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Who knew Rosin and I are the same height?

Actually, she looks a little taller.

Thanks for the pics Ursus!

I just cut down two Paulownia trees next to the patio. They were both volunteers, crowding the house and shading out the pond.

Paulownia trees are fast growing, up to 20 feet in two years, so they are nearly grainless. It is a soft, white wood that carves amazingly, so I'm told.

Only one of the trunks is large enough to have use, but I think that trunk has about 6 feet of 5" diameter. Certainly B grade, there will be some knots, and the trunk is not totally straight.

Fifteen years ago, Master Reynard mentioned that this wood went for $15 a board foot. It's very very expensive to buy as lumber, because it is highly sought after in Japan for temple carvings, where it has been totally overforested. In the US it grows as a weed tree, but there are plenty of documented reports of people stealing good lumber quality trees right out of people's yards.

Dyers, note that the bark is useful as a dye, apparently.

It goes to whomever wants it and will actually use it. Just make us a little something out of some of it!

As we did last year, we are once again hosting a big work and fun party at our place over Labor Day weekend. This year our plan is to tear off the front porch roof, then the front porch. Daring types are welcome to help us remove the false chimney that sat atop the fireplace Vlad and company took out last year.

Thjora is convinced there won't be enough work, so this is definitely the year to attend, because there will be as much food and beer and wine as last year, so the work to fun ratio may be much much higher.

Drop us a line if you'd like to come, even if you don't plan to work. But the faster the work goes, the more likely a fight practice (of all flavors) will break out on Sunday!

Last year was pretty epic, with a house full of people over night, and Val attacking our broken concrete like it had done him wrong. First come, first serve for private rooms, but everyone gets blueberry pancakes!

Thjora pointed out last night that a wedding we're invited to and really want to attend takes place on... October 11th.

No War of the Wings for us this year.

Instead, let me draw your attention to Journey to the Crusades, local to us on Sept. 20th, and Lochmere Baronial Birthday on September 27th. Alas, this latter event supplants Masters of Defense, where I would otherwise be attempting to add a Fourpeat to my Threepeat of winning that tournament.

In related news, I bought a Darkwood cruciform cut and thrust sword at Pennsic and have been having fun working the pell a bit with it, mostly related to coaching Kit as she develops her cut work with her new backsword.

Several pages of Pennsic pics for your enjoyment. And awe.

I just signed up for Twitter as sircorby.

Theoretically, this will automatically be posted to my livejournal, if not delaflamme.org.

I'll use this for major events of the day at the war, like "arrived without trauma or drama," "really stupid hot," "raining tomcats and hoehandles," "broke my femur in the bridge battle," "garlic chicken bread bowl for lunch," "Atlantia kicked everyone's ass," "left site for beer and the 1:15 Dark Knight in Butler," and so on.

Hell, that could almost be my whole war right there. Hopefully not the femur stuff.

Oh, and PACKING IS DONE!!!!!!!

To calm Isabel and hopefully not annoy Thjora, I thought I'd mention that my Pennsic prep has gone pretty smoothly. Last night I painted the gold onto the Best Shield in the World, and also finished covering the cute little heavy T6 shield blank Alan gave me. (Don't be too shocked: First, it is the heaviest piece of T6 I've ever seen, and second, it is probably just going to be a loaner.) Philip was over this weekend and used his amazing helicopter repair skills to properly re-fiberglas the Best Shield. Here's a pic of it after repair and before recovering.

This shield is two years old. I'd thought it was three. But in any case, it has proven to be remarkably durable. Yes, I wish its shape was slightly different, and I wish it was slightly smaller. Those are my errors, not Reynard's! He does amazing work, and I hope I'll always be fighting with one of his shields. Rigid shields have spoiled me. When I had to use my old aluminum one this past spring, I hated it. So wobbly when it gets hit.

Tonight, hopefully Lewis is coming over to help with reapplication of the crows, and I'll get the green chief painted.

Perhaps we'll debate what to paint on the new little T6er too. Otherwise, things remaining undone that must be done before we leave:

1. Tie new loops for the tent. No biggie.
2. Paint war standard poles. An hour or so.
3. Old Camail attached to Phrygian Helm. Could wait 'til the war.
4. Reattach camail to demi-helm. Ditto.
5. Print out SCA biz cards for Thjora and me. Done shortly. Yay for a slack job.
6. Shopping, because Thjora has enough to do.
7. Put some plants in the ground.
8. Air in the cart tires.
9. Pack

It Will Be Done.

Oh oh oh! Aaaaaaah. Watch in 1080p. You know you want it.

Justus can even relax, because JW wasn't involved.

This was a great exchange between Baron Ansel and me in the melees after the tourneys. I'm so glad Ursus caught some of it. Many other great pictures there too.

It was hot at Novice, but fun, even with the nosy wandering around of unsupervised children. Discussion of this after the fact had me coming up with the idea of temporary tattoos featuring a cartoon kid taking a lollipop from a cartoon vulture in a trench coat, with the text "I WAS LEFT UNSUPERVISED BY MY PARENTS" inscribed around it in flowery script. Those would be fun to hand out to kids. Deserving ones.

Congrats to Ru and Amos, winners of the Novice and Unbelted tournaments. And nice job Theron, who ran the tournaments quickly and on time. All marshals should aspire to such.

Also, it proved to be a warning about my conditioning and upcoming Pennsic. My back has kept me from much of the conditioning I intended to do this summer, and now I have two weeks to catch up since my back is better now. With such a fight-packed War planned, I need to improve my stamina! Must get to the gym, must aerobicize.

Right now though, I must burritocize.

Technorati Tags: Heavy Fighting, Heavy Weapons, SCA

Todd Last/Uneg from somewhere up north was kind enough to capture all the Pennsic official battlefield schedule info onto Google Calendar.

This also makes it available to iCal. So you can add it to your iPhone or whatever.

He graciously gave me permission to post the links:

iCal import (opens in iCal if you have it, may work with other vCal compliant apps.)

HTML (For just looking, or adding to your Google Calendar)

XML (For the uber-geeks, or as an RSS feed.)

If you're subscribed to the household's SCA calendar then all this info is already added.

Please don't blame me that there is no rapier info listed.