COMPLETE - Fall Fun Patch

Fall Fun Patch – Troop #346

Scout Name: ___Paul_________________
Date: ____________________
Costs: ___Cost of Craft Supplies - Varies_(Probably less than $5-10)_____________________     Patch - $1.69_____________

Directions: Listed below are 10 steps to complete. At the end get Miss Anarcadia or Beta-Pup to mark them off. Then turn in the sheet and patch fee to receive your patch (to be ordered).

1. How do you feel about the Fall? Do you love it or is it not your favorite? Tell the troop or write in your notebook 3 good things about the Autumn.

- I like the Fall because it gets cooler and I can wear hoodies, which I like a lot. And it's better for wearing lots of leather, too!
- Fall means lots of candy and social activities.
- Everybody else is cheerful in the Fall, so I like being around them more.

2. Brainstorm for October/Halloween. What can we get together to do? A hayride? A Halloween party that is age appropriate? Participate in the troop discussion in person or online. And what is something you want to share with your ageplay friends? Bobbing for apples? Dressing in costumes? Carving or painting pumpkins? Baking pumpkin pie?

- Bonfires, s'mores, and just hanging out in the dark is lots of fun. Another little is having a Halloween party, so that'll be fun to do. We brainstormed party ideas with her at the Little Scouts meeting; we'll probably be playing several games and dressing in costumes and painting little pumpkins. We talked about maybe all getting together at a coffee place for pumpkin-flavored coffee, hot chocolate, and sweet treats.
 
3. The Autumn Equinox is on Friday, September 22nd this year (2017, update if you are working in later years). What is an equinox? What is a solstice? What does the change mean for the animals? With the troop make your own pine-cone bird feeder to hang up outside for the birds who are still heading south and,  more importantly,  for the birds who have hung around and are having a hard time finding food as it gets colder.

- A solstice is the longest or shortest day of the year, and the equinox is the mid-point between soltices. Fall means animals have to start really preparing hard for winter; storing food, getting fat, building warm dens. Or flying to a warmer area. I made a pine-cone feeder and hung it on our back porch, where the hummingbird feeder goes during the Spring and Summer.

4. A new season is always creatively charged with good energy. With the troop create an Autumn craft, the marbled leaf bookmark. Make two of them (see step 7 why). (See http://www.teachingwithtlc.com/2012/09/create-marbled-fall-leaves-with-shaving.html for reference.)

- I made an oak leaf and a maple leaf. I also traced and cut out so many leaves for other scouts while we were getting ready! This is the first time I've used shaving cream and dye to paint something!

5. What are some fun things that happen in the fall where you live? Brainstorm at the meeting. Then at home start or add to a post online for the troop to share events that are happening this season in Middle Tennessee.

- The Zoo does stuff all through October; there are so many haunted houses and hayrides and stuff. I started the discussion online.

6. What is the best part of being your little/caregiver/non-bio age in the Autumn? Is it going back to school? The change in the weather? The Fall colors? The excuse to snuggle more? Tell the troop in person or write about it in your journal.

- The chance to eat all the candy and good foods! Chili and caramel apples are some of my favorites! More leather being worn gives me the chance to do more bootblacking, too.

7. In step 4 you created two crafts. Keep one and give the other to someone you couldn’t be at the meeting. Maybe another Scout, or maybe someone in your life who you want to share a pretty treat with.

- I gave my other leaf to my Boss. He didn't seem too impressed at first, but later asked me how it was made.

8. We had fun making crafts, now time to clean up everything (even if you’re doing this at home). A good Scout always leaves a place better than they found it.

- We all cleaned up the Community Center together.

9. Flip over the leaf from step 4 that you are keeping. Write your name at the top of it. Now everyone go around and write a nice, happy, warm word or thought about the person who owns the leaf to keep them nice and toasty with good feelings as the weather gets colder.

- I tried to write at least something on everyone's leaf. Mostly I wrote 'Happy Fall!' because I don't know most of the other scouts very well.

