It Is Going To Be Snow

Greetings from The Heart of Scouting

I and Dylan had been at the Park on Thursday afternoon and Friday putting the maze of "spaghetti" piping on the Headquarter well pump back together. On starting the pump up there were leaks galore, which I had anticipated for I had deliberately not tightened all the joints. The aim was to ensure that the replacement pipes and elbows, check valve and bypass valve were fitting together properly. Now arriving with Chris and Dylan on Saturday for the usual weekend tour of maintenance, Scouting instruction and fun, we set about doing our various tasks. As I no longer needed Dylan to help with the threading and holding of pipes, all the hard work had already been done, I dismantled the maze of pipes, put thread tape on those that needed it and reassembled everything. Chris and Dylan had set their sights on felling some of the gum trees in the vlei and so they drew felling axes and the pit saw and disappeared into the long grass of the vlei. All I heard was the thud of the axes and occasionally the rasp of the pit saw. By mid afternoon the pump was pumping water into the Headquarter settlement tank and one of the gum trees had come crashing down, blocking the entrance road into the Park. Huge grins on the Scouts faces, you know, that mischievous grin. We weren't troubled by any visitors for the day.

Now for the craziest thing that I have ever tried and the order came to me from the craziest chappy in London. For fear of being sued, I will not mention his name, only to say that he is responsible for getting this newsletter to you each week. Put two and two together.

As instructed, I rose early, the stars were still out and about, only to have my whatnots freeze. Yes, the temperature on the thermometer read a glorious -3 degrees Celsius and that is in August. Now I wasn't going to climb fifty metres to the top of Leask Rock that early in the morning dragging all the paraphernalia with me as mentioned in the, "How to do it instructions". Instead, I climbed onto the cement table outside the kitchen door. You must appreciate that to step up over a metre in height with a stirrup pump in one hand, a bucket of ice-cold water in the other, a bag of fine dust dangling from one's teeth, (no extra hands available) and to grin whilst you try this contortionist trick, shaking uncontrollably because of the ice cold air temperature, takes some doing. I nearly fell off the table in my attempt to step up, as my weight on the overhang of the cement table top had a see-saw effect. Anyway, I did eventually get to I stand on the top of the table. Now, what I had to do was to put the suction end of the stirrup pump into the pail of ice-cold water and pump like crazy, at the same time blow dust from the little bag into the fine spray and I should have produced snow, Yes, Snow. Nothing doing. Just then Chris arrives, looks at me on top of the table pumping the stirrup pump like crazy and blowing dust into the spray. "You have flipped", he gasped. "Nothing doing", I mumbled through clenched teeth which were holding the bag of dust. "Quick, go and get some flour and throw it into the spray", I instructed. Fear had griped him, I could see his big round eyes were twice the size they normally were and without uttering another word he dashed into the kitchen coming out with a bag of flour which he dusted into the spray. Drat, still no snow. But wait, on the ground was a mounting heap of white. I am going to call it snow. What the heck, after all the trouble I went through to try to produce snow in Gordon Park, -- It Is Going To Be Snow. Besides the fine spray had turned to ice and the pipe of the pump was covered in thick ice, err, snow.

The rest of the day passed peacefully, doing mundane things like wetting and rolling the soft soil we had deposited in front of the Stables the previous week in an attempt to level off the tea area, which had over the years been rutted by the rains.

Cheers
Norman
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1st Pioneer Troops Calendar of forthcoming events:-

August
20 Troop meeting: Mabukuwene
27 Troop meeting: Mabukuwene

culminating in December 2010 with an expedition to an exciting destination!

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"A Thought For The Week"
Remember that ignorance is expensive.

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Matabeleland Scout Website /
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Bulawayo, Tuesday, August 17, 2010