April 14, 2008
Poor Ktreva is having to deal with my rants and rampages of cleaning up the camp. We got our new Wedge tent last week and are selling our wall tent. I'm looking at getting rid of our camp chairs because they aren't period correct, in fact they aren't period correct until you get to modern times. Sure they are made of wood, but they really were a product of modern re-enacting. I'm having a new coat made for me so I can get rid of my Capote, you know the one that they questioned when I juried into Fort De Chartres.
I think the biggest change is going to be that I'm shaving my facial hair off. After a discussion at Fort De Chartres with my pals Petey and Wil, I came home and did some research. Damned if it isn't heavily documented that Western Europeans as a standard didn't have facial hair. Sure, some of my research shows they may have gone up to a week with out shaving, but they would have shaved on the Sabbath and/or upon returning to a settlement.
Thus, I'm going to be shaving off my facial hair. That's right, my upper lip and chin are once again going to be exposed to sunlight after at least a good 12 years of being covered. Ktreva is a little mixed on this. She really likes the idea of no more scruffy face. To be honest, part of me doesn't want to shave it off. I think I look even dorkier with out facial hair. Plus I think it makes me look like I'm about 12. Yet a larger part of me really doesn't want to be incorrect for my persona. Thus I'm set that I'm shaving it off. However, I'm going to wait until the last minute to do so. It's getting bushy again and I'm going to donate the trimmings to locks of love.
I'm kidding, but I wonder....
Anyways, so I'm a bustle around the house all worked up and ready to head out to Macktown. I've gotten so bad that Ktreva actually laughed at me.
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Wil: Sarcasm, really? From you?
April 10, 2008
They also give you a little bit of history about each song as to when it was written and what the song is about. I thought that was pretty neat. So for you Living History Musicians out there... (Cough) Wes, (Cough) Petey (Cough) Me when I'm really, really drunk (Cough), you might want to take a look at these.
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April 07, 2008
First off I left here Thursday and drove to my friend Will's house. If you read the comments on this post, he was one of the ones arguing with me as to whom gets who drunk. Well lets just say, we have an answer to that question. I show up and am not there for more than 5 minutes when he throws a beer at me. Later that night we go out to a local bar in Galesburg called Buddes. They were having an open mic night and Will's son was going to be playing. They had Dirty Bastard on tap. So there we sat, Will, his wife Red, our friend Taco and myself listening to these local kids get up and play songs. Well we'd been drinking since about oh, 1 when he pawned the first beer off on me. We watched and drank and waited for Long Spawn o' Willie to take the stage. This girl gets ups there and starts singing. She's really not that good. The first song was by Patsy Cline and her second by Pink Floyd. About half way through her second song Will starts booing here and telling her she sucks. He goes outside to talk to his son. The girl comes off the stage at the end of the song and goes outside to have a cigarette. The next thing I know she comes running back in crying.
I run outside to make sure Will is okay. I get out there and as soon as I see him I ask, "Did you make that girl cry?" He acknowledged he did, I couldn't help but laugh. Yes, it was mean, yes it was cruel... but dammit, it was funny cause she sucked.
Friday we got down to Fort De Chartres and that night we go to the period Tavern. Everything is done in the style of the 1750's. One of my Mortar Maidens, Davina Baillie whom has long since been captured by the natives and has changed her entire look, is one of the serving wenches. All I know is that when ever I turned around there she was with a pitcher of ale and filling my flagon. Now, I'm not complaining, but I did have to listen to a lot of complaining from my companions. She'd fill mine and then leave them empty. Or she would put the last of the ale in my flagon and then have to go get more. When she came back she'd refill mine before anyone else's. Now she is married to my friend whom I've referred to as Wind in his Hair, his actual native name is Wahoopitae (Wa-hoop-e-tay) I'm not really sure on the spelling, dang natives. Since I knew him and her I felt comfortable in telling everyone that I thought she was trying to get me drunk so she could take advantage of me.