10. Promise to help a Scout who couldn’t be here to get their steps done and patch earned. You can help them in person or online.


____________________ has completed all 10 steps and given payment to receive this patch.

COMPLETE - Red Panda Rangers Badge

This Saturday (9/16/17) is International Red Panda Day. So our troop is looking at the activities at the Red Panda Ranger Webpage and figuring out what kind of reward we can get for doing all of their stuff. We also have a Red Panda Activity Book to do.

Fill out this questionnaire:

1. What is your name and address? If you have an e-mail address, feel free to write that down, too!
 - My name is Paul. I'm one of the alters of Meronym. I'll put our address and email on the email where I send my stuff to turn in.

2. How did you first learn about red pandas? (your teacher, a friend, a book?)
- I think the first time I saw a red panda was at the Nashville Zoo. I thought they looked like real-life stuffed animals!

3. Now let’s test your red panda knowledge. Can you name one country where red pandas are found in the wild?
- Nepal, India, China, Myanmar, and Bhutan

4. Why are red pandas the “original” pandas (instead of giant pandas)?
- Because people described them decades before ever describing the giant panda, in 1821.

5. What is a Nepalese name for red pandas, and what does it mean?
- 'Nigalya poonya' means 'eater of bamboo'.

6. Why are red pandas sometimes called “firefoxes?”
- They are approximately fox-sized, but colored red and orange, like a fire.

7. How does a red panda’s red fur help them hide from predators?
- From above, their red fur is the same color as some moss in their environment, but from below, the dark fur makes them harder to spot.

8. Do red pandas have claws?
- They have semi-retractable claws that are very sharp.

9. Red pandas and giant pandas are both famous for eating a particular plant. In the wild, a red panda can eat up to 200,000 of this plant’s leaves every day. What plant is it?
- They eat a lot of bamboo. Red pandas also eat insects and eggs and fruit.

10. Are red pandas more closely related to giant pandas or raccoons?
- Not very closely; they are their own separate family.

Your task

Draw a picture of the best place for red panda to live.

Your Task

Find 5 websites with information on red pandas. On a sheet of paper write out the following 3 things about the five websites: the name, web address, and a comment or description what you found there.

WEBSITE 1:
1. Website name: Red Panda Network
2. Website address: www.redpandanetwork.org
3. Comment: Great information on and pictures of red pandas

WEBSITE 2:
1. Website name: Wikipedia
2. Website address: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_panda
3. Comment: lots of info about the two subspecies, red panda behavior, diet, threats, and taxonomic history

WEBSITE 3:
1. Website name: Facebook post by the red pandas' keeper at the Nashville Zoo
2. Website address: https://www.facebook.com/nashvillezoo/posts/10155403196130622
3. Comment: Pictures of Mei Mei and her twin cubs

WEBSITE 4:
1. Website name: The Red Panda Trust
2. Website address: https://www.redpandatrust.org/about-red-pandas
3. Comment: Conservation centre to breed, rehab, and release red pandas

WEBSITE 5:
1. Website name: Lincoln Park Patch
2. Website address: https://patch.com/illinois/lincolnpark/lincoln-park-zoo-introduces-red-panda-cubs
3. Comment: article about red panda cubs in Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo

Your Task

Tell us where the five mountains you’re climbing are found. Why do you think these mountains were used in our Ranger program?

- These mountains are part of the Himalayan mountain range, where the red pandas live. They are five of the six highest mountains in the world.

Congratulations! You have reached the last mountain before becoming the highest ranking Red Panda Ranger!

Your Task

Talk to 10 people about red pandas. Have them sign our sponsor form telling us that you talked to them.

I decided to not do Level 5 because it would mean giving other peoples' information out that they may not want given out. But I've talked to a bunch of people about red pandas - Boss, our daughters, and other Little Scouts.

At our Little Scouts meeting, we decided to take this step a little differently by posting Red Panda Facts online in our group so that we've all thus talked to one another about red pandas!



