Out of the frying pan and into the.....lake

I think Fall is making an early appearance.

After several weeks of 90+ (100+ with heat index) temps this weekend we dipped into the 60's during the day (50's at night) and some places in the state received nearly a foot of rain and it is still raining....

We definitely needed the rain as the whole state was several inches behind and a good portion was in a severe drought. I think the folks in Winona and Rochester would argue that moderation would be preferred since they are experiencing flash floods.

I spent my weekend in West Concord, MN (near Rochester) on a women's retreat at a friend's farm. A number of us brought our tents and camped in her lawn and it started raining around 5 am on Saturday and hasn't stopped yet. The forecast says it will let up sometime around Wednesday. This leaves me with a wet canvas tent to pack up, bring home, and set up in my back yard for a couple days. Not a huge deal, but it does make me a bit nervous to have it up unattended. My wash basins were filled with 6 inches of water Sunday morning. The canvas tents (there were 2) were pros and those of us who used them were snug and dry. The nylon tents did not fare that well, one even had a small lake that was a few inches deep. Icky. I think we converted more than a few people to the superiority of canvas tents.

The whole weekend was filled with eating, talking, eating, laughing, eating, drinking, eating, knitting, and we also had food. It was a great time. The reason for our gathering was to discuss the SCA. Some of our discussions were focused on our individual groups, but a lot of it was on the SCA in general: what we like, what we don't like, what we would like to change, how can we accomplish this, what are people's issues/ pet peeves. We had women who had been in for over 20 years and people who had only played for 2 so it was a good cross section of gals. It was a very empowering weekend and I feel I benefited from listening to other people's experiences/ concerns. There were some issues brought up that I had not considered before and it was good for me to hear and take note of. I would really like to do a gathering like this again, although next time I think I will leave the tent at home and set up a bed roll in the 'crafty coop' or the hay loft instead....