Cub Camp Season starts....

Well I have just got back from the first Cub Camp of the winter season. It may very well be the last. I wish I could say everyone had a great time, but I'd be lying! Anyway, more of that later.
The week started with a 'linking' meeting between Beavers and Cubs. The idea was to have a Movie Night. The Beavers were organizing it , they had all the equipment, all we had to do was turn up. Excellent we thought. Unfortunately, the 'equipment' turned out to be a laptop, an LCD projector and a pair of computer speakers. Needless to say the volume was a bit lacking and to make matters worse, there was a meeting next door in the bar of the firehall (the firehalls here all double up as community halls) which involved presentations of some kind involving lots of cheering and applause! Add to that a bunch of Beavers (5-8 year olds) all fidgeting and scraping their chairs across the floor and it made for a bit of a nightmare! The only plus point was we managed to persuade them to watch 'The Wild' (82 minutes) as opposed to 'Cars' (getting on for 2 hours). We wanted to minimize the agony...The kids seemed to enjoy it anyway which was a bonus. I think Cub Movie night will be in our basement...
On Tuesday night I was supposed to accompany Cindy and Scott (the other two cub leaders) to the campsite to go over a few things with the warden for the weekend's camp. Unfortunately he had to go to a funeral and couldn't make it. It was rescheduled for Wednesday night and it happened. It is an excellent campsite. I use the word 'camp' in the loosest possible sense. Accommodation was a large cabin, complete with flushing toilets, bunk room, activity room, diesel generator and fully furnished kitchen. We were shown how to start the generator and what we needed to turn off and so on. This is going to be an easy camp (or so I thought...).
Thursday night was Toastmasters as usual, followed by the usual trip to Dutchies afterwards. Then on Friday night Emma was at a birthday sleepover at a friends, except she didn't sleepover because she had to go to camp the following day. Deborah, Matthew and I decided to eat out and also pop into Canadian Tire for a couple of items. We set off and there was a strange thumping noise from one of the back wheels. I stopped to check and discovered a bolt sticking out of one of the rear tires. So we went back home, swapped cars, went to Mike's restaurant in Bedford for supper, popped into Canadian Tire to pick up the items we wanted, and then it was back home to change the wheel on the Dodge.
Then the fun started. Managed to remove the brace and jack from the storage compartment, but when I tried to remove the spare (which is slung under the back of the car), the cable dropped, but the wheel didn't. For some reason it was stuck there. Anyway I called Scott (he's a mechanic) and he happened to have a spare wheel and tire for a Dodge Caravan. He brought it over and helped me fit it and the car goes into Mighty Auto tomorrow for it's Winter Tires to be fitted. Hopefully they can patch the punctured one, otherwise it's a new tire! We will also have to get them to try and get the spare off. Cars, don't you love 'em....
And so Camp day dawned. I knew it was off to a bad start when Cindy didn't have the cub details forms - these are the ones that have the MSI (Health Card) number on them. Once we sorted that out, we could set off. We got to the camp, opened up and started the activities. We did stove lighting, camp fire lighting and built their survival kits. But all through this, the kids behavior was fairly atrocious. We had one with ADHD who was on medication and quite frankly was away with the fairies and another, who if he hasn't got ADHD, it's because he hasn't been diagnosed yet! Both required constant supervision. We had one who keeps getting nose bleeds. Although not a problem to him, it is a little disturbing for us, the leaders, when he's on his third of the day. Add a couple who spent the entire day telling tales, another two who kept wanting to 'do their own thing' and you can imagine it was turning into a delight of a weekend. We cooked tin-foil dinners for lunch, then did a hike in the afternoon. We had subs for supper, had a campfire and put them to bed by 10pm. Unfortunately, our fun was only just starting. First one came to say he wanted to go home. He'd had a bad day, compounded by the fact he put his gloves on the wood stove and they melted. Then 10 minutes later Emma came in to say she was homesick and wanted to go home. She basically wanted Deborah to come and get her. She was told this wasn't going to happen as mummy was having a girls night in with Lynn, had probably had a couple of glasses of wine and couldn't drive. I couldn't take her, as we had to have three leaders on site at all times.
As it happens, the other lad's Mum came and got him, and I sent Emma home with them. She knows Deborah and so was more than willing to drop her off. We were now down to 9 kids.
We went to bed in a really warm cabin - the fire had been stoked up to account for the fact that it gets cold at night, but the cabin is very well insulated and it was way too warm. I'm thinking it is this that kept the kids awake. I was up three times between 2.10am and 3am. Cindy was up 10 times between 3.30am and 6am. I didn't sleep a wink, Scott slept through it all!
Needless to say the kids were a delight this morning and for the rest of the day! Scott made an excellent breakfast of pancakes, we had a small Scouts Own ceremony, we cleaned the cabin and got home to a shower and clean clothes! As I said, this may well be the last camp. It was way too stressful for all concerned. IF there are any more, certain kids will have to be accompanied by parents. Too many treat it as a 24 hour break for very little cost. I managed to take a few pictures and have added a selection. I thought the first one of Emma laughing was great - basically it tells you it wasn't all bad!! Oh, I forgot to mention the mice? There was mouse poo everywhere....and I caught one scurrying over the kitchen worksurface when the lights went on in the morning. We also discovered two drowned in the kitchen sink...lovely.
Once we got home, Matthew went to bed and slept for two hours, I had a shower and then put the outside Christmas lights up! Looking excellent they are too! Just need to get our nodding Polar Bear out there and we'll be all set.
We then had our old next door neighbors over for dinner and a movie (Ice Age 2) and now I'm writing this before getting to bed myself - I am soooo tired. And I have work tomorrow...joy!