Events 2010

• Gulf Wars
  March 14-21
  Meriedies
  Lumberton, MS (out of kingdom)
  Activies Include: everything and then some!
• Baron Wars
  May 7-8
  March of the Marshes
  Fort Meigs – Perrysburg, OH (YAH! back at the fort!)
  Activies Include: challenge course, challenge tourney, mock charge, procession, and maybe balsa jousting!
  Got to touch base with potential jousting folks on the balsa demo
• Tower by the Lake
  May 14-16
  Dernehealde
  Albany, OH
  EQUESTRIAN ACTIVITIES CANCELED –
• Crystal Chamfron
  June 25-27
  Barony of Shattered Crystal
  Wood River, IL
  Activies Include: unsure at this time
• Middle Kingdom Equestrian Collegium
  July 2-4
  Barony of Rivenstar
  Lafayette, IN
  Activies Include: unsure at this time, but it is class oriented and structured as a learning experience
• Siege of Talonvale
  July 9-11
  Shire of Talonvale
  Leslie, MI
  Activies Include: unsure at this time, but planning to make this a major mounted combat/jousting tourney
• Push for Pennsic – ???? Not sure about equestrian at this point ????
  July 16-18
  Barony of Flaming Gryphon
  Oregonia, OH
  as soon as I know the status for sure will update everyone
• Afternoon of Fun
  Oct 1-3
  Shire of Eastwatch
  Burton, Oh
  Activies Include: unsure at this time
• Fall Crown – ???? have no idea about equestrian at current ????
  Oct 30
  Barony of Sternfeld
  Tipton, IN
  I have only just been asked by the autocrat, will find out more in the coming weeks and update

On to day one of the war!  Day one of the war was really kind of boring to the non-initiated.  By that I mean to say, I was really finishing up the last of my preparations and meeting up with a lot of old friends.   For some I suppose such activities would be absolutely mind numbing.  And I suppose, in some ways that is the case for me as well.  But then again, part of what I am after is the mind numbing aspect of enjoyment that comes out of such activities for me that I do not typically get to experience in my regular day to day life.

The morning started off with a slow getting up and getting going.  I had prepped the week before by slowly cutting down the intake of coffee – a questionable period beverage, especially for the extreme western part of Europe I portray.  That being said, morning was not going to happen much with out at least a tasting of the beverage that Napoleon and I both agree, “Gives an advantage over our enemies.”  As my enemy in the morning was going to be burr removal from to heavily laden horses, I was going to need all the help I could get.

Easy enough after some coffee was found to start on the horses.  Jack had a heavy burr population in his mane and Angel’s tail was dense enough to be almost solid.  Jack’s mane being thicker was the reason of the burrs in his mane and not Angel, but I can not figure the tail.  Anyway, I started on Jack and it was going to be a chore.  Edmund (Chris) offered to work on Angel, his thought being the tail would be easier.  I had to agree with him given the amount of burrs in Jack’s mane.

After about an hour, maybe closer toward two, lots of baby oil, and some swearing over not having brought a proper mane comb, Jack was free of burrs.  Angel still had a few in her tail, but was quickly hitting the spot where it was getting cleaned out.  While there were a few piles of white mane hair from Jack, it is so thick you could hardly notice by looking at him.  As the last burrs come free of Angel though, the last foot of length on her tail basically fell off as well, coming free as well.  More is the pity on that score but an year from now and hopefully no one will be the wiser.

Next up was some intensive grooming, given the guys had been literally grabbed right out of the field.  Given the location to a much warmer climate in Mississippi then the wet and drear climate we left in Kentucky, there was a lot of shedding going on as well.  After another hour or so with the shedding blade it was time to get up and take each of them for a spin.

This was going to be either fun or something best approached with trepidation.  Neither had been ridden nearly enough over the winter and especially leading up to heading toward the war.  Both cold and wet weather combined with stolen saddles had kept me virtually away from riding the entire winter.  Jack has a history of almost always being a handful in general and especially the first ride after even a few weeks off.  Angel on the other hand had taken nearly a year off without any serious work and while I expected little from her, one can never be sure.

Edmund, knowing the history of Mad Jack Jouette (Jack’s full name) was so excited.  As he all but yelled in delight, he got out and set up his video camera to catch all the excitement.  It was with amazement that I the saddle was cinched without issue and with minimum assistance holding Jack, I swung up and leg over.  To my incredible amazement Jack was almost still.  At a little urging to move off though, he was ready to go and fast.  Still, nothing compared to the show I had expected to possibly give Edmund.  Really, his only issue was being even more herd bound with Angel then he was before – which was saying something consider his issue about it before.

