Larry the sacrificial lamb part two

My family dropped my small lens - irreparable - so just as well that one of my scout leaders had his camera there. His son was on strictest instructions to keep shooting no matter what - and that only lasted so long - so after a while I grabbed his digi camera and continued to shoot the pictures.

To cut a long story short - the sacrificial lamb (Larry) who's real name was Burt (the pet lamb)
has been gutted and was almost ready to be toast. Before we could do that we had to get ready the fire pit! Obviously the scouts where not to sure of them selves and can here be seen working out the shortcoming's. Yep you where right need more timber right there!!!


When all was ready we lit the fire. Of course a open fire in the wild has to be watched, the perfect excuse by scouts, after a hard day working, to just sit round and take a breather. Funny how the age old tradition of men sitting round the fire and yakking away is still alive and kicking. Only thing missing was a cool blonde (Speights I think) or if you're after refined taste a glass of red medicinal grape juice!!
And while one crew was working hard sitting guard, the others ended up rubbing in fresh cut herbs from the garden. I bet you "Burt" never smelled so nice in his life - current or previous.

There was rosemary/sage/coriander/mint and others that escape me for now. Rumor has it that a certain Colonel Sanders was interested in obtaining our 11 secret herbs and spices for further study. Can't imagine that a lamb burger would sell well in America - but hey each to their own!


Yah - we are finally cooking. timber has burnt down to a white embers, and each scout had to do 10 min on the crank handle. Mind you at times it was more like see how fast we can spin this thing round. We had to remind the scouts that just cause he is doing 100 rpm's that does not mean he cooks faster.
We lit the fire at 7 pm - mainly because the bulk of research said it would take at minimum 4 hours to cook and while a midnight feast was not out of the question - I did not want to stretch it out any further past that time.

Of course the embers only last so long and for Larry - our sacrificial lamb to be perfectly cooked we had to constantly feed the fire. Believe me that is an art form in itself. We started by having a extra area either side of the beast where we could burn the timber down to to white ashes and then shuffle that round and keep feeding it that way. Eventually we needed to stoke the fire right under Larry and keep the fire going in that manner. Flame grilled meat has a new meaning now!!

Ok - the boys where really very good - I only heard it once - "is he cooked yet?" and that was after only 30 minutes of cooking. Most kids these days are fed on microwave meals where everything zips round in 20 seconds flat - and even then the thought of having to w a i t 20 seconds . . . . . Anyhow after about 2.7 hours the front of Larry was done and we used a battery and inverter to power our way through the meat. Oddly enough the prepared veggies who cooked just as nice in a dutch oven did not get eaten at all. The kids where to busy stuffing them selves with prime meat!! Yiiiiiah - Lamb never ever tasted so good! Yumm.

After we had the most srumptuous meal we sent the kids into their bivouac where they could do anything they wanted - sleep was only one option! Naturally they did not, and continued to tell tall stories all night long.

Next morning the 2 leaders staying out over night at camp got a hot cup of tea in bed!! Yumm - room service in a bivouac - we will have to go back there!!!! This was followed by eggs on toast!!

We will not do this activity again for another 2 or 3 years - but believe me - we have a waiting list of scouts. There is also no shortage of parents wanting to help out. Sorry Venturers - you will have to organise your own Larry - the sacrificial lamb event. I cannot be bribed (although a years supply of chocolate might do the trick! hehehe). IO now have the task of dealing to the pelt, and the head has been boiling away for the last 48 hours!! We mount both on a timber board and hang it in our Scout hall as a permanent reminder of this crazy group of people who have enjoyed the experience!

Next event to organise is our annual westcoast trip in June - a long weekend away and some 10 lucky scouts will experience part of NZ Reefton history/ goldpanning/and perhaps blacksmithing! We'll see . . .

Meanwhile - have fun

Larry the sacrificial Lamb

Seems some of our scouts are mad keen on the great outdoors and cooking, so every three years or so we invite some special senior scouts to come and cook a roast lamb. Previously this involved cooking a de-boned and heavily flavored leg of lamb in an earth oven (with as little as possible veggies), and then after wards bivving over for the night with no compulsion or expectation to get any sleep. The time of the -urm - meal was always late at night - and could be best described as a midnight snack/feast! This year we pushed the envelope one step further and started with a real life beast.

You think he knew what was coming??? The scout who donated the lamb said - "sorry we're late - we spent 15 min chasing him across the paddock."




