Yesterday was nearly 100 degrees here in the Rocky Mountains and this summer has been recorded as the hottest on record, but there are certain things that come along to signal the beginning of Fall….Peach Days and the Muzz Planning Meeting!

Today is Peach Days in Brigham City, Utah…a pretty big deal in these parts.  One of, if not THE biggest parade in Utah and a full day of fun in the sun!  Lots going on.

I promised Windy I would help him at a booth selling Ear Bud Buds.  They clip to the back of your shirt and keep your hearing ear buds in place.  We will see how that all plays out.

So, stay tooned!

Bears Butt

Sept. 7, 2013

2013 Willow Creek Free Trappers Rendezvous…Part 2

Suddenly it’s Saturday, August 31 and the schedule is all about the kids!  Bones and I are busy with setting up things from the night before and in the mean time the kids are all at the far end of the camp racing their turtles.  I was not able to take any pictures as there was just too much work to be done.

Meanwhile some of the shooters are down on the firing range finishing up with the shooting packets.  Today is the last day to get that done and they only have until noon to do it!  Again, no pictures from my camera for the same reason as you read above.

The weather looks like it’s going to be another hot, hot, hot one!  The report says near 100 again!  YUK!  But that is better than rain.

So, what is the lineup for the day?  Kids turtle races, Kids knife and hawk throw, Kids BB Gun shoot, Junior Limpiks, and then at council fire all the kids prizes will be awarded along with all the kids raffle prizes and then the blanket gifts for the shooting event……looks like a pretty busy day.

Bones cut me some slack and let me go down and see the BB Gun shoot and there were a lot of kids that wanted to play with that.  Switch Back took charge and had the younger kids (under 5) line up to take their turns at a “Nurf Gun” shoot.  They dipped the tip of the dart in ink and the kids fired at a target leaving an imprint where the dart hit.

And some of them did quite well!

When the younger of the young’uns were done it was time for some serious BB Gun shooting!  The 5 to 7 year olds were allowed to use the table as a support while they aimed, but the older ones (8-12) had to shoot off hand.  I think we have some competition coming up among them youngsters when they get old enough for the big guns (rifles).

Two lines of kids were formed in order to speed things up, remember right after this event we have the kids knife and hawk throw and time is running out (time flys when you are having fun).

As you can see these kids were ready for action.  Some even brought their own high powered BB Guns for this event and no doubt they had been practicing all year long.  They did exceptionally well, especially in the “safety” area!  Congratulations to all of you!  Thank you Switch Back and your crew!  You did an outstanding job and the kids had a blast and loved the treats you provided as well!

Once this was done, I had my duties to attend to back at the sign in desk and ran to let Bones get down here for the knife and hawk throw.  Again no pictures from me, sorry.  You should be able to see pictures on Facebook, under the group “Willow Creek Free Trappers” and if you aren’t a member, please ask to be one!

When the knife and hawk throw was done, Bones came back to the sign in tent and told me we were going to “Shut it down for the kids Limpics”!!!  And as it should be!

All the kids (4 to 12) wanted to play in this event:

(Excuse my pictures as I was at my station and took the above picture and had to crop out the ones you are about to see, therefore they are a big fuzzy).

The kids limpics is a special event where they have to accomplish 4 or 5 tasks as a team (4 to 6 to the team depending on ages).  One of the events is a trap chase, where one member runs a trap down to the “limpic sized pool” and jumps into the water, then puts the trap ring around a standing post.  Then back to the line where he high fives the next person, who runs down, jumps into the deep water of the limpic pool and pulls the trap off the post and runs it back to the team waiting at the line.  Each member does this until all have done it and all have wet feet.  It’s a timed event.

Another event is a buffalo chip throw (actually a plastic frisby that looks like a buffalo chip).  This is an accuracy throw where all members toss the frisby toward a pole and then the distance is measured and the team with the least amount of distance wins.