After a good little ride off and about, I came back, switch out saddles and took Angel for a bit of small spin.  She was good as well, though a bit more herd bound then ever before as well.  After a short bit, Edmund agreed to take her out some more.  While he did that, I trimmed Jack’s feet up a bit.  I can do it, but I am way to fat to do it often.  My farrier friend had missed me the Saturday before though, and they needed at least some evening at the very least.  After a good rest, I finished up the afternoon with a hastily done trim on Angel, getting her fronts only and vowing to do the rear feet later.

At this point I was more then exhausted, very hot and sweaty, and well past being hungry.  We headed over to Phil’s Grill for some grub.  Phil’s is good part of my reason for returning to Gulf Wars, offering a delicious mix of foods, most of from the Mediteranian area.  I am always up for the gyro, with sauteed veggies (whatever is the choice of the day) and all the salad toppings a person could want.  It is not so much something to eat with hands, but rather a fork.  There are also options like grilled chicken, portabello mushrooms, dolmas, and much more.  It is an omnivores dream of delectable tastes and has been my personal meal plan the last two wars and always a special treat even before that.

I think somewhere in there we checked out a large portion of the vendors.  I managed to stay with in my budget constraints and not go crazy.  I think Edmund picked up some rattan though.  I did note a few things I would have to look into in more depth later in the week.

Upon return to near to camp, the processional meeting was upon us.  For those that do not know the Known World (as it is called in the SCA) is divided into kingdoms.  Each kingdom has royalty, selected through marshal prowess and winning a tourney.  Typically it is a King and Queen, currently reigning as well as heirs, having won the right to reign next.  At this war, usually all of them mount up on horses and process through the populace, prior to the war officially beginning.  At the end, they each declare which principal kingdom with which they shall align.  Lots of pomp and such, but a lot of exposure for the horses and those of us doing that part of things too.

Jack and Angel were going to be separated.  Something I had not thought about before, but they both have the issues with herd bound being but the two now.  So, that was something look forward to in the morning.  Jack was going to have His Highness of the Middle.  Angel was looking like Her Majesty from Aethelmarc.  They both went for a practice ride to get a feeling of things and we talked about the barding and such and how things would work in the morning.  It all went well.

Later, we walked around site, hooking up with some old friends and running into a few folks that I had spoken to for sometime without having met in person.  We got word on a couple of parties, some of which were literally walking around, to occur later in the week so that was a good bit of information.  A chill was in the air though and after some thought about the long hard day, a plan to turn it was hatched.  A last check on the horses and a turn in was in order.

* – picture of His Highness in the procession, credit to Jennifer Dudley!

** – a few picture galleries are planned to be added at the end, credit to several people.

*** – I wish I could have taken pictures, but even when I am not fighting or riding, I marshaling or something and lo, though I had a camera, it never made it out of the bag in which it was packed.  I suck!

The King was about to start the Curia Meeting.

While waiting for the coffee machine to finish brewing, His majesty decided to pose a question to all assembled.

He explained that the Queen had been a bit frisky the night before and he failed to get his usual amount of sound sleep.

He posed the question of just how much of sex was “work” and how much of it was “pleasure?”

A Pelican chimed in with 75-25% in favor of work.

A Laurel said it was 50-50%.

A Knight responded with 25-75% in favor of pleasure, depending upon his state of inebriation at the time.

There being no consensus, the King turned to the squire who was in charge of making the coffee and asked, “Well, squire, what do YOU think?”

Immediately, the squire responded, “Sire, it has to be 100% pleasure.”

The King, surprised, asked “Why do you say that?”

Without missing a beat, the squire shot back, “Well, your majesty, if there was any work involved at all, my knight would have me doing it for him.”

* – Image I have no idea who or where, but I originally searched for squire polishing armour to no avail…

The day all started at around 4:30 in the morning.  Actually, I may have snoozed once as that was a bit early for even me.  But I got up, finished loading the things sitting all about the floor and room (especially by the door) into the truck.  After a few last minute packing of items, that last couple of things were just thrown on top, knowing they would have to be re-arranged at stop three.  Cooler was grabbed and away were to stop two.

Stop two was the office, where the lances and a few pieces of new armour had been shipped.  Given that I have been in the middle of a temporary move I had left it there to keep it out of the way.  Nothing like stopping at the office in the early AM as vacation is beginning only to grab things and be on my way.

