House Capuchin Shield2It feels as though it was a very short week, even though this is coming out a couple of days late. I didn’t get home from Adiantum until Monday night and was tired enough that I didn’t finish this report until late Tuesday. I still have three blog posts to go and 6 page updates, including the monthly post for House Capuchin that’s already over a week late!

Otherwise, it was a productive week, even if a lot of projects are sliding off into this coming week! Food experiments are continuing. This week was about the sauerkraut, being tasted in the coming week. The Herb bunch has started on incense, mostly discussing ingredients. More embroidery, more carving and then the week ended up with Anja at the Lane County Fair demo.

This coming week should have all the meetings on time.

  • Herb Bunch – At Ancient Light, Saturdays, 11am-1pm
  • Sewing Time – At Ancient Light, Saturdays, 3-5pm
  • Project Day – At Ancient Light, Sundays, Noon to 6pm
  • Cheese and Wine happens irregularly, usually announced with little notice on our Facebook group.
  • Next Potluck – 8/18, 9/15, 10/20, 11/17, 12/15, 1/19/20
  • Winter Feast Date is 2/16/20, Theme German Renaissance

Here is the direct Portfolio link which has all the past Project Day reports and various projects, original here:  https://housecapuchin.wordpress.com/portfolio/  and new one here:  https://housecapuchin2.wordpress.com/portfolio/ and number three is here: https://housecapuchin3.wordpress.com/portfolio/

Arnora Grimsdottir posted on Facebook 7/22/19 (quoted with permisson) About Coronation

I am still decompressing and thinking over what to say about the weekends awesome happenings. But I do want to talk about one thing: On Sunday it became abundantly clear that I had severly mis-calculated the dumpster capacity needed. There was almost 8 yards more trash sitting beside the dumpster than was in it. Since we cannot have that I told Michael I would take my RV home and get my utility trailer and come back to deal with it. His job was to make sure everyone else got offsite on time at 6 pm. He was supposed to wait for me and we would deal with the trash. It was our responsibility and no one elses.
I dropped a sway bar on my rig going home and had to reattach it, took longer to park one 32′ footer and get the tiny trailer hooked up…I was late getting back. But when I turned off of 395 onto the fairgrounds road I was confused as to why there was a long line of cars parked on the side.
Then I recognized them. They had stayed.
I don’t cry. It’s not allowed. This got me.
Our core team; these people who I had harried and harrassed for 6 months and brutally run into the ground for 4 days…they had stayed.
They dutifully got off the fair property at 6:00 pm per contract. But they didn’t go home to hot showers and soft beds.
They stayed to help Michael and I load heavy, stinky, yellowjacket infested trash into my trailer.
I have never been prouder of a bunch of people than I am of them – they weren’t under orders to see the mission through, they could have (and SHOULD have, ya boneheads!) gone home. They had done their parts. But they stayed.
That, right there folks is why I continue to do what I’ve done for my 32 years in the SCA. All of the other stuff is just fluff.
I stay because of the people who stay.

Pete Lazzaretti shared a post on facebook – A tale of AnTirian legend surrounding listening to your waterbearers.

Yes, this was my incredible wife that caused this to happen…
I’m sure a few of the l locals will remember this…

Status Update By Shere’e Robinson
The wonderful Baroness of Wyewood posted this yesterday. She gave me permission to re-post this. It is something to keep in mind when the weather is this hot.
********************
The Tale of the Tongue Blade

I’m told this story is getting lost in the mists of SCA time, so I thought it best before I reteach my class on Heat Injury, I retell this story.

Many… many many many lots… moons ago, I became a Baronial Chirurgeon (head first aid person) . And I inherited a kit. A baronial kit. Wowness.

Then I had a day off and inventoried the wowness, and it was down graded to “Oh, shit.” I threw out 75-90% of an out of date kit (some 7-9 years out of date). And vowed, God as my witness, I will never let this happen. And being incredibly anal retentive, wrote and inventory list with numbers. Every 3 months without fail, I inventoried that kit, and checked expiration.

For 5 years.

After 3 years, I was not having a very good night, and it occurred to me I had inventoried 54 tongue blades (careful counting them- remember, A-R) at least 12 times. I lost my temper, threw them across the room, and vented on the 7th Cav list.

“What in the name of Holy God do you use tongue blades for? And WHY 54 of them?”

I got some good, responsible answers. Actual tongue blades- it is a rare and freakish occurrence and 1st aid provider looks in your mouth or throat. Medication application- I’ve got gloves for that. Splints- I’ve also faithfully inventoried the finger splint I bought for 2 years.

