2nd Etobicoke
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The
Fire Making Challenge
The guys
were informed that we needed a fire to cook our T-Bone Steak
dinnner over. They were asked to get a fire going from scratch.
They could not use a lighter or a match and were not to use their
knives as a tool either. They needed to put together a Bow Drill
Kit from natural and available items found in their environment.
They split in 4 making each responsible for 1 component of the
Bow Drill Kit.
Andrew was to gather and make 4 feet of cordage. If it was done
well and was strong, the Leaders would replace the natural cordage
with a piece of nylon string.
Philip made
the drill. Liam prepared the handhold. Both had to use stone
tools to cut and carve them into the right shape.
Drew worked on the
fireboard and built the fire.
The Challenge
started at 4:00 in the afternoon. At around 8:00 in the evening,
the boys had all the parts of their Bow Drill Kit prepared and
were cranking madly on it trying to get a coal.
There
were a few problems with their choices of materials. One-by-one,
each piece was replaced by Scouter David's Bow Drill Kit. At
around 10:00 a coal was finally produced. It was carefully transfered
into their prepared tinder bundle. They blew and blew on it but
it wouldn't blow into a flame. Their tinder was too damp. Eventually,
the coal was blown out and another one had to be made on the
Bow Drill.
At about
10:30, another coal was made and a tinder bundle was provided
by Scouter Kathy. This time it blew into a flame and the fire
was started. We started cooking shortly after 11:00 and sat down
to eat at 11:30.
The meal
was fabulous. We dined on T-Bone Steak, Baked Potatoes, Fried
Onions and Green Beans. It was topped off with Fresh Baked Brownies.
Even though there was a long wait for dinner, the quality of
the meal made the teachings from the experience a little easier
to take.
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