[Irish]

So as Mike and I have had our bunnies to the grind stone getting the site updated ... shameless self-promo there Susan! And as it's a holiday weekend. And as both of us are totally fried ... I snuck out of the shop this morning to go play down at the lily pond.

So ... if you want a fun and extremely rewarding project this summer here's our recipe.

If you have different ingredients, please chime in!!!!!

Cub Scout Lily Pond

4 square yards of sunny yard space
1 or 2 garden hoses
5 large bags of sand
1 very large stack of old newspapers
1 roll of 25' x 100' black plastic
a bunch of shovels, maybe 1 pitch ax
a pile of landscaping rocks
1 Cub Scout troop
1 camera

1. Mow the grass closely, remove any sticks or rocks.

2. Lay out a semi-round or kidney shape with the garden hose.

3. Invite your local troop of Cub Scouts to come and earn a merit badge
Ask them to wear their swim suits.

4. Give them the shovels (you get the pitch ax) and instruct them to dig a hole about one foot deep starting in the center of your garden hose circle. Take pictures!

5. Set the grass soil pieces aside for later.

6. Remove any big rocks and pile the dug dirt along the edge of the garden hose circle.

7. Make one area of the dug hole shallow for bog plant pots. More pictures!

As the digging progresses you will see that you are both dropping the center of the pond area while you are raising the edges or sides. This makes a raised pond that doesn't flood with run-off water and means you only have to dig half as deep for a 2' - 3' deep pond.

8. When the pond is dug pack well by lightly soaking the hole with the garden hose and a spray nossel. Send the Cub Scouts into the center of the hole to both stomp the soil and to get totally and throughly soaked down Even more pictures!

8a. Take the sod pieces and turn them root side up. Place them along the top edge of the pond ... wet and pack into place. This makes a strong and level top edge for landscaping rocks later. 9. Remove the Cub Scouts from the hole ... pour a layer of sand on the bottom of the hole, rake smooth. You want about 3" of sand.

10. Re-insert the Cub Scouts, hose down the sand and them and have them pack that layer. OK ... you know, more pictures!

11. Now lay sections of newspaper over everything including the walls and sides of the pond. Let the newspaper extend over and beyond the sides into the grass area. You want at least 3 layers of newspaper sections over everything.

12. Repeat step 10.

13. Cut three layers of black plastic at least 6' bigger than your hole.

14. Have the Scouts walk the plastic over the hole, center it, and lightly lay it down. Anchor the sides of the plastic with large rocks. More pictures!

15. Begin adding water to the pond. As the water fills the plastic it will begin to weight the center down, adjust the anchor rocks as necessary so that the plastic is slowly lowered by the water into the hold.

16. When the pond is full roll the excess plastic under the edges of the pond.

17. Lay landscaping rocks along the top of the pond edge and along the sides to hide the plastic.

18. Let the pond rest for one week before adding fish or plants !

19. Fire up the grill.

20. Lay on lots of hot dogs and hamburgers, add baked beans, potato chips, watermelon, ice cream and lots and lots of praise for a job very well done. More pictures and maybe one group picture with everyone standing around the pond.

21. Send copies of your photos and a short story about how your local Cub Scout group created this wonderful pond for you while earning a merit bade. Be sure to include every Cub Scouts name.

22. Sit back, smile, and enjoy the sound of gently splashing water as you read the Local Mentions about a great group of kids!!!!

Susan

[Marci MN]

Beautiful!!

Okay..how come we dont get to see wet cub scouts in swimsuits?? :P

[Irish]

Oh, sorry Marci! Our pond was done way before digital cameras ...

The only photo even close to what you want is posted here on a digital scrapbooking forum. It's my Dad between 1940 and 1945. The right photo is him somewhere in the European theater doing laundry. And, of course, since he was washing his fatiques the only thing left to where was the towel.

1940-1945

Susan

[AlArchie]

Ain't it amazin what a buncha 9 year olds can do, given the right incentive?! Haven't worked with Cub Scouts since 1979, but the older Boy Scouts in our district have developed over 50 miles of hiking and biking trails, reclaimed more miles of trout streams and got the Trout Unlimited organization interested in developing even more, built several small parks for sr. citizens, community gardens, provided floating loon nesting at half a dozen isolated small lakes in the Ottowa National forest, fenced playground areas for toddlers, built and put up over 20 wood duck nesting boxes, cleaned over ten miles of highway twice each year for the past 15 years, developed and staffed first aid/cpr training for every 6th grader in the county at a special spring camp out, developed a child ID system for our local sheriff, all with donated supplies, material and labor!

Who says today's kids are lazy and uninvolved?

Al

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

thing Al...is that to our media....GOOD kids aren't newsworthy, We seldom hear about them! And you are right, some great kids out there! (I think I better add in here that some of those "great " kids are right now serving in our millitary! I salute them all, boy and man!

[whitecree]

The media loves disasters, bad boys (& bad girls!) and all things negative.


Kids crave order, attention and healthy discipline.

My point? I dunno, I'm just cruising the boards on a boring Saturday morning.

[Kenny_S]

Isn't that the truth,Dave. To add to Al's posts, Our troop as also done the trails and reclaimed over grown Cemetaries. Several of the Eagle scout projects were to add to our community two parks by adding a shelter house and building picknick tables and providing a walk way or Bike trail as it is called completely around our town. But any press is of a small percentage of hoodlums that go and destroy what these great kids have accomplished. Shame.

Irish, great looking pond and from a Scout leader, I thank you for involving a great group.

[Claude]

Susan - thanks for involving the youth in a fun project. As a former Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, and numerous other jobs, it's always helpful to have someone offer a project for the scouts that is fun and has a definite goal they can see.

Claude

[Irish]

Perhaps Mike and I are lucky as our local newspaper, The Frederick News-, loves to run 'good kids' stories. I think they do because our community takes the time to take photos, write little articles and send them in.

I think that sometimes WE forget that good kids are more than news worthy and they WE forget to notify the newspapers or radio stations that they are doing something good.

WE, John Doe GeneralPublic, are the ones that call in the news ... when did you last call in or write in a 'caught them doing something good' story ???

Susan

[Kenny_S]

The sad thing Susan, Locally speaking, they only print the bad things. Makes good copy and gossip. Good stories don't sell as well as bad ones.
ABut yes, I let the papers know and have the little bride write up and sen in as me english ain't so good. Yep, that be right, Plainly speacking, I ain't got no good emglish.

But like I posted before, Thank you for involving such a great group.
If you have Girl Scouts, they work hard also.