Then Dame Rowan stepped in, and made An Tir history.

“IV splint” She’d learned as Army medic, no matter how sick and dehydrated a male is, there is one viable peripheral, can’t miss, IV site. But since it’s on the back of the penis, you need the splint to keep things from running away on you, as it were…

This message went out to the entire, at the time I believe 400+ mailing addresses. You could almost hear the hands clamping down in front of computer screens. Then it was shared.

Next major SCA event, I sweetly asked the Marshall in Charge if I might address the troops as a CiC (Chirurgeon in charge). He saw what I was holding, grinned and said, “Please, if you will.”

I held up a bag of 500cc LR with a tongue blade strapped to it with medical tape. “Water bearers or me, boys. Your call. … Thank you, marshal.”

Not one damn heat injury in Madrone for 2 years.

Early Week – We had some cleanup from the potluck. Nothing too awful, at least. Packages *finally* went out on Monday. Dehydrator was running on watermelon as an experiment, hoping to make melon tea, which was known in the Orient at least, in period. Mostly as bitter melon, a medicinal. That got finished and we were supposed to taste the sauerkraut on Sunday, but that didn’t happen until Tuesday, so that’ll be in next week’s.

Cookery – Sauerkraut got “burpers” on Wednesday. These are a little silicone discs with a hole in the “nipple” part that lets gasses out. You set them on the jar and screw a canning ring down over them. Also the dehydrated melon came out of the dehydrator.

Sewing – More embroidery, finished the mundane project and making a snip case and bob and starting another sewing kit for a lady who was drooling over the last one. 🙂 I started rooting around trying to find my hardanger. What did I do with it? …I finally tracked it down Saturday afternoon, with just enough time left to trace shapes on the piece left for pouches. …that I never worked on during the weekend… Antonia donated some supplies for students on Sunday that are being put by and some of the fabrics washed.

Sundials, etc. – Loren has been sanding antler rounds all week. He also went down a rabbit hole on re-sharpening files and has promised a write-up on what he found.

Herb Bunch – On Tuesday some herbs got harvested for drying and for salad, including the thinnings from the lettuce pots. Also nabbed out a few thyme shoots to start for James.

Watering in the later week and on Sunday.

Just before Herbs, the alder tree that’s been growing in the disintegrating bucket was picked up by the people who are adopting it and planting it by their place in Bayshore!

Herbs was all about incense this week. We pulled out all the jars and bottles and bags and did some consolidating and re-labeling and talked about all the ingredients. I had printed the formulary and we discussed the recipes. We bagged some ingredients, like sandalwood chips and brown powder, and the processed some sage leaves and then added lavendar, for a sage and lavendar blend, which has always been popular. That will sit for this coming week and then get prepped for sale.

Lane County Fair Demo – Saturday – Anja

We had a nice drive through to Eugene. Oregon’s coast is spectacular, no matter what, and it was perfect weather, driving through the sun-gold of a late summer evening. We chatted all the way through, in a very desultory fashion, since it had already been a long day. There was a surprising amount of traffic, but only one bumper-hugger on the whole trip.

We broke the trip in the middle, gassing up in Florence, and then hitting a McD’s drive-through for sustenance (and to empty the other tanks 🙂 ). The sun set while we were getting gas and the drive along the Siuslaw river with the lingering sky-glow reflecting on the water, punctuated by ducks and herons made me smile.

After we turned at Mapleton we started seriously discussing a new class idea that I have, for ideas for getting people to tell stories in a non-US, non-English way, giving them a setting and flavor that isn’t Disney or Hollywood, or even standard fairy-tale. While we were talking first Jupiter was visible, and then Scorpio (where he’s located at the moment) then Saturn and the Sagittarius Teapot. Both reflected in Triangle Lake, just a glimpse, but how beautiful!

It was full dark when we got to Alys’ place. Alys and Emma helped Loren get my demo stuff to Alys’, then Loren headed home and Alys and Emma helped me get things upstairs. I sorted stuff out for the morning, hanging up my costume, etc., we said our goodnights and I read until I fell asleep.

Lane County Fair Demo – Sunday – Anja

So Sunday started for me with coffee so I could get my eyes open. I had been up and down all night (common when away from home and before an event) and we had to get up too early, by my usual clock. We had scrambled eggs with onions and cheese and toast for breakfast and after I was ready I had a chance to look at some of Alys stock. She runs a book company called Book Universe and this bibliophile was in hog heaven. 🙂

I finally got too warm and went to sit out front on the porch until it was time to go. Antonia stopped to pick Emma up, since there are only two seats in Alys’ van. The sky was a soft blue and the sun pouring through the leaves of the maples on the far side of the street was a beautiful green and gold. It was a nice cool morning with the feeling that “fry” was going to be the temp in the afternoon, but we were going to be in an air-conditioned space.

