Make your own boat - Primary boy's activity

Hello Chaska Primary Boys!

If you have found this blog you have received your boat kit... Yea!!

For this activity you will be using closed cell foam to make a boat.

You can make any kind of boat you want, let me give you a few ideas. Then use your imagination to do what you like best. 

Send me a picture of your boat and I will add it to the blog for others to see.

Here is my favorite boat I made... happy sailing R2D2.

These three examples show boats without the foam being shaped, of course with adult help the foam can be trimmed to look like a boat.

1) Balloon boat
     This boat uses a 3/8" elbow to connect a balloon to the boat.
   

Push a hole into the foam (you may need help) I used an envelope opener.

Push the 3/8" elbow into the foam.

 

Keep pushing until the elbow goes all the way in.

The barbed end will look like this.

You want the elbow pointed to the back of the boat.

Attach the balloon to the large opening.

Blow up the balloon and cover the hole on the bottom to keep the air in until you get to the water.
(I found if I blow up the balloon and then have someone pinch off the air, I can put the balloon back onto the elbow.)

Here is one in the bathtub...

The ripples of water are made by the balloon pushing out the air, 

2) Sail boat

    By pressing a stick into the foam you can attach a paper sail.

    Here is an example...

Notice the hole, this was where the 3/8" elbow was inserted for the balloon.

3) Paddle wheel boat (most difficult and will need adult help)

     See photo below

    Adult - Make a cutout for the paddle wheel

    Adult - Cut of an inch off each side of the foam paddle

    Adult - Take the paddle piece and slice it in half like cutting open a bagel

    Adult - Cut a slit in each foam piece as shown (the slit will expand when you push them together)

    Adult - Insert Ka-bob skewers in the the foam to give support to the paddle wheel

    Adult - Help assemble as needed

Example of the finished boat

    

This boat could also be improved by using two pieces of plastic for the paddle like cutting the lid of an ice cream pail, etc.

    

    

The most important part is to have fun while you learn some handcraft skills!

At lunch I walk the trail behind the office, today I saw many turtles sunning from logs in the lake. This picture was taken from my cell phone camera, a number of them were too shy and dropped into the lake before I took the picture.

The Hub and Spoke Brand

I have stood on sacred ground at times in my life, but none has been as moving as the ground made sacred by the Martin handcart pioneers in Wyoming near Martin's Cove. I think it no accident that the man who later settled this land (knowingly or not) made tribute to the handcart pioneers by selecting the "hub and spoke" as his cattle brand. The hub and spoke maybe because it looked like a sun and the man's last name was Sun, but also because there were so many abandoned handcart wheels on his ranch where all that remained were the hub and spokes. I am moved by the sacrifice made by these saints who walked across the wilderness facing hardships to get to Zion.

Gordon B. Hinckley said in General Conference 1996 "I take you back to the general conference of October 1856. On Saturday of that conference Franklin D. Richards and a handful of associates arrived in the valley. They had traveled from Winter Quarters with strong teams and light wagons and had been able to make good time. Brother Richards immediately sought out President Young. He reported that there were hundreds of men, women, and children scattered over the long trail from Scottsbluff to this valley. Most of them were pulling handcarts. They were accompanied by two wagon trains which had been assigned to assist them. They had reached the area of the last crossing of the North Platte River. Ahead of them lay a trail that was uphill all the way to the Continental Divide with many, many miles beyond that. They were in desperate trouble. Winter had come early. Snow-laden winds were howling across the highlands of what is now western Nebraska and Wyoming. Our people were hungry, their carts and their wagons were breaking down, their oxen dying. The people themselves were dying. All of them would perish unless they were rescued."

He went on to say.

"Stories of the beleaguered Saints and of their suffering and death will be repeated again and again next year. Stories of their rescue need to be repeated again and again. They speak of the very essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am grateful that those days of pioneering are behind us. I am thankful that we do not have brethren and sisters stranded in the snow, freezing and dying, while trying to get to this, their Zion in the mountains. But there are people, not a few, whose circumstances are desperate and who cry out for help and relief."

Today in a special priesthood meeting President Schnieber invited the priesthood leadership to step up their efforts to reach out to those in need of spiritual and physical nourishment. I was moved by the spirit felt as moved as when standing on the sacred ground at Martin's Cove.

I will step up my efforts to serve God by serving his children.

Pirate for Halloween

I was a pirate for Halloween, Capt. Jack Sparrow to be precise. It was amazing how many people did not know who I was !!

Family Photos

We are all together for a short moment; here is our moment...

Funny thing with cell phones…

I’m cooking outside when I get a text message from a number I don’t recognize.

The message string goes like this:

Text “Hey”

I don’t know who it is so I text a “?”

Text “Whats wrong?”

I still don’t know this person “Who r u?”

Text “Miriam”

I know a Miriam but don’t text with her, so I send “Are you trying to reach Mark?”

Text “Whos mark?”

I text “I am.”

They text “Oh, how old are you?”

Oh brother, I text “Older than dirt”

They text “Haha”

Encampment 2009

• The sun cooked 'em (heat index of over 104)
• And burned 'em (everyone had some lobster spots)
• The bugs ate 'em (average bug bites per leg over 20)
• Mother Nature soaked 'em (rain on Wednesday and Saturday)
  

On Saturday we brought our burnt, bug eaten, soaked, hungry, tired carcasses home!

Encampment 2009 was "Fantastic"! (as Jack would say).

As the saying goes. "Leave only footprints, and take nothing but memories". We left footprints:

• On the Disc Golf courses ["Dude, good times"]
  
• At the range (way to go Robinhood Chris and Tristin)
• At the Merit Badge classes [the Deacons each worked on 3-4 MBs, my favorite was watching Matt D. dance his fly fishing rod like a pro],
  
• At the beach watching the cardboard and duct tape boats sink with their passengers
• At the climbing tower [but don't touch the black ones, they burn your hands - Daniel]
• Footprints in the night to help a neighbor take down his tent while he's a sleep - Matt C.
• To the shower that was stuck on the coldest setting - can you say "refreshing"?
• At the secret lodge where we snuck in for some air conditioned games of Perudo [you gotta' get out of the heat] and wood carving - Tristin