It's The Final Countdown...
Or maybe the last reminder
Now that’s some good music!
And it serves as the perfect soundtrack for this final, and important reminder about our upcoming Emeth BBQ Contest and Starlight Outdoor Fellowcraft Degree.
We are going to spend the day competing to see who can truly claim to be the Greatest Masonic Pit Master Of All Time!
And then we are going to eat all these wonderful creations!
And then we are going to make a superb Brother a Fellowcraft Mason! In an outdoor Lodge room surrounded by towering trees and lit by the moon and stars!
If you miss this, you are truly nuts!1
(If you’re in District 18, that footnote above is for you!)
So, here’s the deal…
Those of us who are cooking for the BBQ Contest will gather early in the day to start smoking all the luscious meat.
We’ll have something simple, but great, for everyone to munch on during the day. I vote for superb German sausage and red hots, and since I’ll be cooking both of them, I guess that I’ll get what I want! Be like me, bring what you like to eat, ‘cause bringing what you hate to eat is just really odd.2
We’ll have a great day of fun and brotherhood while our meats transform into something truly amazing. We’ll hang out with each other’s families too, as everyone is invited, wives, kids, friends, whomever!
Indeed, this would be a great event to bring that guy interested in Freemasonry too. Let him spend time with us, get to know us, and get to know Masonry.
Around dinner time, we’ll have our contest. We’ll all eat these wonderful creations, and we’ll all vote for the winners. As always, we’ve got great trophies! Something big and really garish to prove that we are The Greatest Masonic Pit Master Of All Time!
And don’t forget the side dishes! We got trophy for those babies too! But please don’t roast a baby as your side dish. Bailey prefers beans, but you do you and may the Greatest Pit Master Of All Time Win!
Then, when darkness falls those of us who are Masons will wander into the amazing outdoor Lodge room, and there we will Pass a very good man to the Degree of Fellowcraft Mason.
I know, I know, some folks want very definite times. Sorry. Can’t give ‘em. I have no idea how long it will take to smoke your wonderful creation, so come early enough that it is ready to be served around 6:00 or so. I also have no idea what the clouds will do, so no idea what time it will actually be dark under the trees of the outdoor Lodge room. The Degree will begin when darkness falls.
I’ll be there early to late so worry not.
Here’s the deats:
Saturday, September 14
Quilcene-Jefferson Lodge
170 Herbert Street, Quilcene WA
We will be asking for donations, both to support the event, and for Quilcene-Jefferson Lodge that is so generously allowing us to use their wonderful facility. Please give what you can.
Just a few things:
If you plan on cooking, and haven’t let me know, please do. Remember, we’ve got trophies so garish that your wife will try to ban them from the house, and your friends will finally realize that you are The Greatest Of All Time, and hang their heads in shame.3
If you know a Brother who would like to be Passed to Fellowcraft and is ready to do so, let me know. We can do another. Note that this will be done via Doric Lodge No. 92, Courtesy Work.4
If you would like to participate in the Degree Conferral, we’ve got a spot for you, just let me know.5
To my buddies in District 18, you must come as well! The District Meeting shall not be allowed to stand in our way! The District Meeting starts at 11 AM and will be done by 1 PM. Lodge building to Lodge building is only 2.5 hours, you’ll be there in plenty of time for dinner, and the Degree! Heck, you’ll be there in plenty of time even if you drive as slow as I do!
Don’t forget the libations. Who can smoke meat without a libation in hand? Perish the thought.
We got no rules. We’ll all eat, and we’ll all vote for our favorites.
See that? We aren’t even breaking the rules! We gots lots of permission from our MWGM. Most Worshipful Jimmy!
Just let me know your favorite job in the FC Degree!
Footnotes included to make me look super intellectual. See how cool that is?
Grilling in the Pacific Northwest
Get out your kettle Barbecue, and make sure that you have your briquettes soaked overnight, to assure that the lighter fluid has thoroughly penetrated each briquette. You’ll know if you’ve succeeded when you pull them out and the lighter fluid freely drips from the briquette. Then you stack them on your bottom grill in the barbecue. It’s true that you can’t stack them any higher than the cooking grill surface, but you want to get as close as you can. Make a good, sturdy stack of them. Then put the cooking grill on, then toss in the match. Grill time! It’ll be great, even if you’re cooking burgers with no eyebrows.
“Taste the food, not the fuel.” I don’t know who came up with that. Unless you’re cooking with a microwave, or an electric griddle (Borrring) or using one of those parabolic solar dishes that converge the sun’s rays or something like that, you’re burning something to cook your meat. So make sure it counts. Be sure to use the correct type and amount of lighter fluid when you soak your briquettes. It’ll make a difference with the finished product, and your guests will definitely have comments about your cooking prowess afterwards. Remember, you have a reputation to uphold!
Cook some extra for later in the week, so you have lunches when you’re at work. Offer some of it to your co-workers, and should any of them ask you why your face now looks like a department store mannequin, tell them you were involved in a charity fundraiser. By now, they should know you’re a member of a large Fraternity, and while they might view your appearance as strange, they’ll know it was for a good cause. And it was! Those burgers were damn good! You know your guests will be back when you fire up the grill again. And you won’t even have to invite them! They’ll know when you get the grill fired up when they hear it on the fire department scanner.
Well MW the last two weeks the weather report was rain on the 14th over here BUT I just checked the update and it now says high of 67 and nothing but sunshine and clear sky and I will be checking to see if the same night we can see the International Space Station flying right over us.......and that has happened many times just after the Stated meetings......but then after dark it will be a bit chilly to me anyway.
And I am hoping for no rain so I can drive my classic 55 year old car that I just got out of my garage for the first time in 8 years and I have a mechanic now coming this saturday to check the brakes and I will have to replace 2 of the headlights so I can find my way back home that night......it is a long 10 minute drive each way for me from Port Ludlow 😎