Wednesday night Ktreva and I loaded up the van for the trip. Everything was set and ready to go. Then on Thursday morning I get a message from Red (Wil's Wife) saying that Wil is calling the trip due to the river condition! CRAAAAAaaaaaaaaaap!

Hmmm, vehicle is loaded... no biggie we could unpack the vehicle. My sister is expecting us to drop of the boy at her place (two hours south of us) and keep him until Sunday. It's not fair to her to deny her the weekend with the boy, especially since she had taken time off of work to watch him. That and she only gets to keep him for the weekend maybe twice a year, just because of the travel distance. I was going to have to make the trip to drop off the boy anyway.

Then Wil calls and tells me to go ahead and bring Ktreva down for the weekend. We'll bar hop, maybe do some canoeing on the local lake, drink beer, barbque, drink more beer, make fun of people, drink beer, etc. I spoke with Ktreva, and we decided, what the hell and headed that way.

Now Wil wasn't in town Thursday night, he had to go play long haul trucker. That left it up to me to entertain Ktreva and Red. We went to the local bar, Buddie's. Unfortunately it was open mic night. This means that any American Idol reject wannabe can get up and sing. The last time I was in this bar it was open mic night, and Wil booed a girl off stage and made her cry. That was over a year ago. Guess who was back? I started yelling "you suck", but Red and Ktreva made me stop.

Friday Wil finally shows up, but just for enough time so he can change his clothes and then head out to Ottumwa, Ia. He had to pick up a load of John Deere combines and bring them to Galesburg. He asked if I wanted to go with, I said sure. I figured it couldn't hurt. Plus I had never ridden in a big rig, so I thought what the hell, why not. Yea, it's a good thing I went, I noticed a road construction sign on the way there that limited the width of vehicles to 10 feet, 6 inches. The load we had was 11 feet 2 inches. If I hadn't noticed it Wil would have tried to go through. Of course he'll deny this and say that he would have checked the load width and caught it before the accident could have happened, but I know the truth. Lets just say it would have ended up with combines all over the highway! HA-ha!

Saturday we actually decided to spend some time on the river. We put on the river at Fort Wallace (don't ask me why they call it that, there's not fort there) Just east of 74 and we pulled out at the Wolf Covered Bridge. We did this trip in about 30 minutes, which means that the river was flowing at about 6 to 8 miles and hour. We would have liked to have gone longer, but we already had the vehicles at the Wolf. However, it worked out okay because that gave us time to run to town, get some more beer and prepare for everyone to show up for the night barbeque.

That night Wil cooked a bunch chicken and pork chops for everyone. They were really fantastic. A bunch of guys showed up and we sat around, drank beer and talked. Except for at one point when Ktreva and I disappeared for a little exploration of Gilson. That is all I'm going to say about that tour. So for those of you that left before we came stumbling back at 1:30 in the morning, sorry. It was nice seeing all of you!

Posted by: Contagion at 09:12 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 656 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Hey now! Every combine Wil wrecks is another one I get paid to make parts for

Posted by: Graumagus at June 15, 2009 10:05 PM (LxL8S)

2 I'm surprised Wil didn't blame you for him not seeing the sign. He blames me if he misses his turn while talking on the phone to me.

Posted by: red at June 23, 2009 07:11 AM (tlzMg)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

No Beer review tonight. This weekend IÂ’m taking Ktreva on a canoe trip, the exploration of the Amaquonsippi. ItÂ’s a period correct trip (with the exception of the canoes, life jackets, water jugs and toilet paper in a plastic bag). We are doing the last leg of the trip this year. I did the second leg last year, Ktreva didnÂ’t go. Since we are getting ready for that, I just donÂ’t have the time to do a proper beer review. IÂ’ll try to put up an extra one next week to make up for it.

IÂ’m pretty damn excited about this trip. It looks like the river is going to cooperate, so we wonÂ’t have to drag our canoes down the river. I get to spend the weekend with my wife and friends doing what we love, what more could I ask? IÂ’ve gone over our gear a couple of times now to make sure that we have no non-period, or non-period looking materials. Where this trip isnÂ’t juried, IÂ’m still trying to take the high road and make sure my stuff is right or as close as I can get with what limited resources are available to me with the time constraints.

IÂ’m sure some of my friends will give me some grief over some of preparations. I keep a journal of the re-enactments that I do in a period looking book. For my own reference I made a slightly detailed hand drawn map inside the bookÂ… that I based on the USGS topographic survey. Yes, you can scream loser at me now, but if I had the patience IÂ’d be a cartographer! This is an exploration and I like to document things. This brought me some hazing last year when I was using my portable GPS to document wear we were stopping, camping, etc. I just wanted to document the trip.

