Yesterday, the 4th, we packed our camp up and returned to the 21st century. sigh…
Battlemoor was great! Probably should have been called BattleDUST, but we had a wonderful time. The rain on one day did help, and made the dust/powdered cow patties settle. I swear we inhaled/ingested at least a pound of that dust. Ughh! However, the Stroh Ranch is a working ranch and there are cattle!
We arrived Wednesday and set up camp in a lovely little dell. Amazingly, it was only 50 yards from the Town Hall. There was a cool tree that had fallen and it looked all the world like the Pi symbol or a henge. While we were all part of the Shire of Villaleon, we were also in three separate areas. So, there was the main camp, Persia where Arty and Nyusha lived and then ‘the Savages’,… us. 🙂 Rather appropriate as I’m a Viking and Dan is um…. Lothar de Savage. This lead to many jokes. “Oh, that isn’t Viking,… Oh. Wait… you plundered that didn’t you…” and “I’m a Viking. You going to hand that over or shall I just take it?” It was a lot of fun. We teased Lothar as his era didn’t write…. “Don’t worry dear, I’ll teach you how to write…” and other bits. “He’s a savage, be glad he’s wearing clothes… eats with a spoon… cooks his meat…”
The week was busy with a number of tourneys and classes. I learned how to tablet weave and to spin!!!! Oh, and how to write/send a letter. 🙂 That was fun. I took tons of pictures and they can be seen on my Facebook page. I really enjoyed the spear tourney. Dan of course was watching most of the tourneys. Between answering questions, making comments on fighting, patching up a few fighters and other bits and pieces, he got offered belts three times! So, while he didn’t accept a belt to be a squire, he will be getting his armor together and will be getting his heavy fighters card. He teased me at one point calling me his armor bunny. I about spewed with laughter. (an armor bunny is someone who helps their knight with armor, spotting weaknesses, etc.)
There were also courts every night and revels. (parties!) Thursday night was Hafla. Rolling Thunder played drums until probably 4am. Women belly danced, people chatted, good beer was consumed and everyone enjoyed themselves.
Friday night was Halls of Valhalla. There was a Viking ship where you could memorialize someone and then the boat was burned. We payed homage to Sir Starhelm. Once again, there was great conversations and lots of beer. I had one called Vikings Drool. It was a lovely dark stout. OMG! Oh, and there was a non-alcoholic ginger beer that was heaven, as well as a sarsaparilla to knock your socks off. I drank more of those than the beer. 🙂
Saturday was the Medieval Red, White and Blue celebration. Everyone tried to dress in red, white and blue and still stay in character. It was a riot. The drummers played again and it was about 1am before I got to bed.
Sunday night was the Farewell Siege Revel. It was a time to eat and drink all the leftovers, say goodbye to people and unwind. It was another late night, but well spent.
Monday of course came Way Too Early. However, we broke camp in about 90 minutes. We said our goodbyes and headed home. Once we were home, we unpacked, showered, checked a few things on the computers and then crashed. I even got my article written for the Huerfano World Journal and pictures sent. 🙂 We napped from 4pm to nearly 10pm. We got up for a little bit of food and were back to bed by 1am. Damn we slept heavy! I have to admit that about the only thing I missed was my BED! So, we are planning on making a Viking bed for next year. Whether we make a Viking tent or a yurt is still being discussed.
Today we are putting stuff away, cleaning and washing things and trying to move. All the aches and pains have come home to roost. We didn’t get too badly sunburned, but there were lots of bites and Dan got all itchy from bucking bales of hay used at some of the battles. Yes, we clean up after ourselves so that the ranch can be a ranch.
Only a year till Battlemoor III. 🙂