A third event is to start a fire using primitive methods (flint and steel, magnifying glass, compression piston, bow and string etc.) or matches (it’s a team decision), and burn a string with the flames.  This is always a tough one for these young lympic stars, but each team eventually gets the job done.  Another timed event.

And lastly is the “root beer chugging” event.  This is where I was the bar tender.

So, for this timed event, each member of the team had to come up to the bar and say something like “Bar Tender, give me a root beer”!!  My job was to give them one and they would drink it down as quickly as they could and then smash the cup on the bar.  Then run back to the team and high five his mate, who would then come up and repeat what was needed.  For me it was a sticky but very fun event.   All the contestants with the exception of two little girls who were too shy to say anything and one little boy who said “Please Mr. Bartender, may I have a glass of root beer”?  did exactly what was asked of them and I think they had a great time!  No kid was hurt in this event and none were refused a drink!  Another timed event.

So, how could a group of young and upcoming mountain people not have a great time today?  And with sticky hands from the root beer splattering all over the place and all the dirt around on the ground, they all went back to camp with dirty and smiling faces.  Everyone won as the crowd looked on.

With all of the kids activities behind us, we did a quick clean up and went back to our camps for some dinner and visiting.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

As the time came for the Council fire, Bones had called for an adult flint and steel contest which was politely won by Dry Dog in under one minute!  My flint and steel would not cooperate.  So with Dry Dog winning he was up against the kids winner “Little Pockets”  tomorrow night.  And on went the Council fire.  All the prizes for the days events were handed to the appropriate winners and then it happened……a surprise visitor from days long ago!

Colby Maughn….Well, almost, it was actually Three Breaks with her impersonation of Muskrats imaginary friend, Colby Maughn.

There are stories upon stories where so and so was with Colby doing whatever it was and they all involve dangers and fun times, but we have never had the real Colby come to our camp, even after 30 years and so Three Breaks had to make one more visit on this 30th anniversary party night.  She did a wonderful job of entertaining us and we laughed and laughed.

One of the famous traits of this imaginary friend of Muskrats is his feet.  It is said that he has the ugliest feet in the world, and of course our re-creator had to show them off.

One has to wonder, just how such a group of this size have so danged much fun and still survive!

Thank you Dee (Three Breaks) and Roy (4 Hooves) for coming down and entertaining us with this great act!

It doesn’t get any better than that!

And on goes the night and the activities that happen just because they happen when they happen and when it’s all said and done, everyone is in bed.

When the alarm goes off in the morning it’s RUSH, RUSH, RUSH!  The shotgun shoot is about to start…you slept in!  Why?  Because you stayed up to make sure the fire didn’t get out of the fire pit and you were the last one standing!  Not always a good thing to do.

And so, the shotgun shoot is going on and Bones is there to keep score, that means I stay back to watch over the camp.

While the shotgun shoot is going on The Misses and the other ladies have big plans for the little ones.  They are going to make bird feeders using pine cones, peanut butter and bird seed.

Take an old dried up pine cone, tie on a long string to one end, smear peanut butter all around it and then roll it into a bowl of bird seed.  Hang it up to dry and when dry, the birds will come around and get nourishment!

When all the bird feeders were done, the ladies had set up an obstacle course.  The kids had to run around a bat that was being held down by their hands, pick up two hand weights, run to another station, jump over three logs, turn around backwards and run between three cones, turn back around and get down on hands and knees and crawl through a make shift tunnel, once on the other side of the tunnel, pick up a hoola hoop and spin it around the body three times, then get into a garbage bag and hop back to the finish line!  Easy!

After all the kids had had their turns, Tracker and I took a spin…I was pretty tired after that, especially in the sack hop!

The ladies didn’t stop there!  They went on to play games of bingo until all the prizes were given out!

Even adults came to play bingo!

And when the shotgun shoot was over, so was the last prize at bingo given out!  Perfect timing!  Now time for lunch before the adult hawk and knife throw!

