#sca camping

[burningknucklecraftworks]

Oh shit apparently I didn't post the rest of my vacation shenanigans after St Rads. I did a lot of work on my tent poles at my SIL's farm and even filmed a video there.

I'm so thrilled with my camping kit. It looks so good and functions magnificently.

[deer-knight]

sca camping

[image description: five photos of medieval tents, and one photo just outside a tent of a candelabra on a table with melted wax dripping down the sides. the tents range from simple a-frames to elaborate pavilions with painted flags and tapestries out front. end image description.]

[burningknucklecraftworks]

I had a busy day today but took the time to finish up these

The table is based on a 6th century Alemmanic grave find, and the sword rack is based on Master Simon's Hold My Sword racks. I took some fancy shots.

Here's the originals:

[thejoyofseax]

Strawberry Raid V, 2026

This isn't so much an event report as an index post, from which I can link more posts as I make them. You can expect posts on:

Thoughts on Camp Coordination

Teaching Cooking by Doing Cooking

The Medieval Poetic Forms Project

Sestinas, with one I wrote at the event

Being Present at Events

International Visitors

How To Grow An Annual Event

(Not even slightly in that order, and probably with some combinations)

(My kitchen/dining setup at night; photo by Princess Gwerful an Filí)

Overall, Strawberry Raid V went very well; we had 150 people booked, and I think only about five people couldn't make it, plus we had a few last-minute arrivals, so the numbers were pretty solid. This makes it one of the bigger events in the Principality at the moment.

We had some initial stresses I could have done without, wherein the guy who was supposed to mow the fields down from somewhat-more-than-ankle-height to slightly-longer-than-the-average-lawn did not mow before the setup weekend, did not mow the following Monday or Tuesday, and turned up to do so only once we had given up on him and started setting up tents and shelters. At that point he mowed semi-randomly around the already-in-place structures, and left some clear areas un-mown for reasons known only to himself. I would have been far happier had we been able to get more setup done in advance.

There were no disasters over camp layout, which was my job, ably assisted by Lord Farraige. Because of the mowing stuff, we didn't get the fencing posts and rope barriers in place before people arrived, so the layout was a little more chaotic than I would have liked. Specific household encampments were nice and tight - House of Green, Tír Riamh, Camp Waif & Stray, and the Pont Alarch/Flintheath camp - but there was a bit more sprawl among individual tents than I was keen on. Next year, I'll be emphasising "beside the blue tent, with your ropes overlapping as much as possible", and the like. On the current field, we can probably accommodate 70-80 tents. My own food plan, feeding about 20 people including the Coronet and the event's Special Trainer, went pretty well. We had four people cooking evening meals, all plausibly medieval, and everyone else contributed to breakfasts and lunches. I think next year I might do some more breakfasts myself; I am invariably awake by that time anyway because of the early daylight (and this year, the need to out a small dog). The limiting factor on how many people I can feed is now the size of the firebox, rather than the number of cooking pots; the acquisition of a big copper-alloy cauldron during the year made the difference. A second cooking surface - a large or small brazier - would scale things up more, but at an organisational level, I don't think I actually want to.

The campground needs to have a public area with some facilities: shelter, a firebox, some seating, and possibly a table. Otherwise people gravitate toward my kitchen/dining area in the evening, which I don't mind at all in the event, but which usually leaves a certain amount of cleaning up to be done in the morning. We had a shelter this year, but didn't get as far as the rest. Weather on the Monday made it more useful to start taking down on Sunday evening, and we got all the canvas down before the rain started, which was a great mercy. It did make for some intense work on Sunday, followed by more of it on Monday in order to clear the site, and as of time of writing on Wednesday evening, my body has not yet forgiven me.

I am more or less recovered in terms of having a functioning brain again, though, so I can start writing stuff up.

[haeloc-3m]

While at An Tir West War, I had the pleasure of meeting Tinker and Philippa, the creative minds behind “The Roost.”

This beast of a modular tent is made of recovered fabrics in multiple units of identical size and shape, and has the low slanted profile of the “dragon wing” sun shade style I’ve seen around.

They were both kind enough to give me a tour and let me take photos.

I think this may be a goal for eventual household camping, but I’d want to tweak the design of it a bit first.