I can sense a change in the weather.  The morning hours are crisp.  The evening gets darker quicker and there is a coolness to the last hour of the sun shine.  I hear distant shots being fired as folks are sighting in their rifles.  The calendar shows several big game hunts going on right now.

The local scouting and outing events have to consider these hunts as they plan their outdoor activities.  It is definitely Fall that is coming.  Summer is giving in to this cool air and I can see the leaves on the mountain beginning to turn from the green they have been all summer, to a different shade of green and even some are showing orange mixed in.

Some think the leaves turn color because of the coolness of the air.  But that is not the case.  It is the angle of the sun that tells the trees it is time to push the sap down and into the roots and prepare for the cold of winter.  The leaves stop their photosynthesis and the color goes out of them, leaving them with their historic colors of red, orange, yellow and mottled colors.  I love this time of year!

I love all the seasons.

Bears Butt

Sep. 2011

Today marks 10 years since those bastards did what they did. A very sad day it was. And to think of those innocent people in those planes, buildings and on the ground; terrorized is too nice a word for the trauma they went through. I am truly sorry and saddened for them and their families.
What the event did for America was to bond us closer together. I remember that day all too well. The pictures on the television, the confusion in the medias voices. Everyone trying to figure it all out.
Driving home from work had a new meaning. Being cut-off in traffic was no big deal anymore. Driving 9 miles per hour over the posted speed limit was not what I did that day. A lot of thoughts were running through my mind. I knew I had no worries that were as big as they might have seemed that morning. I stopped at my mothers house before I went to my own, and gave her a big hug and told her I loved her. I made sure I told my wife and sons I loved them as well. And it still goes on to this day.
I made it a point to put a permanent flag pole up and proudly fly the American Flag, day and night. America is my home. The land of the Free. The land of the brave. And it is what it is, because of the brave people who have fought to make it that way. From the first landing at Plymouth Rock, to the last flight of men and women to leave for Afghanistan and/or Iraq.
My Second Amendment right to keep and bare arms. My right to my religious freedom, to choose when, where and how I wish to show my belief in God, or not.
Our United States Constitution was not a quickly drafted document. It took many men, many years to put it all together and the entire document is based on a firm belief in GOD and HIS powers.
Complacency is an easy path to follow, but the events of 9/11/2001 woke a bunch of us up. Woke us up to the fact that we are not an all powerful island that no-one or no nation can over power and change our direction. We have the power within our control to do that to ourselves. I think it is about time we stepped back and reassess where this country is going. I sure hope every voting American hits the polls every time there is an election. I also hope each one puts some time and thought into who they are voting for.
God Bless America!

Bears Butt
Sept. 11, 2011

As in most of my quests to find information about stuff I am interested in I ran across this website that had a Round Ball Ballistics Calculator built into it.  I downloaded it and it seems to work rather well.

In order that I not get into too much trouble with copywrite laws or priority issues with the creators of this sort of thing.  I emailed the creator and asked if I could post it up here on my blog.

http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/rbballistics/rbballistics.html

Thank you Mr. Wardlaw for allowing me this privilege.

Bears Butt

Sept. 2011

At rendezvous this past week I was told a word that I had never heard before.  My good friend Dry Dog was enjoying breakfast with Three Guns, Twister and myself.  Breakfast consisted of sausage links, bacon, eggs, hash browns and a favorite of mine called “sweet breads”.  So as not to get you confused with what sweet breads are, let is suffice to say, they have nothing to do with bread, rolls or any other form of danish.

I explained to the three of them where sweet breads come from off beef cattle, and Mr. Dry Dog asked  “Is it a  ‘gelatinatious’ material”?

I had to pause and look at him.  If you know him, a word of such grandeur does not usually roll off his tongue  like it did that morning.  It took me back and I had to admit I had never heard that word before.  He explained the meaning and if I had thought about the word for a moment I think I could have figured out what it meant.

Without hesitation Twister piped in with “It’s more ‘glandular'”!  And we all know what that means, Right?

In my mind sweet breads are closer to “Glandular” than “Gelatinatious” and let’s let it stand as that.

Today, I was pondering the origin of words and decided to look it up on the web.  There is a word  called “Etymological” (or something like that) that people who study the origins of words are called..I’m an etymological type of dude.  I’m really not, but that is my use of the word to let you know how to use it.

While on the web, I came across a site (and there are a ton of them) called “Etymologically Speaking” and there wasn’t an author on the site that I could find.  And this person has tried his etymological best to tell us the origin of a lot of words.  Keep reading and you will find some that I found to be rather interesting.

