Red-Handed Jill

For those of you who expressed an interest in the black powder rendezvous that I mentioned at Ojai: Like the title says, you spend the weekend immersing yourself in black powder. There are two camps: the primitive pre-1840 area (which we camp in) and the "tin tipi" area for more modern camps. They have a trail walk with targets as well as a shooting range. And for those of you who enjoy throwing sharp objects, a tomahawk/knife throwing area. And since this land is privately owned by a cannon enthusiast, we always bring wee Babbette to sound the wake-up call - although folks are pretty much up by then and yelling "WOO HOO!" after each cannon fire. Railroad Flats is in Calaveras County, northeast of the Stockton area. Our camp (before Patt arrived): No fairy wings or polyester pirate flags at these sutlers!

Oi William - check this out: You'll love this, I'm sure...

Mmmmm... I LOVE salt and vinegar chips. They love me a bit too much, though. Just finished some egg salad with crackers.

Jack took some photos - I'll have to snag and post 'em.

Back atcha! Hey - who was that guy with the carronade on the land carriage? You might want to keep a close eye on him next weekend - he doesn't pay much attention to the people around him when he's loading and firing his carronade. I told him to pay attention and to alert folks when he had a hot gun but I'm not sure I got through to him.

I have Ransom's book, which I should have finished up by this weekend and will send to Sophia.

^ I'm not a morning person, so very slowly, one leg at a time. < Change of Halloween plans: a few of us are going to be the characters of "Gilligan's Island". I'll be Mary Ann. V Boarding axe or sword?

Jacky - it was great to see you at Ojai - maybe next time we'll get you to fire a cannon! I had a BLAST at Ojai (both literally and figuratively.) Kenneth, Casket Chris and their crew were our neighbors this year and they really had a great setup. We talked about joining our camps next year - soon we'll be taking over - MWAAHAHAHAHAHA! Ransom and Chain Shot acquitted themselves well on the field of battle, joining us as cannon crew once again (although this time on land.) Ransom's coat is now well imbued with black powder! And Beaker the duck was a huge hit. So many folks stopped by to have their picture taken with him and he became the talk of the faire after Ryan took him out on their walks. I suppose seeing a duck on a leash IS a bit unusual... And Iron Bess - you really were missed!!

If it's who I think it is, they did the same to us. I brought a splitter so we could share the water but they seem to think that everything exists for them and them alone. Headed down to Ojai now - see you all there! And stop by Saturday night for some of my rum cake! I made them EXTRA rummy this time!

Perhaps because I am in the "well over 40" set, I prefer clean fonts as well, on a white or grey background. I have a tough time reading certain colour combinations and have had to copy and paste some posts into Notepad just to be able to read them. And I'm not at all colour-blind. My $.02 -

Beverages and More is having a sale on Pyrat Pistol rum! If you have a Club Bev card you can buy one bottle for $19.95 and get the second one for $.05!! This is only good until September 21st, so stock up now for Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Congratulations!! That's a lot of room to spread out in!

Yes - bring LOTS of water. Get some of those water cubes and keep them in a covered area. With regards to food, it depends on whether or not you plan on cooking. Don't bring anything that will spoil - the weather gurus predict 80 degrees in Ojai this weekend. TO7S' resident kitchen goddess keeps lots of fruit and veggies on hand; also hummus, pita, olives and other nibblies that can be eaten by hand. And with regards to cell phone charging, you can either use your car or get a solar charger. I use a Solio - works great!

Ojai is coming up soon - four more days! (I miss Petee - he usually does this.)

It IS a wee bit ghostly. But the important thing is, our previous posts weren't lost. Think of the gnashing of teeth that would commence if the posts in Captain Twill had disappeared.

