Untamed Spirit: The Old Northwest

The Old Northwest Primitive Rendezvous is now over! At least for me. It was fun while it lasted though.

So our rendezvous started with me showing up early (everyone else in our camp was late) and picking out a spot to camp. We didn't end up camping were I picked but after the first big storm I was happy for this as the spot I'd originally picked flooded! More on that later. When the rest of my group (Uncle Greg and Philip) showed we pitched the tents near Ramrod's camp ... technically right in front, effectively blocking the evening sun from his camp. Of course with the trees and his camp the morning sun was blocked from ours so it worked out quite nicely.

We had four tents this year. One for each of us and a storage tent. The storage tent worked out well as it left more room in our tents for us to sleep. I might have to come up with a way to set our bows next year so they don't have to sleep with us. We could use the other gun rack but we need a way to keep the bows from slipping off. The tent stayed fairly dry which is good as the guns and powder were all in there. I'm going to make some modifications for next year though. I also hear we might have a fifth tent, a single pole - almost tepee tent if we can figure out how to put it up proper like ... unlike last year!

Uncle Greg got a sign made with the camps name on it and I took a photo of Uncle Ken into Photoshop and made it look like a painting then printed it on metal. Turned out pretty good and sort of period correct. I still wanna go back with real paint to give it the texture to match. It was Philips idea to package it in sinew to hang.

The Colonel's camp

After camp was set up and we donned our camp clothing the fun really began. This year I was in charge of cooking. Turns out my shopping list was a bit lacking but in the end this worked out in our advantage as Ramrod cooked a few meals for us and he partook of some of ours. We left with no food to take with us! The two noted dinners consisted of Brunswick stew, which Ramrod helped us eat the first night and we finished for lunch the next day. And chicken kabobs which I had to pass out the left overs! These were requested for next years menu! The stew was a bit challenging as it was supposed to stew for over 3 hours but with the temperature of the fire only took some were between 1 and 2 hours.With the kabobs... well let's just say bamboo sticks burn really easily and leave it at that.

Stew stewing over an open flame

Kabobs over an open fire

The chef

Back to that storm! Our second night there, after having suffered 80 degree high humidity weather a nice cool storm swept the muggy heat away. The sky darkened fast! Clouds rolling in, blocking the sun, all the time emitting loud peals of thunder. Then the lightning became visible and the rain began to poor. By this time Uncle Greg was snoring away in his tent. I was wrapped in his frock knitting and watching the storm come with Philip. The rain stopped for a short time then gushed at an angle. Effectively making our dining fly useless. I quickly tossed my knitting basket into my tent and checked that my back flap was closed tightly and Philip snagged his frock from his tent. Then we waited at the other end of the dining fly. Which BTW if you don't know what a dining fly is it's the canvas covering the fronts of all our tents in the top photo.

Turns out my back flaps were not snug enough as rain came in the very bottom and soaked my ground cover. I got it mopped up and luckily my blankets didn't get wet.

Big bad storm clouds

Storm on the horizon

Then on Tuesday night after the Highland games we had another bad storm. Worse then the first by far! Constant flashes of bright lightning and loud peals of thunder. One lightning bolt at least struck something nearby and a few people had downed canvas awnings. One chap we helped to fix his. It was a pretty sweet storm, that one. If I had a cover for my camera I would have been out in it taking some wicked lightning shots! The other photographer agreed with me. We were both lamenting our lack of equipment during our morning showers.

The time went quickly this past week. We stayed busy. Moving from one event to the next. Daniel came to visit us on Sunday and brought my bow and a few other things for me as I plum forgot. During practice for shooting the muzzle loader I hit just about every target. Including this chain they had hanging from a downed tree. During the competitive shooting of the same targets but from different angles ... not so much. I think I got 3 targets out of 11. Horrible! However, after getting my bow, trading for some arrows and a wrist guard I tied for 1st place in archery. They dropped me to second based on the amount of missed targets ... I got one so I got second place with 29 points. Got myself a few bulls eyes! So at least I know with a bow I can bring home dinner but probably not with the gun! [watch out buglers my bow is close at hand, easy to sting and I've got a hell of a shot!] I got myself a nasty bruise on my wrist before getting the guard as the bow string slapped my wrist and busted a vain. Swelled up nicely and immediately until my flesh redistributed the blood and fixed the vessel. It's not even sore no more but it sure looks nasty!

Me shooting Philips old 45 muzzle loader

I participated in what is called a 'round robin' were people sit around a canvas and trade their goods. It was terribly fun. I'm glad Philip and Uncle Greg convinced me to try. I used my jams and other crafts as trading goods and got myself a few items I could use at rendezvous and a few to trade again next year. I even sold a few things and got myself a commission while there. Either people really like my stuff or they are a sucker for a pretty face! ... or both!

There was this bow maker set up this year. I noticed him working on a bow when I walked in that first day. I told myself I would go back and milk him for all the information I could ... turned out he was very willing to comply. He's even willing to come out to my house and spend days working with me on building my own bow for the other parts of the tree I wont be using. We'll see if I need him to do this. I took extensive notes and with the book I rented from the library and this knowledge he gave me I hope to have a long bow by next year. I'd read the book just before going to rendezvous and had a vague idea of what to do but it's so much easier to understand when you can see it in person being made. He even gave me the dimensions for his string jig.

While camping we also got the Strawberry moon. It's the full moon in June and it was the closest it's been in a while to the Earth. HUGE! I'm so happy I got my new lens so I could get a good photo of it!