Fort Knox, part deux

August 29-30, 2009

This was probably the worst Fort Knox event me and Dave have ever been to. The wind started around 10pm, then ended around 3am but the rain...oh the rain! It rained until at least 4am on Sunday morning and it went from a drizzle to a steady rain the whole weekend! It was cold, wet and windy... But as usual, we end up having some fun.

Sgt. Dudley came over on Friday night to tell us the story of Alphonse the Moose (we were just looking for a new place to send out that second moose call Sgt. Dudley, don't you think I will forget next season). Which was pretty funny. I guess it's whole purpose was to basically see how many people it can make crazy because it takes so long. I thought it was hilarious, I want to learn it, but I do not think I could make a very good french accent to star as Pierre, the hunter who has been looking for Alphonse over twenty years.


Todd got royally boned. He had to play Yankee because some of the 20th left on Saturday because the forecast for Sunday was not supposed to be any better. Well it was & we had run out of Yankees...

I did not even change out of my regular clothes on Saturday, those dresses are horrible when wet and cotton, I would be soaked and cold in probably ten minutes. I ended up stealing Dave's overcoat and made sure my legs looked like they were in uniform. But then the rain started to pick up after noon (not that we could tell from the sun) so I went to my car and got my umbrella. I just sat, huddled around the fire, along with the rest of the group trying to dry out and keep warm. It is sort of a double-edged sword, you cannot do both unless you have a propane heater (which Todd has, he knows how to camp).

We went into the Fort Saturday evening to have some sweets with the soldiers there. Miss Rose wore a lovely dress that she recently made. Quite lovely in the firelight, I was glad to see it in the daylight on Sunday, though. The guys on the other hand, they were soaked & readily took up the area around the 20th's fireplace in the fort. If not for going in and drying out like that, I think everyone would have been sick the following week.

Sunday, thankfully, the sun broke through and dried just about everything out. Thank goodness, I did not know what I would do if I had to air out that canvas at home.

We had a little battle, unfortunately Todd had to galvanize because the rest of the Yankees left on Saturday night. He is an especially sharp dresser, I wish I had got a photo of him in his civilian clothes. They are very nice.



We also got a quick lesson in dismounted cavalry drills from Al, one of our newest members. I wish I had brought a change of clothes (soldier's) so I could have participated in the drill.


Although, Miss Rose and Todd did complement each other.

Next event!

Wilton Battle

August 8, 2009


Here is a narration of the battle between Captain Pratt & Captain Lawson. Please understand that these men are professionals and they utilize the utmost in safety and none of this should be tried by amateurs.

You can stop laughing now...

...seriously...


Captain Lawson charges Captain Pratt!


The Captains stab and beat each other.


"Captain Lawson, do you need some help?"


"Yeah, whatever. You two seem to be having a good time without me."


"Ooooo! What's this? A nifty hat!"


"I got the old geezer!"


"Well, that was fun, let's do that again sometime."

Wilton Blueberry Fesitval

August 8, 2009



I had heard stories about this event, apparently the 15th had not done it in a while. It is mostly just a parade and we come back to our little row of tents and wonder if anyone is going to come over after the parade and see us. Which they actually did! It was not like we were right in the downtown area like Chamberlain days last year.

This is a town event and it is an adorable little town. The parade was perfect and the weather was very nice. The "Funky Monkey" was a little disturbing. A man in a gorilla suit riding a golf cart around passing out bananas.



Note our tasty, period correct lunch...riiiight, nice try and good pose though.

What was great was that the 3rd Maine was camped out on the hill across from us and they actually had a little battle with us! Two members of the 3rd thwarted our sneaky attack when they came down the hill to socialize. We ignored their attempts to run (waved white flag) and took them prisoner.



We sent a messenger up to tell the commanding officer that we had two captives to which he replied that they want the flutist back...I would have to agree, band members are hard to find. So an agreed upon time was set in order for the 3rd to drill some new recruits and we waited with our prisoners.



At the appointed time, our stealthy confederates spread out and headed for the hill. The commander saw us, as a good officer should, raised his hand and cried "10 more minutes!"

.....

Imagine our surprise. But the battle did get under way, with a fair amount of spectators for us being in a field so far away from town. It was pretty good, with escaped prisoners and all. Captain Pratt, as usual, took a hit and was locked into battle with the commander of the 3rd in short order.

What was great about this little battle was that everyone seemed to just have a good time. It was very relaxed with everyone just "winging it". Sometimes those are the best events.

Robbing the Train

June 20, 2009


Once again, we rob the passengers of the Narrow Guage Railroad of their valuables and small children. You think they would catch on...


Miss Rose was there that day. She always has such lovely dresses.

It was a lovely day and we had a fair amount of people come. I stayed at the station most of the day with Meadow in order to lure people in. We set up a little table with our company scrapbook and photo album, along with some propaganda from both the 15th and the 3rd Maine. It drew a lot of attention. I have determined that I want to try to make this event a little more interesting for people just walking along the waterfront.

We actually got a local television station to come down and film a robbery down at the end of the track! The report only lasted like 5 seconds on the news that night (expected), but word is out!



Aaannnd, we brought the little dog out. He is such a wuss that we are hoping that being around so many people would help his confidence. It worked a little bit. And he had no problem with the train by the end of the day! He also cuddled right up to Meadow. They were best friends by the second run. Of course, he needed all the protection he could get, they guys wanted to eat him! I said he was too stringy.

Norlands

June 5-7, 2009

This was a fun event. It was at the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center in Livermore, Maine. The site was very nice, hilly, made the guys (& gal's) do a lot of work, but a little exercise never hurt but a few...



The purpose of this event was to raise money for the Norlands Center to rebuild their barn. It burned down to the ground (literally, I saw the hole) a year ago and they want to re-build in the most authentic way possible. Unfortunately, that takes a little more money then just slapping together a modern barn that looks old. From what I heard, they raised a decent amount to start the building which is great. I still cannot believe that the barn did not take the house with it. They were attached! Good job to everyone who saved the house! That would have been a true disaster and even more difficult to replace.

We pretty much did living history all weekend. Of course, that also means we got certain people just walking through the camp, staring at us, slowly walking by, snapping photos the whole way...That part still creeps me out. It kind of makes me feel like I am being stalked sometimes. But as long as everyone has fun, what does it matter!


It smells like a good day for battle gentlemen!


Come and get it you rebel scum! (Star Wars...hey, the rebels won in that movie.)

The nights were pretty cold, that was kind of a bummer, but the days were fairly temperate. It is always nice when you do not have to worry, too much, about heat exhaustion. The farm was large and if you wanted to go somewhere, it was a fair walk, I think I walked all over that farm! I barely saw Dave! Even at night when he crawled into his cot.

The notorious 1st Maryland guys were there (the usual suspects), they are always fun. And we also made friends with the 3rd Arkansas. They were nice, sort of campaigners, but I liked them. Cookies bring about friendship to all people.

In addition to the battles on both days, there was also a medical scenario on both days after the battles (I thought the one on Sunday was best, mainly because of the gentlemen who came up wounded), as well as numerous civilian activities which included a tea party and a fashion show.


Medicine knows no bounds...they all asked for laudanum...Chris' treatments aren't that bad! Are they? Hmmmm....


Mrs. Bergeron got herself in trouble by asking around about her brother. They accused her of being a spy. Geez Deb! Always making trouble you shifty lady you! >wink<

The amount of spectators was surprising, because of the remotness of the site (just about everything in Maine is remote, no offense, I would love to live there) I did not think that so many people would come, but they did!

Next year should be bigger and better so stay tuned to the Washburn-Norlands web site!