It was at the end of this night that on my long drunken walk back to camp I jumped off of one of the low unfinished walls between the tavern and my camp that I hurt my foot. That just means that every time I go to an event I have to watch for Will, Petey and Davina trying to get me drunk.
Now you would think that I would have learned my lesson the night before, but I didn't. I want back Saturday night. I knew I was safe because Davina wasn't working... or so I thought. I forgot Will and Petey were in there still. Early in the night the tavern was crowded. Standing room only, all the tables and benches were full and the people were standing elbow to elbow in there. At one point a couple of guys get up from a bench to leave. Will, another guy I know called Wolfie and some shorter older guy all sat down on it. A couple of minutes later the older guy gets up. Will tells me to sit down. I really can't because the guy is standing right in front of where the bench is.
Will starts pushing the guy in the back. He turns and looks at Will. Will makes an innocent face and kind of chuckles. Then he starts to do it again, this time when the guy turns around Will points at me and I say, "it wasn't me." The guy then says, "That's okay, we like the French." I roared back "I'm a farooking Scot you Manky Anglish Get*!" I said it in a thick brogue and according to those that witnessed it, there was anger in my voice. So the guy, looking scared, apologizes and backs away. Will and Wolfie are laughing their asses off. I sit down and I'm having a little chuckle, but Will and Wolfie just keep laughing. I didn't think it was that funny.
Will finally says to me, "Do you know who that is?" No, of course I didn't, he was just some short older guy. Will then says, "That's Mark Baker." For those of you not in the re-enacting circle, he is considered some big re-enacting celebrity because he has written articles for magazines and has books out that everyone refers to. Hell, I have some of his stuff. I just never was star struck enough to an author to really care. Well apparently the big joke is that at these events most of the people come up and, to use the phrase they did, "humps his leg" all weekend and tells him how great he is. I meet him and I tell him off. Well anyway, this story spread fast and all I heard for the rest of the weekend is how I told off Mark Baker.
I wasn't even mad, I was just playing around. O'well, at least it's a good story to tell around the campfire. I'm sure many a person will laugh at this.
I had a great time there. I couldn't believe how much fun it was. I also can't believe how quickly it passed by.
*Manky Anglish Get: I've had enough people ask about this I'm just putting up the explication. Manky is Scottish word meaning unclean person or unclean act. Anglish is the nationality (English, just said in a Scottish Brogue) Get: Now more commonly spelled git, started as an illegitimate child/brat. It turned into a contemptible person or a stupid and unpleasant person. So basically when I'm calling him a Manky Anglish Git. I'm saying he's a filthy English bastard/idiot.
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For those of you not in the know. Friday night on my jaunt back from the 1756 tavern I climbed over a short wall to get back to camp. When I jumped down I landed funny and I walked around all weekend thinking I broke my foot. It was swollen and bruised. The pain was okay... if I wasn't standing or walking on it.
Even the doctor when he looked at it was sure it was broken. He also lectured me on waiting until Monday to have it looked at.
His order to me was to take some pain killers and stay off of it as much as possible.
As for the rest of the weekend, I'll post that later.
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April 02, 2008
I'm pretty excited. Having never done this event before I'm not exactly sure what to expect, but looking at the group of guys I'm going with, at least I know I'm going to have fun... and very possibly a hang over. Especially since one of them is Petey.
I need to go finish getting some stuff ready, if I don't post again before I leave, I'll make sure to give you all kinds of details upon my return.
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March 16, 2008
Yesterday I spent most of the day working leather. I had to make myself a new pair of moccasins, this time I had a much better idea of what I was doing and this pair actually turned out looking decent. They aren't the prettiest damn things I've ever seen, but compared to my first pair, they are down right works of art.
While I was working on these Wes came over to try his hand at working leather. He needed to repair a saddle seat he has. I'm not sure what was more amusing to Ktreva, listening to Wes swear when he'd make a mistake or me when I would accidentally poke myself with a needle. Shadoglare came over to drink some beer and to converse. He had contacted me earlier in the day wanting to know if I wanted to go out, I told him that I really needed to get the leather work done. He also contacted Graumagus to see if he wanted to go out. He had to work.
