Well, the Fair is over,

and I'm worn out. But it was a good one, the 30th anniversary, fine weather(not always available) and good crowds except for Friday. They added Friday a few years ago as a 'school day', which usually means piles of kids, most with minimal supervision, minimal sales for the merchants and shoplifting problems. Oddly, Friday had a bunch of kids early and then they disappeared.

I mentioned weather; I've seen everything from 80's and blowing tents down from the south, to 30's and tents blowing down from the north. The latter accompanied by sleet. We had a storm line blow through Saturday night, but Sunday dawned partly cloudy and warm and was a fine day.

Now to business. I posted a shot of the setup last year, and here it is again:















Part of the joy of this is hauling some of this stuff around. Anvil, 110; stump about 85, stuffed toolbox about 40; various steel bars and coal and buckets and ice chest and etc., damn heavy all together. Couple of years ago I bought a dolly, and it's payed for itself several times over.

What I primarily do is demonstrate. And talk(a lot). So I try to pick small stuff that I can complete while a group is standing there, and I do take requests. And merchants come by with "Can you make me (fill in)?" Couple of times I've spent most of the first morning making tent stakes out of the heaviest stock I had.

You can find damn near anything even vaguely related to the concept of 'medieval' or 'renaissance' here; jewelry and weapons and armor and clothing and food and toys and soaps and scents and so on. I like it.

Bad things about the(and other) fairs

Weather can be a bloody pain for either hot or cold or rainy. I was at a fair down in Texas a few years ago helping a friend out, and ran out of shirts. As in, three day weekend, two shirts, washed them and hung them to dry Sunday night and it was so bloody humid they were still almost dripping Monday, so I spent the day in a kilt and no shirt. Which did have its good points. A lady from the Scottish court walked up, snapped her fan and said "You look half-naked, and barbaric, and undressed... and I wish I could get away with that!" As she was wearing a boned corset, and layers, and petticoats, etc., I have no idea how she and the other ladies made it through the day. As it was I got shanghaied into the parade later that day, and somewhere there are pictures of the Scottish court, in all its finery, with the queen being followed by a shirtless, hairy-chested guy holding her tiny little parasol for her. And I wish I could find one of them.

Really, the only other thing that really bothers me is some people. People who are stupid. Not ignorant, stupid. People who don't even deserve a sign they're so far gone. I have actually had people look into the forge and ask "Is that real fire?". And point at the ironwork and ask "Is that real metal?" And so on. Usually they're far between, but Saturday morning they came in clumps; I think that sometimes the idiot cooties in their blood call out for companionship and they unknowingly come together in front of someone to torment. Which is why I have this sign:














"You bleed on it, you bought it". Friend made it up for me several years ago after we found blood on a blade. That's happened several times since, but every idiot has stuck their hand in their pocket and left. Quickly.















"Yes, it's real fire. Come closer and I'll show you"

Good things about the fair

Old friends drop by for a drink














This is Fenris; 90% timberwolf, 10% malemute.














And one of the worst beggers you'll ever see. His humans are friends, and bring him out every year, where he is worshipped by many- 'worshipped' meaning 'petted and stroked and told how pretty he is'.

And there are interesting sights














Wait a minute, I meant this one














Where else do you find Ents walking around? Female ones? Pretty female ones?
I'm not big on Tolkein, but look at her!















And friends of my kids drop by, like Heather














No, those are not her real ears. What do you mean, what ears?

What I like most about this is the demonstrating. I really like making things, and showing people how this works. Especially when the grandparents tell the grandkids "We used to do this on the farm/ranch when I was growing up", or "I used to do this", or the parents tell the kids "Grandpa used to do this, we even still have his tools in the barn". That tends to make the kids really light up(and kids get a lot more tolerance for questions; they're ignorant, not stupid). I like it when a merchant comes over and says "I need such & such, can you make me one?" and I pick out the stock and start hammering/chiseling/bending and send them away a few minutes later with the bracket or stake or tool or whatever they needed. I've been to some other fairs since I've been doing this, and when I'm not working, they don't mean as much to me; it's like I'm just a tourist(or traveller, or patron, players at different fairs use different names).

I like when someone starts asking about how to do this, and I can point them to sources for information and equipment. I like it when someone watching turns out to be a very fine smith himself and tells me about a way of doing something I'd not heard before.

Showing kids how a flint & steel works, or how you can take a piece of steel bar and make a dragons head on the end. I really enjoy these things, enough to make up for the blisters and aching muscles at the end.

I would be remiss if I did not point out a couple of the other things to like. Meet Natalie



















and Christi















I've got some other pictures I'll try to post later.

And for your information, the next fair in Oklahoma is at the Castle at Muskogee in May.