Category: Meetings

Víkingr, Nov. 13th

Long ago when the Debatable Lands were newly settled, a group of Viking Age enthusiasts came together to discuss all things Viking. This Vikingr group lasted many years and even ran events, such as the fabled Vetr Things. Sadly, Vikingr faltered as its members passed into memory or out of the Society. However, interest in Viking Age Scandinavia is not gone. Now is the time for Norse of the next generation to restart Víkingr.

We will meet on Wednesday, November 13 from 7-9 pm at 3915 Riddile Street Pittsburgh PA in Brighton Heights.*

We will indulge in topics and activities related to Viking Age Scandinavia, such as:

  • the latest archeology
  • your Norse-themed recreations
  • your research rabbit holes
  • group museum trips
  • ideas for projects
  • ways to enhance your Norse persona
  • a book club for the Sagas
  • resource swaps
  • hnefatafl games
  • videos from museums and Viking Age reenactors around the world
  • North Sea cruises (longship not included)

Interested? Cool! Come join us in November 13 with your ideas and projects.

* Hrefna’s house is 3 minutes from where Route 65 meets the McKee’s Rocks Bridge. Also, this is the home of cats. Make whatever preparations you require

Fiber Guild Dye Day

The BMDL Fiber Arts Guild is having a fall dye day on October 6th, 2024.

We will meet from 11-3 PM at Tsvee’a’s House. It is a $10 suggested donation to help me cover the cost of dyes. Any extra goes to the next dye day.

In addition to the usual indigo, we will dye with seasonal fall dye sources, black walnut and kakishibu (persimmon tannin). Some synthetic cellulose dyes in red will also be available for those who want to make some fall purples. I will bring stencils and brushes for those who want to do indigo surizome again; I have learned some new tricks.

While the indigo and synthetic red baths will accept larger amounts of cloth and fiber, the kakishibu and walnut are limited in quantity. Please be courteous and bring smaller projects (=< 1 lb fiber) to dye for these dyes.

Please scour your fibers and wash any fabrics in a ph neutral detergent (like synthraprol) before coming so the dye will take. Message me if you need help with that. None of these dyes require mordants, and some will have color shifts if you do, so please don’t mordant unless you understand what you are doing and what the color change will be.

You are welcome to bring food to share if you like, but please eat a meal if you need to beforehand, as it is difficult to dye and eat at the same time.

Wear some clothes that you don’t mind messing up. I will have disposable gloves available, but you may want long rubber ones if you’re going to seriously dunk stuff in the indigo or red.

Finally, loose (unspun) fiber must be secured with a laundry mesh bag in the dye bath for the sake of the plumbing. Please bring a mesh bag or something to keep your loose fiber from floating freely in the bath and going down the drain.

Woodworking Guild discussion

I have some preliminary sketches for a medium-sized project the Woodworking Guild could perform as a service to (and funded by) the Barony. This would be a project to improve the appearance of the Debatable Lands camp at Pennsic.

I’d like to discuss these plans with as many of you in the guild as I can before I submit them to the Financial Committee. I need your feedback on my proposed design, and any suggestions you might have for improvement.

I also hope that I can persuade the Guild to participate in the manufacture of the project parts and the assembly of the project at Pennsic. Actual work on the project probably will not happen until Spring.

I’ll be bringing my preliminary plans to Investiture on Saturday, and I will be attending Practice with them on Sunday. If enough of you are available, we can have a Guild meeting at Practice from 1pm to 3pm.

Thanks,
from Ishiyama Shonagon

Fiber Guild Online Meeting

There is an online meeting for the Debatable Lands Fiber Guild tonight (Tuesday, December 20, 2022), at 6pm.

Come hang out, work on projects, show off your stuff and exchange wisdom!

The meeting is being run through Google Meet, at this URL-
https://meet.google.com/fch-bdsu-zbd
(On desktops, no client is needed, runs in browser!).

Arts and Sciences at Barony Social

The Baron and Baroness really hope to see you all at this Saturday’s picnic, and I as the Arts and Sciences minister hope that you will bring your crafting projects with you to work on and show off. There will not be any official classes or display, but while we socialize we’d like to see what you’re working on and ask you questions about your particular craft. This is not the best venue for noisy or messy work, but anything portable and interesting is fair game, and it’s all interesting to us.

