Skalla's Steading

Badge Update

2012-01-25T22:36:00.002-05:00

This is going slower than I had expected. I am learning how to do this beading, mostly making it up as I go. This is a little smaller than the original, but I think this size will be better. I may end up putting this on a livery collar, which is my current plan. I started backing it today and hope to finish tomorrow.

2012-01-16T23:26:00.001-05:00

Many years ago, when I was awarded the Dragons Heart, the award came with a beaded representation of the badge. I liked it so much that one of my friends bought me a similar badge for the Purple Fret that I had previously been awarded. Those two badges became some of my most cherished SCA belongings. A few years ago both these badges went missing. I do not know if they got left at an event or simply misplaced at home, but I have not been able to find them.

I think I will try to reconstruct them, I know it will not be the same, but I have given up on them turning up around the house.

I tried to do the Purple Fret badge by freehand but was not satisfied with the results, so I set up a loom. This is a little smaller from what I remember the old one being but its as big as the loom will allow. After this is done I will sew it down onto fabric and make a pendant or I may make a heraldic mantle and put this and my own badge on it.

2012-01-11T23:35:00.002-05:00

Well it took 4 coats of paint but my banner is now correct for my registered Arms!!!

2012-01-10T15:33:00.006-05:00

I was so convinced that my first change of my Arms would go through that I had a Banner made. I should have known better, but I was positive it would pass. First it was lost and then when it was resubmitted it did not pass. It was too close to a couple other designs.

After it failed, I made a list of all the possible permutations of the device I had originally submitted and double checked every possible conflict. As I found conflicts, I crossed them off the list. When I was finished I had a small a very small list left over. After looking at them for a couple weeks I picked the one I though looked best and resubmitted it.

This time the work paid off and the device was passed. I now have to repaint part of the original Banner. After two coats of paint the blue is still coming through so it looks like it will take several more. I will try to finish tonight, if the paint will dry fast enough.

2012-01-10T15:00:00.000-05:00

Well I won’t go into all the details but I have been semi retired from the SCA for most of 2011. I was able to keep up with the paperwork for the Regional Seneschal job but only ended up attending a handful of events. I think I have only been in armor twice this year.

In August I was able to hand off the office to Baroness Giovanni from Cynnabar. I am glad the office will be going to someone who can devote the time needed for it. I was really a little two pinched for time for the last few months of the job.
It’s been getting slowly better since October, I have had some time to look over my SCA kit and start making improvements. I should be able to get back in the swing of things with the new year.

One noteworthy item from this fall, the design for changing my Coat of Arms passed the College of Heralds and my old arms were released. I kept my old badge but now my Arms are: Quarterly Argent and Gules, A mullet quarterly Azure and Or.

Since I am not a great artist, this will be far easier to paint on my shield and make clothes with my Arms on them than the old one. Since I retained the Panther as a Fieldless Badge, I can still use it when I want.

Regional Seneschal

2011-08-11T15:26:00.001-04:00

On August 1st I handed off the Regional Seneschal job for Pentamere to Baroness Giovanna from Cynnabar. I would like to thank her for volunteering and stepping up to take this job. At almost four years I had reached my sell by date!!!

In 2008, I had made a goal of attending one event for each group in the region and a business meeting, if it was close enough and the schedule permitted me to attend. In the first two years on the job (2008-2009) I was very successful in this endeavor. I attended a business meeting for all the groups on the East side of the state, a couple on the West side and events for both. In 2010 things changed a bit at work and I only attended “problem” business meetings. On top of that I only attended four events in the Region. I kept the paperwork side of the office flowing well but getting out and attending events really suffered.

2011 started out even busier between work and a couple family health issues. So far this year I have only attended two events and a small handful of business meetings. It was time to hand over the job to someone who would be able to be more active.

I must admit that it was a little bit of an eye opener being Regional Seneschal. In the past I had held a couple jobs in the College of Heralds but they were paper pushing type jobs. Having to talk with members and groups who have problems and dealing with the larger SCA bureaucracy over the last four years I have changed many of my SCA assumptions. I think there are some fundamental functions that the SCA should be doing to remain healthy that are broken.

Now that I am no longer an officer, I may expound on this in future posts.

Tuesday night at the Stormvale Art Guild

2011-03-02T18:50:00.000-05:00

Last night I attended Stormvale’s Arts Guild. Lady Teryll’s having her annual Ukrainian Easter Egg making session. I worked on my revised Coat of Arms and colored in the new drawings. I am going with Quarterly Argent and Gules, Quarterly Azure and Or a Mullet. This seems the catchiest design from the Heraldic event last weekend.
It was nice seeing everyone and checking out their egg designs.

Heraldic Event

2011-02-26T20:15:00.004-05:00

Well my friends have been yelling at me to either cancel my blog or update it. I think I will work on the updating part.

I attended the Canton of Weldlake’s Herald Pointe and Scribal Collegium today. It was a nice event and they were very helpful in looking over my proposed device change. My last attempt had failed in that I had forgotten that a 5 pointed Star and a 6 pointed Star would conflict from a Heraldic perspective. So it was time to try again.

Duncan Cameron the Fenris Herald and Master Kondrad Mailander the Rouge Scarpe Herald along with the Event Steward Lord Aindle ODiarmada all helped with one aspect or another of looking up some possible ideas. In the end it appears that counterchanging the Star should be clear of conflict. I will make examples of both Gules and Argent and Azure and Or and see if either grows on me.

The drive home was quite nasty with several cars off the road on US-23. I hope everyone else from the event made it home fine.

Helmet Almost Done!!

2010-09-30T17:05:00.002-04:00

Well I really should try to keep this more up to date. I have worked on this helmet a couple times in the last few weeks and have everything roughly fitting now. I need to have Robert over to do a final fit and then rivet the cheek and face pieces on. Maybe one more session and at most two too finish!!

P.S. Don’t mind the workbench clutter. I was cleaning out a couple cupboards and it's usually not this bad.

Helmet update

2010-07-26T23:28:00.001-04:00

I worked on Robert’s helmet again tonight. I had miscounted the number of rivets needed to finish the top. Instead of 15 it was actually 24. I am down to 12 left and I did a little shaping on the other parts for the helmet.

Robert's Helmet update

2010-07-15T10:45:00.000-04:00

Well I did some more work on Roberts helmet last night. I closed two rivets and then started shaping pieces. All the parts for the top of the helmet are now shaped and either riveted together or bolted waiting to be riveted. 15 bolts will have to be replaced with rivets to finish off the top but I will wait until Robert can attend again before doing those.

Since the top is shaped I decided to continue breaking my rules and started shaping the pieces to attach the back slats and also first cheek plate. I would like to shape and fit the pieces ahead of time so we can concentrate on riveting for our next get together. This way it may be only 2-3 sessions before the helmet is finished.

Worked on Armor

2010-07-14T13:06:00.001-04:00

Robert (my household member) stopped by last night at 7pm and we worked on armor and other projects until a bit after 11pm. Much was accomplished and we are talking about getting together weekly again.

It had been long enough since he last dropped in that we needed to review the state of our various projects. We started with Robert’s kit and had him put it on and check everything for fit and completeness. He has an arming cap, gorget, gambeson, athletic supporter, steel legs, aluminum gauntlets, heater shield and sword with cross hilt. He is still borrowing my helmet, steel arms and Balian’s spare breast plate. In addition his sword will need a thrusting tip since that is part of the authorization now.

For projects in process, his new helmet is about 20% finished and his butted chain hauberk about 60%. After our review we indentified that he needed several additional items and made a project list. We will probably stick to one project each and finish up one before we go on the next item. This will work best since we have not been getting together as often and I would rather finish one thing at a time instead of having all of them partially done. In addition the agreement has been that I would work on his helm and other items but only when he was present and that if he came by more often the stuff would get done quicker.

Project List in rough order, new helmet, chain hauberk, sword tip(we may actually do this next week), blue or brown helmet, arm harness, body armor so hauberk can be used, axe, great sword & polearm. So after the review we started working.

Robert split his chain hauberk down the front and began adding in extra rows. The mail was too small to be worn over his gambeson and needed to be expanded. When he made it, he fitted it while wearing a tee shirt. He split the mail, added several rows and ended up running out of chain links. So then he started helping me work on the helmet. He says he will come back next week with enough links to finish off the front and will probably add longer sleeves but will do that on his own now that he knows how to make his own links and expand/contract the mail. He had essentially made a chain poncho and didn’t know how to make the chain grow or contract for necks and arms etc. He spent the last couple sessions making the rounded neck. He ended the night with the chain hauberk about 80% done.

I took the helmet and began riveting in the pieces for the top. Previously I had shaped all but 4 of the top pieces and had held them together with nuts and bolts. By 11pm I had 24 rivets to go on the upper portion of the helmet. 12 are for the top pieces I haven’t shaped yet. For a couple of the last rivets I had to have Robert hold the helmet so I could use a tool with the hammer to be able to reach into the helm. I may cheat a little and shape more pieces before we get together again but will wait for Robert before I rivet anymore parts together. Considering the remaining shaping and the enormous number of rivets needed, I would guess the helmet is now 40% done. If I work on some shaping this week, I may be able to get it closer to 50% before we next meet.

Armor repair

2010-07-10T01:14:00.001-04:00

I have apparently neglected the routine maintenance of my Armor!!! At a recent practice my shield edging came loose so I switched to two sword. Then after a couple minutes my sword finally pulped out and it broke at the cross guard. In addition I have been having problems with my leg armor. If I wear the legs for a couple hours the leather stretches and the knees drop down too far.

Having taken a complete inventory of my fighting kit, I need to put some work into nearly everything. So I am starting at the top and working down and fixing everything. This week is my helmet. The interior liner is loose and the leather cord for the aventail is frayed so I have taken them both out to replace.

The liner (after a good washing) is fine and looks to be in better shape than I thought. One small seam had split and the thread actually holding it into the helmet had worn away. Now the seam is patched up and I am in the process of sewing the liner back into the helmet.

Friday Night at Skalla's Steading

2010-04-13T12:29:00.001-04:00

Robert did stop by on Friday but he was later than normal and we did not get as much accomplished as I had hoped.

He was able to finish his Chainmail Hauberk. At the same time, I put a bit more work in his helmet and the main supports are now all in and we have started on some of the X’s and Y’s for the helmet. I hope to finish the top section and be working on the sides after one or perhaps two more sessions.
Before breaking up for the night we decided to take stock in what he had and what he still needed.

Completed so far: Legs, gambeson, arming cap, sword, heater shield, chain hauberk.

Still borrowing: Helmet, Churburg style Breastplate

Still working on: His own helmet, Arms ( He has vambraces but needs elbow cops), Gorget ( We discovered he needs to re-make his gorget, it’s too small to fit his new gambeson) He would also like to switch to round shield from the heater he is currently using. After those are done we will consider what to do to replace the Churburg Style Breastplate

So our schedule is: Gorget first, elbows second, helmet third. I hope to have the Gorget and elbows done in three weeks. If I keep working on the helmet it should be close to being done by then.

New Poleaxe

2010-04-05T22:33:00.002-04:00

Sir Vitus von Atzinger has recently been offering SCA weapons on Armor Archive. He listed a nice looking Poleaxe and I have never been completely happy with my attempts at making one. They have always turned out too top heavy. Since this would look great with my 14th century kit and I wanted one made by an expert I snapped it up. It arrived the other day and here is a picture. I hope to do some grievous damage at fighting practice with this. Its pretty sweet and looks cool!!!

