A sight for sore eyes: this is the last turn off before the Faire road. Pine stands top a beautiful limestone outcropping and provides a nice backdrop for the Faire entrance. There is an abandoned coal mine located along the outcrop; haven’t gone exploring as the entrance itself looks a bit sketch. The end of the bridge marked by those two signs is exactly .75 miles away from the BF Tavern. I know this because I frequently ran this road as part of my endurance training when I was leveling up my fighter during the down time of last years season.
I arrived on site at 545pm after a 9.5 hour drive from Illinois. My first task was to kiss the ground and hug the nearest tree…not really, but to stretch my legs. Decided to coyote shift and walk the grounds to assess the damage from winter’s neglect. Tavern patrol would reveal Viking and Ranger sightings: as the cabin was used by both men over the winter, while the grounds would show the presence of Big Oil: something that I will talk about more at a later time.
Given that I had already remodeled the Cabin last season, this year I was able to empty my Shifter and move all my belongings in on the first night. Right as I was about to unload, it had begun to rain and mud was starting to form. In anticipation of the mud that would inevitably end up adding to the mess of the floor, I stacked everything from my car on my bed, to keep the floor as clear as I could for the sweep job that would commence as soon as I was done outside. Also by stacking everything on my bed, this forced me to unpack most of the things all the way before I would go to sleep.
With the work weekend two nights away, I wanted to be fully settled in before others arrived. I feel that if I could get this shot in focus, it would be a wicked game of eye spy. Little known fact about my car: it has the ability to shift into a truck or a moving van when needed. All of this plus groceries fit into my Shifter’s haul, a fun game of 3 dimensional Tetris was played to make this possible. Had I known what the end of the season would behold, I would have packed even lighter... but lets not jump ahead of the story.
When I went to start my first fire of the year, I ended up finding this little guy in the flu of the wood stove. Opening the gateway to full and smoking the bird downward with a low flame, it came down and buried itself under the grate inside the stove. After digging him away from the fire and out of the soot, I gave him a wet-cloth-wipe-down to free his/her eyes, beak, and feathers of the acquired ash before calmly placing him/her on the balcony railing outside to fly away into the night.
Most of the following day was spent hanging wall decorations, filling bookcases, and ridding everything of its layers of soot and candle wax.
The room would take the shape of last year’s design with a few additions: two of them being the wood holder and the deer skin hanging above as a period bedroll. (my first tanned-from-scratch hair-on-deer-hide completed during the winter wanders)
The shot is a bit dark, but the far wall holds all the swords I play with (there are 5) while the wall to the right held my grab and go utility kits (zombie survival gear included). Note all the books on the shelf were reference books. Knowing how little free time I actually had at the Faire, from the year prior, I only brought two for fun reads. Didn't touch them the entire time I was down there. Looking back now, knowing how this story turns out it seems like I packed a lot of items, but at the time I was under the impression I would be living and surviving out at the Faire for a second season. In addition, I truly loved to live the part, and I wanted my character to live in a complementary setting down to the details.
At the end of last season, the Tavern bar top was closed in with two 20’ canvas walls, both of which can be seen on the ground in front of the bar. Off into the background, one can see the damage Big Oil has done expanding the oil right-a-way and the worst was yet to come.
"As night descended, a slow fog rolled through the valley as the air hung heavy with moisture. More rain was on its way." - Journal entry April 3rd 2014.
The second evening closed with me beginning to unpack, clean up, and reorganize the tavern, for most things had moved from the place they were last at the close of the season. The wee morning hours would find the arrival of two additional hands: Elon and Adam Westby: who chose the name Draugr for in game play. Knowing that we would only have the morning before others arrived on site for the work weekend; sleep would find us fast to rest for the work that was to commence the following day.
The
morning dawned with partly sunny skies. After rallying our group of
three over morning coffee with a side of of yogurt and granola, Elon,
Draugr, and I would go for a perimeter sweep to assess Winter’s
damage, show Draugr the land, and to talk about which areas we have
plans for developing.
A shot of the swimming hole shows how much runoff water the valley is currently draining. This was due to the on and off rainfall spanning the two previous days. Water levels were up and questionable to drive over depending on your dragon’s body position (proximity to ground). Thank goodness we have a foot bridge.
On our return trip from the Back 40, rather than taking the well traveled path, we decided to be adventurous and climb an old logging road, turned game trail, that begins a bit north of the Back 40 foyer.
