Medieval Living

At the pennywhistle class in Los Lunas this week, I had printed out some music for the students with pennywhistle fingering notation, as most of the students have no knowledge of how to read musical score. One of the parents asked if I could give them a couple more songs with the fingering, to which I eagerly agreed. So . . . here’s a couple of songs for everyone to use who is learning the pennywhistle – please enjoy. If your friends ask you where you got the music from, please tell them “Medieval Living”!!! I will be posting more during the coming weeks, but wanted to get a couple of songs on the site as promised. I will add a “Music” page to the blog site as a common file location.

The Ashgrove This is the tune that I gave to the students at the class . . . a well known song, the fingering is simple and the tune easy to learn.

A Fig For A Kiss One of my favorite tunes I first heard played by Eileen Ivers from her Crossing the Bridge album.

Si Beag Si More A standard among Irish music enthusiasts!

I hope you enjoy these.

Of course, anyone who reads that title will think that I don’t know much about grammar . . . the title should probably read “Nine Men Morris Is Coming” but . . . meh! On June 8th at 10:30 am, Medieval Living is holding a class for homeschoolers on Nine Men Morris – that Medievalish game that was right up there with chess and draughts (checkers). Every homeschool family who attends will go home with a nine men morris gameboard and pieces. I think the game is easy to learn and alot of fun – and similar to checkers, it can be played by any age level. So far, there are two families signed up for the class (four kids total) – plenty of room for more to sign up!

Just a quick note: there were eight students at the Los Lunas Library for the pennywhistle class! Nice turn out and some very good pennywhistle players!!! Considering that most of them had never played an instrument before, they did very well. Some of the smaller hands had some trouble with getting the fingerholes covered, but with some practice, they will get better at it. I had worked up some music with both traditional music score and also whistle fingering diagrams. That seemed to work well, considering most did not know how to read music. I will work up a few more tunes and post them here on the blog or website.

All for now . . . just remember . . . Nine Men Is Coming!!!

Yesterday was the last day of classes for my public school stint – today I turned in grades and the keys for my classroom – another school year has drawn to a close. While school has ended, our summer homeschool activities are just beginning. Pennywhistle classes, chess matches, nine men morris sessions and much more. It’s been a busy last couple of weeks, so I haven’t had much time to post articles here in my blog. Hopefully, that will change now that school has ended. We have many more plans for the summer, but I need a few days to sort through everything so that I can present an accurate schedule. After Memorial Day, I should have a little time to lay things outs and publish the new schedule on the calendar page. All I can say is, “more to come!”

We don’t have July and August planned out yet, but we do have an activity for Septermber! The Santa Fe Renaissance Fair will run September 18 and 19 at the El Rancho de las Golondrinas living history museum in Santa Fe. We have just made arrangements to have a booth at the fair. Activities will include many of the things we are doing already, such as playing the pennywhistle, nine men morris and so on . . . but we hope to add many more fun activities for everyone to enjoy.
This will also give us more visibility in the Santa Fe community, letting those homeschool families know who we are and what we can offer them. We really haven’t made any contacts with homeschoolers in Santa Fe, so this will be an excellent opportunity.
Another very exciting aspect of this is that we will be working in concert with El Rancho de las Golondrinas, which is a Spanish-colonial era living history museum. Since one of our long term goals is the establishment of our own living history museum, being at this event will give us opportunity to visit with the staff at El Rancho de las Golondrinas and to gain some insight into operating a living history museum. I can also see the chance for some collaboration between Medieval Living and El Rancho de las Golondrinas, both in the development of our own program, but also in providing additional resources for their program . . . one of those proverbial win-win situations.
Oh . . . and if you have never been to a Renaissance fair, this would be a really nice first event. In particular, Santa Fe’s very own Clan Tynker will be performing throughout the day – juggling, music and more. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of knowing this wonderful family, as they are frequent attendees at Society for Creative Anachronism events. Visit the Santa Fe Renaissance Fair’s website to learn more.
And if you act now . . . I sound like one of those pitch men on those cheesy television commercials . . . there is a poster contest for the fair . . . here is the link for that as well. Hmmm, Septermber is looking like a great month already!!!

Yesterday I wrote a short article about a group in Arkansas that is building a 13th century fortress using 13th century technology. The whole process looks like it will take 20 or more years. But what if you don’t want to wait that long? And what if you aren’t that concerned with which technology is used to construct your castle? Is there a solution. Of course . . . it’s called Castle Magic!
Now please understand, I am not a spokesperson for this company, I really don’t know anything about the quality of their work, and I have only seen pictures of their buildings via their website. However, the concept sounds quite reasonable. In about two years, they will construct your very own Medievalish castle. Outwardly, their buildlings look as one might imagine a castle to look . . . perhaps a little smaller . . . but in obvious materials and design, they fall in line with what most of us would envision a modern Medieval castle to look like.
Their site offers numerous designs, and they have a nice gallery of completed and under-construction structures. They are based out of Sandpoint, Idaho, and apprantly have been building castles in the U.S. since 1980. Unlike the purists who are building in Arkansas (and I am not against the purists’ concept), Castle Magic uses a mix of old and new technologies and materials to build their modern-day castles. Worth looking into – even though we are far from any serious activity for buildling our Medieval village, it gives us more information to work with and to present to supporters and prospective supporters.

