My summer

Okay, enough procrastination.

I ws trying to make photos small enough to fit, and anonymous enough to prevent legal issues, but it's not going to happen. So here goes.

Quad war: August 1-4: We rented a van that turned out to have a third row of seats that folded down, but wouldn't come out. That took up a quarter of our storage space. Things we forgot to put into the van: ALL the archery gear, and a Rubbermaid tote with the towels and dishcloths. They wouldn't have fit, anyway...

We has a great time anyway. Middle son took a class on how to make a wax tablet (medieval pda), youngest son did an hour of archery with borrowed equipment, then started to create a pendant with an amber bead. Youngest and I both attended the fingerloop braiding class, and I also learned flat felting. My Beloved took some Merino roving to a dyeing class (and said, as the instructor began preparing, "We who about to dye salute you."); she also attended a lecture on the seven deadly sins. There were eight, bu two were combined for brevity...

There were 515 people at the event, 59 of them children. We all ended up buying new leather pouches, and drooled over sharp knives, clay goblets, many gorgeous dresses, a warm cloak that was unfortunately too small for me, and the garb (clothing) of a whole bunch of excellent seamstresses.

There were battles fought, and very minor issues only for first aid (I'm the Principality Chirurgeon - I oversee first aid for our Principality, which takes in Saskatchewan, Alberta and eastern BC). Archers shot many targets, the equestrians had a great time (and we missed seeing them), the rapier fighters went swish, poke, and killed many of each other. Repeatedly. That's the good part of the SCA: the battles to the death are sometimes the best two deaths out of three.

There was a large, loud party on the Saturday evening that we deliberately missed. It was adults-only, and it was mainly an excuse to get puking drunk, which we don't do. BUt fun was had there, too, I'm told.

My Beloved helped get a bread oven fired up after some maintenance was done on it, and next year she's going to take the ingredients to actually USE the oven.

Yes, next year, we are going to attend again. We won't forget the things we did this time, and we'll be better prepared. In general, we had a blast this Quad War.