Wow, I'm finally crawling back to the land of the living. This 24hr flu, or food poisoning, or whatever it was knocked the stuffin out of me. Thank goodness our get-together is a week from today. I'll PM the directions out to everyone that has said they were coming. With our recent break-in at the lease the land owner is a little sensitive to having directions on the internet. Here's the group I'll be messaging to and how many I think are coming:
gstoneberg (1 or 2)
seider (1)
Tower (1)
cowboy (1)
jackcrafty (3)
criveraville (2)
Gus (1)
neuse (1)
ksbowhunter (2)
Where I knew family was coming I've shown how many I knew of. That doesn't mean you can't bring somebody else if you want, it just gives us a feel for how many to prepare for. They recently had 2" of rain out there and the grass around camp has gotten taller than normal. The landowner was out there mowing a little bit last weekend but had some flat tire problems with the rider we keep out there. Mesquite thorns and dry rot no doubt. I'll be bringing my string trimmer and a gallon of green slime to try and get the lawn mower going. As I recall, our wood pile for making fires was a little small. I'm thinking about bringing my bin of osage cut-offs that's overflowing in the shop and needs to be used up. I'll probably bring a chain saw as well. There's tons of downed mesquite and oak available for firewood. Anyway, keep in mind the ticks should be out now. The snakes are out as well. Last year one of Patrick's sons found a copperhead but we normally don't see too many snakes. There is a gas refrigerator out there, but for the life of me I can't get it to work very well.
We're close enough now to get an early take on weather and the weather channel 10 day forecast says we should have sunshine, highs in the mid 80s and lows around 60 for that weekend. With a new moon the stars will be awesome. One of the other hunters on the lease is going out this weekend to do a little turkey and hog hunting. We'll get an update on hog activity from him. I can't offer turkey hunting to everybody there since there are other paying hunters on the lease. Hogs are no problem, assuming they cooperate.
The plan of record is that I will arrive before 4pm a week from today, April 20th, to unlock the gate. It'll remain open until we leave sometime Sunday morning, April 22nd. I'll put some kind of sign at the edge of the road there marking the entrance. You will need to follow the dirt road in about a half mile to get to camp. It should be dry enough for cars to make it back, but the road will likely have some ruts you'll need to avoid. There are 4 beds in the shed available to the first 4 who want them. I will sleep in the bed in the tower blind. There is a bed in the field blind (if the land-owner does not come and take it) and one in the tank blind as well. For some reason the mice are bad in that one. We'll do our knapping in camp. Last time Patrick brought tarps for us to put down. Bring chairs as the camp chairs have seen better days. I'm going to bring some rock to trade, and some for Paul's heating demonstration. Remember, there's no drinking water there so bring water to drink. There's an old outhouse for serious bathroom needs. In a later post we'll go over what we have set up for meals so far and see if we need more stuff there.
If you feel like flight shooting, there is a big open field to do it in out there. If you want to work on a bow, the only thing out there to clamp a stave to is the big picnic table. You'll need to bring clamps to do that. I plan to bring my trade bow out and do some shooting with it. But, I really am looking forward to knapping with everybody. This is gonna be fun! Look for a PM in the near future with directions.
George
