Using Our Pocketknives Without Lose of Life or Limb

Thursday's Den meeting was an exciting one for the boys, learning how to use and care for a pocketknife. Sister Slade first went over the safety rules:

- A Knife is a tool, not a toy.

- Know how to sharpen a knife. A sharp knife is safer because

it is less likely to slip and cut you.

- Keep the blade clean.

- Never carry an open pocket knife.

- When you are not using your knife, close it and put it away.

- Keep your knife dry.

- When you are using the cutting blade, do not try to make big

shavings or chips. Easy does it.

- Make a safety circle: Before you pick up your knife to

use it, stretch out your arms and turn in a circle. If

you can't touch anyone else, it is safe to use you knife.

We had a special guest Brother Dwain Gray (Sister Slade's dad). Brother Gray showed the boys a few different types of pocketknives, including one of his prize pocketknives with a picture of John Wayne on it. None of the boys knew who John Wayne was, (way before their time) so they seemed unfazed by Brother Gray's enthusiasm of this knife. Brother Gray then showed the boys the proper way to sharpen their knives using a wet stone. Brother Gray and Brother Slade worked with each boy giving them the opportunity to sharpen their own knives.

After getting their knives nice and sharp each boy was given a bar of soap which they traced an outline of a bear on. Sister Slade then demonstrated how to use their knives to carve out the bear and make a soap sculpture. All the boys did a great job, and seemed to really enjoy the experience and amazingly enough we didn't lose any fingers or even draw blood for that matter.

Finally, each boy took the "Pocketknife Pledge" earning the privilege of carrying a pocketknife to designated Cub Scout functions. The completion of this achievement (19) has also earned the boys his "Whittling Chip" card, which he can carry in his wallet. If you were wondering why you son didn't bring home his fabulous soap carving it is because they seemed to have as much fun throwing them at each other as they did carving them. Luckily we got pictures of them before these soap sculptured bears became extinct. Awesome job guys, we love you :-)

Just a quick thank-you to my daughter, Cami Starks, who always seems to know just the right songs to put on our slide show presentations, so don't miss out watching your boys in action.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

"Tying it all up"

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com


We had planned to complete achievement 22 in one week, however, February and March brought with it, seven new members to our Den. We went from four boys to eleven in a very short period of time. We only got through half of the knots and two of the four requirements to complete this achievement. We decided that we would turn our one week of knot tying, into two, in order to better accommodate the boys, giving them each an opportunity to complete all of the requirements during our den meetings.

The first week each boy was given a piece of rope. Sister Slade and Sister Lewis showed the boys how to whip the ends of their rope to prevent the ends from fraying. Brother Slade taught each boy how to tie a square knot, used in first aid to tie bandages, a sheet bend knot, used to join ropes of different sizes together, and then the two half hitche knot, used to tie a rope to a post, a tree, or a ring. Sister Lewis learned these knots along with the boys and was then able assist Brother Slade in teaching them. Sister Slade taught the boys a magic rope trick, by holding the rope while folding their arms and then tying a knot as they unfolded their arms, with out letting go of the rope.

The second week of "Tying It All Up" was spent learning two more knots, the bowline knot used as a rescue knot when tied around the waist, and a slip knot. The boys then learned how to keep a rope from tangling and finally the boys had to coil a rope then throwing it, hitting a 2 foot-square target from approximately 20 feet away. Everyone seemed to have a good time tying knots, learning magic rope tricks and matering hitting the target with their new found rope throwing skills. Good job boys, keep working on those knots, you never know when you may need them.

Out go the Old and In Come the New

Since being called as Den Leaders in January, we have already had to say good-by to three of our Bear Scouts. Colin Glenn and Nick Ruddell moved up to the Webelos. Unfortunately we lost Jake Christensen through the boundary changes. We will miss these boys, but we have added seven new boys to our Den since February. We are very excited and want to welcome Davis Cullimore, Cam Neilsen, Jake Jarvis, Devon Bauman, Ethan Fisher, Nathaneal Foster, Malcolm Hancock and Sister Lisa Lewis to our Bear Den. We hope that these boys will enjoy coming to Scouts and we appreciate the help of Sister Lewis and know that she will add a lot to our Den Meetings.

States That Are Special to our Bear Scouts

Back in February each boy was asked to choose a State that was special to them, then bake and decorate a cake that represented that state to display at the annual Blue and Gold Banquet They were also asked to tell some fact they learned about the State they chose. The following are some of the states that were chosen by a few of our boys.

Cameron Janda chose California as his favorite State. He learned that the California Quail is the State bird, California Redwoods is the State tree and the California Poppy is the State flower. Cameron also discovered that California was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1840.

Kentucky was the State chosen by Chase Martinez. Chase chose Kentucky, because that is where he was born. Chase learned that The State bird is the Cardinal, the State tree is the Tulip Poplar Tree, and the State flower for Kentucky is the Golden Rod. Kentucky was admitted to the Union on Jun 1, 1782.

In Place of Our Den Scrapbook

I have been contemplating starting a Scrapbook for our Den, which would fill the requirement for 8c under "The Past is Exciting and Important. After thinking about it I have decided that It might be more fun for everyone if instead of a scrapbook we did a "Blog". This would give the boys an opportunity to share with family and friends anywhere in the world to go on line and check out what they and their den have been doing during den meetings, pack meetings or even at home working on their achievements. Anyone will be able to contribute information, pictures, and special events in the lives of these fine young scouts. If you have anything that you would like to see in our blog, just send me an e-mail with an attachment of information, pictures, etc. and as the administrator of the blog I will post it to our blog. Remember this is your history, so anything you want to remember about your scouting days and want to share let's put it on our blog. I will keep everyone updated on what we are doing each week during our den meetings, what events may be coming up and things the boys have done, through our blog. I hope that this will be a fun and interesting way to keep up on our scouting experiences together. The address for our blog is www.shamrockfarmsbearscouts.blogger.com.

Pinewood Derby

This year the pinewood derby was held March 6, 2009. The evening started with lots of yummy pizza, furnished by the ward, fruit & veggie snacks furnished by the Wolf and Bear dens, along with miscellaneous treats for dessert, furnished by the Webelo's. After filling our tummies the racing began in the cultural hall where our awesome Pack Leaders, Brother Mark Holbrook and Brother Rick Marvin had the high tech race track set up and ready for the BIG race. Brother Magleby took care of tracking all of the times on his computer and made sure that each boy had at least six chances to race. There were 29 creatively cut and painted cars entered in this years pinewood derby. Each boy deserves a big CONGRATULATIONS and "ATTA BOY" on the time and effort they spent on their individual cars. Kids and adults alike seemed to have a great time. I know Brother Slade and I truly enjoyed watching the boys race their cars and cheering for our boys. Way to go Bears. We also want to congratulate Davis Cullimore for taking first place overall in this years pinewood derby. Even though Davis was not officially in our Bear Den at the time of the pinewood derby, we will claim him as one of our own Bear Scouts, awesome job Davis.

A photo finish
This one was so close I'm glad I didn't have to call it!

State of the art Pinewood Derby Race Track

A fun filled night of eating and racing, what more could you ask for.