Chapter 16: Reoccurring Damage

Countdown to Masque IV: 2 Days 

The end of April showed the first of Spring's bloom coloring the backdrop in wispy shades of orange, yellow, and green. With Masque two days away and a returning material budget back on site, the last days were utilized for purchasing materials and repairing bits of the damaged infrastructure. 

R.I.P Sweet Footbridge

Five footbridges rest along the lands of Britannia Faire, one of which is fairly used for tavern vehicle traffic. All the bridges on the land have been exposed to flooding conditions more than once, and some have even been accidentally wiped out by traveling Vehicle Dragons (revisit Chapter 2: A Brit of a Background Tale - for details.) It seemed that no matter what preventive measures were in place to defend the Faire lands as best as could be done within the given conditions; these works could not get rid of the chaos threat: Reoccurring Damage, being utilized by the elements, individuals, and Big Oil. 
 

Which check will you choose. Vault, Jump, or Balance?

The Tavern Footbridge had been a major piece of resistance for the Faire Lands when they battled together in the Summer Flood of 2013.

(Revisit Vol.9 An Incredible Act of Nature - for details.) 










The reoccurring exposure to the resistance of water had begun to eat at the core foundation of the bridge and through some of the floor boards. Before the public came, the bridge was kept as a was, specifically so Theowyn would have to practice either a Balance, Jump, or Vault check when using the crossing. However, it is easy to see why the landowner only saw a liability, because *sigh*-society today, and thus the hazard was removed.   
 

Dracus was once again on site to help and gave his hand at removing the remaining boards leading up to the center of the bridge. 

This created a small wharf that was left as decoration next to the lit rock path beside it. 

Rewinding the timeline two weeks to mid April before the arrival of extra hands, Dragur and Theowyn were witness to frequent Oil Foreman truck traffic. Their trucks were huge when compared to the main bridge that crossed the crik. Picture a duely extended cab diesel truck. Now picture three of them traveling in fleet. Now picture them visiting at least a handful of times under my observation alone, not counting all the times in between Theowyn was not scouting the lands during the previous four months. 
 

Brit Faire's tiny entrance road was getting the dirt kicked down out of it every time the fleet came to visit, and of course they had to cross the bridge and park that little bit closer to the pipeline, because when you get paid that much to consult, people don't really think about stuff like that anymore. Why not walk a ways and spare us the infrastructure damage. So, the Tavern Bridge took reoccurring damage from both previous flooding events and again from the heavy truck traffic. Bits of it had begun to crumble away with less and less resistance. I will not yet get started about the damage to the main road into the valley; because that is it's own story to be reveled later down the path.

Brit Faire's tiny entrance road was getting the dirt kicked down out of it every time the fleet came to visit, and of course they had to cross the bridge and park that little bit closer to the pipeline, because when you get paid that much to consult, people don't really think about stuff like that anymore. Why not walk a ways and spare us the infrastructure damage. So, the Tavern Bridge took reoccurring damage from both previous flooding events and again from the heavy truck traffic. Bits of it had begun to crumble away with less and less resistance. I will not yet get started about the damage to the main road into the valley; because that is it's own story to be reveled later down the path.

Having a truck with four tires on the rear gives it a wider base. Too wide for the bridge, the fleet began to lean on both sides of the bridge, eroding one side down to exposed corrugated culvert, while bowing out the opposite bridge board.

Needing to patch this hole before it got any bigger, Dragur and I began to collect small rocks, followed by some gravel, before bigger rocks were chosen to provide stable height to drive upon in the middle.   

It was wonderfully convenient that these materials could be gathered in situ. This made for a quick harvest session.

A few more buckets of gravel collecting later and the far side of the bridge was repaired. 

This was a nice small scale warm up that was to come later with the entrance road. 

Good thing the bridges so far are over small runoffs. One can solve the problem by referring to Mel Brook's "Robin Hood Men In Tights" when Achoo tries to prevent Robin Hood from getting into a staff fight with Little John. But for now, back to the Britannia Faire Bridges.

 

The last flood really did some damage to the Troll Bridge, and the lack of a working rope railing made the passage a bit dangerous in the landowners liable eye. 

This bridge is located higher off the ground than any other on site and just happens to be the area of least risk if needing to escape the land during high water. (Again Chapter 9 - contains great images on the subject of Faire land flooding.)

Materials and motivation correlated which resulted in the replacement of all the floor boards along the bridge. Red and Dragur would start this adventure off with a town run, while Theowyn walked to join them upon their return. 

Once the tools were unloaded, the new boards would be cut to length by Redwyke to start while Dragur began to remove the old boards. 

Moist wood usually makes for some neat sightings. Fungi are a common sighting, this time flanked by slugs. 

Additional sightings included salamanders and a squadron of fire ants. 

The next half of the project required one to possess a calm when dealing with heights, electrical lines over water, and deteriorating slippery wood. 

 

Once the boards were cut to size, they were fastened to the bridge with six, three inch screws.

We eventually got into a cycle of removal, clean, and fasten. This enabled the task pass at a quicker pace. 

And before you know it, the project was in its closing rounds. 

With most infrastructure repaired and opening day of Masque finally upon us, it was time to focus on the details.  

