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 One of my favorite shave creams is Penhalagon’s Blenheim Bouquet. Desiring to get a little more information, some friends that are in London took a stroll over to Panhalagon’s at 41 Wellington Street, Covent Garden, London. The report is as follows: “The one at Covent Garden has been there since about 1802. It has all in dark wood with glass covered cupboards lining the side. In the centre of the room was a large round wooden table with each of their fragrances displayed in a circle. Behind each fragrance was a little cup with tester strips. Don smelled each one of them and agrees with you that Blenheim Bouquet was the best. It is their signature fragrance. The shops are not very big. It is a “posh” shop.”
As for the shave, it started by stropping the Dovo razor on the linen side of the Dublduck strop and then moving to the horsehide side for 20+ times. The choice for shave cream today is of course Blenheim Bouquet applied to the face with a super badger brush. How I love the fragrance of the Blenheim Bouqet, a superb citrus aroma. It seems to arouse the whiskers into a frenzy of desire to be whacked down by the edge on the Dovo razor. Once with the grain and a second time against the grain and I was left with a smooth face. The follow up was a generous splash of Musgo Real No. 1 Orange Amber. This aftershave also has a wonderful citrus aroma. What a wonderful shave.
This past week Eric has participated in the Riverside Community Sailing Program, a program to teach youth how to sail. He volunteered as part of the rescue team as he is trained in first aid and CPR because he is a Fire Explore. His first task was to get into the rescue boat with Megan, the lifeguard. I had to chuckle when he told me because Megan is also 16 years old. Eric is not a very social person and he is on a row boat with a 16 year old female. It is almost like being stranded on a desert island.
So who broke the awkward silence first? Eric explained that she introduced herself and asked him his name. I am figuring there was plenty of awkward silence with some conversation mixed in. He did have fun because he woke up, got ready and rode his bike down to the park on his own after the first day. Could it be that he got to sit in a rowboat with Megan? They even went out sailing together.
As for the Riverside Youth Sailing Program and its first sailing classes, from what I heard everything went well. Eric may be back next year as an instructor.
Last night I had a conversation with my neighbor who put a couple of straight razors on eBay. He was determined to let me know how dangerous it was to clean them up. They cut right through the towel he was cleaning them with. My response was, it they cannot cut you then you are really not shaving.
As for today, it was a little overcast and it felt like a sandalwood day. I chose the Geo. F. Trumpeter’s Sandalwood Shaving Soap. It has a nice fragrance and it lathered up well with the Simpson Chubby 1. I really enjoyed how well the soap worked as I began to run the Dovo razor across my face. Quickly I reduced the stubble so that I had a slick smooth face. For the finale, I splashed on a liberal dose of Penhaligon’s English Fern.
Now it is back to eBay in search of a razors
Day 5 went fairly quickly. The boys had camp wide games in the afternoon so they were running around. For the evening campfire, Jacob had to announce skits and participate for a requirement of the communications merit badge. He was terrified about standing in front of all the people and talking in public. He did well.
Today was a quick starting day because I needed to get to my Leave No Trace class. Breakfast was at 7:00 and it was good. We had scrambled eggs had onions and peppers in them along with diced potatoes. When I was getting served, I asked about that green salsa that we had on Monday. Out came the green salsa for the eggs. They were great.
The day went quickly and before I knew it we were out working around the sawmill. Soon enough Jacob came by. We had fun watching the saw mill.
 Feeding the sawmill  Holding a log peavey
I came to visit Jacobs Pioneering Merit Badge class. There was no room to sit on the bench so I sat on the ground. I turned my camera on to take a picture of Jacob but was not afforded a good picture opportunity. I got tires so I laid down and rested my head on my day pack. I fell asleep for a while and woke to find Jacob practicing his timber hitch on me.
 Tying the timber hitch
Later that night, I was helping the boys with a lashing project. One of the boys not watching what he was doing clubbed my with a 7 foot peeler pole. That is how I received the wound on my head from yesterdays post. The wound looks great today.
I visited one of Jacobs merit badge classes. I was not extremely excited about the class and the way it was taught. At lunch one of the other boys in Jacobs’s class sat next to Jacob. I asked the young man about the class. He thought he was teaching the class the way he was told to teach the class and if it needed to be better, the adults could let him know what to do.
