March 28, 2012

Unit 45 of Boy Scouts met together for a Court of Honor.  James Baird conducted the meeting and the Webeloes presented the flag ceremony.   Merit badges were presented by Senior patrol leaders: Travis Green, and Chance and Dakota Hatch. Fifty-one merit badges had been earned  by seventeen young men.   Nine of them had also achieved rank advancements.

Cookie bars and punch were served to those attending.

Our community has benefited in many areas from projects performed by young men earning their Eagle ranks over many years.  Raising awareness of this fact, a video presentation was prepared entitled, “Take a Walk With Us Through the Community of Mink Creek and You Will See the ‘Fruits of Scouting’.”   This covered a time period of the last forty years.  Some projects reached into the other areas of the county.

The Cub Scouts held a Space Rocket Derby this month.  Cub Derby night is always one of excitement.  Mink Creek hasn’t had a rocket derby nearly 20 years. Eighteen boys raced colorful rockets they had made and each managed to race several times. In addition to the races, scout awards were presented to fourteen boys.  David Hawkes has just turned eleven  and with three years of Cubs, is moving to the ll-12 year old patrol. Cookies , a favored scout food, were served to all.

The family of Robert and Elizabeth Hawkes has recently moved into the Mink Creek community.  Robert and Liz  have eight children, ranging in ages from 14 1/2 , down to 18 months.  They are, in order: Lauryn, Nicholas, David, Michael, Matthew, Carissa, Aaron and Anthony, better known as Tony.  They come to us from several places this side of the Rocky Mountains, having lived in California, Colorado, Arizona and Utah before settling on Idaho.  Robert currently is employed at Presto in Lewiston.

Vernon and Sallee Keller and Bob and Claudia Erickson  recently attended the annual banquet for Lewis and Clark Volunteers in Lava Hot Springs.  They are a fun group of Mountain Men who take this interest seriously.   The first banquet was held 35 years ago.  Conducting for the evening was Curtis Keller of Soda Springs. (You might recognize that name, Curt has Mink Creek blood thick in his veins.) A gun stand was presented to Vernon as a token of appreciation from the group for providing them a place to shoot and fish several times each year.  The members hail from both Idaho and Utah.

The Canadian geese are making their way to their summer feeding grounds.  Some are stopping over in Mink Creek, announcing their presence with much honking while they rest up and forage in our fields for the next leg of their journey.

            Adding to the calls of the geese are those communications of our resident owls.  Some will even “talk” with the human sector as they  perch on poles or trees near our homes.   The “who-who” language is one readily used by all communicators.