It was quite the climb…
but the view is worth it.
At this point the winds had picked up and the sky showed signs of rain, so we ended our game trail quest early and headed down the hillside to begin the workday. The rain would give us reason to worry about the road still due to Big Oil’s illegitimate timeline of completion. Elon and Draugr decided it best to better prepare the access road by draining pools of standing water by shifting mud around with shovels and rakes, while I continued to organize, sweep, and clean the downstairs portion of the tavern.
True story about the road: Britannia Faire, contrary to all beliefs, does not own any of the road. BF's property line begins at the Bobcat at the front of the parking lot. However, the town no longer maintains the roadway, so unfortunately many volunteer hours and multiple cash funds have been spent maintaining a troublesome piece of land that BF does not own.
A lot of the tavern-tidy-time was spent getting the recycling system up and running again, while sorting through the Winter’s Guest trash and randomly placed items. **Fun side story** I assume someone got hurt over the winter, because Medical Bay (i.e. the Lazy Susan that holds all of the trash bags and first aid supplies) was completely rummaged through with ALL of its contents left on the counter top in a "ppppppffffffftttttttssssssshhhhh" type fashion. This is only one side of the mess. I laughed at all the possible back stories that would lead to this outcome.
Around afternoon the sky could no longer hold its clouds and rain began to fall. This pushed Elon and Draugr back to the Tavern just in time for lunch.
After lunch, I decided it would be best to put on my Page and get the Duties (Dishes) out of the way, given that we had quite a pile once you combined all the dishes used over Winter and the ones used in the past three days. This in addition to having guests on the way, and the option to shower in the back of my brain, relayed it was time to test the plumbing system; something I had been avoiding since I got back. And for good reason: as it would turn out we would be dealing with water leaks in two locations…
One leak… well more like fountain, formed under the sink due to a pipe separation that occurred and the other resulted from a split that formed in the hot water line leading to that same sink. Well…... EEEFFFFFFF…..
The initial idea was just to buy us time to deal with the issue, while still having water, so why not go to the duck tape solves everything solution…. It held for all of 7minutes before the pressure became too much and forced the tape off.
Second solution would find Drauger cutting off the split pipes and replacing them with extra junk hose that was salvaged from on site, cementing it with plumbing cement, and fastening it on with clamps. Not much else we could do but wait for it to dry.
At this point we received our first two arrivals within a twenty minute span of time: Ricki(Vythel)
and Jacob(Malpane); the Purple and Orange Goblins's Avatars. After the
welcomings, both sets of hands would immediately help me to unpack and
move things around in the tool shed, as a substitute to watching
cement/glue dry. Towards the end of our unpacking, the Faire would see
the arrival of three more guests: Aaron and his wife Anam, along with
their friend James. Given that the focus of the day was still unpacking
the Tavern area, the three of them took up the task of cleaning and
sanitizing the outdoor fridge and pantry while we finished up in the
shed.
Upon completion of those tedious tasks, the masses would go on to harvest wood from the downed trees that were encroaching on battlefield. Equip with any wood or hand axes they could find the party in addition to the Viking, testing out his new chain saw, would launch a repurposing crew for the slain causalities of Big Oil that were laying on the ground, left to rot.
Thanks to their efforts, the party would have a pile of wood to burn the following evening in celebration of a work weekend well done.
During the first round of wood harvesting, Adam and I would go on to test the Plumbing repair. All went well for about 15minutes before we sprung a leak under the sink again. “Darn it all. Darn all the things!”
Third solution discussed, involved cutting off the hot water to the Kitchen sink all together. This was done by cutting a spare bit of hosing, shoving a stick the same diameter into the end, kinking it over, and securing it with our only pair of vice grips. “Hey, no judge. We do with what we have.” This would also go on to solve our immediate problem for the weekend.
The evening would close with the arrival of Maya (Lasalle), Doug Barnes (Ragus), Rob Surrena (Sorcerer), Nightshade Wolvesbane, and Damian Altaireotter; bringing our head count up to 13 for the weekend.
The following morning began by rallying the troops over coffee, and discussing the path today would potentially flow. Draugr and I would go into town for a supply run while the rest would stay behind and start the new fire circle project, by collecting all the rocks from the exterior of the Bandit Camp ring and hauling them towards the new fire circle located in the center of the field in front of the Tavern.