Working on Helmet

2010-04-05T22:31:00.001-04:00

Measure twice and cut once was something my dad repeatedly reminded me when I was young. I should have remembered. I finished bending all the pieces for Roberts helmet and was in such a rush to make more progress that I installed one of the bands on upside down. I figured it out pretty quickly when the next piece failed to fit. Since I had pre-fitted everything I had an immediate sinking feeling that I had done something wrong. So the rest of my work time tonight was used up cutting off the rivets for the part.
Now that I have the piece off I will put it back on the next time I work on this (correctly since I wrote “this way up” in Black Marker on the inside) …..probably on Friday as Robert tends to drop in then.

Working on Robert's armor

2010-03-22T12:55:00.001-04:00

Robert stopped by on Friday and we worked on his kit. He lacks elbows (he’s been borrowing mine) and he needs his own helmet (also borrowing mine). One of the helmet kits will be his as long as he does enough work on it. Friday he repaired his chainmail and we both worked on his vambraces and helmet kit. The chain is repaired and the vambraces are done. Next Friday we will cut out elbow cops and shape them. If we get far enough we can add the elbows but I expect it to be the week after.
I think he needs two more fighting practices with a couple different people to be ready to authorize as a fighter. After the elbows are done it will be time to take our show out on the road and make sure to attend a couple practices. Hopefully this will be accomplished in April and he can get authorized at the next event we can attend.
I will have to remember to take pictures of the progress. I always forget.

Illumination

2010-03-18T01:39:00.004-04:00

Well its been more than a decade since I did any calligraphy or Illumination. I thought I would try my hand at some Celtic Knotwork. It looked great before I colored it in. I should have used proper pigments but instead tried to make do with what I had around the house. It turned out way to dark. It worked out but I must admit it looked better in my head when I was thinking about it.

More practice and some proper tools should help.

Second Helmet

2010-03-02T12:44:00.002-05:00

Well I liked the first one so much, I decided to get a second kit and make a Helmet for Daryll. It arrived yesterday and I hope to put some work into it tonight.

New Helmet

2010-02-24T00:07:00.001-05:00

Well after a couple hours here is a rough fitting. I have several more pieces to rough out and then starting to assemble it in earnest.

New Helmet

2010-02-23T21:44:00.002-05:00

I have started a new project. I picked up a helmet kit from Zweihammer Armory for a Valsgarde 6 helmet. I will start working on putting this together for Robert. If this works well I may get one for myself.

Tuesday Guild night

2010-02-23T21:41:00.000-05:00

Class got out early tonight so I dropped in on the local Art Guild at Teryll’s house. It looks like they are working on garb tonight. I hung out for a while and then had to go home to work on homework. It was nice seeing everyone.

Tuesday Art Guild

2009-10-28T16:19:00.001-04:00

Class ended early last night ( I am taking night classes) and I was able to drop in on the Teryll’s Art Guild. She is currently teaching a token or coin casting class. In attendance was Sylvia, Seth and his wife ( I should have written down her name) and an old Stormvale member from the 1980’s, Elnor. Seth tried on my old helm ( also from the 80’s ) and it fit!!! He will be borrowing the helm until he can make/purchase one of his own. I also have an old set of legs that look like they would fit him. They will need to have a couple straps fixed but that should be a quick and easy fix. The funny part is that both the helmet and the leg armor is older than he is.

Fighting Wednesday Night

2009-08-27T15:04:00.001-04:00

Robert called and said he would like to stop by last night around 6:30. I contacted Ervon to see if he would like to have a fighting practice and help get Robert ready for his authorization. We started at about 7pm and the three of us fought until dark. Robert did much better than his last practice and was working in thrusts a bit more. I think a couple more practices should see him ready to authorize.
Ervon loaned Robert a sword and some body armor for the practice. Robert also used Ervon’s round shield and decided he liked that style better. It may have helped that the shield was a bit lighter than the one he had been using.
Robert needs a gambeson because the chain he is wearing is leaving small round spots where he is getting hit. He seems to be stuck on using chain so we will have to make sure we get it padded better.

Last week

2009-08-24T12:30:00.000-04:00

Last week proved much busier than I expected.

Robert was ill for our practice so instead of practicing, I ended up working on Colleen’s box lid and replacing a couple straps on my armor. I also had to reshape part of the armor for my right leg. Somehow I ended up with a twist to my knee making it difficult to walk. That took quite a bit of work to straighten out and make it work properly again.

I did not make very much progress on the chainmail. I closed up another 5 inches on the front patch but need to do another 5-6 inches to finish up and then close in the neck opening. Hopefully I will find more time this week. To finish the box and the chainmail

Working on Projects

2009-08-18T13:17:00.000-04:00

Well I finished installing the new back panel of the hauberk, split the front and attached the first 5” of the front panel. Now that the panels have been added I can tell I will have to add several inches to close in the neck of the hauberk as it nearly falls off the shoulders now. Later in the week I will finish up the front panel and probably start on the neck over the weekend.

At that point I went into the basement and did some sanding on a box lid I am putting together for Eron. Her original lid had split at Pennsic last year and I am finally getting around to finishing a new lid for her. I should have this wrapped up over the weekend as well.

Making an early period armor kit.

2009-08-17T13:46:00.001-04:00

A couple weeks ago I decided to add an early period fighting kit to my list of SCA things to do. I would like the kit to be somewhere between 950 to the first Crusade. I think this would compliment my current 14th Century kit and allow me to be work on a couple different styles of fighting. So I have pulled out my old butted chain hauberk and started working on setting up the early period armor. I made this hauberk back in the mid 1980’s and I must have worn a much thinner gambeson back then because I remember it fitting and actually having a decent amount of room. Now when I put it on I look like a sausage in a chain mail casing. So I started working on panels that I will add to the front and back of the hauberk. Last night I finished the panels and split the front of the hauberk to start adding in the first rectangle of mail. I should be able to finish up the front panel tonight after work.

Getting Robert in Armor

2009-08-12T14:37:00.001-04:00

Robert has been dropping in irregularly this summer and we have been working on getting him armored up. He now has all the armor necessary to practice in!!!! He may need to upgrade his body armor a little and we will lengthen his aventail to make the barrel helm he is wearing legal. Or I should say its “legal” now but I am not happy with the possibility of the current aventail moving up and exposing some of the back of his neck. So our next armory sessions will be to correct that.

To celebrate his armor being ready, we went out into my front yard and had an impromptu practice. We started about ½ speed and I had Robert hit me to get a good idea of how hard he should be hitting. Next I struck him and we worked on what was a good blow for him to receive. Next some basics about sword swings and blocking with the shield. Since he wanted to mix it up a bit more we spent the last ½ of the practice sparing. Robert did quite well but will have to work on thrusting if he is to prepare for his authorization bout.

We discussed the possibility of running a fighting practice each week until he was ready to authorize. So I think we will meet each Tuesday or Thursday to practice until dusk. After that we will work on armor or weapons. I will send a couple e-mails to check if there will be authorizations at the next few upcoming events. These events will be Havoc at Hastings, Procrastinators Brawl and Vikings Come Home and I hope to get Robert to one to authorize.

Mid Michigan Renaissance Festival

2008-10-30T14:04:00.001-04:00

So far I have only been able to make it up for one day of the Mid Michigan Renaissance Festival. This is the final weekend and I had hoped to put in more of an attendance. Work, School and a Cold has made this difficult. I did enjoy the Saturday I spent at the Festival. I believe it was the first time I have ever fought Edmund d’Amberville and we put on a couple fights for the crowd. The Fest seems to be going well and I hope it will help result in recruiting members for Fearann na Criche and Stormvale.

Busy Lately

2008-10-26T23:01:00.000-04:00

This has been a very busy month and I have forgotten to update my Blog. I suppose this is good and bad…I am too busy doing stuff to have time to write about doing stuff!! I will make a series of updates and post them in the next couple days to bring this current again.

Working on Armor

2008-09-04T12:26:00.000-04:00

Robert stopped by last night (with his armor) and basically said “hey lets work on armor”!!!

So I dropped my homework (I will just have to stay up later to work on it) and we picked up the shop a little to set things up to work on his armor. He would like to get authorized as soon as possible so we are bringing his armor up to snuff (all his equipment is older and could use some TLC). His gorget was too large so we cut down the front and re-hammered the shape so it would fit better. After that was done we glued padding onto the inside of the gorget. We looked over the rest of the armor and decided to strap the legs slightly better and add a row or two to the aventail of the helmet.

He is going to stop by again on Friday and we should be able to get in a little fighting and then finish off the leg straps. I don’t think I will have the aventail lengthened by then but I will get a start on it over the weekend.

Havoc In Hastings 2008

2008-09-04T10:58:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend I attended the Havoc in Hastings event. It was a nice demo and a lot of people stopped by to check out the fighting area. I hopefully this will result in some new members for Three Walls.

Sir Angus Gordon was running the Authorizations. I put on my MIT hat and helped out. There were two new authorizations, one re-authorization and one out of kingdom authorization for the day. Sir Brannos did a great job of running commentary explaining what was going on to the spectators and it reminds me that we sometimes fail to do that well during demo’s. I received another signature for acting as MIT for the event and now need one more to be able to take the test to become a Marshal!! Hopefully I can get the last signature this month and try to wrap up this process.

As far as I could determine the only other members from Stormvale attending were Erevon and Eron. They spent the day shopping and at the archery field. I did not see them at the event but they had noticed me on the list and had expected me to come over and say hi. Without my glasses I am good to 75-100 feet but past that I cannot make out individuals. So they yelled at me Sunday for not being sociable but it was more blindness and not so much anti-social. I probably should have stayed for court but as the fighting was wrapping up I ended up running home.

Old Picture

2008-08-31T21:37:00.002-04:00

Recently a friend of mine found this old picture from about 6 years ago when my helmet and brigantine was new. The jeans and tennis shoes have since been replaced as well as the leg armor.

Aventail

2008-08-18T23:46:00.002-04:00

I am about 2 days behind schedule but I did manage to finish the aventail Sunday. Now I need to attach it to the helmet. Robert should be dropping it off tomorrow, so hopefully by Thursday-Friday it should be done.

2008-08-14T12:14:00.003-04:00

Well it’s been a pretty slow week. I should be finishing the Mail aventail today or Friday and will attach it to the loaner helm this weekend. This should make the Helm SCA legal and let me get Robert authorized for heavy weapons.

I liked the Banner and Pennons so much that now I think it’s time to get a Standard. Someone on the Armor Archive makes beautiful Standards and I think I will give them a try. I still need to design the Standard and will work on that this weekend.

Since I seem to be planning out my weekend I might as well look at further out to fill up more weekends. Looking at upcoming events my short list will be:
Havoc in Hastings (Hastings, MI August 30-31 )
Rain of Arrows (New Lothrup, MI Sept. 13 )
Vikings Come Home (Kalkaska, MI Sept 19-21)
If possible I would also like to attend: (not sure if work will co-operate)
Harvest Days & Chivalry Tourney (Camden, OH Sept 5-7 )

This makes for a pretty busy September. I may have to skip at least one of these events between real life and work. I am duty bound to Pentamere and feel I should give preference to events in Michigan so if anything has to slip it will be the Chivalry Tourney.

