The health of son James was an issue until almost the last minute, but early Friday afternoon he and I were able to leave for the Big Island Rendezvous in Albert Lea. Mia had been down there since Wednesday. We got to colgaffneyis camp a little before 5, unpacked, and parked the car off site well before the deadline. It was great to be there, especially aomong our friends from colgaffneyis. Dinner was pleasant and we had a relaxing evening of conversation and beer in the Tavern Tent.

Saturday Breakfast and Cast Call went OK, although there was confusion and we ended up using two pots to cook oatmeal. The problem with this is that you then have an extra cast iron pot to scrub out afterwards. I was working in the kitchen a lot over the weekend. The person who complained loudest about the oatmeal shortage never showed up there, at least while I was around, to help with cooking or dishwashing. I scrubbed a lot of cast iron that day.

We participated in the opening parade with with pikes and muskets, but that was most of the military activity of the day. I never saw a guard roster posted, but stationed myself at the pike rack for a while anyway, to interpret for visitors.

During the afternoon the big camp project was preparation for Colonel Shawn Gaffney Memorial Captains’ Mess, which twolodge had been planning for months.twolodge and 3stitches worked hard on the lamb, as the latter has written elsewhere. This has a lot to do with the limited military presentations that day–our best officers are also cooks (and very good ones).

The dinner was a lot of work, but a big success. 3stitches has reported on what it looked like from the high table, while mia_mcdavid has presented the servants’ view. She does obsequious very well :-)> I hope nobody was fooled.

There were a lot of dishes to wash. Several members helped, but the Quartermaster and I were left with the final round of cast iron pots–the dessert pot being especially hard to clean. We finally finished about 9:30.

I checked in with Mia, who was on her way to bed. I went over to the stage and listened to Tanglefoot for a while. They are good. I danced once with rhymeswithghoti and stayed around for the paddle dance. That was quite short–just three iterations from my position in line, and then the concert was over. It was bed time for me anyway.

To be continued.

Friday