Any Memorial Day weekend outings to post?

[Eric C]

Well, like the title asks, did anybody get into the woods? I did yard work Saturday and worked Monday. For some reason, my company doesn't see the importance of taking a day to recognize the sacrifices of our military personel and their families. Well, I for one appreciate the job you brave ones are doing and remember my own days in the Army.
So, any pics to post? Any tales to tell? Any lessons learned? Of course I am speaking of ranger outings now.

[Andy M]

Unfortunately no. I do plan to do an afternoon walk through one of the areas I frequent. My friend Paul is coming over in a few weeks and I want to scout out this area as it has always had good overwatch sites of several trails and a few areas that you can have a small fire and not draw attention.

I've also started working with the bow again. There is a range just off of the base here that is in the woods and has a good variety of up and down with varying ranges.

I'll really miss the green around here.

Andy

[hesinraca]

This doesn't technically count... but there's an SCA event(medieval group if anyone isn't familiar) called Egils that is decent sized and happens about 30 minutes from where I live. I didn't want to deal with all the camping gear and had intended to go just for the day, so I grabbed my gear which consisted of:

garb, boots, belt, pouch, three knives, pipe, cloak, shoulder sachel, half block cheese, bottle of juice, summer sausage, cowel, foam sparring sword, and foam sparring shield.

Drove over there, parked in the lot, and wandered into the event to see my friends. Found a safe spot between two trees near camp and left my stuff there under my hood and wandered the event and surrounding forests in my cowel. DId that til later, hung out when everyone starts having fun, and eventually decided not to go home, so I borrowed a camp chair and set up a little mini-camp by my stuff and slept til morning.... so... not exactly ranger activity...

but I was in the forest for 24 hours:)

[Eric C]

Heh, you were in the forest longer than me! I can at least SEE the forest from where I am, but I can't seem to find the time to get out there. I'm just going to have to make the time.
Andy, I'm with you there. I always loved travelling in what seemed to be nowhere, then coming across a village or small town just around the next bend, or over the next hill. MAN I want to get back to Europe!
Every time I went into the forest though, it was with an M113 Armored Personel Carrier wrapped around me so I didn't get to take in much of the scenery like I would have wanted to.

[hesinraca]

Heh, true. I can't wait to get over to the UK. I want to wander across the land, run across stonehenge, wander through castles... we should do a Middle Earth Ranger group packing trip across the Uk sometime. Stop at the small little pubs and what not every now and then...would be sweet to have 5-6 of us and show up at a little local bar with all of our gear;)

[Peter Remling]

We could stop at a little known pub named The Slaughtered Lamb and listen to them tell us a joke about a Brit, a Mexican and a Yank on an airplane. Then we can all take a leisurely walk on the fog draped moors at night.




"Stick to the road and beware the moors!"

[hesinraca]

Peter wins. We're going there;)

A friend of mine and I, are currently initiating a project here in Oregon, USA to buy about 500 acres of land on which we'll build a tolkien/medieval style village out of strawbail and rammable earth. It will function as a sort of commune, but more in the hobbit sense and less in the creepy hippy sense. Then, in the village we will run a trade school, at some point, where basically we set up studio space and everything from leatherworking to metalsmithing will be practiced and eventually taught...

Gareth is already involved, plus a few others. It would involve hopefully a boarder with the national forest so we'd have lots of traveling/hiking/camping access. We'll be doing a stables too, which will possibly involve a breeding program by another friend of mine.

Point is. 500 acres AND a national forest mean lots of land to hike through with lots of terrain to map.

Hoping to get property by 2009, january. Anyone interested in coming to visit/scout/map/move in/etc?

If there's interest at least in updates I can keep you guys posted.

[Peter Remling]

At one point in time I had wanted to do something similar but with crowd drawing events and possible college acreditation for some of the courses.
Mine was going to be medieval village themed and hopefully go for renfair type events and medieval weddings and banquets to help fund the village year round.

You might consider making part of the acreage into a fundraising area with shops and vendors. If you decide to go this route make sure to keep the food and beverage shops in-house. The crafts and artisan stalls you rent out.

[hesinraca]

We're not interested so much in crowd drawing or affiliation(aka nondenominational, no sister schools, no non-private sponsors, etc etc) but we were considering doing a seasonal fair, 4 a year or something similiar. It will be aesthetically hobbiton and edoras and rivendell combined, with medieval influences where necessary, but nothing non-practical like cement sculptures. We're doing this earth-healthy.

We were however hoping to establish enough master-craftsman on site to be able to issue certificates of completion and possibly even hold journeyman tests and the such, in which case I'd be running a metalsmithing/jewelry/blacksmithing guild.

Brad currently owns and runs Tidefest, in the GIg Harbour area, so along with some other money sources we actually ahve a solid base for this. But yes, we'd also hols SCA events, Belegarth events, weddings and ceremonies. Such and such. ITs not going to be a hugely high traffic area, probably aim for 90-120 residents in the uber long run.

Since the sight is going to be so far off path from anything substancial, any sort of commercial activity will be less effective. THe resident artists will be able to sell their product through a storefront in seattle(likely) and a website store, so that won't be hard. If we can manage to do this right, most of the construction we can do ourselves, and the basic food sources will be grown on site. For the faires we'd probably run it somewhat like tidefest, in that we'd have stall space for artists to rent, but it would be limited and not terribly extensive.

We've thought it out, but I definitly love the input. Either way, there would very easily be a place for a Ranger Guild that would focus on ranger crafts, martial arts, combat research/activity, camping. Basically anything on this site could be a functional aspect of the Ranger Guild, and meanwhile whomever came to stay for a time would have tons of space to play in:)

Mostly, I know people don't necessarily ahve the capacity to comit to residency at a place like this so far from home, BUT I am also suggesting visiting for any length of time you chose, and if you want to live there for a time, rent would likely consist of community service hours like tending gardens, garbage collection, repairs, etc. Just figured I'd give you guys the heads up.

Sorry that was long >_<

www.ramaloke.org is the concept site

[Eric C]

WELL, back to the topic of outings. I made the decision today that no matter what, my son and I are hitting the woods next Friday night and through the day Saturday. There's a field that needs guarding. Could be some nasties using the road, you never know. . I have a question that will maybe start another thread, but I'll ask it later in another thread.