Robert Robert - Scouting for Boys

The beam is now moved up and down at slow intervals by one Scout, while another Scout lays bundles of fern or straw in layers alternately under and over the stretched strings. The bundles are thus bound in by the rising or lowering of the cords attached to the

beam.

On a camp loom it is easy to weave a comfor table mattress

out of bracken, fer ns, heather, straw or grass.

If you move the beam first slightly to the right and then to the left so that the strings fall first on one side and then on the other side of he stretched strings it will twist the cords and make the binding much more secure.

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS

Camp Orders

In going into camp it is essential to have a few “Standing Orders” published, which can be added to from time to time, if necessary. These should be carefully explained to Patrol Leaders, who should then be held fully responsible that their Scouts carry them out exactly.

Such orders might point out that each Patrol will camp separately from the others, and there will be a comparison between the respective cleanliness and good order of tents and surrounding ground.

Each Patrol usually has a tent to itself, well away from any others, but within call of the Scoutmaster’s tent.

Patrol Leaders to report on the good work or otherwise of their Scouts, which will be recorded in the Scoutmaster’s book.

Rest time for one hour in middle of day.

Bathing under strict supervision to prevent non-swimmers getting into dangerous water.

“Life Guards will be on duty while swimming is going on, and ready to help any boy in distress. These guards will be on shore or in a boat (undressed). They may only swim when the general swimming is over, and the last of the swimmers has left the water. A life-line must be available.” The observance of this rule has saved the life of more than one Scout already.

Orders as to what is to be done in case of fire alarm.

Orders as to boundaries of grounds to be worked over, damages to fences, property, good drinking-water, etc.

CAMP FIRE YARN NO. 10

CAMP COOKING

Cooking- Hay-Box Cooking - Bread Making

- Cleanliness

HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS

Practise mixing dough and baking; it is useful. if possible, get a baker to give a lesson. But let each Scout mix his own dough with the amount of water be thinks right. Let him make his mistakes at first to get experience.

A visit to an abattoir and butcher’s shop to see the cutting up is useful for boys. Get Scouts to make their own linen ration bags.

Issue raw rations, and let each Scout make his own fire and cook his own meal.

EVERY SCOUT MUST, OF COURSE, know how to cook his own meat and vegetables, and to make bread for himself, without regular cooking utensils.

Cooking Meat

Meat may be cooked by sticking it on sharp sticks and hanging it close to the fire, so that it gets broiled. Or use the lid of an old cake tin as a kind of frying-pan. Put grease in it to prevent the meat from sticking.

Or make Kabobs: Cut your meat up into a slice about half or three-quarters of an inch thick. Cut this up into small pieces about one to one and a half inches across. String a lot of these chunks on to a stick or iron rod, and plant it in front of the fire, or suspend it over the hot embers for a few minutes till the meat is roasted.

Meat can also be wrapped in a few sheets of wet paper, or in a coating of clay, and put in the red-hot embers of the fire, where it will cook by itself.

Hunter’s Stew—Cut lean meat or game into small chunks about an inch or one and a half inch square. Mix some flour, salt, and pepper together, and rub your meat well in it. Brown it in a little fat in the pot, shuffling the pot so as to sear, but not burn the surfaces of the meat. Add clean water, and hang pot high over the fire. It is important that the water should not boil hard, but merely simmer. Later add cut up vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots and onions. The water should just cover the food—no more. Cook until tender.

Cooking Birds and Fish

Birds and fish can be cooked in the same manner. A bird is most easily plucked immediately after being killed. But there is no need to pluck it before cooking it in clay, as the feathers will stick to the clay when it hardens in the heat, and when you break it open the bird will come out cooked, without its feathers, like the kernel out of a nutshell.

Another way is to clean out the inside of a bird, get a stone about the size of its inside, and heat it till nearly red hot. Place it inside the bird, and put the bird on a gridiron, or on a wooden spit over the fire.

Fire Places

Usually a Scout has his own pot or “billy” or camp kettle. In that you can boil water or cook your vegetables or stew your meat.

To cook in your pot, you can either stand it on the ends of the logs of a star fire (where it may fall over unless care is taken), or, better, stand it on the ground among the hot embers of the fire. Or rig up a tripod of three green poles over the fire, tying them together at the top, and hanging the pot by a wire or chain from the poles.

Even better, make a fire place of two lines of sods, bricks, thick logs, or stones. The lines should be flat at the top and about six feet long, four inches apart at one end and eight inches at the other—the big end toward the wind.

A fire place may be made of two lines of sods, bricks, thick logs, or stones. Place or hang your pots over it.

Then you should make your own pot hooks and hangers for holding your cooking pots over the fire. The sketch shows some of the ways of doing this.

Here are a number of suggestions for keeping your camp kitchen in good shape and for maki ng your cooking work easier.

Cooking Hints

When boiling a pot of water on the fire, do not jam the lid on too firmly. When the steam forms inside the pot, it must have some means of escape. To find out when the water is beginning to boil, you need not take off the lid and look, but just hold the end of a stick or knife to the pot, and if the water is boiling you will feel the pot trembling.

Oatmeal Porridge—Pour into a pot one cup of water for each person. Add a pinch of salt for each cup. When the water boils, sprinkle oatmeal in it while stirring with a stick or large spoon. The amount of oatmeal depends upon whether you want the porridge thick or thin. Simmer the porridge until it is done, stirring all the time.

Don’t do as I did once when I was a tenderfoot. It was my turn to cook, so I thought I would vary the dinner by giving them soup. I had some pea-flour, and I mixed it with water and boiled it up, and served it as pea-soup. But I did not put in any stock or meat juice of any kind, I didn’t know that it was necessary or would be noticeable. But they noticed it directly, called my beautiful soup a “wet pea-pudding”, and told me I might eat it myself—not only told me I might, but they jolly well made me eat it. I never made