Jacob asked the other boy what is the string theory. Apparently the other boy had mentioned it in the merit badge class and Jacob had heard it mentioned on the Science Cannel. The other boy started to tell Jacob about quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity, one dealing on a molecular level and the other on a level of the universe. Jacob and the other boy continued the conversation for some time. I felt like I was in the twilight zone and sifted from a simple merit badge class to another universe.
Today has been a very busy day. I was up early for a shave using a Palmolive shaving cream from India in the fragrance of Lemon. I was told to use it up before I came home. It was an invigorating shave with the lemon fragrance. I used some Aqua Velva cool ice to follow it. The menthol chill was refreshing.
Breakfast was eggs, biscuits and gravy with a good helping of peaches on top. The culinary swirl for the day was peaches in gravy. It was a real delight. After breakfast I was looking for my morning fix of caffeine. I stopped by the office to ask about the canned Dr. Pepper they were serving at the movie last night. One of the staff members within ear shot spoke out loud, “Greg, I thought you were LDS.” I replied, “Yes, and I can drink caffeinated soda if I desire. I just cannot smoke it.” The entire office staff was listening to the conversation and proceeded to laugh.
Off to the trading post for the caffeinated drink. No luck, they did not serve soda until after 9:00, the time which I was there the two days before and was successful. Today I had not time to wait. I needed to be up at the lake to do a little blacksmithing. Off I went.
Upon arrival, the first thing I needed to do is get a railroad tie put in the forge. Then there was a little cranking involved getting the tie red hot. After it was hot on the top of the spike I put it in a vise and gave it a good twist. The tie went back to the forge to get the pointed end red hot. Once it was red hot it was time to do some real work. Swinging a hammer to pound a chunk of red hot metal is more difficult than I thought.
 Turning the blower handle for the forge The old adage of strike when the iron is hot is so true. When it is no longer red, you minds well pound sand.
 Pounding hot metal After some pounding and grinding the form of a knife became apparent.
 Anvil, hammer, tongs and a knife I went back down the hill to meet up with Jacob for lunch. We had sack lunches that were prepared the day before by the scoutmasters and other volunteers. Bread that spends the night in a refrigerator in a brown bag looses it’s moisture. I drank lots of water with lunch thinking that perhaps as the bread gained moisture it would expand and give me a feeling of being full.
There is so much more to cover from today. I will have to leave those details for an addition tommorow. Until then I will leave you with this picture. You will then have to come back tomorrow to find out what happened.
 Wack on the forehead
Scout Camp has gone well so far. Last night was the opening campfire and the scouts really enjoined it. Upon arrival back at camp everyone quickly retired to their tents for the night. However, as tradition has it, there is always a couple of boys that talk later in the evening. Then again, chatter did not matter because I was soon asleep.
The sun came up early and the alarm went off soon after. The boys were up for flag ceremony. I stood away from the crowd due to the dust rising from all the little feet fidgeing in the dirt. After flag cerimony it was then off to breakfast we went.  Dust Bowl
Breakfast was great. We had scrambled eggs, bacon and pancakes. Outside the serving area was the syrup, baked apples and whipped cream. Pancakes piled with baked apples and whipped cream is a treat to start any day. Right after breakfast I went to the Leave No Trace trainers course. Jacob walked over with me and when he heard that the class went to 3:00 in the afternoon, he said “bye dad” and left for his class.
Jacob promptly picked me up at 3:00 and instructed me that we were off the class for the Fingerprinting Merit Badge. He quickly met the requirements and passed off the merit badge. Then again, perhaps he has watched too many CSI shows when they talked about arches, loops and swirls.
 Ready to be printed After the class we headed back to camp where Jacob found an X on the ground. He walked over to the X and looked up in the sky. I asked him what he was doing and he let me know that in cartoons, when someone is standing on an X, something like and anvil or grand piano falls out of the sky.
 The sky is falling - or is something going to fall out of the sky? The boys did the evening flag cerimony. They did a great job. As a consequence for their behavior, we got to be one of the first troops to go to dinner. After dinner we went up to the rifle range where Jacob took tree shots at a clay pigeon with a 12 GA shotgun. The pigeons won. We then went to the Tuesday night movie. The Senior Patrol Leaders (SPL) chose the movie. When the movie started playing, it was High School Musical Three. After a few minutes the SPL’s went up front and yelled psyche. We then watched Journey to the Center of the Earth. My plan was to write this during the movie, but I decided it was going to be more fun to watch to movie.
