Palaver 2015 - Sunday

Today was another sunny day (which also meant it had been cold overnight at Woodhouse again).  But thankfully Akela has this sleeping thing down pat at Woodhouse and knows how to keep us both warm while we sleep.

This morning’s activities covered our last two main sessions for the Red Six – Bun Run (a wide game around Woodhouse, which gave us a chance to get some much needed exercise as well

Our final session was cooking and we certainly had fun doing this one and eating the end results.

We then also had another two mini sessions as well – one was Animals Anonymous, which was awesome and Akela got to touch real snakes! She is a nut case, no doubts about it! We have the photos of her holding snakes on camps before!

Then we switched and did a session on Tangier cooking.  Akela has done some of this before and was happy to do some more watching on this one. Also, she was feeling rather full by this stage and we hadn’t even had lunch! She is convinced she has put on weight this weekend with all the eating that was happening.

Lunch arrived very quickly and was certainly very nice. It was lasagne and Akela is a bit of a pasta fan, so probably wasn’t the wisest of meals to serve her. I did remind her to put veg on her plate and she certainly made sure it was a balanced plate that she brought back to the table.

 

Once lunch was over, it was time to do the pack up and clean of the Rymill Centre. It is hard to believe that another Palaver has been and gone. But it was certainly a enjoyable weekend and we are looking forward to the next one in 2017.

Palaver 2015 - Saturday

It was an early Saturday morning – a COLD start to the morning (one of the leaders who arrived from home said it was 2C in his car port when he left home). Breakfast was a much welcome sight – warm, filling and lots of it.

The leaders broke into their sixes (Red, Green, Blue and Purple) and headed to their 1^st activity. Akela and I were in Red Six. The name tags this year were shells painted in our six colours, with our names written on them. They looked so cool.

Our first session was Plaster – making face masks. It was fun and Akela looked really funny with the one she made on.

Our second session was building tripods, and it was a chance for the leaders to either brush up on their lashings, or to put into practice what they had recently learnt on training. We then had to talk the tripod we made, which had a bell attached, around the car park without the bell ringing.

The 3^rd session for the morning was Tie Dye, where we looked at ways of doing tie dying without the expense of using dyes. It was certainly interesting and we even got to make Scarfs – there were even sizes especially for pack mascots! The person running the session said we have scarfs in sizes for pack bears / mascots. She then turns to Akela and says “That includes SHEEP!” So Akela made me a Palaver Scarf! It is so cool.

Lunch ensured we had a chance to re-charge and refuel before the afternoon onslaught of activities.

We also had several mini sessions throughout the day, one of which was a “So you think you can dance?” which was run by two of the dancers from Adelaide Gang Show. We had to perform the dances they taught us during the mini sessions during tea as apart of the entertainment.

Other activities that we did today included woodwork (Akela made a bird feeder – different to the ones we made at the Scout hall for Scouts in Action week though) as well as a visit to the environmental centre and a talk from the Branch Commissioner – environment. He  kindly mentioned the work that Mawson Lakes Cub Pack is doing with Friends of Pledger Wetlands as one way cubs can include environmental activities within their programs. That is, working with community based community groups who have an environmental focus.

The evening meal was the usual dress up in the theme. Akela didn’t dress up – she went in her uniform. She is not one for dressing up really and has done so on very rare occasions. But it’s just not something she is really into doing.

The decorations were awesome and done to theme really well. The placemats were designed to be coloured in, and colouring pencils as well. It was certainly well done and the food was great, as it had been all weekend.

 Talk went late into the night and there was a lot of laughter, singing happening over the course of the meal. There was even a quiz during the night and the Red Six (which Akela and I were in) did really well. We came 2^nd out of 5 teams, only being beaten by the Instructors team.

 Akela made sure we were in bed just before midnight – we weren’t the last ones to bed though as we left a few singing.

 

 

Palaver 2014 - Sunday

Today, there was a bit of a slow start, but we got going eventually. Our first session today was environmental activities with James. It was definitely interesting to see what was on offer at Woodhouse in the environmental centre.

 From there, we went to a session on BP, his history and involvement on Scouting.

Sessions on Cooking and Screen Printing followed, and were our final two sessions before lunch. This was another huge meal, and certainly saw Akela feeling rather full after the weekend. We are sure she ate more in this weekend alone than she does in a week at home! She is certainly going to have to hit the gym and hard to work off some of this food and no doubt weight gain!!!!! Lunch was followed by a clean up and the debrief / Cub Council and a lot of ideas were floated about how to promote and convey to others the fun and skills gained by attending a palaver.

 Overall, it was a enjoyable weekend and one that Akela will be back to do again next year.

