{"id":58012,"date":"2016-06-26T00:08:52","date_gmt":"2016-06-26T07:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=58012"},"modified":"2016-06-26T00:08:52","modified_gmt":"2016-06-26T07:08:52","slug":"young-cultivators-merit-badge-i-am-a-survivor-intermediate-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/58012","title":{"rendered":"Young Cultivators Merit Badge: I Am a Survivor, Intermediate Level"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<span style=\"color: #800080;\">The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.farmgirlsisterhood.org\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Sisterhood Merit Badge program<\/span><\/span><\/a>,<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> now with\u00a06,962 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20149,905 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #339966;\">Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/10477\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">former life<\/span><\/span><\/a> \u2026<b>\u00a0<\/b><b>\u00a0<\/b><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>For this week\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.farmgirlsisterhood.org\/badges-ycotk-i_am_survivor.asp\"><u>Out There Kids\/I Am A Survivor Intermediate Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge<\/u><\/a>, I gathered my hiking supplies and my courage and volunteered to take Piper, Nora, and Andy, and all their respective siblings out on a hike in the wilderness.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_58016\" style=\"width: 370px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-58016\" class=\"wp-image-58016\" src=\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/400px-Children_hiking_in_the_forest.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"540\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-58016\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">photo by Steve Hillebrand, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Well, \u2018wilderness\u2019 sounds more life-threatening than our hiking trail actually is, but still. Ever take a bunch of kids hiking? It\u2019s pretty life-threatening. And sanity-threatening. I wasn\u2019t sure we\u2019d all make it down alive, to tell the truth.<\/p>\n<p>Since Nora was my Beginner Level Badge earner from her handy dandy, super cool, Survivor Packs <a href=\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/58004\">she made with me earlier<\/a>, I let her be the Guide Assistant.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the power went to her head.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Ever been on a nice, calm, afternoon hike with a tiny dictator? No? Let me introduce you to Nora.<\/p>\n<p>First things first, we had to do a head count. I didn\u2019t want to come down with the mountain with less kiddos than we went up with. I mean, their parents would probably notice, right? I\u2019m not a parent, but \u2018You win some, you lose some,\u2019 doesn\u2019t really apply to children. So I counted pigtails and sunhats and bouncy heads three times over, just to be sure. Then Nora piped up with her list of <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">terrorist demands <\/span>safety rules:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Where to meet up if someone gets lost.<\/strong> She suggested &#8220;the lone pine tree, by the pirate crossroads, at the fork in the mysterious lane,&#8221; but we settled on the picnic bench at the trailhead.<\/li>\n<li><strong>How closely you\u2019re allowed to walk along the edge.<\/strong> She said two inches. I hurriedly amended that to two feet.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Which kid to sacrifice should we be starving.<\/strong> She suggested Andy. I suggested she stop scaring the children, no one was going to be eating anybody.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Which kid to toss to a hungry mountain lion, should we meet one.<\/strong> She suggested Andy. I sighed and told her we wouldn\u2019t be feeding anyone to the wild animals. She pouted and said she didn\u2019t want to be Guide Assistant if I was going to keep undermining her authority.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once we had all our safety precautions underway, I handed out a fun little nature guide to the whippersnappers and we were off!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_58015\" style=\"width: 370px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-58015\" class=\"wp-image-58015\" src=\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Information_along_the_trail_7831402416.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"239\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-58015\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">photo by Virginia State Parks via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Like a herd of turtles!<\/p>\n<p>Like a herd of turtles who had just had a turkey dinner!<\/p>\n<p>Someone had to go potty (already??) and that was a pickle, because the older kids were already racing up the trail. I could sense this was going to be difficult, as we had some go-getters and some \u2026 dawdlers.<\/p>\n<p>I used my whistle to call everyone back to the trailhead, we waited for Youngster #1 to go potty, and we tried it once more. At this point, I had to do another headcount and seemed to be missing a set of pigtails.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProbably a lion got her,\u201d said Nora, calmly. \u201cOh well, you win some, you lose some.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It turned out, the pigtail owner was rustling around in the bushes because she\u2019d seen a lizard. Once again, we were on our way.<\/p>\n<p>Halfway to the top, we stopped for photos and snacks (no, we didn\u2019t eat Andy). The Littles had a hard time keeping up at times, but I\u2019d say it was a success.<\/p>\n<p>Except for the poison oak I tripped and fell into.<\/p>\n<p>And Piper twisted her ankle.<\/p>\n<p>And Nora got too close to the edge and I hollered that I was revoking her Guide Assistant Card.<\/p>\n<p>And six more Littles needed to go potty. Without a bathroom in sight.<\/p>\n<p>But, other than <em>that, <\/em>success!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_58017\" style=\"width: 370px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-58017\" class=\"wp-image-58017\" src=\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Gather_with_the_Guide_7831412612.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"239\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-58017\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">photo by Virginia State Parks via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with\u00a06,962 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20149,905 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane\u00a0 Wondering who &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/58012\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/58012\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gladsome_sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}