Thursday the 21st was a busy day due to preperation for the Order of the Arrow (OA) ceremony. Behind the scenes a Native American council fire is being prepared for the evening. The symbol of the OA is a red arrow (see image) which comes from a story of a young Native American boy named Red Arrow who kills a bear to save a young child and dies in the process. He is given a funeral of a chief because he had served the tribe more than any other person.

People in the Archery merit badge have to make an arrow for a requirement to get the badge. The machine I am using is an arrow crester and it puts the crest or the personal touch on the arrow. Sharpies, lighters, and other materials, even raspberries, can put a crest on your arrow. When we get to finish the arrows we get to shoot them at a target. Another requirement is to make a bow sting which I hope to use when I fire my arrow.

Today the weather has cooled downed. But some of us have been still doing some work in the heat at the forge for metalworking. For this merit badge we have been working on a hanger that you can pound into a tree and the hang things on. with this project we had to learn to hammer a tapper which is kind of like a spike almost. and then we added a twist in the middle and to finish it off we made the hook part. It was hard work but Harrison, Zach, Daniel, Drew, Jeremy and I made through the heat and made great hangers.

Our camp uses clean trays, and after a very gooey meal, we have very gooey trays. This morning, I had chocolate syrup and normal syrup on my tray, let me tell you, its really hard to clean. It took about 3 minutes to clean the tray and 30 seconds to wash it. We use a paper towel to wipe the tray first. Then we dip them in 3 tubs, first is soapy water, then we rinse, finally we sanitize, then we hang them up on a string to dry them. We must clean them before we do anything else after eating. Everything is checked by Hayden's mom. The paper towels are mostly provided by Hayden's Dad.