On Sunday, October 15, Venturers, a Rover and two Scouts from four different Scout groups met at the blacksmithing shed at the Georgian Bay Steam Show grounds in Cookstown, Ontario for a day of fire and hammering.
Electric generator and fuel to run grinders, drills and forge fans
A pile of metal to bang on
And, most valuable of all their time, skill and knowledge to teach the skills to our youth and leaders
Did they bring in a lot of equipment? They filled a trailer and a pickup truck!
The day started with some instruction from Metal Master Miro.
At the left, that’s Steam Club volunteer and awesome blacksmithing instructor Doug.
Glad to see they are all paying attention and not looking at the camera.
Demonstration of how to start a coal fire. And with 4 forges, every youth got to do it.
At the left, Steam Club volunteer and blacksmith Ben, with Scouter Dave from 1st Thornhill – key organiser of the event.
The youth spent the morning learning the basics – safety, hammering technique, heating and shaping the metal, and making a variety of increasingly elaborate coat hooks.
For most of the afternoon, they used their skill to make their first knife.
The finished products from each of the youth, with Metal Master and now judge Miro.
Showing off their handiwork at the end of the day.
Again, a huge thank you to:
The Georgian Bay Steam Club and members for the space and hauling in sooooo much equipment.
Russell Metals for the donation of steel for making some of the blacksmithing equipment
Steam club members Doug, Ben and Miro for their time, effort and instruction.
Scouter Dave for herding Scouts and his work organising the event
The Georgian Bay Steam Club and members for the space and hauling in sooooo much equipment.
And that’s it… or… wait a minute…
What? You want to see more pictures of your kids? OK, OK, here we go.
After three long years of COVID, the Dorchester Brotherhood International Camporee made a triumphant return to our Scouting calendar. Held every year at Camp BEL in Dorchester, Ontario (just outside of London). For three days – this year from May 12-14 – a former farmer’s field and woodlot turns into a small city with 2000-3000 Scouts and leaders. This year, we made it better than ever, joining up with our friends from 1st Thornhill for a day of adventures around the London area before starting the camp.
To give you an idea of what it’s like, check these pictures out
We arrived Thursday night. This is what the field looked like when we got up on Friday morning.
Pointing the camera in the other direction, there were a few other groups who arrived a day early like us.
And this is our campsite, with the Scouts helping set up most of the tents.
Scouters Mark and Tony got the breakfast going.
Everyone filled up.
Everyone on the bus!
Our first stop: Stonetown Artisan Cheese, in St Marys, Ontario. They’re not kidding about that “Artisan” thing. They raise the cows themselves for the milk. The milk is unpasteurized, and in Canada, that means a whole lot of safety precautions and testing to ensure the cheese is safe – and delicious. Ask your Scout about it – they did a lot of… ahem… quality testing for themselves. The staff put out trays of samples that were all devoured.
Arriving at the cheese factory, we were greeting by mommy and baby donkey.
It’s a real factory, so there are safety precautions, including shoe covers and hair nets.
Some appeared to be more eager for the cheese samples than others.
Ramon the Master Cheesemaker – trained in Switzerland! – explained the whole process to us, from cow to plate. Cheesemaking is in his family – he is a 4th generation cheesemaker.
They make lots of cheese. So they need lots of cows.
The barns are kept so clean that the Scouts are not complaining about a smell.
Farmer Stephan took the time to explain to us how the cows are raised, cared for and milked.
The calves in these pens are lest than 2 weeks old.
They also care for a deer that lost its mother. The deer gets along fine with the cows.
After some lunch, we toured the jet aviation museum and went for a swim at a local pool. The jet museum was so interesting that we forgot to take pictures. Maybe some of the other leaders have some. And we’re not supposed to take pictures at the pool.
Everyone worked up an appetite… so off to the Mandarin Buffet.
Apparently that guy on the bottom left didn’t get enough cheese at the factory.
We get back to camp, and it’s no longer an empty field.
There are many traditions at Scout camps. One of them is the opening ceremony on Saturday.
