Back from War
I had a GREAT time at Estrella War the past few days.
Wednesday morning early, I finished erecting the pavillion tent in my backyard, and mocking it up to make sure that it would work as a decent shelter for the duration, and discovered that the walls were short by about a foot... So I ran inside the house and stitched together a door panel to fill the space, and then some.
Then I started packing it all up and got ready to leave for Arizona.
Having to sew together that door made me about 2 hours later than I had planned, so I arrived at the site just after dark. I managed to find the Barony of Calafia's encampment and spent the next 3-4 hours putting my tent together in the dark, and making my bed, then parking my Jeep. Then I spent about an hour chatting around the fire and turned in for the evening.
It was overcast, so it didn't get too cold, but there was mud everywhere from the previous 2 days rain. In fact, most attendees were double-parked on the hard-pack roads because the general parking areas were swamped, and if you didn't have 4WD, you'd get stuck pretty good.
Because of this, I was able to park my Jeep (which is 2WD, but has traction control) in the Caid Royals' parking area, since none of them were going to attempt it with their vehicles. It was fairly close to camp, unlike some people who were parked 1/4-mile away.
Thursday morning, I brought my Jeep back over to the campsite and finished unloading, adjusting the tent now that I could see things in daylight, and parked back at the primo spot that only a Jeep could love.
Wow... this site is huge! Lots of Merchants, so I was able to pick up a lot of Garb... I even ordered a custom pair of boots, but that merchant was saying that today's orders were shipping in August because of his backlog. He's highly recommended, though, so I bought them anyways. He makes a duct-tape cst of your foot to make sure the boot fit perfectly.
My friend Kathryn was there with her piratey things and hand-puppets for sale. Jim Groat was there selling the same old shirts and drawing "fursona's" for people... and of course, complaining about not being able to pay the printer unless he sells 140 shirts and is only up to 8 on thursday.
The food court was decent, and I discovered the Root Beer vendor who sells nifty period-looking bottles with rubber stoppers for $5 and $8, and refills are only $1 forever. Yay Root Beer! Because of this, I didn't use many of the sodas I brought with me.
Thursday night was the coldest. The skies cleared up and the temperature dropped fast. By dawn, there was a thick layer of frost on everything. I woke up several times through the night shivering and thinking to myself "that's the first stage of hypothermia, isn't it?". I was covered up well, but my CPAP was sucking in cold air and chilling me from the inside out. A few minutes with the mask off got rid of the shivering, but that repeated a few times through the night.
Thursday night, I put the propane heater inside the pavillion tent. I figured it was drafty enough that there was little chance for Carbon-monoxide build-up. It worked well, and I slept very cozy Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.
On Saturday, I found out that my Work wants to send me to DC for 2/21-2/26 to setup a war room for an upcoming trial and operate the presentation in court. Wow. Plans can change fast, can't they?
I decided that I was going to go home Sunday night instead of Monday morning, so that I'd have today (monday) free to take care of things I was going to do the following weekend... such as loading the Art Show flats onto my trailer for ConDor. Hopefully, (since I don't know if I will be back in time for ConDor's setup) I can park the full trailer at the hotel the week before, and then it can be unloaded and setup in my absence if needed.
I also missed a call from my Brother while I was at war. "When are you coming back so I can unload my truck? I have more avacado wood for you, how much do you want?" I texted him back saying I'll take all you've got.
I love working with Avacado wood... but little did I know that my reply meant that he was going to fill up both his truck and large trailer with giant logs of Avacado wood and fill up a 20x10 area in my backyard with it, piled 5-feet high. Some of those logs take 3 people to move!
I certainly wont run out of Avacado wood anytime soon. I wish I had more time to work it, though. I'm thinking March and April will be prime woodworking months... getting ready for Potrero War in May, when I'll be merchanting again.
Speaking of which, I took lots of pictures of items in various merchant booths that would be easy to make and have for sale in my booth. I hope I have enough time before Potrero to stock up.
