Doing what we Do!!

Hot day here in Brisbane.. Muggy. So Minigoat and I are headed to the Library (airconditioned goodness) to program Term 1 Scouts. He's the new Scout Leader and I'm the one with programming experience.. so I'm sure we'll whip this over in no time at all.. :)

We are in for a super busy year with Scouts. 

Next January is the Australian Scout Jamboree and with that we need to prepare our Scouts for the biggest Scouting experience they will probably ever have, unless they attend an International Jamboree.

They must have a minimum level of skills and while we are aware of other groups which give free passes so to speak.. we WANT to make sure our Scouts go in as prepared as possible to ensure their Jamboree is a great experience not a struggle. 

Rest Day

Yesterday we had a day planned with 3 must do items.

1. Take Minigoat to abseiling (he helps Scouts have their first abseiling experience and has been busy on the courses all year.) 
2. Take JD to a semi-formal - his first and probably only semi, his first DATE, his first +1
3. Pick up Minigoat from work (he went after abseiling) and pick JD up from the semi-formal.

The rest of the day I planned to paint... paint... paint. 

Instead it went like this * sigh

1. take Minigoat to abseiling
2. received an 'alert' from my calendar telling me a Joey Scout event should be on that I should have been notified about that I wanted to attend. Arranged to meet the participants in the city at 1pm so I could take some photos and catch up with the darling Joey Scouts... 
3. tear about the house looking for documents I had put somewhere 'safe'. I did and they were still in my bloody diary where I left them. The diary was in my hand most of the time I was searching for the document... doh doh doh and they were always 'safe'
4. called my BESTEST GIRLFRIEND... AKA the BITCH...said with all the love in the world and talked for AGES.. as we should when we can ... not often enough.. she lives in Newcastle... INSERT HUGE SAD FACE
5. caught up with an 'old' friend who I'd lost contact with 20 years ago...... facebook can be wonderful
6. typed up draft emails for the week..... 
7. left a message for website domain peeps (another scoutie job) to get back to me in regards to 7 yes 7 websites I'm hoping to get launched this year.
8. read some blogs.. cause I CAN                    *pokes tongue out cheekily.. 
9. took a phone call re the websites.... yay.. looks like I can get moving pretty fast.. phew
10. rescued a crow from a young adolescent male Brush Turkey who was chasing and jumping on the crow.
11. removed multiple ticks from crow. The crow was more than happy for us to do this.(I should add we rescued another crow when it was trapped under a tree a couple of years ago and he and his family live on the property..we have no problem with them - the turkeys are another matter.)
12. pondered what our next move should be about the crow.. was unable to fly.. :( 
13. called 1800 ANIMAL which is actually the RSPCA and was advised to take the crow to the local Vet.
14. realised on way to the Vet there was NO WAY I would make it to the city for my meeting. Rang and apologised... :(( I wanted to go for just a little while.. arranged to meet at the den later for a group photo and pizza.. before the lights out.
15. Delivered crow and made sure if the crow was to be released it would be here at home... don't want to think about the other possibility. ... still I've cried tears for the crow. Praying he'll be home soon though.
16. Went to visit Minigoat at abseiling... 
17. Ran into some friends/fellow leaders from Scouts, had a chat and a laugh. Can now delete 2 emails when I get home.
18. Pretended I wasn't visiting Minigoat at abseiling and checked one of my Cub Scout packs who were abseiling... shhhhhh.. ( I can multitask)  took photos for websites.. 
19. watched the abseil team help a young special needs Cub down the wall... nearly cried when I saw the look of 'wow look what I did on his face... special moment'
20. left after pinching some mulberries from the park... mmmmm
21. I'M EXHAUSTED....just need to add that.... remembered to eat lunch
22. Waited while my gorgeous son got ready for the semi-formal by reading more blogs...
23. Delivered JD to the address supplied... found out where I had to pick him up...lol I needed that part..
24. Thought I would make a late dash into the city... I'm uniformed up and heading that way when I get an emergency call from work... JO WE NEED YOU
25. raced home, got changed and went to work.. texted to say I couldn't make the pizza or photos.. was told I'd be missed... I missed them.... :(((( big sad face. 
26. Grab MG - we work at the same place, and head to city to pick up JD
27. HOME - BED I never did pick up my art journal...sighs....

peace xxxx

Shock and Awe

We love being Scout Leaders and sometimes the darlings send us spinning and we have to figure out an appropriate way to deal with it. 

Recently on a camp one of our lads decided to put butane in a fire pit to 'assist' the lighting of the fire which resulted in a the whoosh of flames leaping out and almost burning 6 Scouts.

What to do??... we pondered as Leaders. I suggested we go in with a shock and awe approach. 

