Visitors Galore

The past few days have been very busy around the pond. During the Memorial Day weekend the pond had at least 55 different visitors (excluding multiple visits from some of the near-by residents.)

Saturday was the big day when the pond played host to a Cub Scout group along with their parents and siblings. The group chose the pond for their annual year-end ceremony where the scouts are awarded many of their achievement badges and are promoted to the next level of scouting. They gathered around 10:00 in the morning and some stayed as late as 5:00 in the afternoon. The day was filled with a lot of activity and I'll guarantee none of the kids were bored.

The day had 2 main highlights. The awards ceremony was definitely a high point for many of the scouts as stood along with a parent to receive their awards and promotions.

In addition to the ceremony , the scouts (and the fathers of course) had a great time creating an aerial display using model rockets built by the scouts. They launched probably 25-30 rockets during the day. The multiple launches were really interesting when they fired-off 4-5 rockets at one time. (And let's be honest. The fathers had as much fun as the kids with this one.)

Lunch was the typical cookout fare with hotdogs, chips, beans, and drinks. Plus, one of the parents supplied some really excellent brisket. And the lunch was topped off by the obligatory watermelon cutting.

Of course the scouts and their siblings spent a lot of time around the pond. It seemed everyone was interested in the tadpoles, frogs, fish, and turtles we had available for them to see and learn about. One scout surprisingly even caught a small red-ear slider in a net. Some of the visitors tried their luck at the fishing. Only a few did any 'serious' fishing and they didn't fish very long due to all the other activities. It was a rather warm day and not too many fish were caught, but I don't think anyone was really disappointed.

In total we counted at least 43 visitors to the pond on Saturday alone. And was it a success? Without a doubt. Three of the scouts came to me personally and asked if they could come back next year for their awards ceremony. And one asked if they could come back next week and do it all over again.