So we headed over and offloaded and I went on into the hall to try to figure out where we were to set up. The group had discovered that instead of being assigned the 6 banquet tables that we have had for the last 6 years and that they had planned our display around, they’d given us 3 round tables and not even the big ones, but the smaller “personal” tables that hold 6 people each. Thankfully, Alys and Antonia knew where enough bodies were buried to sort it out and they put us where the floral group had been holding their classes.

We had flower arrangements on one side, robotics on another and behind and the main model railroad group right across from us, but we were on a main walkway between the doors for our room and the cross-route for the bathrooms and the doors out to the rides.

We had people doing wire-wrappeing, inkle, sprang and card weaving, spinning, njalbinden and embroidery and folks displaying scribal arts, hats, armor, painted silk and wood and literature.

I spent the day talking to folks about the medieval balls project and my blackwork embroidery. One very little person who had strayed along the table from her parents who were paying rapt attention in Dad’s case to the spinning, and in Mom’s case to Norse wire-weaving got to play with the balls, testing the contents of the tins of filling and seeing how far should could throw each ball down the walkway. 🙂 She did put them back. Very good manners for a little mite. I had one 9-year-old boy who really preferred the balls to the model trains and I actually got to start him on sewing one. A template and several sets of pre-cut tops and bottoms went home with his mom. Lots of folks who have done blackwork stopped and we had some really intense chats and I got to show a lot of other folks the basics. By 5pm I was getting hoarse! …and we kept going until packing up at 6pm, but also talking to some last folks up until 8pm.

…and The Dream… we talked SCA to a lot of people, what we’re about, the fun of it and the concept of honor. “Let the slain man tell if he be slain.”

We all shared around what we brought, although I couldn’t eat the delicious-smelling meat pies (pepper, drattit). There were blueberry tarts, cheese, boiled eggs, pickles and I passed around my rolls and cheese. One lady went out in the late afternoon and got bags of chips (I had fritos) and bottles of water to keep us all going.

I got a little while over in the flower displays and got some pictures. There was one involving yellow peppers, broccoli and brussels sprouts…. The one that made me smile the most was a “junior” display (by a 10-year-old girl) that was a pottery container shaped like a hen and her chicks, containing a plant of…. hen and chicks!

We were headed out the door by 8 and went to the Glenwood restaurant. I had a delicious and filling dinner of a “Columbia” burger, which was an 1/2 pound beef patty (muhgawd, but I was hungry) strips of bacon, a fried egg and cheese on the type of egg roll that Loren is making. It came with a lovely green salad, which pickled beets and garbanzo beans added, since I wanted it dry and no croutons. Just yummy! The four of us left from the demo sat and ate and chatted and did handwork (grin) until it suddenly occurred to us that the restaurant had closed at 9 and here it was going on 10, but the server assured us that it was ok. He’d been doing his clean-up and there were two other people there, plus his brother who was doing his university homework where he could access the restaurant’s wifi. Besides we’d all been talking SCA and geeking out about various things over the antipasto plate that we’d ordered instead of sweet desserts.

By the time we got back to Alys’ I was dragging. I wobbled out of the van, trudged up the steps to my room and I don’t even remember changing out of my clothes, but when I woke up after my first sleep I was in my nightie! (the rest will be in next week’s report!)

Pix by Emma and Antonia – some editing by Anja

Project Day – No Anja, Loren was all by his lonesome, sanding antler rounds.

Miscellaneous pix

Music – Susato this week

Links

Funnies 

Anja, Loren, Amor, Herb Bunch (2)

divider black grey greek key

Largesse Item Count – (includes gifts, prizes, auction items, etc.)

  • ASXLVII = 24
  • ASXLVIII = 88
  • ASXLIX = 794
  • ASL = 2138
  • ASLI = 731
  • ASLII = 304
  • ASLIII – 146
  • ASLIV – 137+4 plus 2 puppets, 20 powder fort packets, 25 pouches for block-printing, 1 medium pouch, 8 bookmarkers, 2 in-process kisslock pouches, 18 unfinished pincushions, 1 sewing kit (except for bone needle), varnished stuff (124)

Total as a Household = 3970 handed off

moving writing pen motifIn ministerio autem Somnium! Anja, graeca doctrina servus to House Capuchin
Page Created 6/30/19 & published 7/31/19 (C)M. Bartlett
Last updated 7/31/19