I have sent all of the above information in to info@redpandanetwork.org - I'll look forward to getting my certificate and paper badges for it. And then hopefully I'll get a patch for my Little Scouts sash too! Meanwhile, I'm working on the activity book and another coloring page - I'll put those on my post for Red Pandas generally.

I got the badges and certificate in an email. I've posted the badge images at each step, and here's my certificate!

EASY SWAG - Little Scouts Pin & Fundraiser Patches/Pin

Some patches, badges, and pins we don't have to do ten steps on a worksheet to get. I'll group some of those here together.

We get our Troop Number, 346, as a freebie, along with the Little Scouts pin.

FUNDRAISING

By contributing a minimum of $5 to The Mark's ramp fundraiser, we get a fundraising patch. We also get to wear the pin we get from The Mark for contributing money.

Our troop also did a Socktober sock drive to help hurricane victims and workers - Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria (it's been a hard year for hurricanes). We have a different patch for each of the hurricanes, as well as a 'sock drive' one, but I picked the 'hurricane relief' patch to put on my sash.

COMPLETE - Coloring Book Badge

Coloring Book Badge – Troop #346

Scout Name: Paul-Meronym

Date: 9/4/2017

Costs: ___Art Supplies, Coloring Supplies – Varies_______Patch - $1.69____________________

Directions: Listed below are 10 steps to complete. After each one get Miss Anarcadia or Beta-Pup to mark them off. At the end, turn in the sheet and patch fee to receive your patch (to be ordered). Be sure to take pictures of your artwork to display.

1. Color a picture of one of your favorite things such as a favorite animal or favorite flower. Pin that picture on the fridge to reward yourself for doing a good job.

- I printed a picture of a lego guy and colored it and put it on the fridge.

2. Try coloring a picture with just the primary colors (red, blue, yellow). Limit yourself to just one or two shades of each color.


- see ABC coloring book - House
the 'red' crayon I have came out more pink, but I think it's okay - it's just a light red...

3. Take a fairly easy picture and try to challenge yourself with it. You may attempt to give the picture shading or add details to the picture.

- see ABC coloring book - Sun

4. Find a coloring page of something you’re familiar with and color it unrealistically. For example, color a school bus purple or a plane with pink polka dots.

- see ABC coloring book - Zebra

5. Get a large coloring page out and work together with a friend to color the image. Working together can be more difficult than working alone. Be sure to talk with your friend about how you want the image to look.

- Sarah and I colored this large coloring page. She didn't want to do Pooh yellow, so we decided to put both characters 'in costume'. Sarah colored Pooh as a red panda, and I colored Eeyore as a purple zebra. 

We decided that they were dressed to match each other, so we used the same green for Eeyore's tail-bow and for Pooh's shirt. I got done before her, so I added a rug under the characters.

We had to check with each other several times to confirm which pieces of the paper belonged to whom. Is that Pooh's arm or Eeyore's back? Is this spot Pooh's shirt or what?




6. Cool colors (blue, green, purple) tend to make people feel calm and relaxed. Warm colors (red, orange, yellow) tend to make people feel energized and passionate. Color one picture with just warm colors and another picture with just cool colors. Compare the two; how do they look, how do they make you feel, which do you prefer? Teach a friend about what you learned with warm versus cool colors.

- see ABC coloring book - Jack-in-the-Box (cool), Yarm (warm); the warm picture makes me feel cozy and cuddly, but the cool picture makes me feel relaxed and ready to do something. I like the cool colors better. But I know the big girls in our system like the warm colors better.






7. Some charities may give away art supplies or sell them to raise money. Do you have any coloring books or crayons you haven’t used? Donate those items to a charity of your choice so that someone else may enjoy them.

- The last Littles' Party we had at The Mark, we took in several coloring books we no longer want

8. Coloring has become more popular in recent years partly due to its relationship with stress. Learn about how coloring can help lower stress. Make a report and share this with a friend or a group of people.

