hot days

Jun. 22nd, 2025 03:15 pm
unicornduke: (Default)
this is the last day we are open for strawberry picking. the season is ending with a sputter, the rain has done the berries in. There is a few out there and will continue to be, but it isn't worth being open. It is currently 85F with 77% humidity, so the real feel is at 90 although there is a good breeze today. Tomorrow and tuesday will be worse. The air is so thick. Raspberries and blueberries are ripening early, the first blueberries have color already even though they weren't ripe, same with the raspberries, so we'll need to be ready to open for those. 

I helped my dad lay plastic in the field this morning and it was still almost too wet to get the machine in the ground, it's wild how much rain we've had. We got extremely lucky, there was a storm that came through just east of us, traveling south east in a line that fully missed us. But it was likely to be a couple inches of rain if it had hit us. 

I have a fan in my little building so I'm fine while I do computer work and wait for the stragglers to come and pick. Bonkers that people are coming to pick right now. Not many but still. 

I'm planning to get up early the next two days, work for a while and take afternoons off to go sit in the creek. 

Yesterday, we closed the strawberries since there wasn't a lot ripe and I went and did a fun thing. I drove up to The Shire of Sterlynge Vayle for the Spring AEthelmearc Academy and had a nice time. It was a very low key and chill event, with classes being decent and I chatted with a bunch of random people. Lunch was delayed for an hour and I'll admit, it was running low by the time I got to line, so it wasn't super filling. I got really tired around mid-day as well, so I spent some of the extra time dozing a little bit. I learned about how viking sails were made, silk spinning and accidentally learned fingerloop braiding. I also was the only person to stop in for the Sign Herald class, and learned a bunch and also that might be a thing I could commit to trying to do. Mistress Gytha taught me and I felt a bit bad for her since she said she was the only one doing sign herald work in the kingdom more or less. So there's a need and I have the basics down. So I might try and brush up on it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay for court to see Mistress Gytha sign. With the lunch delay and how tired I was, I headed home after the fingerloop braiding class and got home around 5:30pm and was so tired. I met some nice people in the kingdom that I might see again at other events. I want to go to the A & S Faire but I suspect it's too soon to get another saturday off farm work unless it rains that day. Which it might given how the weather is going. 

A mistake I made was wearing my binder the whole day. I usually wear it all day and it's fine and I felt fine when I put it on, but I forgot that something about my truck seat makes the binder uncomfortable. Regular seats are fine, standing is fine, just my truck seat. So lingering coughs from the illness were aggravated and my seat irritated my chest. Next time I'll bring something to change into for the drives out and back. 

I'm hoping the Chatelaine for the local group gets back to me soon, but if they don't, I'll need to find some other way to contact them. I would really like to get involved with the local SCA group....

I think the illness I had might have been the new covid strain. My mom tested negative, but it's possible her tests were expired. But it sounds a lot like what I had and also it's lingering in a way that most stuff normally doesn't. The snot continues and the cough is still going although it might be aftereffects. I'm pretty tired still in a dozing off in the evenings before bed. But also there's a lot going on and the weather is hot, so it all might be contributing. 

After we close at 5, I'm going to do some mowing with the little stinker (has a roof) and then go down to the creek to dunk myself. Lots of water and electrolytes. Napping. 
unicornduke: (Default)
Saturday I went to my first SCA event. It was only 20 mins from my house and I decided there was no better time to try a new thing. I stopped by the library and picked up a bunch of books to tide me over for a while and got there almost an hour after the event opened. Apparently I was still a bit early compared to most people.

I didn't wear a mask to this event, and I debated on this right up until I went in. I do find it harder to talk to people with a mask on, they tend to have issues hearing me if there's lots of background noise and since this was a thing I was doing to meet people, I figured I'd make it easier. In retrospect, I should have just worn the dang mask, plenty of other people were wearing masks and they didn't seem to have issues talking to other people.

There was some confusion with payment, apparently the paypal that I tried to use didn't work? I don't know but I had cash on hand, so it was fine. I wandered into a room and contemplated my choices. I saw some older folks at a table and they had baskets that looked like they might contain crafts, so I headed over there and introduced myself and said I was new. They were very kind and allowed me to sit with them and I asked them silly questions. Ever so often, I would get up and wander around and introduce myself to random people who looked interesting, which worked decently well as a tactic. I can't say I remember most people's names but I'll remember their faces.

I was introduced to the person who I had been emailing with and he wasn't wildly helpful to be honest, but that's okay. I did some of the dancing, the easy ones which were fun, then the first course of food came out which was very tasty. Meat on a stick and some finger foods. I didn't know anything about going to these kinds of events and I should have brought a plate, napkin and fork or spoon, but alas. My table mates were kind enough to lend me some things to get through and now I know. The food was very tasty, clearly labeled and the contents of each dish were listed in the day's program booklet.

There was some music, I wandered around and chatted with a group of younger folks who were very amusing and enthusiastic. I think they are the core group of the shire I'm in but it was hard to tell and I still haven't been able to figure out where things are being held on a regular basis. Ah well. The Barony across the river seems to be much more organized, so I might go to some of their stuff before the move.

It was fun to look at everyone's outfits and crafts and chat with people about them. My outfit was my secret projects, a dark blue linen tunic and a wool overcoat of Navajo Churro that I spun and wove. I need to make adjustments to my outfit a bit, adjust the tunic to just above the knee. The overcoat, I'm going to properly insert gores so it doesn't look so odd. It was nice and warm though. I wore a tablet woven band as a belt. I've got some ideas for changing it up and making it all better.

I did bring my cotton spindle, so I did a lot of that spinning while I people watched and enjoyed the music and watching the more elaborate dancing. There was a second course of food which was also tasty.

It was a proper court with the King and Queen there, but they didn't arrive until close to the time of court, so I basically didn't see them. I met a really nice person who saw me spindling and chatted with me about spinning and she's been spinning for 30 years! She offered me her book charka because she had never used it and was getting rid of things, so she gave me her card to call her.

Court was fun and interesting, it was neat to watch people get their awards and things. I went up with the other newcomers, which there was probably six or eight of us thankfully. If I had been the only one, I wouldn't have gone up. There was a dessert course, which was less things I could eat and I tried the poached pears but forgot to check the booklet and was surprised they were poached in red wine. I ate one, liked it, ate the second and could really really taste the alcohol, so ditched it.

After court, I thanked the folks who were at the table and headed home. I had a decent time at the event, I can definitely see why it's better to go with someone you already know, but people were really nice and chatted with me, so there was that. I'll go to more things for sure, just has to be not a monday night because I have crafting.

Yesterday, I played some video games first thing, then wrote my essay for ASL class and got it submitted. I also worked on my first side job work of the year, didn't get it 100% done, I was waiting on someone to get me more info, I'll finish that off today. I did some crafting stuff and not much else.

Today, I laid around in bed playing video games waiting for it to warm up a bit. We got six inches of snow, it was 7F overnight. Around 11, I went out and cleared the snow, trying to hit the good spot between the chilly morning and the wind picking up. It was only slightly windy so it worked out okay.

Good weekend. We'll see how the rest of the week goes.

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