My sons Boy Scout Eagle project

[GrumpyBear]

Just a heads up, when my oldest son did his Eagle Project, I went to Lowes, to see if I could get a discount on materials, and they donated most of what was needed, and discounted the rest.

You all should be very proud of your almost Eagle Scouts, I still am of my son, and yours.

[HATCH]

Got the rafters built and up today.
Lost a spacer for the blade on my circular saw so had to stop working for the day.
Figure one more work day.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Neat !

[lightman]

Good Job!

[jsizemore]

Your almost there. Congratulations to you and your son and all the folks that get to enjoy it in the future.

[HATCH]

Ethan was very fortunate to have some CB members give him a couple donations so he was able to buy the wood for the rafters and most of the metal for the roof.

[Tripplebeards]

Great job! I earned my Eagle when I was 13...I was a little OCD on earning merit badges.lol

My project I came up with...back in 83’ was to go to all the local area parks and fill in hollow holes in trees with a plaster of Paris concoction that was donated by the DNR. So I got by for zero dollars spent until I had to feed my fellow scouts that I recruited to help out. I also picked up old tires(a lot) and similar things that could hold water that made good mosquito breeding grounds. Encephalitis was a hot topic way back in the time that I did this. I can still remember the spray trucks that used to come around in the early 70s when the city use to spray for Mosquitoes. As soon as we would here the spray truck all the kids would run to get into the house because we literally couldn’t breathe after they sprayed. I’m sure it took out a lot of honey bees an monarch butterflies along with what ever ate the bugs ate as well.


I tell you scouting sure isn’t the same when I was a kid. We had Two to three leaders and about 15/20 kids. Raising heck on camping trips, getting into fights, bloody noses, getting tapped out for order of the arrow and sleeping under a pine tree with nothing but what you had on and getting bit by mosquitoes all night...and waking up with solid pine sap in your hair!..and then not being able to talk for three days while being assigned rotten jobs and getting fed dry macaroni for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Oh yeah I think they gave us a wad of peanut butter and an orange during the day. Talk about making a man out of you! The world would lock our leaders and camp counselors up for doing that to kids now a days. It’s a shame, that stuff hardens a kid and makes a man out you imo and makes great, unforgettable lifetime memories. I can remember being dumped off in the woods in the middle of the night with a buddy(the leaders did this in teams of two) armed with nothing but a flashlight,compass, and a map to get back to camp...to earn one of our merit badges...that was a blast. Forgot about earning the wilderness survival merit badge at summer camp. We had to make a shelter out of sticks, mud, leaves, etc. and sleep in it overnight. We also had to go out and find edible plants “ to survive on,lol” overnight along with drinking pine needle tea and wiping our butts with pine cones. I went to my buddies kids winter camp years ago and there was a parent for each kid...and mothers there. Now my other buddies kids have more girls in his troop than boys! Confusion!!! I don’t blame women or the girls by any means...I blame the Boy Scouts of America for not doing a better job of recruiting kids so imo they had to bring in the opposite sex to keep the scouts from going under...politics. My mom was our Cub Scout leader, my dads was an assistant scout master for webelos. My mom also was the leader for brownies and girl scouts for my sister growing up for a few years. So the girls they still have brownies and Girl Scouts...so what’s the big hype with wanting to be a Boy Scout??? Never seen a boy yet that wanted to be a brownie? I’m sure with transgenders and liberals trying to take over the world it’s going to happen.

Sorry for the politics rant. That project looks awesome and will outlast what I did for decades to come.

[osteodoc08]

Tripplebeards,

I remember scouting like you did. We were a rough and tumble group and would typically win the physical challenges during the scouting jamborees. We’ve had plenty of fights and punishment was usually labor intensive and mum was the word when we got home. Funny thing was, whatever happened on the camping trip, stayed on the camping trip (usually). More in reference to general ruckus stuff, nothing criminal. Order of the Arrow was the same miserable 3 days for me as well. Thankfully it wasn’t raining those three days and cool enough to have a fire and keep the bugs away. A lot sure has changed. I imagine the recent changes has more to do with survivability of the BSA by having a more inclusive nature as opposed to exclusive, generating revenue. But that’s a subject for a pit topic.

