Queen's Champion Archery Recap SCA

We came back a day early from Queen's Champion Archery at Live Oak Park. Bad weather and low attendance are the kiss of death for vendors.

It wasn't a total waste though. I got to throw axes, knives and spears, and shoot some arrows. I got authorized by the SCA in thrown weapons, which I'm very excited about.  And for the performance portion of the test, I threw one axe, it stuck in the target and she passed me!   Ace!

Those people are very interested in atlatls, so I really need to hone my atlatl skills so I can do a demo for them soon. I need to take my atlatls to every paleoplanet gathering from now on or I'll never get better. I have no place to practice in my apt. complex. The neighbors would flip out.

It was a long drive home last night. Guy is still tuckered out and sleeping in. He did most of the tear down yesterday with the heavy stuff. My back was none too happy. In cold weather my hips and back ache and lifting is difficult. When I do less, Guy has to do more. Either that or we need to kidnap helpers.

I had a good time with Rino and Joshua, two new SCA friends. Both of them are fine archers. I was wiped out immediately in the double elimination but they went on shooting and Rino ended up in second place, losing out to an archer named James.

There was also an equestrian competition. The horses were in all their finery. But I decided events for me are about doing, not watching, and by the time I was done with the archery competition and lunch, all the lovely horses were done and on the way to their trailers. Darn it all, I wanted to take photos of them too.

So then I got to watch the thrown weapons competition. A big guy in a kilt was amazing with all three weapons. I believe his name is Angus. I'll post photos whenever I find my camera. We still need to unload the truck.

Photos from Paleoplanet last Sunday

We had a record number of atlatls it seems, between Chris' collection and Tom's collection. I have many more photos posted here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/almostfamous/sets/72157624742487662/

I worked on beaded earrings and got 4 pairs made. I talked to George who just visited his family in Ireland. He was working on a new longbow.

Erick, who I first met at an SCA archery shoot showed up as well. He had cracked his bow, and Ken was measuring him for a new one. Erick is multi-talented. He plays the bagpipes too. I wish he'd brought them. So many of us are musicians, we really need a jam session where we are not making bows and arrows and tools.

It was a full day. It always takes me a day to recover after so much excitement.