Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Chapter 18: Oil-Line Road-Access Portal-Repair (A Tale of Healing)




The next few months passed with a Chaos factor of 10 out of 10. Life's path had taken a few surprise turns down passages not normally chosen. This created a particular chain of events that would prove to affect multiple realms of my existence. The once manageable chaos began to cascade into challenges and restraints that would limit Theowynd's wandering coyote character to a cage. Not going into details, keeping the plot as Faire focused as possible, I will only mention how not myself I had begun to feel; not believing my real life had come to this.

It felt as though a piece of my soul had just died as my character Theowynd was forced back into the world she did not want to be from.

Depression was beginning to take hold of the mind and the light was dimmer than normal; bogged down by the weight of petroleum, concrete, and waste products.

Two and a half months later, the glimpse of light reveled itself on the horizon. Unexpectedly, the opportunity came up to attend the last few days of Pennsic; Chapter 2 touches a bit on what Pennsic is. With cancer surgery scheduled to take place during August 2014, the cards also worked out the opportunity to have another charge with my friends before doing so. And with that, Theowynd was able to shift one last time before the "Real Life Situations" Card was to be thrown on the gambling table.

Theowyn can be seen to the right of the center line in a green and black gambason, brown pants, metal knees, a metal bassinet helm, holding a spear in both hands; though you can only see one from the perspective.


On the field and around the fire those short three days, it felt as though I had found an old friend. Her spirit that was once a smoldering heat in the rain, had finally begun to rekindle itself and a small fire could be seen within. Somewhere on the battlefield, in the midst of all the melee, Theowynd found her will to fight again. 


It was a hard battle, and there are still some small fights and fires even presently almost a full year later. But now I can say with full affirmation, that there are bigger reasons behind forced change and unseen challenges life throws in your path. 

Remember: If life brings you to it, light and love brings you through it. Just have faith. 

All is well.

With time and patience comes healing.



The weekend of Sepetember 4th, 2014 a small portal blip was discovered and the path to Britannia Faire had presented itself. Passing near enough for a few hours of visitation while traveling across states for a wedding, this proved as a perfect opportunity to pick up my passed grandmother's grand green chair. Flashback to my packed to the haul, two-door shifter: Moonshadow, having no room to fit a double wide arm chair into her doors, nor a way to safely strap it to the roof for a cross country trip. Thus, the chair was left wild for a few months. 


 And so was the Faire.  
 

The once maintained and manicured lawns were left to grow and populate as she saw fit.


The above was a glimpse into how well the bark mulch weed deterrent would have worked with only minimal weeding and a regular lawn mowing routine. 

 
Headlining News: Bandit Camp Runs Wild: September 2014.   
 

Tavern Yard Follows After: September 2014


Perhaps the biggest change since I left, besides sightings of past Ranger and Viking visitations, happened to the Battle Field. 



 The above: How the field was left May 2014.

The below: How the field was found September 2014.


It was no surprise to see the field tore up from a huge land scar. After all, signs of Big Oil could be seen as far back as March 2014, when the staff returned to the Faire and found the previous land scar widened with a path of downed trees. The below is a panning view of how the Faire looked upon arrival on March 31st, 2014. 

 

How the land looked now September 2014.

Documented Big Oil Development

Even though Theowyn had left the lands and her portal had closed, the Viking Elon returned frequently. Throughout his visitations of the Faire land, he took a series of photos that were posted in no particular order on the Britannia Faire site. With his permission I have harvested a selection of photos that document the time that passed while the Britannia Faire portal was closed to Theowyn. Photo credit will be given to the images that were of his capturing.

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

The Oil Company began by tearing into the earth and moving the felled trees off to the side of the right-of-way with a group of Earth Dragons.

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

While they were clearing the hill, terraces were created for safe equipment storage when on the extreme gradient that was the valley wall. The land owner was pleased to hear they did this, as he always fantasied about having people camp on and up into the surrounding hills. Sadly, the laziness factor had prevented most people from exploring the hidden areas of the hillside and most never left the flood plain.

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

The earth would go on to be reshaped multiple times throughout the remainder of the Big Oil's visit. Before the placement and connecting of the oil pipes beneath the earth, a trench was dug, and a huge scar became visible.

This is how the Tavern looked upon my brief arrival September 2014.

The opening of the earth allowed for quick pipeline placement and connection. A section of pipe was laid out on top of the land next the the opening so when the connection process took place, the task would pass quickly with minimal wait time.



Due to the work conducted by the two Abiotic Ecologist that visited the Faire during Chapter 11, it was decided that the oil line would be drilled under the stream. While no documentation of this process exists, the stream remains relatively unaffected by this drilling process. 

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen
 
The only evidence that can be seen is the clearing and leveling of the land when a temporary bridge was placed over the water for easy equipment transportation. 

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen






Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

The Company deemed transporting equipment over the hill and across the water was more simple than trailering the wide equipment down the steep and narrow entrance road. This was both a good and a bad thing. A good thing because the road would not have to be dealt additional damage due to heavy truck traffic and all bridges remained passable. A bad thing because the Oil Company was supposed to repair the used access road when the job was finished as worked into the contract when the easement was signed. The road was a major hindrance to getting the public to attend Britannia Faire, and most vowed not to return until something was done about its condition.

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

Come to find out, the company backed out of repairing the access road instead cutting the land owner a check for the unfinished work instead. This once again left the Britannia Faire road hung out to dry, and the previous staff having to go back on their word that the road would be repaired in a timely manor.   


Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen


With the pipeline connected, sealed, and buried, the Earth Dragons once again terraced out the hillside, removed the bridge, and left the land to begin its long, hard healing process.   


Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

Fast forward past the end of Winter into the middle of March 2015. Once again the Viking found himself at the Faire taking assessment of how Winter's Rest had treated her.


Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

The yard stood scraggly from a year's worth of neglect but the field seemed to have sutured itself back together.

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

The land scar could still be seen on both sides of the valley but, there she stood Spring 2015, ready to carry on again.

The Road Saga



Britannia Faire is located off the junction of T-78 and Township Highway 81 (T-81). The road that runs directly to and through Britannia Faire to the Back 40 was once maintained as a county roadway that connected further downstream to Township Highway 79.


Having hiked to the back of the Faire lands and adventuring a bit further past it's boundaries, my scout class can inform you that the road once maintained is clearly no longer used. The above shot is a section of road that was once T-79: steep, overgrown, and heavily eroded.


As aforementioned, but not in this light, the above is a capture of the intersection of T-78 and T-81, the entrance into the Faire lands.


Immediately one can see the difference between the maintained and unmaintained roadways, and this is just the start.


Don't get me wrong, it is mostly a good thing the road is unmaintained. This enables the road to be used for private use only. This also gives the owner allocation to post it so, keeping the Faire as private and secluded enough to host events without the leery and judgmental eyes of the unaccustomed public. While this does hinder the gathering of random attendees, is does allow for a more selective group of individuals to attend.


In a certain light, the road is very beautiful. However, what sections aren't meandering peacefully along side the babbling brook, are tapering at some points into what feels like a cliff side cattle path.


Beyond the first bend of the entrance road, one can see past signs of road repair and places where the gravel had not been washed away by heavy rainfall, or covered in the silt of an eroding wall.


When rains were scarce, the mud compacted into a manageable dirt road easily traversed by my 2-door low-to-the-ground Shifter: Moonshadow. The issue happens when it rains.


Late Summer 2014. The Faire was vacant for a week during this time because Theowyn had left for Pennsic. The members of Wargar had requested some alone time at the Faire to make use of the long range Back 40 set up for target practice with a few fire arms. They arrived to a downed tree blocking their way. I am told they chopped through the obstacle by ax alone and pushed the limb off out of their way. All three logs remain a staple in the roads attire.



This section of road drains the roadway above. Because off this, this section of land experiences muddy conditions more often than not. More than once river rocks were collected in attempt to displace some of the muck that sucks tires in like sirens to a seaman.


Any rock harvesting that was completed was done so by hand and buckets alone. The truck bed was utilized a few times to transfer these stone filled buckets in bulk, speeding up the process a little bit.


There was once a working bobcat to burden with this task, however, the engine was run dry years ago through improper maintenance.


It now makes for an aged steel golum that greets the first welcome to visiting guests. It itched to be painted up to match it's glorified surroundings but sadly it remained an immovable object obscuring the tranquility.  


A very common look to this section of BF's road. The issue here is that the entire of the hillside's water catchment drains to this spot and the the road lacks ditches and culverts that would properly pitch the drainage. Even after all the work put in on the dozer, the once working Bobcat, shovels, buckets, and hands, in combination with sweat and blood sacrifices, the road still ends up reverting back to this form. Above taken April 14th, 2014



The added moisture kept this section of road constantly saturated. Moisture acts as a lubricant between soil particles, shifting saturated soil with ease. This in combination with the additional weight of crossing dragons eventually caused the soil to slump in the worst of spots.




An area so narrow, that any more erosion would cause the collapse of the only entrance road into the beautiful Faire land.



This bad slump happened two weeks out of Masque Ball 4 back during the end of April 2014.


It was vital this slump was repaired before the masses arrived. To avoid additional tire rutting, the silty mud layer was pulled away from the surface and added to the slumping wall, leading towards the water.


Buckets and buckets of gravel and river stone was collected for the refilling of the hole.


Thankfully, I was not the only one on site when this event happened. For Dragur, Drakus, and Little Greasy, came to aid. 


























It took the better half of the afternoon to level this slump out and fully make it disappear. And that was only one hole; on this road, there were many.


Before Theowyn left the grounds she acquired the number an Oil Company Representative and managed to talk them into donating a beds worth gravel for all the stress damage they caused to the road while scouting the pipeline project. They delivered exactly one load in the most convenient spot for them, and the least convenient location for us; all the way next to the turn off from T-78 to T-81.


With no motivation to do additional work for a place that would soon be forced to shutdown the diplomacy check gravel was left to lay. This was until the Viking returned and transported the gravel by hand, bucket, and car to fill the deep washout that had formed between the Faire Field and the Back 40. 


Elon would go on to be the motivation that would initially inspire individuals to return to the Faire for Masque Ball Five.  

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

However, the road that the public requested and that was promised to them was still far from being repaired. In fact it lay under about 3 inches of mud...

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen
...and in some places a bit more. 


With the motivational ball put in motion through internet communication, a group of individuals would donate their weekends in April to prepare the Faire for perhaps its only event in the 2015 season.

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

The landowner got behind the motion for the event and donated part of his cut to fund the loads of gravel required to repair the the road and create a few culverts in attempt to dry out a few low laying areas along the road. 

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

The results of their efforts are as follows: 

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen
Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen
Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

Just when everything was looking up and falling in place, the rains came to test out the handy work of the volunteer crew, and once again the over saturation of the soil led to a slump, right over the newly leveled and flattened path.  

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen
Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

Regardless of the setbacks, the volunteer crews magically pulled it all together in time for yet again a wonderful Masqued Beltania.

Photo Credit to Jason Elon Michelsen

I feel like I cannot do any justice to the efforts that were shown by all individuals who made this event possible. Partly because I was not present to witness their efforts directly.


However, it should be known that this group of people conquered the impossible; they had repaired and mended the road; a tasked that plagued the Faire since conception. With the entrance road repaired, Britannia Faire had reopened fantasy doors to the public and the entrance portal was healed.