- I shared this in the Little Scouts Group:

Psychologists have used coloring as a relaxation technique since the early 20th century. Carl Jung used mandalas with his patients. Coloring stimulates the brain to use both logic and creativity, along with vision and fine motor skills. Because the brain is so thoroughly engaged on focusing on the coloring, other things become less stressful; the effects are similar to meditation. Also coloring ties us to our childhood, when we had less stress, and relaxes us.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/13/coloring-for-stress_n_5975832.html
https://bebrainfit.com/anti-stress-coloring-books/
https://wellnessmama.com/77075/adult-coloring-books/

9. There are many ways to color a picture. There are different tools such as colored pencils, markers, or crayons. There are also different techniques such as filling in a space with small dots or with slashes. Try using a different tool or technique than you normally use to complete a picture.

- I did a 'naughty coloring' of the Queen picture in my coloring book, drawing over some lines to make it something else. I won't post it here, but I'll share it in person.

- I colored in 'B' with stickers that look like Bubbles!

10. Go online and look up free-to-use images or create images for a short coloring book of your favorite things. Make copies of this book to give to your friends.

- We made a book of Dungeons & Dragons coloring-page images and gave to our entire D&D group.

Bonus) See if you can complete a coloring book from cover to cover.

____________________ has completed all 10 steps and given payment to receive this patch.

COMPLETE - Brick-Building Patch

Brick-Building Patch – Troop #346
(as of Fall 2018, this has been changed to a Badge)

Scout Name: Paul-Meronym

Date: ____________________

Costs: ___Brick sets & bricks____________Patch - $1.69_________________________

Directions: Listed below are 10 steps to complete. After each one get Miss Anarcadia or Beta-Pup to mark them off. At the end, turn in the sheet and patch fee to receive your patch (to be ordered). Be sure to take pictures of your artwork to display.

1. What is it about building with bricks that attracts you?

- I like building with Lego and compatible bricks for a lot of reasons. I like being able to take rational directions and finish a project in a reasonable amount of time and feel like I succeeded. I like being able to be creative and come up with something that meets some goal I've set for myself. Brickbuilding is something I can do by myself most of the time, but with someone else if the opportunity comes up. It's something that I can show off to other people and tell them 'this is part of me - I did this'. By building something, even if I'm not out for a long time, when I come back, it's there, and things are still familiar - my builds serve as an anchor for who I am when I build them. 

2. What are the major brands of bricks? Tell something about each brand.

- Lego is by far the biggest and best brick brand. Their bricks are more consistent, sturdier, fit better, feel better, and they have a huge variety of tie-ins. They are the large tire manufacturer in the world by production count. 

Mega Bloks is probably the next best block, as they are pretty consistent as well. But they sometimes are a bit too tight or too loose a fit. They have a whole lot of popular licenses, like Halo, World of Warcraft, Star Trek, and Despicable Me.

Kre-O is my third favorite. Because they have the licensing for Star Trek (also) and Dungeons & Dragons, I have quite a few of these.

Other brands include BanBao, Best-Lock, Cobi, K'Nex, Oxford, Tyco, and McFarlane.

Kre-O had the first license with Star Trek - that's their treatment of a Klingon on the right. Mega Bloks has the Star Trek license now, and their Klingon is in the back. Up front is my adaptation of some Lego pieces to make a Klingon, since they've never produced any Star Trek sets.





Here's a variety of figures from different brands. In the front, Tyrion from a Game of Thrones set by McFarlane, a Lego mini-doll guy, and a Lego minifigure (Pajama Guy). Behind them are a Lego Gandolf microfigure and a blue Lego statuette, then a Mega Bloks Assassin's Creed figure, and a minion on the right from Mega Bloks. In the back, a Monster High doll from Mega Bloks, and an old-style figure that I'm told was Lego-branded, but I'm not sure of.

