Meal Planning

So the Farmgirl Sisterhood entries on Knowing Your Food, Recipes, and Organic on a Budget aren't the best.  Knowing your food, eating local, and going organic/unprocessed is great, but there's no need to be a busybody to other people about it.  Compiling your family recipes is a sweet idea...if you have a family. And Organic on a Budget is more about shilling her baking mix than anything.  

Let's see if we can keep this simple and efficient.  According to legend Ethel Kennedy had a three week rotating meal plan.  Let's keep the idea and do her one better.:

Requirements:

1 - Compile a notebook with 24 recipes for dinner type meals (we have salad every day for lunch & my husband is only home for dinner 4 nights a week) 

- Make at least 75% of them Paleo/Primal (No grains/beans/processed carbs)

- Make at least 25% of them with at least six servings

2 - Using this notebook plan 6 weeks of menus

3 - Using the plan create six weeks of grocery lists.

4 - Rotate through the plan twice, for a total of twelve weeks

I'm not the only weird one out there

From the NY Times:  Lifelong (badge) earning

First ten merit badges for preparedness minded adults.  (I like this list)

Mary Yeager's Merit Badges for Women
- Her Merit Badges for Summer
- And a bit more

Hard Science Badges

Merit badges for Nerds

Evenweave work

What's the difference between evenweave work and surface embroidery?  One requires an even grid, one can go anywhere.  The Farmgirl Sisterhood entry isn't bad, but we can go better.

Requirements:


1)  Complete a sampler using every stitch listed in the Victoria Sampler stitch library.  These include evenweave stitches, hardanger, and pulled threadwork.  (For the silk ribbon work see the Embroidery entry.)


2)  Complete the Beyond Cross-stitch series, levels four, five and six.


3)  Complete one large sampler from that site.

Quilting

Finally, one from the Farmgirl Sisterhood has some merit.  Their quilting entry has some depth going there.

I'm going to eliminate the education requirement since most of my friends here already know how to quilt, and the ones who don't live on the other side of the country.

Requirements:


1) Complete one baby quilt, using a simple pattern and tying it together.  There is a minimum of a three hour time commitment.


2)  Complete a larger wall hanging or table square, using a different technique from the one used above and hand-quilting.  There is a minimum of a twenty hour commitment.


3)  Complete a full-sized or larger quilt, using a different technique again, and have it machine quilted.  There is a minimum of a fifty hour commitment.


4)  Enter them all into the county fair.

Sewing

The Farmgirl Sisterhood entry has the same problem as before.  I'm sorry but putting together a sewing kit ought to be a requirement, but not enough to earn even part of a badge.  You don't get points toward a camping badge for buying your gear.

Requirements:


Make one each of the following and enter them into the country fair:


- Man's shirt
- Woman's shirt
- Child's dress
- Tote bag
- Stuffed toy

Embroidery

The Farmgirl Sisterhood entry on embroidery runs into the same problem as the one on food storage.  It's not challenging for anyone past an outright beginner for one.  Which is fine but a merit badge should push you to become an expert.  And I shouldn't have to buy her book for another.  In addition "vitamin ball" embroidery looks to be anthropomorphic vegetables, cute but it does kind of lock you into a style.  A true merit badge should allow for some personal expression while fulfilling the requirements, so you can have something useful after.

So here we go.

Requirements:

1) Complete a sampler using every stitch listed on the Needle And Thread website.  (Needle and Thread is run by Mary Corbet, an established expert on Ecclesiastical Embroidery and a student of the Royal School of Needlework.)

2) Complete The projects in each of the The Royal School of Needlework's  Essential Guides:  Stumpwork, Blackwork, Silk Shading, Whitework, and Crewelwork.

3)  Complete the Beyond Cross-stitch series level two (silk ribbon embroidery).

3)  Complete a smocking sampler and smock a child's dress.

4)  Complete a chicken-scratch apron.

5)  Using the techniques from 1 & 2 complete at least one pillow and one wall hanging.

6)  Enter all of the above in the county fair.

Wilderness Survival

From the BSA Manual

Wilderness Survival requirements

Show that you know first aid for, and how to prevent injuries or illnesses that could occur in backcountry settings, including hypothermia, heat reactions, frostbite, dehydration, blisters, insect stings, tick bites, and snakebites. From memory, list the seven priorities for survival in a backcountry or wilderness location. Explain the importance of each one with your councelor. Discuss ways to avoid panic and maintain a high level of morale when lost, and explain why this is important. Describe the steps you would take to survive in the following conditions: a. Cold and snowy b. Wet (forest) c. Hot and dry (desert) d. Windy (mountains or plains) e. Water (ocean, lake, or river) Put together a personal survival kit and explain how each item in it could be useful Using three different methods (other than matches), build and light three fires. Do the following: a. Show five different ways to attract attention when lost. b. Demonstrate how to use a signal mirror. c. Describe from memory five ground-to-air signals and tell what they mean. Improvise a natural shelter. For the purpose of this demonstration, use techniques that have little negative impact on the environment. Spend a night in your shelter. Explain how to protect yourself from insects, reptiles, and bears. Demonstrate three ways to treat water found in the outdoors to prepare it for drinking. Show that you know the proper clothing to wear in your area on an overnight in extremely hot weather and in extremely cold weather. Explain why it usually not wise to eat edible wild plants or wildlife in a wilderness survival situation.

Badge found here