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Jul. 5, 2008 - Fish and Wildlife: The Blind Leading the Blind

Requirement 5d: Design and construct a wildlife blind near a game trail, water hole, salt lick, bird feeder, or birdbath and take good photographs or make sketches from the blind of any combination of 10 wild birds, mammals, reptiles, or amphibians.

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? S & S both designed their blinds. Seiji's was a lot simpler, so we went with that. Probably not the best decision. The concept sounded good - and frugal. Using PVC pipe and camo cloth. Since we had most of the materials, I was definitely for it. They cut the PVC to size, fitted the pieces together, stained a screen, stretched the camo material tight (and cut away the part for the screen), and fastened it. Ready to go!

Once we got into the field, however, we quickly realized the problems:
* We needed to glue the pipes together
* The blind needed to be larger
* Either we needed more duct tape, or to sew the camo cloth. Clipping and taping didn't work too well.

It was a frustrating experience. The boys definitely made the attempt. Whether the MBC will accept the photos they took remains to be seen. If you look closely, Soumei is in the middle of the photo with the blind.

Even though it fell apart, I still consider their endeavor a success. They know what went wrong. Next time, it shouldn't. Soumei, of course, says that if we'd used HIS design, there would have been no problems. Is there a HUMILITY badge?