Sunday, September 3, 2017

Chapter 14: Bandit Camp Revive


Both the Volunteers and the Viking left on Sunday; this left Draugr and myself alone on the site for the next two weeks. We planned on what we would focus our combined efforts on until we would be squirreled by additional hands.   


After an evening of planning, Dragur and I came up with these goals to accomplish before 2014 Masque Beltane to be hosted the First weekend in May. 


Given the condition of the newly cleaned and organized Tavern Center and the lack of growing grass, we decided that we would focus efforts on reviving and taming the territory of Bandit Camp. 


Bandit Camp is the most common location visitors will choose to set up camping gear during event. Given that this area is home base for many, we decided to level up the lands charisma modifier by making the area more aesthetically pleasing to those who take up residence here during events. 


Given that there was only minimal lawn and stick maintenance during the previous season, the thorn bushes were starting to become more than a potential hazard to those who might wander the path during dark. 


In addition to the thorns bushes that seemed to be everywhere we turned, weeds left to grow high last season to block the road from view had decayed and shriveled over the winter becoming gray broken stalks.  


 The berms had also collected leaves for the past seasons, all in all giving the land a dry dead look. 


So first things first, Draugr and I spent almost a full two days just raking the first half of berms clear and clipping anything that snagged the rake that wasn't a tree sapling. 

Mid rake of first berm.

End rake of first berm.


Before second clip and rake of the second section of berm.

After clipping and raking the second section of berm.

Before the third section of berm was cleared.

After the third section of berm was cleared.


As the project pressed on, the land slowly began to be covered in piles leaf litter and twigs. Making sure to gather the bigger sticks and twigs that had fallen for firewood, the rest of the litter was left until a later time when we would then focus our energy picking up all the piles we made at one time.  


Days of raking later, my over-the-winter-softened-hands were blistered, open, and covered in dirt. But I was okay with it, as it is the best way to create callouses. Don't get me wrong, the in between healing time sucks, but is well worth the wait for a season of toughened hands. (+Defence) 

Draugr at the end of a long day of raking... all the raking... So. Much. Raking. And there was still more to do.


***Side story time*** So Elon decided to get himself some kitty companions for his house in the North. Last event he brought them to the Faire. When he went to leave for the North after the work weekend, he was unable to find this kitten before he left. She came back to the Tavern when she was good and hungry to find Draugr and I still at the Faire able to care for her. During her wanders around the Faire land, I am assuming she had a run in with the Poison Ivy Plants that were beginning their Spring growth cycle, and gathered some of its oil on her coat. That evening she decided she wanted to sleep in my bed and woke me up a couple of times by nuzzling and rolling on my face during the night.   


When I woke the next day I noticed that my face was more than a bit itchy. I am fairly allergic to Poison Ivy, it gets into my system and spreads fast. While the pictures below look to have minimal damage, what the lighting covers up, is that by the end of this day, and for the next following seven days, I would have Poison Ivy all over my face including covering my eye lids. The week that followed was one of burning and washing my face with alcohol and cooling it off afterwards with a honey infused lotion. Even thinking about it now makes me itch. (-Constitution)
 

With the days of raking behind us, it was time to shift into gathering mode. Equipped with shovels and gloved hands, Dragur and I preceded to load up the piles of litter into the bed of the Pick Up and transport the loads to the fire pit.


Draugr and I would go on to advance our fire making and fire bending skill levels by burning all that we had gathered. 


There was something gratifying about watching it all slowly burn. Some of that may have been due to the battle some of the bushes put up during their removal. More than once Draugr and I found ourselves bleeding from an encounter. 


The truck below was only filled with the thorn bushes of the middle of camp. The battle was only half over. 


While letting the working fire burn through the larger tangles of bushes, one was able to play an advanced level of Fire Jenga. Extra challenging (+exp) for dealing with wood containing a defense system and (+increased heat resistance) when dealing with the interwoven web of wooded thorns. Playing with fire is fun, no matter what they tell you.  


After almost 4 days of upper and mid berm recovery sessions, we were ready to attack the back end of Bandit Camp. This is also the second area people see after crossing the Andes River traveling onto the land. 

Before the restoration efforts.
 
After the restoration efforts.



More rounds of Pick Up and Fire Burn were played once the area was raked cleaned. 


This was the last section of Bandit Camp Berm that needed to be cleared. 


With the daffodils in full bloom and all the logs placed around the area, I was struck with an idea. 


The berm was going to be bordered and outlined with the large fallen chunks of wood that were collected along the clean up.  


