Well, it’s being called “Noah’s Revenge” but I don’t recall seeing any animals walking two by two or a really big boat, but we did seem to get the rain. After a really wet start, which saw most of our shooters standing under the shelter of stage one during the safety briefing, well it did not get much better. We had 49 shooters start but saw a few shooters dropping out after it became obvious the weather was not going to improve. There were 43 hardy souls that finished the match in a little more than damp condition. Since there were so few shooters we were only able to have three posses and with five stages set-up we had to do a little double work for teardown. Thanks to Posse 2 and 3 for jumping in and getting the extra two stages put away while posse 1 was finishing up.

The Smoky Mountain Shoot-Out is quickly approaching and we are still taking volunteers to help work and make this match our best yet. We are looking for volunteers for all positions for any and all days; we need people Wednesday through Sunday. Wednesday is set-up and possible shoot through for some of the workers, Thursday is side matches, Friday and Saturday is main matches and Sunday is teardown; if you can help any or all days please get with Keystone.
Speaking of a shoot through, we are trying to come up with some way to have some of the workers do a shoot through. This will be offered to workers who will be working all day in one capacity or another. The ones that come to mind are the parking waddies, Lighting McCoy and any of his workers, Jim Mayo and his crew, Hombre Sin Nombre and his crew, and anyone else that working for the match will not allow them to shoot with a posse during the main match. We are already close to 40 shooters registered and this may be the year we close it down at 200. If you plan on shooting please get your registration in as soon as you can.

As most of you know, we took a vote on hosting the Tennessee State Match; it was overwhelmingly “yes”, however, The Wartrace Regulators have decided they did not want to give it up for two years so have informed me that they will apply for the State Match in 2010 with the 2009 match being shot in Memphis. I think this is a good thing for our club, at least at this time. If we decide we want to host this match sometime in the future we can put in with SASS to host it. I like going to Wartrace and shooting the State Shoot. It is as much work as the SMSO with more involvement from SASS and some one else is doing the work.

Remember that we will not be shooting at ORSA in March this year; we have swapped weekends with Steel Challenge in order to host the SMSO. I think Fast Harley is trying to get a group together and invade another match that we never get to attend.

There are some who wonder what happened to the help in putting up the targets after the last stage was shot on Saturday. The targets got loaded on my truck ok, but the unloading was left to others. Targets in the back of a truck is not the same as targets in the shed; each posse is responsible for putting their own targets in the shed. Please help your posse until everything is finished. All who walked past while others put your targets away should be ashamed. Please remember “The Spirit of the Game” and “The Cowboy Way” The more people who work, the less work for the others.

Dues are due this month; please get your membership dues to Hombre as soon as you can. We need everyone paid up by the annual meeting to have a good membership count.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Good luck in 2009, we will all need it.
Long Days and Pleasant Nights
Tennessee Tombstone