How-To - Home made charcoal lighter

 

Home made charcoal lighter

Take a piece of 6in. stovepipe about 2ft. long and drill 2 holes to place a damper in the middle.

Drill about a dozen more holes randomly around the pipe staying only on one half of the pipe being divided by the damper.

On the other half you need a handle. Drill a hole a few inches from the end and use s long bolt with nuts inside and out, tighten them in place.

Stand it on end on the grill with a handful of newspaper crumpled inside the end with all the holes. Make sure the damper is turned across the pipe and fill the top half with charcoal.

Light fire to the paper and give it about 5 min.. Use a couple of pot holders (cause its gonna be hot)

Grab the handle and turn the damper. You'll never by lighter fluid again.

How-To - Home made charcoal lighter

How-To - Stick Trick to Unhook Fish

 Stick Trick to Unhook Fish

Works good! Reel simple.

Caught good one,but he did a moby dick with the hook--way down there. No more hooks,and no pliers? Use a smooth straight piece of any stick,(about pencil size). Now put the stick down the fish's yap to about the hook,or where the stick can't go down any further. Now pinch the line to the stick with your thumb and fore finger. Hold the stick and line together,like they were a paint stirrer,(about 2 or three inches up from the fish's mouth). Without letting the line move from where you have it pinched, spin the stick,line and fish in a clockwise motion. (Think of the stick and line as the handle of a paint brush, and the fish as the bristles) The spin & weight of the fish will cause the line,(and then the hook) to wrap around the stick. After a few spins, the hook will come loose, and the fish drop off. If the fish is a keeper,spin it over the boat, or bucket.

If it's not a keeper,spin it over the water,and it will just drop back in. This works so good it's scary!

How-To - Stick Trick to Unhook Fish

How-To - Make a Homemade Fire Starter

 

Make a Homemade Fire Starter

These work good for starting a fire in your fireplace or outdoors and are easy to make.

Here are the materials you need;

1. Wax. This can be leftover candle drippings, candle stubs, etc.
2. Sawdust. Keep a can in your shop and save all that sawdust you make.
3. An egg carton.

Here are the instructions;

1. Melt the wax
2. Fill each section in the egg carton halfway with sawdust.
3. Fill each section the rest of the way with the melted wax
4. When cool, using scissors cut the individual egg carton sections apart (don't remove the wax, just leave it in there).

To use one, just light the edge with a match (the edge being the egg carton section that was left on it when cut).

Try this one and then post a comment. Curious whether it works. I just may try it with our guys.

How-To - Make a Homemade Fire Starter

Erie KOA/ Presque Isle Days Campout

We are so thankful to the Erie KOA Campground for hosting our upcoming camp out this Friday July 24th, 2009. Thanks KOA from our troop to you! Thanks for offering this great weekend at a great price for our wonderful scouts. We are looking forward to camping at this beautiful campground and spending the weekend with your staff. This will be our first camp out at the KOA since learning of their great offers to Scouts and their Scout program. See below information taken from the KOA website, a little of what they offer to Scouts. Check your area to take advantage of these great deals for your Scouts and plan your next camp out with your local KOA. Click on the title for this post to be directed to the Erie KOA website for more information. Here is briefly what they offer.

Participating KOA campgrounds are offering Scouts and their leader's special discount rates, as well as free use of group pavilions and other facilities. KOA Scout Program discount rates include:

• A $5.00 per Scout/Troop leader rate on camping fees, as well as free use of group pavilion facilities. The $5.00 rate applies to RV or tent sites with a minimum of 5 Scouts and 1 Troop leader.
• A 10% discounted fee will apply to all Scout usage of KOA Kabin, Kottage and Lodge accommodations.
• The Scout rate is available only when reservations are made directly through the campground.

This Is Your Life...Are You Who You Want To Be?

For Our Teens please watch....And P.S. are you who you want to be?

In Search of Character -1

After many nights of thinking and several changes I have decided that it is my responsibility to help bring about some change in our troop. As Boy Scout leaders it is our responsibility to bring about change when it is needed in our youth. Supplementing what we see may need some tweaking and building on what we know needs built on.
Our youth are changing, our times are changing and the peer pressure is changing for our children. After a talk with our Scoutmaster I feel as troop committee chairman that our boys need a little boost.They need some extra help to encourage them to be able to make the right choices. They need to see other youth that are their ages telling them what they would do in a situation where wrong and right are at stake.They need to know that there are good youth out there. That they can make the right choice and still remain cool per say.
Families are struggling just to make ends meet these days. Some families are struggling with helping their children to make the right choices and how they might go about doing this.Its a battle, peer pressure and mom and dad. Some families are absent from one another working sometimes 2 jobs just to make ends meet, making parenting very difficult these days.
Our youth are good and they are by far our most precious commodity. Far more important then any other issue our communities face today. Our troop is going to start with a plan which we will incorporate into activities and troop meetings with our scouts. My question is would you rather have responsible, honest, trustworthy, knowledgeable,loyal human beings caring for you and our country when you are elderly or the opposite. Would you feel safe with many of the teens on the streets handling your personal finances or would you trust them to make the right decision if it came to that? And I am not referring to ALL of today's teens,there are many kids out there doing exactly what needs to be done, and there are those that are truly struggling.
So how do we change this situation. Well change does not occur overnight and it has never happened by the people that just say, we need to change that. Change occurs when your action is taken. The first step is saying, we need some help here.Our teens really need some help here! The next step is finding that help then helping to bring about those changes. We have to be proactive in change. Believe that it can be done and then doing what needs to be done!!!!
To many times I hear today's youth are irresponsible, self centered and just no darn good. Well hello who taught them the simple and basic things they needed to do, how to use a spoon, open a door, tell the truth, responsibility, loyalty? Their elders, mom and dad,grandma and grandpa, youth leaders and yes their peers. Maybe have some of these things not had enough emphasis put on them. Telling the truth versus lies. Doing the right thing versus doing the wrong thing? I wonder.
Maybe we need to revisit the basics (thanks Scoutmaster Steve) Maybe we didn't stay quite long enough in them or elaborate enough on them.I think our boys are in need of a simple and basic thing..talking while someone truly just listens to them. Presenting them with situations and seeing if they are able to solve them and helping them solve them by making the right choices.Or just helping them be able to simply make the right choices. If we don't help our youth who is going to do that?
I am going to make Monday the day for now, since that's when our troop have our meetings, the day where we will either discuss or view something to help these guys build their character.
Lets see if this sounds familiar scouts...How many of these laws are you TRULY living by today?

A Scout is:
Trustworthy,
Loyal,
Helpful,
Friendly,
Courteous,
Kind,
Obedient,

Cheerful,

Thrifty,

Clean and reverent.

Please view todays video: