I did Rendezvous shoots for a fewyears along with hawk & knife throwing, fire starting, you name it.You want to see some good black powder shooters, some of them Rendezvous had some real good shooters. Then insurance companiesstepped in, and most of the large Rendezvous can afford the insurance to cover the shoots.Most of them gatherings got so big, they just were not fun anymore.You felt more like a monkey in a cage, with tourists walking through the camps. That and sleeping on the hard ground got to where it took me all day to get the stiffness out of my back.. So I stopped going to them a few years ago. The one I never missed for over eighteen years was held father's day weekend in Prairie du Chein, Wisconsin called Villa Louis. It started out so small and last I heard was over two thousand lodges and then a monster flee market.

I even used to tan my own deer hides and make stuff out of them. That was pretty hard core and a lot of work. BUT this is a jacket I made out of some buckskins I tanned... with wooden buttons too..



As for taking heat... I need to soak up heat and sunshine in the summer, so that when winter comes I can pull some out of reserve..