Tales From a Round House: August 14th, Willow Harvest/First Event!!!

I'd like to start this entry off by saying today was more wonderful and a bigger success than I could have imagined. I hoped it would be great but it surpassed "great" a hundred fold. Garrett and I thank everyone with all our hearts for coming out, helping, sharing stories (and alcohol!), for your wonderful company and enthusiasm for history and this project, and most importantly for your friendship. You're a special group of people!! Our sincerest hopes that each of you will make it out again soon, as well as those of you who are interested but were not able to attend this time.. we hope to see you at the next event!

Today was our first event. Up until this point everything on the house had been done by Richard, Garrett and I. Aside from us three there were Eight others helping with the build; Ryan and Aryn Jones, Tyson Colleton, Chris Arel, Andrew Nickel, Chris and Sarah Thomas and Adam Parker.

The day began with Richard and Tyson venturing off into the woods to harvest willow with the use of billhooks, kukris and axes, and they were soon joined by Chris A. Garrett, Andrew and I hung back waiting by the one reliable cell phone we had between the three of us incase anyone was lost and in need of better directions. When the others arrived we spent a short time visiting and showing off a few weapons before taking everyone up to see what we had completed of the house so far. We were met with wonderful responses and reactions from everyone! - (Insert sigh of relief here!)

Richard and Chris A.

Chris, Tyson and Richard returned to the house with a load of willow; it was time to place the first willows around our posts. The willows, being green, were usually easy to weave through. We had mallets to force the willows down to ground level but ended up using our feet instead. The group split up and some went to gather more willow while the rest of us stayed behind to wattle. Everyone took the task with great enthusiasm and in my opinion it seemed to come very natural to everyone. To my knowledge no one present had wattled before but for beginners we certainly didn't do a terrible job!

There were points during the wattling when I'd look up and see everyone working... and not just working, but helping each other out. If one person was weaving a willow, others would gather to help get it pushed or pulled into the correct placement, or help stamp it down. There was a beautiful sense of unity as everyone worked and conversed.

Sarah T. and Ryan

We wattled for about three hours and in this time we got about a third of it completed. It came together much quicker than I think any of us were expecting. When it was time to leave and return back to the 21st century dwellings, our roundhouse was looking amazing..

At around 8:00 PM we left the Roundhouse and returned to a prepared dinner. It was a great time to just sit and visit with people, enjoying great food and great company. Ryan brought along a menagerie of instruments, including uilleann pipes, which we were privileged to hear him play! After dinner we all sat around a fire in the backyard until the early hours of the morning. (And the three youngest attendants were the first ones to go break down and go to bed!) Many stories were shared, memories made and deeper friendships begun. It was a fantastic day and evening and it will always be a source of happiness to me when I think back on it.

Ryan playing his Uilleann Pipes

Once again I thank each and every one who participated. You don't know how much your contributions mean to us. We can't wait to have another event like this one and we dearly hope all of you will be able to return, while also hoping for even more people to participate next time!