Goshawk Patrol Blog

  Mount Laguna Camping Trip (First Troop Snow Trip) Day 3 March 9, 2025 Written by Alexander Jairam Dear Reader, It was cold, again. Ice didn’t cover our shoes, water didn’t cover our sleeping bags, but gloves still covered our hands. Until we had to tie our shoes. Then we took our gloves off. We woke up at 0530 to put away the tent so we could leave by 0700. All Goshawks were ready by 0630 but everyone else was still packing up so we waited. Elk found a plastic water bottle in our campsite and we had to do 20 pushups. (I did it this time.) When everyone was done putting stuff away, it was 0730. We left for Julian. Thirty minutes later, we arrived. We got a very quick review of the rules, and the patrols and the patrols split up at 0804. No leaders accompanied the patrols. We traveled from plaque to plaque, historical building to historical building. We tried interview after interview but most people refused interviews because everyone was opening shops or going to work. Forty-fo...

  Mount Laguna Camping Trip (First Troop Snow Trip) Day 2 March 8, 2025 Written by Alexander Jairam Photos and Videos by Joseph Jairam Dear Reader, It was cold. Ice covered our shoes, water covered our sleeping bags, and gloves covered our hands. Until we had to tie our shoes. Then we took our gloves off. We woke up at 0630 and got out of the tent to start cooking breakfast. Since we were using Joshie’s GIANT mega propane stove to cook, we had to carry the heavy thing all the way from Hedgehog’s van to the picnic table we had for our campsite. For some reason, the picnic table was farther from the tent site then it should have been. We also had to bring the cooler full of food to the picnic table which was also kind of heavy. Maybe it just felt heavy because we were walking through 4-6 inch deep snow. Our camp   (Left to right) Joshie and Alex cooking breakfast   (Left to right)  Thomas and Gavin prepping breakfast Everything was set up when we started cooking brea...

  Mount Laguna Camping Trip (First Troop Snow Trip) Day 1 March 7, 2025 Written by Alexander Jairam Dear Reader, Before the trip even started, we were already late. This happened because with the amount of people and gear being transported in Hedgehog’s van it took a whole lot of time to get it all packed in. Hedgehog even had something hanging on the back of the van to place things on. With how precarious everything on the back was looking, I was surprised when nothing fell off. Fast forward 2 and a half hours and there we were, Mount Laguna. We arrived somewhere around 1900 when we were supposed to be there at 1700. The sun had set and it was dark and it was also 29°. Without lights-because of the snow-the landscape looked like the black and white of an old film. With only a little bit of delay, we laid a tarp on the snow and unpacked all the gear onto the tarp to keep them dry. Joseph decided where we would set up our tent for the trip and with some shovels we borrowed from El...

  St. Margaret’s Annual FNE Retreat (First Ever Outing As Goshawks) Day 3 February 9, 2025 Written by Alexander Jairam Dear Reader, “Joshie, it’s time to wake up,” was how our morning started. Joseph said that by the way. When we got our stuff out of the tent, we started taking down the tent. The rainfly was too wet to put in the bag so we hung it on a fence to let it dry. Once everything else for the tents were put away, we moved all of our stuff to the gate, which is closer to the cars. Since we did everything we needed to do, we ate breakfast. Breakfast was oatmeal made from scratch. After breakfast, we put away the timberwolf tents. Everyone who wasn’t riding with Hedgehog left and everyone who was-which includes, Gavin, Andrew, Joseph, and I- waited. When it was time to go, we said goodbye to Elk and left. I am writing this on February 14, 2025. End of Log

  St. Margaret’s Annual FNE Retreat (First Ever Outing As Goshawks) Day 2 February 8, 2025 Written by Alexander Jairam Dear Reader, The second day of our first outing-or anything in fact- together as a patrol was the FNE Annual Retreat 2025 at St. Margaret’s on February 9, 2025. We started a bit early I guess and woke up at around 0630. Once everyone was ready, Gavin lead derusting. Unfortunately, I was unable to do 15 pushups. This I would say is sad. After derusting, we did our first patrol council to discuss the patrol staff’s name, the patrol saint, action posts, and the patrol motto. After some discussion we decided that the staff would be named “Stormwind,” and the patrol said was undecided that council, but later became st. Eustachius, patron saint of hunters, fire prevention, firefighters, and challenging situations. The action posts are written down somewhere else in this book, and the motto is “Discipline and virtue will bring you to new heights.” After the council, we ...

