What we cleaned up:

Twenty tins of paint blocking the fire exit.
TWENTY.
Not ten.
Not “a few.”
TWENTY.

Why were they there?
Who put them there?
Why were half of them open?

We will never know.
We simply cleared them, sighed deeply, and carried on.

---

Best excuse of the night:

“Well I needed a wee….”

Hard to argue, but please not outside.

---

Best moment:

Austin hugged his Sixer and whispered,
“My friend.”
And the whole world softened for a second.

---

Tonight: Pioneering Night!

We unleashed ropes, knots, staves, lashings
and the Cubs entered full Bushcraft Mode™.

“Pioneering” translates in Cub language to:

• tying everything to everything
• hitting things with staves (we stopped that)
• making knots that no Boy’s Own manual has ever described
• shouting “I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING!”
• discovering they do not know what they’re doing
• tying more knots anyway

It was chaotic.
It was noisy.
It was absolute magic.

---

We Built… A Tower

Not a small tower.
Not a symbolic tower.

A real, honest-to-goodness, free-standing pioneering tower
that somehow remained upright despite:

• one Cub tying everything in granny knots
• another Cub deciding diagonal lashings were “too diagonal”
• one leader quietly redoing every joint behind them
• several Cubs “testing stability” by poking it repeatedly
• engineering that could best be described as “optimistic”

But in the end?

IT STOOD.
Tall. Proud.
Wonky in the way that only a Cub-built structure can be.
An architectural masterpiece of sheer determination.

One Cub declared,
“We have built THE TOWER OF POWER.”
We did not correct him.

---

Austin & His Sixer A Moment of Pure Gold

Halfway through the night, something small but enormous happened.

Austin new Cub, autistic, gentle-hearted, still finding his place finished his knots, walked over to his Sixer, wrapped his arms around him, and said:

“My friend.”

Just like that.
No fanfare.
No prompt.
Just trust.

The Sixer froze, then smiled the biggest smile a child can smile without exploding.

Leaders melted.
Slightly cried.
Pretended they weren’t crying.

Because this is what Cubs is for.
Not knots.
Not towers.
Not badges.

Belonging.
Real, actual belonging.

Austin found his friend.
And his friend found him right back.

---

Week Fifteen Verdict

• Fire exit: liberated from 20 paint tins.
• Knots: chaotic but effective.
• Lashings: enthusiastic and occasionally correct.
• Tower: gravity-defying masterpiece.
• Austin: thriving.
• Leaders: exhausted but full of joy.

Every week, these children surprise us.
Every week, they grow.
Every week, we realise this Pack is more than we ever dreamed it could be.

Bring on Week Sixteen, whatever madness it holds.