West/An Tir war
I went to the war to get a break from the fallout from my Dad's passing. It was a really good idea. I had a blast and, even though the reality of what was going on in my life hit me a time or two (Sunday morning was really hard for some reason) I needed the trip. I wrote about the fighting at SCA Fighter, but lots of other cool stuff happened.
Twenty years ago I was knighted on the field at West An Tir war during a hold in the Open Field battle. It was a surprise (mostly--some people had done things that were suspicious, like showing up where they weren't supposed to be). It was a knighting that people talked about for a long time, which made me kind of proud. This being the 20th anniversary I wanted to mark the occasion, so I issued a challenge on Saturday to fight 21 individual combats in the course of the day: twenty for my years as a knight and one for my father. I fought them all, won most of them, and had a good time doing it. During one of them people were screaming "hero!" at both me and my opponent. That felt good.
hrj has written about the absolute total coolness that was the cooks camp. It was fantastic to see the period kitchen in action and samle all their wares.
The horses were also great. Watched some mounted combat and the parade on Sunday morning. All the kings rode into court on Saturday. We need more horses.
The WK party was awesome as usual.
baroness_eilis and duke_flieg were great to camp with. It was just the three of us this time, and camp worked very well I thought.
I fought in the challenge for Duchess Carol's memorial. She was someone I liked a great deal and it was good to be a part of it.
The site was in Gold Beach Oregon, the town of my birth, and that was cool too. I have rarely been back there since. The site was a working ranch near the coast north of town, one of those places that remind you why Souther Oregon is one of the closest places on earth to Heaven. It was cool in the day and cold at night, and perfect for a 4th of July war.
But by far the best thing about the weekend was the bear. Gunther got a call on the radio from the site owner asking if we wanted a bear. A forester had just shot one and dropped it off. Helga, who had been an apprentice butcher once upon a time, took off her tunic, jumped in with a knife, and skinned and butchered it. It was a little bear, but old. We rolled up in the pickup and offered a side of bear to the cooks, who said it was too much, so we gave them a fore quarter. Then we apportioned the bear out to a bunch of other camps, each of whom cooked it in a different way. So during the weekend I ate bear that had been smoked for eight hours, barbecued bear ribs, grilled bear, bear fried in bacon grease, bear roasted with peppercorns, and the period cooks version, roast bear with honey and ginger sauce from Scapi or Scampi or whatever it's called. That was the best of them. It was really fantastic, and probably one of the most medieval things I've experienced. It was like the whole village partaking of the bounty of the hunt and sharing what they'd made. Wait: that's *exactly* what it was.
Twenty years ago I was knighted on the field at West An Tir war during a hold in the Open Field battle. It was a surprise (mostly--some people had done things that were suspicious, like showing up where they weren't supposed to be). It was a knighting that people talked about for a long time, which made me kind of proud. This being the 20th anniversary I wanted to mark the occasion, so I issued a challenge on Saturday to fight 21 individual combats in the course of the day: twenty for my years as a knight and one for my father. I fought them all, won most of them, and had a good time doing it. During one of them people were screaming "hero!" at both me and my opponent. That felt good.
hrj has written about the absolute total coolness that was the cooks camp. It was fantastic to see the period kitchen in action and samle all their wares.
The horses were also great. Watched some mounted combat and the parade on Sunday morning. All the kings rode into court on Saturday. We need more horses.
The WK party was awesome as usual.
baroness_eilis and duke_flieg were great to camp with. It was just the three of us this time, and camp worked very well I thought.
I fought in the challenge for Duchess Carol's memorial. She was someone I liked a great deal and it was good to be a part of it.
The site was in Gold Beach Oregon, the town of my birth, and that was cool too. I have rarely been back there since. The site was a working ranch near the coast north of town, one of those places that remind you why Souther Oregon is one of the closest places on earth to Heaven. It was cool in the day and cold at night, and perfect for a 4th of July war.
But by far the best thing about the weekend was the bear. Gunther got a call on the radio from the site owner asking if we wanted a bear. A forester had just shot one and dropped it off. Helga, who had been an apprentice butcher once upon a time, took off her tunic, jumped in with a knife, and skinned and butchered it. It was a little bear, but old. We rolled up in the pickup and offered a side of bear to the cooks, who said it was too much, so we gave them a fore quarter. Then we apportioned the bear out to a bunch of other camps, each of whom cooked it in a different way. So during the weekend I ate bear that had been smoked for eight hours, barbecued bear ribs, grilled bear, bear fried in bacon grease, bear roasted with peppercorns, and the period cooks version, roast bear with honey and ginger sauce from Scapi or Scampi or whatever it's called. That was the best of them. It was really fantastic, and probably one of the most medieval things I've experienced. It was like the whole village partaking of the bounty of the hunt and sharing what they'd made. Wait: that's *exactly* what it was.