School: Alder Creek Middle School, June 4, 2010

Don Juan and I were fortunate to once again participate in the Alder Creek Middle School Event in Truckee, with our lovely host, Sandy Hord (aka Lady Jean Campbell, aka Dame Charlotte Carmichael). As in years past, the children were wonderful, the staff was marvelous and the food was terrific!

This year we were fortunate that Lady Anne-Marie joined the ranks, as then my services were not required to teach dance (although I did come prepared with music and boom box in hand).

The morning started out cold and lightly rainy. Scott, Shannon and their friend Melissa braved the elements and set up Rounders on the field outside. The kids loved it...especially when Her Majesty would appear and help out the losing team. Sir Ryk and the guys from the Western Circle of Sword took quarter staff practice outside as well. The rest of us traversed between the stations until lunch time.

After lunch (a very fine meal of chicken [drum sticks of course], bread and watermelon, with lemonade to drink), we split up. Sir Ryk and the Western Circle guys went into the gym and set up sword practice; Lady Anne-Marie, with the able assistance of Dame Shaila & her girls went into the music room; Dame Bonnie & Lady Kathleen (aka Katie) traveled outside and upstairs to teach herbs; Don Juan went to assist Jim in his Trebuchet demo; and the rest of us stuck with the Queen (Dame Annabel; Lady Marni and I), roaming from station to station until the end of the day.

At the end of the day, we all congregated into the gym with the students. We told the story of how James Stewart was attempting to usurp the throne (we were doing 1568, when Mary was married to Bothwell - portrayed by Sir Ryk) and thus left the school.

Upon return to Sandy's house, we were treated to a fabulous tritip dinner and then took our leave.

Sadly, this will be the last year that Sandy hosts the school event. The event will go on, but things will be changing. More to come on that...

Fresno: Queen Bess & The Pyrates - May 15 & 16, 2010

• Don Juan and I arrived on site about 4pm on Friday. Orion had already scoped out our area. We were given a very large area to set up, conveniently located near to the drive-on drive way and the front gate.
• The site was very pretty, lots of green grass and trees. In fact, while we were setting up we were in almost complete shade. The park is *huge*, with the renaissance faire only allocated perhaps 10% of the park. The faire was backed up to the tennis courts, in fact that's where actors camp was...on the tennis courts.

• There were lots of vendors and other guilds present. Several food vendors, so you didn't miss out on lack of choices.

• The weather was nice, but hot. Saturday was probably 92-95 degrees with full sun on our encampment until about 2pm or so, then we were in very nice shade. Both kids (Merrick & Gavin) succumbed to the heat and took naps during the day (we had lots of shady back stage area for them to do so, which was really nice) on Saturday. Sunday was cooler, as it was overcast, probably 89-92 degrees.

• There were several wasps, or yellow jackets, or whatever you want to call them that would buzz the encampment…most particularly Don Juan (they really liked him), but in general the bug population wasn’t too bad.
  
  Gavin found a friend next door (Guilde of English Folke) whom he got into a sword fight with. It got a little out of hand, but things turned out in the end. And by the end of the day they were talking again.
  
  We gave out very few prizes over the course of the weekend, there just weren’t enough patrons. Even with the short ‘staff’, I think everyone had the opportunity to shop. Due to the low attendance, there were deals to be made.
  
  We were torn down and on the road by 7pm as per usual. And fortunately everyone made it home safe and sound.

Community Event: De Luna Ranch, May 8, 2010

Photos thanks to Rene DeLuna:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13980881@N08/sets/72157624066124170/


Photos thanks to Danny DeLuna:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13980881@N08/sets/72157623926178281/

Photos thanks to Wil Mandac:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildabeast71/sets/72157623913304141/

Photos thanks to Kyra MacNeil:

Friday Don Juan and I arrived on site at 1:45pm. We quickly found Sir Guy with Danny, who decided to show us around the property and the house.

Danny gave us a pop-up to use in lieu of our pavilion. We decided to put our walls up on the pop-up, (a) to make it look better and (b) because I thought it would be cooler than the ‘plastic canvas’ walls. It worked really well, as our walls were slightly smaller than the pop-up (we think the pop-up was an 11x11), and we were backed up against an ivy covered fence, so we left the back partially open, allowing for more air flow. Not having to put the pavilion up saved us a huge amount of time. We were done with everything and gone by 4pm.

Saturday was beautiful. We (Don Juan, Tory & I) arrived on site at 8:45 to a bustling encampment. Killian had been there for a while setting up his stuff, and Sir Guy (surprise...not, he's always early!) was already there. Orion, Gavin, Wil & Morrigan all arrived just before we pulled in. Detta & Merrick showed up shortly after, with Kieran & Robin popping in around 10:30 (they got a bit lost, but were in good spirits once they got there).

We decided to fire water balloons instead of cabbage, as we had a nearby water source, it was a community event rather than a faire, and cabbages are costly. Worked out great. The treb behaved itself all day and there weren’t any mis-fires that I’m aware of.

The Vikings and the Romans were set up practically on top of us, so it was a bit difficult for folk to realize that it was three different groups, but it made us all look as if we were very full. The shade of the area that they gave us was quite welcome. I think we ended up with the better of the three spaces, as we had the driveway to the house perpendicular from our location, and had a lovely cross breeze most of the day.

Don Juan and Wil fired the treb constantly pretty much all day. I think we fired close to 100 water balloons. The kids (Tory, Merrick & Gavin) had a bit of a water balloon fight as they heated up. Orion manned the smaller scale siege weapons table. Morrigan & Detta spun and spun and spun. Killian worked on his chain mail (when Kieran wasn’t stealing his seat), and worked on the public, with the able bodied assistance of Kieran himself. Robin was a god-send, making sure that Don Juan was watered while he was in the sun. Sir Guy seemed to have a good time instructing folk on the various hand held weapons and armor, as well as polishing his plate armor.

There were lots of bodies on site. Danny told me that there were approximately 2,200 people in attendance. It was an invitation only event put on by the Lions. I don’t think I saw anyone with a frown or angry look on their face. The Boy Scouts kept us watered (although we had our own) and fed. They kept stopping by with food (burgers & dogs in lunch boxes with chips, or cookies). There was also shaved ice, cotton candy and ice cream bars available, if you were willing to go find them.