From “Etymologically Speaking”:

Broke (In the sense of having no money)

Many banks in post-Renaissance Europe issued small, porcelain “borrower’s tiles” to their creditworthy customers. Like credit cards, these tiles were imprinted with the owner’s name, his credit limit, and the name of the bank. Each time the customer wanted to borrow money, he had to present the tile to the bank teller, who would compare the imprinted credit limit with how much the customer had already borrowed. If the borrower were past the limit, the teller “broke” the tile on the spot

Cheers

From the Greek “Kara” for “face,” via the Latin “Cara,” and Old French “Chiere” for the same. So “Be of good cheer,” means, “Put on a happy face.”

Humor

We borrowed it from latin, meaning liquid. The ancient philosophers believed that four liquids entered into the makeup of our bodies, and that our temperment (temperamentum,”mixture”) was determined by the proportions of these four fluids,or humors, which they listed as blood, phlegm, bile, and black bile. If you had a overplus of blood, the first humor, you were of the optimistic and sanguine temperament (latin sanguis, blood). A generous portion of phlegm, on the other hand made you “phlegmatic”, or slow and unexciteable. Too much yellow bile and you saw the world through a “bilious” eye , and since the word “bile” is chole in Latin, you were apt to be choleric and short tempered. The fourth humor, the non-existent black bile, was a little special invention of the ancient physiologists. A too heavy proportion of this made you “melancholy,” for in latin melancholia meant ” the state of having too much black bile.” Any imbalance of these humors, therefore made a person unwell and perhaps eccentric, and, as the years went by, the word humor took on the meaning of “oddness,” and a humorous man was one that we now call a crank. And finally the word was applied to those who could provoke laughter at the oddities and the incongruities of life. (Wilfred Funk, Word Origins and their romantic stories)

Ketchup

The Chinese invented ke-tsiap–a concoction of pickled fish and spices (but no tomatoes)–in the 1690s. By the early 1700s its popularity had spread to Malaysia, where British explorers first encountered it. By 1740 the sauce–renamed ketchup–was an English staple, and it was becoming popular in the American colonies. Tomato ketchup wasn’t invented until the 1790s, when New England colonists first mixed tomatoes into the sauce. It took so long to add tomatoes to the sauce because, for most of the 18th. Century, people had assumed that they were poisonous, as the tomato is a close relative of the toxic belladonna and nightshade plants.

Third Degree

A “Third Degree,” also known as a “Master Mason,” is the highest rank within the Free Mason (and has been since 1772). To become a Third Degree, you must undergo a series of questions.
A reader adds: Your definition of “Third Degree” is close, but not exact. There are actually 33 degrees within Freemasonry, of which the first 3 are used for initiating a new member.
Once the initiate has completed all 3 ceremonies of initiation they are termed a “Master Mason”, yet they may undertake more study and progress further still with respect to rank and level of degree. However, no further study is required of a Master Mason, and they may remain a third degree Master Mason for as long as they please.
The first degree is termed the “Apprentice” initiation.
The second degree is termed the “Entered Apprentice” initiation.
And the third degree is correctly termed, as you have mentioned, the “Master Mason”.
The reason it is such a well coined phrase lies in the fact that the initiate, whilst enduring the “Third Degree” initiation, undergoes a series of stressful and unpleasant happenings, much more so than the first 2 degrees. I.E. The phrase : “That poor bugger is getting the third degree.”

Threshold

“Threshold” originated in the middle ages when houses with stone floors were covered with threshings to keep the floor warm and to prevent it from being slippery. As threshings were added during the winter, they would be scattered and thinned near the door, so people added a wooden board to hold the threshings in — a threshold. The OED defines threshold originally as, “The piece of timber or stone which lies below the bottom of a door, and has to be crossed in entering a house; the sill of a doorway; hence, the entrance to a house or building.

Trivia

The derivation of the word trivia comes from the Latin for “crossroads”: “tri-” + “via”, which means three streets. This is because in ancient times, at an intersection of three streeets in Rome (or some other Italian place), they would have a type of kiosk where ancillary information was listed. You might be interested in it, you might not, hence they were bits of “trivia.”

Whiskey (Ireland); Whisky (Scotland)

This term originally came from uisge beatha (Scottish Gaelic) and uisce beatha (Irish Gaelic), which both mean “water of life.” The word entered English as “whiskey” or “whisky” when Henry II invaded Ireland.

What a lovely rendezvous this year!  Camping in a grassy meadow, surrounded by tall cottonwood trees.  Not much dust.  No rain.  No wind.  Not overly hot.  I’d have to say it was as close to perfect as they get!

Thanks to the Booshway, “L-Rod” and his side kick, Segundo, “Dew Drop”, you two pulled off a really good time and I think I am not just speaking for myself!  It was a really good time for all.

Willow Creek Free Trappers 28th annual rendezvous on the banks of the Willow Creek.  An historic event for sure.

This year brought on a very special new piece for our camp to enjoy.  A memorial salute to those Willow Creek Free Trappers who have gone on ahead of us.  This special tribute was thought up and brought to bear by Dry Dog and he deserves the credit necessary.  Thank you Dry Dog.  This is a very fitting memorial indeed and will fly beneath the American Flag at all our events.