The scouts kinda knew in what order to do the business. First of all use long forgotten techniques of figure 8 lashings and erect a tripod. Then dig a grave - oops offal pit large enough for the- u know - innards. Rumor has it they wanted me to test it for size and while laying in . . . . .
Cheeky scouts!


The lamb had been rendered unconscious with a quick bullet and had to be dragged across to the freshly dug earth. Naturally that meant that the young lads worked hard to drag 18 kilo of prime rawhide beef - oops I am getting carried away - back to the narrative - urm - to the dressing spot.
Here as you can see, the beast has made it to his special place. On all previous occasions we had invited our former Cub leader who is a butcher by trade to show the youth how to do the business. Sadly said butcher never made it to the dinner table - a oversight which we will have to rectify.

Well - this does not really need much description. Obviously our friendly butcher is coaxing Larry out of his dressing gown.














Lol - I could tell you it has been ages since he had a bath or even a dip in any sort of water - and as you can see these scouts agreed with this statement. Or was it the un-usually strong odor from other - urm - body parts???






It is good to see that getting your hands dirty on a scout activity is at times still a happening thing. However it has to be said even for a sheep - regular dental floss is a must, and Scouts if you don't - you will end up having just as dirty front clappers as Larry. Gosh where did I leave my toothpaste?

Next on the list of things to do, was to ensure that we had plenty of timber to keep feeding the fire. Thanks to Sir G.H. we had plenty of wood to choose from and it just needed adjusting in size. A task that this lad can seen to be doing with gusto and swing!!
Seem to remember the odd stoppage from a cellphone txt interrupting the natural swing.


The other job was to set up the bivvie's. Here you can see mine - purpose build 5 star luxury accommodation. *I Grins*
Of course myself and the other scout leader were accused of - urm - well cant print that - but we figured this comes under the "a scout is resourceful" part of the Scout law.
A bit draughty though and we sure woke to a very heavy dew. Most things were soaking!!


That left the preparation for the fire pit - and eventually the actual roasting. Under great direction we managed to get deep enough in the former riverbed of the Waimakiriri river and set up a contraption for the roast! -









More pictures later - meanwhile - back in the real world - I have to manage a emergency!! Have fun

Returning to "normality"

Sigh - yes sadly my long holiday has come to an end. I was checking dates yesterday and realized that apart from a few weekends here and there and one week a few years back (and of course all the stats days in NZ) I have not had a decent holiday since 2002 - when ironically we went overseas for 5 weeks, to visit Europe and family!! Well ok - so I spent some of my paid holidays on Jamboree and Staveley Scout camps - which is a holiday of sorts!! No wonder I was getting drained! We certainly seem to struggle to coordinate mine and Pam's holidays. I hope that we don't have to wait another 6 years. Mind you, we got enough air points to fly free over to Australia - so Jade watch out - I might be there end of 2009 or jan 2010!!

Meanwhile - I go to work today to pick up the keys and then on Monday its back to normal! Wonder what will wait for me there!! In terms of Scouting - I have to sew some more scarves, and we are still working away on these computers. Seems while I was away the Uni donated some to our group - how cool is that??!! Then our QM tells me that we are running out of space in our store and we might have to either add on a room or buy a shipping container to store all our gear.
Radar - u are so lucky with your Den!! It was warm and spacious!! I envy you and your group.

The other upcoming big project will be the renovation of our kitchen. There is no real urgency, however the sink will eventually fall through the bench and at that point we will have no choice but to rip everything out and start fresh! Guess who will be doing the bulk of the work there!!

I am also getting my motorcycle license back eg transferred from Austria to NZ - and I am looking to buy some sort of mean machine - maybe a small Harley Davidson. Later when we "retire" we will be carefree and cruising NZ for a whole year - stopping wherever we feel like. From a previous blog entry you can see that Mamabear has already practiced sitting on the bike!!

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Well - better get ready - wake up my boys - and get meat out for dinner tonight.

oops speaking of meat - ^^ 6th Feb is d-day for Larry the lamb. Our challenge for our Senior scouts. We start with a live lamb - that needs to be -urm - you know. Then the skin taken off and gutted. Next item will be getting the coal bed ready and slowly turn it over the heat for several hours. This is usually a night activity and cooking starts sometime after 10 pm - and we eat in the every early hours of the morning. This should be fun!!! Usually is. More on that later