February Update

Some thoughts today:

Stats

I was browsing my stats.  I never realized how popular my Roman Legion Cooking project I did for AT War was.  It seems that that is the most viewed page, and the biggest reason people come to this blog.  Followed closely by my bread experiments.

Norse Bread

I’ve been planning some more experiments with the bread.  I’m thinking that since the mead barm bread went so well I might try to expand on that.  A friend of mine did a project on Norse Bread, and it brought up some great ideas.  I could use the resarch into norse bread and the types of grains that were found in it, particularly in the Birka find, and make a mead barm bread with the proper grains.  I’m not sure if they would use mead barm or beer barm to leaven it, but since both would be readily available it would make sense.  My no research suspicion is that they would use mead barm, as it would impart a light sweetness to the bread.  Based on the types of norse bread I’ve read about I’d assume that they would go stale about a day after baking, so they would likely be eaten fresh and hot.  Perhaps a lightly leavened pan bread….  Much research is required here.

Rapier Research

I’ve been doing some rapier research again.  It’s been a while, but I think my brain is back into fencing enough for me to be able to do research into period combat again.  I tried out some Saviolo as I’d heard good things about him and SCA combat.  Not very impressed.  It seems to rely heavily on footwork and speed and less on a solid guard.  The standard guard is a low ward, which seemed odd, even combined with the lean back that is also found in Cappo Ferro.  When we tried it out at practice we found that it had some advantages, mainly that it forces your opponent to step into range before he can control your blade.  It was also very good at defending against cuts.  It had some major disadvantages against someone using a later Italian style though, and very poor against Tir Righ Standard style.  It was very counterpunchy.  It was difficult to initiate an attack, as it took a tempo to get into a place where you could launch a successful attack from.  But if your opponent struck first it allowed you to do a number of attacks.  All in all not the right form for me.  My feet aren’t that fast, and I don’t want to rely on foot and hand speed over strong wards.

Championships

Tomorrow I hand off my Defenders Baldric.  It’s a little sad to see it go.  I enjoyed being in fealty to the Baron and Baroness of Lions Gate.  I enjoyed getting to run A&S competitions.  I enjoyed encouraging people in the Arts and Sciences.  I think I’m going to keep doing the last two as, hey, you don’t need to be a champion or defender to do that.

I’ve been looking at other places to enter for an Arts and Sciences championship.  I was planning on entering Shittemwoode’s but instead I’ll be heading down south to the Culinary Symposium.  Actually I’m going to a number of classes based events this spring.  I’m really looking forward to learning a lot.  I may enter for a different shire’s championship, but I”m not sure yet.  I will definatly be entering a number of non-championship level events though.