Chase Farm

September 12-13, 2009

The quote for this weekend: "NEVER tell your wife anything!"

Me and Dave went down separately because I had a class and he was a half hour away from Lincoln, RI at work. There was no point in him going back home and then turning around again. He got down there and the guys from the 1st Maryland (the only ones we really knew down there) helped him put our tent up in the rain (cracked a tent pole dammit).

Well, I called as I was heading down there & he told me his truck was dead. A slight problem since it was parked right outside camp. He spoke to me on the phone and told me about it then I heard in the background one of the guys shout "Never tell your wife anything!" So he tried to deny it.

Next morning things went from bad (the night before) to worse as he got a call from work and his battery needed replacing, there was no mistake, it had to be replaced. So he left and headed back home and called me a little while later & told me his electronics were flipping out. Which upgraded the problem from battery, to alternator. To make a long story short, the new battery that he got on Saturday, lasted him until Tuesday night.

By Saturday night, the small access road was soup. I looked at the mud and said to myself, 'there is no way my little front wheel drive Volvo wagon is going to make it out of here this way,' which is why the people in charge of the event shut the worst part of the road down. Yeti did show me another way that I could get up to the camp site which would not cause me to get stuck or slide down the hill backwards. He had scouted the area on Thursday and found a little used access road.


There was night firing at the Confederate camp on Saturday night, that was really cool. A Federal cannon actually fired back a couple of times, we had the better location though.


Captain Henry was court martialed for supporting Miss Joy's brothel and his punishment was to ride a stick horse throughout the Confederate camp. It made horse noises, too.

I actually got my union pants and kepi on the Friday before the event (for when I galvanize at Train Robberies). I had them with me because I did not go home after work on Friday. It all worked out because I got to help with an artillery crew. Obviously, I did not do anything much because I had no experience, but it was really neat to stand behind those cannons as they went off.

I have to thank Chris and Pam for taking my camera and catching these photos for me. Thank you so much guys! You did a great job!



And those are just two out of several they took.

Train robbery

September 5, 2009
Labor Day weekend!

Like the bad penny, we return to terrorize the hapless citizens of Portland, ME.

This time, instead of the huge bus (like we usually end up having at the end of the day) there was a huge cruise ship docked at the harbor! Me and Dave saw it as soon as we crested the hill to head down to the waterfront! It was huge...meaning there would be a lot of people...

Our observations did not disappoint.

I had the little dog with me, so I was planning on setting up a table like I did last time, unfortunately I forgot to tell Mike I was going to do that & he did not bring the table. Instead me and the little dog rode the train and I kept up dialog with passengers during the day as we had a packed train almost every ride.

Todd, unfortunately, was asked to galvanize again. He comes from Florida to go gray (well, he has family up here, too, but that's besides the point!). I am going to have to do something about that. I learned how to use the rifle for just this kind of situation when we are short of hands.

The number of people who came to ride the train was great. They did not have the steam engine going because they could not get the guy who stokes the coals to come up and spend the day. I do not blame him, it was labor day weekend and he probably had to choose between driving up from Mass. or going to a family picnic... personally, I would drive up from Mass. to stoke the coals, but that is just me. The part I disliked the most was that everything smelled like diesel and it kind of took away from the ambiance. Oh, well, the spectators enjoyed it & that is all that matters.




The little dog loves Kate. She was here when we picked him up at Logan Airport at 11:30pm...ask her about the FedEx trucks...