Later in the evening Grau called and said he was heading to Carlyle's after work with some friends. He got off of work at 11:00. Since I started sewing at 1:00, when I finally got my mocs 2/3 of the way done, I decided to stop and go hang out there. Wes had to head home, four kids and all. Shadoglare and I went and hung out with Grau until 2:00 AM just getting caught up.
He's still alive right now. He's not sure when he's coming back. Mostly because he has some court time ahead of him and he's not sure how thats going to go. But that's all the detail you're going to get from me at this time.
Well if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to go make some leggings. Or as Ktreva wants to call them, 1750's arseless chaps.
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February 28, 2008
Actually there are some events I'm thinking of doing that aren't on the schedule. Some of them are going to be last minute decisions or I just don't have any information on them at this time.
So if any of you want to see me in action, here is the list of where I will be.
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February 25, 2008
Today in the mail I received my acceptance letter. The only thing they had a problem with was my capote (a coat made out of wool blankets, French for Cape.) To quote the letter, "Everything looks great except for the capote. I can't see it too well in the picture, but it looks more like a Rocky Mt. Style Mt Man coat VS a more tailored 18th century style capote. If I'm wrong, please let me know as I couldn't see too clearly from the photo."
This is the photo I sent, it was the best I had:
Yea, it sucked. The capote was bought as an Eastern Style capote. I added the black leather cape to it for extra warmth. You'd be surprised how much that cape helps. I made it so it buttoned on, I can easily take it off. I responded via e-mail stating that. If I can't bring it, it stays home, if they say it's okay than I bring it with. It's not that big of a deal. I can always just use a wool blanket and one of the man kilt broaches I have.
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February 18, 2008
7:00 AM 02/14/08: Left Rockford, IL with companion Randy. We have about a 5 and a half hour drive ahead of us. I am excited and looking forward to seeing my friends and meeting more of the Company men.
9:04 AM 02/14/08: Paynette Exit on I-90, WI. We have run into a snowstorm. The snow is heavy and has caused some sever driving conditions. Due to stopping for provisions, we are running a half hour behind schedule. Fortunately we are in no great hurry.
9:22 AM 02/14/08: Approaching Wisconsin Dells. The snow if falling faster. We have slowed our travel down to less than 50 MPH. I contacted Ktreva to have her check the size of the storm for me. She advised that we are going to be in the snowstorm for at least the next 100 miles of our journey.
11:30 AM (Approx) 02/14/08: Black River Falls, WI. We have finally driven through the snowstorm. We have counted numerous vehicles in the ditches or spun out. Every vehicle we passed has either been empty (Marked so by police) or already had emergency responders. Since help was already on the scene we did not feel the need to stop and possibly put ourselves into more peril.
2:10 PM (Approx) 02/14/08: Arrive at camp just northwest of Trego, WI. We made a 45-minute stop for lunch, gas and supplies. At this time there are only four other individuals at camp, neither my companion nor myself recognize any of them. We are staying in a cabin. There is a large fireplace and an electric furnace. ItÂ’s cold inside, but not as cold as outside. Things should warm up as time passes and more people arrive.
9:15 PM 02/14/08: Camp. Many more individuals have shown up, some of my friends from Illinois and other Company men. People have begun laying out trade items on the table. Much Alcohol is being consumed. The cabin is warming up some; the temps are probably in the 50s, which is comfortable with my clothing. Rumor has it that the temps are to drop down to –15 overnight and the High on Friday should be around 7 degrees.
