Flag pole learning basics.

Using teaching aids to learn how to erect a flag pole assists with back ground visual knowledge. We use various teaching aids often when showing the Guides how to erect a flag pole. Like all things the picture might be worth a thousand words but to actually get the flag flying there is more than just hastly shoving up a pole with a few roles and rocks. It's having the background information and lots of practice.

Firstly there are the knots that need practising. Then the measurements that ensure the poles manageability are worked out. From the ground end to 1/3 of the way up is the focus point for tying the clove hitch. Leaving 2/3rds the height of the pole above this clove hitch. The clove hitch area is important as the ropes from one peg to the other run straight out (at a 180 deg ) either side to the pegs are then tied off with rolling hitches. The ropes to the peg are called guy ropes. The two guy ropes used for the four pegs cross over at the clove hitch point.

Starting at the top of the pole a grommet is tied onto the pole. The string that ties the grommet into position run twice around the pole. Then a reef knot [squareknot] ties the grommet into poistion. When the grommet is hand made there should be enourh string left to tie this onto place securely. When the grommet is made it is made small and tight.

The Halyard rope, which hoists the flag into position, runs through this Grommet. As a guess the halyard should be just shot of being one measure from the top of the pole to the cleat and back plus about another 1/4 meter for securing up the halyard.

The cleat is square lashed on at about elbow height of the Colour Bearer. The halyards are 'figure of 8' tied off at the cleat.

Encouraged to be written by Clear Vision

Set up a flag pole well.

Knowing how to set up a camp flag pole so that there is no danger of it falling down, or being in the wrong spot is something that can easily be learned by watching, trying and doing.....then doing again another time. On a slightly breezy day having time to watch you flag flap in the breeze is a good feeling. Knowing that that same breeze will not sent the pole sideways is even better!

One real trick to this is learning how to erect the flag pole and having a good grasp of background knowledge and experience. this will include knowing how to choose the right pole, the site, the size of the flag, the weather conditions, having the knots just the right tautness, tied in the correct spot, and of course having the appropriate knot tied for the job.

Written with Clear Vision

Igoogle

Now your on i Google

Written by Hazelwood and Churchill Girl Guide District

Encouraged to be written by Clear Vision

2010 State Sleep Over

A letter from the State Commissioner was sent out to the Hazelwood District team. There will be a State Sleep over in August or September 2010.

Written by Hazelwood and Churchill Girl Guide District

Encouraged to be written by Clear Vision

One Survival Game to play in bushland

This game was found in an old GIA magazine. By using this method as a base program activity the game can be changed and added to as the camps progress. Programs and themes change so do does the game focus.

Preparation
A copy of instructions per patrol. An area (island) marked out per patrol. Necessary or useful gear (as below) scattered about the area.
• odd ropes
• cups
• 'billy
• tea bags
• water
• powdered milk
• flour
• Ice-cream container
• Spoons
• Matches
• Slings
• A copy of semaphore
• Clue to the identity of the saboteur

N.B. You have to make sure that only one person has a tie on.
eg. EITR UOYF ODIR TEGKS IRT ASI YTITN EDIRU OYK| NIH TUO YFI

(Hint: If you can't work this out you
must be backward.)


Instructions to Patrol


You are the survivors of a plane crash. You are on an island with your fellow survivors and have no immediate means of getting home. Deal with the following problems as best you can using anything you can find on your island to salvage. You should deal with them in the order which you consider most important or practical. Remember that you can't swim across the shark infested waters to ask us for help. We might rescue you in about 1/2-2 hours.
• Make a shelter to protect you from the weather.
• Make a 'meal' of tea and damper.
• Administer First Aid to one of your group who has a broken leg, and transport her to the shelter.
• Send a message to the mainland (you're too far to shout and we can't see any signs you write).
• Find out who in your group sabo¬taged the plan and tie her up. (There is some clue in the wreckage as to who this person may be.)

Written by Hazelwood and Churchill Girl Guide District

Encouraged to be written by Clear Vision

The ideal water supply for Girl Guides out and about

I found that the ideal water supply to carry on mapping jobs and rogaines is one that is flexible enough to conform to your body shape in a back pack and is ready to yield a drink when needed.

Heavy fabric outer cover to contain wine cask bladder.