3. Build something exactly from the instructions it came with.

- Temple of Airjitzu was a huge build I build exactly from instructions (well, at least at first). https://mmbrickbuilds.blogspot.com/2017/06/temple-of-airjitzu-build-log-in-progress_21.html





4. Take something built from instructions and modify it to be better.

- Our wedding table decoration came with a bride in a white dress, and purple and pink flowers. We modified it to match our wedding colors and to have me in a suit instead. 
https://mmbrickbuilds.blogspot.com/2017/06/lego-wedding-lego-40165-complete.html


5. Build something completely without instructions.

- My travel chess & checkers set is my most complicated completely-custom build so far (except for my mindscape). 
https://mmbrickbuilds.blogspot.com/2017/08/travel-chess-checkers-set-custom-build.html


6. Come up with a way to store legos that keeps them off the floor.
7. Organize and display builds you’ve created.

- I think I'll need to show these to a troop leader in person. But I have four similar shelves in my room, plus some smaller shelves and some organizer bins. Loose Lego pieces are sorted by type and put into plastic bins and organizers on three of the shelve or in a stack beside my Lego heads.

Minifigs and smaller builds, like my Star Trek sets, are displayed on the upper shelves and above the large shelves in several ways. Larger builds, like the Temple of Airjitsu, my pirate boat, and the Disney Castles, are displayed on top of shelves and on the table. Several starships are hanging in the air.

8. Use Lego Digital Designer to work on a completely unique design.

- I used LDD to design the base for my Mindscape
https://www.facebook.com/notes/multiplicity-of-me/mindscape/1341559529225429/
Here's the underside, which came from that design.

9. Build something that serves a purpose that you would otherwise have bought something to serve.

- I had bought a phone stand to set my phones on at work, but I wasn't happy with the angle or cord management it offered. So I built my own. 
https://mmbrickbuilds.blogspot.com/2017/06/dual-phone-stand.html


10. Create a blog to show your brick-building work to others. Share it with the troop.

- https://mmbrickbuilds.blogspot.com is my blog for my brick-building stuff



___ Paul_Meronym _____ has completed all 10 steps and given payment to receive this patch.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XH67WB8

http://www.advantageemblem.com/fun-patches/S-2899-block-building.asp

COMPLETE - ASL Badge

ASL Badge – Troop #346

Scout Name: Paul-Meronym

Date: ______9/17/2017______________

Costs: ___Poster Making Supplies – Varies_________      Patch - $1.69__________________

Directions: Listed below are 10 steps to complete. After each one get Miss Anarcadia or Beta-Pup to mark them off. At the end, turn in the sheet and patch fee to receive your patch (to be ordered). Be sure to take pictures of your artwork to display.

1. The basis for any language is the alphabet that makes up words. Learn and memorize the ABC’s of ASL. Be able to show the alphabet to someone else who knows it so that they can check your correctness.

- I learned the alphabet a long time ago, before I ever met anyone who was hearing-impaired. (had Boss confirm)

2. Research Nashville/Tennessee’s hearing impaired community. What resources are available? Is there a school for the hearing impaired in Tennessee?

- Bridges for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (https://www.bridgesfordeafandhh.org/) is a nonprofit that serves the Middle Tennessee hearing-impaired community with classes.
- Our library system has specific Library Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (https://tndeaflibrary.nashville.gov/).
- The Tennessee Council for the Deaf Deaf-Blind and Hard of Hearing (https://www.tn.gov/humanservices/article/tcddbhh) offers a list of resources also.

3. It can be lonely to feel like the only one who is doing something different than a group of people. Learn how to introduce yourself to someone who signs. How do you spell your name? Teach a troop member how to introduce themselves with their name spelled out.

- signed "I'm P-A-U-L", had Boss confirm

4. What is a sign name? Who chooses your sign name? Can it be changed?

- For our sign names, we started with the fact that we drink a lot of Coca-Cola. Boss took the sign for 'cocaine', which looks like shooting up into the left elbow, and replaced the right-hand sign with our initials for each alter in our system. (had Boss confirm)

5. Is ASL universal? How do hearing impaired people communicate around the globe? How can hearing people be more helpful?