Now I know some people could care less about this type of stuff, but some of these are the same individuals that thrive on reading other peoples journals and seeing their maps. One of the highly debated topics amongst archeologists and historians is exactly where certain camps were specifically located, hence why they have spent years trying to find the Lewis and Clark sites. We love getting information from the journals, it’s a primary source. Yet I try to document something and I get the “We’re on the river, that’s where we are” statement. Its okay, to each their own and if they don’t like it, then I don’t have to share it with them! (Also they didn’t want to see the modern GPS, but we’ll just glaze over that fact).

This year IÂ’m trying something different. IÂ’m using some knowledge that I obtained since last years trip. I wonÂ’t be as accurate as a GPS, but IÂ’m sure I can get the general area. Of course the worst heathens on this trip (which are some of my closest and dearest friends) will still give me grief over it. Just like theyÂ’ll get over the fact that I give them grief that this trip is more akin to a drunken float down a river than it is to a canoe trip! (very little paddling) hehe

IÂ’ll let you all know how it went when we get back.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:01 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 556 words, total size 3 kb.

Since last Wednesday Ktreva and I have been at the Bloody Lake Rendezvous. When we arrived, the camp was already packed. We had friends coming and we all wanted to camp together so I found the only place I couldÂ… down in the swampy part. Well most of the lower camp is wetlands, but this was the wetter wet lands. Fortunately for us we got a bit of high ground in the swampy area. It rained on us Wednesday night and off and on Thursday. The land around us was really mushy and Friday we watched a van sink up to its hubs while it was unloaded, but where our tents were was nice and dry.

Thursday morning the friends we wanted to camp with started showing up. Wil, Red and Moses showed up during a break in the rain and were actually able to set up and stay dry. Friday Petey, Ark Builder, Dragonfly, Wes and his eldest spawn showed up. Grau was supposed to come, but he came down with swine flu, anthrax or a bad case of back fungus and decided that, instead of re-enacting a plague victim he was going to stay home and try to get better.

I wish I could tell you some great story that I could tell you of events that happened, but this was mostly an uneventful. None of the drama that any of us where anticipating was ever brought up. Oh, the players were all there, but the ones that talk big over the phone, via e-mail or forums didnÂ’t say a peep in person. Heck, the only thing I heard about my own little issue was from friends and I making fun of it. To be honest, I was prepared for a confrontation and was a wee bit let down that there wasnÂ’t one. Although, it was probably in the best for everyone there wasnÂ’t.

There was a lot of good shopping at this event. Various venders I donÂ’t see anywhere else but at Bloody or Kalamazoo were there. Ktreva was able to pick up a nice new hand woven wool blanket. I was able to get a sky blue hat that everyone loved. I mean I looked FABULOUS in it. I canÂ’t wait until I can get a chance to wear it! Everyone was jealous and wanted one for themselves.

My beautiful blue hat!

Okay, that is the hat, with my blue bonnet on top of it. I look like a deranged purple pieman with that hat on.

We had a great time, and I hope that we can get more of our friends to go next year, some of the people that didnÂ’t make it next year. Those of you know who you are.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:21 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 469 words, total size 3 kb.

Last weekend was a blast. It was my first re-enactment of the season, not counting winter camps. We went out Thursday night. Ktreva and the boys had to come home that night. The boys had school on Friday, and Boopie was going to spend the weekend with his biological fatherÂ… much against his will. Ktreva and Clone didnÂ’t come back until Friday after Clone got out of school.

The weather was beautiful on Friday, warm and sunny. My friend Dragonfly and I didnÂ’t do demonstrations for kidÂ’s day. So we just kind of walked around and watched other peopleÂ’s demonstrations and visited with friends between classes. Since Dragonfly portrays an Indian, he was in full pain. Of course this attracted a lot of attention. He got to spend a lot of time explaining who he was portraying to a lot of kids while secretly checking out the hottie teachers, teacher aids and adult chaperones with the kids.

The weather was a little rainy on Saturday and pretty much down poured on us Saturday. Last year if you remember half the camp bugged out after some rain. This year we didn’t seem to have that problem. In fact no one left early due to weather. That didn’t stop me from making some comments like, “Hey, it might rain, we better start dropping the canvas.” For those that are interested if I caught any flack about my review from last year…

Not really.

Well there was some, but it was all in good nature. In fact it was funny that at the camp meeting someone made the comment like, “we need someone that isn’t afraid to voice their opinion” and someone in the crowd (not mentioning names Jingle While She Walks) yells out, “Where’s “Contagion” when we need him.” Mostly what was said to me was people in agreement or people stating that they may not agree with what I said, but it was my opinion and I had a right to it.

Overall the weather was the only thing that wasnÂ’t cooperative. I would have liked to have come home with dry canvas, but I didnÂ’t. Not that itÂ’s that big of a deal. IÂ’m heading out tomorrow to set up camp at Bloody Lake, just outside Woodford, WI. That also means that Ktreva and I had to make any repairs and clean what needed to be in just two days.