Missing Pennsic and Chainmail

2008-08-06T09:39:00.001-04:00

Erevon dropped by Sunday night and we had an impromptu Pennsic pity party. We both worked on our chainmail projects and generally bemoaned the fact we would not be attending Pennsic. He is not going this year due to a couple family matters and I am not going as this is my off year. My wife hates the camping and we have come to an agreement that we would attend every other year. So my August yearly vacation consists of alternating between Pennsic and somewhere my wife would like to go.

The chainmail project I have started working on is a butted chainmail aventail. Robert (my nephew) has been working with me to get authorized as a Heavy Weapons fighter. He is using several pieces of my old armor. My old barrel helm allows too much exposure to his neck so I am putting together an Aventail. I hope to have it finished this week and attach it to the helm so we can get in a more serious practice. I will get some pictures up when his loaner kit is finished.

I put to together a gorget first and that helped but there is too much gapping when he tips his head forward or back for the helm and gorget to pass an inspection. I believe a nice aventail will take care of this problem and look better than anything we could do to the helm or gorget to get it to pass. I haven’t done chain mail since the early Nineties and it brings back some memories of when the Shire of Stormvale produced a hauberk as a gift for the King nearly twenty years ago .

New Gonfalon and Pennons arrive!!!

2008-08-05T23:07:00.003-04:00

About a month ago I ordered a Gonfalon and Pennons from The House of Dirk and Arrow. Examples of their work can be found at http://dirkandarrow.com/.

I had come across their work on the Armor Archive and was impressed. Since I have the artistic talent of a Walrus, I thought I would give them a try. I received the finished product last week and they are outstanding in quality and construction. I recommend them for anyone who needs beautiful and durable heraldic display. I am particularly impressed by the Panther Pennon. This only took a couple weeks total so that was also impressive.

I am going to save up my shekels and order a Gonfalon of my wife’s arms in September and also a couple more Pennons.

The Armor Archive can be found here. http://www.armourarchive.org/

Protege

2008-07-21T16:05:00.001-04:00

A couple weeks ago I was having a discussion about the SCA with Melisande of Woodcrest (OP) and Balian deBrionne. The discussion went pretty far afield and included many different SCA topics. One of the topics covered was asking Melisande for some advice on some activities I could take as Regional Seneschal to help foster more communication and information sharing. Since she had been a past Kingdom Officer and Regional Seneschal for Pentamere, she could have some ideas I had not considered.

She made a couple comments at the time that I took to mean she would be interested or happy to help me if I needed any more advice on the topic. After I got home and made notes about the various topics we covered, I realized she may have been offering more than just help with advice but a more active arrangement (I have been know to be very slow on the uptake). She may have offered to take me as her protégé. About a week later I was able to ask her for clarification and she said she had indeed offered to have me as a protégé. I accepted on the spot !!!
Now I need to find out what she expects out of me as a Protégé.

Resubmitted my Coat of Arms change

2008-07-03T12:44:00.001-04:00

Well I have resubmitted the change to my registered arms!! I received the needed signed permission to conflict from THL Adela de Warren from Northshield. Thank you Lady Adela!!!!! I had the packet of material ready and after making a couple copies I sent off the submission. Now I get to cross my fingers and wait about 8 months or so to get an answer from Laurel.

NEW ARMOR!!!

2008-07-02T16:57:00.002-04:00

Well this will be a series of small updates to bring this Blog current.

I ordered a new set of armor. Arms and legs, both to look a little spiffier and also reduce some of the weight of my kit. This is ABS plastic covered in leather and looks very nice. I ordered these from the House of the Wolf after seeing some information about their product at the Armour Archive. I ordered this and it shipped in one week. That is outstanding speed considering most armor I have ordered before.

I have practiced in the Arm armor already and really like it. I have a small adjustment to make to the legs and also may make a quilted leg to wear underneath the armor to look more period. This will give me something to do over the holiday!! http://houseofthewolf.com/

Border War

2008-06-16T16:55:00.000-04:00

I attended Border War this weekend and had a wonderful time. I am not sure what the overall attendance was but there were 77 heavy weapon fighters and 34 fencers who took the field Saturday. It was melee practice all day and I was able to fight about half the battles before I ran out of gas. My stamina has improved a little in the last few weeks but I need to get more serious about exercising if I am going to last longer. It will have to be back to Cardio class and the weight room!!

Thorormr (from Stormvale) and I fought together, he was a great shieldman (It’s a shame I wimped out) and lasted much longer in the fight than I did. I fought spear and he had a round center boss shield with sword. I managed to kill a couple with the spear so I thought it was a pretty good day everything considered.

New Forester!!!

2008-06-16T16:53:00.001-04:00

My good friend Erevon fitzGerald as inducted into the Order of the Greenwood Company during court!!!! It came as a complete surprise to him and I must admit myself. About a year ago several of us had suggested him for the award but it had not come to pass at that time. But better late than Never!!!!

Congratulations to the Honorable Lord Erevon!!

New Armor on the Way!!!

2008-06-13T14:04:00.001-04:00

After saving my shekels for a couple months I have managed to put together enough money for some new armor!!!! So today I have ordered a new Gorget (to use as a loaner ) and a new set of Arms and Legs. The Gorget should arrive in a month or two and the Arms and Legs will arrive in 2 weeks.

The new Arms and Legs are an ABS plastic with a Leather covering. I ordered them from House of the Wolf. http://houseofthewolf.com/ This should do a couple things for me.

First, when the Gorget arrives I should have almost two complete sets of loaner armor, if I use my current legs and arms as loaner . If I make a coat of plates I would have enough for two.
Second, I will have a lighter set of armor ( I am not getting any younger ) to fight in that will look better than what I have today and closer to the transitional 14th century look that I would like.
I will have to post pictures when the armor arrives!!

Stormvale Demo June 7th 2008

2008-06-09T16:30:00.001-04:00

Stormvale put on a Demo this past Saturday as part of the Genesee County Autism Support Walk. I am not sure if my count is accurate but I believe 16 people attended from the Shire. Activities included Belly Dancing, Fighting, Metalworking, Henna Tatooing and showing off fancy Garb!!! At various times the Belly Dancing and Fighting had crowds of interested people asking about the activities. Several people sought out further information from Gerard about the group so hopefully some of them may end up attending a local meeting.

A rundown of the demo (forgive me if I get any names or activities wrong!! I will correct them as people let me know):
ATTENDING
Joseph, Suzanna, Thorormir and 2 daughters (don’t remember the SCA name), Ervon, Eron, Gerard, Breanna, Katy, Nikki, Silvia, Two Belly Dancers who I did not get the names of and myself. At some point I had counted 16 people but as I write this on Monday I cannot remember who the last person was. It was hot enough that perhaps it was a mirage!!!

The fighting was brutal. It was so humid that I was already tired by the time the armor was on. Thorormir and Ervon also armored up and we ran several sets of fighting with a good deal of rest in between. I had to slow down and take it a little easier (due to heat) towards the end and the bouts tended to be 3-4 sets of sparing with a rest called. I will have to work on my conditioning as it is not what it should be.

In my opinion, this seemed like a nice venue and worked better than a parade type of demo. The setting allowed people to spend some time and ask questions if they had an interest instead of just seeing some people marching around in a parade and wondering who they were. If may be worth looking for more activities like this for recruiting members.

Iron Oak Demo

2008-05-22T15:49:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday (May 17th) I attended a Demo/Parade held by the Incipient Canton of Iron Oak. It was part of the Annual Railroad Days held each year in Durand, MI . I believe 10 or 11 SCA members walked in the parade which was a mile to a mile and ½ in length. This was the first time that Iron Oak participated in the event and hopefully they will attract some members as a result of the parade.

Also in attendance was the Baron and Baroness of Northwoods Odo & Dulcinea, Lady Morgaine the Iron Oak Seneschal, her two daughters and several other Canton members. I must apologize as I had intended to get everyone’s name but discovered on the drive home that I had neglected too.

I put on my best armor including the houndskull faceplate for my Basinet and enjoyed the parade walk. I had to be careful to not run into people or step in pot holes as the vision in the helmet while the houndskull is on is almost none existent.

Progress with my new Coat of Arms

2008-05-21T17:01:00.001-04:00

Catch up time for my Blog….Work has been tremendously busy and I am once again a couple weeks behind in my updates.

Where to start… I have wanted to change my Coat of Arms to a simpler one to draw (since I am not an artist). In January I submitted a new design and I received word from the Middle Kingdom Heralds that it would probably conflict with the armory of THL Adela de Warren. Having spent a lot of time researching an early heraldic design (that I thought was clear of conflict) I thought I would seek permission to conflict. It took a bit of searching but I was able to get an e-mail to her and she has most graciously allowed me to conflict with her Arms!!!

If I understand correctly the next step is to resubmit my change of Arms and include her permission to conflict. Several months later I should hear if it passes Laurel level.

No Squires Tourney for me

2008-04-30T11:11:00.000-04:00

Well last week I missed the Fighter Practice in Northwoods and also Squires Tourney because of an Eye Infection. I could probably have fought at Squires but it’s the driving that is bothering me. Focusing on the road for more than 10 miles or so caused my eyes to feel scratchy and tear up. I didn’t realize that this was going to happen ( I only live a couple miles from work ) and Saturday morning I packed for the event and headed out first thing in the morning. By the time I had travelled 15 miles or so my eyes had gotten so bad I had to get off the X-Way and walk around for awhile. I ended up turning around and taking back roads home. So that was a bust.
I will try again tonight for the regular Northwoods practice and see how far I get!!!!

April 16th at Northwoods Practice

2008-04-22T23:58:00.000-04:00

Last Wednesday April 16th Ervon and I attended the Northwoods fighter practice. I had felt pretty good at the previous practices but didn’t do as well this time. I think it was a combination of the more practiced fighters picking up on my deficiencies quicker than I am theirs (if they have any) and not being in the best of shape yet.

The practice started out with great weapons and since it required much more effort than sword and shield (at least for me at this point) I got winded pretty quickly. I did not do so well with the great sword against polearms but I did feel a bit better when we switched to sword and shield.

Not being happy with being out of shape I have started jogging during lunch hour and am working on a workout schedule.

Fighting Ramble

2008-04-15T16:57:00.001-04:00

As I may have mentioned previously in some of my posts, I have decided to become more serious in how I look at Heavy Weapons Combat in the SCA.

A short history of my SCA fighting: I authorized in 1984 and had fun fighting but did not take it seriously until approx. 1990. Previously I had been happy to put on armor and play the game but did not care how I did. I was not out to win or get better at fighting but more simply hang out with my friends and since they fought, I fought. As my friends and co-belligerents began to improve and advance as fighters I ended up asking myself what I wanted to accomplish as a fighter. In effect was I happy being a nail or did I want to be the hammer. So after 1990 I started putting together a nicer kit, paying more attention and trying to learn how to fight better. Almost immediately I was doing better and pulled myself out of the bottom of the pack of fighters in the Kingdom to somewhere in the middle. By 1996 I was doing well enough to be in the quarter finals of some tourneys but seldom won. In retrospect I had been unhappy at looking stupid on the list field and had worked enough to become average but did not try to progress beyond that point. I didn’t want to put the effort in to win, I simply did not want to embarrass myself.

