Lilies 22 Re-cap

Well Lilies happened. It was my first time attending without P, and it was not the same. We had a good time, but we were all a lot more subdued. With attending the wedding I did not arrive on opening day and my whole week was thrown off from that. My normal Saturday, which is spent running around and getting supplies, happened on Monday and that ain't right.

Ilya and I arrived on site a lot later than we had planned on Sunday. We showed up around 8:30 pm, just as the sun was going down and the threat of golf ball sized hail was on the way. I appreciated all of the help setting up, but it was hard to remain pleasant with folks coming into camp with the reports of "giant frogs", my stuff strewn everywhere and my tent not even up. Fortunately we didn't get hail, things got set up, I got into garb and we strolled down to the Broken Harp for beer. Next year I'm buying a weather radio.

Monday morning I finished getting things set up, got water filled, determined what I needed to purchase that day, grabbed the propane tank and Kathy and I were on our way.

I decided to do a search through Local Harvest to find a farmers market or local farm to purchase some produce. I found Sage Moon Farm in Excelsior Springs and I just love them! It's run by 2 lovely men (one of whom was in SCA back East) and they have sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, produce and 2 friendly dogs. Next year I'm going to e-mail Michael in the Spring and reserve a 1/4 or a half a lamb cause that was tasty meat! We picked up ground lamb and lamb riblets, fresh eggs, radishes, greens, herbs and had a lovely chat. Everything was behind so there was not a lot of produce to choose from. It was still fun. We filled the propane tank, went to the liquor store, saw that there was wood for sale on the corner, called the number and was told someone could meet us there in an hour. Perfect amount of time to go to the Big V and get groceries. Food was purchased, wood was picked up and we rounded out the trip with a stop at Sonic. Fantastic!!! We got back to camp, unloaded the van, put things away, I moved the van to the parking lot and did not touch it until Sunday morning when I got it to pack and come home.

I changed my mind about the Barbie tent. I decided to bring it and I grabbed 2 of the shower pumps and one worked (I would wager the other works as well, but we only needed one). The Barbie did not drain as well as in the past due to the new position and it was a lot muddier than preferred. Once the construction around our camp site is done we should have more grassy areas next year.

About the construction: the owners of the camp had decided to convert a large portion of where we camp to volleyball courts. They have terraced the space for 3 courts, all the way down to the lake.



The photos don't really convey the scope of the construction and while we had initially been concerned that ALL of our camping space had been compromised, essentially what it did was turn our space 90 degrees so, while we have more slope, we follow the tree line and have way more room. If they mow as much next year we can stretch the camp all the way to the other side of the lake. It can be really cool!



Because we were uncertain about the size available to us we elected to move the group from Silfren Mare across the road. I don't think we would necessarily need to do that again, but they were a far more pleasant group to look at than the mundane city of earth pimples that usually gets put directly across the road.



We had a task to get everything that we bring in one van and fortunately we did, and I didn't destroy my suspension or transmission. I think next year calls for a trailer. I tried to whittle down what I brought and I didn't miss a thing, except the cart. I especially loved using my fly for the kitchen. It was the perfect size!



G2 loaned me her spoked round and it was perfect for me for the week! It fit my queen sized bed. I hung up my curtains to make a changing area and I squirreled my trunk, hanging divider and my table back there.



There was also room for my little friend the wolf spider!



The bugs were insane this year with all of the rain and I am covered with itchy bites. I don't know if they are chigger, tick, spider, fly or mosquito (since I did get a few of those from up north). My plan to not use any bug spray is made of fail. Next year I'm dipping myself in Deet for a week before going.

Another thing that was noticable was the deplorable condition of the port-o-johns. I think there is equal blame on the company that "serviced" them and the savages that used them. Considering the streak of feces on the inside door of one was there all week, I feel safe to say that they were never washed down on the inside, despite that being part of the daily maintenance. Perhaps this lack of care emboldened others to go wild because I have never encountered so many unspeakable things in my entire SCA camping history.

In particular, I would like to take this time for a special shout out to the woman who left a used sanitary napkin in the corner of the Port-O-John Thursday night when there were trash cans across the road and NEXT TO the same porto, YOU are a filthy, filthy person! I hope you end up on the shower cleaning crew next year. Bunch of savages!