OVPMS Strikes Again !

 My Camp at PMS#2 

As you My Faithful Readers may recall the Ladies of the Old Virginia Primitive Riflemen held their 1st ever Ladies Only Rendezvous in September of 2012.  And it was a Hoot, no it was many many Hoots!  We had so much Hootin’ Hollerin” Fun that a 2nd Primitive Man-less Settlement on the last weekend of September 2013 was scheduled before we broke camp at PMS #1.  Except we decided to add in shooting to the Shinning Times. 

Gypsy Jane’s Camp

The Spirits of Rendezvous were even looking out for me.  I put in for the PMS weekend in October of 2012 with my yearly vacation request but the dates were denied.  So I put in a 2nd request 30 days before the event and glory be to the Spirits of Rendezvous I got the weekend off!  WooHoo!  I never though I would rejoice at having PMS!  And my good Vousing buddy Gypsy Jane was even coming to PMS#2!

Friends New & Old

There were more Ladies in attendance this year and thus more lodges in camp.  I got set up Thursday afternoon and spent the rest of the day catching up on all the news. 

Chatting plus Shoe Repair

More Old Friends in Camp

Of course everyone else was doing the same with ladies moving here and there to share all their doing of the last year and their plans for this camp.

Potluck is Very Lucky as Always

Of course a camp full of Ladies is going to eat well – no burned parched corn & poorly dried jerky for us!  Breakfast dinner & supper were all multi-lodge or all camp affairs. 

All Camp Dinning at Rita’s Lodge

There was the ever popular wine tasting event with the inevitable aftermath – the empty wine bottles throwing a party all of their own.  The Rkatsiteli (3rd from left) was my offering again this year.  There were more white whines this year, a development I heartily approve and greatly enjoyed.

10 of 36 Empty Wine Bottles

The Ladies played Various and Sundry Games, most of which had me so totally engaged or laughing so hard I could not Push a Camera Shutter with any skill at all.  (My games skills were even worse.)

Game Equipment  - 2 Plungers & 4 TP Rolls

But the above game equipment should give one a general idea of the hilarity and general mirth which is the heart of any good game.  A we ladies play very good games.

New this year was afternoon shooting for both novice and experienced shooters.

Holly Studies Her Target

Holly Takes Her Shot

Rita Takes a Shot

Yes there is a Man on the Range.  We voted him an Honorary Woman.  He’s a very good instructor and was most gracious in helping folks improve their technique.  Muzzle loading guns reward consistency – consistent loading, consistent holding, consistent trigger pull.  Having a knowledgeable coach watch you shoot helps to identify your shooting inconsistencies and thus work on eliminating them.  And yes, we let him shoot too.

The Range Loading Area in Use

This wasn’t a shooting contest, just a shooting session to have fun and learn a bit too.  We also had a similar area set up for hawk & knife throwing. 

Of course we’re camping in the Great Outdoors and the Great Outdoors has permanent residents.  These ladies were very busy with their own affairs.

The Yellow Jacket Neighbors

Fortunately I noticed the activity shortly after setting up my lodge and marked the area with a “fence” of downed wood and then notified the camp at large.  No one got stung.  And I’m not all that close to the nest for the photo either.  My Canon SX40HS has a 24mm-840mm (35mm equivalent) zoom range.  I was around 680mm for this shot.  Yes its taken handheld.

Of course no rendezvous is all hurry burry activity.  There’s plenty of time to just enjoy the great outdoors.  The weather was most accommodating and many of use didn’t even bother setting up a fly.

Just Enjoying Camp

Sandra Enjoying a Quiet Read

Sunday came all too soon but 2014 PMS planning has already begun.  I’m planning on doing an archery session or two myself.

Rita’s Lodge at the Start of a Dinner

Besides, OVPR Fall Rendezvous is just a month away!

Front Royal Fun

Front Royal lies alongside the Shenandoah River right where its two branches merge.  The Blue Ridge Mountains rise on one side of the town and the lower Shenandoah valley is on the other side of the river.  It sits along a wide pass to the Virginia Piedmont from the Great Valley and thus has always been an important travel route between the Shenandoah River Valley and the Potomac River drainage.  A Civil War battle was even fought there.

