Days of Knights

[Sir Edward]

I'm still hoping to do one, if Sir Nathan and Sir James are up to it. The sign could be useful!

[Sir Brian]

I was thinking the same so I will make sure to bring it with me on this Sunday.
 

[Sir James A]

I'm still hoping to do one, if Sir Nathan and Sir James are up to it. The sign could be useful!

I'm not sure I'll do any combat, I'll gladly discuss the strengths and weaknesses of armor - but I'm not doing any cartwheels.

[Sir Edward]

Yep, I was hoping we could do the typical demo routine. Sir Nathan could fight me. I can do the bulk of the talking.

[SirNathanQ]

Sure, I'd be up for that 

[Sir James A]

Two weekends left to finish preparing! The dining table is stained, the pair of 6' benches are complete, the two single-seat benches have been stained - this weekend I'll be finishing the two camp beds, and working on 3 tables - a pair of "side tables" for beside the bed, and a longer "display" table that I'll place between the beds, under my banner, with a few period ambiance items for effect.

LED candles are surprisingly dim for what I expected. And I got some that will physically fit inside the lanterns, but won't fit through the lantern door. Drat! Also have some fabric to sew some table runners. And my new cased greaves arrived.

And I let my friend tow his car with my truck earlier this week, which caused the brake & ABS lights to come on, and it's overheating. Oh, and still need to find a cap for it. And get it to my friend at the dealership this weekend.

It's going to be a busy weekend!

[Lord Dane]

Two weekends left to finish preparing! The dining table is stained, the pair of 6' benches are complete, the two single-seat benches have been stained - this weekend I'll be finishing the two camp beds, and working on 3 tables - a pair of "side tables" for beside the bed, and a longer "display" table that I'll place between the beds, under my banner, with a few period ambiance items for effect.

LED candles are surprisingly dim for what I expected. And I got some that will physically fit inside the lanterns, but won't fit through the lantern door. Drat! Also have some fabric to sew some table runners. And my new cased greaves arrived.

And I let my friend tow his car with my truck earlier this week, which caused the brake & ABS lights to come on, and it's overheating. Oh, and still need to find a cap for it. And get it to my friend at the dealership this weekend.

It's going to be a busy weekend!

It's always something, Sir James. Let me know how the event goes. I'd go if I could afford the travel time. Can't unfortunately.

[Sir Edward]

As we get closer, we'll want to make sure we're all on the same page about carpooling/caravaning over. What time to meet up, etc.

Wow, we're bringing a lot of stuff!

I started on my weapon racks today, and I bought enough wood to make two of them. I may not have time to make both, but I'll have at least one. I figure each will hold 7 weapons in any combination of swords or polearms, or thereabouts, depending on how I cut the holes. Maybe I can squeeze more in with the holes closer together.

[Sir James A]

Think I figured out the overheating, drove it to the dealership without issues (an hour away). Brake and ABS lights are off. Having them give it a once-over to make sure.

I'm thinking I'll get the UHaul trailer the night before. That way it can be hooked up and ready to go without fiddling in the morning.

Should we try to leave really early, since once we get there, we still need to unpack and set up everything? It's getting dark early, so the more daylight, the better - I don't think there's any lighting at DoK.

If we can coordinate leaving early, and getting everything consolidated into the truck/uhaul, we should be good to go. Sir Edward, if you're not opposed to sharing sleeping space with Sir Nathan, everybody could sleep here the night before and wake up and leave together in the morning; also meaning we can have everything for everyone packed the night before. An idea to kick around.

I'm going to post my "list of stuff to pack" in a separate thread as a generic "living history checklist" thread.

[Ian]

How long is the drive for you guys and what time are you aiming at arriving at the DoK site?

[SirNathanQ]

So how are we doing this? Are we meeting up in the morning to deposit things in the Uhaul, or are we driving completely separatly, or what?

[Sir James A]

How long is the drive for you guys and what time are you aiming at arriving at the DoK site?

It's roughly 9 hours from my house (488 miles). I have no idea about arrival time right now.

So how are we doing this? Are we meeting up in the morning to deposit things in the Uhaul, or are we driving completely separatly, or what?

