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I was on a mission to make a Spooky Scout Shed for my Joey Scouts and use as many recycled materials as I could.

Firstly I found someone who was giving away helium tanks on my local Buy Nothing Facebook page and she even posted inspiration that they could be turned into Halloween decorations. So I did that

Fluffy the drop bear.
After lots of comments about Halloween being American (which it isn’t it is Pagan tradition with origins from Scotland/Ireland) but anyway many older Australians are quite negative when it is just a bit of fun so I thought I would include a Drop Bear (Koala) to make it more Australian and Scouty. There is no Scout Leader or Scout in Australia that doesn’t have a chuckle over a drop bear story or two. I bought Fluffy for $5 from my local Salvo store and the lady at the counter told me he was so cute. I responded, “Not when I am finished with him”. She kind of gave me a weird look but I am used to that.

Zombie Barbie
I don’t particually like these gender stereotypical toys anyway so it gave me great pleasure to zombie up this “glam hairdressing doll” and call her Zombie Barbie.

Finished Spooky Shed video. Some parts are a bit dark in the end. This was reviewed with the Joeys and the following comments were made:

Not spooky enough need to have snakes
It was really scary and cool
I didn’t think it was that scary
I didn’t like the spiders in the tunnel

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Spooky Scout Shed 2019 #halloween #scouts #fun

A post shared by Scout Mum (@scoutmumaustralia) on Nov 3, 2019 at 8:27pm PST

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So this year Joey Scouts in Western Australia can camp in tents. It has been a bit of an experiment to work out what tents work best with this age group. A 4 man tent is what we have opted for and we have tried a couple so far and will continue to review more and put the results here.

Tent review

Oztrail Genesis 4 man tent

We bought 5 of these tents for Joey Scouts and Cub Scouts for a camp. This is a good size tent with a full fly. We bought them and took them on a winter camp which they are a bit breezy due to the mesh inner walls. This is a good cheap tent and easy to set up but really should be used in Spring/Summer due to the inside mesh walls

Black Wolf 4 man tent

Larger tents so the difficulty is shorter Joeys and Cubs have difficulty reaching the zips. They are great all weather tents and as long as you train the scouts to zip to the middle they are fine. We have had these tents for about 6 years and they are great if you take care of them.

Coleman 9 man tent

We recently hired tents for a camp and despite my strict instructions we were provided 2 x 3 room 9 man tents. We only put the Joey Scouts that had already done a few nights under canvas in these tents and the zip issues (and multiple zips) getting in and out – especially at night when they needed to go to the toilet were the only issue. These are warm and comfy tents and good quality. We also used these for older scouts in January for Jamboree 2019 (AJ2019) and the only problem there was that they are difficult and time consuming to put up with different colour poles, especially in the dust and heat of Tailem Bend in January.

Coleman Silver Series 6 Person Instant-Up Dome Tent

I used one of these tents for Jamboree and shared with another leader. These are awesome tents and so easy to put up. Recommend these for leaders as the 6 man has great extra space for leaders stretchers which is a must for 10 nights under canvas at Jamboree.

My son recently had to make up a menu for a Scout cooking competition against the Venturer section and as he is only 11 and just gone up to Scouts from cubs has limited cooking skills. He has been making Taco’s on Tuesdays while I am out at Joeys and therefore he wanted a Mexican theme for his cooking.

He decided on Crispy Chicken Tacos with a corn salsa for main meal and then Dessert Burritos for dessert. The dessert burrito was the winning dish and the Scouts won the cooking challenge against the Venturers.

Dessert Burrito

Burrito tortillas

Chocolate (we had a leftover large block from Smore cones from camp so used this- alternatively you could use small choc chips).

Mini marshmallows

Bananas (sliced)

Shaved Almonds (as didn’t want nuts to be large) – remember if you need a nut free activity do not include nuts. You could put berries or dried fruit in instead.

Method:

The scouts melted the chocolate in a bowl in the Microwave and added all the other ingredients. The alternative camping method was to wrap the burrito and wrap in alfoil and melt using the campfire or in a frying pan over a gas burner.

Can be served with cream, custard or ice-cream (if not camping).

The judge (my cub leader husband) was very impressed and said that it was so yum and not too much of any one ingredients. It was well balanced apparently.