Proud of your son HATCH. The lessons learned here will guide him through life and serve him well.

[Abert Rim]

Can't wait to see it complete -- and the small on your son's face, Hatch.
With a middle of Baden and a last of Powell, I pretty much had to get my Eagle. I wonder if our kids still get a form letter from the president. Mine was from Richard Nixon.

[pworley1]

My Son's Eagle project was to build a side walk between the parking lot and a new school building ( about 40'). A local business donated the concrete and others provided everything else, all he had to do was ask. That was in the late 90's and it is still getting kids inside with dry feet today. Congratulations to you and your son!

[fatnhappy]

My son's Eagle Board of review is this afternoon.

My bother is an Eagle Scout.
My other brother is an Eagle scout.
My other brother's 2 sons are Eagle Scouts.
I am an Eagle Scout.

I'm afraid this will likely be the last generation of Eagle scouts given the current losses in the BSA. That's definitely a subject for the pit.

[Abert Rim]

Fatnhappy, that is one heck of a family tradition you have gong there.
I got the middle name of Baden from Dad, who got his Eagle in 1941. I'm the end of the line for Scouts, I am afraid.

[Tripplebeards]

Can't wait to see it complete -- and the small on your son's face, Hatch.
With a middle of Baden and a last of Powell, I pretty much had to get my Eagle. I wonder if our kids still get a form letter from the president. Mine was from Richard Nixon.

I think I received one back in 83’...don’t remember who was president then.lol

[HATCH]

Closer

[osteodoc08]

Looking good. Hope you were able to raise the funds needed.

[HATCH]

We were able to raise a little over 1/2 the needed funds.
We were weather delayed and was just able to start back today.
Family trip will delay it till next week but should be able to finish it then.

[skeeter2]

This is interesting to me. My son got his Eagle last night. When he had a project in mind, part of the initial application and planning was how to obtain funding. That’s part of the learning and maturing process for the boys. Not just another case of mom and dad will pay for it. If you don’t have funding, they don’t approve your project. His project didn’t cost me a dime.

[HATCH]

Well, this is what happen.
A scout did his project last year.
It was a kayak storage rack.
He went way over budget due to poor planning and Mis-measurements (wasted wood).

So initially my sons project was signed off on as being fully funded. But after everyone approved the project, the person that deals with projects like this said that they weren’t going to provide funds. It wasn’t that they didn’t want the project because this is the guy that told us what our project was going to be.

It could be the fact that my wife makes good money or could be that the other project was mishandled so badly. I don’t know.
I just know that it sucked to have to hunt up funds for this project when every project in the past has been fully funded.
We were able to raise around $250 thru Cast Boolits donations and it looks like the entire project will end up being around $500 when it’s all said and done.
The benefactor had a on going construction project that had some surplus materials so we were able to get some wood from it. There was also some material left over from the kayak rack that we were able to use (metal drip edge, 6x6x10 posts)

Right now we have all the material we need and hopefully maybe next week in the afternoon we will be able to finish it.
He has 3 sheets of roofing to install and then the ridge cap. We have plenty of screws and all the pieces.
Need to cut the width down on a couple roof panels but that is about it.

[fatnhappy]

Hatch, that's just a bunch of ** they should never have thrown at a scout half way into a project, I'm sorry. That's not fair or right to treat a scout that way.

I apologize for hijacking the thread, we know full well how much work goes into getting to this point in scouting. Finish it up and put a wee dram in your coffee.


PS My son is now an Eagle Scout

[HATCH]

Finally. It’s done

Ethan did a week at summer camp. He went back for 2 more weeks of training and then we did a week of vacation.
So glad it’s finish.
Now got to finish his report and wrap up some merit badges and he will be done.

Looking like September will be his Eagle board or review!