Step three was the farm where the trailer and horses were located.  Also had a few items there as well and of course some amount of the hay (what was not already in the truck).  What fun it is to get everything hitched up, the stuff that could not get wet moved from off the top of the truck into the trailer tack compartment, hay all arrange and covered, and all in the pitch dark of a cloudy and trying to mist early morning.  All of that done, next up was locating the horses in the same quickly becoming soupy environment.  And of course would they dream of coming at a call?  No, it was a hike to the very back and entice them a lot to get them in halters.  Shipping boots were on without to much fuss, but I recall I had two on upside down in the dark that had to be redone before actually loading the guys.  Loading was a chore to be sure, new trailer only has escape door on one side and later I figured out the guys like a direct lead for loading, not from the side.

Once on, doors closed and locked, time to met Chris as we were going to caravan down together.  Meeting location is twelve minutes away, maybe fifteen with horses.  I need air in two trailer tires and a truck tire to boot, and the time I gave him thinking I would be plenty early is eight minutes away.  The horses took way to long to load and now I am regretting that snooze to boot.  Well fortunate or not, Chris/Edmund missed the exit, drove ten miles down and ten miles back and we arrived at almost the same time – though we had not said a specific service station at the exit and I drove past it looking for him.  Regardless, restroom, pour of coffee (from the thermos that had been made prior to leaving home) and away we went.

Four stops and ten hours later we arrived at the site, King’s Arrow Ranch outside of Lumberton, Mississippi.  Actually including the time from pumping a tank of gas at each stop as well as giving the horses about a thirty minute break somewhere along the way it was probably a tad over eleven hours.  Regardless, we trolled in to site, which took a bit of time, but not as bad as it could have been given the time we arrived.  We meandered our way to the equestrian barns, which are almost opposite of the front gate, checked in the horses and unloaded them.  It was turnout for them once unbootet while we went to set up camp.  Edmund decided to camp up with equestrian given that no one else was on site he knew yet and so we just used the one tent, getting it up just as darkness fully descended.   An aside:  I think next year I will camp in the Mid-Realm annex with the Stalgheist group.  Kind of be the first on and mark off the area but also be more connected with what is going on with folks I know and such as that.  I also think it would take down the angst I feel over the very modern stuff throughout the equestrian camping area.

Some arranging of camp followed, but how much of that can you do in the dark?  Also had to get the guys stalls all set up and put them away for the night.  As there were about three things I needed from town and several that Edmund needed, we might a late run back to civilization, having missed it on the way down by some freak event and my cell phone being MIA.  Oddly the Wal-Mart there was getting town apart for the same renovations the local one here in Danville is undergoing that very eve.  Finding my three items was a challenge beyond need.

A stop for some quick food and back on site.  Some discussion ensued about maybe wandering around a bit but reality was it was dark, fairly late, and the pillows were more the calling.  Submersion into, at least for me, the 14th century would be complete when I awoke the next morning.

* – Not sure who did the collage, but I like it!  Kudos to you if you happen by here!

I suppose because of the sheer volume of the number of such books made and lack of really anything new or profound in them, while some are pricey, for the most part they are not excessively out of range.  For instance, the page above, one of the more extravagant that I have seen was priced less the $1000 and I have seen several actually sold in the $100-150 range, especially with less artwork.  My point with that pricing is it is not completely out of my own range and I have thought about acquiring a few of these beautiful works.

My thoughts run something like this, they are for sale.  I like them.  I like the period in general.  I am  likely never going to be able to afford a piece of armor or something from the period.  Clearly not something museums are very interested in given the volume of them already in museums and the lower prices indicate if they wanted they would pursue them.

But then the thing that stopped me before, was as it was pointed out to me by a friend, with a major in historic preservation – something is being destroyed in the process and spread to the winds.  Namely the book from which the pages are taken.  Of course, reality is I suspect in most cases the pages were taken from the books years ago.   But then there is the question of the ones that maybe are not already apart and by making such a purchase is there a promotion of such defiling behavior?  Does it make the next person who finds one in grandma’s attic decide to carefully remove the pages one by one?

And then my thoughts turn to I would care for it and cherish and probably leave it with some organization that would display it on my ultimate demise.  And I also think that if I saw a complete prayer book at a price I could afford that would be a good thing instead, of course the likelihood of that is pretty slim, both based on what I have seen and probably because of just the fact the price point of individual pages leads to easier sales over an entire book.  And that furthers the argument against single pages.

Anyway, just curious from those of you out there and what your thoughts on the matter are?

** – page from a Book of Hours, circa 15th century, listed on eBay several weeks ago

Do not get me wrong, I think Roy Cox is a great guy.  We have never actually met, but we have several mutual friends.  And further I think a lot of what he and the other folks say is on target.   However, there are a lot of things that were left out or glossed over.

