Shenandoah Long Rifle Memorial Day Weekend Rendezvous

The Urchin has done been moved and its time to gather my gear for a long weekend of camping in the woods pre 1840’s style.  The last Wednesday of May saw my gear loaded in My Faithful Mule Methuselah along with dog Sophia and her gear and the happy pair of us heading for my Urchin’s place.  Sophia was moving to Urchin’s permanently.  My 12.5 hour work schedule plus the 1.8 hour round trip commute makes for a very long night time inside for Sophia.  The Urchin works fewer hours in a shift, works days, has central air and a lovely full basement.  Sophia now has about a third of said basement as her private domain complete with her sleep cushion. 

The Urchin and I had a lovely evening just hangin’ out (as opposed to moving and unpacking) and I headed towards Belle Grove Thursday well rested and ready for a long weekend in the woods.  I stopped at the Hupp’s Hill Civil War Museum in Strasburg en route.  It’s a pleasant little museum, has both military and civilian artifacts, a very pleasant signed walking trail, and several shaded picnic tables.  Almost all of the artifacts have been donated by local families.  It was well worth the stop.

I had my lodge set up by noon Thursday in a nice spot with all day shade at the range end of the camp.  I did misjudge the tree limb height in front of my lodge and there wasn’t room for my fly.  A strong breeze would have had limbs thumping the canvas and I really don’t want to be fixing honey locust thorn damage to my fly.  The weather held all weekend and I had plenty of shade so the fly really wasn’t needed.

My Thursday arrival meant I was there for the opening ceremony.  It was a pleasantly casual affair with most folks gathered around in chairs in the shade.  It was a warm weekend, not as brutally hot as last year but definitely a drink-plenty-of-water warm weekend.

Here’s Trina welcoming everyone under the watchful eye of the purser.  It is important to be known to the purser – he also knows first aid.

Ceremonies over its on to the serious ‘Vousing.  This man is weaving a bark storage container.  He’s using a stick of firewood as a form so he can get the weaving tight and the basket consistent in shape. 

Cooking is a major part of any event – this couple has a elevated brazier setup.  Cooking while sitting is much easier on the back than cooking standing bent over a ground fire.  Less smoke in the eyes too.

Of course shooting is an integral part of any ‘Vous.  Paul has just finished cleaning what he calls his Ugly Gun.  If ya shoot it ya gotta clean it.  (I don’t photograph the shooting – its impolite.)

Karen and  Jimmy are just shooting the breeze over crackers and cheese.

Karen usually sets up at the opposite end of camp.  This year she was at my end where she figured it would be nice and peaceful.  Except everyone decided her camp was the place to hang out, so while it wasn’t the noisy camp it was a busy one.  Iche Iia,  One Blanket (Shawn) and others are planning supper. 

Some folks think Rendezvousing (or buckskinning) is just a bunch of guys getting dirty in the woods – but there’s plenty of couples and families in these here shinning times.

Here’s another ‘skinner couple from the camp.

And yet another.  That table and chairs fold up into the box like table top. 

Iche Iia & One Blanket again – solving some matter of great import I’m sure.

Gypsy Jane at Seams Colonial – this trader started out with a blanket and a clothes rack.  A very good place to get powder horns and sashes as well as clothes.

Of course there were trade blankets aplenty – although not by yours truly.  I need what I have and have already sold what I don’t need.

Not everyone uses a canvas tent.  Matt set up this reed mat lodge.  There’s a framework of bent thin saplings under those mats.

Matt also makes and shoots primitive self bows.  He’s currently working at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton. 

Primitive archery is becoming common at rendezvous.  Its now common to see archery tackle in camp.  The owner of this quiver has been using it since he was a kid.

Woven basket quivers are also popular – they dry out quickly if they get rained on, are light weight and were used by many Indian tribes who lived east of the great plains .  Gypsy Jane and I both use this type of quiver.

May is for Moving

For the last several months my Urchin has been house hunting.  At first things didn’t go so well – great houses in poor locations, great locations with poor houses and great houses in great locations with not so great price tags.  Then a realtor showed here a house under contract but with financing not looking good.  The financing did fall through and after a couple weeks of knuckle biting my Urchin closed on a home of her own.  And it’s a winner.

Front room & kitchen have semi-cathedral ceilings, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths and a full unfinished basement.  The living area is entered at ground level from the back & the basement is entered from ground level in the front.  (Boyfriend in the yard mowing is not included in the purchase price.)

And the view from the veranda . . .

They build Scenic View overlooks on freeways for views like this.  That’s the lower Shenandoah Valley in the distance.

Most lots are around an acre in size & the development is built on a hillside, so the houses have a great feeling of privacy but your neighbors are close by.