Again, Drakus would find himself out at the Faire extending his hands for the Faires advancement along with locals Mike (Little Greasy) and Amber. I only have good things to say about Drakus's character and how much of an asset he was to the Faire lands.  

 





Digging up and moving rottin' logs made for some fun insect and salamander spotting. The soils were active with life. 






Along the Pick Up process even a birds nest made itself known, nestled in the crook of a tree. 

The state of the entrance once the clean up was complete. One can see the truck loaded to the cab with thorny brush


Even while burning the piles of brush as we went along, it still was not enough to keep up on all that we were advancing on. One can see the nice stick pile that was gathered in the background between the trees. 


The hope was to get individuals to start a fire with these and not a gallon of gasoline. The hope, only the hope. I was unable to see this through as my character was hosting Tavern during the upcoming event and did not leave the area most of the time; but I am jumping ahead in the timeline a bit. Back to the story at hand. 


Finally the end had neared and the inside berms were fully cleared of its scrub brush. 

Berm Section 1

As was the trend with the entrance, the log border extended all the way to the front of Camp where it opened to the Tavern.

Berm Section 2

Berm Section 3

The Final Section.


In order to further decrease the funds and time it took to maintain the lawn, I made a play for the future. On the side the public would see from the road, I sodded the front side of the berm, and proceeded to cover the dirt up in the wood bark gathered in the Back 40. 

Center of the photo contains the mound of bark that was at the start of this project stage.



By shovel only, the bed of the truck was loaded multiple times with the bark from this spot until there was nothing left but barren nutrient rich dirt. 


An alternate perspective at the progress that had so far been made on the wood pile. 



Bucket by bucket the truck bed was unloaded to get an evening covering of the area we wanted covered.


Again this mulching was done as a weed deterrent. Therefore, when it was time to trim the Faire lands high grass borders, I could neglect this area because the bark would limit the growth of the underlying weeds, thus saving both time and the funds needed to purchase the gasoline to do so.  



There is something extremely gratifying when producing effort of muscle fueled by food and water rather than effort of petroleum fueled by environmental destruction and fascist control of the third world. Oops, No politics, I forgot. Moving on...


All that was left to this berm revive project was to thin out the thickets of thorns in between Bandit Camp and the Tavern itself.


A quick objective to complete when compared to the length of what we had already completed. 


With the Berms looking all, "dressed to the nines," it was time to focus on updating the fire pit to match the rest of the leveled up set.

Bandit Camp Fire Pit

Bandit Camp Fire Ring-May 2013
Masque of 2013, Timmourne Darkwater and Theowynd spent an afternoon revamping and widening the communal Bandit Camp fire. Rock ringed and sawdust padded, this is what the pit first looked like after creation in May 2013. 

Bandit Camp Fire Ring as it lay Summer 2013 after rich rain and a few days of growth.

While burning the remainder of the battle carnage, I decided it was time to more thoroughly tidy the pit.


The work weekend made it simpler to proceed, as the first ring of rocks were already removed from this ring and previously placed surrounding the center fire ring in the Tavern Lawn. Only the interior ring remain overgrown with grass.  


First step involved removing all the rocks from the places they called home for the past year. 


Secondly it was time to sod the grass to a more uniform diameter.


I literally had no idea the adventure I had started when I began to sod. Only time would reveal the unintended master plan. 


Once the ring was uniformly sodded, the area under the rocks flattened, grass removed, then recovered in rocks, the chore of re-padding the fire ring took place. 


The project would require so much sawdust to complete, we decided to transport it in any unused garbage can on site in addition to filling up every unused bucket with dust as well. 


Sadly, the area near to the sawdust pit is saturated in oil residue and makes driving directly up to the pile dangerous for the truck to get stuck, in-case you were wondering why we didn't just fill the entire bed. 





Sadly, the area near to the sawdust pit is saturated in oil residue and makes driving directly up to the pile dangerous for the truck to get stuck, in-case you were wondering why we didn't just fill the entire bed. 

Saw Dust Load One


Fire Pit Upgrade/Level Up Complete


Everything we had burned over the past five days had finally condensed into the above pile, and while there was intentions to remove the waste, sadly, time just ran out. 


Given the new location of a fire pit located across from the Tavern, the public just made use of this as an area to gather rather than a place to keep warm and dance. The future of this fire pit still remains unclear, but after a long week and a half, Bandit Camp was clear once again.  










Draugr and Theowynd's work gloves after a week of demanding labor. After they acquired their third hole in the one glove, they were thanked for their service in defense and laid to rest.

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