Now we are back at camp and it is about lights out. Another day at camp has gone well.
It is a wonderful morning at Scout Camp. I was up early to get a shower and came back to camp for a shave. Shaving in a somewhat primitive situation requires innovation. The strop was hung on the wash basin with a rope tide with the traditional square knot. The mirror was hooked over a hose bib. The Dovo made its appearance and was quickly stropped. Out came the Akro Commando shave dream on a green handled Omega shave brush.
 Wilderness shave As I applied a couple of dabs of the commando shave cream to my face and began to work it into a lather, I noticed the quickness that it worked. The water here is much softer than I have been accustomed to. The soft water was a blessing as I was shaving with cold water.
With a good lather on the face I began the process of shaving. The Dovo made quick work. The dry mountain air seemed to dry out the lather on my face quickly. A few quick strokes with the shaving brush and I was back at work. I finished my shave off with a liberal application of Akro Commando after shave cream. Overall, it was a great shave.
The sure sign that I am at Scout Camp is receiving the phone call from home. In years past, my mother in law needed emergency heart surgery and a call was made. Another time the hot water in a shower at the house would not shut off and the person that stopped by to help said that the tile needed to be knocked out so they could get to the valve. It always seems that there is something that signifies I am away at scout camp.
This morning we got up at 3:00 AM to head out to scout camp. We left at 4:00 to make the hour and a half drive to Scout Camp. We arrived safely and unloaded out gear and carried ti to the campsite in large wagons. Before I had set up my tent I received a call from home. Janet called to announce that the kitchen was full of ants. Black ants were crawling all over the counters everywhere. I just started laughing. I told Janet that this was a signal that Scout Camp had officially started. I let her know where the ant spray was in the garage so that she could spray the outside of the house to keep them from coming in.
Camp started with the morning flag assembly. We are going to need to work on the skills for standing in line a little bit. The boys were great for about the first five minutes, then spontaneous boyhood tremors, moving and talking struck. Right after flag ceremony was breakfast. We had breakfast burritos. Scrambled eggs with sausage in a flour tortilla with the addition of sausage gravy and some spicy green salsa were on the menu. The sausage gravy and green salsa swirling together in the mix made an interesting taste bud sensation.
 Opening Flag Ceremony After breakfast it was off to the merit badge classes for the boys. I made time to finish putting up my tent and getting organized. Soon enough it was off to lunch for hot dogs and macaroni and cheese. A big scoop of chili would have topped this meal off. However, the dog received a triple packet liberal slathering of mustard. That made all the difference. The macaroni and cheese was good on its own.
We stopped by camp for a little rest.
 In front of dad's tent Soon enough, it was time to go back to camp and then off to more classes for the boys.
 Climbing class for Eric
A month ago I was invited to the first Riverside Commuity Sailing Progarm meeting by Lanny Coon. He is heading up the project of getting a youth sailing program started. Years ago, like more than 25 years ago there was an organization at the park that taught young people to sail. The sailing stopped after the lake filled up with silt to the point that sailing was difficult. The boats had been stored in an old boathouse for all those years. A couple of years ago the sailboats were moved and the old boathouse was razed. A new boathouse has been built in the past few weeks.
 The Boat House Looking for a fun activity to do, the young men in Crew 6 have cleaned up the boat house and the two rowboats that were extremely dirty. The two row boats were so dirty that they had to be scrubbed and scrubbed. They look a lot better. Of course it is difficult to see how wonderful they look with sails sitting on top of them.
 Inside the Boat House Just this past week the old sailboats were returned to a boat house. The boats are very dusty.
 Dirty sail boats inside the Boat House This morning we put more carpet down so all the boats could rest against the walls. The sailboats will be cleaned up at a future crew meeting. We will then match the booms, rudders and other rigging so that we can get a small fleet prepared to teach youth how to sail.
Of course, after a little work comes a little play. Looking back to the dock as we set sail.
 Sailing away from the dock Looking out at the island. You will notice the lack of ripples on the water that indicates the lack of a good wind.
 The island in Lake Evans There are more ripples on the water as I take a picture of myself. We actually sailed out to the far corner behind me and sailed back. I am looking forward to some more time on the water with a little more wind.
