SERENDIPITY STRIKES AGAIN

Two weeks ago I was invested as a Scouts Canada Beaver leader. That's right, for one hour each week I am responsible for a gang of highly energized, slightly looney 5 to 7 year olds, including my own son. Rudi started in Beavers last year, and was interested in returning if his dad became a leader. With Sunshine and Rainbow moving up to cubs, leaving only Hawkeye in charge, I was asked by Jen (Sunshine) if I would like to volunteer. My usual take on volunteering is simple: Call me as your last resort, and I will happily help out. So two weeks ago Grey Owl officially joined the crew. We meet every Monday evening for an hour of games, crafts, and other fun. In the past few months we have gone on a nature hike, built bird seed feeders out of reclaimed building materials, and last week cooked up a batch of suet bird feed, which we will eventually pour into little log suet feeders so the kids can hang them in their backyards.

Which leads me to the purpose of this post. Rusty is a Venturer helping us out this year, to get his community service hours for High School graduation. As I had already planned to take Rudi on a short (3 or 4 day) canoe camping trip to the Interior of Algonquin Park, I had thought that going with a few others might be a good idea, so Rusty has signed up for the trip. I think I will hand off some of the planning to him, kind of let him take charge of route planning, and equipment selection, and other stuff. So over the next few months I will provide updates on the planning for our big wilderness adventure in summer 2010!