Yes, I said clean. We have to clean the mud off of all the clothes, shoes, blankets, etc. Yes I know some of my re-enacting friends are gasping and saying, “But you are removing the patina from it!” Yea, well I do not like caked on mud in my bedding.

Posted by: Contagion at 08:02 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 454 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Admit it. You like it when it gets dirty in bed.

Posted by: Petey at April 28, 2009 10:31 PM (VShuX)

2 I found your page by accident. I was looking for pictures of braided hair and google pulled up the ren fair pic on your page. I really enjoyed reading your entries. I used to do 1840s reenactments when I was a kid and currently go to a ren fair every year. Thanks for bringing back some memories for me.

Posted by: Rachel at April 30, 2009 11:49 AM (RlWzQ)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Weel may we a' be
Ill may we never see;
Here's to the King
And the gude companie.
Here's a health to them that's away,
Here's a health to them that's away,
Here's a health to them that were here shortsyne*,
An, canna be here today.

~Old Jacobite Toast.

*A little while ago

For fear ye are forgotten.

Remember that this day, a host of proud and brave Scots took the field against a larger force to fight to preserve their way of life. They were crushed and the actions taken against the wounded, and the civilian occupants by their opponents would be considered of the worst war crimes if it happened today. ItÂ’s also why no existing regiment claims a victory at Culloden.

Posted by: Contagion at 01:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 136 words, total size 1 kb.

In the last couple of days I've been getting flack over my review of The Gathering at Macktown on The Spoon and Blade. Some of it by e-mail, some of it in the Guestbook.

Last year at Macktown the weather has been horrible, as you can see on this post. IF you don't want to read it, lets recap. The weather was rainy when we got there, it turned to storms, the wind picked up, over half the camp bugged out. Over at the Spoon and Blade, I put my review up, including my opinions. Well in the last couple of days, people have found it and started leaving comments in the guestbook, unhappy with me.

Now some of the comments are true. Frenchman's is not Rock River, I was misinformed and can not go back and change it right now. My ISP and hosting company are not getting along and until they work things out, I can't update it at all. The review on there is for Frenchman's 2005, which I did attend.

If you are a re-enactor and want to see the kind of "trouble" I'm in, go over and check it out.

Honestly, I posted my opinion and I stand by it. If they don't agree with it, that's fine. It's no skin off of my back. But I'm not about to change it or apologize for voicing it.

Posted by: Contagion at 02:48 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 238 words, total size 1 kb.

This past weekend Ktreva and I headed to Kalamazoo Michigan for the Kalamazoo Living History Show. We were meeting Wil and Red there Friday night. Ktreva and I made great time and beat them there by a couple of hours, so we ended up checking out some of the local bar scene to find places to possibly go.

The first place we went to was the Old Peninsula Brew Pub It was a bit pretentious of a brew pub. Most of their beers were okay. Out of the four different beers I tried there, I only really thought the stout would be one I'd drink on a regular basis, and their stout was a really mild and bland stout. The one thing they had that I really liked was a cozy for their growlers. I bought one so I could show it to Carlyle's as an idea for them.

After there, we found a Buffalo Wild Wings and went there for 2 dollar 23oz miller lites. They were trying to drain off their green beer from St. Pats. I was more than happy to comply. While we were drinking there, we received the message that Big Trouble and Lil' Irish Wil and Red were about out. Of course that was after 5 glasses of Miller lite.

We hooked up with Wil and Red at the hotel, got them checked in and went over to a Texas Corral across the parking lot from the hotel. We just went in to sit at the bar. I would tell you more, but I really don't remember. Allegedly I spoke with Wil and Red's daughter and promised we'd stop by on the way back. Then allegedly I was loud and belligerent. I really don't recall any of this. I think that was all of them making stuff up.

Saturday morning, after we could get Ktreva out of bed (she will sleep for 12 hours you know), we headed to the show. We ran into a lot of friends there, including Smokepoles and his wife. Ktreva and I hadn't been there in three years, I was wondering if they would be dead. Nope, they were busy as ever! I really wasn't looking for much, other than a canteen. Now I'm sure many people will laugh and ask why I traveled so far for a canteen. I'll tell you why, I've been looking for two year and couldn't find one. Well I have one now.

I ended up buying the canteen, a couple of more buckets, more historically accurate than the one I had. An all natural hand woven belt, a wooden barrel with brass spigot, a belt knife and canned Haggis. Ktreva bought some wooden dice, more accurate glasses and some Poppen Moccasins. I was also measured for a a new great coat.