- ASL is not at all universal. There are multiple signed languages around the world, so signers have to learn a new language if they move to a new country. And there may be regional differences even within the same signed language, just like spoken languages.

6. Make a poster or slideshow to share with the troop of the signs of zero to ten. Print out or draw the proper hand signs, make it accessible to littles of all ages to understand.

- I made a slideshow to go from one to eleven - because I'm eleven and need to be able to say so.

7. Learn one helpful sign or phrase to share with a friend or the troop (such as thank you, I love you, hello, bathroom, etc).

- I know the signs for 'yes', 'no', 'ready', 'toilet', 'thank you', 'hurts', 'name', 'want' and more. (had Boss confirm)

8. Have you met a hearing impaired person? How did you communicate? Practice your ASL at least three times a week so you are prepared to be a helpful scout to anyone who speaks ASL.

- Our ex-girlfriend was hearing-impaired. Alone at home she could hear okay, but with any background noise she needed Boss to translate for her, especially at restaurants.

9. What was the hardest part of learning ASL? What would you have done differently on your journey? Write a journal or lesson plan to be shared with the troop online to help others learn.

- I think the hard part is like any language. If you don't use it, you forget it. It's important to have someone to practice with. When we learned some as a teenager, I wish we'd had time to learn more and get used to using it.

10. Now that you can sign, how can you help? Look into places in your community that teach things and could use a translator like you to help pass on information. Volunteer, do not accept payment, for at least one event/class that you sign for.

- I don't know enough sign to be really helpful or to translate. But I can at least introduce myself to make a non-hearing person feel more comfortable, and I can help by asking for writing implements and being patient while they write back and forth with me.

____________________ has completed all 10 steps and given payment to receive this patch.

COMPLETE - Bootblacking Badge

Bootblacking Badge

Scout Name: Paul - Meronym

Date: _______10/9/17_____________

Costs: ___Leathercare Materials___________     Patch - $1.69_______________

Directions: Listed below are 10 steps to complete. After each one get Miss Anarcadia, or Beta-Pup to mark them off. At the end, turn in the sheet and patch fee to receive your patch (to be ordered). You may wish to take pictures or add notes to the worksheet to show that each step was completed. Plus who doesn’t want to show off their hard work? 

1. Explore - Learn about taking care of leather. What kinds of things can be taken care of by a bootblack?

- Two guys in our community, Jason (_marxxx_) and River (---River---), taught me some bootblacking. I’ve done some care on oil-tanned boots, polish boots, regular shoes, vests, and leather coats. Oil-tanned boots get cleaned and greased, as do the garments. Polish boots then also have to be shined by wiping them quickly and with some pressure until they shine. This is a lot harder to get even, though you can cheat a little by using a heat gun. I’m not confident in my skills on polish boots, so I’m sticking to oil-tanned boots for now.


2. Self - Why do you want to do bootblacking? Write a Scout's journal entry about it.

- Most of my system is interested in doing kink-play and I’m not really. But I wanted to find a way to still be part of the community, even though I’m really pretty shy. Bootblacking is a way to participate but still be off to the side and not have to hurt someone or be hurt. When I do Boss's boots and he thanks me, or when somebody compliments how nice something I worked on looks, or just when I touch something I worked on and it feels really good to touch, I feel a lot of pride in myself.

3. Create - Put together a bootblacking kit. What do you need in it?

- I put together a rolling case to hold my kit. I have a squirt bottle to hold water to spray the leather with, saddle soap and a dauber for it, Huberds and Black Gold (which is Huberds with some black dye), a can key to open them both, a bunch of cloths for wiping with, a towel to put down first to protect my table/surface, a lighter for cleaning laces, a bone folder for rubbing away burrs in the leather, q-tips and rubbing alcohol for cleaning off bad deposits, a couple of old toothbrushes for getting into nooks and crannies, edge dressing for black soles. I have some other things, but that’s the important stuff.


4. Advocate - How do you show that you are proud of the bootblacking you do? How can you tell others why you think bootblacking is important.

