blackjohn

Also, I must give credit where it is due. Many of the photos were contributed by Mr Lasseter and Mr Balls and an anonymous donor. Mr Balls' pics can be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9225610@N07/ Mr Lasseter's are... oops! I must away!

I am a fine shade of green at the moment. I went to Fort Fred this year wanting to find one thing - gourds for canteens. After walking around for a couple hours I had struck out. However, I found the thing I was looking for last year - a new sword belt - but... I didn't want it. In looking around, the thing that caught my eye the most was a just about $300 powder flask that looked VERY much like a French flask. But... I didn't want to spend that kind of money on ANYthing. SO there I sat, when Scurvy Hanna comes up to me and says, "I just saw the most awesome pair of Sarah Juniper shoes... the guy is selling them for $200!" About two minutes later Lisa comes up and says, "I just saw the most amazing pair of..." And I said, "funny, Mark was just telling me about them. I guess I better so see 'em." I was hesitant. But I did need a new pair of shoes. I wrote the guy a check for $200. A little while later I found the gourds, 3 for $5! Bargain! I won't bother to tell you about the stuff Lisa found...

Thank you sir, I am honored. This event was for me something I have always dreamed of doing. I guess it shows.

Jim Rockwell from The Ship's Company... one of the founding members of our Brethren... multi-disciplinary sailor/soldier/chantyman/etc, he told me that if we do that kind of stuff more often to let him know. Yes, protection... I'll drink to that!

When we finally stopped laughing, I removed my helmet and in the highest pitched voice I could possibly muster said something along the lines of, "I hope you've enjoyed the show yada yada..." Can't pass up a chance for that kind of comedy!

Well... yes and no... it was like this (and Mr Lasseter may feel free to tell it from his point of view as well). Mr Lasseter and I were fencing, when he pulled a trick I usually pull. He closed with me, got me in a headlock, and tried to throw me. Now, Mr Lasseter is a taller fellow than I, so I had a bit of a challenge on my hands. Nevertheless, I was able to return the favor by getting him in a headlock too. So there we were, in mutual headlocks. What to do? I tried getting a foot behind him to knock him down. He, in turn, attempted a stab at my gut, which is tricky when grappling. A was able to get a grip on his blade, directing it downward, at which point... the point... found the very last gap at the end of the button fly on the breeches I was wearing, entering said breeches, and stopping at or between my legs. We then both busted out laughing! Thus ending the duel! Most fun I've had fencing in years! Thank you Mr Lasseter!

My Sarah Juniper shoes... brand new... got them at Fort Fred for half the going price!

I can't speak for your personal experiences... but if you are addressing Civil War (as I believed was mentioned in your initial post) could it be that Civil Wars pistols are just so darned different? I'm thinking integral loading arm, multi-chambered, capped off with crisco type of situations. That's a far cry from a single shot flintlock. At our pirate events, people with pistols follow the same guidelines as those carrying longarms.

From my point of view standard operating procedure is to not ram down paper when recreating a battle. I'm not sure what is happening these days on the RevWar scene, but at least one site required that we keep our rammers in our tents when taking the field.

The Quakers in Pennsylvania traded heavily with pirates, so much so the Maryland govt called it 'The Pennsylvania Trade.'

My group did a fun little event at Saint Mary's City the weekend before last. You can see pics of it here. One of the high lights... full contact fencing with Dorian Lasseter... I still have a bruise!

Fwiw, I poke my head in here at least once a day just to keep my eye on the forum I mod. But my vow is I cannot post unless I have exercised that day... and a vow is a vow. As for those pics... click here!

I'm sure that would be entertaining, though I will only admit to having questions, and no answers.

I'd agree! Paddling can be very strenuous! Shame about the civilization... I just did 25 minute walk... but it is sooo humid and the air is so heavy it felt more like a swim!

Whoa! A hearty congrats! That's wonderful news!

I'm exhausted. This weekend was one long workout, between an event on Saturday then walking around the site on Sunday, every muscle in my body aches. And thanks to Mr Lasseter, I have a few good bruises too! You see, at one point while sword fighting he closed on me, then we had each other in headlocks and it went downhill from there...

Yeah... there's a story behind that avatar... history... funny stuff that.

Do you Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue? http://www.harvestfields.ca/etextLinks/31/00.htm (looks at clock... decides I'm posting within limits of my vow)

I'm only working 40, but right now I'm enjoying work for the first time in awhile. Got a sideways promotion to manager of a team of about a dozen people. Fun stuff thus far. I like working with people.

As usual, too many things at once... On Basilisk Station, GURPS Ultra Tech, The Sea Rover's Practice, Dampier's A New Voyage yadayada... and I'm always looking at the next book purchase... like right now, trying to figure out how to get $500 to buy that ultra cool book!

With that, I could do Warhammer reenacting!

Odd how that works... I buried something once, with every intention of digging it up at a later point in time. I marked the spot well enough, but in the course of a decade or so, the area became overgrown, the mark moved a bit, and, long story short, after digging for hours and hours in the blazing heat, through dirt, clay and sand, I had a hole at least chest deep, shaped like an upside down mushroom probably a good five feet round, and never did find the thing I had buried.

I'm curious, as a spectator, were you able to hear me well enough? I'm always looking for that balance between shouting at the top of my lungs so the crowd can hear me, but keeping it to a reasonable level. So... it's one of those things I always try to be aware of, distance from me to the viewing public, and if I'm audible to them.

An hour+ to cut 1/3 of my yard... time to get a bigger lawnmower! But it is exercise, and I do enjoy mowing the lawn. Hey Tom, good news from the heart doctor! I went in for the nuclear stress test follow-up today, and he said my heart, valves, arteries, etc all look perfectly normal. Then he followed it up with, "now the big question is, if it wasn't your heart, what was it?" He had some interesting things to say about sensory perception in the human body. "Take a pair of calipers and open them to 1mm. You can feel each point as a separate point on your fingers. But move that to your arm, and you only feel one point because the nerves aren't as sensitive there. Move it to your back, and to feel two points, you'd have to spread them maybe 1/2 inch apart. Now inside your body... " Inside your body, it's REALLY hard to tell where pain is coming from... pretty fascinating.

I'll just say... I really, really liked it! So much so, I think I'm going to go see it again!