The Gun Counter

As many of you know, I attend muzzle loading events known as Rendezvous'.

I will be attending the 15th Annual Manzanita High Mountain Rendezvous on April 30-May 2. I had previously planned on being there the following weekend, but work has dictated a change.

The Rendezvous is open to the public and if you have never visited one, it is a fun day event. Gate hours are 8-8 on Fri and 8-6 on Sat & Sun. Day visitors are $4.00/person/day, 10 and younger free. Military free with ID.

Manzanita is held on the Santa Ysabel Ranch. It is located approximately 5 miles north of Santa Ysabel, CA. From Santa Ysabel go north on Hwy 79 to Mesa Grande Rd. Go west approximately 2 miles and the Rendezvous will be on the left.

I would love to see some folks from this forum come and visit. Flintlock Tom may even be set up and camping there. I will have a tent setup on Trader's Row and will be conducting business as Downwind Press. If you come up to visit, bring a camera and pack a lunch.

I sent in my registration form last week.
The guys who invited me to camp with them are coming up the first week-end of the camp, so I'm glad to hear that you've moved your dates up, too.

I'm going to see if I can get my brother to come up and bring his kids so they can see what it was like to live on the frontier around the time of the Civil War.

8 Hours at the salt mines, then 5 hours on the road today. Arrive at Manzanita tomorrow morning 8ish AM. Setup the store for 2 1/2 days.

Any and all in SOCAL are welcome to come visit. A visit would be welcomed actually.

We will not be camping onsite, but staying with friends in Ramona at night.

Will pack up and head home Sunday afternoon.

Would really like to see some of you reprobates this weekend.

Look for/ask for Rumpshot. I am older with a grey/white beard and a beer belly. Should stand out in the crowd.

Kimberly & I are planning on heading up tomorrow and should be there in the early afternoon.

Anyone coming down from the greater LA basin can contact Mike or BE603 for directions. Or just do a search online for Manzanita Rendezvous.

See ya tomorrow Mike.

follow your nose out of Ramona to the chicken ranch. Then follow your nose to the bakery at the T in the road (also known as Santa Isabel) and hang a left to the Rendezvous.

Don't the boomer mama biker chicks in leather chaps knoshing at the bakery sidetrack you.

Just talked to Dan. He's on 8 west of Yuma now. 2 hours out from his campsite. Says he's pushing a 35 mph headwind with his truck and trailer, getting about 9 mpg.

It's windy here on the coast but only 10-15 kt gusts or so.

Hey, how'd it go? It didn't happen with out pix!

It just didn't work out to get up that way this year. We've running so much/fitting in around the Son&Heir's recent military life events that the catchup around home consumed us. That and hosting a crowd of girls overnight for our 14 yr old B'day. Gophers coming back in with a vengeance so I had several burrows to smoke bomb. I may just start using roadflares. I know, excuses, excuses...

Maybe next time I can talk my wife into making the drive. When I mentionedn it she showed some interest in seeing the old timey aspect of a Rendezvous. She's ridden shotgun on a lot of school field trips to places like Rileys Farm, Sutter Mill & Fort, Williamsburg etc and gets real interested in seeing who things were done.

We got back to nature a bit ourselves dealing with the fruits of extended spring rainy season... Weeds galore, but mitigated quite a bit by all the CA wildflower planting I did earlier in the year. We've got a pretty nice boundary of poppies and wildflowers on the lower part of the lot now. 3 gallons of Roundup in backpack sprayer only dealt with about half the lower lot open ground problems.

I got to tend to my roses and tomatoes also. . A nasty powdery mildew was getting started so that mean't getting a 2nd sprayer out. There's a nice set of fruit on the apple, peach and plum trees I planted last year. I had to strip a lot of the apples and peaches off -- way too much set. Also, the peach got a white fly infestation or something going and the ladybug weren't keeping up so a third sprayer mix with the insecticidal soap came out.
Stripped down and rolled up about 120' of silt fence that shows here. I think we've got enough ground cover established now and temporary drain lines uphill are working well enough. Should'a used gloves though. My winter hands are soft and I got a nice batch of micro splinters from the weathered stakes. /heh

Camera never left the car.

Flintlock Tom was there and we had a nice chat.

Sunday 2 of the 7 neighbors we had when we lived in Poway came by to visit. We left LATE Sunday afternoon and got home at midnight!

I do understand when folks cannot get out to visit. I did sorta have some hope that some of the San Diego area lurkers would come out though. Even the folks up north a bit could make a day trip and have a chat.