 

The arrival of the first guest rallied our force and re-centered our group around the inner tavern lands.

Throughout the morning, a new entrance sign was in the works. Something a visitor could see from the road.

Going through the remainder of the Faire's paint stock, yellow and blue were selected for the color scheme to match the Background Tale of Britannia. (Revisit Chapter 2: A Brit of a Background Tale - for more details.)   

Both the Ranger and the Viking would have their hands at the sign, one insisting he could paint better than the other. 

While pieces were falling into their final place around the land, my hands were set on preparing the Tavern for guests.  

As the tale would go, Theowyn was to play Inn Keeper during Masque this year. Aside from under the table farm work, my first real job was in a kitchen training to be a short order cook. I would go on to keep kitchen focused jobs for the first six years of my work history, intermingled with other random jobs whenever the opportunity came up, Theater and Stage work being the most common. One thing that cannot be stressed enough in the cooking realm is cleanliness. So in order to keep the open-to-the-elements tavern bar as clean as possible, a cut out sanitary sink was made that could be filled with hot disinfecting water when the generator was on. 

The process was simple, trace the basin edges, top and bottom, then find a happy medium between those measurements and draw a center line.  

Along the center line, a drill bit was used to create points of entrance for the blade of a jigsaw that would be used to finish the job.  (+Construction exp)

Always wear safety equipment when using power tools, at the minimum glasses. You just never know.

Built from a spare washtub and an extra bit of plywood, the basin was a place for cleansing warm water.

Any resulting sawdust or wind blown dirt that did not get swept up were sucked up by Draugr's game of vortex capture.

Given that Dragur was already using the vacuum, I had decided it best to sweep the game rug and stock pile a spare bit of wood. Always wanting to be prepared in case of rain.  

Two nearly full buckets of things that don't belong later, the carpet was looking sharp and ready for the weekend.

During that time, the sign had finished drying and was mounted on display boarding. This was then taken to the first turn off of 800 next to the entrance to Township Highway 646. 

It was time for more people to show up. Excitement was in the air and the chance for achieving objectives before the masses came was down to the wire. Although in the end, even if the Faire was not ready, the people would be coming anyway. 

And they did come. Some individuals own canvas pavilions, and with them the Faire slips into its medieval look. 

It was finally time. A whole month of prepping for the event that was just now taking place. The May Pole was up, so we will all drink a cup and toast the welcoming of Spring.

The following is a video capturing some of the formal Masqued dancing lead by instructor of period dance, Master Harry Appledore during Masque 2014.

 

That wasn't the only dancing that would be had. Fires burned into the night, and the sound of drums rang off the valley walls until the early hours of the dawn. 

Life was good.

Photo credit to Aurora's Dagorhir Photography --> https://www.facebook.com/aurorasdagphotos?hc_location=ufi

The lands were happy to be host to a group of players again, with plenty of playful paths offered for both Dagorhir combatants and Role-players alike. 

And then just as soon as the event had started, it was over...

Everyone had left. 

Remnants of the weekend could be seen scattered about the site. Many things that didn't blend into the survival outpost shift looked vastly out of place. 

Thing lost track of or deliberately left, not adhering to the, "what you take in, please take out" concept were strewn about the lawn in various places. 

Even really expensive things were left outside where they didn't belong.





Its a dirty job but the land was swept and everything that was out of place, was gathered in one location.

This was what resulted.


Given the reoccurring damage the onsite truck had sustained, the landowner told me not to use the truck for anything, and took the keys to be certain of that.

Granted all four tires were bald and down to minimal tread, the front has a crooked grin, there is a dent in the rear quarter-panel, and the back window is missing; but aside from that, using the truck for one more day would have been convenient before a vow of celibate dragon riding. 

However, seeing as that was no longer an option, Moonshadow was loaded up multiple times in attempt to dispose of the piled waste that was left for the groundskeeper to deal with. 

(I wonder if Lowes or Home Depot would sponsor the Faire, lol)

 There was one final player in the Reoccurring Damage trifecta yet to be talked about: Big Oil.

The mineral rights for the land were sold and a second pipeline right-of-way was scheduled to be built during the summer of 2014. 

Damage from the initial right-of-way widening could already be seen looming over the land as downed trees lie slain on both sides of the valley.

The following shots were of the work already being completed on the surrounding lands. The Faire would be exposed to similar damage soon and begin the long road to recover. 

Pipeline Rig located just before the 800 exit of route 70.

Earth Dragons tearing up the land, digging the pipeline placement route a few miles down the main road from the Faire entrance.

And lastly a few pics of the pipeline staging area. 

This pipeline would eventually connect to the line that runs directly across the main battle field at Britannia Faire. 

An with the thought of a forty foot wide land scar traversing the entire battle field, flanked by huge pieces of loud, heavy machinery; the executive decision was made to pull the period plug that was Britannia Faire's 2014 season.   

And because there was nothing to host, I was told I would have to leave a live action piece of artwork that I had just poured the better half of 9 months in. My everything protested this path. That break was precious time desired to build upon ground zero, undistracted by events with no damage to be done by the masses. But that's the true clause out here. The Faire lands were not mine, even though I loved and labored on them as if my soul had claim to the nature here. Sadly, it was time to make a reality check.