Now most of what I bought was just something I found and liked, I really wasn't looking for it. Like the wooden barrel, which when I got home found out that the guy selling it lied through his teeth. The damn thing leaks like a sieve! I let it soak for over twenty four hours in water and some of the small leaks sealed like expected, but there is a couple of big leaks that just wouldn't seal. I think I can fix it. I'm really glad I only paid $40.00 for it. Because I'll get the money's worth out of it from the base and brass spigot if I can't fix the leak.

After the trade fair all of went to this Irish pub in Kalamzoo called Gallagher's. To make a long story short. The food was really, really, really good. The beer selection was fantastic... the price on the beer was ungodly! I had a Blacksmith (half Guinness and half Smithwicks), then I had a Kelpie (A Scottish seaweed beer, that was pretty good) and a Black Douglas (A Scottish Ale). The Blacksmith was about $6.00, the Kelpie was $9.50 and the Black Douglas was $10.90. Now I'm not a hundred percent sure about the price on the Blacksmith and the Kelpie, but the Black Douglas I know for a fact. Wil bitched about it for the rest of the weekend to anyone who would listen. The service there was also ungodly slow. I couldn't believe how long it took for them to get us beer, take our orders, bring us the check. It was a horrible experience. The sad thing is that I recommended this place because I had been there before. Not this one, they have a sister bar in Paw Paw, that Ktreva and I had eaten at in years past. Again, the food is excellent and reasonably priced.

Then we hit a brewpub called Bilbo's. It was a Lord of the Ring's themed brewpub. We tried three different beers there: Duff (as in from the Simpson's), Return of the King and Sledgehammer. To be honest all three tasted remarkably similar, and were rather plain. We had the manager serving us beer and neither Wil nor myself were quiet about our opinions. Yea, I do believe she thought we were going to start some trouble.

After there we tried finding another bar, but had no luck. We ended up going back to the room, drinking there for a while and then going back to Texas Corral. Were we drank and and joked and the waitress (with a broken foot) not only remembered us, remembered our drinks and was the best waitress we had the whole weekend.

On Sunday we visited with Wil and Tina's daughter in Indiana. We spent a good couple of hours there before having to head back home. It was good seeing her again. She's getting ready to graduate from Law School and make a new and exciting life for herself on the east coast.

Overall, we had a great time. It's just a shame it couldn't have lasted any longer.

Posted by: Contagion at 08:05 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 989 words, total size 5 kb.

Alright! I'm off to winter camp! We'll be just a little northwest of Trego, WI. There will be beer, booze, food and friends. There will be a lot of guys there that I haven't seen since last October. It'll be good to get back in touch with them.

I just hope that everyone that reads this is has as good of a weekend as I'm about to have!

I just hope that I don't drive up there and back in a snow storm like I did last year, but if I do... it'll be worth it!

Posted by: Contagion at 07:02 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 104 words, total size 1 kb.

Friday afternoon Wes and I left for the Quad Cities area to attend winter camp. This is the season opener for me. It was good seeing all the guys again. But just to give you an idea of what winter camp is like let me put it to you like, a lot of alcohol, cold winter night in a cabin, a lot of food that causes gas. Yea it was drunk out.

I'd tell stories, but what happens at winter camp, stays at winter camp.

Ktreva and I were planning on taking the family to Florida in a couple of weeks for the Alafia River Rendezvous. Unfortunately with her surgery and treatment schedule it's looking like it's just not going to happen for us this year. We are thinking of possibly going to the Rocky Mountain Nationals instead or the Midwestern Primitive Rendezvous in July.

We really want to hit a large national event and those are the two that look like we might actually be able to make this year. As much as we had been planning on doing the Alafia for a year and a half, it just doesn't seem like it's going to happen. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have Ktreva healthy and not do the Alafia, than do that Alafia and have her sick. That doesn't mean I can't lament not being able to attend.

Owell, we have time to decide on which one to do.

Posted by: Contagion at 08:50 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 249 words, total size 2 kb.

This last weekend the family and I went to Fort Obie in Colona, IL for a re-enactment. I was able to procure a keg of Scottish Ale from Carlyle Brewing Company to bring along. ThatÂ’s right fellow beer lovers I got my hands on 15.5 gallons of the malty goodness from Carlyle! There was some debate on whether or not we tap the keg Friday or Saturday night. Since I brought it, I wanted to make sure it got drank and we tapped it Friday night. A couple of hours later I had Red come in and tell me that the keg was floating and we were almost out of beer.

I went and checked, sure enough that giant aluminum tank was already three quarters empty! In order to preserve some of it for Saturday I pulled the tap and we switched to other beverages. Needless to say other than my shaving hair off of my arm to prove how sharp my knife was and scorching a table top in the cabin by setting peanut shells on fire, not much happened.

Saturday night is a different story.