Can you spot our group in this picture of the opening?
How about this one?
There we are!
All day Saturday, the kids moved around from activity to activity. Leaders were volunteering to run the activities Once again, we were too busy to remember to take pictures.
The youth participated in the cooking challenge, making a Viking burrito bowl. It’s a little known fact that the Vikings went as far south as Mexico to introduce this tasty meal. Not.
Teamwork!
Our own Viking presenter, ready for the judges.
Some of the judges may look familiar to 8th Richmond Hill regulars. But they promise there was no bias.
After dinner, a Scouts’ Own ceremony, where youth and leaders reflect on what happened at the camp and share their favourite moments.
Next is the evening auction. By participating in activities during the day, the youth earn points for their patrol, and they get to bid on exciting and goofy prizes.
Subcamp auctioneers Davis and Jonathan handled the bidding and prizes.
Auction items were as fun and goofy as the kids.
Bidding could be frantic – even though you didn’t know what you were bidding for. You only found out what you got after a successful bid.
The auctions are really popular. To make it manageable, there is one for each subcamp. And there are many, many subcamps.
“I can’t believe the little monsters are bidding for this junk!”
Lst activities for the night:
The concert for the kids to rock out.
And then the Scout badge trading. The kids really get into it. The leaders and one of our Rovers and a former Scout donated a pile of badges and pins to the Scouts to get them started, and off they went. Kids are moving between subcamps to trade, or setting themselves up in the big trading area.
.
Be sure to ask your Scout to show you their collection. Ask them which ones were donated to them, and which ones they got by trading.
Sunday morning… breakfast… a big closing ceremony… packing everything up… and the drive home.
Nah, they weren’t tired.
And after the leaders got home… did we mention that we went to a cheese factory? These souvenirs won’t last.
A camp like this is a huge planning effort that starts months in advance for the camp organisers and for our group. Big, big THANK YOUs for:
Scouters Kristin and Mark for organising the camp for our group, preparing all the equipment, and towing the trailer. THEY ARE NOT DONE YET! They have all the extra work getting stuff out of the trailer and cleaned up after the camp.
Scouters Ersin and Tony and Rover Jonathan for all their hard work all weekend.
The 1st Thornhill Scouters – John, Tara, Mike, Reza, Matt (did I forget anyone?) who organised the bus and all the Friday activities. The two groups really showed the Scouting spirit, helping each other out in so many ways all weekend. Our group was small, so it gave all the kids a great chance to make more friends.
Scouter Steve and Rover Davis who managed the subcamp, judged the meal contest, kept things under control and quiet at night and helped us out all weekend.
The hundreds of volunteers who make DIBC happen..
DIBC is an annual camp, and we are all looking forward to next year’s event.
A long-standing tradition for 8th Richmond Hill Scouts is camping out at the Richmond Hill Winter Carnival… which was unfortunately for cancelled for the last couple of years because of COVID. For 2023, the Carnival was back – and so were we!
Cold? According to the weather forecast, yes. According to us – it was perfect weather for an active day of outdoor training and fun.
Because we have a bunch of new Scouts with limited camping experience, we did an abbreviated version, just spending the day on Saturday Jan 4th. Abbreviated… except in activities. We crammed in the usual, and more.
Of course we had to learn to chop wood…
… so we could make a fire…
… to keep the leaders warm…
… and to make delicious spider dogs… that looked more like crabs.
The Carnival had lots of activities and displays that the Scouts got to enjoy.
All hail the ice throne…
… King …
… and Queen!
Not sure if Batman has snow tires on that thing. Or maybe he presses a button to make the spikes come out.
It’s rumoured that Viking women were fierce combatants.
This being winter camp, we had to get in some sledding.
And snowshoeing
We learned to make a great snow shelter called a Quinzee.
You start by clearing out the snow
Then you get the shovels up and pile the snow so it’s as high as the top of your head.
Then you start hollowing it out.
And, of course, parents who showed up took pictures.