At this time however my mundane job changed and I found myself both working a lot of overtime and most weekends. I was also in effect on call and found myself unable to schedule my event participation very well. So from 1997 to 2003 I did not regularly pursue fighting practices and attended mostly local (about 60-90 minute drive) events. I kept my authorization current but made no real progress fighting. I would attend the local Stormvale practice held outdoors from May to September with some consistency. I was no longer trying to improve, I was simply attending out of habit and for stress relief. So I went through the motions locally and fought the same people over and over but no longer had any kind of a plan or direction for fighting.
In 2004 my job changed again and I began to have more free time again but had gotten into such a rut SCA wise that none of my habits changed. I continued to attend only close local events and fighting without a real purpose or plan. It was probably a year or longer before I decompressed from my IT job enough that I started looking around and taking stock in my hobbies again.
By 2006 I had increased my event participation and had been upgrading my kit again but was back to my original fighting attitude or lack of one. I was showing up more but really just phoning in the effort. It did not help that by now my family was only peripherally interested in the SCA and many of my long time friends had again retired, moved or had begun phoning in their own effort.

I hit a point in late 2006 and took stock of my SCA participation. Was I going to be serious about the SCA or just a fringe member. I decided that I did like and enjoy the SCA enough to devote the required time and effort to become a good fighter again and to step up my efforts in other SCA avenues as well. At the same time I was going through this decision process my local group started having troubles of their own and it seemed that I would have to go a bit further afield to realize my SCA goals.

After deciding I was in for the long haul SCA wise it was apparent I would need to repair and improve my fighting kit. I had also let my desk job creep up on me and I would need to improve my physical shape as well. Less Pear shaped would be a good start and I needed to work on my stamina, upper body strength and speed if I was going to take up fighting again with any degree of seriousness. So in 2007 I put together a physical workout schedule and a list of fighter goals. The physical workout schedule includes some strength training, Cardio and Yoga/stretching. I have been following the physical workout for a year now with fair results. My stamina is improving and my strength is increasing but not as fast as I had originally planned. I believe I will have to take this up to a higher level and join a gym or other venue to progress any farther on this front.

As far as progressing on my fighting plan I have generally done better. I have reworked much of my fighter kit and like how it is now working. My legs do need work still. My right leg armor will occasionally shift and get in my way. I have not been able to find the cause so I may have to make one change at a time until the problem goes away. I am now attending one practice a week at a minimum and have the first signature for my Marshal paperwork. By May 1st I will be working in a second practice per week with events taking place of the second practice when I attend an event. I have also tried to spread my practices around so as to not only fight the same people over and over. So far I have been to Northwoods and Fearann na Criche and soon hope to attend Roaring Wastes and Sarnia practices. There is talk of starting up Stormvale practices again for the summer so that may become my second practice.

Northwoods Practice on Wednesday

2008-04-11T12:24:00.001-04:00

Wednesday April 09th I attended the Northwoods Fighter Practice. I arrived about 7:15 and was in armor by 7:30pm. The practice concluded at 9pm so I was able to get a good amount of practice in. I think there was a total of 7 people taking part in heavy weapons. The practice consisted of several three on three melees and wrapped up with a Bear Pit until it was time to pack up.

Clancy Day: Clancy goes to Japan

2008-04-07T17:15:00.000-04:00

It was a wonderful event!!! The weather was perfect for an early April day. It must have been 65 degrees and was sunny. My wife Giovanna and daughter Saiyuke attended the event with me. Bjarky decided to stay home and go to a friends house instead of the event.
Since it is my goal to become of Marshal of the Field I thought I would spent the day marshalling and get my first signature for helping at an event. The Marshal in Charge of the event, Brutus had me look over some of the armor inspections, watch and comment on 3 new fighter authorizations and help out during the Bear Pit Tourney. I started out teamed up with Sir Ragnar from Starleaf Gate but about half way through the Bear Pit he stepped back and had me run that portion of the list. There must have been better than 25 fighters for the Bear Pit and it was very informative to spend the day watching the fighting. I had not realize how many fighters had taken up small bucklers instead of using regular or center boss shields.
After the Bear Pit ended a single sword tourney was called for 30 minutes later. It was single sword only but it could be one or two handed. I had decided to get a little fighting in and so joined the 9 other fighters who signed up for the tourney. I also had wanted to use my new Great Sword which I had only practiced with once or twice. I thought I did OK in the tourney (I believe I won 5 and lost 4).
We did not stay for the evening feast as my wife was feeling a bit under the weather by this point so we said our goodbyes and left a bit after 5pm.

Fearann na Criche Meeting

2008-03-30T21:17:00.002-04:00

Sunday March 30, 2008

I attended a Meeting, Fighting Practice and Potluck at Fearann na Criche today. I did not have time to stay for the food but I enjoyed the Meeting and Fighting Practice.

It began around Noon but I did not arrive until nearly 2pm. At that time the Meeting was taking place and included a discussion on upcoming locations for demo’s or fighting practices. As the meeting was wrapping up we adjourned to the yard and started a Fighting Practice. During the practice I had the good fortune of fighting Morgan and Jeff and a new person (who’s name escapes me) who was in armor for the first time. I thought everyone did very well and I lasted somewhat longer than I had Wednesday at Northwoods. As I had to leave at 5pm for a previous engagement they pulled out Fencing Gear and it looked like several members were going to take part in the Fencing.

The only problem was that I broke the aluminum cross guard on my sword. So I have some repair work to perform on my kit now!!!

I would like to thank John St. John and Emma for opening their home for the activities.

Northwoods Fighting Practice

2008-03-30T20:47:00.000-04:00

Wednesday March 26,

I attended the Fighting Practice at Northwoods for the first time since the last century!!! I had a wonderful time fighting. I had hoped to make the practice before 7pm but by the time I located all my armor and packed the car, I did not end up in armor until nearly 8pm. The practice ended at 9pm but it was probably for the best, since I am out of practice, a solid hour of fighting was about all I could handle. Near the end of the hour I was already dropping my guard because my arms had tired. If I got the names of the fighters correct I had the chance to spar in a Bear Pit with Berach, Etain, Rannulf & Verrix. I hope to attend many more as time and my work schedule permits.

Lady Terryl's Artisan Guild

2008-03-30T19:48:00.000-04:00

Catching up on my Blog again!! A couple of weeks ago Robert and I attended the Tuesday night Artisans Guild at Lady Terryl’s.

Kudo’s to Diego for teaching the class on making Pouches and Drogo for bringing extra leather that Robert could use to make his Pouch. Robert was very happy with the way his Pouch turned out.

Thanks Diego, Drogo and Terryl!!!!

Fearann na Criche Meeting

2008-02-14T15:00:00.000-05:00

I attended a meeting at Fearann na Criche yesterday from 6pm till 8pm. It was held in Auburn which is between Bay City and Midland a little closer to the Midland side. It was at the Auburn City Library and was about an hour drive for me. Fearann na Criche consists of seven counties all clustered around Saginaw Bay and is the group immediately north of my home group Stormvale. I must admit that it’s been about 8-10 years since I last attended a meeting up there. I need to get out of my local group more often.

It was nice to see John St. John, Remy and Horsa again. I met several new people including Morwena and Edmund. It was a business meeting concerning setting up meeting locations and times and what would work out best for everyone involved. Even with it being a business meeting I still enjoyed getting out and meeting my neighbors again. I wish I had the time to stay and run out for coffee after the meeting but I needed to head home after the meeting ended. Perhaps next time I will be able to stay longer.

I am going to make it a point to try to drop in on as many groups as I can manage while I am the Pentamere Regional Seneschal. I think I will have to set down and create an excel spreadsheet for as many of the groups in Pentamere that I can find the meeting information and attend meetings as I can find the time.

Getting back on track

2008-02-11T16:57:00.001-05:00

I have not posted much recently. I had pneumonia and spent the last week and a half of January flat on my back. I have mostly recovered now and need to get back to work on my various projects.

Changing my Coat of Arms (I hope)

2008-01-18T00:59:00.000-05:00

I have always liked my coat of arms but have a terrible time trying to recreate it. I am not a great artist and the panther is fairly complicated to draw. I thought I would try to change to a more geometric design, so I have submitted a new device. The blazon of this new device would be Quarterly Argent and Gules a Mullet Azure. I have submitted this and will release my old arms if this one passes. I will keep the Panther badge.

Upcoming Artisans Guild Schedule

2008-01-11T10:43:00.000-05:00

Spring 2008 Schedule for Artisans Guild:
Jan 15 Period Embroidery and Hand Sewing (Lady Eron) If you have a sewing basket or Magnifying Glass please bring to class.
Jan 22 Youth Crafts Work on Treasure Chests (Lady Teryll)
Jan 29 Crafting Time / Officers Meeting including Event Discussion (Lord Gerard)
Feb 5 Youth Fighting / Crafting Time
Feb 12 Leather Working (Lord Diego)
Feb 19 Youth Crafts type TBD
Feb 26 How to Run an Event (THL Skalla) / Officer Meeting (Lord Gerard)
Mar 4 Youth Fighting / Crafting Time
Mar 11 Ukrainian Eggs (Lady Teryll) All ages welcome
Mar 18 Youth Fighting / How to enter A&S events (Lord Diego) / Officer Meeting (Lord Gerard)
Mar 25 Arrow Making and Archery (Lord Ervon)
Apr 1 Youth Crafts TBD
Apr 8 Arrows Continued (Lord Ervon)
Apr 15 Youth Fighting / Crafting Time

Guild Night Tuesday

2008-01-09T12:49:00.000-05:00

Last night the Artisans Guild met to determine the coming Spring Schedule of classes. Many good suggestions and ideas for classes were discussed and Teryll will put together the list with dates and publish them soon.

If I understood the gist correctly, every Tuesday night will include guild activities. One week will be all guild activity perhaps with a class. The next week will be youth combat with guild work after the fighting has ended. This way if projects are not completed or fall behind, people will have time to work on them.

After that a more general meeting broke out about what the Shire should do about the webpage and a few other issues for the next couple weeks. It was decided to talk about this again during the meeting at the revel later this month.

It was noted that this would be the Guilds first anniversary and that it had had a pretty good first year all things considered. Everyone is looking forward to an even better second year!!!

12th Night in Cynnabar

2008-01-07T15:25:00.000-05:00

I attended 12th Night in Cynnabar this past weekend and had a wonderful time. My wife and kids attended also and had a nice time. Alex, who is not very excited going to most SCA events, said “it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be”, on the trip home. It was good to be able to touch base with people and catch up a little.

Drogo and Kayla were very gracious and allowed us to set up our stuff at their day camp in the gym (which reminds me I have to find our chair covers or make more). Stormvaler’s in attendance were Drogo, Kayla and son. My family Giovanna, Saiyuke, Bjarky and myself. Gerard, Breanna, Laura and friend, Ervon, Eron and Teryll. I did not get a chance to speak with Teryll but did get to spend time with everyone else.

With Lady Jaelith’s help I was able to convene a meeting for the Seneschal’s of Pentamere. It was sparsely attended (in fact I had more Seneschal’s show up after the meeting had ended than during). I did get the opportunity to meet Duchess Eanor and Lady Jaelith and have them explain the ins and outs of the job. I should have a good footing for this job going forward.

After theSeneschal’s discussion broke up, I headed over to the Heralds meeting. Back in the day (the mid 90’s) I did the internal submissions for the Kingdom and did some commenting for the Middle Kingdom College of Heralds. I would like to get back into doing more Heraldry so was looking for information on how the commenting process currently worked and how to get back into it. I was advised to sign up on the Middle Kingdom Heralds e-mail list and so I have done so!!