At dinner I was cutting potatoes to put into the stew when I must not have been paying as good of attention as I should have been because I cut the tip of my thumb off. Oh, I did it good, there is a nice chunk missing. I had to change bandages four times because I kept bleeding through them. ItÂ’s fine now, it just looks like the tip of my thumb is missingÂ… because it is.

I went and tapped the keg, we started on that until it emptied out and then we switched to other malted beverages. My lovely wife, Ktreva, went to play games with the other women… which led to many interesting stories that I’m not at liberty to go into. But to give you an idea it ended up involving her hording a bottle of Captain Morgan Private Stock, putting objects down her cleavage to hold them… like bottles and spoons, biting people and finally earning herself the new nickname, “Princess Patina” after she redecorated the outside of the fort with her gastro-squeezins. Oh, and a two day hangover.

Last night I went to Buffalo Wild Wings in Rockford for Monday Night Football with some friends, including Bruce, Shadoglare and J-man. I ended up cheering for the Cleveland Browns, not because I like them, but because I donÂ’t like Eli. That and there were some NY Giants fans in the bar and it was fun to give them a hard time. The fact that it turned into the Browns spanking the Giants made it funnier. The Giants fans were less and less amused by my antics, but their reactions where amusing!

Posted by: Contagion at 06:22 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 473 words, total size 3 kb.

After a four year hiatus, Ktreva, Clone and I returned to the Belvidere Pioneer Festival. We stopped going due to personal issues that had nothing to do with the events. Finally a friend of ours that is the Booshway, Marshal, asked us at an earlier event this year to come. We had nothing else going on and it's literally 15 minutes from our front door to the camp, so we thought we would attend it this year.

The committee that runs the event put us with Clan Chattan. We didn't mind as we're still friends with them. However I did have to make sure they knew that we were not members of Clan Chattan. Marshall said he put us with them because he knew we were all friends.

Now of course he camped us all in the back of the camp with the Indians. I kept inquiring what we had done not only to be shoved back in with Clan Chattan, but then to be camped next to the Indians. I figured it was punishment for not going to their event in four years. The friends of ours that portrayed Indians kept telling us it was a reward for being such great people. I think they just wanted us to entertain them.

Unfortunately the musical talent for our group didn't show up which meant that we had to entertain ourselves and more scarily that meant that *I* had to do some singing. That's right folks, I sang. We could tell that it was a huge hit because NOBODY ELSE entered our camp.

It was a good time and we had fun. The event is what it is, A festival. There were arts and crafts, and farmer's market stuff. They had volunteers walking around dressed in everything from Little House on the Prairie (The High School musical) costumes to 18th century fur trade and everything in between. Including the Austrian mounted army from the Napoleonic wars.

Since this was an unplanned event, I'm not updating the Spoon and Blade with a review, this was a last minute decision.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:12 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 353 words, total size 2 kb.

1 OOoo was the root beer guy there this year? Really about the only thing there I would have gone for

Posted by: Shadoglare at September 30, 2008 02:22 PM (Volhe)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

This last weekend was just about perfect. I was able to completely kick back, relax and let the stress of everything going on just wash off me.

We got out there Thursday night and set us up for three days of fun. Most of my re-enacting friends were there and it was great seeing them again. Hell, even Graumagus crawled out of the woodwork to make the event, that means he made it to two this year, thus tying his record for the last 4 years.

Some friends of ours had a wedding out at the event. They had a bachelorette party for the bride. Thankfully Wes brought his eldest daughter along. I ended up paying her to babysit Clone until he went to bed. That way I could do some damage to the three cases of beer I brought. Which ended up in some pole dancing for the ladies. Not by me... but by a lot of the other guys out there. Yea... the other guys.

Saturday was the wedding. That night a lot of people from the camp sat around and listened to various people play music or sing songs. We had everything from Blue Grass and Celtic to some modern music. Folks, there is nothing like sitting around on a cool August evening with most of your closest and dearest friends and listening to great music. I can't think of anything else that could have made that evening better.

Sunday was kind of a downer. I hated having to separate from my friends, nah not my friends... from my family. These people are more like brothers and sisters to me than just friends. Even if they do some things that are a little fishy.

Pictures and more stories will be coming when I get more time.

Posted by: Contagion at 07:49 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 303 words, total size 2 kb.

1 We're scum. Fishy is in our nature, lol!

Posted by: Dragonfly at August 18, 2008 11:47 PM (2Ql7B)

2 Ah- what I wouldn't do for one of those weekends! Lucky bastage!

Posted by: Rave at August 20, 2008 09:42 AM (Jh0RL)

3 And you're so going to Hell.

Posted by: Sister Elisa Xaveria at August 20, 2008 07:06 PM (nFEns)

4 You mean we didn't get you drunk enough to pole dance? Or are you like Petey and saying that it was somebody trying to impersonate you? Sad to say I was to drunk to remember who all posed. The weekend was fun & was over way to fast.

