An Tir-West War 2022!!! And a mild case of COVID…

Claire le Deyare

Oct 26

After three years, in-person A/W War was back and bigger than ever. Due to July 4th being a Monday, the organizers decided that the War should be six days instead of five, and stretched Thursday-Tuesday instead of Wednesday-Sunday. This resulted in me packing far too much frozen to cook. Although there was at least some notes from the War three years ago that helped me streamline my kitchen set up. I also made cookies for several vigils (Seamus, Tarran, Thora and Marcus Rufus). So much fiddley painting.

Since gas prices were (and still are) gross, my friend Jan and I decided to carpool. As I no longer have my Honda Element, and I can't drive her car (it's a manual) that meant we were loading up my VW Tiguan. Did I mention this was it's first SCA camping trip? And we were packing for two? For six days? It got...complicated. Luckily, I'd already gotten crossbars and installed them a lot earlier during the pandemic, and also mostly put together the roof rack and cargo rack. There was some panic when we had to reposition the crossbars, which meant finding both the key that unlocks the area where the hex wrench goes, and the correct sized hex wrench, but we got it going. And then sooo much packing, delayed by the fact that Jan arrived later than planned since she'd been at another event just before (Black Sheep Gathering was the weekend before we left) and while she was gone, her husband got COVID. So stuff at her house that needed two to pack, took longer.

I of course packed as usual, so much kitchen stuff. This time all in boxes. The previous week I'd taken all my pots and a bunch of fleece down to The Container Store to find a box or two that would fit them. Alas due to the size of one pot, I ended up with one box for all the pottery. But this pottery is porous and not so heavy, so it fit everything with room to spare. After AW War, I ended up sewing all the fleece into cozies for lids and pots and serving plates. I bought a washing proof sharpie and plan at some point to label each cozy with what goes in it. So that's at least not a Charlie Foxtrot. You can see it in the bottom of the box pile, under the weaving box (which is the smaller size) and two of the three Fred Meyer boxes. One contained all the rando kitchen utensils I thought I might want, another had extraneous useful camp items (clothes pins, a clothesline, clorox wipes, tape, etc). And the third had 3 of the 4 tiki torches since I couldn't find the bottom stake for the 4th (which I found later this summer while organizing the garage). It just made every thing pack better to have stackable things, and also insured stuff stayed where I wanted. I had the brilliant idea to bring my REI camp kitchen and a folding table, with the table reserved for dinner. Since the camp kitchen isn't flat, it can't be moved and my stuff stays! The boxes also happened to fit on it's shelves. Not planned but worked well. Alas no pictures of that.

Thursday

We left in a good reasonable hour, and made decent time despite the poor loaded racks. Since we weren't booking it down 101, we actually were able to stop in time when we saw the giant GOT JAM? sign, and we went in. I'd never actually stopped. Got some tiny jams and a couple syrups. We used Jan's giant yurt for sleeping, and our friend Kat joined us Friday-Monday. My ankles and knee have been painful all summer so I couldn't get on the ground to pound stakes, but we made it work. Packing took more energy and was more exhausted because everything was VERY tetrised into the car. Neat trick: pack the car part way, close the door, roll down the windows and keep shoving stuff in!

**Setting up the yurt. It was warm work, so I suspect my camera was fogged over**

My ankles and knee have been painful all summer so I couldn't get on the ground to pound stakes, but we made it work. Packing took more energy and was more exhausted because everything was VERY tetrised into the car. Neat trick: pack the car part way, close the door, roll down the windows and keep shoving stuff in!

Friday

Friday is traditionally fish day. I opted not to go into town to the fish market, as I (like previous years) like to use what I've been hoarding in my freezer. And since there's been a pandemic, there's a lot. I cooked ling cod with liquid saffron and saffron salt and scallops because that's what was already thawed. I basically had packed a whole cooler of frozen meat and then the small cooler bag with the dairy products I wanted, in the hopes that the meat would just keep each other cool long enough me to cook some and make room for ice. I wanted options, but also I just thought I'd cook different meats for lunch and dinner. I am not sure why I thought that, I never cook until at least 2 pm. Morning is shopping and socializing usually.