The afternoon was spent in shopping and hanging out at the Stormvale camp. Later in the day Drogo (who was arranging the guards for the royalty room) needed a guard and I thought it would be great for Bjarky (Alex) to stand a watch. Since he is only 13 and wouldn’t know what was expected I decided to stand the watch with him. Drogo promptly stranded us for 2 and half hours : ) Needing to get dinner we snagged Ervon, Gerard and Saiyuke to relieve us from guard duty so we could grab something to eat.

I ended up running out and picking up food for most of Stormvale and due to a wrong turn ended up getting back with barely any time to eat before Court would start, so many of us ended up sneaking into Court after it had started. After Court was over it was time to make our goodbyes and head home.

Set up for new Job

2007-11-29T16:22:00.000-05:00

A couple things I will need to set up for the Pentamere Regional Seneschal Job:

Business Cards to hand out.
An E-mail/Post Card reminder schedule for local officers
A list of the meeting times and places for the groups in Pentamere. I would like to drop in on as many as possible in the next year.

Pentamere Regional Seneschal

2007-11-27T10:27:00.000-05:00

I have been chosen to be the next Pentamere Regional Seneschal. This will be effective early in 2008 after Duchess Eanor, the current Regional Seneschal, has wrapped up a couple projects that she is in the middle of. I am hoping to learn as much as I can from her before the change of office takes place.

I have been in the SCA for 25 years but in the last 8-9 years have devoted 80% or more of my time to my local Shire (The Shire of Stormvale) often at the detriment of playing in the larger SCA. In 2006 I took stock of my participation in the SCA and decided to get more active and change my percentage of local activity to a more balanced number. By this summer I had increased my event participation and activity level to the point that I thought I would look for a regional job in the Marshal or Service arena. In October I noticed the job posting for Pentamere Regional Seneschal on the new Middle Kingdom forumhttp://forum.midrealm.org/ and thought this would be a good opportunity so I applied.

This will be my second office above the local Shire level. In 1994-1996 I was the Opinicus Pursuivant which is a deputy position to the Rouge Scarpe and helped make sure that the name and device submissions for the kingdom went smoothly. It was a very interesting job and consisted of a lot of paperwork including informing people of the status of their submissions. Either that they had passed the Kingdom level or that they had been sent back because of some problem or conflict.

Update on Armoring

2007-11-19T13:26:00.000-05:00

I had Robert over Friday night (11-9) to work on his armor. He is taking my old set and we are fitting it to him. He turns 18 in May and would like to be ready to authorize by then. So he dished the dents out of an old pair of pauldrons and strapped them. This is his first riveting job!!!

He wants to make a set of nice Japanese armor so as we finish this set we will start making his nice set. It will be made of ABS plastic and will give me the opportunity to learn how to form the plastic with heat.

While he was working on the pauldrons I fitted my new gauntlets for gloves and added a couple straps to them to hold the gloves on. I now need to sew the gloves on to the leather strips I riveted onto the gloves. I also bent my helmet hinge back so I could fight until the new ones are finished.

All in all a fairly productive night!!!

Toy's Event

2007-11-18T02:57:00.000-05:00

I attended the Iron Oak Toys event and really enjoyed myself. I did not feel well enough to fight which was a big disappointment but I did get a chance to talk to several people I had not seen for a while. It was nice to talk with Morgaine, Ananda and Angus from Iron Oak. Stormvalers in attendance were Ervon, Eron, Edward von Schonberg and myself, if I didn’t miss anyone.

At least some of my armor got borrowed to be used in the tourney so it was not a complete loss fighting wise for me.

Edward von Schonberg gave me a couple tips on forming ABS plastic so now I need to pick up a sheet so I can help Robert start his Japanese armor.

Tomorrow!!

2007-11-16T15:59:00.000-05:00

Well I have had a nasty cold for the last week but I am going to try and fight tomorrow at the Toys for Tots event at Iron Oak. I have bent my helmet clasp back into shape and hope it lasts through the event tomorrow. I am still a couple weeks away from having a replacement piece finished. Because of the cold I have not made much progress on any other items either. I guess there’s always next week!!!

Skalla's SCA Resume

2007-11-08T15:20:00.000-05:00

On several SCA websites I had seen SCA resumes and thought it would be neat to make one for myself. I think this is pretty acurate until the last couple years. I was able to go through our local newsletters and reconstruct most of this history. However in the last few years we have went to an e-mail type newsletter and my information is more sketchy for that time period.

SCA General
-------------
First SCA meeting Dec. 1981 Shire of Westvale (group attempting to form at University of Michigan-Flint)
First Event: Crown Tourney Spring 1982
Authorized as Fighter June 1983
Attended First Pennsic 1984
National member 1983 have remained current to the present
Authorized as Fencer June 2001

Offices Held
------------
Pursuivant Westvale 1982
All offices following are for Stormvale except as noted
Exchequer 1983-1986
Castellan/Chatelaine 1983-1986 (Prior to it being a Kingdom recognized job)
Pursuivant 1984-1985
Seneschal 1985, 1987-1988
Pursuivant 1989-1991
Group Knight Marshal 1993-1994
Chirurgeon 1993-1994
Opinicus Pursuivant 1994-1996 (MK College of Heralds)
Pursuivant 1999-2000
Group Knight Marshal 2001-2004
Web Minister 2001-2003

Other Responsibilities
----------------------
Co-Founder Shire of Stormvale Oct. 1982 (Genesee County Michigan)
Co-Founded Stormvale Militia 1984
Event Staff St. John the Baptist 3,4,5 1988, 1989, 1990
Co-Founded Stormvale Armorer’s Guild 1988 (In existence on and off as needed to present day)
Shire Steering/Goals Committee 1988-1989
Autocrat St. John the Baptist 6 1991
Event Staff Feast of Samhain 1991
Event Staff Vikings go Home 1,4 1992, 1997
Event Staff Fall Crown Tourney 1992
Shire Steering/Goals Committee 2 1993
Shire Goals and Direction Committee 1996
Event Staff Harvest of Souls 2, 4,5, 6 1999, 2004, 2005, 2006
Event Staff Toys for Tots 1999
Baronial Exploratory Committee 2004-2005
Co-Founder Stormvale Artisans Guild 2007
Youth Marshal in Training 2007-Current

Awards Recieved
------------------
Award of Arms 16 Aug. 1987 (for local activity)
Award of the Purple Fret 17 Oct. 1992 (for local activity, specifically offices)
Order of the Dragon’s Heart 06 Dec. 1997 (for Opinicus Pursuivant)
Award of the Purple Fret 08 Oct. 2005 (for local activity hosting revels/guild/meetings)

Fighting Goals update

2007-11-05T10:40:00.000-05:00

Progress on Fighting Goals by Monday morning 11-5-2007

5. Make a Great Sword
COMPLETED Sunday morning. The sword is slightly heavy but very well balanced and I look forward to trying it out on the list field.
6. Create exercise plan & Schedule of Pell work
(IN PROGRESS I have started with 30 minutes of general exercise every morning. This includes Push Ups, Sit Ups, Squats, Crunches & Leg Lifts. When I am in better shape (several weeks?) I will move on to Cardio. I have started walking 30 minutes after lunch and will work up to running as I feel better. I have started 30 minutes of slow work on the Pell every night. I have not decided where to go with that yet.
7. Replace Knee/Elbow Pads & Cup
COMPLETED Saturday afternoon with a quick trip to a local retailer.

Skalla's Fighting Goals

2007-11-05T10:04:00.000-05:00

Since it will be a couple weeks before I can fight again, while my helmet being repaired, I thought this was a good time to go over the rest of my equipment and make a to do list. So Friday night I took stock and created a “Fighting” goals & projects list. I had more ideas than just fighting and I think I will create similar lists for A&S and other activities. I will review it every couple weeks to check my progress and add new items.

So as presently conceived the list looks like this for fighting and is not prioritized yet:

Skalla’s Fighting Goals and Projects 11-2-2007
1. Fix hinge on Helmet (IN PROGRESS approx. 2-3 weeks to complete)
2. Become Heavy Marshal
3. Become Youth Marshal (IN PROGRESS started at War need 2 more signatures and take the test)
4. Youth Equipment for Alex (my 13 year old son) (IN PROGRESS, have most equipment, need to make tabard to hide modern equipment and get him authorized)
5. Make Great Sword
6. Create exercise plan & Schedule of Pell work
7. Replace Knee/Elbow Pads & Cup
8. Help my Household members Daryl and Robert to construct armor and authorize (this may end up being its own list)
9. Create schedule of fighting practices to attend like Roaring Waste, Cynnabar etc.
10. Polish leg armor
11. Clean up loaner armor
12. Make loaner arm armor
13. Make loaner swords/shields
14. Attach gloves to new Gauntlets, Clean up and use old for loaner
15. Shorten my Brigantine armor by approx. 6 inches
16. Tabard or Surcoat with Coat of Arms and Mantle for Basinet
17. Put together Marshalling kit, Helm, Staff, Tabard etc.
18. Get Combat Archery bow and authorize
19. Look into Siege Engine what it would take to build and authorize

Helmet needs repair

2007-10-29T11:43:00.000-04:00

Disaster has stuck!!! (or at least it seems so)

Apparently at the 25th year anniversary of Stormvale while fighting I bent my basinets visor hinge again. It had been prone to bending and lately I have had to reshape it several times. I think the metal fatigue has caused a permanent weak spot. Now it bends very easily and will not be long till it breaks.

To get a replacement from the original armorer will take up to 6 months and would require me sending my helmet to help facilitate the repair. I have taken the piece to a local tool and die shop and will get a quote from them to make a new one or perhaps two.

In the mean time I will need to carefully repair the hinge and hope it makes it through practice until a new one can be made. I guess I could always fix up my original helmet since my Norse helm is on loan at the moment. It would have to be sanded and made legal for face thrusts. My list of stuff just gets longer and longer.

Events to attend!!

2007-10-26T15:37:00.000-04:00

Looking forward at the next couple months, I thought I would put together a tentative list of events to attend.

Perhaps I can get household members and Shire friends to attend some of these events with me. Let me know if you are interested in sharing a ride!!!

Tentative Events for the next couple months:
Nov. 10th Fall Harvest Festival
Nov. 17th Toys for Tots
Dec. 1st Christmas Tourney
Jan 5th 12th Night or 12th Fight
Jan 12th Grand Tourney
Feb 9th Val Day

These are my preferences for events to attend. Let me know if you’re interested in going or let me know which events you would rather attend.

Stormvale's 25th Anniversary Party!!!!

2007-10-23T16:45:00.000-04:00

Saturday Oct. 20th we had a Revel to celebrate 25 years of the Shire of Stormvale. It was fun to see everyone and spend the day with them. It was nice to catch up on how everyone has been doing.

Femke the regional Signat was kind enough to run a scribal class that was well attended and I hope we get more local scribes as a result of her class. Balian and Eron have both been active in the past as Scribes but I am not sure if either one of them is still doing calligraphy or illumination.

It was nice to see Edward von Schonberg who also put in an appearance. I hope he catches the SCA bug again. He was always well liked and many of his household members are still active in one fashion or another locally.

It was fun to fight heavy again with Torashi, Ervon and Satto. While I bowed out of the Shire Champion tourney I believe that Torashi was the overall winner and will retain the position for another year.