We wrapped it up with a fantastic spaghetti dinner served by the Carnival volunteers in the big tent.
Were we dead tired at the end of the day?
We tried asking this guy… but couldn’t wake him up to get an answer.
Big thanks to leaders Muriel, Kristin, Mark, Ersin, Rick and Tony for all the organisation – and to the Scouts who came out to make the day great!
On Saturday Oct 15, 2022, our 8th Richmond Hill Scouts joined up with 1st Maple Scouts and our TechVents-now-grown-up-Rovers for a great day of high-ropes, zip lining, ax training, campfire and other fun stuff.
First step: suiting up with a harness and other safety gear
Getting harnessed and preparedEquipment available in all sizesEveryone is suited upGetting briefed by the instructorsSome are actually paying attention!How to hook in to the safety equipmentExplaining how the equipment worksThe big, hairy ones are the RoversClipping in for the first sectionRover! Fetch!You must be at least this tall to go on this rideHanging on for dear life…… and happy to make it through.High wire act!Hanging, swaying log challengeHop between the swinging platformsYou first! No, you first!Beautiful area. You can barely see them through the trees. Amazing that we didn’t lose any.AWESOME ZIP LINE!Bonus! Axe throwing!Most pictures courtesy of Scouters Jeff and Kristin
From there to Phyllis Rawlinson Park for more fun
After some hot dogs for lunch (thank you Treetop for letting us use your BBQ!) we went to Phyllis Rawlinson park for the rest of the day.
Tug’o’war, supervised by Scouter Mark for fairness on both sides.The oppositionCampfire with the RoversThere’s Scouter Mark, supervising again
Lots of axe and fire training, much wood chopping and other fun at the fire, the group worked up an appetite.
We fueled up on pulled pork/chicken poutine, with the fries cut up and cooked on the spot.
French fries cooked on the spot for pulled pork or chicken poutine for supperAll that’s left from 20 pounds of potatoes.
Nobody went away hungry – and there wasn’t much left over from 20 pound of potatoes.
Big thank you to Scouters Mark, Kristin, Edna and Ersin from 8th Richmond Hill, Scouter Jeff from 1st Thornhill and Scouter Rosalind from 1st Maple, and Rovers Max, Owen, Ethan and Johathan for taking care of everything and making this a fun day.
To mark Earth Day 2022, our 8th Richmond Hill Scouts and Venturers did a garbage cleanup on the trail crossing Devonsleigh Blvd, from Yorkland Street to Harrington Park.
Safety first! We loaded them up with gloves and garbage bags. They used the radios they learned to use last week to stay in touch with the leaders and each other.
Masks only removed for the time it took to take the picture. They held their breath.
The pickings were good – 8 bags full in no time at all. Bird feeders, old soccer balls, painting sheets, the usual pop cans and other junk.
After some hand sanitizing, we got down to the fun part – hot chocolate, hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire.
Got set up and started the hot chocolate just before darkHot dogs and marshmallows!Leaders joined in too. One Scout looks really well fed. Growth spurt? He wasn’t that long in the fall.Mmmm… picking off the perfectly browned marshmallow skin.… and sometimes they catch fire.…still eating…They must have changed the ingredients
We took a break from the Scouts stuffing themselves to test and see if WinterGreen LifeSavers really do generate sparks when you crunch them. Test failed. We’ll do more research to see what went wrong.
A big thank you to Scouter Muriel for welcoming the Scouts in her back yard for the cook-out, and for an awesome tray of cup cakes. And for supplying mugs to the dopey leaders who forgot to bring theirs.
We hope we don’t have to come back for a clean-up of marshmallow bits and cup cake crumbs from her lawn.
On December 8 we did our first indoor activity in a long, long time.
Our Scouts’ and Venturers’ behaviour during COVID has been exemplary, with great mask discipline and everyone vaccinated. With protocols being followed, we went for a rock climbing session.
Youth and leaders challenged themselves with great instruction and tips from the Rock and Chalk staff, starting from basic fall-and-roll on the bouldering wall to solo climbing with the auto-belayers.