10:00 AM 02/15/08: Camp. More people are arriving, including some that showed up in the middle of the night. New trade items are being set out. One of the guys that lives locally advised that the temps fell to –21 in Trego. They also speculated because we are in a hollow next to the lake that the temps at the cabin could have gotten as cold as –30. I slept comfortably with my wool blankets. I discovered that when using a porta-john in these temps that the urine can freeze to the side of the urinal before it has a chance to go into the tank. Also that no matter how many guys use it, the blue ice in the tank will not defrost. Also, after using the porta-john do not close the lid. The steam rising off of the excrement and urine can and will form ice on the seat and lid. They will sometimes freeze together. Also I’m not sure what temperature it is, but at a certain point a plastic toilet seat only gets so cold. It doesn’t matter how much colder the temps get, sitting on the seat after that point will still being just as uncomfortable as if it was another 20 degree colder.
9:00 PM 02/15/08: Camp. There are 48 bunks in this cabin and most of them are full. There is a second cabin that some of the members are sleeping in. They do not allow smoking in that cabin; originally I heard it referred to as the “non-smoking” cabin. I chose to stay in the main cabin because more people I knew were going to be there. Later on I learned that they actually refer to the second cabin as the “geriatric cabin” as most of the members that sleep there tend to be over the retirement age.
10:00 AM 02/16/08: Camp. I slept like crap last night. It was too warm in the cabin. Between the fire burning for 2 days, the electric heater and the amount of men in the area, I believe that the temps were in the mid to upper 60Â’s. It was so warm I had to kick off the wool blankets. In turn I would get chilled and have to recover. This cycle occurred all night long. Also the gentleman(?) in the bunk next to me had some of the most horrendous gas all night long. IÂ’m not sure what was worse, being woken up by the sound or the smell. More men have arrived and there are a lot of really nice items out on the trade tables.
Trade Table
4:10 PM 02/16/08: Camp. Company Meeting. My traveling companion and myself read the company charter at the opening of the meeting. Even though it wasnÂ’t said, IÂ’m pretty sure it was implied that we did it because only the French (My companion) and the Scots (myself) know how to read. I was able to see my friend and blogspawn Petey coronated as Bourgeois (BOOSH-way) of the ONW Co. Being a new member I sat back and observed the various members and how the interacted. There are some strong political undercurrents in this organization and some comments made during the meeting solidified observations IÂ’ve made in the past. If this isnÂ’t brought under control there could be potential serious ramifications to the company sometime down the road.
5:30PM (Approx) 02/16/08: Camp. Company Dinner. One of my friends, whom I shall call “Wind in his hair” or WIHH henceforth, was in charge of setting up the tables, place settings and serving food. He asked me earlier if I wouldn’t mind helping him out. It was a whirlwind of activity as the tables and settings were put into place. After dinner I was put back into service helping clean up and put stuff away. This included my cleaning of a large pot that they heated baked beans. Cleaning the pot using a scrub brush and bare hands in ice-cold water is not pleasant.
Dinner
7:00PM (Approx) 02/16/08: Camp. The company drew the numbers for the fundraising raffle. I purchased four tickets. I ended up winning a new copper mucket (Mug and bucket combined). IÂ’m really excited about this as I was going to purchase one of these anyway. It just saved me some money! After the raffle people were saying that bad weather was moving in and that it was going to start to snow again south of us starting at midnight. Some people that lived in Illinois left right way, others stayed.
3:00AM (Approx) 02/17/08: Camp. A lot of people were leaving to get a jumpstart on the long drive home. They did a good job of trying to be as quiet as possible for the rest of us that were still sleeping. If only they would have stopped slamming the screen door on the cabin. The nice thing about them leaving at that time is that the cabin was too warm for me to sleep again. With the door being left open it cooled down enough so that I could sleep under my wool blankets comfortably.
8:02 AM 02/17/08: Left camp, headed to local restaurant for breakfast and to use the bathroom. I didnÂ’t want to use a frozen toilet seat again today.
8:40 AM 02/17/08: Trego, WI. My companion and I left the restaurant hoping that the snow wouldnÂ’t be as bad.
9:23 AM 02/17/08: Chippewa Falls, WI. The snow has started. Upon calling Ktreva she advises that the storm will probably follow us the rest of the way home. The roads are getting slick and we see people sliding on a regular basis.