A couple of examples.  There is absolutely no mention about some of the lighter jousting that takes place, which is often a great training ground for the folks that have an interest but may not have the full gumption to take it on beyond that or even lack the funding that would be required to do things at that level.

Another thing that Roy mentions is you have to be a start out being a squire and work up to participate.  While I will agree that feudal times were very much like that, I would say that there are plenty of people who have a good seat on horseback long before their adult life brings them to jousting.  I would further say that many of those folks have an ability to take things to that level fairly quickly with minimum training.    Note I am not saying that everyone can do that – matter of fact most indeed can not and the folks that have a good seat on a horse further reduces that set of folks.

Last thing I will take issue with is the comment that all modern jousters take on the name and such of actual people from period.  While I know that particular group does indeed do that, certainly to say ALL is far to a wide a net.  I know in some groups I use my preferred, and documented to have been correct for the period, medieval name of Raynold of Wharram.  He is not based on any actual historical figure though, as I do not think I could really do a lot of those folks actual justice.  And in a lot of groups including another I do things with, I am just Sir Ray – my plain ol’ modern mundane name.  Both use my own colors and coat of arms when I am jousting and you can readily recognize me on the field by those.

Anyway, just a couple of minor exceptions, all in all I am glad to see our sport getting some exposure in the press and no hard feelings to anyone involved.  For your own pleasure, here is a link to the story and a video snippet is included – American Jouster on NPR.

** – photo courtesy of Jacki Lyden, via NPR website

It use to be on back in the not so long ago time period of when I was purposefully living without a television set (or least with no real access to any real sustainable decent connect) when I would visit somewhere I would immediately flip to see what was on the history channel.  Usually this would result in my being drawn into to epic history of real substance,  a good historically set movie or at the very least something that aired originally in a different format that had been adapted to something for the network.   Today, my situation finds me with a television system that readily gets the network and it is only out of extreme boredom that I even bother to check what the listings are on the History network.

Ice Road Truckers, Ax Men, MonsterQuest & especially Life After People are shows that have been on in prime time no less in the last year.  None of those shows really has anything to do at all with history in way.  Most of them are some kind of adaptation of reality shows that the History Channel clearly feels it needs to do in order to be competitive, but in so doing, it has diluted and in my opinion alienated the very folks that made the network viable to begin.   Life After People actually takes the idea of history to the absurd and looks to the future, sometimes millions of years, at what will happen if people suddenly died off in some sort of cataclysm disaster.

I have wondered more then a few times just exactly what happened?  It started occurring well before the current economic downturn, but maybe the cost of making decent historical documentary or dramas was just to expensive.  It is clearly a lot cheaper to catch a few people working on some task over and over in repetition and edit until only the highlights of things going wrong, such as a crane dropping a log or catching on fire – and then follow this up with anxiety on the part of the people involved to top it off nicely.

I have also thought that maybe they have exhausted all the things historical that would be a worth to a audience and given that they only have the dregs left they need to explore other options until some new slant on all of history comes along that they can explore.   Who are we kidding though, there are a million years of history and few million events that could be explored in the relatively short time period of recorded history.

And recently, after seeing the very nice job Ken Burns did with the a huge mini-series on PBS about the National Parks.  I have to dismiss both of those.  He took something that had not been addressed before, at least to my knowledge, and worked from its beginning right up to the modern day in a series that resulted in maybe ten hours of viewing time.  It was beautiful, enriching, and HISTORICAL.  Further, if you break up into one hour slots, including the few extras that were not aired, but on the web and you have an entire season.

No, I really think they have split out into about five networks, like Military History, History International, and so on.  As they have done this have watered things down and stretched to thin.  So know, occasionally there is still some good history on the History Channel, but it so far and few in between making the effort to find is hardly worth it.

So to anyone on the history channel that may be listening, please change things back to a historical perspective.  And hey, if you want to have a reality show about axe-men logging, that is fine.  Just require that they use only what tools were available to loggers in say, the mid-1800′s and give it a nice competitive flair from that perspective.  Take it a step further and go after my own personal preference – reality show that focuses on training school for medieval warriors, or knights if you will.  Have a serious a competitions from the competitors along the way and culminate in a grand tournament that includes actual jousting!

** – Image from the History Channel

For those that are wondering, the main characters end up in some trouble after one them kind of looses it.  After jacking up on something equivalent to Red Bull or Rock Stars (my personal favorite of that genre of beverage), they end up in trouble and faced with jail or mentoring troubled kids in a court monitored and approved program.  Of course the fact that the two are still basically juvenile rejects and not really suited as role models is what forces the comedic element.

