I'm beat from a full day of being away from the permaculture farm. The first part of our day was spent with with the SCA. The evening was spent doing a dinner party with one of my prepper team members. The two are closely related in a round about way that I will explain latter.
I would say today was a pretty good success. It was not quite, "I just knocked one out of the historic park"....but pretty close. One of the first people I chatted with, when I explained what I was doing with my prepper farm and why I was there, went, "That's great. After I get through this next battle, I'll show you some of the homemade knives Ive built. If you want to meet new people, just walk up to a camp of people and say you are a new person."(most groups want new people) Feeling a little awkward, we thought we would start with one person sitting at a picnic table. He invited us to sit. We introduced ourselves and mentioned our attempts at self sufficiency. He replied, "Do you know anything about Permaculture?...." A perfect in. We started to watch one of the Heavy battles. For those not familiar with SCA heavy combat, consider the crashing impact of foot ball players bashing against each other...then give them heavy rattan sticks and pole arms. Once again, I explained what we were trying to do. He replied, "That's brilliant. There are a lot of extremely intelligent people here as well as a few jerks and drama queens, but even those folks, we can usually find something for them to do so they find a place where they belong. We are pretty accepting of just about anyone. In fact, I want to introduce you to someone that's on more of the bushcraft side of the SCA...."

MrsC5 went off for a couple hours to join in an archery event since she hadn't pulled a bow in a few years. I eventually was introduced to the for mentioned Bushcraft person. His group does a camp of primitive skills and woodworking not far from us. Turns out, this very event, The regional "King" would be officially sanctioning this persons new "Guild" in the SCA. The new group will be "Forest Wardens". As a Bit of a Robin Hood personality...I didn't know how I felt about this 😉

Well, that's enough of a teaser before I pass out. I think this will be a multi year experiment since we didn't get to meet as many people as we had hoped due to time restraints....and it will take many events to be recognised and accepted. Let the social networking, connection building begin. More info in the days ahead.

My morning farm jobs are called on account of rain so I'll type. I mentioned my SCA visit got cut short because of heading to a dinner party with one of my prepping team members. This is an essential prepper chore to me. Maintaining the close friendships with my team. These people were once total strangers that I met over the internet. Now they are family. Family that I care fore and they care for me. This is built over time and trust is reinforced through Repetition, Repetition, Repetition.

C5 Rule of Survival- The single most valuable survival skill set is...the dinner party.

Same with the SCA. Many people at the SCA might be considered social rejects. This is actually a strength. They Really Really Really appreciate each other. Many see the SCA as their FAMILY. With many of them being social rejects, (or social rejecters) by the time they find acceptance within their small groups, they form very strong bonds that hold them together. The essentials of a tight knit group.

Example. The second person I chatted with, the guy who mentioned permaculture, had some pretty acute social anxiety problems. He was Intelligent, friendly and helpful, but had some attention and memory issues. As a person living with PTSD...and perhaps some Asperger's traits, I share some of his experience and was not put off. I mentioned my list of who survives. Organised Crime, historically, has always been the big winners is social break downs. Then the SCA ( Permaculture guy kicked in, " The SCA being the worlds second largest free standing army...". More on that later). Organised sports teams, historically have toppled governments. Its the Organised Part . Permaculture guy jumped in again, "...And the reason survivalists wouldn't do so well is that they are all about individualism...". BINGO. I'ld talked to this stranger for five minutes and he immediately got the reasoning. I them mentioned that I might not have as much in common with the Bushcraft Guy he wanted to introduce me to, as he expected. I said, "I can do all that stuff but my focus completely changed along the way. If I want a group, that all starts with securing a solid food source. Thus the farming." He replied, "Ya, building a shelter is cool but not very helpful if you are hungry".

Now, over to the next conversation with Bushcraft / Forest Warden guy. He said, " I can take a forest log and square it. The first time I did it...well, the amount of work to do it is huge. My point is, It wouldn't actually be possible for an individual to survive. The minimum it would take...I don't know...would probably be about 6 families. There is just too much work to do to cover the most basics of survival". I get that on the farm. There is so much more food I could be bringing in that will be abandoned to rot as part of the triage I perform each year. A few more hands and I could store an exponential amount more for the winter.

That's a good place to take a break before more on the SCA. The rain broke and Ive got things to do.

One more blurb for the day.
My first real exposure to the SCA came in the late 80s. My interest was prepping, of course. I was interested in alternative housing, social structures and nomadic cultures. It was a rather large event with about 3000 people. I was rather impressed how they could organise and manage such a large group. I was chatting with a senior Knight about this. I noticed how they were heavy drinkers...and flirters, all the while being heavily armed yet there was never a problem. This was pretty unique compared to the many other sketchy subcultures I had visited and call, "home". He responded, "Its all about the idea of Honor here. I could walk into the tavern at knight, take a hundred dollar bill and stick it to the table with a two hundred dollar knife and it would be there in the morning...or maybe the lost and found". When I brought up my interest in prepping for collapse, I was told that if the SHTF, he would be heading to that location as would several other people. If you didn't walk up to the gate with a recognised Banner there would be a problem...so, the idea had floated around in a few peoples heads long before I thought it up in my semi brilliant head. Ild heard it several times after from random folks that had discussed it wither their own small groups, that if something bad happened, they would all meet up at (insert random destination).