Lady Terryl was a most gracious host and her garage/workshop worked out perfectly as the feast hall. We had a chance to sit around the fire and tell tales of old after the feast. Thank You Terryl !!!!!!

It could not have been a more perfect day to cap off 25 years of activity in Stormvale.

25th Anniversary Party

2007-10-22T16:56:00.000-04:00

In preparing for our 25th Anniversary party I was going over my kit and realized that the pole arm I have been using had seen its last battle. I put together a halberd while I was cooking a soup Friday night. The halberd turned out well and I like the looks of it but it didn’t perform as well as I would like in combat. While using it Saturday I discovered it’s a little too heavy and I am frankly out of practice with pole weapons. I will use it a couple more times in practice before I remake it with a lighter pole of rattan to make sure its not just my lack of practice.

Professional Heraldry!!!

2007-10-15T14:53:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Baron Edward of Effingham, I now have professional looking heraldry for use on web pages or as avatars for e-mail forums. You too can have spiffy looking artwork. Follow this link and you will not be disappointed!! http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/avatarbiz.html

Well that’s the end of my commercial plug for Baron Edwards site. I was very happy with the results!!!

Looks like a new Helmet!!

2007-10-12T00:33:00.000-04:00

Ervon brought his helmet over the other night and we removed the existing Aventail. He bought a new one at war and wanted to replace the one on his helmet. After looking over his helmet it was decided to drill a new set of holes and to place the new Aventail higher on his Bascinet. I offered to help so he market off the locations for the holes and left me with his helmet. On Tuesday night I drilled the new holes but while looking at the helmet I thought it would be a nice gesture to polish it up a bit. I took it into work to use the high speed air drills. It took a couple hours but I was able to put a nice shine on his helm. It should be a nice surprise when he picks it up!!! Now I need to take my legs and gauntlets in and make them look nicer.

Getting Back to Work!!

2007-10-09T00:06:00.000-04:00

Well things are getting back to normal around Skalla’s Steading. I have been able to get back to some of my projects. I have finished the Banner Stand promised to Eron!!! I will have to review my list for the next project.

Fighter Practice 9-2-2007

2007-09-05T10:50:00.000-04:00

Because of the holiday weekend we had a small turnout. Those attending were Thoromir, his two daughters, Rodney, Scott (a first time attendee) Daryl (an old time stormvaler like Thoromir).

Thoromir has nearly completed his armor!! He has made his knee cops but not finished the leg armor. So he wore padding and taped on his knees so we could fight. Thoromir did very well for not having fought in many years. He is developing or remembering techniques he can use as a lefty to be very effective. We fought several rounds until we became tired. I don’t believe Thoromir will have any problems getting back up to speed and re-authorizing to fight.

Daryl borrowed a helmet that I had previously loaned to Thoromir and we had a discussion of what it would take to put him in armor. He lives in Holland MI and so will not make it out locally very often. I will try to put him in contact with the local group and between that, Thoromir and myself we should be able to put him in armor sometime this fall. He begged off putting on armor on Sunday claiming allergies. I think he really just didn’t want to put on someone else’s sweaty armor.

Scott was interested in watching the fighting before deciding if it was something he wanted to do. As the practice ran long I did not get a chance to put armor on him or even ask if he was still interested after having seen Thoromir and myself fight.

Rodney attended but was the only fencer. I am not sure if he was disappointed or not. It has been nearly a year since he has last fenced and he needs to attend a practice or event to keep his authorization current. If next week we get no fencers I will put on my fencing gear and go a couple rounds with him for the practice.

This coming Sunday Sept. 9th we are on for fighting but I must cancel Sept. 16th. It is both the day of the revel and I have a previously scheduled appointment that will take most of the day.

Fall Guild Schedule

2007-08-31T15:17:00.000-04:00

For anyone not on the Stormvale e-mail list here is the fall schedule for the Artisans Guild and Youth Fighting hosted by Lady Terryl!!!

We met Tues eve and came up with the following. First of all, youth stuff will be on every other Tuesday night with a little fighting and a little crafts. Youth and adults are welcome on every Tuesday, but youth nights have things aimed at kids. All are most welcome to come play - particularly our older fighters who can help train the young uns. If adults wish to fight those nights, they are more than welcome to do so, but it would probably be wise to send out a call to get others there to fight with. The crafts those nights will be aimed at kids, but all who want to craft can come. If you have an unfinished project, or are working on something else, you may bring it to any craft night.

Artisan's guild schedule -

9/4 Finish glass and boxes. Glaze clay pieces. Anything not finished at this point will be put to the side. Youth combat will happen from 5 - 7. Guild will be from 5 - 9.
9/11 Viking wire weaving, 7 - 9
9/18 Youth night
9/25 Calligraphy 101 - teacher pending on the various volunteers and how they split the tasks
10/2 Youth night
10/9 Period Embroidery - Lady Eron
10/16 Youth night
10/23 Breadmaking - Carrie - I assume you can use my kitchen ok?
10/30 Youth night - this is the night before Halloween - any possible conflicts?
11/6 Decorating Russian enamel boxes - boxes will be painted ahead - just the decorative painting will occur
11/13 Arrowmaking 101 - Lord Erevon, Youth combat as well, since we will be taking a break on Thanksgiving week coming up
11/20 - Thanksgiving week - break
11/27 - Illumination or calligraphy 102 - see notes for 9/25
December to be announced
Unless otherwise noted, guild nights will be 7 - 9. Youth, I believe is 6 - 8. Some classes will need "reservations" because we need to know approximately how many supplies to bring. Note also, if kids are brought to adult guild night, some crafts are more applicable than others. I believe most teenagers can handle anything an adult craft night would throw out - unless otherwise noted. Next week, we will be discussing what crafts the kids want to do, so let the kids know to think about it. Unless I hear any objections, I am going to send an invite out to those groups local to us to let them know this exists and they are welcome to join us if they so choose. If you want to object, do so soon - the invites will go out t his weekend.

We also very briefly discussed the event. Gerard was going to notify the Pale that we were not going to have a formal event since we would not be having a meeting in time to advertise it. So, we will be having a Founder's day - that will hopefully be a tad fancier than normal. Plans to be made at September's revel. I don't remember the upcoming schedule, but since at one point, the post event party was to be at my house, I offer my house again. A thought to be put out there - and considered or ignored - is to have an overnight event with pavilions, perhaps, a fire, drumming etc. Maybe no one else will be into it, but I would like to do something a tad bit more memorable than a regular feast for our 25th anniversary. Just a thought.

In service,

Terryl

Thank you Terryl for all your hard work with this!!!! You Rock!!! to steal Sarah's expression.

September Fighting Schedule

2007-08-31T12:46:00.000-04:00

Depending on the local Revel scheduling the fighter practice should look like this for September:

Practice from 2pm till 5pm.

Date: Class: Practice:
Sept. 2nd Basic Sword and Shield work Open Sparing
Sept 9th Slow work and targeting Open Sparing
Sept 16th Cancelled due to prior obligation
Sept 23rd Melee Conventions/Differences Open Sparing
Oct 7th Melee Shield Work/Teams Teams (if we have enough fighters)

The above classes are subject to change depending on what those attending need to learn. Any volunteers to teach or suggestions for topics are welcome.

We still have enough armor to make that in the event of bad weather I would like to work on armor instead of going to the Roaring Waste practice.

Skalla

Fighting Practice 8-26-2007

2007-08-27T14:55:00.000-04:00

The Sunday Fighting Practice kick off consisted of 10 people.

Torashi, Balian, Thoromir, Raven, Connor, Robert (Hicharu?), Rodney, Alyssa, Jordan (?) and myself.

The practice started out with a 30 minute discussion on Fighting stance, Shield types and the 10 main sword blows. Thoromir, Hicharu, Alyssa and Jordan were very polite in setting through my class. I would like to continue something like this for our practices. Please let me know if you would like to attend a specific class or if you would like to give a class.

We did not break up into groups to practice the topics covered in the class but instead decided it was a better opportunity to work on armor so we could put more people into the field. The next 90 minutes consisted of working on various armor projects. Thoromir padded the helmet he is constructing. Hicharu with Balian’s help strapped and edged his shield. I fixed my helmets hinge and removed Pennsic rust off of my legs.

It was decided to not let the practice end without some actual fighting so Torashi and I donned armor and had several rounds of sparing. Many thanks to Torashi for once again pointing out, through force of arms, that I need to get in better shape and practice more. My stamina gave out before I thought it should have and as a penance I let Thoromir and Hicharu use me as a pell for the rest of the practice.

Thoromir put on a helmet and tried out his new sword and center grip shield while I attempted to block his shots. He has an interesting technique of hiding his sword behind the shield that he is working on. We also worked on blow calibration, both hitting and being hit. By the end of this it was getting difficult to hold my shield in the ready position and I had to do some “cheating” by resting the shield on my leg for last few minutes of working with Thoromir.

Then Hicharu wanted to try out his 2/3rds completed armor kit so he dressed and I took a boffer weapon (he had no arm armor) and he worked on blow calibration (only giving). He then began sparing with me and I mostly blocked (or tried to block) his attacks. I would occasionally take a swipe with the boffer but more wanted him to become comfortable in his armor and in throwing a blow. At the end of this I could no longer hold up my shield and had to let it hang by my side and I blocked single sword style. Of course I did not admit that to him, instead I told him I wanted the shield out of the way so I could watch his stance and technique better.
It was nice seeing Rodney again and I believe he and Connor discussed the possibility of running a fencing practice at the same time as the heavy weapons.

Also during the practice Raven expressed an interest in trying heavy weapons so we discussed the required armor standards and weapons needed. I hope to see her in armor at some point in the future.

The next practice should be September 2nd!!

Sunday Fighting Practice

2007-08-17T14:20:00.000-04:00

Well War was a blast but I was sorely out of shape for the event. I don’t propose to be in the same condition next year!! I have started to exercise again and will be hosting a fighting practice Sundays from 2pm till 5pm. Once a month this will conflict with the local shires Revel and I hope to take the fighting practice to the Revel site if at all possible. I would like to start the practice right away but need to finish a couple extra shields and weapons so I will be kicking this off on August 26th. I will also start looking around for an indoor site for the winter. If a site cannot be found then I think I will switch between Roaring Waste and Cinnabar this winter. They both currently have Sunday fighting practices.

I would like to have a little more organization to this than we have used in the past. Instead of just strapping on armor and going at it, I would like to have a training schedule covering a different weapon each week. Also include melee tactics, shield walls and work together as a small unit. Stormvale has an Artisan Guild which meets weekly and has a guest lecturer covering some craft. I wouldn’t mind having a similar situation for the training sessions. People can volunteer to cover some aspect of fighting and as we grow we may even get guests from outside the group. I envision us all taking turns at some point in the training.

After the lesson portion was over it would be nice to practice the topic and try to refine some of the moves. We could break out groups or run some small melee’s as further practice. This would also allow someone who did not have their armor yet to work through and learn some of the basics. Then we will have our open practice as we have always run them. I would like to see the practices turn into 60 minutes of training and 120 minutes of fighting. This would fluctuate as the mix of attendees changed. If we have a lot of newer people we may train more and if everyone is pretty experienced then we may train less.

I would love to have Fencers show up as well but would need someone else to take charge of that portion of the operation. It will take enough time setting up the heavy weapons that I would rather not be responsible for Fencing. The best solution would be to have a fencing marshal who would like to take over that aspect of the training.

