Camping, Norse Style and Ragnar's Stone Update

July 29th to August 7th was a wonderful vacation, camping with my good friend, Rurik, sometimes in norse costume, sometimes not but always in norse tents.
It kicked off at the SCA event called, Tournament of Armies, which I was originally going to merchant at, but decided to just relax and hang out and carve my new tent frame. Then we packed up on the Monday, replenished supplies and set up at Sons of Norway in Hatzic.

I had borrowed RF's group norse tent, the frame for which I had made and carved when the group originally formed, so I would have a norse tent to camp out in. And what an ordeal to borrow the tent! I had to agree to terms and conditions relating to a non-existent loan policy where one has to get approval from the executive of the society.
As a side note, at our August meeting I bought the tent, not that I wanted to as I was opposed to the group selling it (I put a lot of work and creative energy into making the frame for the group - not to be sold off to someone who would end up with my artwork for free). So I put my name in the hat to buy it and won. Now it is mine. Rant over.

Anyway, it turned out that I forgot my carving irons so couldn't carve my new tent frame after all!!
So, we used it as a spare tent and that worked out really well as Gala was able to use it at Tournaments, and Rurik used it at Hatzic (we used his as a kitchen tent as it was the biggest).

Ragnar's Stone Update:
Rurik and I prepped the stone for painting. We scrubbed it and cleared the weeds around it, then I chalked the design on while Rurik worked on his shield. We gathered large rocks to paint the rune of the first initial of the people who helped with the raising of the stone. (Rurik saw a face in one of the rocks so it became Grendel, the troll rock.) Then the design was painted on. I think I gave a pint of blood to the mosquitos. ;) Then we placed the rocks and added more gravel and there you have it!

Photo: Martin Naske

But the job took way less time to complete than I thought so I ended up having a couple of days to just relax. The Sons of Norway were holding their annual Heritage Camp that week so I was able to wander around and see the activities going on.