  St. Margaret’s Annual FNE Retreat (First Ever Outing As Goshawks) Day 1 February 7, 2025 Written by Alexander Jairam Dear Reader, Our first outing-or anything in fact-together as a patrol was the FNE Annual Retreat 2025 at St. Margarets. We did not have a tent so we thought about making a tarp tent. We decided to just use two four-person tents and combine them with a tarp. We are going to do this by facing the two tent’s doors together, opening them, and then playing the tarp over the tents combining them. One of the tents had two doors, which allows us to still get inside. We haven’t had time to put the tarp on the tents yet. WE will most likely put it on tomorrow. The Wayfarers cooked a meatless dinner of spaghetti and sourdough bread. The noodles were shaped like shells and some were shaped like screws. But, some unexpected problem appeared. Because of our tent dilemma, we were not able to eat at the same time as everyone else. Unfortunately, the Wayfarers mill calculated ho...

  The Beginning Part IV February 6, 2025 Written by Joseph V. Jairam ______________________________________________________________ Dear Reader, I began work on the staff flag at midnight this morning. 0000. Working I cut out the flag from the fabric, did all the measurements cut out and sewed the Goshawk on and framed the flag. I also attached the flag to the staff in a temporary fix because it does not have the call on it yet. I completed work on the staff at 0530 in the morning. It was a late night hahaha. And we had a flag for retreat. So it was worth it.                                                                                                      ...

  The Beginning Part III January 17-20, 2025 Written by Joseph V. Jairam ______________________________________________________________ Dear Reader, On January 18 I found the stick that would become the Goshawk Patrol staff. It was found during the Yuma Run Canoe Trip. Surviving the river and the stormy winds we have decided it will be named something along the line of Stormwind or Wild storm. We will decide soon. I have begun work on renovating the stick into the staff. (Me with the staff) (Me and the other patrol chiefs) End of Log

  The Beginning Part II January 12, 2025 Written by Joseph V. Jairam ______________________________________________________________Dear Reader, On January 2 2025, the full member list of the Goshawk patrol was decided and I participated in my first Chiefs Meeting. The Goshawk Patrol is as follows…. PC: Joseph Vincent Jairam        Benedict Chidley        Gavin Avina        Tomas Murty        Alexander Jairam        Andrew Naaden APC: Joshua Stigen Discussion has begun to familiarize the new members with the patrol’s totem animal and deciding the motto and call. On the upcoming canoe trip 1/17-20/2025, I will be tasked with hopefully finding the staff for the patrol. The starting date for the patrol has been narrowed down to February 7-9, 2025. End of Log

  The Beginning November 23, 2024 Written by Joseph V. Jairam ________________________________________________________________________ Dear Reader, Currently I am the Badger Patrol cook and treasurer. Last Saturday, the 16th, I was asked by the council of Chiefs consisting of Elk, Hedgehog, Bobcat, Peter Griger, Paul Kelley, and Kiki Davidson if I would be willing to take on the role of being the Patrol Chief of a new patrol. This new patrol would split from 1st Oceanside and become the first patrol of the troop 1st Murrieta. After considering the ramifications of leaving the Badger Patrol and even the troop, I accepted the position.  Today I have picked the animal this new patrol shall be: The Goshawk Patrol. The colors for this animal are red and light blue. My reasons for picking this animal are as follows: Goshawks are birds of prey. Those are the best in my opinion. They have great eyesight (Explorers see the goal), They are agile (We find ways to reach the goal), They ...