Rubber stopper with 8mm hole.
40rnm
8mm
Capacity is about 2.5 litres. Weight (full) is 2.8 kilograms.
Taps, tubes and stoppers are available from most home-brew supply shops.
Recycled art and craft day

The bladder from a wine cask is a safe food quality plastic, readily available but has limitations in its shape and its rubber dispensing tap. The bladder can be made to conform to many shapes when contained in a heavy fabric outer cover. The rubber tap can be replaced with a rubber stopper and a plastic tap. The first container I used was in the shape of a Spanish wine skin. Although comfortable in the pack it had the disadvantage of requiring a stop to retrieve it from the back pack to obtain a drink. The next modification added a clear plastic tube,

Several 2mm drill holes through tube.
long enough to reach from the back pack over the shoulder to hang at the waist with a small tap at the end. This worked well except that, at times, a hard suck was needed when the bladder blocked the end of the tube.
The latest model in the illustrations seems to have overcome this problem and proved satisfactory during several

bush walks and a rogaine. It enables small mouthfuls of water to be taken when needed, without stopping.
Can anyone suggest any improve¬ments?
Ray Kelly
Submitted by the Adventurous Activity
Resource Committee
Queensland

HOW could six ranger guides and two leaders best spend a Saturday afternoon? How could they involve almost 60 gumnut guides, brownie guides, guides and leaders, and even some little brothers and sisters? How could they stimulate the imagination, creative ability, inventiveness and design abilities in all these people?
The answer was the inaugural 1st Cairns Ranger Guide Unit Recycle Art and Craft Day. The aim of the project was to make the girls aware that almost everything can be recycled and used

again—it just takes some thought.

Patrol fires

You will need open space where many small fires can be lit. Give each P.L. a box of matches and a time at which every member of her patrol must have a fire burning. Every guide has a chance of making a fire, and the P.L. must organise as she thinks best — light them all together

Whistle relay

Patrols in relay formation, each member is given a different whistle or hand signal used in camp. Leader blows a signal at random, that guide runs to the far wall and returns to the patrol. Examples of signals — warning for a meal. Cool house, rally, P.L.'scome here, freeze, make a circle.

Knot queues X X X

"Nominate one or two Guides as catch­ers. Guides run about but when caught are taken to the Leader. They must tie the knot nominated by the count of five. If correct then they are free to run again. If not then go to the back of the queue and try again.

Tracking Tic-tac-toc

Using stones and twigs, arrange 9 tracking signs in a grid. Allow guides to look at it for 1 minute and then ask them to duplicate it exactly. Without looking at the orginal. Guides may work together in pairs, patrols or by self.

Campcraft acting

The Guides are numbered in their patrols. All no. 1's come to the leader who tells them a camp activity. They return to their patrols and mime it. The first patrol to guess correctly wins. Then no.2's go up for a different activity.

Examples — blowing the fire, knocking in a tent peg, making your bed, getting into bed, hoisting colours, campfire, breaking colours, washing up

.

A GAME FOR CAMP

Give the Patrol Leader's sealed orders. At a given signal, each one opens her envelopes.

FIRST CHALLENGE: Go with your patrol and collect 12 sticks 20 cms long and six sticks 10 cms long. Do not break them off trees. First patrol back with all sticks collects the next envelope.

SECOND CHALLENGE: Collect 12 small stones all the same size. Take to leader for next envelope.

THIRD CHALLENGE: Lay a trail with sticks and stones from your patrol tent to leader (or any given point). First patrol to finish with all signs correct gets points. (Could be checked by having the patrol second from another patrol follow the trail).

Woolly bag

Snug as a bug in a rug this piece of equipment is. Light weight to.

To keep super warm knit yourself a woolly bag. Use very fat needles - as fat as you can get and thin wool. Cast on about 60 stitches and knit loosely twice your length. Sew up the sides. Your bag should be very lacy - the more holes the better as it is.

GROUND SHEET

Next you will need a ground sheet made of any sort of waterproof material. You can buy ground sheets from a camping store, use heavy weight plastic or builder's plastic or an old shower curtain. Your ground sheet will need to be about 2 metres x 1 metre, a little longer and wider than your sleeping bag when it is rolled out.

I found that having the builders plastic really makes crinkles and russling sounds at night.  Also the builders plastic is 'slippery'.  The ground sheets that appear to be made of the matted plastic wear down slowly but you do not slip down wards so many times.  As things should have at least two uses on camp have you considered how the ground sheet itself would be protected from ripping if you had to use it for an emergency shelter?

When you are sleeping, your ground sheet protects your sleeping bag and sleeping mat or air mattress from moisture and protect you from the cold. The warmth of your body draws the dampness up out of the ground and the underneath of the ground sheet will be quite wet in the morning even if the ground appeared dry when you laid the ground sheet down.

During the day your ground sheet will form the waterproof outer layer of your bedroll.

