where have I been all my life

I have been meaning to post here day after day but unfortunately my work computer went kablooey on me and I lost a lot of my notes.
Ah well

Back to square one
Anyway last Saturday was the most fun I have had in a very long time.
There is this Boy Scout function called trappers rondavoux, rondavoo? Rondoavoo?
Ok it’s called TRAPPERS.
Dammit! I hate it when I cant even get close enough for the spell-check to figure it out.

It is held every year in January no matter what the weather is like. It is supposed to be for the boys to experience cold weather camping and what is needed then.
I really had no intention of going but the Beast wanted to so we went. We just didn’t spend the night we just went on Saturday. What an experience.
Basically all the scouts collect gobs and gobs of junk and crap from around their house and bring it to trade for other stuff and crap.
I ended up stuffing a backpack full of DVD’s I didn’t want anymore and some other odds and ends.
At the affair which is around 5000 people they have period garb people walking around and if you spot one and ask them if they are a trapper they will give you a wooden coin and tell you about who they are and a story from their life (like Kit Carson and Jedediah Smith).
Also Coleman is out there with a huge tent and everything is like 50% off (everything from sleeping bags to camp soap)
The boys also get a chance to shoot BB guns, throw tomahawks and shoot black powder guns.
It was a really beautiful day and we had a blast!
We ended up coming home with a Wii game, 2 Nintendo DS games and a pocket knife that one scout’s brother used over in Iraq when he was a field nurse.
I fully intend on going back next year.
Especially since my buddy and I discovered a resource we can sell there and possibly profit from.
You see money is really not suppose to be used but they do have booths where you can buy stuff. While animal hides are very prevalent there we noticed that walking staffs were very few and absolutely NONE of them were made from bamboo.
Well it just so happens that I have an entire grove of bamboo at my disposal and it is very simple to cut it, let it dry, sand and lacquer it and then add a hand grip (probably a leather patch). I figure that he and I could easily crank out about 100 of these without really trying. I have some ideas for additions to the staves as well (like hidden compartments and even built in flashlights).
Been meaning to try my hand at this craft anyway and this gives me an excellent reason.
Ok well that’s enough for now.
Hopefully IT is done with my new desktop PC since my “new” one went kablooey this morning. Luckily I didn’t lose the hard drive this time.
Stay loose.