One of the many happy memories in my childhood was going to Greenfield Village, a 200 acre-park in Dearborn, Michigan. The famous industrialist Henry Ford brought in notable homes and buildings to the park. He also had replicas made for the homes and buildings that could not come to the park. It was a beautiful place to learn. I remember going to see a Civil War reenactment, riding the Suwanee River Steamboat, and watching Oliver and Wilbur Wright talk about their plans at their shop. History came to life, especially through the reenactors. There is one reenactor I remember very well. Her role was a slave living in a house in the slave quarters. Her storytelling almost convinced me that I was meeting a real slave. It was a simple conversation about her hardships snd her life. She talked about her chickens and how her house was constructed. What prodigious talent of acting and storytelling. Seriously I thought we were at the McAlpin Hermitage Plantation. I wanted to do what she was doing. I wanted to work at Greenfield Village as a reenactor.
But my parents moved us away from Michigan. That didn’t close the doors on my dream. We went to a living history cowboy town in Arizona once, but I hated it because the actors made fun of my outfit. That is not a good way to recruit the young. I will go into that later. Another time we went to Fort Laramie, Wyoming and there was a reenactor at the bar who was convincing in his portrayal of a bartender. Did I ever pursue this dream of reenacting? Not exactly. I found myself very nervous in front of others in speech class and decided not to join the acting group, because again the audience and memorizing lines... I lacked confidence.
Instead I pursued a bachelor’s in natural resources and eventually became a librarian. Yes, very strange how that turned out. That will be a story for another time. A few years into my 20's, I met a man who was really into survival and history. He told me all about the Fur Traders Encampment, held at a beautiful wildlife refuge called Woolaroc. While my husband worked there on the landscaping crew, he befriended the “mountain men”, two brothers who worked at the outdoor Mountain Man exhibit. Wes and Roger are the booshways, a fancy way for saying leaders of the traders, for the bi-annual Fur Traders’ Encampment, which captures the golden age of the fur trade. They got him involved in a couple of their events. Almost everything has to be in pre-1840’s style, and everything in public eye has to be pre-1840's. It is quite expensive to do, but so much fun. You learn to work with your hands and make do with what you have. He made his own leggings, boots and bought basic things to live it up at the "rondy!" We married and he took me to my first rendezvous in the Fall of 2013. I had to make my own moccasins and buckskin dress. It was quite a learning experience.
I will share more about our rendezvous experiences later, but after attending a couple, my husband bought me a beeswax candle kit so that I could learn how to make our own candles. Light is very important if you want to see at night! There is a bit of story on my desire to learn how to make beeswax candles . . . there are a lot of backstories within this history and it gives me goosebumps! Anyway he gives me this beeswax candle kit and I am learning along with a YouTube tutorial by Townsends, which has an on-line store where my husband purchased the kit. Their website has a plethora of amazing 18th century historical reenactment items, so check them out. I was hooked at first mold and have been making them for the last 8 years. It is only recently that I have decided to sell them, because the rendezvous is an expensive hobby and people should also buy candles that they are not afraid to burn. Mine are not fancy. They are rustic and made to burn. They do smell pretty when you burn them. Not over the top scented, but definitely will give your room, maybe even your house, a cozy warm feeling. I cannot wait to share more with you about our adventures at home and at the rendezvous! This is how I became the accidental candlemaker!
But my parents moved us away from Michigan. That didn’t close the doors on my dream. We went to a living history cowboy town in Arizona once, but I hated it because the actors made fun of my outfit. That is not a good way to recruit the young. I will go into that later. Another time we went to Fort Laramie, Wyoming and there was a reenactor at the bar who was convincing in his portrayal of a bartender. Did I ever pursue this dream of reenacting? Not exactly. I found myself very nervous in front of others in speech class and decided not to join the acting group, because again the audience and memorizing lines... I lacked confidence.
Instead I pursued a bachelor’s in natural resources and eventually became a librarian. Yes, very strange how that turned out. That will be a story for another time. A few years into my 20's, I met a man who was really into survival and history. He told me all about the Fur Traders Encampment, held at a beautiful wildlife refuge called Woolaroc. While my husband worked there on the landscaping crew, he befriended the “mountain men”, two brothers who worked at the outdoor Mountain Man exhibit. Wes and Roger are the booshways, a fancy way for saying leaders of the traders, for the bi-annual Fur Traders’ Encampment, which captures the golden age of the fur trade. They got him involved in a couple of their events. Almost everything has to be in pre-1840’s style, and everything in public eye has to be pre-1840's. It is quite expensive to do, but so much fun. You learn to work with your hands and make do with what you have. He made his own leggings, boots and bought basic things to live it up at the "rondy!" We married and he took me to my first rendezvous in the Fall of 2013. I had to make my own moccasins and buckskin dress. It was quite a learning experience.
I will share more about our rendezvous experiences later, but after attending a couple, my husband bought me a beeswax candle kit so that I could learn how to make our own candles. Light is very important if you want to see at night! There is a bit of story on my desire to learn how to make beeswax candles . . . there are a lot of backstories within this history and it gives me goosebumps! Anyway he gives me this beeswax candle kit and I am learning along with a YouTube tutorial by Townsends, which has an on-line store where my husband purchased the kit. Their website has a plethora of amazing 18th century historical reenactment items, so check them out. I was hooked at first mold and have been making them for the last 8 years. It is only recently that I have decided to sell them, because the rendezvous is an expensive hobby and people should also buy candles that they are not afraid to burn. Mine are not fancy. They are rustic and made to burn. They do smell pretty when you burn them. Not over the top scented, but definitely will give your room, maybe even your house, a cozy warm feeling. I cannot wait to share more with you about our adventures at home and at the rendezvous! This is how I became the accidental candlemaker!