1:56 PM 02/17/08: Madison, WI. We stopped for lunch. We needed to get off of the road for a while. The weather has gone from bad to worse back to bad. We did take a 15-minute stop in Black River Falls for gas and drinks. Originally we thought we would be home by this time.
2:58 PM 02/17/08: I-90 at Stoughton Exit. The snow has turned to rain. WeÂ’ve never been so happy to see rain and just ice on the roads before. A small celebration was had in the vehicle. The vehicles in the ditches were much worse today than on Thursday. Today was say one truck flipped on itÂ’s side up by Tomah, WI and south of Madison there was a tanker truck that hand plowed into the median with two cars in the right hand ditch. We donÂ’t know what happened, but since we beat most of the emergency responders to the site, we know we just missed it.
4:05PM 02/17/08: Rockford, IL. Arrived home. The 5 and a half hour trip ended up taking seven and a half hours. Right as we pulled into the driveway, the snow started again. We must have caught up to and been just in front of the leading edge of the storm for the last hour.
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February 17, 2008
*Spent most of the drive up and back in a snowstorm
*Rumor is that the temps at the cabin reached -22 confirmed, -30 estimated.
*Port-A-Johns can and will freeze over.
*Urine can flash freeze.
*Don't volunteer to help a friend out with kitchen duty if you don't want to do dishes... in ice cold water... by hand.
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February 14, 2008
Needless to say I'm excited! See you all on Sunday.
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February 11, 2008
I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve.
I have a beer review I'm going to do on Wednesday that is very special. I'm not giving away anything about it, but lets just say it's probably the most historical beer I've ever reviewed.
I really have nothing else of value to talk about, I spent the afternoon chatting up Tammi down at Frtitz's. We talked about stuff and she told me that she thought it was a bad idea that I was leaving for my trip at 7:00AM on February 14th. I'm not sure why, and she really wasn't forth coming with details. I have the distinct feeling I'm forgetting something.
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January 07, 2008
I brought a ton of food with as I wasn't sure what the eating arrangements were, only to get there and find out that I really didn't need to. However, my contribution to the snack table of pepper cheese, pickled mushrooms and herring fillets in mustard sauce was much appreciated. And even though Will made fun of me for bringing a cutting board, they all sure seemed to use it, especially when slicing cheese.
Speaking of Cutting the Cheese. You stick that many mean in the same place all drinking beer, eating bean soup, pickled stuff, cheese and sausages at night you get a symphony of body noises. Holy crap! I would wake up in the night to hear everyone snoring, blowing arse or burping. Add to that the couple that talked in their sleep, it got a little unnerving. To hear someone mutter in their sleep, "Don't worry, it'll be over soon. It's not going to hurt" really creeped me out! I was rather happy I was sleeping with a knife.
Saturday night, reader and commenter Petey decided that his mission in life was to make my eyes water with his gaseous emanations. There are a couple of benches at the fort that aren't going to need to be sealed because he gave them a good shellacking with his arse juices. If that wasn't bad enough, most of the time I was sitting right next to him. There was a couple of times someone broke wind that I really wished I had no sense of smell.
It was a great time and we all had fun. The weather was warmer than I would have liked. I kid you not it hit the sixties on Sunday and was in the mid forties on Saturday. That warm weather melted all the snow turning the ground to mud. It really sucked. Plus I sleep better when it's colder.
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January 04, 2008
Right now IÂ’m getting ready to head out. IÂ’m pretty excited as I have a very bad case of the Rendeflu (The illness re-enactors get when they are long away from a re-enactment or Rendezvous). Which is pretty funny since itÂ’s been only two months since the Ball and two and a half months from my last re-enactment. Normally the Rendeflu doesnÂ’t hit me until February, usually right after the Super Bowl.