Pictures will be posted later, when I've had time to download them from my camera.
Wednesday morning early, I finished erecting the pavillion tent in my backyard, and mocking it up to make sure that it would work as a decent shelter for the duration, and discovered that the walls were short by about a foot... So I ran inside the house and stitched together a door panel to fill the space, and then some.
Then I started packing it all up and got ready to leave for Arizona.
Having to sew together that door made me about 2 hours later than I had planned, so I arrived at the site just after dark. I managed to find the Barony of Calafia's encampment and spent the next 3-4 hours putting my tent together in the dark, and making my bed, then parking my Jeep. Then I spent about an hour chatting around the fire and turned in for the evening.
It was overcast, so it didn't get too cold, but there was mud everywhere from the previous 2 days rain. In fact, most attendees were double-parked on the hard-pack roads because the general parking areas were swamped, and if you didn't have 4WD, you'd get stuck pretty good.
Because of this, I was able to park my Jeep (which is 2WD, but has traction control) in the Caid Royals' parking area, since none of them were going to attempt it with their vehicles. It was fairly close to camp, unlike some people who were parked 1/4-mile away.
Thursday morning, I brought my Jeep back over to the campsite and finished unloading, adjusting the tent now that I could see things in daylight, and parked back at the primo spot that only a Jeep could love.
Wow... this site is huge! Lots of Merchants, so I was able to pick up a lot of Garb... I even ordered a custom pair of boots, but that merchant was saying that today's orders were shipping in August because of his backlog. He's highly recommended, though, so I bought them anyways. He makes a duct-tape cst of your foot to make sure the boot fit perfectly.
My friend Kathryn was there with her piratey things and hand-puppets for sale. Jim Groat was there selling the same old shirts and drawing "fursona's" for people... and of course, complaining about not being able to pay the printer unless he sells 140 shirts and is only up to 8 on thursday.
The food court was decent, and I discovered the Root Beer vendor who sells nifty period-looking bottles with rubber stoppers for $5 and $8, and refills are only $1 forever. Yay Root Beer! Because of this, I didn't use many of the sodas I brought with me.
Thursday night was the coldest. The skies cleared up and the temperature dropped fast. By dawn, there was a thick layer of frost on everything. I woke up several times through the night shivering and thinking to myself "that's the first stage of hypothermia, isn't it?". I was covered up well, but my CPAP was sucking in cold air and chilling me from the inside out. A few minutes with the mask off got rid of the shivering, but that repeated a few times through the night.
Thursday night, I put the propane heater inside the pavillion tent. I figured it was drafty enough that there was little chance for Carbon-monoxide build-up. It worked well, and I slept very cozy Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.
On Saturday, I found out that my Work wants to send me to DC for 2/21-2/26 to setup a war room for an upcoming trial and operate the presentation in court. Wow. Plans can change fast, can't they?
I decided that I was going to go home Sunday night instead of Monday morning, so that I'd have today (monday) free to take care of things I was going to do the following weekend... such as loading the Art Show flats onto my trailer for ConDor. Hopefully, (since I don't know if I will be back in time for ConDor's setup) I can park the full trailer at the hotel the week before, and then it can be unloaded and setup in my absence if needed.
I also missed a call from my Brother while I was at war. "When are you coming back so I can unload my truck? I have more avacado wood for you, how much do you want?" I texted him back saying I'll take all you've got.
I love working with Avacado wood... but little did I know that my reply meant that he was going to fill up both his truck and large trailer with giant logs of Avacado wood and fill up a 20x10 area in my backyard with it, piled 5-feet high. Some of those logs take 3 people to move!
I certainly wont run out of Avacado wood anytime soon. I wish I had more time to work it, though. I'm thinking March and April will be prime woodworking months... getting ready for Potrero War in May, when I'll be merchanting again.
Speaking of which, I took lots of pictures of items in various merchant booths that would be easy to make and have for sale in my booth. I hope I have enough time before Potrero to stock up.
Pictures will be posted later, when I've had time to download them from my camera.