A quick note, my trip up to the site after not having felt well most of the day was not the best in the world either.  Combine feeling ill with a horse pulling during loading and putting a good rope burn on my hand and allow two hours of sitting in traffic on the interstate not hardly moving (four miles in two hours) to allow it all to settle well and you get the idea.  Combine that with my good friend Edmund having a blow out and being hours behind me, at least until I was stuck in traffic and you get some idea of my thinking it was going to be a bad weekend.  I should have known better.  We arrived to stalls already made up, water in the buckets and in general very well set.

Saturday we started the day with some breakfast and much needed coffee.  There was some general discussion between folks present but classes did not start until yours truly got going at 9:00am, with a welcome and given a state of affairs for the Equestrian College.  I figured I would be thirty minutes and have a few questions.  After the first hour and only being half way through the notes, Peitre graciously bowed out of one class to allow me to continue.  The discussion on several issues was really good and general nature of the questions said to me such a sit down discussion from dean to marshalate is needed on regular basis.

During this time it was open riding to participate in whatever games and practicing that anyone wanted to do.  Apparently the classes and especially discussion through out was so interesting that everyone seemed to have forgotten about the riding.  Up next was a discussion about the balsa wood jousting experiment, that again I headed up, as I wanted to get that out there in front of everyone.  There was a good sharing of equipment and much discussion that followed.  Much gratitude to Edmund for his insightful comments during this session as well.  I do apologize for regrettably never getting to the jousting demo by the way – there were several issues.  First, balsa to make tips arrived late, though it could have been worked around.  Lonesome (the newer horse) is a bit green about it and Angel (the backup) came up lame Saturday afternoon).  Hopefully everyone will make it to Siege next weekend and get to see some of it.

During the afternoon, I personally got in some riding on Jack and he was being his usual high strung self, made all the worse by his extreme herd bound attachment to Angel.  Once I got him going at the games good a few times we slacked off and let him have off (at this point, thinking we may do jousting later or on Sunday morning sometime).  I got back over for some of a class on elegant attire for your war horse.  Some of it looked really good and I would love to get my chamfron/crinets finished up.  I have inspiration now.

I don’t recall what order things occurred in next, but I know there was a class on the history of the warhorse which was well done and something else that I am failing to recall now.  Later, several headed out for a trail ride around the farm, which is where Angel showed up lame.  As Jack was having such issues I felt this was a strong suggestion I should not make this trail ride.

I think there may have been another class in there, but I was beat and went to have dinner and get some refreshment.  Later, toward dusk, we were entertained His Excellency, The Baron, playing his guitar and singing.   A bottle was passed a few times and after moving to a bonfire as stories starting to come out the bottle was passed a few more times.

Sunday morning we awoke and after a hot breakfast and more coffee (seeing a theme?) we heading over to do some games practice, get some pointers, and work on getting some folks authorized.  All went extremely well and we now have three new riders in the kingdom.  If you see them, a hoo-bah for Enkara of Darkhorse, Patrick von Brandenburg, and Sir Jasper of the Lakes.  Additionally, during the Sunday morning time frame I wrapped up the testing for two new marshals and hoo-bah is also in order for Erelwin Sarpo & Azzah bing al Bardawi al Murabbiyyah al Rualliyyah (yeah, that is just two names).  Congratulations are in order to all!

I was seriously thinking of heading out after lunch on Sunday, but Patrick’s two session class on historical mounted combat techniques was too much for me to pass up in the end.  I stuck around to see that and it was very interesting.  I was proud of that moment when asked about left to left passes and I was able to cite that in Germany some styles in late period with full breastplates were right shoulder passes at tilt.  The class was very interested and the mobile wooden mounts (very similar to some illuminations I have seen) added a lot to the class.  I still have a doubt or two about a couple of moves working when at speed (even the trot) but will explore that at another time.

Again, if you missed it this year you should put it on your calendar for next year right now!  Truly a great event, even with traffic issues and lack of jousting due to lame horse.

First up is a coat of plates based on one of the Wisby patterns of the same name.  This one is black with green trim.  Plates are made of plastic barrel and the covering is a heavy black duck cloth (or something very similar).  Rivets are the copper rivets with a leather washer beneath on the front side and copper rivet on the back.  The leather gives a good look and helps keep the rivet edge from cutting or pulling through the fabric very easily.  It is sized for approximately a 44 inch chest with 4 inches of adjustment either way, maybe 6 in the bigger direction.  I am listing this on the armour archive as an auction with a minimum bid of $25.00, but accept bids here as well.

Second up is  a bag of loose 9mm flat rivets.  This is the full 2.5 kilogram package similar to what is offered commercially for $75.00. I got these for a project and have decided my time is better spent just purchasing things already assembled.  This bag is unopened and would be great for repairs or your own project.  Again, running as an auction with minimum bid of $25.00.

Both auctions will run until Saturday, June 26th.

[Show as slideshow]

Immediate Upcoming Events:

Crystal Chamfron – Not Just Horsin’ Around is coming up first.  The event is out on the western edge of the kingdom and will be occurring June 25-27.  I went out last year and had a blast.  The group out there is very enjoyable company and very good competition as well.  (I would go again this year, but Border Raids is the same weekend and I think I should make an appearance as it is just down the road.