Now Ktreva and the boys aren’t joining me for various reasons. Ktreva’s biggest reasoning is that, “It’s cold and you’re insane for wanting to camp in this weather!” I on the other hand figure I’ll spend most of the time in the cabin, only leaving to use the out house. It’s the only time when you look forward to being the second person having to use it so the seat is warmed.
IÂ’ll be back on Sunday! DonÂ’t have too much fun.
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November 04, 2007
We ate a nice formal dinner, we danced, and we conversed with good friends and good people. Yes, I danced. I actually know some ballroom dancing. You'd be surprised what I know. Okay, I'm not good at it, but I know how. Some of the dances they did I didn't know, but they had an instructor there to teach us period dancing. It was a lot of fun and Ktreva looked spectacular.
Okay, so I wasn't exactly dressed too fancy. I did wear my great kilt, and was the only one there wearing a historically accurate kilt for the time period. Actually there were to guys there wearing skirts trying to pass them off as kilts. I groused about that a lot last night so I'm going to let it drop. I don't really own anything fancy for the time period we do, mainly because I don't portray anyone that would have fancy clothes. I did have to make a concession to Ktreva since I wouldn't buy fancy clothes to wear once, she got to wash my waistcoat. I've owned that waistcoat for 4 years and the last time I let her wash it was 3 years ago. I was trying for a period correct dirtiness to it. She washed it three times to get the smell out, but some of the dirt is still ground in.
We had a great time, in fact everyone did. As one of our table companions stated during the formal dinner, "This is like Prom, for re-enactors." That's true, except I enjoyed this and I liked the people I was with.
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October 22, 2007
To give you an idea of how bad that wind was at one point Ktreva was holding down the edge of the canvas as we tried to attach the large center ridgepole. A gust of wind came up and picked her up 2-3 feet off the ground. The owner in a panic said, “Hold down the canvas!” Ktreva replied, “It’s not that I’m not holding it down, It’s that it is picking me up!” She went through the same thing two other times on Thursday.
Friday was much of the same, only with an off and on light rain. Saturday was beautiful. Highs in the 70Â’s, lows in the 50Â’s with a gentle breeze and sun. Sunday was even warmer except the wind picked up a little. Nothing like what was on Thursday and Friday, I it gusted up to 15 mph.
I was sadly disappointed about one thing at this event. I brought two coolers filled with beer to this event. I started drinking on it Thursday night, Saturday night when all was said and done I still had about a third of my beer. I could not give the stuff away and I had good beer. Two growlers of Scottish Ale, two growlers of Black Walnut Stout, six bottles of DragonÂ’s Milk, 28 bottles of Edmund Fitzgerald, 2 bottles of Arcadia Ale Scotch Ale. The two growlers of Scottish ale, the arcadia Ale and 3 of the Edmund Fitzgerald didnÂ’t get drank. Except for 4 bottles of the DragonÂ’s Milk, maybe half a growler of the Walnut Stout and a couple of the Edmund Fitzgerald, I drank the rest. This was on top of hitting a bar Thursday night and an Irish Pub on Friday. I was so disappointed to have to dump all that good beer out.
Other then the lack of beer drinking I had a great time. A friend of mine that I havenÂ’t seen in 4 years because he moved to upper Minnesota actually came back for the weekend. It was great to hear him playing his pipes in camp. We have a piper that is with the local Ranger group and she does a fine job, but Jeremy is a master at the pipes and can really make beautiful music on them.
If you want to see some pictures from Fort Obie last weekend and Trail of History I have the reviews up over at the Spoon and Blade. I also finally got around to putting up the Galesburg Heritage Days review from last August up as well.
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October 15, 2007
After arriving we quickly staked out a spot and set up our wall tent. Since itÂ’s a colder weather event and Ktreva and Clone tend to get cold we had to bring the big tent and the heater. To be honest with the new blankets we have, we never used the heater, which means we could have brought the wedge, which means I would have been happier than carrying around our wall. Now donÂ’t get me wrong, I love the wall tent. But in the direction IÂ’m taking my re-enacting, less is more. I donÂ’t want the big camp anymore. I want the nice small compact camp.