 Sailing on Lake Evans at Fairmont Park
 Wool Fat and Amber
I was feeling a little old fashioned today. My wife Janet was preparing a presentation for church on pioneers. I got to thinking, what would be pioneering like for a shave. I did not have a large bowie knife laying around with a chunk of homemade soap for my theme. Perhaps one day I will shave with a bowie knife. Then again, I think I will pass on that idea.
I started by grabbing Mitchell’s Wool Fat Shaving Soap because the container has a certain charm to it. On the container it states “Original 1893 Formula.” The first ingredient listed on the container is Sodium Tallowate, the main ingredient in homemade soap. This may be a pioneer soap after all with the addition of lanolin to keep the skin soft.
As for the Razor, I used the Clauss New Departure razor. I gave it a quick honing, used the linen side of the strop and finished it off with the horse hide strop.
The Wool Fat Shaving Soap lathered up well with the Kent VS70 boar hair brush. It is not as soft as a badger hair brush, but it worked well with the soap. A nice lather was created on my face and there is a light pleasing fragrance from the Wool Fat shaving soap. Once lathered up, the Clauss razor made quick work of any facial hair. The Wool Fat shaving soap left my skin feeling soft. For the finish I decided to use Co. Ichabod Conk’s Amber Aftershave. It was a wonderful old fashioned shave of the day.
 Arlington
I was thinking about the Simpson Chubby 1 Super Badger brush and trying to determine which soap to use next. The Chubby 1 is a wonderful super badger brush from England. I then remembered the beautiful D.R. Harris 7 Co. Ltd. Wooden shaving bowl with soap in the fragrance of Arlington, also of English origin. It is as it states on the container, “A Classic English Fragrance For Gentlemen.”
On the appointed day I put the Chubby 1 to work. It worked great with the Arlington shave soap. As I worked the soap into my whiskers with the Chubby 1 brush, a wonderful lather began to form. Only having two straight razors at this time I chose the Dovo. When I put the Dovo razor to work, the whiskers were pleasantly shorn off leaving a smooth feeling surface behind.
I finished off the adventure with a generous splashing of Arlington aftershave. In all I felt more like a gentleman than I had when I started my shave.
My 18 year old son Scott came to stay with us overnight yesterday. He was concerned to be leaving his dog Maddox, a short scruffy dog and his mothers dog Duchess, a German Sheppard. He brought both dogs.
Scott did some yard work in the afternoon to earn some money to go out for the night. When I got home from work I went to look at what Scott did in the backyard, his dog Maddox was protecting the back porch and it appeared that he did not like me. He tried to bite my shoe. I have learned that when Scott is around, Maddox will protect him. Once Scott left to go to his friend’s house, Maddox was fine. It was then Eric that could not get close to Maddox.
I was asleep and I was awoken by the front door around midnight. I thought it was Scott coming home. I learned later that it was not Scott. Today I found out that it was Eric going out the front door. Apparently, Duchess was barking at a skunk so he tried to go out the back door. Maddox was guarding the back door so he could not go out the back door without getting his feet bitten. Therefore the front door was http://www.blogger.com/post-create.do#chosen. Eric’s weapon of choice was an airsoft shotgun which he used to run the skunk off. Duchess was saved from the skunk.
I was asleep at 3:30 when the doorbell rang. It was Scott. He was coming home from his friends. He had agreed to be home at midnight a couple of times so I was not happy that he was home so late. He wanted to let the dogs in to sleep with him. We said no. He said that he would sleep outside with the dogs. He got the cot out of the garage, a blanket and pillow out of the room and got on the cot to go to sleep for the night. I thought, the sun will be up in two hours, why would anyone want to go to sleep outside with that fact.
When I got up, Scott was back inside. My cot had a large puddle of water on it. The blanket and pillow Scott had used was soaked. He was not sleeping anywhere close to where a sprinkler would get him. I was a little puzzled until I saw the sprinkler head of the nice multi-stream gear driven sprinkler. It was torn off. I checked another one, it suffered the same fate. The other two newer models did not suffer the same fate with only a small cap popped off the top. Scott told me later in the day the Duchess attacks sprinklers.
So I now know how Scott met his rude awakening. He said he was sleeping great until he woke up all wet. I might add, Scott sleeps pretty soundly and he would have not even heard Duchess attacking the sprinkler head and turning it into a geyser.
So what is the moral to the story, no dog sleep over’s, especially ones that eat sprinklers.
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