The basic Sleeping bag

Firstly you will need a sleeping bag. There are basically two types of sleeping bags -ones filled with down or feathers and ones filled with synthetic material.

Down-filled ones are generally lighter, less bulky and warmer but they are mere expensive and harder to dry if they get wet.

Bags come in all sorts of shapes and thicknesses. Bags with a hood and drawstring around the neck will keep you warmer than those without. The warmest shape is called a "mummy" bag.

Choose a bag that has an insulated flap along the zip so that you don't get cold along the zip line and one that can be unzipped from the inside and outside of the bag.

Most sleeping bags come with a cover or stuff bag. Down sleeping bags are simply 'stuffed', feet end first into this bag. Synthetic sleeping bags are generally rolled up and slipped into their cover. If you don't have a cover for your sleeping bag you could make one or make a couple of strong bands of elastic to hold it together.

My mum used to use these in the sixties when we went camping.  You got it .  She learned this trick from her mum.  And relearned it when she was a Girl Guide just after the second world war.  How did you guess.  Yes her mum was a Girl Guide Leader too.

Linen inner sheet

A sheet inside your sleeping bag will add to your warmth and keep the inside of your sleeping bag clean. Sew an old flannelette sheet into a rectangular bag shape - leave the sides open near the top. A warmer, lighter sheet bag can be made from pure silk lining material. Buy double your length and stitch the sides.

Woolly bag

Snug as a bug in a rug this piece of equipment is. Light weight to.

To keep super warm knit yourself a woolly bag. Use very fat needles - as fat as you can get and thin wool. Cast on about 60 stitches and knit loosely twice your length. Sew up the sides. Your bag should be very lacy - the more holes the better as it is.

Ground sheet

Next you will need a ground sheet made of any sort of waterproof material. You can buy ground sheets from a camping store, use heavy weight plastic or builder's plastic or an old shower curtain. Your ground sheet will need to be about 2 metres x 1 metre, a little longer and wider than your sleeping bag when it is rolled out.

When you are sleeping, your ground sheet protects your sleeping bag and sleeping mat or air mattress from moisture and protect you from the cold. The warmth of your body draws the dampness up out of the ground and the underneath of the ground sheet will be quite wet in the morning even if the ground appeared dry when you laid the ground sheet down.

During the day your ground sheet will form the waterproof outer layer of your bedroll.

Not quite so sharp with a bit of padding

AIR MATTRESS OR PAD

You will be warmer and more comfortable in camp if you use a foam sleeping mat or pad or an air mattress. The foam pad is not quite as comfortable as an air mattress but will give you better insulation and hence greater warmth.

Air mattresses are bulky, heavy, need to be blown up and may puncture. If ycu use an air mattress, make sure your ground sheet is a little larger than it is so that the mattress will not get damp.

Sneeking in a pillow for camp.

PILLOW

Some people can manage without a pillow at camp, others can not. You can make a pillow by putting your spare clothing inside a pillow case and resting the case on your shoes. You can also get blow-up plastic ones which are light and small, or, you might like to just take a pillow with you. If you take a pillow be sure that it is protected from the weather. Put it into a garbage bag sealed with an elastic band until you use it at night.

Snuggles at night

When you go camping one of the most important things is to have a warm, dry bed. If you have the right equipment and look after it properly you will always have a snugly nest ready at night.

Toss the bedroll.

Learning to make and tie a bedroll properly is a challenge that once achieved few Guides will ever really forget.  Playing 'throw the bedroll' [of course it' s to see how well the tying of the packers knot actually is!!] is met with cheers when the ting bounces and rolls or merey  wobbles and then topples.  Cheers and laughter with an appreciation of a job well done or groans and a determination to do better nest time.  But the learning is there.  When the 'next time' rolls around so too is the determination to 'do her best'.  And this best is better than the last one.

The Arts.

• Promote,
• Investigate,
• Create,
• Try
• Become,
• Design,
• Learn
• Investigate
• Make,
• Play,
• Plan,
• Adult, OBP, QG, BP, JBP, Achieve, Explore

World

• Create,
• Raise,
• Undertake,
• Participate,
• Find-out-about
• Share
• Invite
• Exchange
• Plan
• Check-out

Air

• • Make
  • Attend.
  • Consider.
  • Take part in.
  • Share.
  • Investigate

Animal Tracks.

• 
  
  
  
  • Investigate 
  • Follow 
  • Visit 
  • Plan 
  • Lead 
  • Demonstrate
  •  Explore
  •  Invite
  •  Care for