Middle Kingdom Equestrian Symposium is a few weeks after that over the 4th of July weekend (July 2-4).  A new idea and one I am totally behind.  It will be a day of classes both mounted and dismounted covering a variety of things regarding SCA equestrian.  I have not seen a complete list of classes, but I know that it includes some basics of getting your horse reading for an event to what is involved in becoming and equestrian marshal.  I have just this evening cleared my schedule to attend the event and I will be present a class or two myself (at this point I am do not know if it will be with horses in tow or not).  Regardless, I encourage everyone to make it out and it is in a very central location near Lafayette, Indiana.

The following weekend of July 9-11 will see the equestrians at the Siege of Talonvale.  The last couple of years the focus has been jousting due to the attendees having that as a primary interests.  I will be the equestrian marshal for the event and would love to do some of the more traditional games if there are those attending that will have horses and are interested.  Additionally, we will be doing a balsa wood joust demonstration/tournament, the newest experimental activating allowed to us SCA equestrians.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• I am getting access to the page that you land on if you click equestrian on the new (and improved) Midrealm website.  I will only have a few short pieces of information there and still point things to our primary webpage (which will hopefully be found more often that way).
  
• There is going to be a slight schedule change on the reporting for marshals coming in the near future.  Expect it move up by a couple of weeks, as my superiors need reporting information before I am getting myself.  I will be conferring with regional and senior marshals about this shortly.
• Speaking of which, at the symposium I would like to met with all marshals attending for about thirty minutes at some point.  We can work this out from a time perspective in the near future.  Just know I am looking forward to that.
• I look forward to seeing everyone in the near future at one of the events listed above or some other event that we have such an opportunity for otherwise.
  

Having recently gotten mostly settled into a new residence, I have managed to get my things (yeah, my things – your stuff) in one location for the first time in three years.  Probably more than you want to know, but in the process of that, it is all in one building instead spread out over four of five like it was before.  Anyway, this has allowed me to get my books all in the same relative location as well.  While I am liking bookshelf space for all of them at this point, it is giving the opportunity to re-read a few select scholarly medieval works that I greatly appreciate.

I was immediately drawn to the Hundred Years War time frame and more specifically, Henry V and Agincourt.  Largely because it is this immortalized battle from Shakespeare that more than anything else lead me to my passion for medieval reenacting in general.  My first selection for rereading is Agincourt by Juliet Barker (another inspiration with her collaborative work on Tournaments with Richard Barker).

Before even getting to the text, in the preface and notes I was struck by a notion.    She explains about translating to modern English the Latin, older English phrasing and especially the Medieval French.  She follows this up by also noted that the fractional units of the pound are retained, instead of the decimal amounts used today, including things such the pence and even the crown, noble, and mark.  What in particular struck me though was the compared value.

According to the Office for National Statistic (England?), a pound of 1415 would equate to 414 pounds in 1999.  I figure that has to be pretty close to the same amount today, given the heated economy and subsequent rapid decline in the last ten years.   So, do a little thinking about that and consider the typical that we expect on investments today.  For instance, most of my 401K stuff brings about historically (20-30 years) averaging something close to 10%. The stock market historically (100+ years) averages about 10% for investors putting in and holding).

Doing a little rounding to make it all simple, assuming an average return of 10%, compounding only once annually a 1 pound investment 500 years ago would yield 496,984,196,731,243,500,000 pounds today.   If we get rid of compounding though we would hit only 51 pounds.  And while this seems so much smaller, it is much closer to the actual gain of roughly 400.

Really makes me stop and wonder if we are being honest with our compounding (overall and in general, not necessarily specific).  It also makes me wonder what criteria was used to reach that 414 pound amount by the National Office of Statistics.  Lastly, makes me realize that investment in art and armour would have been a much better investment 500 something years ago then just putting the money in the bank so to speak.

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!

• pay up and get storage unit contents
• purchase tent (Panther Regency?)
• make/check tent poles for tent, along with ropes
• purchase horse trailer(?)
• clean armour
• restrape armour
• blue armor (puchase of tank/torch)
• organize armour packaging
• redo cloasure on bar grill  basinet
• roll front edges on vambraces (trim down a bit?)
• repair/fix guantlets
• nix padding for padded liner (period style) both helms
• purchase aventail/camails X2 and install
• ? of voiders and skirt or habergon – looks like habergon is right
• jupon or arming coat
• spiff up some garb
• make a new piece or two of garb (better stuff)
• order chuasses and braies
• use above to pattern a few more
• order turn shoes
• make chamfron and crinit (w/ eye protection)
• get saddles/tack out, clean and oil
• get bottles for cordial
• bottom cordial (simple syrup 2:1?)
• labels for cordial?
• ride a bunch on Jack and some on Angel
• fix one suitcase
• make a choice about 1350-60 versus 1390-1400?
• make a sheild, heater curved opposite (jousting)
• make side/back plates for churburg #13, strap, use…

I used the graphic above because I am pretty sure that I if I do one thing a day I will be pretty close to completion by the time GW rolls around.  Keep in mind the list is kind of crude at this point, like garb for instance needs to be broke down more into what specifically are goals for the war and listed out separately.

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