Now of particular interest to me, beyond the usual comedy that one could have expected was that one of the kids played in a group that appeared to be some sort of LARP group.  Oh, for those that do not know, LARP is Live Action Role Play group.  Still have no clue, well they run around with usually padded swords (called boffers) and in pretend to be epic fighters and possibly mad magicians or even mythological creatures.  Most LARPS have rules and incorporate some sort of element of chance to determine the outcome of battles.  This particular one was more like the SCA or even jousting, where the armor you were wearing and the blows landed  determined the outcome of an engagement.   Don’t worry if you do not follow, just think geeks.  Lots of geeks as a matter of fact, all of whom are running around in funny clothing and shouting out challenges and waving a sword and sheild around in appropriate armourial (coat of arms) colors.  So geeky in fact that most can not function in real life.  God I am so glad I do not do anything like that!

Well, that is exactly what I was thinking on the drive home from the theater.  I bet most people from the outside that hear I do jousting and participate in the SCA think that is exactly what is is like.  And sure enough, I asked my friend if she thought that is what I did and if I was that geeky to her?  She smiled, laughed, and nodded a polite yes.

In my mind somehow it is different, but I truly recognize myself in that movie somehow at the same time.  Well, regardless, you can probably still catch the movie at the cheap theatres if you have such in your area and if not it will hit DVD and pay-per-view in probably about another thirty days.  And to all my friends that participate with me in such things, well I apologize, but we are probably a bit on the borderline of that level of geekiness, especially to an outsiders view point.  Now, I am off to slay some dragons, er. . . put some computer stuff in order.

** Originally published on Mephistos on 8th of January 2009

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Anyway, I am getting distracted. I am sitting here, once again preparing for my journey to the southern Mississippi for the annual event called Gulf Wars, this being I believe the 5th one that I will attend in twice as many years as I only make it bi-annually. I find it interesting that I am currently planning on leaving on Friday after work and the most recent forecast has it snowing, with some accumulation on the grassy areas and elevated surfaces for late Thursday evening/early Friday morning. Interesting, as I am pretty sure the last two times I have gone, leaving from here in Kentucky it has snowed or been snowing when horses were being loaded for departure.

It is with a huge amount of, well busted flat, that I note I will not be taking the horses this year. The first in my years of attending the event that I will not have a trusty hooved companion with me. Over the years, I have always taken a horse for myself and in all the previous years I have also had a traveling companion and hence took Angel. My horse over the years has been one of three different ones, S.D. (Special Dark), Dusty (Carbon’s Gold Dust), and Jack (Mad Jack Juett) – but Angel has always been there. I feel like Fatus Obscuros is striking again, which I have been told could roughly mean ‘the Gods will otherwise.’

This year it will be different. After purchasing a truck and getting things ready with back in January and up through February, including putting a braking control package on it and after searching and not finding a trailer, instead almost begging to borrow one, on Saturday past when hauling the trailer to do some repairs, my truck quit. It was a big time quit too, the engine seized. It may not be obvious to everyone, but seized engines do not get repaired quickly and are very expensive to replace on top of that.

So that brings me to not going or going down in the car without horses. That is kind of tough, given the extra money I know that will be required to fix the truck upon my return if I do attend. It is even worse though, as I am suppose to be early on event staff and be around the barns during the early part of the week for horses arriving. Further, I was running the big event, the emprise and hauling down the equipment that has been amassed over the years. That will not happen. Matter of fact, I am having an overwhelming feeling with just thinking about packing armour, clothing, and the big tent in my seemingly big enough four door (mini) sedan.

Anyway, hopefully I will figure it out on the morrow with some testing of getting the stuff in the car, as I have decided as of right now I am still planning on going. I am not going to hold out for getting to ride at all though I do have a couple of friends and maybe I will get to hack out a horse at some point over the week. I do feel like it important to uphold my obligations to my friends though in regards to the things I agreed to do if at all possible and will make sure that happens. I am sure that I will enjoy the new found joys of the heavy combat melee’s and at some point or another when folks I know are enjoying a good equestrian competition, especially like the joust or heavy mounted combat, I will feel just about the way Kristofferson when he hers Janice sing his song on the radio – happy for her, but yet just a tinge of busted flat over the whole deal.

First post here on Eligius as a blog, where I intend to start with blogging my medieval activities during this coming campaign season.  I may start with blogging from Gulf Wars.  Eventually I will get galleries of pictures and some video posted up here as well, and expect some additional awesome things in the near future on the site, maybe an eventaul restoration of the original forum discussions, which had some good information included.