I would also like to publicly thank the Willard Gun Club, for allowing us to use their property to have our rifle shooting event.  The club has 20 acres of flat ground and it worked perfectly to hold our shooting event this year.  Yes, we had to travel about a mile from camp, but at least we were able to shoot.

If you look closely at the middle of the firing range, it looks like an open area between the cardboards.  This is actually an idea I came up with and Dry Dog helped make it happen.  We used a large piece of heavy gauge net type wire (the kind used to add strength to flat cement work), to hold our targets.  This was an experiment, and I used it exclusively to hold all of my paper targets.  When the round balls hit the paper there was a bit of a tearing problem, but the paper could be folded back in place if there was a need to check for “cut lines”.  My evaluation of the use of this wire is a 90 percent success and should be considered for the entire range for future events.  This would eliminate the need to find large pieces of cardboard and virtually eliminate the wind tipping over the range.  For those interested, the paper targets are held by wooden clothes pins.

We had old timers and young ones shooting this year and it was good to see additional interest by some of us who have been coming to rendezvous for many, many years.Good for you “Lumpy Bunnions”!

This was Conners first year at shooting and he did remarkably well.  Tied with his mother “Hot Spart” on score!  Good goin Conner.

Old timers, good friends and guests are always welcome!  Thanks to you all.  This is what makes a rendezvous a success!

Shooting was just a part of the events that go on at the annual rendezvous.  I get too involved and so I don’t have pictures of those events, but they still must not be forgotten about.

First off, let us not forget “Muskrats” famous “Bloody Mary Bar”, which is open in the morning when you see the ‘black flag’.  The BEST Bloody Mary you will ever have.

The charity donation for Homeless Veterans and/or Wounded Warriors and their family members.  “Muskrat” pulled off a very successful “Mountain Man Limpicks”.  Four person teams donate $5 p/member to play.  Each team had to set a trap in the official “Limpick Sized Swimming Pool” and then set the trap off.  Then it was off to start a fire with flint and steel and pop a kernel of pop corn out of the vessel the team devised and used as a pan.  Continuing on to the pellet gun shoot, where each team member got to fire one round at the target, scoring according to where they hit.  Zipping then to the hawk block to throw a hawk or knife one time by each member of the team.  And finally, to the frying pan toss for accuracy.  Some of this event is timed, others are accuracy.  All totaled up in the end and a winning team is selected!  Good time for sure and fun for the audience as well!  Go Team Go!!!

As evening drew near each night there is always a flint and steel fire starting event to see who can start the evening council fire first.  This is a favorite of mine and one in which I have won a couple of times.  There is no prize but just the fact that “You started the nights council fire” for everyone to enjoy.

And so it goes.  As one man has the fire going, the other never even got a spark on their char!  That is just the way it is.

Into the night time we go and after the business portion of the early council fire is all concluded who knows what might come out of the surrounding darkness to help entertain the mountain folks sitting at the fire.

I have not seen this man perform, it seems that I am always in my camp area when Sir Butt arrives and only after he has gone on his way, do I make it back to the council fire, but he did once again light up the evening in his way and entertained the crowd with his show of gallantry and dragon fighting abilities.  His trusty steed is always a crowd pleaser with its fancy foot works.

And what would a Sunday Evening be without “Reverend Billy Salteen”?  Why, it just would not be the same  “Say Hallelujah”! ” Say Amen”!

And to really help entertain our crowd, not only did he show up Friday night, but he did so again on Sunday night…..The Famous….”Twister”!!!  Yielding his blue guitar he sang all of our favorites and Many, Many others.  Some of his songs were his own creations and I must say he certainly did a GREAT job at putting words to music.  One of our favorites, which leads us all into chorus is none other than “Don’t Pet Dry Dog”!  His opening song of the evening!

Let us not forget the raffle donations and hard gotten raffle prizes.  The raffle went on and on and it shows a very big support for the Booshway and Segundo by those who donated prizes and hand made several of the highly sought after gifts.  Thanks to everyone!  Donated prizes, cash and it all goes to a good cause…next years Booshway fund!

Number 29 coming up in 2012!  It’s hard to believe we have been getting together for that long a time frame!  What started out to be a joining of three other clubs at their event to holding our own because one of “them” would not move out of the way to let our guys go in to camp with them.  Thank you “mister”, look what you caused!

Number 29…is being lead by the old “Many Steps”, the now new “Weasel”, and his wife “Hot Spark”!  May it be as successful as this years rendezvous!

And so it goes for another year.  Fantastic event, good fun, good place, good people and if you weren’t there to enjoy it, you really missed out on a very fun weekend.  It just doesn’t get any better than that!  RRROOONNNNNNDDDDEEEEEEVVVVOOOOOOOOOOO!

Bears Butt

Sept. 6, 2011