 

 

Palaver 2014 - Friday Night

This evening, Akela and I arrived at Woodhouse to attend Palaver. Rather low key this year, with numbers down. But no doubt we are in for a good weekend. Looking at the program, there is very little crafty stuff, which will make Akela happy. She is not big on craft and prefers to be doing more active stuff with the Cub Pack!

We got to make a Jack o’Lantern, and a really nice supper with plenty of talking and catching up going on over a hot drink.

It was a early night though, as Akela still has her ear infection and taking medication. She didn’t wasn’t to over do it before the weekend started.

One Sleep to go

There is only one more sleep to go before we head to Revolution 2014! This is the combined Cub and Joey State Cub Camp and I am really looking forward to attending.

Hike the Heysen

Today, Seamus and I joined the Cubs from Playford and Mawson Lakes Cub Packs on a hike along the Heysen Trail. It was suppose to be a hike, followed by a sausage sizzle lunch and then some archery. However, the archery part had to be cancelled due to Insurance deciding that it wasn’t an appropriate Cub Activity. We are hoping that this will be changed in a few months though.

Either way, we decided that the hike component would still go ahead. Hike the Heysen is a branch activity, where Cub packs throughout the state would do a hike/walk along the Heysen Trail as a pack or district activity.

It was a nice day for the walk and everyone enjoyed themselves. Again, for those who are reading my blog and not from South Australia, more about the Heysen Trail can be found at the following link - http://www.heysentrail.asn.au/

Saturday at Palaver

What a nice morning it was at Woodhouse this morning, and it was pleasing breakfast was breakfast was at a somewhat civilized time of 8am (anyone who has been on camp with Akela knows she is just as likely to plan it earlier – but not today. It was at a decent time! And there was plenty of choice as well. No reason for anyone to say they were hungry...

Akela was running sessions this year around Wide Games, but didn’t have any for the first two sessions (there were 8 sessions, but only 4 groups of 6 people rotating through, so there was some free time for all). So, Akela, being the slack person she is (but I am sure she will disagree with me), took the time to staple the handouts together in the morning (I guess it beat staying up until goodness know what time last night to do it!).

Due to the nice weather today, the sessions Akela was running were held outside. It was certainly very nice. The first group who did the session, ended up on Challenge Hill to plan their game (Akela was doing a session around wide games, how to create them, when to run them and themes etc).

The groups worked really well together and now Akela has to type up the game notes into something that is a logical manner!

In addition, the food was great and there was plenty of it. No one was going hungry.

During the evening, everyone got dressed up for tea (except Akela – what a party pooper!!! But I did get pride of place sitting i her uniform pocket so could see everything that was happening) and there was a lot of fun to be had around the campfire after the meal.

 

What a full day of walking, and Challenge Hill

It was heaps cold here at Woodhouse. There was frost on the grass and it steamed as the sun came up over the trees. It was good to be able to sit there and watch while having a hot drink. Just a pity Akela couldn’t get any hot water in the showers this morning! So needless to say, the shower this morning got missed. Good thing she has deodorant!

 Once everyone had arrived, and tents had been set up, it was time to make lunch and get them into the day packs. The plan – to walk the Hysen Trail to Arbury Park and have lunch there. The walk counted towards the Nature Play badge that has just recently become available for Joeys to earn. While on the trail at different parts, the joeys were asked to stop and listen, to explain what they could hear. It was also about this time that the adults were trying to convince the Joeys that Drop Bears live in the trees they were walking under. We’re not sure they were convinced. Except when maybe Akela pointed out to Koala poo and told them it was Drop Bear Poo they gave it a bit of serious thought.

 After lunch was eaten, and the Joeys had run around the park and explored around the lake areas, we headed back to Woodhouse. It was definitely a nice day for a walk and a great day to take in the surrounds.

 Back at Woodhouse, it was time to get in touch with the On Duty Warden and have a safety talk about Challenge Hill (even if Akela wants to call it the Comando Course). The Joeys did VERY well and attempted every piece on Challenge Hill.

 On the way back to the Lones Hut, it was time to pick up pieces of wood for the campfire. There was certainly a lot laying around to use and everyone carried what they could back to the campfire area. It was important to have a lot of hot coals to cook tea as it was being cooked on the campfire pit. Well, the main course was – dessert was being cooked in the oven in the Lones Hut (apple pie). The tea turned out very well (sausages and veg) and the parents were surprised that the meal worked and that it even tasted good.

 After tea, it was time to simply sit around the camp fire and enjoy them warmth. It was kind of hard to do any singing with only two Joeys. However, they were quite happy to watch the flames and poke the wood before being sent to bed. A defiantly warmer place to be.