Posted by: red at August 22, 2008 07:29 AM (Ahwzy)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Ktreva and I are off for a kid free weekend of re-enacting and fun. We are heading to the Gathering on the Theatiki in Bourbonnais, IL. This may be my last re-enactment for a long time, so I'm going to make sure that I do it right. With this whole Oklahoma thing I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do any re-enactments. And I don't think they do any for the time period I portray down there.

Contrary to what Wil keeps saying, I'm not really wanting to portray wild west or 19th century mountain man/buffalo hunter. Since I don't know all that is going to happen yet, I really want to make sure I get the most out of this weekend as I can.

Now of course they are calling for Storms tomorrow.... figures.

Posted by: Contagion at 12:03 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 143 words, total size 1 kb.

I spent a weekend with Petey and Wil and my butt is sore! Well, I guess I should explain that. I went on a canoe trip last weekend. Petey and Wil were on the same trek. Actually Wil put the trip together. Well most of that trip is sitting on your butt. In fact the canoe I sat in had a seat that was about 4 inches wide. That was just a little too narrow for my behind to be comfortable on.

Overall it was a good trip, I had a lot of fun. Then again looking at the company I kept there is almost no way I was not going to have fun. The weather was beautiful, and the scenery was picturesque. Heck, I took over 120 pictures and 80 some of them turned out pretty darn good. Now I'm not going to post all of the pictures, but I do have some up over at the Spoon and Blade, along with a really crappy map of our route.

Now I know that some of the guys I went on the trip with read this blog, and I don't want them to take this the wrong way, but this canoe trek was more of a canoe float. I think my paddle spent more time out of the water than in it. In fact I know I made the comment at least once I thought it was getting dry rot. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with sitting back and relaxing on the river. You can put me in a tube and give me a cooler full of beer and I'm a happy man, but sitting for hours in a canoe is just kind of boring. First off your legs and butt get sore. It's not like you can stand up, stretch and move about. So you are constantly shifting trying not to be too uncomfortable. You're also trying not to flip the canoe. Also just sitting there watching the banks go by gets a little tiresome. I know it's been years since I've done a canoe trip, but I was looking forward to the paddling.

That being sad, I really did have a wonderful time. I'm really looking forward to going next year and doing the last leg of the river. I know that next year I need to bring more whiskey with. The two bottles of Dragon's milk and the bottle of corn squeezin's I brought with were gone on the first night. Hey, don't look at me, I had a lot of help drinking it. I've also got to figure out a way to store beer in a barrel with out it leaking out or going bad. There has to be a way and I'm going to figure it out!

Posted by: Contagion at 07:35 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 469 words, total size 2 kb.

I have a new Mortar Maiden up, Liosag MacNamara. The sad things is that the young lady that posed with the mortar did it three years ago. After I've used a series of photos from one girl, I move them to my "used" folder. Somehow I accidentally moved hers into that section. While cleaning out the files today, I found them. So, better late then never.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:56 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 74 words, total size 1 kb.

I finally got around today, a month later, to updating the Spoon and Blade with pictures and reviews for the last two re-enactments I did, The Gathering at Macktown and Bloody Lake. If you want to see some photos and just read the stories, head on over.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:07 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 57 words, total size 1 kb.

1 LOL I love the photo of the lil one & Wil - you'll have to keep that one on file for when the boy starts dating

Posted by: Shadoglare at June 01, 2008 07:34 PM (yUtP2)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Wes of Bodhran Roll, Please! has a post of were heÂ’s been and whatÂ’s been going on in his life. It ends with some comments about changes heÂ’s made regarding re-enacting. These include, unfortunately due to some research of my own, to him deciding not to bring his Bodrhan to the events anymore and to shave his facial hair. Of course good friend and blogspawn Petey is not pleased with this decision to stop bringing the bodrhan. (As well as our friend Wil, but he hasnÂ’t commented yet).

I know that when I shaved my facial hair and decided to get rid of some of the items in my camp that are not period correct, I took some, okay a LOT of ridicule. The thing is that I think some people are missing the point. Now, I can only really speak for me, but after conversations with Wes, I think heÂ’ll agree with me on this. I didnÂ’t make these changes because someone else forced me to or because I didnÂ’t want. I made these decisions because they are what I wanted.

When I was younger I was brought up that if you are going to do something, do it right and take pride in your work. History has been a passion of mine for years. When I was younger I loved going to museums and ready about history. I loved going on vacations and taking tours of various historical locations. When we went on these tours I was always the kid fighting his way to the front so I wouldnÂ’t miss anything the tour guide said.