As many readers know already, one of our goals is to construct a Medieval village to use as a living history museum. It would be nice to have a castle-like structure, although I think we are willing to settle for a “great hall” as the grandest structure. How and when all of this will happen is unknown . . . still waiting for the slow-turning actions of the Government and the approval of our tax exempt status – they are months behind where I would like them to be (not that they would listen to me anyway).
Anyway . . . there is a group in Lead Hill, Arkansas, just south of the Missouri border, which is building a 13th century castle . . .the old fashion way . . . one piece at a time, using strictly 13th century technology. Known as Ozark Medieval Fortress, the site has reportedly opened on May 1st of this year to visitors. This enterprise is being carried out under the direction of the same individual who began a similiar work in Burgundy, France. It sounds like an intersting project – I think I just might need to go there and visit this summer! Wanted a reason to do some travelling anyway, so this sounds like a good enough reason.

Came across Jill Williamson’s blog this morning. She has several articles related to Medieval life, the most recent being part 3 of a series on Medieval Lighting. I commented on her article about how simple an oil lamp can be, but that most people today would be unable to use one . . . no switch to turn it on! Anyway, Jill’s articles are nice reads – some of the information was not new to me, but some of it was. I never considered using the oil from cheese to burn in a lamp – the aroma must have been . . . interesting. Stop by her site and congratulate Jill on her Christy Award nomination.

It’s that time of the year – seniors are taking their finals and preparing for their graduation ceremonies, the weather is warming up nicely, which means more outdoor activities, the mother-in-law has added 15 new projects to her list of “my-son-in-law-can-do-these-he-has-lots-of-free-time projects”, and of course allergies and little cold bugs that knock you off your feet for a few days. Yes, I’ve been experiencing all of those this past couple of weeks; therefore, writing a blog article has been something I think about right before drifting off to sleep.
I’m in the midst of designing some wasters (practice swords) as James wants to teach some “pell” skills later this summer. I really don’t like the idea of buying something that I can make myself, especially something as simple as a practice sword. Maybe this weekend I will find the time for that (already told the mum-in-law “NO!!!”).
A reader is intersted in my pattern for the practice inkle looms, so I will put that into a pdf file format – it’s a handy little loom – one of my co-teachers teaches some vocational skills classes and just raves about those little looms.
Hopefully I will be able to stay out of bed this weekend – still feeling a little under the weather, napping every opportunity I can find. Less than three weeks until school is out – I wonder who is more excited – me or the kids. Ha, I know the answer to that one!!!

We had a wonderful response to our chainmail classes . . . James handled two of them on his own in Los Lunas . . . he seemed to have held his own – no surprise there!
I held our first pennywhistle class. Although attendance was a little sparse (ok, there two), every one had fun and we received some very nice comments. The Los Lunas group has given an indication that they will have 11 at least for our class there on June 2. I will schedule another class if there is interest.
Nine Men Morris is on the schedule . . . two classes in Albuquerque and two in Los Lunas. Again, we will schedule more if there is interest. There was an expressed interest in some chess playing . . . both James and I are avid players, so we are definitely up for that!

Working on some “wasters” so that we can get a little sword play going during the summer – I will keep you posted on how those are coming.
Sure could use a little financial help for the archery program . . . that’s more expense then we have resources for at the moment.
We want to revisit the inkle loom classes also . . . that was fun, but the folks in Los Lunas didn’t get the chance to participate yet.
I can think of a dozen other activities that I’d like us to get going if we can find a semi-permanent facility – almost need one in Albuquerque and one in Los Lunas . . . not sure how we will handle that yet.

Anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis knows that I don’t usually comment on news events and personal opinion topics (unless related to education). Here is one that came to my attention . . . I think it appropriate that I share it with you:

Courage

-You’re a 19 year old kid.
- You’re critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam .
- It’s November 11, 1967.
- LZ (landing zone) X-ray.
-Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 yards away, that your CO (commanding officer) has ordered the MedEvac helicopters to stop coming in.
-You’re lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you’re not getting out.
-Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you’ll never see them again.
-As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
-Then – over the machine gun noise – you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter.
-You look up to see a Huey coming in. But … It doesn’t seem real because no MedEvac markings are on it.
-Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you.
-He’s not MedEvac so it’s not his job, but he heard the radio call and decided he’s flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.
-Even after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come. He’s coming anyway.
-And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 3 of you at a time on board.
-Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and safety.
-And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times!!
Until all the wounded were out. No one knew until the mission was over that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm.
-He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not have made it without the Captain and his Huey.
Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Air Force, died last Wednesday at the age of 70, in Boise, Idaho . . .
I bet you didn’t hear about this hero’s passing, but we’ve sure seen a whole bunch about Michael Jackson and Tiger Woods.