Have you ever thought of - oh, I don't know... TAKING IT EASY ON YOUR FEET FOR AWHILE???? It's one thing to not let pain get to you (believe me, I know this as I have a pain tolerance that borders on the freakish, even for a woman) but one thing I've discovered is if you ignore an injury, it will bite you in the ass at the most inconvenient time. Geez - I am SO tired right now. I crewed on the schooner Aldebaran for the Great Schooner Race of San Francisco. It was the first race for both me and Aldebaran. In fact, only two of the crew had ever raced before. Since Aldebaran was the second largest schooner, we had a thirty-minute handicap (meaning we started thirty minutes after the first racers.) Unlike previous sails, each of the crewmembers were in charge of one sail (some worked in teams as certain sails - like the jibs - required more than one person to work them.) I was in charge of the Fore Stays'l, although I helped hauling up other sails preparatory to sailing. During the race, we got to one point where it made sense to swap out the Fors'l for the Fisherman sail. We accomplished this in a surprisingly short amount of time. We finished in the middle of our schooner category, although we did overtake some of the other boats. A couple of them made some really odd tacking choices and although their boats were lighter and faster than ours, they still finished far behind. Then we were directed to the docks at the San Francisco Yacht Club (which is actually in Sausalito, to the north of San Francisco.) No one told us where we were to dock until we were about halfway into the marina. A group of people were waving us over to their dock and we cut the engines and got our docklines ready. As we were in the process of docking, the guy I guess was in charge said, "You're supposed to be on dock 100, not this one." I asked him if that was the case, why did he and his colleagues wave us over to this dock? He thought about it and then made a wise decision: he shut up. Captain Hayden explained that since maneuvering a 72-foot 66,000 pound displacement schooner in a tight space was not the easiest thing to do, he was going to leave it right where it was. We finished the docking and then relaxed for a bit. Folks stopped by and wanted to look at Aldebaran. Hayden gave brief tours and the rest of us wondered if they were providing anything in the way of refreshments for us. As in was there any benefit to us being there whatsoever or were we supposed to amuse and entertain the Yacht Club members after a long and tiring sail (none of us were told we were even going there - we thought we'd get to go home after the race.) We sent out a scouting party and they came back with the news of refreshments, so we ventured out onto the dock and up to the club area, where they were serving hors d'oeuvres and beverages. We hung out for awhile and then arranged to be driven back to our cars in Richmond Point, since Aldebaran was staying at the dock that evening. I feel really beat up right now but had a great time racing. We acquitted ourselves pretty well, considering.

Hmmmm.... Although the original maps these were based on were probably published in 1723, I'm not sure those particular prints were done back then. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't they have been done in vellum? And if so, they wouldn't be that white. Even if they had been done in paper, they would be more of a brown colour. These look like replicas of 1723 maps to me. Also, some of those maps have folds - if they had been actually produced in 1723, the folds would have stressed the documents enough that they would be splitting.

At Lake Casitas??

We haven't figured out what kind of trouble we're planning on getting ourselves into this year, but we do have some fun planned. Last year we had a blast (literally) in the afternoon after Saturday's cannon battle. After the public went away we had some fun with our black powder implements and made some serious bangs 'n booms! Hopefully we'll have a chance to do that again this year. We might bring a couple of boats with us and have a bit of fun in the water as well.

I'm just where you will be someday...

Oi - kidney stones. I've been passing those things fairly continuously for the past three months but they've finally tapered down. Just one this week - woo hoo! (They've been small - I once had to have surgery to break up an epic-sized one that got stuck. These are a lot smaller - can't imagine that any of them were larger than half a millimeter in diameter.) Bottom line is - I can sympathise in a big way! Pyrat Rums all around!!

I'm a bit anxious. I'm crewing on Aldebaran this weekend in a race. All of my sailing experience has been of the leisure or storm variety. Having to do the right thing at EXACTLY the right time is awfully daunting.

Aye - a friend of mine went through it and in a matter of months had completely lost his rather large belly. He felt a lot better, too! Will send good thoughts your way.

It was the same in my neighborhood. Everyone knew everyone else and we knew all of the local business owners (no chain stores, ya know...) And you couldn't get away with anything - not only did you get chewed out by a neighbor or local business owner, but your parents would know when you got home exactly what you had been up to. And this was in San Francisco's Outer Mission district, not a small town. Things have definitely changed...

Aye - a friend of mine was behind those CD's and he has a good ear for talent and songs. My band's been asked to contribute to future CD's if these are a success.