In 1997 when I had an opportunity to start doing some re-enacting, I jumped on it. I joined Clan Chattan and we did more of the Scottish Highland Game/Ren Faire style re-enacting. We had two events that were early American events, and those quickly became my favorites. In fact after a couple of years I started hating the Ren Faire and Highland Games gigs. There wasnÂ’t much history to them and the people that attended really didnÂ’t want to know about history, unless I was talking about the history of the sword. Occasionally I would find someone that wanted to talk Scottish history with me, but mainly they just wanted to see the sharp shiny objects. After leaving Clan Chattan, I havenÂ’t worked a Ren Faire or Highland game.

Now IÂ’m on my own doing what I want to do. Over the years IÂ’ve been slowly weeding out what is wrong in my camp and gear. I was reading more books and brushing up on more history. Becoming more and more knowledgeable about the history of the period and location IÂ’m portraying. I know what is wrong in my camp and what needs to be improved.

At the end of last season something finally snapped into place for me. I shook off the last of my Ren Faire mentality of “if they had it, they would have used it” and “If it looks period correct, that’s all that matters.” Now, I’m striving to get as historically accurate of a camp that I can get and still have my family with. (There is absolutely NO chance of my having a White wife and kid with me in 1756 in Northern Illinois/Southern Wisconsin) So I make exceptions, because this is first and foremost a FAMILY hobby for us, and its damn well going to stay that way. Yet I am going to make the changes I need to make for me, and my costuming and my equipment. Not the family’s stuff, but mine. Ktreva is behind me on this.

Things really didnÂ’t hit the fan until last month when I made the decision to shave my facial hair off, replace me capote and update the camp chairs. All of a sudden everyone was going nuts about my decision. HereÂ’s the thing. IÂ’m not doing this because someone told me to. Its not because I feel I have to. It isnÂ’t even something I didnÂ’t want to do. This was a decision I made in order to get it right. I did it because I knew these things are wrong for my persona and my camp.

I did this because I want to do my best to do it right. I am taking pride in what IÂ’m doing. This is something that I know is right and I want to do it. It doesnÂ’t bother me that people are making fun of my cleanly shaven face. When they laugh and tease me about my decisions, it rolls off of me. The fact is simple, it was a decision I made, it is something IÂ’m standing by and none of them can tell me that IÂ’m wrong.

IÂ’m not mad, irritated or even annoyed at any of them. Because IÂ’m doing what is right for me, and they are doing what is right for them. And that is what is most important.

That is what they donÂ’t understand.

Now of course if Wes wants to bring his Bodhran and play, I'd be all for that. The nights are going to get quiet.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:47 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 859 words, total size 5 kb.

1 Will the beer need to be historically accurate as well? Just asking.......

Posted by: bx19 at May 20, 2008 11:34 AM (hPdsC)

2 I suspect you are wrong about the facial hair. It may have been uncommon among polite company but by the time of the French and Indian Wars white men had already started trapping in the Shining Mountains. By then some had reached the Pacific. Don't fall for the myth that Lewis and Clark were the first to go. Men started walking and riding west when we first got here. Most died of course. Then again, everyone else died, too. Now those frontiersmen didn't have nice neat goatees, one would be lucky to see a nose sticking out and I'm sure the surviors shaved as soon as they returned. There are too many legends of white men among the tribes to believe otherwise. Frontiersmen became Mountain Men and Voyageurs and by the mid 1800s had trapped out the Shining Mountains which became the Rocky Mountains. Trapped out by men with beards. No drums, though. When sneaking around among tribes that tortured people to see if they died brave, few men would carry a drum. Frontiersmen

Posted by: Peter at May 20, 2008 12:37 PM (AiJXe)

3 By the wauy, did Tammi ever give you that bullet lube I sent up for you?

Posted by: Peter at May 20, 2008 12:49 PM (AiJXe)

4 Actually there is a ton of documentation to support they didn't have facial hair. From journals to excavated razors to inventory lists. They have reports of men being found dead and they would check their belongings and find razors and shaving soap. They wouldn't shave every day, but they would shave. According to documentation even the frontiersmen would shave on on Sundays and before entering any type of civilized area or rendezvous. Having facial hair in the mid 1700's would be the equivalent to not wearing pants today. By the late 1700's and early 1800's facial hair became more socially acceptable. By the time of the Civil War it was the norm.

Posted by: Contagion at May 20, 2008 01:28 PM (Q5WxB)

5 You wear pants? Huh. I'm just glad I don't live closer to you because I bet you'd totally suck me into this hobby of yours. I know I'd love it, but I know I don't have cash (any) or time to do it! I just live vicariously through you. Hope you don't mind.

Posted by: Ogre at May 21, 2008 08:07 AM (oifEm)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Okay, last weekend we got rained on pretty hard. This weekend, well it looks like the skies are going to open up and drain on us! In fact they are calling for some very severe storms today. Fortunately for me IÂ’m not out there yet, unfortunately for friends like Will and Petey they are already there. IÂ’m going to be keeping my eye on the weather and hope that everything goes well for them. Unfortunately I couldnÂ’t get the time off of work to head out last night, or IÂ’d be out there with them. Damn real-life responsibilities!

