Miasmatic Review

Down at the Fort.

This last weekend I did the Fort Obie re-enactment. Last year I day tripped it to this event and it looked like it was going to be fun so Ktreva and I added it to our calendar of events. After this weekend, this is going to be a permanent addition. If you do pre 1830’s camp and are looking for a good October event, I would highly recommend this event.

After arriving we quickly staked out a spot and set up our wall tent. Since it’s a colder weather event and Ktreva and Clone tend to get cold we had to bring the big tent and the heater. To be honest with the new blankets we have, we never used the heater, which means we could have brought the wedge, which means I would have been happier than carrying around our wall. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the wall tent. But in the direction I’m taking my re-enacting, less is more. I don’t want the big camp anymore. I want the nice small compact camp.

Since my beer consumption has been cut back drastically I had a ton of left over beer from all of the reviews. I also happened to get my hands on a case of Dragon’s Milk. That’s right a case of it. I brought 6 of the 22 oz bottles with. Friday night as soon as we were set up and dressed in costume, I busted out the beer. I gave a bottle of Dragon’s Milk to frequent commenter and good friend Petey and a bottle to my good friend Will. Neither of them have had Dragon’s Milk before. They were pleasantly surprised by how good this beer is. Anyone they let take a drink tried to steal the bottle. Such comments were made as, “Dragon’s Milk, it’s rocket fuel for fat men!” Now I kept warning them too be careful, it has a high alcohol by volume. Will finished off his bottle, snagged a second one from me and I kid you not power slammed it. Later on Petey and I figured out that drinking one bottle of dragon’s milk is equivalent to 4 regular beers. Between the Dragon’s Milk, the Edmund Fitzgerald and all the other review beers, we had a damn good time Friday night, and to quote someone, “Contagion, you are a good man.”

The next morning as I leave my tent I’m greeted with, “Contagion, you are an evil, evil man!” Will and Petey were nursing some hangovers. Will lost a chunk of his life, including where he put his glasses. Petey started referring to Dragon’s Milk as “The Scaly Teat”. There were some other bleary eyed individuals walking around camp that would occasionally give me acknowledgement for their condition. I brought over 60 12 oz bottles of beer and 6 22 oz bottles of Dragon’s Milk. Saturday morning I had 10 12 oz bottles left. Other than the good natured ribbing I was getting for the hangovers, I’m pretty sure everyone that shared of the cooler appreciated it. In fact I know they did, I had a lot of people compliment me on the quality and range of beers I brought.

Saturday morning I participated in the black powder shoot. Yea, I’m not going to go into much detail, but let’s just say I didn’t end up in last place… but not by much. They also had a tomahawk, knife, bow and fire building competitions. I didn’t play in any of those, but I did watch and commentate.

After the competitions were over I had my final introduction for the Old North West Company (The O. N. W.). I had my first introduction at this event a year ago. At this meeting I was voted in and am now officially a “Company Man”. I’m actually pretty damn psyched about this. Once I decided it was something I wanted, I started to wonder if I would make it in or not. After the meeting my sponsor, Garrett gave me my medallion. This wasn’t just any medallion though, it was his. Apparently it was given to him by his sponsor and so he was giving it to me, which is really cool. These are a good group of guys and I’m proud of that fact that I can count myself among their numbers now. But I think all that beer from the night before played a part in me getting voted in.

After dinner that night they opened up the period tavern. You walk in and no modern equipment was in sight. Beer bottles and cans had to stay outside. Their was one exception made. I brought four growlers of Scottish Ale from Carlyle per a request from Will. So we passed those around. I had never seen growlers of beer disappear so fast in my life. Wes of Bodhran Roll, Please day tripped it in to sing songs and play music. It’s too bad he couldn’t camp the night, I think he could have had a lot more fun AND been able to entertain us much later into the night. Unfortunately he had family obligations, and we all know how that goes.

All in all it was a great weekend. Good people, good friends, and just a lot of fun. I was able to get to know some people a bit better after this weekend. There were a ton of good conversations and jokes. People laughing and singing and just carrying along, good times. I’m just sad that this very well will be the last re-enactment I will see them at until April. Most of the people at this event don’t do Trail of History next weekend.