Spring 2009 Ordeal Recap

We had a great Ordeal down at Camp Jeremiah Johnson this weekend. Before things got started, the elangomats met together for a training session and to look over the camp and service projects we would be working on. We kicked things off for the whole group with a welcome dinner and spent some time playing games as clans before we started Ordeal itself.

22 candidates participated in the ordeal along with 8 elangomats and were inducted into the Order on Saturday evening. The arrowmen on site were able to do a lot of work and got the camp nearly ready for the wave of cub scouts that will pour over it this summer. After the Ordeal, we enjoyed a feast of stew, salad, rolls, Philmont peach cobbler, and ice cream with the arrowmen and their families..

It was also great to have our Lodge chief join us in service during the afternoon, and then to have him welcome our new members at the feast. Thanks for coming out Stephen.

I'd like to thank Steve Bunker and Bob Walsh who helped oversee the activity; the Ceremony Team from the Nez Pierce chapter for providing our ceremonies; Glen Westbroek, Greg Gibson, Larry Hall, Matt Hornback, and 'Woody' Woodward who all gave up part of their weekend to help recognize our newest members.

We owe a special thanks to Ann Shumway and KC Clark, the Camp Directors at Jeremiah Johnson, who were gracious enough to let us come out and hold our ordeal at their camp.

We can't wait to see all of Lakota arrowmen at our next activity, don't miss out on the food and fun.

Donuts

Ok, since some folks have asked (and Mr B even dropped a comment about it), here's the recipe:

In a gallon sized zip bag, mix
4 1/4 cups flour
4 Tbs sugar
3 Tbs dry milk
1 tsp salt
2 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 tsp mace

Then put the first bag into a second gallon sized bag (double-bagging keeps the dry ingredients from making too much of a mess).

About 1 hour before you're ready to cook the donuts, mix 1 1/4 cups water and 2 Tbs oil into the dry ingredients. Mix well. You can add up to 1/4 cup additional later if needed. The dough should be smooth, not sticky, and should be stretchy. Cover the dough and let it rise. You can leave it in the bags to rise or put it in a bowl.

Heat vegetable oil in a dutch oven. You need about 2 inches of oil to fry the donuts in. The oil is hot enough (350-400 deg) when a bit of dough dropped into it bubbles and floats.

Shape donuts (cut them, tear them, whatever works for you and your scouts), then fry them in the hot oil, turning occasionally. When they are golden brown, pull them out and let them drain/cool. Tossing them in cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar adds a nice touch.

Show and Do Camporee, Spring 2009

Four members of the Lakota chapter went to the Cascade District's Spring Camporee at Simpson Springs to camp as a chapter. Two more youth arrowmen were there with their units. We also found that we had seven adults members of the Order there — now we need to recruit them into the chapter.

While we were there, we had four goals:

1. To provide on-site support for the camporee
2. To perform our call-out ceremony
3. To take part in the Show and Do activity
4. To have a good time camping as a chapter

Our chapter was the first unit on site. We split up, so that we could get our campsite set up and set up people at the entrance and the camping area to great incoming scout units and direct them to where they needed to be. It was good to see arrowmen serving the district like this.

The call-out ceremony went very well. We had about a dozen candidates called out, and the rest of the scouts and scouters in attendance seemed impressed with the whole thing. The candidates and members portion of the ceremony was held in a blind draw out of sight of the rest of camp, and was a great introduction and invitation to the Ordeal (without violating its mystery).

For the show and do, our chapter made donuts. It seemed like we had a pretty long line of scouts waiting to get a fresh donut. Hopefully, it showed everyon that there are some great breakfast options for a camp-out. I really enjoyed hearing the pro-OA buzz that it created among the other campers.

I think the best part of heading to the camporee as a chapter was just being able to hang out together. We had a good time camping out, and everyone enjoyed a 'quick' post-camporee run to the geode beds. (OK, so it was more like a half hour drive than a quick trip, but we all had fun anyway.)

Good luck to all of the candidates who were called out, we can't wait to see you at one of the upcoming ordeals. Maybe in the fall, you can be part of the call out team.