Civil War Reenacting in Germany

My husband owns an independent record company. He brings bands over to Europe to do heavy metal festivals every summer. He's been going over there for like, the past 10 years and this year, if we can afford it, he would like to bring the entire family with him.
Metal Festivals in Germany
Heavy metal is his thing. I'm into Civil War reenacting and guess what? Not only is heavy metal popular in Germany, but I've recently found out that so is American Civil War reenacting!
German Heritage in the Civil War
I guess its no surprise since there were scores of german immigrants in the war, almost 200,000 I've read. It seems they reenact for similar reasons as we do and they're just as enthusiastic as we are.

Germans love American Civil War Reenacting

Confederates on the Rhine

The South Rises Again

I wonder if they have women and civilians and if the same us against them authentic/progressive/mainstream thing is going on there as here.

This and That

I started to go through my gear in another effort to lighten up my load. I'm not really finding much to toss that would add any more room. Surprisingly folding my sheets and laundry items actually does create a little more space. I decided until I can actually put the tent up and all my stuff with it, I really can't judge it.

I found quite a bit of sturdy white fabric on a roll at a thrift store. I'm going to try and make some of sort privacy curtains for the inside of the tent. Again something I'll have to do when the weather gets better.

I must dress in the dark and never look in a mirror! My blue dress is dreadfully faded! I don't know why I'm surprised because I'm out in the sun so much but the old thing has been ravaged by the sun! Other than the sun its fine and dandy so I'm going to try to dye it. I really don't have a lot of luck with dyeing stuff. I dyed another dress a year or so ago and the color was great at first but then kind of faded away.

My children got me a chimney iron for Christmas. It looks like this one. I kept telling myself I wasn't going to get another sad iron,

I have 8 1/2 of them already but like the Mrs. Potts style one I bought, its a completely different style and it was a gift from my children so I'm allowing it into the collection as a "must have" as opposed to an over indulgence.

Irons in the Fire and Burns on My Hands - My 1st Try at Ironing!

Wow! This ironing thing... all I can say is OUCH! My ironing day went quite well considering I thought it would be a nightmare. It really was not. Yes, I did burn myself quite a few times but that was something I expected. The actual ironing was what I thought would be trying. I expected scorching and burning, neither happened!
I toyed with the idea of a fireplace log but as silly as it sounds, I wanted to smell the wood burning and hear the fire popping. I guess I wanted an authentic experience as possible. I knew I'd enjoy it tremendously.

I started off gathering wood. For easy access, I piled it on the deck, right outside the family room slider facing the back yard. I have a flat skillet or griddle, as some may call it, that I use to set the irons on in the fire. Try as I might, I couldn't find it. Not a happy laundress... I ended up using a cast iron pot my brother Rick found in his chicken coop when he moved into a 100 year old farmhouse 30 years ago. I plan on using it under the fly on rainy days when my large outdoor fire isn't possible because of the weather. It worked for me so well today I may end up using it permanently. Also, think it really helped with keeping the ashes off the irons better. I have a big problem with that at events.

Remember in previous blogs how I mentioned that in growing my laundress gear for my impression, I've started collecting old and antique laundry equipment? Well, I dragged out this really nice wooden ironing board I recently bought and set it up to iron. I started ironing but then felt oh so guilty because I know ironing boards probably weren't used. Mass produced ironing boards were really just in their infancy about then. So, I put away the ironing board and set up the proper way, two wooden chairs.

I have a lot of stuff I haul to the events. I'm trying to downsize my gear but everything I have I pretty much use so I've recently vowed that if I add any new elements to my impression I can not add new items to haul with me unless I take away something else. Up to now I mentioned ironing and showed the spectators the irons in the fire but that was about it for ironing.

Luckily for me (and my solomn vow) my gear includes beaucoup wooden boards and wooden folding chairs, basically everything I needed to set up an ironing presentation. Yay me! and since a major part of my gear is laundry, I also have a lot of sheets, blankets and other things I can use for my ironing board pad and cover. Life is good! Okay with my newly correct ironing space complete, it was time to start ironing. Using a rag to protect my hands, I pulled the first, and heaviest iron from the fire and sat it down on a trivet.

It took about an hour for the irons to heat up completely. I was shocked at how easily the iron flowed across the fabric, how crisp the fabric looked. As I said before I expected to burn or scorch the fabric on my first few tries. It was almost as if I was using a regular iron. But soon, I did notice that in using the irons, as opposed to contemporary irons, that it mattered which way the iron moved. Being right handed I went from left to right, but if I then came back, left to right, my fabric would wrinkle or crease. