Monday Review Of The Week(end).

[arontius]

.....It's a Monday, that's for sure. I'm glad I have nothing officially scheduled for the evening as I need a break. Work is being a little stressful. The SCA has not exactly been calm either. I'm not complaining too much as none of it is going to cause me to run away screaming, but it certainly hasn't been a brainless planning exercise either.

.....On Saturday I had a walk-through of the September Crown site with Althaia and Loric to look over the martiallate area on the main field, and the archery field move. I'm actually glad I made the trip. As usual I get a new perspective of how much room we have every time I walk the site. In my mind's eye, the place keeps shrinking on me. :-) I'm still on guard though. The Norseland site is not the Nix Farms, there is a finite amount of space and I'm reasonably sure we're going to fill it when the event is in full swing.

.....It was wet on Saturday, but even with all the water the site drained nicely. No marshlands that we could see. Always an inspiring site, and very important when you are putting the squeeze on space. We learned that lesson very dearly in our move to the Uplands for June Faire that one year.

.....Loric was fine with the archery field move. What that does for us is open up another space for parking. Every parking space will be dear and will reduce the number of cars we end up having to park on Imperial Way itself, which is the final back-up plan for parking for the weekend.

.....Althaia and I walked the area designated for the Main Erics. Althaia seemed happy with it, so we're good to go. She is also working with Sir Bane to organize the Crown Tournaments. I need to make sure that Jenae gets injected into that conversation as the Royal Liaison. This is my reminder to do so as soon as I get out of Live Journal.

.....Saturday afternoon we met with Dame Ellen and reviewed the Serjeantry Testing Matrix. Ellen did a great job putting together the matrix. It really puts everything into an organized and easy to follow visual. She is already starting to line up judges. TBT and I need to start working with the candidates to make sure they are talking to Ellen for their specialties, and are lining everything up to complete their Trials by August 18th. Also need to find an Autocrat for the Day of Trials itself. A couple of people have volunteered, and I have their names in reserve, but I'd very much like to find someone not directly connected to the Trials so they would not have to split their time onerously.

.....Saturday night was a trip to the Theatre with the Protege Adelheidi to see Brave. Very much Disney, but some stunning visuals. I actually enjoyed watching it. I would have preferred a more complex story, but it was made for families so I need to just enjoy it and not over-think it. :-)

.....Sunday was the main group walk-through of the September Crown site. We had about fifteen people out there. We systematically went from section to section of the site. First up was RV Camping and parking. We will need to see if the brush hog can clear some of the RV area for us. Ralph is estimating upwards of thirty RV's and it will take up a little more area than I wanted it to, but we'll make it work. We looked at the already established parking areas: the main parking field, the field next to the RV Camping, the Pea Patch, and the EB Building. There is space behind the EB Building for a number of cars, or large cars with trailers, so this will help and definitely eased my mind some.

.....The area we had considered for archery is now a parking area for upwards of seventy-five cars. We'll need to brush hog the area, which we're scheduling for the second week of August. Barnet walked through the area with us and visualized how it was going to work for us. We also need to remember to get the Port to remove the chains from our one way road and unlock the gate out.

.....Barnet also test drove the scooter around site. It easily made it over most areas. The only area he declared off-limits for it was the secondary camping field. I primarily wanted the scooter for use in taking folks with disabilities from the parking lot down to the main field. So I think we're good to go for at least that much.

.....As we walked down the hill from parking we identified more pockets of grassland that could be used for camping of smaller groups. There will be some whining as this really is a rather primitive and undeveloped site. This being our first time using it there will be 'surprises' as well. As soon as July Coronation is over I need to start spamming the Kingdom e-lists on a weekly basis and warn people of the challenges of the site. Angharad will be helping in that regard as well.

.....The Equestrian Area is rather nice, with quite a bit of room for horses and trailers. I think it'll work nicely. The only concern is the past history of the site being a remediation area. It has been officially removed from all governmental clean-up site lists and is declared safe for use by humans. But there is some question as to how much that applies to horses, who will be chomping up grass on the site. We're working with the state now to get some clarification on that. We've told the State and the Port of Bremerton that Equestrian Activities will be happening, and they were not overly concerned about horses. That gave me a cautiously optimistic feeling. So now we just need to follow that through and get something in writing.

.....Immediately adjacent to the Equestrian Field is the archery range. We had Master Andras with us on Sunday and he also took a look at the range and immediately suggested that it was large enough for a York. To ensure safety he advocated angling the range just slightly to point more into the forest, but even after walking up and down its length thought it would work well. He is off to speak to Loric to see if they can manage to include the York in the thought process for the weekend.

.....There is a nice feature to the Equestrian and Archery fields that includes a viewing ledge above the fields where the activities can be observes somewhat from above. The entire site is terraced, so the Equestrian Championship itself could even be viewed from the Main Fields. From that standpoint I think the site will work out nicely! Even better if it eventually evolves into a June Faire worthy site as that viewing ledge will allow for Modern observance without interfering with the Equestrian activities themselves. Something for future thought.

.....We traveled to the Main Field from there and discussed the lay-out of Erics, Marketplace and the Arts & Sciences area. With four of us in the mix there were approximately four different visions of how this was going to look. It took a little bit of frustrating back-and-forth before we all came to the same page. But we finally did as the map Ian produced later looked just how I thought it would be. We'll have to revisit this again at least once or twice as Their Majesties will have to weigh in on where They want to camp in relation to the Royal Pavilion, and how much space they'll need. Flexibility will have to be our middle name for a while.

.....Walked on out the main road after that and finalized placement of gate and looked over the EB parking. Then called the meeting complete. We were out there for two and a half hours, but I think it was productive. People are starting to see the event come together. Now we just need the details to come together.

.....Visited with Cedric, Brighid and Madrun some on Sunday afternoon. Haven't had the chance to sit and talk much at all lately. We've all been so busy. Cedric was completing some nice camp tables. They looked good, and folded flat. As soon as TBT and I step down, the re-vision of our camp is one of the first things to happen. Although to make that happen will require some major infrastructure re-build, like a new pavilion. TBT's is very nice, but it is on the small side for the two of us. We were talking about maybe the next size larger and using TBT's as the porch in front. Which has some appeal. We'll need to give some more thought to this.

.....This week includes the regular Social on Tuesday, a meeting on Wednesday, and then TBT travels on Friday to Iron-and-Ink. It'll be me and the Rhys Monster at home this weekend. I was somewhat torn on going with her, but with as busy as this summer is turning out to be I would very much like to utilize every minute possible to get ready for August and September.

.....And maybe clean the house up just a little bit. It is pretty bad right now.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Comments

[derekl1963.livejournal.com]

"It was wet on Saturday, but even with all the water the site drained nicely. No marshlands that we could see."

I went driving down after (for some photography), and there were a couple of *amazing* puddles in an area our wandering path across site didn't take us. (Notably where the road circles the upper camping plateau.)

"We'll need to brush hog the area, which we're scheduling for the second week of August."

Again, while driving around I found that some of the roads (especially our main exit road on the south edge of the old archery field) aren't as visible now that the vegetation is coming in as they were back in May and on the maps. They may need attention from Barnet as well.

"We've told the State and the Port of Bremerton that Equestrian Activities will be happening, and they were not overly concerned about horses."

That presumes they have a clue when it comes to horses...

But yeah, good walkthrough overall.

[sjusts.livejournal.com]

I can here them now "but you did not say horse activities were going to be taking place"

Goes a long with "We did not think you would be using the whole site, even though the rental contract says you rented the whole site. So we rented the horse corrals and barns to the 4-H for the weekend." Yuppers it happened.