Double Wars prep with bouts of home improvment

[kareina]

We leave Thursday for Double Wars, one of the largest SCA events in the Kingdom, held every Spring in Southern Sweden. Since we have a small car we can bring only so much stuff with us. We have talked for weeks now that we should do a test-packing session, to be certain that his new nyckelharpa box will fit in the car along with the other things that need to go. However, the driveway down to the workshop, which was originally intended to be a garage, had been too full of snow (since we hadn't needed to drive down there for the last half of winter we hadn't been shovelling) to easily drive that way, until this week, when the spring thaw/melt really took off. One day early this week lord_kjar decided that enough had melted to make it easy to shovel the rest, so he did. But then we didn't find time to do the test pack till today, by which time the tiny bit of snow he'd left had also melted.

Like all good projects, this one came with distractions. Now that the snow is gone we could see how many leaves and small branches had blown into the low spot that is the driveway, so, before driving the car into that driveway, we first drove to the store where we bought rakes. I only know one English word for "rake", and, so far as I know, it applies to tools of very different shape. Oddly enough, Swedish has two different words for rake. Räfsa is the wide one with flexible tines radiating out from the handle, that is useful for gathering leaves. Kratta, on the other hand, has widely spaced solid metal tines which are parallel to one another, and perpendicular to the bar from which they extend, and they are useful for smoothing gravel, or moving dirt about whilst gardening. We bought one of each, since we didn't have any yet.

While we were out we stopped by the second hand store, where we found three useful sweaters to replace my favourite one, which I lost last weekend at the Dance performance, several weaving shuttles, a nice metal rack to hang a roll of paper towels plus two more rolls of foil or plastic wrap or whatever, and a linen shirt. Then we went home and I ate second lunch while he started raking leaves out of the driveway. By the time I finished eating he had discovered the next distraction—the metal plate with round holes in it which is meant to fit snugly into the drain in the bottom of the driveway doesn't fit at all. Therefore he took it into the shop and started grinding the edges down to make it smaller so that it will fit, while I took over raking leaves out of the driveway.

This project was then interrupted when the tines of the räfsa came out of the thing which mounts them, so I had to go inside and do a quick repair. Luckily, this turned out to be fairly easy—first re-align the tines so that the groves at the end where they meet once again line up with one another, then pry open the tabs holding the metal plate to the frame so as to be able to take it out, then set the tines back into place, with the ridge of the frame seated into the grove in the tines, then put the metal plate back on top of them, bend the tabs back over it, and, this time, tighten it much tighter than they did at the factory, so that the tines are much more solidly attached.

Then I could finish the leaves, about the time he decided the metal plate was "done enough" for today, so that we could go fetch the car (remember the car we wanted to test load?). Then washed the car (so that we could get close enough to load it without getting dirt on our clothes, and then we took the various boxes that will, later, be filled with stuff to go to the event, and tried several configurations till we found the one where they best fit and leave the most room for the pavilion fabric, costumes, and bedding (none of which fits in to the boxes. While we were at it we checked to make certain that the pavilion, pavilion floor, and sunshade fabric all fit into the space at the back end of the car where we want to pack it. It does.

Then we brought out the various bundles of poles and the wood frame for the bed and checked to be certain that they all fit on the roof-rack. They do, but it was worth checking for a couple of reasons. First because the last time we drove our car to a long-distance event to an event we didn't have either the rope bed or the sunshade, so we hadn't yet tried adding them to the other bundles on the roof. They all fit. Second because that reminded us that we like to bundle the poles into bags we made out of plastic tarps so that if it rains during the drive they don't get wet, and, we only had three of those tarp-bags, and there are now four bundles of poles. It turns out that the bag that had been made to cover the pavilion poles, but was never quite long enough is a much better fit for the sunshade poles, so now we need only deal with coming up with a cover for the pavilion pole bag.

Our first thought had been to sew one out of the piece of tarp we have left, but it isn't quite long enough in either direction parallel with the edges. However, if we set the poles on it on the diagonal we can then fold in the corners over the ends of the poles and then fold the tarp in half over it and then roll the bundle up. This worked well enough we decided it didn't need any sewing.

Therefore it was time to clean up and carry away the rakes. While we are doing that we decided to take away the snow shovel that had gone to the basement for repair—he had used it to chop ice on the walkway, and managed to bend the corner of the aluminium shovel. But first I took it to the chunk of railway tie that does us for an anvil till we find a better one, and hammered the corner back where it belongs.

Then we took the shovels and rakes to the shed, bringing along a hammer and large nails to create hooks for the new ones. At that point we could have gone straight into the house and started the cooking we need to do for the event, but, not surprisingly, we got distracted, again. This time we wandered down the hill and across our field to check out the large rocks we have down there, at the edge of where our trees are growing. When we got there we realized that we have some huge puddles lakes built up where snow melt has been accumulating, and then not draining to the ditch. So we decided it was time to split our labours. He fetched the pointy shovel to dig small draining paths from the biggest collections of water to the ditch, and I went into the house to start baking the oat cakes we want to take with us for the trip.

I had finished mixing, rolling, and cutting the oatcakes (made with a blend of mostly rolled oats and some skrädmjol, a flour made from toasted oats that is quite yummy) for the first batch and had put them into the oven by the time he came in from working playing in the yard and puddles. Since I had the second batch of oatcakes under control he went downstairs to make more arrows to take to the event. That took him long enough that I had finished the oatcakes and clean up (other than the ones still sitting on the cooling rack) and called my mother for a short visit before he came back upstairs, carrying a quiver full of arrows, and the next distraction.

He decided that he wanted to modify the quiver, which is made by sewing a cloth cover and putting it over a large poster tube, by attaching a should strap so that it will be easier to carry than just hanging it from his belt, which is what he has been doing. I had promised my mother that I would try to post to LJ more often, since she says she checks it every day to see if I have updated it with news about what is happening in my life, and we are seriously considering not bringing any computers with us on the Double Wars trip, but just the tablet. Therefore I decided to try typing this post on the tablet at one end of the kitchen table, while he sewed on the other.

However, as soon as he spread the fabric on the table to start cutting it, he commented that he wished the table was taller. We happen to have some raise-lower desks that someone was throwing out and we rescued. So we decided to take off the legs from our kitchen table and mount one of the frames from the raise-lower desk. Yup—another distraction!

So we brought in the frame, mounted it, removed the old legs, and turned the table right-side up again. Then we raised it up to a nice height for standing at and cutting out fabric, and I switched to a notebook computer while he returned to the quiver project in progress. He is now nearly done with that, and I am nearly done here, and it is nearly 1:30 in the morning. So I will close this, go do my yoga, and be ready for bed about the time he is done. Total home-improvement tasks accomplished for the day: eight total tasks in prep for Double Wars accomplished for the day: four. I feel pretty good about my Saturday.

Comments

[labelleizzy.livejournal.com]

this was a wonderfully written and engaging narrative.

also: I totally work like this when I am at my most productive.

Thanks!

[kareina.livejournal.com]

It is amazing how much smile power a compliment has. Especially when applied to something that was long enough that I wondered if anyone would even read it.

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think English only has the word "rake", but I've always heard them differentiated as "leaf rake" and "garden rake".