If not enough other people have complete sets of armor it may be necessary to use the first couple sessions to help people work on armor so we can field people to train and fight with. I have enough gear to equip myself and 1 and ¾ fighters. I need to make a set of arms and a couple swords and shields to be able to equip 2 other people at the same time. That will be my next priority and I hope to have it finished before the practice starts on August 26th. I have already committed this armor so it will only be available for loaner armor if they should fail to attend the practice. I need to make or scrounge at least one more set so I can guarantee to have loaner equipment.

Skalla

Pennsic 2007 Report

2007-08-14T17:02:00.001-04:00

I attended Pennsic for the first time in a couple years!!! While it was fun and I enjoyed War, this was the worst year weather wise than any Pennsic that I remember. I arrived about 3pm on Sunday the 5th and left at 11:30pm on Friday the 10th. It rained for at least 20 minutes each day I was at War. It was so humid that even when it wasn’t raining if often felt like it was. I did not have a problem with water in my tent, many others in the Stormvale camp did have problems including several inches of water in some of the tents. Next year we will have to trench next to the road to prevent the water running down the road and dumping on that side of our camp.
I fought in a couple of the battles and had a blast!! The resurrection battles really wore me out. When fighting in the resurrection battles I needed the next day to help recuperate. My goal is to be able to fight in all the battles next year. I liked the fact that the battles for heavy weapons all started in the morning and avoided the worst heat of the day.

Rebuilding Armor

2007-07-24T01:55:00.001-04:00

Well I managed to replace the buttons I lost off my Gambeson. They had come off over a couple fighting practices and it was looking pretty sad. I sewed them back on using four times more thread than was strictly required. I wanted to make sure they would stay on this time.

Next to replace rivets on my coat of plates.

Equipping Robert

2007-07-19T01:53:00.000-04:00

Robert is one of the men at arms in my household. He has approximately eight months before he reaches the age of 18 and we are putting together his armor kit. We are hoping that he can authorize in heavy combat when he turns 18.

In the effort to get his kit together I have taken one of my old helmets and have padded it for him. I put a coat of silver paint on it to cover some of the rust and expect him to repaint it when he picks some livery colors. He has also been gifted with an old gorget. My old coat of plates needs a couple plates replaced and we will both work on this to get it ready for him. His sword is done and his shield has been pressed and needs to be finished.

We will need to work on legs and arm armor to get him fully equipped and also add gauntlets. That should prepare him for his first practice and see him through to his authorization.

Part of the agreement we have in the household is that He will have to make at least one piece of armor for those following behind him.

Another Standard Stand

2007-07-17T16:01:00.000-04:00

Erevon’s standard stand completed!! Only 5 more to go!!

Gift of Chairs

2007-07-17T14:55:00.000-04:00

Also in the last 6 weeks, I worked on two of the gothic camp chairs. They are complete except for the armrests which I still have to make. I thought that Eron & Erevon should have these chairs after all their years of hard work and in appreciation of Eron going to War and being camp master. At the recent Friday Populous meeting at my home, I presented them with the chairs. I believe they were well received. Arm rests have been added to my SCA to do list!!, also Mark II of the chairs. I failed to take a picture so I will have to track them down when they are being used and get one.

Shields

2007-07-17T11:02:00.000-04:00

In the last 6 weeks, I have pressed several shields. Three very light shields for Balian deBrionne, Two shields for members of my household and one for a potential member. One for Drogo (that’s was several weeks ago and I still need to get it to him) Also 3 more loaner shields in addition to the rest. I made a couple extra shields as I am about to take the shield press out of service.

It is about time to make a new shield press as the one I am using is starting to show its age and wear and tear has taken a toll. One more item to add to my growing list!!! I think the new version will need a base to catch the dripping glue so I don’t have to either put down newspaper or scrape glue off the floor.

Equipment Update

2007-07-17T10:21:00.000-04:00

Since I am attending events with more frequency these days, I have tried to pay attention to the changes in armor and weapons that have happened over the last couple years. Comparing my now several years old fighting kit to the current standard, I find that most of my armor is acceptable but that I do need to make some adjustments. So I have added several projects to my list, both to update my kit and also add some elements of fashion that I had frankly never bothered with.

For example: Back in the day, a shield had to have an edge wide enough to prevent them from being inserted into the bars of a helmet. That is now a thing of the past, a shield edge now needs only to protect your opponents sword from undo damage and to do the same for your shield. I knew that but still built massive shield edges out of habit and because that was the material that I had at hand. So the last couple events I felt like I was wearing the big hair and shoulder pads of the eighties when compared to other equipment being used.

So to start with, in the last six weeks, I have reworked all my swords to be the minimum diameter and as light and fast as possible. The shield I had recently painted and rebuilt needed a smaller sleeker edge and that has now been done as well. I now have to paint this new edge to match the design on the shield.

Troubled Times (written Thursday July 12th)

2007-07-16T02:43:00.000-04:00

Well I must apologize for not having posted recently. I should be posting more regularly again. Three main issues have kept me off the SCA list field and missing most of the local activities as well for the last six weeks.

First, my mother has been in and out of the hospital since last November. Her condition has become more troubling and she has not been home since mid May. We have had a couple scares and most of my family’s free time has been spent at the hospital. She has developed a long list of stomach and intestinal issues that have no apparent cause or solution. She is having an exploratory surgery today with the hope that something can be discovered to explain her condition. We are all keeping our fingers crossed. Otherwise the Doctors seem to have run out of ideas and are advising some kind of managed care or visiting nurse and to hope for a recovery. In fact this is being written while waiting at the hospital.

In June my wife went on sick leave, partly as a result of all this stress in dealing with my mom’s problems ( and also from living with me). So I have been trying to spend more time (when not at the hospital) helping my wife out around the house and generally being supportive. She seems to be doing better now and is almost good as new. This is at least one bright spot on the horizon.

Lastly my local SCA group is in the process of melting down. Since very early this year some long simmering problems have all simultaneously boiled to the surface to cause the local group to explode into yelling, screaming and finger pointing. I must admit that one individual seems to be involved or has been involved in every flap we have had for the last 2 years. He is also deeply involved in the present unpleasantness. In point of fact he is the central item being fought over. A dozen plus people have decided they have had enough of his trouble making (myself included). As near as I can figure another 6 people actively support the troublemaker ( I think many have not known him long enough) and another dozen or so are trying to stay neutral and out of the whole problem.
While normally I would be in the neutral group, I must confess In this case I had already concluded the best thing to do was ignore him. However after having two problems in dealing with kids, it was clear he had to go before he actually hurt someone. He has also alarmed several people with his temper and lack of control. His behavior seems to be the opposite of everything the SCA stands for. We are supposed to act with honor, chivalry and protect the weak.

So with all the problems outlined above there has not been much time or incentive to attend local functions. With things on the mend with my Wife and Mother, its time to help work out things with the local group.

In subsequent posts I will catch up with what has been done in the last 6 weeks SCA wise.
Skalla

Tuesday's at Terryl's

2007-05-03T13:31:00.000-04:00

Tuesday nights fighting practice was well attended with over 22 people (if I remembered everyone). Some of the members worked on guild projects in the workshop while the fighters plied their trade in the driveway and yard.

We had 6 or more ( its hard to keep them all straight or count them ) young people taking part in boffer fighting while 7 members practiced their fencing skills.
Fencing consisted of Drogo, Diego, Andrew, Connor and myself. The fencing wrapped up as darkness drove us from the field. It was nice seeing Diego, Connor and Andrew again. We have two youth members who would like to take part in fencing as well for a total of 9. I will need to pull out the fencing equipment more often and develop a kit of my own. Its getting old just wearing the tripplett starter set with a tabard thrown over top. So my SCA to do list grows longer.

We had no heavy weapons training as none of the fighters in that form, brought their armor. I was not prepared myself as I have started re-working most of my kit and it’s taking longer than expected. I should be able to take the field again by next weekend.

Coronation of Dag and AnneMarie

2007-05-01T16:03:00.000-04:00

Coronation was cool!!
The morning court when the transition was made to Dag and AnneMarie was quite moving.

The feast was different than most events in that it was held at noon. It started on time (or pretty close) and has to be one of the best feasts I have attended in the 20 plus years I have been in the SCA. The token for having paid for feast was an embroidered napkin with the initials of Dag and AnnMarie. The entire feast was good but the most notable dishes (in my opinion) were the Song Birds Farced, Pan Fried Broadbeans and Lucanian Sausages.
The Song Birds Farced looked like Chicken Nuggets in various bird shapes. They were served on skewers that had been placed on a cabbage half. This gave them the appearance of flight. In addition other skewers had small banners displaying the coat of arms for the individuals seated at the table and the groups they came from. Before the event was over, everyone who had the appropriate head gear, was wearing their arms or that of their group. (I would like to find out what program they used for doing this as I see the possibility to do this for one of our events for those on the list field.)
The Pan Fried Broadbeans and Lucanian Sausages were so good that I will need to track down the recipe used so that I can make them for home or local revels. Balian and I had an impromptu contest to see who could eat the most sausages. While I was ahead early in the match he bested me by simply refusing to stop. Even so the food was so plentiful that we ended up sending four sausages back to the kitchen. I shed a small tear that I was not able to finish them off but it was not for lack of trying.

Combat operations took place in fencing and heavy weapons after the feast wrapped up. I had decided not to fight before attending as I was suffering from a sinus infection which made me slightly light headed but I do not believe I would have been able to fight after such a grand feast. I will have to make a note to work on my sin of gluttony.
The heavy weapons fighting was outstanding. A Bear Pit Tourney was weighted to authenticity and courtesy and earned the victors the honor of entry into the Coronation Tourney. A grand stand had been constructed for a helms show to display the helmet, banner and shield with coat of arms for those taking part in the Coronation Tourney. (This or something similar is needed locally. It is just too cool not to have.)
The fencing took part in two areas. If I understood correctly those gentles with a Bronze Ring took part in the tourney inside next to the heavy weapons fighters and those without that honor or those being newer to fencing took part in the tourney held outside. I believe the tourney outside was a Bear Pit as well.
Youth fighting took place similar to the fencing, both on a list inside and practice and authorizations outside.
We had two of our members become authorized and one additional member practice fencing. Drogo was authorized as a fencer and his son Ryan was authorized in youth boffer fighting. Robert ran out of time to try authorizing as he had to practice a couple times before he could make the attempt.

The second court was held a little after 5pm. While it was not as touching as the first it was full of pomp and ceremony. In addition Dag and AnneMarie pulled out a large hourglass and stated that it was their gift to us indicating that the court would not take more than one hour.
I ended up leaving after the second court so I missed the evening activities. I will have to try to stay longer at the next event so I can brush up on my dancing.

I think a total of 17 Stormvalers made an appearance at the Coronation of Dag and AnneMarie. In no particular order we had: Eron, Erevon, Gerard, Brianne, Katie, Balian, Melisande, Drogo, Kayla, Ryan, Dante, Desi, Thorgrim, Tharamore, his lady, Robert and myself. Eating feast was Balian, Melisande, Robert and myself. Fencing was Drogo with Robert getting in some practice. Boffer fighting was Ryan. I am not sure if any classes had been attended.

