Summer Camp at Sara and Eldon Tanner Youth Camp

August 29-Sept 1, 2018

The boys were really looking forward to a change to get together with everyone and enjoy the last part of summer outdoors. Original plan was to find a camp near Edmonton and Catch a day at West Ed Mall wave pool and hit the Temple. After finding steep prices for the wave pool we started second guessing out choice. James made some inquiries of old friends in the area and we camp up with Tanner Camp. It's the old Ernest Poole scout camp James attended as a youth. Checking out all the amenities, we no longer needed a day at the mall.

Here's the link to the camp info: https://tannercamp.com/

Team Members

	WP - Ethan, Ashton, RJ, Michael, Josh, Bowen, Hale, Conner, Jaxson, Ephraim, Joey, Uwanna - Scouts
	MID - Marco, Brody, Ethan, Mark, Rett, Jhon, Jacob, Paulo, Isaac - Scouts
	SHEP - Evan, Jeff, Josh, David, John, Caysen - Scouts
	INV - Landon, Matt - Scouts
	Pat, Karl H, James, Karl E, Shaun, Peter, Will, Ryan, David, Nick, Bishop Shaw - Leaders

Photo Library

	Scouter Sam here. This would have been the greatest camp yet, if only I could have been there. We really need to talk to the committee that set the rule for "No dogs allowed" to exclude LDS Missionary Dogs.	For my part, I helped run a late night garden raiding expedition to the Community Garden to get the super healthy Spinach for the Lasagna dinner.	View from flashlight.

Some various food donations to support our low budget theme
Nancy provided items not used from her work Garden Party.	Some leftovers from the Scout's River camp dropped off by Dan, along with a big bag of frozen game meat. Compliments of Steve.	The menus included mostly dishes made with only the base ingredients (cheaper). It was combined with the vast culinary skill of the boys to produce impressive dishes of all sorts.

Preparing ahead the Lasagna for dinner
1st, Cook and rinse the noodles	put down the 1st layer	and some sauce	two big tubs should be enough, eh?
Cottage cheese and spinach later	More mozzarella	And their ready to pop into the ovens when we get to camp.

Checking out the facilities
Nice kitchen!	Quick sampling of some crabapple juice.	Bunks look sturdy.	Nice field right out our doors.

Serving our first meal - in the nice kitchen
Nice big serving area			I think he likes the lazagna
	Covering basic camp rules	and some kitchen rules	with a group assigned chore list for each meal.

So what are the lake facilities like?
Beach rules seem basic enough	Lots of equipment. Canoes, kayaks, stand up boards, floating carpets, sail boats, life jackets. What more could you want?	Should have brought my speed boat.	Getting ready for some fishing. Boys ended up catching them right off the dock.

Evening snacks with games and story telling
Finishing some car snacks.	Keep shoes at the door.	Some evening board games

The Traditional Breakfast - Thursday
Starts with lots of bacon	and Pancakes	Eggs, scrambled of course	and Juice

Archery
Boys gathering in great anticipation...	Quick comparison with a Compound Bow.	The safety instructions begin	Don't go past this line, stand in position at command, pickup bow, fire when ready.
Look at those arrows fly	Where's the knock?
	Jean brought along some balloons to pin on the targets. Attracts more attention when you hit t he target.	Go retrieve those arrows.
	Watch the video

Playing with power equipment
Line up the log...	Push that blade in	Almost split	Might have to pull it apart a bit.
Boys did a round of Man Tracker, but sorry, no pictures.		Hale provided this shot, could the the event.

Snacks	Matt and Brody came in looking bored and jumped at the chance to make Cinnamon buns. Other soon joined in.
Added the dry ingredients to the wet...	This is the part where it says the dough should be sticky. Yup, it's sticky	Added the remaining dry ingredients and kneed into a dough.	After the 1 hour of "Dough Rising" we spread on the filling.
This one is "No Nuts' for Joey.

Tracking Coyotes
Josh sees his first coyote of the camp.	He's not really running away is he?	Yea, keeps looking back, to make sure we're following him.	Most likely an ambush with all his buddies hiding in the bush.

Campfire snacks
Marshmallow and chocolate sandwiched between a double stuff Oreo	Ephraim trying to coat his strawberry with marshmallow fluff.	Dang, dropped the strawberry.	Deep diving now to find the strawberry.
Got it. Coming up now, slowly.	Chocolate digestives getting warmed by RJ's hot marshmallow

Day 2 - Starts with Sausage and Gravy with biscuits and then a round of Service work
But not before some fishing...	Get that tasty minnow on the hook,,,	Nice Pike Landon.
Cut that sausage into nice bite size pieces and fry.	Lightly kneed the dough, but not too much.	There, we got just over 100 baseball sized biscuits ready to bake.

We had the assignment to split about 50 stumps, and stack them nicely in the Wood House	Evan gets bored and comes over to check out the equipment.	This is so easy even a 12 year old can do it.
We had the painting of the washrooms and showers. Plus trimming the bottom of the door frames 1/2 in above the water line, caulking and sanding.	Turns out Ashton has experience painting, it showed.	Evan got bored of Stump Splitting and joint the painting crew.	So should we sing while we paint?
There's no white rain dropping on you guys, right?	Leaders had to leave and supervise Lunch (Game Stew). Caysen was so into painting he just kept going. Then one of the leaders popped by the kitchen to advised us that there was still some boys painting in the bathroom.	Height matters, or at least the lack thereof.	So much to do and so little time.
Going to go fast now that I'm using this roller.
We had to clear a forested area of dead fall. That took most of the boys, and after that it was soccer.	Lionel Messi is sizing up the field...	There's the header over to Suarez...	And Neymar fakes an injury hoping to get a red card up.