My picture taking took its toll at this event as well.  Bones and I once again shut down the sign up tent and went to play.  Everything scheduled was back to back and being a contestant meant no time for pictures.  Again, go to Facebook and see what others have posted up under Willow Creek Free Trappers.

This was the only picture I took of the hawk throw as I had an assignment for the Mountain Man Limpics which would follow this hawk and knife event!  No time to waste!

One of my assignments was to make sure we got our horse saddled and ready for the ride in the limpics!  The event is scheduled to put each of the participants on the horse for a shot with a rifle at a very small target!  This event also coincided with the Booshway shoot.  So for those who don’t play in the limpics, they can still compete in the Booshway shoot.

The horse is ready to ride!  And even some of the trick animals wanted to show off their skills by riding the horse.

Ride Petei Ride!

Well, as things were getting set up for the Mountain Man Limpics, the horse did a little bucking and ended up breaking its neck.  What we didn’t know at the time was it also broke a couple of legs.  This wasn’t found out until Dry Dog mounted up and then the legs began to show their wounds.  That part of the game would have to be modified.

We were able to put a splint on the horses neck, but not on the broken legs.

So, what is this Mountain Man Limpics all about?

Muskrat has this fund raiser for the Homeless Veterans and for $10 you can play in his limpics event.  The teams are comprised of 4 people and you must be very skilled in several of the limpics events.

Fire Starting:  Using primitive means, the team is to start a fire and pop a kernel of pop corn out of a pan.  This is a timed event and the only thing given to the teams is a few drops of oil and a couple of kernels of pop corn.  The teams have to gather their materials and make do with what they have.

Once this team is completed, their fire is put out and the next team steps up to try their luck.

This rotation continues until every team has completed each of the various stations.

Just like in the Junior limpics, these folks have to throw that sticky old buffalo chip for accuracy.  Then over to the limpic sized swimming pool to set a trap.  This is a bit different than in the Junior limpics, this only involves two of the team members…one to set the trap, and one to set the trap off.

Here you see Tommy Boy standing in the deep end of the limpic sized pool setting the trap.  When he is done, he runs back to his team and the second member comes running, jumps in and sets the trap off and takes it back to the team.  Here is Explorer, doing her best.

Watch out!  That is a live trap in that water!

The next event involves that busted down old horse of ours and the modification to the contest was to lay the rifle across the horses saddle and take your best shot.

Did I say the horse would be galloping while you are doing this?  Thanks Black Arrow for lending us your horse.  I promise it will be returned with all its parts in tact!

What a fun event!  Thanks Muskrat for letting us old people play.  It’s not everyone who can say they have been in an limpic pool!!!!

It was a pretty hot afternoon of having fun and Winemaker had brought down enough Popsicles for each of the kids that wanted one.  Here she and Beth are handing them out.

Well, folks that’s it for the adult activities for the daylight hours, well almost daylight hours, we still have the “fint off ” between Dry Dog and Little Pockets.

BUT HO!  What have we here?  It’s Wapiti Dungs 70th birthday!  Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to youuuuuu!  But that is not what these people are singing.  Bones and Edjukateer changed the words to a couple of songs and this one has to be sung by the family.  Mostly because a line in the song reads, “…and if it weren’t for Wapiti, we would not be here”….(sing to “Here’s to Old Jim Bridger”)

The “Flint Off'” went off without me getting any pictures, as I was the MC for the event.  Little Pockets and Dry Dog were allowed to set up their fire making things and then had to step back a few paces and wait for the count of 3.  While counting, the drink I was holding accidentally spilled onto Dry Dogs char and tinder, but it shouldn’t be enough to stop a spark from getting going (maybe).

When the count was done, they came a running, but Dry Dog decided he wanted to dance with Fat Duck and then he decided it would be fun to wrestle with Hunter and EZ, and then leg wrestle with Baby Boy.  It took him a while to get to his fire making stuff.  While he was messing around Little Pockets was well on her way to making a good hot fire.  Way to go Little Pockets!!!!  Winner!!!

