"Hello Muddah..Hello Faddah ..Hereth I ameth at Camp ...".

My troop went to a new camp we have never been to before, and so far it has been pretty neat.  Internet connectivity is pretty spotty and cellphone service is if you are successful in catching the "Verizion extender" or not.
    The first thing the scouts did was start setting up "Hammockland"   It is a troop staple it seems

  The camp is in the smoky mountain range and it is very pretty country.  The camp has some pretty neat features among them is...

It is setup like a frontier town in the mountains...

 There is a blacksmith shop, the scouts learn to work metal and how it was done back in the 18th century and how necessary such a place was because if you needed something, you had to make it.  There was no "walmart"

 You could make your own clothing, the scouts could make items of clothing, but there was a cost of material.

 There was a leatherworking shop, back then you had to make all your leather goods, from belts, pouches, slings, and anything else that leather was used for

 And there was a tavern, they sold rootBEER and gingerALE, plus other munchies...

They also were teaching "hatchet toss" a unique skill.

There was also black powder rifle shooting and I finally got an opportunity to shoot a black powder rifle.  The rifle was a 54 caliber ball being chased with 30 grains of powder.

The rifle is "rifled", according to the owner, the rifle was a kit gun purchased 20 years ago and would cost $3000 now.  I wouldn't mind getting into black powder shooting, but it is an expensive hobby to get into.  I still will check into it.  He also said that "back then, they didn't smile for photo's".  he is a very nice and friendly gentleman and I was glad he was patient with all my questions..

Here is the ball being inserted.  he has already ran the wet cloth down the barrel to make sure that there was no burning embers.   

The target in the pic was sideways, the shooting was "up and down".  The rangemaster(owner of the rifle) was impressed with the shooting,most people just barely hit the paper.   There was no recoil, but there was a lot of smoke and flash though....but I liked it a lot :)

   The troop also participated in a flag retirement ceremony, there was a lot of flags and the ceremony took over an hour.  Most of the troop was participating in a "horsemanship" merit badge,more on that later.  The troop that was there, did participate in the flag retirement ceremony.  It was a very solemn ceremony.

  There was quite a few flags retired that night, the big one in the following picture was "retired" at the end.

  It was a solemn occasion.  

    There is a lot of fun stuff to do at camp, a lot of the scouts were fishing, the camp policy is that if you catch it, you eat it.  There is no catch and release program.  I saw scouts fishing and swimming in the same lake.

I will add more later in the week.  Although there is something about this camp that I noticed..

Everything seems   "uphill"