We still need to coordinate with Sir Edward about what we'll do - Squire Chris will be staying at my house the night before so we can get the trailer the day before and have as much loaded in the truck/trailer as we can - I'm unsure what you and Sir Edward are planning to do yet, but we can coordinate via FB / PMs / whatever. As long as I have no grievous truck issues, we'll all go in my truck and tow the UHaul trailer - it's a 2 door truck, but has dual bench seats and fits 6 adults, so we should have no problems with comfort. Plus, splitting the ~9 hour drive amongst the 4 of us will make it easier to do, and without the headache of a multiple vehicle caravan with everyone driving separately. We'll just split gas & the UHaul cost (only $14.95 a day, unlimited mileage - way cheaper than gas alone for a 2nd vehicle). We have about 10 days to figure out details on leaving / arrival / etc.

[Sir Edward]

Sure, we could meet up over there the night before, get packed, and be ready to leave first thing in the morning. Daylight is a concern, yes. I'd be up for that strategy. Since I'll be working on Wednesday, I'll need to decide when to load up my truck. One possibility is to load up Tuesday night, so on Wednesday I could just zip over to your place from work and help you get the trailer set up.

Sir Ian, we're planning to do the whole drive on Thursday and set up our tents that evening.

Sir Nathan, I dug my cots out of storage, so we'll have modern cots to use in the tent. I assume you have a sleeping bag you can use?

[Ian]

So, as a complete newb to the re-enactment / living history world, I'm feeling a little apprehensive right now with regard to not being poisoned to death at Days of Knights  

As many of you saw on the facebook page, it seems that the ability to properly clean yourself is not there, 125 participants plus the public will be sharing port-o-potties, with no modern way to clean yourself afterwards (not to mention that period clothing and portable toilets don't mix well when trying to not 'touch' things), oh and then we're all going to gather at a big feast and share food that we'll be eating with our hands because it's period...  See any problems here?

Now before people start telling me I'm overreacting, I've been through SERE school, eaten disgusting things and been plenty dirty while doing it, but we were using some pretty serious disinfection methods for water etc...  I simply don't trust 125 participants + the public to care enough about my health to make sure they're being clean about things.  I'm very tempted to stick to my own food right now.

[Sir James A]

Having never done the "no electricity / no running water" thing for more than a day trip ... I'm concerned too. Moreso concerned since my kit isn't narrowed to a specific decade, and is basically a "16th century composite" armor, and not specifically based on one example, rather than aggregates. Soft kit is generic too.

I'm not too concerned about the poison (Squire! Does this taste funny? ) ... but concerned about the facility cleanliness too. Master Hughes did say the number of port-o-potties would be based upon the number of registrants, so I'm hopeful it won't be 2 toilets to 125 registrants...

At feast, I'm eating with medieval flatware (dual prong fork, spoon, knife - hey, I'm 16th century knightly, I can do the fork ). Saturday's feast is during "closed" hours, so it's not technically "wrong" to use modern utensils if you really wanted, just frowned upon. If you didn't see the note about the mushed peas, they're doing apples/pears/etc instead - which is great since we can skin 'em and eat 'em, and won't have bare hands grabbing at a pile of peas. I'm also envisioning the cutting of the pig to be done with a longsword, but doubt it will actually happen that way....

In regards to food for the other meals - I'm planning on some simple non-refrigerated stuff to take. Some puddings ($10 for 10 4-packs at my local store), probably Nutella and some bread for snacks, some bottled water / gatorade / sodas, etc. There's a store a few miles away, so we'll probably make a daily ice run (I've got the concealed ice chest cooler), and grab a pack of deli meat or whatever, that will stay fresh for the day if it's on ice. I vaguely recall a "mundane food" vendor or two being there during public hours? I can get by without massive loads of food, but I'll have an 18 year old with me, and he can (and may!) eat a horse ... I may need to warn the jousters to watch the horses....

Having a very pregnant wife along would make cleanliness/germs of utmost concern for me too. IMHO, you're very right to question and be concerned.

(BTW, I thought the "tough it out" response/attitude from some people on the FB posts about the conditions at DoK was a bit harsh, considering some of us are first-timers and a long way from home .. hard to tell if it was sarcasm or truthful responses .. so I share the concern too)