SHOCK AND AWE IT WAS - we decided we wanted them to see the consequences. Talking about fire safety, having the Rural Fire Brigade come and visit obviously had not worked. We wanted to scare the living daylights out of them... 

I grabbed some photos to put into a small slideshow of 2nd and 3rd degree burns and we sat the unsuspecting Scouts down after they had finished the evenings activities. I checked with the Group Leader and shaking in my boots I let them see the realities of what 

I talked about Butane gas and the way it works, I talked about the operations a burns victim would experience throughout their life, I talked about airways being compromised by hot air and I showed them the photos.. Of people burnt by a campfire.. and they went quiet. I talked about how to put a fire out, of the importance of having buckets of water near a campfire and then I hit them with the big one.. told them they would only be allowed to eat salads on camp if they were caught being unsafe around a fire again... (hit them where it hurts.. the stomach...lol) 

I told them how important they are to me..  told them that I don't see them as just Scouts.. I see them as MY kids and that their safety is the most important thing to me.   

I hope they got the message 

As the parents came to pick them up I warned them if there were any nightmares it was my doing ..... but explained the rationale behind the decision and they were all very happy with what we did except one Mum who asked me if it was a good thing to do psychologically? 

 Was it?

 As I told her - I would rather them have a sleepless night or two thinking about how close six of them came to being burnt and knowing the consequences compared to not saying anything and having 6 Scouts in hospital because 1 of them was stupid around a fire and the rest didn't do anything to stop them.




I've waited a couple of days since writing this to publish.. I'm still working on my chicken side...lol BUT I was talking to the Scouts at another event when we had a debrief. They brought it up and I asked if they think the message was taken... what did you learn on Thursday night? ... I was told with the straightest of faces 'not to eat before going to Scouts.." LMAO.. then with a smile the same young man told me he thought it was good we showed the photos so he can make sure he never has to see it in real life with his friends or family.... I feel better about it now. 

I'mmmmm BACCCCCKKKKKK

Hi there - it's Woodpuddle, aka Jo or Joe here.. doing an introductory post.


Big Waves from Down Under. Queensland,  Australia  where most days it's beautiful.. except when it's not. :) and that's not too often.


I emptied my blogs.. wiped them clean a while back. It wasn't how I wanted ME to be represented any more. BUT I'm missing blogging. ALOT. I liked meeting new peeps who I had stuff in common with. 


I felt like I was whiny and moany and groany and that isn't how I am IRL. I was not being AUTHENTIC. I was putting my shit problems out there in cyberspace but NOT putting the GREAT STUFF.. THE HAPPY STUFF. The stuff that is the reality of my life.... in my defence I was going through alot so I guess the problems were my authentic life but when I looked back and read my blog.... I went back to the really really bad negative head space, the sadness, the fear, the suicide, the heartache, the issues with peeps I thought were friends. I was also being stalked by one who face to face was lovely but in the background a very dangerous nasty piece of work 'friend'. 


I'VE MOVED ON AND LIFE IS SPECTACULARLY UNREAL.


So I begin again and am hoping to have a balance.. and this time WOODPUDDLE stays. (that means I'm not allowed to delete posts unless I really really must.. which I mustn't - except when it's really really bad)

JD, Minigoat and TJ

What might you find here... well I babble on a lot in real life about absolute crap so I might do that here. 


We are all (that's mum, dad and the 3 boys) Scouts. ..Photo is a couple of years old but I don't have many of them in uniform together because of their ages they do different things at different times. Aren't they gorgeous. 


What else.. PHOTOS I love taking photos of animals.. sometimes good sometimes not so good but I'll pop them on here when I feel inspired.. Animals are a huge part of where we live.. we call home Woodpuddle. We have the marsupials, snakes, amphibians, cat, dog, fish... so I babble on about them occasionally. 


ART -- Now this is really important to me.. It's my release. When I'm painting or whatever, I'm not Mum, Jo, Joe, Woodpuddle... I'm just me having fun. I do mixed media art, art journaling, painting, drawing, sketching, doodling and all manner of other STUFF and I'll put links to my favourites that other people do.


I guess to learn more about me you'll have to come back. Please say hello!! 


Oh yeah.. if you're a troll and I doubt that you are but just in case you .. bugger off. I've dealt with your kind before and you won't win this time... :) 
The opinions on here are mine.. and only mine and if you you disagree so badly with what I think and say or with what another person has posted and the only way you can deal with it is to be nasty.. F*ck Off. I will delete your crap imediately. You're NOT welcome.


With that out of the way..  I say Hellloo from Woodpuddle.. aka Jo - I can't wait to get to know you all..