Lunch for the super hungry...
Dan provided a shopping bag full of interesting cuts, including one labeled "?" as well as a bunch of sausages mixed with a variety of spices. The garden carrots, onions, and potatoes got diced and cooked while the meats were cubed and fried in butter. Then everything got cooked together in a nice gravy.			Stew went fast and included leftover biscuits from breakfast.
This Fast pace at camp is hard to keep up.	Got to catch those 'zzzzz' whenever you can.

The Lake
Style matters even on the lake. Here we have the latest in leg tattoos. These are great cause you really don't need socks.	Boys are starting to load up the equipment out on the water. Just a slight tilt noticeable for now.	Lots of water toys here boys.	getting a bit more tilt there fellows...
Not sure but something may have happened here, and then there was this picture.	All fine.	Water cold? definitely not.	Stragglers trying to decide whether to slide down the front or the back
Video: Caysen takes his bumps	But ready for more...	Video: The cage match...	The 'shakeoff' competition
Video: Jaxson's chance to be a YouTube sensation	Video: Caysen's last change to bail...	Caysen's pops out magically.	Censored X
Time to take some kayaks out.	Building up the psychological courage to overcome hypothermia.	Everyone's getting worn out. A great day at the beach though.

The big Cook-Off	2 mystery baskets of ingredients, 2 teams ready to take on the challenge.	And some hunger judges trying hard to apply discerning tastes
Soup Bosses are off to an appetizing start	Looking to bring in some presentation values with these colorful veggies	There's a lot of chopping to this.	Team 2, the Platter Boys pull out their secret ingredient. No English subtitles here.
Things are speeding up in the kitchen	Cutting the beef into just the right size for the soup.	Meanwhile the main dinner crew works around the teams to prepare the Spaghetti and garlic bread for the actual dinner.	The 5 Judge panel reviews the Soup Bosses effort. They introduce their dish.
Initial feedback: Very nice presentation.	Flavorful broth, some complain it needed some heat	Others thought it just right.	Final judge in, and the base scores are set.
The Platter Boys now show off their dish	Shortage of bowls here, so down the hatch and we'll reuse these.	First taste, and this does have some kick.	RJ comes in to fully describe dish, and the choices they made.
Judges load up this spicy dish.	Presentation not as nice as Soup Bosses	It's definitely Hot, but a good hot.	Teams in anticipation on the verdict...
Platter Boys take the competition, but it was ever so close.

Dabbling with crabapple Juice
Boys are getting thirsty and the can pop is not cutting it.	Josh and Caysen pour off some of the juice. It's the concentrated one. Whoa, needs some water and a bit of sugar.	OK, mine's better, how about yours? I think mine's too sweet now.

Spaghetti dinner is ready to server - don't hold back.
Josh finally wakes up after a trying to sleep off a sprained ankle. He joins his rowdy comrades for dinner.	He gets great cheers and then a round of "He's a Jolly Good Fellow" by all his compatriots. He's a bit embarrassed.	Finally finished dinner at 8:30pm. A lot of spaghetti and garlic bread went down. So what to do to not irritate those full bellies?	Well, we could all cheer Jaxson on as he plays his video game. Ooos and Ahhhs...
We could also start on dessert. Caysen trains Pat on the finer details of puff pastry.	First you unroll your sheet and cut it into 4 squares	Fry up your crabapples in cinnamon and butter. And for a Caysen first, the very first time he's used a manual can opener, and at our camp. So many firsts.	After dropping a bit of filling on the pastry...
Caysen now folds then over.	Pat sprinkles sugar on top. There done. Just need to bake them.	Leaders tie into individual home made Flans. Limit number to go around.	Sweet, but good.
And of course there's that disaster of a kitchen mess the cleanup crew can take on.	Matt tries a freshly baked turnover topped with whipped cream. Well, actually he had the whipped cream first and then had some more with a turnover under it.	So folks decided to use up the remaining apple and cherry filling on top of their turnovers.	A true flaky experience
So that was desserts.

Evening Camp Fires
Using those logs we split, boys applied their camp fire skills and got a fire going with mostly damp wood.`	Watch the sparks video	Some additional audience members looking down at the fire.

Saturday - Breakfast, Traditional, round 2 with leftovers
Pat adding some leftover cook-off veggies to his eggs.	Pancakes are better with home made buttermilk syrup.	Boys cooked up all the remaining bacon, eggs and pancake mix. It all went down.	And then they cleanup the kitchen. That was a big job.
Gee, floor even shines.

Tether ball Championship
Look, they have tetherball equipment	Boys reminisce about the days on the school fields	Mostly got the rules figured out now	Don't hit the string
Stay on your half.	Height matters.
Hoodoo Hike
They have Teepee campsites here.	Some of the speedy fellows are already climbing up the line.	Looks safe enough.	Just wonder how many boys can actually hang off this rope at one time?
Nice cool forest paths in here	Really hilly though in here.	From here we can start to see the hoodoos.	Nice view of the lake from on top.
Some Hoodoo scrambling	More rope supported trails after the Hoodoos	More campsites along the top ridge with basic amenities.	Even had a Wood house and an axe handy here. So Joey has to challenge the others to a one hit split.
Not that easy.	Need a bit more axe safety training.	Can I slide all the way down on my butt, and not ware through my pants?	I'm using the rope to go down.
Going backward is definitely less scary.	Almost there.	It's a long way down.

Loading up
Finding room for an extra motorcycle for the trip home is not that easy, but they did it.	Sad to say goodbye to all those good times.


Pleasant dreams though.	Most of the way home	I did not know you could actually sleep with eye open. Maybe he's not sleeping?


What is this Josh?	Nice scenery	Cool sunrise, compliments of the fisherman.