- I have a tee-shirt that says Bootblacks do it with SOLE! (https://fetlife.com/users/51089/pictures/27143466) The creator sent it to me as a thank-you for making suggestions to improve his design. When I’m working, I sometimes wear a skullcap to make it obvious I’m out and on the job. And of course, Boss and I both wear our vests (and his boots) almost every day. If someone comments on them, we're happy to tell them about taking care of them.

5. World (because recycling is good for our world.) - ‘Rescue’ an old piece of leather. Find something made of leather that is in bad shape, and see how much you can improve it.

- I found a leather vest several years ago in a thrift shop. It was very stiff and felt like cardboard. We assumed it was just gonna be trash. I took it home, cleaned it, covered it in dyed grease, and repeated that several more times, and it’s now the vest I’ve been wearing almost daily since.







6. Diligence - Take care of some leather over time. How does taking care of it change?

- We bought Boss a pair of boots almost 3 years ago, and I’m the only person that’s taken care of them. I clean and grease them every few months, and they are super soft. After he wore them almost every day for a year, the soles wore through and started coming loose. So we had them resoled, which made them a little taller and made the balance of the shoes a bit different. The metal pieces have gone from a clean silver to a pretty burnished color. It’s almost time for a new pair, though, as the second set of soles is starting to wear through.

7. Benevolence/Selflessness - Do some leather care for someone in your community.

- Esteban brought me a jacket his dad had worn. It was a camel-colored jacket with many years of coal dust embedded in it. I couldn’t clean the coal off it, but I cleaned it thoroughly and used a dyed grease on it. That darkened the leather a bit and smoothed out the color so it was sort of bronze in color, and because of the grease it was a lot more supple.

8. Community - Learn about resources in your area. Locate and visit three of the following businesses/organizations:
- bootblacking club/organization
- leather kink group
- shoe repair shop
- boot store
- leather supply store
What supplies and/or resources are available here to help you to learn about caring for leather?

Tandy Leather - Nashville

- Tandy Leather is my favorite place for buying leather and leather care supplies. The manager at the local store is a friend (and a member of our community), so we get a big hug and some fun conversation as well! I love going in and picking out things to get for leather projects that Boss is working on, and I recently bought my first whole hide for my troop sash.

Billy's Shoe Repair

- Billy's Shoe Repair - this is the place I took Boss's boots to be resoled a couple of years ago. It's a little hole-in-the-wall place, but is recommended by lots of people for shoe repair. They also sell bootblacking supplies, like dye and brushes and such. When I took Boss's boots there, he talked to me about different options for dealing with the sole that was coming off, and how a different sole would feel for wearing the boots. Boss liked the new soles better than the original!

- Johnson & Murphy - We used to work for Genesco, so we sometimes visited the Johnson & Murphy factory store next door. In fact, that's where we bought our first bootblacking supplies - a tin of mink oil to care for new leather toys we got. They sell high-end shoes that should be well taken-care of, and they even have a series of shoe shine videos on their website! They also sell a basic shoe care kit with a cedar shoe-stand that would be a good gift for a new bootblack.

9. Mentorship - Do any of your fellow scouts have an interest in bootblacking? Offer an afternoon or evening workshop of basic techniques for your troop.

- I tried to schedule an afternoon of bootblacking with my troop, but scheduling conflicts kept that from happening. So instead, I had an afternoon of teaching my friend Sarah about bootblacking. We cleaned & greased two pair of boots, a pair of shoes, and a bracelet together!

10. Acquire something brand-new that is leather. How do you plan to take care of it? Journal about your plan.

- Boss just bought me a new leather vest (and a matching one for him, too). It’s already pre-treated and in great shape, so I shouldn’t need to do any care of it for several months. But I will always do the care of these vests, like I have his boots. I’m considering if I want to put some patches on the vest. We are planning to immediately replace the laces on the side with braided ones that are color-specific to us.










__Paul__ has completed all 10 steps and given payment to receive this patch

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