Drauger and I would return to the Faire to find the group in the Back 40 sorting through BF's wood piles harvesting wood. This is a very tedious task that went much faster with all the additional hands.
For those of you who have not read Vol.8 Tales of Ruin and Restoration, The Back 40 is the back third of the property Britannia Faire owns. How it became known as “the Back 40 out of 56 acres” still puzzles me. Regardless, the land is home to piles and piles of “worthless logging waste.” When the land was initially logged, the lumber company left all the bark and slack bits of wood heaped high in the middle and around the edges of the field. In addition BF also have a mountain of sawdust that rivals the size of the tavern located mid field backed by yet another span of wood two stacks thick.
Ever hear the saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure?” Every piece of “waste” in this stack, the Faire can exploit. There are many pieces of useable wood buried within the piles, while those that are too rotted or distorted can be dried and used as fire wood for big group fires. Furthermore, all the bits of broken bark that fall off during harvest can be utilized as a second layer of mulch around trees, mounds, and potential flower beds to deter weeds from growing. The acid the bark contains will help to ensure that.
A filling lunch of fully loaded cold cut sandwiches with spinach, hummus, tomato, red peppers, cheese and fruit was provided as fuel for our workers during the mid day break. After recharge, we all tripped it back out to the 40 to harvest more things. Malpane sacrificed his Dragon’s haul after Elon's Dragon retired so that we could harvest two additional loads of wood and two loads of sawdust from the sorted piles and bring them up to the Tavern, while the onsite Dragon remained stuck in the mud in the front parking lot. Others stayed behind to continue to sort wood and collect bark chips into one big mound that would make for easy harvesting in the future: yet another tedious task that was made easier with more hands. Common phrases for the moment included, “Man! That is like 5Wood” when referring to how much quantity of bark one could pick up and shift with a shovel or, ‘Oh my gosh, this piece of wood is so cool. Look at the grain and check out this Fungus!’
During our sawdust harvest some eggs were uncovered. Once observed, they were recovered and left to do their own thing.
All the physical labor left a few of the guest tired and desiring a short sleep session for recharge.
For the remainder of our day’s focus, we would shift efforts to updating the central fire pit in the field in front of Ranger Camp and across the footbridge next to the Tavern. Given that there were technically three fire rings in that area, the central ring was chosen to be the one we would keep while the other two were removed of their ash.
A
ring around the central fire pit was voided of its grass, and covered
in multiple barrels of sawdust collected from our mountain in the back
40 where the (assuming) turtle eggs were found.
The resulting sod would be used to cover up the past two fire pits, completing our efforts for the day.
As a treat Drauger, Elon, and I had plans on rewarding our volunteers with a hardy dinner. In addition to buying all the food for the weekend thus far, Elon would uses his hands to cook up a big portion of red peppers and onions…
while Drauger took over the position of meat man, marinating thin slices of pork loin in soy sauce, hard cider, cajun and additional seasonings then heating them up in a fry pan…
while I took up the duty of vegetable and starch side dishes in the form of Stuffs: Carrot, Celery, and Onions,+Seasonings and Tatters and Cabbage: Potatoes, Cabbage, Onions, & Seasonings. When you physically work your body all day long, you need to take the time to properly nourish it for repair and recoveries sake. You cannot short change meals out here… There would also be a second late night snack of slow cooked tenderloin with a maple syrup and beer glazed sauce.
After reconstituting the volunteers, all that was left for the evening was to reap the reward of our labors. A blazing fire was had with the wood harvested on Friday night in our brand new fire pit constructed that very afternoon.
Damian
would lead us in song, Elon on drum, and even my hoop made a short
appearance as evening’s entertainment in addition to an impromptu
version of Hotel California. Classy.
The
following morning required one task of our volunteer force: We were to
FREE THE DRAGON (Get the onsite truck unstuck.) With the use of
Malpane's Suburban and a rope, accompanied by six extra pairs of hands
the dragon took little effort to free. Before the Exodus, the masses
would be feed Gamuggle's: The Viking's Sunday Morning Specialty. They
would not have been as good were it not for the donated toppings from
Nightshade, Damian, and Vythel. In addition, Nightshade and Damian would
also stay on site late into the evening helping me with the pile of
dishes that had developed and bleaching out the remainder of the fridges
and coolers. All efforts from all individuals involved, big or small,
were much appreciated. Thank you all for helping to level up the land.
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