Let the night time activities begin!

We had all of the adult prizes to hand out plus all of the raffle draw prizes to give out.  Muskrat awarded the winning team of the Mountain Man Limpics and The Misses handed out the kids prizes from this morning.  What a wonderful day.  And like some may say, “you can take the swap meet away from the lady, but you can’t take the lady away from the swap meet”!

There seems to be something here for everyone!  And it’s all meant in fun!  Party till you drop, that’s what I say!

As it turned out, the 2014 Booshway was announced as Switch Back and Natalie!  Congratulations you two and we are all here to help where we can!

And, the weatherman called for a drop of rain:

And when you go to bed and it’s not raining, you don’t think to roll up your windows.

Back at home I looked at my rain gauge and it said we had 1.50 inches of rain during the night!

There you have the run down on the 2013 rendezvous!  It was fun and it’s too bad if you were not there to play!  One thing we do is play hard and sometimes in the process of playing hard, we work hard too.

Looking very much forward to 2014 when Switch Back and Natalie are in charge!  RROONNNNNDDEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Bears Butt

Sept. 5, 2013

Well it’s about time I took time to let you know about the Willow Creek Free Trappers 30th year rendezvous for 2013!  What a GREAT time it was too!  If you missed it, YOU REALLY MISSED IT!

Bones had everything planned, in order, organized and it went off about as smoothly as it could have possibly gone!  Thanks Bones!

And thanks to everyone who pitched in and helped out.  One person can not pull off an event of this size by themselves!

So, I’ve decided to put this rendezvous on here in a couple of sequences!  Let’s start with day one!  That’s a good thing to do.

Wednesday, August 28 was my day to take my camp down and set it up.  It was also the day to get the rest of the rendezvous stuff set up and ready.  Things like the shooting range and porta potties.  Important stuff like that.

There were quite a few people who were there on Wednesday to help with the things that were needed and the work got done quickly.

Our friends with the porta pots came right on time.  They do such a good job and their prices are more than fair.  If you are ever in a need for porta pots and you live in the Northern Utah/Southern Idaho area, please contact these folks.

Once those were set up, it was time for the range and so, down we went with the POS…it contains all the stuff we need for the range, hawk blocks and lympics…

It’s nice to know that the city of Willard will allow us to shoot at our rendezvous and the only restriction is our 20 grain limit on powder charge.  We have all found that 20 grains is more than adequate to accurately put our patched round balls down range and poke a hole in a piece of paper.  It also blows up small V-8 cans really nice too (if you can hit em)!

We set up the farm canopy and once that was done, we just had to take a seat and begin a bit of a relaxing time in camp.

Speaking of camp…some folks just have to pack their camps in very tight spots.  Don’t they Dry Dog?

And so, the day progressed and as usual the time really flew by.  The old saying about time flys by when you are having fun, really held true for this day, and actually for the entire six days!  SIX DAYS?  WOW!  We really were down there having fun for 6 days!

I had to fix up some supper for when Winemaker got to the camp and our good buddy MaPa’s helped.

It didn’t hurt to have the wonderful aroma of dutch oven spare ribs to help him stick close by.

And then as the night time darkness fell around us, we started a fire and sat back and talked about “whatever”.  But others had still to cook their meal and eat.

4 Dogs at a time…could there be a naming in there somewhere?

And just like the rest of the day, the evening came and went and suddenly the morning alarm clock was calling our names and telling us it was time to get up and begin the next day of the rendezvous!  ROOONNNNDDDEEEEEVVVOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Breakfast!  Yummy!  And so what’s up with the weird skull thing?  There is a company called “Badlands” and they are having a contest where you place this symbol (their logo) somewhere and take a picture and post it on their site.  I’m not sure what you win, but I thought this was a good spot to put the logo on this day.