Well Da Urchin lives near Front Royal and Front Royal likes to hold Festivals.  A Scottish Festival, A Craft Festival, An Herb & Spice Festival and a spring Wine & Craft Festival among others.  Last spring at Wine Festival time Da Urchin and I were busy repairing tree-on-house damage so we only went to the festival long enough to locate Horton Winery’s table and buy some wine.  On the way out Da Urchin ended up getting a black & white kitten too.

Wingnut the Wine Fest Kitten

He was a very spunky little kitten.  He didn’t know much about playing with cat toys but he was right on the food bowl. 

Galahad meets Wingnut

Stood his ground well when Galahad came to check him out.  Galahad just wanted to play.

Wingnut the Wine Festival Kitten Now

Well he has grown into a fine Good Ol’ Boy cat.  Big but all muscle and he has definitely learned how to play with cat toys and take care Cat Business.

Fast forward to the 2013 Front Royal Wine Festival.  This year Da Urchin & I decided to make a day of it.  We were joined by two of her friends and the four of us wined our way through the entire festival. 

Da Urchin & Friends

It was cooler than last year and threatened rain all day but the wet stuff held off until the very end.  The Festival features wine, crafts and live music.  We checked out every winery, quite a few craft sites and skipped the music entirely.  Just not enough time for tunes.

My friend from West Virginia was there again, he sells shitake mushroom inoculated oak logs and teaches folks how to grow fresh shitake mushrooms for themselves.  Of course, we ended the day at Horton Winery’s tables where we made the main purchases of the day. 

Da Urchin Enjoying the 1st Ever Firepit Fire

Da Urchin & I ended our day with steaks on the BBQ grill and a fire in the now-fixed firepit.  A lovely end to a grand day.

Front Royal is also in the heart of a fruit growing region.  So once fall was in full swing Da Urchin and I spend an afternoon at a local orchard stocking up on apples.

A View of the Orchard

You could sign out a ladder and pick your own fruit or you could buy ready picked fruit from the wooden sorting bins in front of the sales building.

Another Orchard View

This is the entrance to the Pick-Your-Own part of the orchard.  There is also a picnic area nearby.

Ready Picked Varieties

Da Urchin and I could see no good reason to drag a ladder around and climb them to get our apples.  The Ready Picked bins let us get half a dozen kinds of apples without dragging a ladder to half a dozen different parts of the orchard.

The Sales Building

They also sold various jams and jellies, local deli items and various snacks & drinks for picnics on site.  We were there on a weekend, so there were a lot of families out enjoying the fine fall weather and getting fresh fruit. 

The Oldest Building on Site

The farm had been an orchard for a very long time.  Several building on site are maintained for their historic value.  Since this is still a privately held working farm the buildings are not open to the public. 

Upgrades to My Personal Hooter & Camp Flag

I got this Personal Hooter for my camp back in 2011 at the EPR Mud-E-Vous.  I added strips of 1x2’s to the bottom to elevate it off the ground a bit and then painted the bottom with dark brown exterior latex paint so the wood wouldn’t inhale ground moisture and crack. 

The Hooter came with an electric blue plastic beach pail when I bought it.  This worked just fine and was  easy to clean but the bucket wasn’t something you could just bald faced carry to the hooter while in a primitive camp.  Bright Beach Blue Plastic just isn’t 18th century.  So I went shopping for a proper Hooter Honey Bucket.

I found said Honey Pot at this absolutely awesome hardware store in Culpeper.  No, this isn’t a stock pot repurposed, it is actually designed to be used as a Privy Honey Pot.  This I can carry through camp, even though speckled ironware isn’t 18th century either.  It was a good upgrade but not a perfect one.  I needed to use 2x4’s inside the hooter box to position the pot so it caught everything.  I needed a taller and somewhat wider pot.

Which I found at my local Family Dollar store.  OK, this is a stock pot repurposed, but its an exact fit – exactly the right height and width for my Hooter Box. 

Isn’t this an awesome fit?

I did need to put spacers in the box to position the pot properly.  I used 2x2’s because they took the least trimming to do the job.  Then I caulked all the joints and edges so there was nowhere for moisture to collect. 

 

Here’s the finished pot interior with exterior latex paint so its easy to clean if that becomes necessary. 

I’ve also wrapped the top section of my flag pole holder so the paint on the wooden flag pole doesn’t get worn off when the wind pushes things around. 

Here’s the flag for my camp. 

Here’s the flag at my Primitive Man-less Settlement camp.  The brass grommets have been removed, the grommet holes patched and 4 ties sewn onto the flag to attached it to its pole.