Since my beer consumption has been cut back drastically I had a ton of left over beer from all of the reviews. I also happened to get my hands on a case of Dragon’s Milk. That’s right a case of it. I brought 6 of the 22 oz bottles with. Friday night as soon as we were set up and dressed in costume, I busted out the beer. I gave a bottle of Dragon’s Milk to frequent commenter and good friend Petey and a bottle to my good friend Will. Neither of them have had Dragon’s Milk before. They were pleasantly surprised by how good this beer is. Anyone they let take a drink tried to steal the bottle. Such comments were made as, “Dragon’s Milk, it’s rocket fuel for fat men!” Now I kept warning them too be careful, it has a high alcohol by volume. Will finished off his bottle, snagged a second one from me and I kid you not power slammed it. Later on Petey and I figured out that drinking one bottle of dragon’s milk is equivalent to 4 regular beers. Between the Dragon’s Milk, the Edmund Fitzgerald and all the other review beers, we had a damn good time Friday night, and to quote someone, “Contagion, you are a good man.”
The next morning as I leave my tent I’m greeted with, “Contagion, you are an evil, evil man!” Will and Petey were nursing some hangovers. Will lost a chunk of his life, including where he put his glasses. Petey started referring to Dragon’s Milk as “The Scaly Teat”. There were some other bleary eyed individuals walking around camp that would occasionally give me acknowledgement for their condition. I brought over 60 12 oz bottles of beer and 6 22 oz bottles of Dragon’s Milk. Saturday morning I had 10 12 oz bottles left. Other than the good natured ribbing I was getting for the hangovers, I’m pretty sure everyone that shared of the cooler appreciated it. In fact I know they did, I had a lot of people compliment me on the quality and range of beers I brought.
Saturday morning I participated in the black powder shoot. Yea, IÂ’m not going to go into much detail, but letÂ’s just say I didnÂ’t end up in last placeÂ… but not by much. They also had a tomahawk, knife, bow and fire building competitions. I didnÂ’t play in any of those, but I did watch and commentate.
After the competitions were over I had my final introduction for the Old North West Company (The O. N. W.). I had my first introduction at this event a year ago. At this meeting I was voted in and am now officially a “Company Man”. I’m actually pretty damn psyched about this. Once I decided it was something I wanted, I started to wonder if I would make it in or not. After the meeting my sponsor, Garrett gave me my medallion. This wasn’t just any medallion though, it was his. Apparently it was given to him by his sponsor and so he was giving it to me, which is really cool. These are a good group of guys and I’m proud of that fact that I can count myself among their numbers now. But I think all that beer from the night before played a part in me getting voted in.
After dinner that night they opened up the period tavern. You walk in and no modern equipment was in sight. Beer bottles and cans had to stay outside. Their was one exception made. I brought four growlers of Scottish Ale from Carlyle per a request from Will. So we passed those around. I had never seen growlers of beer disappear so fast in my life. Wes of Bodhran Roll, Please day tripped it in to sing songs and play music. ItÂ’s too bad he couldnÂ’t camp the night, I think he could have had a lot more fun AND been able to entertain us much later into the night. Unfortunately he had family obligations, and we all know how that goes.
All in all it was a great weekend. Good people, good friends, and just a lot of fun. I was able to get to know some people a bit better after this weekend. There were a ton of good conversations and jokes. People laughing and singing and just carrying along, good times. IÂ’m just sad that this very well will be the last re-enactment I will see them at until April. Most of the people at this event donÂ’t do Trail of History next weekend.
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02:23 PM
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October 12, 2007
Posted by: Contagion at
03:40 PM
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October 08, 2007
We have friends at each of these events that this will probably be the last time we see them until next year. It's sad that we don't get to see them that often, but it makes those weekends hanging out with them that much better.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go stare at the calendar and try to will the week to go by faster.
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August 20, 2007
Go over and see Shelagh MacKellan's as Ms. August 2007 and tell me that women don't get better with age.
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