General Chat

My sister - who, yesterday, took a group of teenagers down to Devizes for the weekend, for their Duke of Edinbugh Award camping/walking expedition! :-( :-S

Ooo. Soggy wet clothing and gear.

Need to line their stomachs with plenty of Wiltshire lardy cake :-D

It was bad enough last weekend - she took a different lot to some other remote area of Wiltshire, the heat was unbearable - and there was a rowdy wedding party on site, too.

I wonder how long they were stuck in traffic on the A303 on Friday?

Their 'pitching a tent' activity will be put to the test - I think those whose tents stayed put should get extra points!:-D :-D :-D

Oh dear maybe a tad damp this morning....do they do laundry awards??

Don't beleive they do, Caroline. Nor awards for sitting around in soggy clothes :-D

There are also 2 dogs on this event, one cool, calm and collected Saluki, who has been doing it for years, and my sister's manic 'teenage' labrador! :-D :-D :-D

I did keep reminding her to take a towel or two for the dog, I still think the dog will be disgustingly damp when she wants a bedtime cuddle 'beause she's in a strange place' (sister's excuse), when in reality the dog's just being a pain in the neck :-D :-D :-D

How are the dogs with thunderstorms?? Damp dogs always a pleasure for sure.

The Saluki is okay.
My sister's dog has only encountered one thunderstorm - in the house, and wasn't particularly bothered.
A thunderstorm whilst in a tent is a different matter.
It'll probably be an excellent excuse for the dog to cuddle my sister.
Let's hope her camp bed is stable. It collapsed last tme we were camping :-D :-D :-D

My daughter did that "pitching a tent activity" for her DofE back when she was in high school, refused to take our little tent because "a school friend has offered hers to my tent mate".

Hmmmmmm, yes

They didn't check it before they left, set about putting it up in pouring rain, and discovered the outside tarp cover was missing, so there was a bloomin' big hole at the top.

The teacher in charge was seemingly not happy :-D and I think gave them something that might help, but it rained heavily all night. Well, it was April in west coast rain forest :-D

You can guess the state her clothes were in when she got home!

She did get that award, Bronze I think it was, but didn't go any further, although she now says she wishes that she had done.

Sylvia - :-D :-D :-D

My sister may help run the DoE, but, I'll whisper this - *she's never done it, herself*

Though you could say, staying in a tent all weekend, checking on teenagers, and cooking etc (though not for the children) is nearly doing it.

Sister is 69 and a half. She insisted on being precise in our 'youff', so I'll be precise now :-D
C - the owner of the Saluki - and the other Dof E trainer is in his 80's!

They also run a charity - not for profit - camp site, for cubs, guides, a getaway for inner city children, organisations/events lke that.

The only person in the family who's ever done the Dof E is my eldest grand daughter. For her volunteer stint, she helped out in the cub pack her 2 (much younger) brothers went to. She finally extricated herself, 3 years later! :-S

Good on her, Maggie. Hope they're not too soaked and do well with their results.

Think your sister, on her collective supervision duties, probably deserves a GOLD DofE award. Think I'd need to be persuaded with (lots of) cold, hard cash to undertake such an activity, even once!!!!! ;-)

This (and last weekend's) lot are from last year. Due to the pandemic, they couldn't camp, so they had to remind them of what they'd forgotten before taking them away.

Over the years, the head of the school the children come from has willingly let them borrow their minibus to take the children to their destination.
They have a new head - he didn't see why he should lend it to them. :-0

They persuaded him, on the promise it would be the last time - as they told the head, they assume, from his attitude, that the he would like the school to take over responsibility for the Dof E in future!

I expect they'll be able to borrow it next year. :-D

Due to their age, my sister and C have suggested the school where the children come from, starts doing the D of E, but strangely, they haven't volunteered.

They also run the campsite, which means deep cleaning it after every group, cutting grass, hedges, keeping trees safe (they get a tree surgeon in for that), running maintenance, checking play equipment is safe etc

Before the pandemic, various family members would go up, and we'd clear gutters, (store rooms, toilets, a schoolroom and kitchen) repaint, walls etc, and our reward would be a mass family gathering, in tents, over a weekend, with feral grandchildren :-D :-D

It's wonderful for wildlife. There are small areas of woodland around the site.
We know there are moles by the state of the grass :-| (also very uncomfortable and weird if you're sleeping on the floor, and Mr Mole decides the area below the small of your back is the BEST place to come up).
They occasionally have to get in an old-fashioned mole catcher to keep the numbers down
There's a Badger Sett or two, Owls of varying types, bats, kestrels, deer, foxes, obviously rabbits, mice of various types, swallows nesting in one of the storerooms, and last time I was there I saw a pole cat!

They have one camera up - initially bought because twice, they found a dead savaged deer. There is a public path through the campsite, and people walk their dogs there, but they're meant to be kept on leads.
Both deer were found off the public path, so they put the camera up to catch what was killing the deer (probably a dog). They also took a picture of the second savaged deer, and put it on the gate, as an explaination of why dogs should be on leads. There have been no killings since.

I'm nagging them to put night time cameras up, and report their sightings of beasts to the relevant societies - I'd also love to know the types of bats that are flying around. :-D :-D