So I spent a fair amount of this month helping my daughter move into her place – my 3/4 ton van did a fine job of being a moving van.  I got her a mower through my friend Lewis who fixes such things plus brought my mower so we could get the lawn cut before it turned into a jungle.  We found an Open Box deal on a washer & dryer at Best Buy, hauled it to the house and between JR & I everything got installed.  The washer at first wanted to walk across the floor on spin but a quick reference to the manual & a YouTube video later I was removing the shipping bolts which solved the problem. 

It took several trips but eventually even my Urchin’s motorcycle was at her new digs.  The frig in the house only sort of works so Urchin is saving up for a replacement.  The dishwasher was dead but has been replaced by a $25 ReStore find.  Various other little things common to new used houses have also been fixed – dead light bulbs replaced, door locks replaced, loose screws tightened, shower curtains installed, bedroom drapes installed and Thompson’s Water Seal applied to the veranda and rear deck.  But by month’s end things were shaping up nicely. 

Hugs and thanks to all of our friends who helped make this happen.  You all are the best.

American Indian Museum

For various reasons too complicated to discuss, I ended up with some time off this month.  Seeing as how time off from my work is a bit like finding hen’s teeth, I didn’t turn it down.  Believe me, I’ve plenty off leave to use & was coming up on a use or loose situation.  Besides, most of this month revolved around helping my Urchin move (see next post.)  Then my friend Gypsy Jane found herself working in the Northern VA area and thus ended up at mutual friends for a weekend.  Since I was also off that weekend we decided it was time – well past time actually - to go visit the American Indian Museum. 

WOW – way better than the previous displays in the Natural History museum.  Much better lighting, better signage and larger displays.

I’d read descriptions of painted skin dresses, but this was the 1st I’d ever seen.

I’ve seen a few repro war shirts at rendezvous and most were well done – but here’s the real deal and its most excellently done.

The displays are all full size and that gives each artifact an environment so the relationship of one thing to another makes sense. 

Anyone want a complete set of teepee organizers?

There’s a section dedicated to horse tack and lore. 

Great Plains cultures feature large here.

But French influenced work is also displayed.

Metis culture gets its space too.  This is an Assumption River area sash, the sort of thing that was the height of fashion in the time & place that interests me most as a living historian.  Not that there is much call for a 1700’s era piece from the waterways of Canada here in Virginia.

Anyone want the ultimate in ice fishing machinery?  This 20th century adaption of military surplus gear is another Metis invention – this time from the Lake Winnipeg area.

Yes folks, that’s all quill work on this horse mask.

This one is also all quill work but much newer – I loved seeing the timeline effect of older pieces alongside new ones.  The museum makes it very clear that these are living cultures.

There’s also the full range of American cultures in the museum from the Arctic to Terra Del Fuego, the Atlantic to the Pacific.  Even the ponds and garden areas outside the building are mini-ecosystems important to the First Peoples. 

This won’t be my only trip to this museum.

Little Brown Bats (I Think)

Periodically I get 4 to 8 small bats roosting in the louvers in the roof peak eves.  They don’t show up every year but if they do appear they arrive in May or early June, stay for about a week and then go to what ever other roosts these bats like.  My neighborhood has 4 or 5 dozen bats flying around grabbing dinner most evenings, so my place seems to just be a sleep stop they use now and then.  They usually use the sunny kitchen entry end of the house but have used the other shaded end twice that I know of.  They have also roosted in the shaded louvers for a week in September at least once.  It’s probably either too hot or too cold to use my eves the rest of the year.

Last year I didn’t seem to have my seasonal visitors and I rather missed them.  This year I seem to be the budget motel of choice – there were 16 to 20 bats in my kitchen side louvers today.  Enough that they were actually noisy around 7:30 pm.  Its now 9 pm and they have all gone hunting.  I’ll check on them again late tonight and early tomorrow morning.  They all seem healthy, which is a good thing what with White Nose Disease and all.  I’m fairly sure they are Little Brown Bats.

Did I mention that I really like bats?

Comments on Posts

I’ve just altered the Comments section for this blog so anyone can comment and it will post once I approve the comment.  I also discovered that I have had readers of at least one post from all kinds of places:

United States           2,595

Russia                          51

China                           45

Germany                      40

Canada                        24

Poland                          23

United Kingdom            22

Iran                               20

Japan                           20

France                         16

The US, UK, Japan and even Iran I understand because I have a friends there, but I had no idea anyone in any of those other countries had ever read my blog even if it was only once. I’m not exactly setting the interwebs on fire here but I’m totally amazed that anyone outside a small circle of friends would even bother to check out a post of mine.

Well greeting to you all whoever you are. Maybe we can share songs and laughter at my lodge someday. There’s always room at my campfire for you.