So lets give a short sum up of what I just said. These people are used to packing up and travelling to far locations, able to plop down a working tent city of thousands with all the logistics already worked out, from sanitation to water, cooking facilities, trade, security, accepted codes of conduct and a functional, established governance that they have already agreed to in advance. Many of their first thoughts when thinking of a crisis, is to come together with other SCA members (Ive heard more than one mention that their first thought in a crisis was how to get to there local Baron or Baroness).

Ive searched the internet, and so far no one had made a serious connection between the SCA and prepping, though I have found a few people that do both....

...That is, until SM Sterling wrote the 'Dies The Fire' book series. In the book, a supernatural version of an EMP like "Change" happens. As mass starvation begins, members of the SCA and assorted other Medieval Societies are able to organise and maintain large groups of humanity. I very much enjoy the first book in the series. In fact, its where I take my online name from. FYI.

Though just a popular post apocalyptic fantasy novel, the first real connection between the SCA and prepping entered into peoples frontal lobes. Up from the subconscious where it had been simmering without conscious form.

More to come

Now for the meat of the subject. I play up the Asperger's factor because its funny but true...but its not the whole story. Its a VERY Large Group of very divers members. Well over 30,000 dues paying members. Double that in non paying participants (Like Me)...Stretched across the globe...as in, if you ever are forced to relocate, you will probably be able to find a support network in your new area. Did I mention the diversity of members. Obviously, they are very Tec savvy. There is always a very large number of military and x military that are attracted to the SCA as well as police. One group I visited had a large contingent of Bikers. Not the fluffy ones. Lets not be assuming that the SCA is just skinny nerdy kids. Many are there for the sports and martial arts aspect. Im about 6'4 and at the last event, I went, "Wow. There is a lot of BIG friggin guys out there on that field". One of the people I chatted with was a Millionaire that was in the process of building a very large Off Grid home on 300 acres. There is a lot of cross over, between members, with the Buckskinner, primitive archery and black powder communities. They diligently search out old technologies like blacksmithing, food creation from scratch and preservation as well as leatherworking and clothing production, etc etc. They are a people that Make Stuff...Ye old fashioned way.

Time for me to clean the stove pipe, fix a shed roof and gather apples for canning. More later.

But there is enough info already here if people want to critique the idea and think through issues. Think it through. This will be a noticed post. I changed the title specifically so that if any one ever types in "SCA" and "Prepping" they will find themselves...Here. I speculate it will be a very short time before someone finds this and points it out to the SCA. Six degrees of separation. This will get talked about around campfires.

Here is some reading on them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Creative_Anachronism ( I was surprised Wikipedia also noted the importance of SM Sterings Book series. Good. Its not just me)

http://www.sca.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJCzVscRgkw

I just thought I would throw up a photo from the event of MrsC5 to remind myself why I am quite fond of her.

Heck. While I am here, I with throw up another pic of her walking the pig. It has nothing to do with this post...but its a set up of a future post on The Post Apocalyptic Permaculture Pig.

Oh. Im not quite finished with this post. Just taking a break. Next we will talk about how they govern and "Court". Im very impressed with how this holds people together and its a worthwhile model while considering how to govern on a local scale during a collapse.....in spite of that it might clash with my Non-Hierarchal ethics

More later.....and I suppose I should also talk about the girls. TE HE HE 😉 ....

Nothing? Nothing at all? Seriously? I have just given you one of my best pieces of survival advice of all times. Even the CIA would appreciate this for safe houses. Don't make me pull your underwear over your head. If you are not getting it, you are not paying close enough attention.

Cummon. I know your criticisms. Bring em on so I can respond.

O.K. I'll entice you.

For any of you Lonely, Lonely solo survivalists... There is a song I have heard girls singing around the campfire. It goes something like this. "If you cant get Laid at the SCA, you cant get laid anywhere." 😉

I Know you wanna respond....

I have had a few friends in the sca and I have always that if the shtf event were an EMP, they would be the go-to people... all those honest skills they have honed.
make a knife or make clothing, they are the experts.

ps
lovely lady you have!

Forgot to mention that I also love the Stirling novels. More so, the earlier ones immediately following the collapse up to the Protectors War before it went a little too much into the spiritual slant. I'm still reading the series though regardless of the religious overtones... 😳 it is a good story.

Oh No. No trying to confuse me by agreeing with me.... 😆

If you posted these general topics in the section, you may get more hits as well 😯

Some of the new members may not be familiar enough with the interface to navigate everywhere..

Never know?

If you posted these general topics in the section, you may get more hits as well 😯

Some of the new members may not be familiar enough with the interface to navigate everywhere..

Never know?

Its force of habit, Danngphool. In this case, you might be correct. I'll talk to Denob. Im playing a long game. I type here on the NS board because its all about meeting or influencing regional preppers. I gave up on a larger audience or numbers on more popular boards because I was "Thinking globally but acting locally". In the same way I said I changed the title so that if anyone searched "SCA and Prepping" they would find themselves here. Same with, if anyone types in Nova Scotia and Prepping... they will meet me...in all of my quirky non superhero glory.

But like I said, in this case you may be right. The SCA doesn't need us but we need them. I have cast my rod in the ocean. It only takes one or two of them reading this, nibbling at the bait, as it were. Some one will talk. "Hey, some crazy survivalist thinks the SCA is the #2 group to survive the (insert apocalypse here)"

Examplifying C5's point : http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/10/10/indy-woman-uses-medieval-combat-training-sword-stop-intruder/73669428/

Now that was very much an anachronism that she used a Japanese type sword. A battle ax or halberd would have really been much more appropriate ;p