Thursday was a day to get a lot of things done that I personally wanted to get done, like  Winemakers and my shooting, but I had forgotten my camera back at camp and so didn’t get any of the activities of that recorded on this day.  On the schedule of events for Thursday, was only the shooting being open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., no other events were scheduled.

But later in the evening, I did catch McKenzie learning how to start a fire using flint and steel.  Her dad, Weasel did a great job of showing her the ropes.

Good Job Kenzie!

Well, again this day came to a quick end and just like this morning, Friday morning came fast!  Because of work schedules most of the rendezvous goers could not get to the camp before Friday and still more could only come on Saturday, it’s all understandable.  And so, Bones had scheduled a TON of things to happen on Friday.

The range opened from 9 til 5 and then we had the standing of the sharnes and a flint and steel contest with the kids (under 13 year olds).

Down on the range things were quickly heating up.  There were 10 targets to get shot by each of the contestants, some paper and some not paper.  It was a well done packet of targets and everyone seemed to have the same amount of difficulty hitting them.  A very BIG THANK YOU to the rangemasters for putting all of this together!

We later decided that 20 grains of powder should probably be shot at a 25 yard maximum distance…let’s try and remember that for next year!

It was a very hot day this day, highs near the 100 degree mark and so lots of shade was needed, as well as lots of water and other beverages of choice.  Everyone that was there had a really good time.  A ton of side bets and good humor!

Let’s sneak a peak at how Silent Thunder does his aiming!

OH!  And let’s not forget there is a pistol shoot involved as well.  Same line as the rifle shooting only the target is closer.

After Switchback shot, the smoke filled the air.  Did he hit the target?  Only he knows for sure.  Let’s check out Wapiti Dung shooting his pistol.

Shooting blackpowder is really fun!  Especially at dangerous game.  Once you pull the trigger, you hope like heck that critter don’t come charging you through that smoke!

Meanwhile back at the camp, No Grimace is caught next to his herd of chain saw carved bears.

As his tribute to the Willow Creek Free Trappers 30th rendezvous (which this year was), he decided he was going to retire from carving bears with a chainsaw.  And one can not blame him, he has been carving them since Soda Grizz was last seen up on the Curtis Creek.  He made up a bear for each of the events of the weekend and presented them to the first place winners of each scheduled thing.  He even had a couple in the raffle and the winners of those were extremely happy to get them.  Each of these bears has a special meaning and each was tailored to fit the event for which they were given.  Thanks No Grimace!  That was a lot of very hard work!

After the range was closed for the day and everyone got back into camp to fix up some supper, Bones called for the “Standing of the Sharnes”!

As most of you know, a “sharn” is a stick that has been chewed on by a beaver, most if not all the bark is usually off the stick.  We decorate our sharnes with receipts from past rendezvous, muzzleload hunts or whatever strikes our fancy.  At the standing of the sharnes, 3 or 4 of them are tied in the middle and then everyone in camp that has one leans theirs into the stand.  This stand is a symbol of unity in camp, and it protects the camp from evils and brings good luck to everyone who comes into the camp.

So, with the flag up, the sharnes stood and everyone fed, Bones goes through the ritual of welcoming everyone into camp and off we go with the kids flint and steel contest.  This fire is going to be the nights council fire, which everyone enjoys! (Sorry, I didn’t get any pictures of the kids event, I got too involved with it…my bad!)

But with the fire all lit up for the night, everyone gathered around to enjoy it.

And suddenly Twister comes out with his guitar to entertain us!

No offense meant Twister, but you sure can belch out a good tune of “Don’t Pet Dry Dog”!!!!  My favorite!

So, there are still two and 1/2 days of rendezvous left.  If we have had this much fun so far, what is the rest of the weekend going to be like?  Come back tomorrow and find out!

Bears Butt

Sept. 4, 2013

It will be a day or so before I can tell you all about the rendezvous….keep hanging in there!

Bears Butt

Sept. 3, 2013