Tuesday Night Artisans Guild

2007-04-25T10:03:00.000-04:00

I think we had about 15 people total attending the Guild last night. This week was working in clay and Lady Teryll supplied many pounds of the material. There was no class project, so each person worked on whatever struck their fancy. I saw some very nice items being created and will try to get pictures when completed. The projects will have to dry and then Teryll can fire them in the kiln. As she can only do a couple at a time it will take several weeks before they have all been finished. I was anti social last night as I did not join in on the clay making, instead I took the time to finish one of the shields I had promised as Ryan would like to use it in Boffer fighting at the Coronation Saturday. I figure that I am about 2 weeks behind on the projects I had promised people and needed to finish a couple of the 15 shields.

I was in a hurry and used zip ties to hold the edge on the shield. After looking at the completed shield, I should have laced it instead. I will end up doing this on the rest of them and will need to redo this one. Perhaps I can do it at next weeks practice or at a populous meeting.

Near the end of the evening the question came up about what should be done about continuing the Guild through the summer. Several regular attendees have conflicting schedules as other summer activities like baseball practice etc. have begun. No definite conclusion was reached although it sounds like people are leaning towards a general suspension for most of the summer. Teryll is happy to have people come over to work on existing or begin new projects but she is not sure how well a structured meeting will work over the summer with busier schedules and a heavier SCA calendar. If I understand correctly the matter will be discussed again at the next Guild meeting and again at the next Business meeting to reach a conclusion.

Tuesday Guild Night

2007-04-12T14:56:00.000-04:00

Well last night was a catch up night, with several people having projects to complete, it was decided to work in some days which had no specific task. I would allow different projects at various stages of completion to be worked on. I think we had 11 people all together, most of the kids worked on Mancala boards or bags to carry their boards in. If I understand correctly some of the bags and napkins had gotten painted before I arrived and they will be competed at a later date.
I cheated and instead of working on my box (which I still need to complete ) I took my gambeson and sewed on the buttons that had fallen off from combat. Using advice from Eron and Teryll, I used four strands (instead of the two used earlier) to ensure that buttons will stay on. The gambeson is so thick that I have to use a pair of pliers to pull the leather needle, that Teryll lent me, through the fabric. Last meeting I managed to only attach two buttons but I have now doubled my speed!!! I was able to get four buttons sewn on Tuesday night. I have four left to put back on and three that are still attached that will need additional thread to strengthen them.
I forgot the camera so no pictures this week. Sorry.

Tuesday Fighting Practice

2007-04-04T13:25:00.000-04:00

Fighting this week
This week we had 5 youth fighters in attendance and one heavy weapons fighter. Teryll and I took the opportunity to pair them up and run a series of practices. We picked the youngest two and had one fight “down” to the age group of the younger member. Then the older of the two could fight the next fighter at their normal level etc. until everyone had a chance to fight. After the combat was over Teryll and I gathered everyone together and discussed some of the reasons and rules for fighting. Things like how to behave and show respect for your opponent. When to stop and let them recover a dropped weapon and topics like that. We have enough youth fighters that we even covered some of the ideas and concepts in melee fighting.
As long as we will continue to have this many young fighters, I will need to brush up on the youth rules and become an authorized youth marshal. One more item to add to my list of things to pick up!!!

Last Tuesdays A&S Guild

2007-04-04T11:18:00.000-04:00

Guild meeting last week!!
Well I am still behind but starting to catch up on my posting and my projects. Last week, at the A&S guild, Lady Teryll had a class on making Ukrainian eggs. This is a process were the egg is colored and layered with wax in several cycles. When you are done you can have a very detailed and intricately colored Easter Egg. Terryl has produced kits with instructions that can be purchased for anyone who would like to learn this technique but was unable to attend the Guild night. All in all I believe we had 11 gentles attending this meeting and creating egg art. I will try to get some pictures of finished eggs to post.

Shield's Done!!!

2007-04-03T12:59:00.000-04:00

Well as I try to update and improve my armor “kit” I find myself finishing projects started long ago. Here is my Coat of Arms (registered) finally painted on my shield. Now I only need to finish my Banner and start a couple tabards.

Ide's of March Event held by Iron Oak

2007-03-28T12:50:00.000-04:00

Well I really enjoyed the Iron Oak event. It was the first tourney style event that I had attended in 2 years, other than Stormvale’s events. I have been to peaceful events and melee/war events but no tourneys since another Iron Oak event Toy’s for Tot’s.
The event had 11 fighters in total and was run as a Bear Pit style tourney, with wounds retained between bouts. In a Bear Pit you continue to fight until defeated and then you go to the back of the line and wait your turn to fight again. The winner was determined by points, you received one point for each bout you entered and one point for each win. The fighting started before noon and ended at 2:45. The winner of the tourney had 72 or 78 points, I could not hear well as it was being announced ( I ended up with 28 ). I think the most points I accumulated at one time was 7 points. That would be 3 wins in a row and then a loss. I believe by points I ended up 5th out of the 11 fighters.

I made it through most of the tourney but had run out of steam and sat out the last half hour. I had gotten to the point that I couldn’t block fast enough and had started falling prey to one-shots (One-shot is when your opponent is able to hit so fast or fake you out enough to hit you with his/her first blow.) While resting enough other fighters had also ran out of steam that Angus, the Baron of Northwoods called for the tourney to end in 20 minutes. I had taken off about half my armor and rather than suit up again, I let the time run out on the event. I used sword and shield for the first half of the tourney but as I tired I switched to using two swords (Florentine). Several other fighters changed weapons as the tourney progressed. Towards the end Angus changed to polearm and I was not able to kill him while he used that weapon. I had slowed enough that I was able to chase him around and even get in a couple wounds but not to kill.
Also attending the event from Stormvale was:
Ervon (fighting as well)
Eron
Laura’s Daughter
Bronwyn
Sylvia
Paul, Sylvia’s son'

Gavin of Blackwood
Desi

Dante

It felt a little like old home week, with many past Stormvalers in attendance including:
Kvelf-ulfr
Morgaine
Annanda the Fiery
Angus Lundy

I had thought about staying for feast but was tired enough that I just headed home at about 4:30pm and took a nap when I got home.
All in all a good event and I was happy that I was not so rusty that I embarrassed myself fighting.

Attending events in Canada

2007-03-22T12:29:00.000-04:00

Over the years, I have attended many events in Canada and I have never had a problem crossing over the border for an event. I did once have a problem and was stopped and searched when going over to attend a fighting practice. I think the difference was, for events I have always been prepared (see my list below) and for the fighting practice it was a bit spur of the moment and I was not even sure where I was going. I only had a street name and the fact that I would notice SCA fighting equipment when I “got” there.

Try telling a border guard your only going to be in the country for a couple hours and not really sure where but will be driving around looking for friends. That is what got me searched. I was afraid they were going to start taking my car apart but they stopped at that point it was completely empty and let me go. It was pretty funny later….As I was pulling armor out of my duffle bag they would ask me what it was and what it was for. I ended up wearing about ¾ of my armor and giving them an SCA recruitment pitch. They must have thought I was harmless and told me to pack my car and have an enjoyable visit to Canada.

I have also traveled on business frequently and even worked in Canada for months at a time so here is my list! As a side note, unless the law changes, you will need a passport by sometime in 2008 to drive to Canada. Currently you need one only if flying to Canada.

Do’s and Don’ts for attending events in Canada:
Do:

Be courteous, they are only doing their job. If do have the misfortune of getting stopped, the more annoyed you act, could look like nervousness or hostility to them and will make them search harder.

Bring a Passport or Birth Certificate for each person. Drivers License is a must or even school ID with pictures for any minors in the car.

Print the event flyer and make sure you have good directions. If you are questioned about your activities it is a handy item to show them.

Any Fighting or Fencing equipment is “SPORTS” Equipment. It is not a weapon. When asked “Do you have any firearms or weapons?” I always answer truthfully, “No I do not. I do have some sporting equipment”.

When asked what is the nature of your business you should say something like “I am attending a Medieval Recreation event. It’s a hobby”.

All medication should be in the original prescription bottle. If so you should have no problems.

Don’ts:

TAKE ANY WEAPONS. No guns, swords, axes, daggers etc. Leave all your “normal” SCA weapons at home. I go as far as to leave my feast gear knives at home. They are large enough to cause questions to be asked if I get searched.

Take any minors that are not your own. On the off chance you get stopped its easier if all the kids are yours. Trying to prove who is or isn’t a citizen of the US can be tough enough but if they are not your kids, how do you know. Or at least that will be the argument the border guard may make.

Take drugs with you or drive a car that has had drugs transported in it. If a dog reacts to you or your car be prepared for them to strip it down to the nuts and bolts. They are also not responsible for reassembling your vehicle.

Take alcohol with you unless purchased at the duty free shop.

Take more tobacco products than you can use for the time you are in Canada. If your going for a day don’t take 10 cartons of cigarettes, for example.

Be rude about any of the process. Why give them a reason to pick you out to be searched.

I am not sure if I have left out anything important please let me know if I have.

Sunday's Revel

2007-03-21T16:56:00.000-04:00

Sunday’s Revel was fun. Teryll had a houseful and the food was great as usual. Some people worked on finishing off Artisan Guild projects in Teryll’s workshop while others gamed or fought in her yard.

The fighting consisted of Toroshi our GMIT, Ervon, Balian and myself. I thought it was a good practice but I felt slow, or at least slower than normal. It was a little frustrating as I saw what I thought were openings but was not fast enough to be able to take advantage of them. I will need to spend some time working on the fundamentals and pell work to get my speed back up to something reasonable. I did manage to break two swords. One was the hilt of my siloflex sword. I think I carve the handle too small and it is prone to breaking and upon borrowing one of Balian’s swords promptly ripped the thrusting tip off.

We had to cut the fighting off a little early in order to eat and as I said before the food was great. I had made a couple cheese tarts (with no eggs for Teryll ) and during the revel I realized it was the first cheese tart I had made, in 25 years. I will have to get slightly more adventurous in making dishes to pass.

We had our normal meeting after everyone was finished eating. Several topics got discussed but I will defer to Teryll’s minutes for the meeting rather than my memory as I did not take notes. I did ask Gerard to call Balian forth just before the meeting broke off. I made a gift to Balian and his Lady Melisande of two banner poles that I had painted in their Livery colors. It was a gift from my household to his. I thought it would be a nice token of appreciation for the years of service to the local group.
On a side note, My daughter was tickled that she could teach Japanese Chess. She has made my drop her Viking name in favor of a Japanese one. So we will have to retire Kelsey Geirmundrsdottir. She also wants to have some Kimonos made for her. I fear that she has gone over to the dark side. What's a father to do?

Guild Update

2007-03-15T14:41:00.000-04:00

Update on Box project from a couple weeks ago!!
Drogo and family have finished their boxes. They look great!!! I believe Teryll has also completed at least one possibly more! I have to confess that I have 2 cut out but not assembled and one assembled and sanded but not finished.
Way to go guys they really look nice!!

Tuesday night Guild meeting

2007-03-15T13:20:00.000-04:00

Well, this week turn out was a little smaller than normal. A couple people couldn’t make it for one reason or another.

We had fun making our book covers and I learned that Teryll’s scissors are very sharp indeed. Note to self: keep finger away from sharp end of scissors.

Making the books the previous session was a little quicker than making the boxes for the books. It takes more time to get the ties made and the holes cut out than it did to cut and fold the paper. Even with that, most of the book covers are very close to completion and Lady Teryll has offered to have us complete them at the revel this Sunday, held at her home. Here are a couple of pictures of the covers in progress!!