Summer is in Texas

And it is hot! Today was the second Texas Civil War Grange. Deborah, Kimberly and I attended. Even though it was just us three we had a good time. Cut out a shirt for the soldier's box and talked. We discussed the soldier box contents, our expectations for Henkel Square and what we want from our living history experiences. Came up with some great ideas for Henkel Square such as Henkel Square money, what to include in the general store and reconnecting with the group at Boonesfield Village with letters, etc.

We all want basically the same thing from our living history; we are not satisfied with, as Kimberly puts it "camping with a theme". We talked about how other living history organizations such as SCA work and would like to incorporate some of their features such as handiwork competitions within a bazaar scenario and their mentor and laurel system. We also wanted to use contacts with other groups such as the Boonesfield Village participants as a network since currently it is just us three wanting to do this. We are realistic; we know most in Texas will not be interested in something like this. We don't intend this to become something as big or as formal as the SCA--no officers, no dues--just an informal tool for others who feel as we do and want something more from Civil War living history than cooking, laundress, and sitting in camp sewing. We would like more of a challenge and a purpose to what we do.

So that was the second Grange. We have decided to cancel the August Grange because of the heat; even with the church air conditioning, staying over night in the houses would just be too miserable. Pictures of this Grange can be found on my website.

Planning

The website appears to be working well with all links working. Added a bit more stuff. Now my mind is working on future events and dresses. Corset time is almost here! Once I have that I plan to make a duct tape dummy and then ready to start sewing again. Other things to think on:

Grange coming up on May 30 and what to work on/talk about
Presentation for Harrisburg conference in March but need to know what topic to do
Henkel Square in February, preparing general store stuff, activities, will there be enough people
Lost Tribes event in Missouri in October. Really want to go to this one. The site looks wonderful and they get so many more people than we do for HS. I've had to miss the last few I was invited to.

I really am happiest and most content when I'm working on living history stuff.

New Website

Well, not really new, just moved and revamped a bit. The new hosting option has some additional functionality and in some ways is a bit more restrictive. I set up a redirect at the old site, so I'm back in business.

New corset is just a little less than a month and then I can start sewing again!! Yippee!!

Another washout

This weekend was the first Temple, Texas event. I was unsure until the last minute whether I was going to go. I drove up on Saturday and by the time I got to Temple it was raining so hard one could barely see and the traffic in IH 35 so backed up I decided just to turn around and come home instead of fighting the traffic and trying to find the site. From the radar it looks like it will be that way most of the day. What a shame for a first event.

Tomorrow's forecast is for clearing but with such a heavy rain today, not sure what kind of condition the site will be in and how many participants will still be there. Bummer.

Web site woes

Yahoo! is discontinuing GeoCities where my website was hosted. I've found a new host and am building the site again, making some changes, etc. The old site is up for now; Yahoo! expects to discontinue the service at the end of the year. Hopefully redirecting won't be an issue.

Reenacting is still on hold this month as I get ready for family visits and such. I do have a school presentation next week that I do every year. Getting really excited about my trip to Harrisburg and the corset workshop with Carolann.