Chapter 15: Tavern Yard Reform

With Masque less than two weeks away, and funds limiting the repair work needed to be complete, thoughts of what to bring to the land next was limited to what could be accomplished by the sweat of your brow and the strength of ones back alone. Having previously sodded some of the Berm grass and fire ring out of Bandit Camp, a place was needed to place all that we had harvested. The unplanned project for the remainder of the pre-Masque timeline became the creation of a Tavern Yard. 

There have been multiple attempts to grow a lawn in the past, none that have truly succeeded. Due to heavy foot traffic during rainy events, the "lawn" became this patchy, rough, hard to mow area that needed some love. As aforementioned in an earlier chapter, Anvil and I gave our shot at the seeding process as well.    

Spring 2013

We began by aerating the soil with a tiller to give the seed a chance to root a bit, rather than get swept away by the next rain off the hard, compact surface. 

Spring 2013

There were mornings in June when Alex and I would be having breakfast behind that Tavern that I remember him throwing rocks at some birds that decided our newly spread seed was easy pickings for food. I remember distinctly one morning, the birds had caught on to the rock throwing, knowing he was not throwing to hit them but to scare him off. Not leaving, Alex, still in his morning robe, went out into the lawn, raising his fist, and said in an old man voice, "Get off my lawn, ya bunch of birds," then having shooed them, hobbled back to the bar pretending to be a crippled old man with a cane.   

Spring 2013

Sadly, even with the aerating of the soil, only half of the grass took root that season. 

Fall 2013

The dirt spots equip with tiny sharp stones and potential mud for the barren traveling foot.

Fall 2013

Looking even closer to the grassy patches, one can see the true state of how things were. 

Spring 2014

Upon returning to the Faire in April, taking inventory, it seemed that even more of the grass had died away over the Winter, and the Faire's main attraction was faced as a potential mud pit. 

Having recovered from the rainstorm, the mud becomes a bit more compact again.

It was finally time to change this. However, bringing the story back to chronological timeline again, the following events take place during the two weeks leading up to Masque Ball IX. 

After Bandit Camp Revive was complete, the Faire once again acquired the Viking; freshly returned from his travels northward. Given all of Elon's water flow research, he decided to test out a new and improved way of irrigating the side of the Tavern yard to always have running or flowing water to wash your hands or camp clean a dish or five. Giving the public access to step one cleaning phase of their used dishes was a step forward to distributing the work that was to be done in the kitchen after an event. Sadly, people hardly took advantage of this during the event. Hopefully they are to be made more aware of how just this little gesture of pre-rinsing the borrowed dishes from the Tavern is a HUGE help to the Tavern Staff. 

Tavern irrigation was all Elon's baby, and while I don't want to step on any toes including this in my blog, I think it is a cool feature and process to point out. Again all the work for this project, including re-digging the drainage ditches near the Tavern were done of Elon's hand. No credit is mine.   

How he would go on to provide water to the Tavern goes like this. He built a quick dam at the top of the hill behind the Tavern next to Ranger Camp, gaining more elevation the more he pressed back into the thicket. 

Increased elevation, means increased water pressure at the opposite end of the hose. 

But in this case, it wouldn't be hose, but corrugated four inch tubing sections 100 ft. in length.  

At the top of the tube, Elon would go on to secure it in mud and create another dam forming a collection point for the head.  

An additional project for the Faire this season, was to expand the garden. There were plans of a garden twice the size with trickle down irrigation as provided by Elon's work with water flow.  

As Elon was putting finishing touches on the irrigation piping, Dragur and I just finished the last bit of burning left over from our battle with the bushes. When both parties had found their tasks complete, we gather to discuss our new heading. A Tavern with a usable yard.   

Given that the first step in a larger garden is to sod the grass area out, the now three person crew decided it a good idea to place the sod from the garden extension right onto the mud covered yard. This then would potentially kill two objectives with one work order. Given that the location was next to the water project and close to the Tavern, Elon began to complete this task, while Dragur and myself went to look for additional sod elsewhere.

Frankly, Bandit camp is a Mother to mow. The unlevel and bumpy land requires an extra skill check from the Rider mower when traversing. Plus, there are so many trees, stumps, and ruts in such close proximity that it would be easier to just use the weed eater to clean up the rest. But again, with all else there was to upkeep at the Faire, a complete start to finish trimming job took the better part of three days. Sodding around the base of the trees sounded like a great solution to cut back on the funds and resources required to maintain the Faire lands and a great way to acquire more sod.  

And with that thought, buckets were placed around each tree to collect the diverse grass that lay above it's roots. 

And so the next few days were spent sodding around all the things we no longer wanted to spend the time or resources detailing.

Lots of sodding...

...so much sodding.

All. The. Sodding. 

A taxing time on the hands and feet; both keys in the leverage game played when dealing with the established roots of the plant life we are ripping from their homes. The following is a photo progression of how the Tavern Yard took shape as a result of Elon, Dragur, and Theowyn's efforts.  

 

Half way through the project, Elon is struck with a perfect place to dump all the white sand he transported from Michigan last season. He decides that the Tavern is to have a beach area next to the hand and dish washing stations. He requires more stone for the project, so as Dragur and I collect sod in the field, we also begin to collect relatively flat rocks for his vision. 

It is amazing the work and change that could be seen through the hands of only three people.  

 

  

Masque Count Down - 5 Days Left.

Five days before the Faire opens to the public the Faire receives an old guest, additional hands, and addition Faire structure funding.; the last to be discussed in the next Chapter.

Landowner and First Ranger of the Faire lands, Reddwycke du Foret, finds himself at the Faire early to help prep for Masque and get his hands dirty...

Some things went a bit faster with his help, while others... hey guys look a squirrel--> all of a sudden all capable hands turn into squirrels for the next ten minutes. This is not to say there was not already a resident squirrel on site or two; just that there now seemed to be a small pack of them.  

After hours and hours spent harvesting the lawn, the end was in site. All that was left was to patch in this last bit of hole. 

With the Tavern Yard in place it was time to tidy up the beach. Given that the stairs to the garden were deemed too close together to function properly, Elon placed the end of the water project over the rocks. 

It provided an ascetically pleasing to the eye and ear, a trickle down effect. 

Taken on the roof of the Tavern, this photo conveys an areal of the area that is to be The Beach, before the sand way poured. 

Once the water was in place, a proper hand washing station and prep table was set up, the white sand, stored in the Back 40 over the Winter was poured to make the beach complete. 

 

Once complete, benches were set up on our newly restored area, encouraging the public to interact with the new surroundings. 

Achievement Unlocked: Tavern Yard

Just in time too. For as the month of April came to a close, the past three weeks had saw a huge growth of grass, that needed to be taken care of before the public arrived. 

To be honest, the land was just mowed and not trimmed to a detailed perfection. Two reasons. First, simply because Theowyn wields the weed wip, having been spread to thin this pre-Masque, she simple ran out of time to do so. 

However, her bluff check will say that, "This was the first event of the season. Masque Beltane! Its supposed to be a bit wild." :p