taking a break to travel in time

I I "play" in the SCA, the Society for Creative Anachronism and this weekend is our big local event. We camp out, on relatively undeveloped land, for 4 days filled with classes, heavy weapon tournaments, light weapons tournaments, cooking and brewing competitions, and lots of socializing and fun. It’s dirty and hot and water has to be trucked on site but it’s still worth the effort. I am "camp mom" for a group of friends, like extended family, and I’m cooking for the group. Two of these friends are in charge of the event so they will be constantly busy so no time for cooking and such. I am in the process of pre-cooking most of the food and baking other items. it saves time and makes actual cooking on site much simpler.

I met Hubby through this group and we have many mutual friends who are more like family. My BFF is part of this group and I have taught her how to sew so she can make garb for herself and her husband. Jenn and I get together frequently and sew for upcoming events but this year with her graduating from college and me getting the house ready to list, we didn’t get a chance to do that this time. I am assembling a few things for myself that I cut out ages ago and just need to stitch together. I can do hand sewing on site after we’re all set up.

Tonight Hubby, Buddy and I are going out to site to set our camp up with our friends who are in charge of the event. This will provide support for Y and Melody for the event having our big shelter called a Dragon Wing in camp for all to gather and dine under. I will be setting up my kitchen too complete with a large 2 burner stove top and a small gas oven. I don’t suffer too much while we’re camping! We also have a shower tent and solar shower bags so hot water to shower with is just a few hours in the sun away. We have a "period" style tent made of cotton canvas that has wooden poles. It’s technically a round-end marquee that’s about the size of our living room. We also have a futon mattress with a folding metal frame so no sleeping on the cold lumpy ground!

This year we’re on a new site as everyone was complaining about the winds at the other park we were using. This time we have leased land from an owner but the advantages for this site is it’s closer to the mountains so less wind and it’s closer to town so less time driving to and from site. It also has a gate so our event can be kept very private.

This is probably the one break I will be taking between now and when we list the house. It’s a much needed break since we worked our tails off last weekend hauling stuff to the dump and getting the back yard mostly done. Our real estate broker is also someone we met through the SCA so she understands us taking some time off. She will be day tripping some during the event since she’s busy this time of year. She does Middle-eastern style music so she keeps busy outside the SCA too.

It takes a lot of work to make our camping events fun for everyone but it’s worth it in the end!

J