I know that we have some knitters, narrow weavers, and braiders coming out. I can’t imagine the calligraphers, illuminators, and painters will leave their supplies behind at home. Personally, I will be bringing some sharpening stones and similar implements to help others with putting a useful edge on their tools and weapons. The site has plenty of room for stuff and people, so please bring whatever you feel like working on.

See you Saturday!

A Challenge For You!

Hello Debatable Lands! Salve Accolens!

We, your Baron and Baroness, hereby challenge you! In these strange times, it can be difficult to feel the camaraderie, the warmth, the connection among us all. We therefore issue this CONNECTION CHALLENGE:

Between now and the Baronial Social* on Sunday, we challenge those that would like to participate, to call three people that they have not heard the voice of since at least May of this year.

Feel free to use the phone, video chat in the app of your choice, or even an in-person call/visit (all proper precautions, please). CONNECT with your voice, to those folks you have been missing.

And then tell us about it, if you can! Bring your stories from this week to the Social Meeting* on the 20th (1pm), or post to your social media, or our email list. Let’s hear about our connections!

Can we all together make 100 connections? Let’s try!

In Levitate et Caritate, and Cheers,
Baron Brandubh and Baroness Hilda

_________

Barony Meeting and Social is on Sunday, September 20th, at 1 pm via Zoom. We’re celebrating AEthelmearc Day, and our connections! Link to the Zoom Room will be posted on our email list, and in the Facebook event (https://www.facebook.com/events/237731854325937) closer to the date of the Social.

Food Guild News

Salve! Greetings, Food Friends!

The next meeting of the Food Guild will be on
Saturday, February 29, about 1 pm to 5 pm
at the house of the Baron and Baroness.

We will be having fun with Roman cooking! On the agenda to make will be Mulsum, Boiled Eggs with Pine Nut Sauce, Libum, and Dulcia Domestica.
There will be substitutions due to nut
allergies. Please contact me at Elss.of.Augsburg @ gmail.com 
if you have questions about ingredients.

There is limited information on roman cooking, so you will need to start researching by looking at De Re Coquinaria by
Apicius. Of course, it was written in Latin originally, but there are original text and translated text all over the place. For those who don’t have a copy, here is a translation in English : http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Apicius/home.html

There are many translations of Apicius, but not a lot of adaptions of the recipes themselves. Here’s one that has redacted a few of the recipes:
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/historical/ant-rom-coll.html?fbclid=IwAR2d019Nonfkrn67xFlCEEdu4R18hebjAiOcbqtPkES7J2zKSibakVJpUdo
Sorry about the size of this thing, but the blog doesn’t forward links to the email list, so I have to put the whole site name in.

By the way, I peruse medieval cookbooks from all over the world online from here: http://medievalcookery.com/etexts.html.

Please contact me at Elss.of.Augsburg @ gmail.com or as Elss Augsburg on Facebook if you need the Baron/ess’s address or want to bring a contribution to the day. 

Business Meeting TONIGHT

The Business Meeting for the Debatable Lands will be TONIGHT Wednesday, 6 February 20202 at the Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church (416 W North Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15212 – map. From 8p until 10p.

Agenda

If you would like more information about attending a Business Meeting, please read the Seneschal’s Spotlight article.

If you would like to be on the agenda, please contact Odriana.

A gentle reminder that the minutes from the previous meeting should be read prior to arriving at the meeting on Wednesday.

Business Meeting this Wednesday

The Business Meeting for the Debatable Lands will be this Wednesday, 6 February 20202 at the Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church (416 W North Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15212 – map. From 8p until 10p.

Agenda

  • Open Meeting
  • Approve the minutes from the previous meeting
  • Officer’s Reports
  • Vote of affirmation for the single Letter of Intent received for Seneschal
  • Election of a new Baronial MoL
  • Close Meeting

If you would like more information about attending a Business Meeting, please read the Seneschal’s Spotlight article.

If you would like to be on the agenda, please contact Odriana.

A gentle reminder that the minutes from the previous meeting should be read prior to arriving at the meeting on Wednesday.

Woodworking Planning Meeting TONIGHT

The last Woodworking Guild planning meeting of 2019 is scheduled for TONIGHT, December 19th at 7pm in the Boulevard of the Allies Panera location. These meetings haven’t been as well attended as the workshop days, so they may be discontinued next year. Please attend and help us make plans for workshops and activities for the first part of 2020.