was in scouts, we used to sit together in little groups and whittle sticks with our penknives. It was part of the camping experience. But the people in charged of health and safety have decided that scouts should no longer have that experience. They seem to think that it is not a good idea for young people to be able to learn how to use dangerous tools safely and responsibly – isn’t this an important lesson that scouting has traditionally taught?

I see no problem with scouts carrying knives on camps. As long as the leaders show the scouts how to use them properly and make sure they can, then it’s safe. You might get a few cut fingers, but nothing serious. Besides, it’s all part of learning what happens when your not careful.

I think people should concentrate more on the people using the knives for crime, instead of the knives themselves. Stopping scouts from using knives on camps isn’t going to help the knife-crime situation. It will, however, put a stop to an old scouting tradition.