Campout

This weekend we had our first Cub Scout campout, at a local place (private property which belongs to the pack leader) which is just about opposite from us on the other side of the Cibolo Creek. We knocked out several belt loops & so forth, the kids had a basic introduction to Dutch oven cooking and learned how to make "foil packs" and "omelet in a bag."

The foil pack is made as follows: tear off a good-sized sheet of foil and lay a big cabbage leaf in it. Squeeze a decent-sized glop of hamburger meat into it and smush the meat down so it basically coats the entire inside of the cabbage leaf. This creates a sort of cabbage & meat cup. Fill the cup with assorted vegetables; we used diced potatoes, onions, carrots & bell peppers, add a little salt & pepper, then cover it with another cabbage leaf. Then seal it up in the foil very tightly. The whole pack goes right into the coals of the fire. I think it was cooked 10 minutes, then flipped over and cooked for another 10. Allow it to cool for about another 10-15 minutes, then carefully peel open the foil and eat it right out of the foil. Not everyone--including myself--ate the cabbage, just the insides, but it was quite good although the vegetables could've used a little more time so they weren't so crunchy. My son tried the cabbage, made a bad face and said he didn't want to eat anymore of it, although he scarfed up the insides like nobody's business, and then one of the adults told him the cabbage would give him "superblast-farts" so he ate several more bites since he's such a big fan of flatulence.

The omelets were made by using the larger (quart-sized, I think) ziplock baggies. Put however many eggs you want in the bag, seal it and smush them around to break up the yolks and mix the yolk & white together, then open it again and put in a bunch of other stuff, like crumbled (pre-fried) bacon, pre-fried pan sausage, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, diced potatoes, salt & pepper, etc., then squeeze all the air out and seal the bag one last time. Drop the whole bag into boiling water, let it cook a little while, then lift the bag partially out of the water (pliers worked well for this) and smush it against the side of the pot with a big spoon to flatten out the partially-cooked eggs and ensure that they continue cooking evenly, let them cook a little longer until done. Take the bag out and let it cool for several minutes so it's cool enough to hold, then open the bag and eat right out of the bag. Very good.

My son also got to fish for the first time, unfortunately he was one of the last in line to get to do so and by the time he got down there the hole had been fished out. He and one other kid who was last didn't catch anything, although all the other kids caught small bluegill and one kid a small bass. However we're going to get another chance to go fishing next Saturday with a church group and he might get a chance to catch something then. He said it was great fun even though he didn't catch anything, so that's good. He didn't have to tie on the swivel and all that, but he did learn to bait his own hook (with earthworms) and he learned how to cast with a standard Zebco 404. I started out with a 202 as a kid, but I thought the heavier line on a 404 would be a better idea in case he somehow managed to snag one of those bigger catfish.

The cheap tent I bought at Walmart acquitted itself well. We didn't have rain, but we did have an extremely heavy dew with big drops falling off the tree we were under and we stayed dry and warm. I do plan on getting a bigger tent before the next time so we'll have room for ourselves and our gear. I had to leave most of our gear outside but since we packed light I covered it all with a raincoat and it was fine.

I am quite exhausted from not sleeping well--just a sleeping bag and nothing to cushion it underneath. Other than that, well, my son had more fun than I did, but I guess that means it was a success.

Oh yeah, almost forgot one funny thing. One of the ladies who is a troop leader is a member of the same church congregation as I am, so she's familiar with my song-leading. She was trying to lead the Cubs in "My Country 'Tis of Thee" but was pitching it very badly so she suddenly and unexpectedly drafted me to lead it in her place. I think there was about 10 seconds of dead silence from all the adults when they suddenly realized the guy who never talks was singing, and singing quite well (if I do say so myself). We also covered music to get a music belt loop, and our den leader who was giving the talk misidentified one song that I had to correct him on: he said "Cat's in the Cradle" was by Cat Stevens. I couldn't let that slide, and had to point out that it was Harry Chapin. I think this may be why that happened. Let this be a lesson: never trust mp3 tags from bootlegged music.