[Artemisia] A New Discussion - SCA Skills in a Modern Plague

[Richard Samul]

> Why would you miss ice?  Ice is really easy to come by in Artemisia  
> most of the year!  LoL!  Seriously though....At Battle Abbey (more  
> commonly known as the site of the Battle of Hastings), there is a  
> ice "room".  They dug a deep hole in the ground, lined it with  
> brick, then during the winter put ice blocks in it.  Covered said  
> ice with straw for insulation, and then during the warmer times,  
> they'd go down get a block of ice and away you go.  I'm not sure how  
> old the thing was, but the idea goes pretty far back.  Easy stuff.   
> It would also make a dynamite cold storage room...
>
> When you run solar panels, TV would probably be one of the last  
> things you'd use the juice for.  Refridgeration and lighting would  
> have a much higher level of priority I'd think.  Such times would  
> probably lead back to people socializing...can you believe it...in  
> person (assuming no contagion from the plague).  All these  
> electronic devices, while cool, have cut back on people socializing  
> in person.  Even wathcing TV and movies is just an individual  
> watching TV, in a group, but it's still basically and individual  
> activity.
>
> Can we wean ourselves from it?  Sure, folks went 4-5 days at  
> Uprising, or Estrella or Pennsic with no TV.  Though we all check  
> our e-mail when we get back!  LoL!
>
> Alan

Ice is easy enough to store, as His Grace mentioned, even in this  
desert climate. All you need is sufficient insulation and (here's that  
term again) thermal mass. Thermal mass works both ways - it keeps warm  
things warm longer, and cold things cooler longer. A sufficiently deep  
pit, properly insulated, will do the trick. I would, however, expect  
the cost of ice to go up, especially during those hot summer months.  
I'm sure, if His Grace were to allow, I could keep both my coolers at  
Uprising stocked with ice and frosty cold for the entire event, and  
never need to reload the ice - I just need to dig a small, shaded pit...

There's a reason root cellars and storage rooms are below ground, folks.

Electricity, on the other hand, is something you wouldn't want to  
waste frivolously on something like running a TV/DVD/VCR/DVR for  
watching a movie. Me, I'd be using it to run my CPAP (or, more  
specifically, to charge the battery that runs my CPAP). I proved last  
year that I can run 2 CPAPs off my battery setup for 3 nights at  
Uprising, and still have charge to spare, which means that I can  
probably run just mine alone for a good week before I need to  
recharge. A small solar array would do to "top me off" on a daily  
basis, and probably wouldn't be any bigger than 2' square.

But, what if we didn't have electricity, or the ability to generate  
it? What would we do then? For me, it means going to sleep and taking  
the chance that I just might not wake up in the morning, although I'm  
sure that the food shortages and heightened physical demands  
(exercise) would mean that the reason I have obstructive sleep apnea  
would cure itself in short order. ;-)

-- 
Earc

Oh, and this year, I didn't wait to get back from Uprising to check my  
email. I checked it on the ground, at the event, nightly. Yeah, I'm an  
iPhone addict. But I can live without it. Really.