So letÂ’s start the running cap this year on events that I get rain. Not counting the two winter camps and counting this weekend, that makes three events. Fort Des Chartres I donÂ’t recall any rain in the time we had canvas set up, so IÂ’m calling that a dry camp. Gathering at Macktown, Thursday and Friday we had rain. This weekend is Bloody Lake, they are calling for rain. (This is as we watch the angry red finger of god on radar sweeping across Illinois poised to wipe canvas off the face of the earth). That makes me 1-2. Yea, thatÂ’s about par for the course. ItÂ’s not yet a valid sample size as usually itÂ’s 1 out of every four events I do is dry.

The funny thing is that I was talking to my mother on Monday about last weekend and she reminded me that my grandfather always said that whenever my father and I went camping, he knew the weather was going to bad. When I got hold enough to go camping without my father, Grandpa determined that the chance of bad weather on a weekend doubled. Grandpa was an avid camper too, although he did modern camping, or what I like to call portable civilization. You know, in trailers. One of these days IÂ’m going to have to tell some of those stories.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:38 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 332 words, total size 2 kb.

We had a wonderful weekend. After receiving word that my mother was out of emergency surgery for her second heart attack, we headed to camp. Hey, mom told us to go! We were able to get set up in a soft drizzle with out any problems or issues. The new tent was a nice and easy set up for us. I'm really glad we decided to get it.

I did take some a lot of ribbing over the facial hair, not all the comments were as hateful on the ones left on my previous post. Some of you have a mean streak! Actually none of the comments bothered me, I figured that was going to happen. I just rolled with them.

The weather started off kind of crappy. Thursday when we set up it was drizzling a little with the occasional rain. Friday we had on and off rain through out the day. Sometime around 3:00 pm the weather started to get nasty. We had a severe thunderstorm blow through just south of us and the wind really started to pick up. At one point the rain was coming at us vertically. With winds gusting up to 30 mph we had some serious issues. Ktreva, the boys and I were standing under our friend Smokepoles 16 foot fly and the rain was coming so hard that my glasses were covered in rain as I stood at the other end.

Some of the campers that showed up late had to set up in the pouring rain. The wind never really died down all night. It blew hard and heavy all night long, which of course meant a lot of people didn't get much sleep. I have a hard time sleeping in high winds situation because I'm listening for ripping canvas and snapping poles. I know of at least 4 people that lost canvas that night.

Saturday morning a lot of campers just packed up in left, including some of the people that set up in the rain. We lost about 50% Saturday morning before the event even started. There was one well known individual trader going around telling people that the wind was going to get worse and we were going to get snow that night. A lot of people just took him at his word and started packing up. The booshway, event committee and staff kept telling people they were not canceling the event and encouraged people to stay.

Now I have a lot of re-enactors, living historians, etc that read this blog, so I'm not going to mention any individuals specifically, but I will say this. The bug out was really caused by one group of re-enactors that have absolutely nothing to do with the running of this event. I was surprised by the groups that did pull out.

Saturday after the event closed, even more people packed up and left. When we had the camp meeting I had been into my cups so when the topic of how to handle the situation in the future came up, I just started talking. I told them that I felt that anyone that left early with out a legitimate reason should not be invited back next year. I know a couple left because their ridge poles snapped and they couldn't fix it or their canvas was destroyed. Let them come back because they had a legitimate excuse for leaving. Most of the people still there agreed with me. Someone brought up that they needed those camps to demonstrate. I pointed out they weren't there anyways.

Since none of my friends in camp tackled me in the middle of the meeting I just kept shooting off my opinion. I did learn a valuable lesson this weekend. Never go to camp meetings half drunk. Definitely don't drink during the meeting. They are not asking me to be on the committee for this event. Yea, I told them no and that I didn't think it would be a good idea for me to join. I'd just be one more problem they had. Could you imagine my loud, opinionated self in a committee for something that I don't get paid to do? Yea, there's not enough sensitivity classes in the world to keep me from spouting off at every bad idea. I'm not a committee kind of guy.

The kicker to this whole thing is that the weather on Saturday was windy up until about 7:00 PM. Then it was just nice. We had no more high winds, no more rain. Sunday it was sunny and beautiful. All these people that packed up and left early, wasted their time. They missed a beautiful weekend.

Posted by: Contagion at 02:18 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 787 words, total size 4 kb.

In four days is the Gathering at Macktown. I've been keeping an eye on the weather. According to the weather channel we are supposed to get rain next Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Let the annual soak fest begin!

Posted by: Contagion at 07:44 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 48 words, total size 1 kb.