A great evening, great challenges and a great workout after so much isolation!
An unidentified group of masked Venturers and Rovers allegedly met at an undisclosed location last night for what might have been an axe throwing event.
Target was presumably made by an assumed Rover.
Only thing for sure is that it was socially distanced, wonderful weather and clouds cleared for the stars to come out.
Darker out than it looks in the pictures. The latest camera phones are pretty amazing at low-light shots.
Before and after finger counts might have been identical.
Big thanks to <name omitted to protect the guilty> for building the target on short notice. Version 2 might already be in planning.
On the weekend of Nov 30, 2019, we finally ran this year’s final HAM CRAM certification weekend, with 2 Venturers and 4 leaders surviving the weeknight meetings and making it to the final mad dash to the finish line.
We took over ylab’s maker space at the City of Richmond Hill’s David Dunlap Observatory for the entire weekend from Friday at 7 PM to Sunday at 7 PM. They only went home to sleep and maybe scream in agony.
Participants ingested a massive amount of study material, lame jokes, stories, junk food, sugary snacks and soft drinks. Laps were run around the building to fight off the dozies. Horrible weather on Sunday didn’t stop us.
Industry Canada Certified Radio Examiner John plowed his way over through the storm on Sunday afternoon to administer the final tests. John is a great friend of 8th Richmond Hill Venturers and Scouts, helping out every year to run the JOTA and any other time we ask him. He even went through a PRC.
John, Instructor RJ, Zack, Mark, Rishi, Sandy and Chris
We are proud to announce that all participants in the final ham cram passed the final test. Please join us in congratulating all six newly licensed amateur radio operators – Venturers Rishi and Zack and leaders Mark and Sandi from 8th Richmond Hill, John from 1st Markham MedVents, and Chris from wherever he hangs his hat. They are all licensed for life. They never have to go through this misery again.
To keep up with what is now our tradition, we celebrated on Wednesday December 4 with the other ham cram – in this case, cramming down a 10 lb ham.
New and existing TechVent ham license holders get to help cram down the ham.
Special thank-yous to examiner John for all the help and cool freebies he donated to the participants; and to ylab and the City of Richmond Hill for allowing us into such an amazing building for our work with the Venturers.
Now armed and usually only dangerous to themselves. No Venturers or Rovers were harmed in this event. Really.,
There’s a visit to a blacksmith shop, then there’s a TechVent blacksmithing day: 4 Venturers, 3 Rovers, 5 forges and 6 anvils.
We were hosted at Dave Brandow’s FireSword Forge in Guelph, assisted by blacksmith Miro Forest, with three additional forges from Miro and Scouter Stephen.
Blacksmith Dave showing how to heat treat a knifeGrinding and sharpening the blade.Making a point. By hammering away at it.Heating the metal in the forge. Blacksmith Dave is paying attention – to the other forge.Waiting for grinding and sharpening.Blacksmith Miro helping with twisting the knife handle.Testing the finished productEach youth made a coat hook, a knife and a chisel.
Big thank yous to blacksmiths Dave and Miro for their time, guidance and patience; and to Miro for hauling in two extra forges.
A special thank you to North Steel of Minden Ontario for their generous donation of the steel for the day.
Genuine Rovers. Not actors. But please give us our own TV show. We even have matching clothes and gloves! See? We can even bring our dad on the show as a cranky old guest for arguments. Going at it hammer and tongs. Or tong and tong.
Oops – post corrected Oct 7 2019. We mis-identified a Rover as a Venturer. Maybe we need to label them.
In what’s become a tradition, our TechVents who’ve achieved their amateur radio certification get to volunteer at Anime North, handling the communications desk to relay and co-ordinate radio communications between the Medical, Operations and Security groups. This year it was held on the May 26 2019 weekend.
We’ve been doing this on-and-off since 2016. It’s privilege and a lot of fun to work such a big event – this year with over 30,000 attendees.
Great work by Venturers Adam, Andrew, Ethan and Jonathan.
TechVents 