Arontius of Bygelswade

.....Two events down. Two left to go. They are the most difficult ones, but one day at a time. Seventeen days until set-up. Twenty-one days until tear down is complete.

.....TBT and I attended the Huntsman's Challenge this last weekend. The idea was good and those who attended seemed to have a great time. But it was such a small attendance. From what I understand there were something in the neighborhood of between fifty and sixty people registered in the gate books.

.....Lots of reasons as to why were discussed. The fact that August is one crazy busy month is probably the first and foremost. With Autumn War and September Crown in the mix and the fact the typical SCA player has only so much time and funding to budget for an event brings it down to a choice many times. Do I go here or there?

.....I didn't realize that William Tell, another big archery event, was only a few weeks away as well. It has a long and established history too. So I could see why many would choose William Tell if it came down to a choice between archery events.

.....TBT and I wandered the event on Saturday, but mainly spent the day with Countess Elisabeth under the PoofKAS. Saturday's weather, while sunny, had a little bit of a breeze which made it almost chilly underneath the big pavilion. TBT did a lot of embroidery and I mainly tried to relax and net fret about September Crown. :-)

.....The potluck late in the evening was really good. Richard grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and everyone still present provided for the potluck. As usual no one went away hungry. :-) We had a small Court where we gave Snapdragons to Thorfinn and Khulan for all their work in archery over the past years. We've been trying to catch up to them for a while and finally had the chance.

.....Sunday was the breakdown of site. The archers spent most of the morning on the ranges, so we finished around 4PM.

.....The drumbeat for September Crown keeps speeding up and getting louder. Tonight is a Team Haggis III meeting. We will nail down final placement of all the big activities. Which should be fairly straight-forward. We were just wrestling with exactly how much space the Erics and surrounding pavilions took up. It's quite a bit. Dragon's Laire is not going to get as really nice a spot as originally planned for camping. But the alternative is not really that bad either, so we'll make it work.

.....After that it is all about the set-up. People are starting to get excited about a Thursday set-up of site. I do not want five hundred people milling about over the day on Thursday! So we're trying to be judicious on things. We'll get lines painted in the morning. Start setting up Baronial infrastructure after that. Later in the day the Kingdom Trailer will arrive with Talon and we'll start setting up the main pavilions on the Erics.

.....Every available frontage foot around the Erics has been claimed. We're starting to urge people to share, bring their smaller pavilions, turn their pavilions sideways, whatever we can do to fit more of them in. But pretty quickly here we'll have to start letting people know that we can't fit them in. We're going to do our best to accommodate until the end.

.....Serjeantry Trials this Saturday. Thankfully, most of the administrative stuff is being handled by others now and so we're not driving ourselves crazy trying to set up stuff for it as well as prepare for Crown. Need to remember to some special gratitudes on that score. Even though we've been running with testing throughout the summer, Saturday will still be a long day. It ended up being fun last year, but may be a bit more grueling this year. I still look forward to the final Court where the Serjeantry members are named. Which reminds me that we have to talk to Madrun and Alaricus about what they are going to do for their upcoming Quests.

.....Sunday will be the hauling of hay bales and the water tank to the September Crown site. Need to remember to move the Retinue meeting to later in the day if at all possible. Gwen mentioned making it a dinner meeting. We need to resolve that tomorrow night at the Social. I need to remember to check on when we can access the water tank at Oliver's as well. I think that Sunday he is away at another function. But I don't remember when he goes to do that. I'll have to dig up the e-mail he sent me.

.....Looking forward to the weekend of August 25th and 26th. Sure, it is the weekend before September Crown. But I've been working hard to make it a weekend not tied to meetings and gatherings and such. It is a weekend of preparation at home to get ready for Crown. I'll have to bring down Lobelia for her cleaning and stocking. Then clean the garage so that we can pull everything out for the U-Haul, which will be picked up the Wednesday before Crown. We might even get some of the house cleaned up a little. That would be ultra nice. :-)

.....But, really, what I look forward to the absolute most is the ability to sleep in for maybe one extra hour. That will feel extraordinarily good. :-)

.....Crown is coming together. It looks chaotic as all hell. But these events always do. The people involved know what they are doing for their part and will get them done. The Region is really coming out to help, which is very much appreciated. There will be complaints and issues and stupid things that happen. But that is normal and we'll deal with them all. But the Crown Tournament will happen on Sunday. We will sit on the hillside overlooking the Tournament Field and cheer all the fighters onward to glory.

.....That's the part I keep forgetting in all this. There are reasons I really do like this site. It has some nice views and will set up for some nice activities viewing. The fields are flat and level. It is relatively close to town. There are reasons it might make a good June Faire site. We just have to see how it works.

.....Team Haggis III meeting awaits....

.....Aaron / Arontius.