Saturday

I tried to do a lot this day and also rope my apprentice sister Thorny into doing stuff. First off, I got the traditional cheesy goo going, using brie, Joe Matos cheese that Juana had brought, butter, and umami truffle salt. I got Thorny going making masa harina tortillas, which took a lot longer than we though. Especially since I don't own a tortilla press. Since the cheesy goo (aka Digby's toasted cheese) got done before dinner, I kept it warm and then gutted a crab. My friend Jan can't have shellfish so I left it on the side. After that, I cooked up 2 lbs of ground pork. Here's a mistake I should have learned from a previous year's boar stew, NEVER MORE THAN 1 lb at a time! I then mixed in blackberries, grains of paradise and duke's powder. It was very yummy, but there was a lot of it.

Saturday night was a big Roman party so Aelfgifu, Thorny and I headed there for shenanigans.

Sunday

Sunday morning, Kat, Jan and I went in search of brunch (ha no, didn't happen), ice, ibuprofen for Ivar, and better heatproof gloves for cooking than I had. I didn't get sunburnt like I expected (I was on sun sensitive antibiotics), but I did get rather "fun" heat burns from the cookfire on the backs of my hands. I've since bought welder's gloves. I then walked around a bit doing more shopping (surprise, surprise) and visiting with friends. I got a bit of video of...Squire's Tourney I think? But alas apparently I can't put video into WordPress.

I got some bread dough started in case I wanted it later. I also convinced various people to use Eulalia's butter churn and butter was made and flavored with saffron salt.. I cooked up some bison bites with my usual fave juniper spice mix, and put that on the dinner table with the butter, a small bowl of huckleberries and the leftover pork from the day before. Guiseppe ended up using my dough for dumplings so it didn't go to waste. It was this meal that made me glad I had several small bowls. One from before and a few acquired at the event.

Monday

At some point either this day, or the day before, I ran into a friend who had a friend who liked goat organ meat so I happily gave away my bone in goat and mystery organ meat in an effort to lighten the cooler load. I STILL came home with 3 lbs of lamb and pork (which went right back in the freezer since they'd been only thawed a couple days and always cold). And that was before we bought more on the way home...but I digress.

The weather was pretty iffy all day and people were in disagreement about whether or not there might be a thunderstorm. A lot of people were packing this day for various reasons. Some didn't want to be there in the rain, others didn't know the event went until Tuesdays and a lot of merchants had to leave in order to get to other events the next weekend. We talked about it amongst the camp and decided to pack a lot of things early. At some point there may have been some impromptu Disney kareoke. I got really distracted and started my food too late. I started cooking my food on Gwynn's cooking set up but switched to the camp stove and still was pressed for time.

I ended up massacring some conger pike, and mixed in apples, onions, nutmeg and salted butter. Kat had left some bread and I had some butter I'd packed from cooking and put what was left of the apples in a bowl. It might have been a meal of whatever we had left but it was good! Then Aelfgifu, Thorny and Jamie (Thorny's husband) and I shared some mead and some gluhwein. Skuli and his wife Soldis also came by to say hi and partook. It was a good quiet night. It rained a little, but not bad.

Tuesday

We packed well and left in good time. Alas we never made it to Prehistoric Gardens. Maybe next year. It rained a bit and we got stuck for half an hour in the Coast Range due to an accident. Luckily we had snacks. We stopped in Elkton at the butcher we'd seen on the way in, and found they had good prices on ground elk and venison. I got 2 each, as well as ground waygu and some clams and some ice packs. And so the cooler bag was full again. Next year we might stop on the way out, apparently with a week's warning they can get me a rabbit. Close to home, I saw this hilarious license plate. I tested negative for COVID so I got to sleep in my own bed.

Wednesday

Ah the War is over, no? But the "fun" keeps going. Kat texted Jan and I to say she had a positive COVID test. So I test again and guess what? Me too. So I scurry off to the spare bedroom and Matt slips a mask under the door. We agree I can come out in the main rooms, but only when masked.

Aelfgifu and Thorny brought me Dutch bros (Aelfgifu was borrowing my bear vault) and the pets were both very excited to see me and be allowed in the spare room that they usually weren't. I brought in some crafting but mostly just listened to Ruth Goodman shows, caught up on Happy Color and napped. All I had for symptoms was a small sniffle and two days of sleeping. Which is...par for the course after that event anyways. My breakfasts and dinners were either out the front door or in the garage. Lunch was a granola bar if I bothered. I got a lot of sleep, and a lot of bothering by this guy, and hubby never got it! So yay for that!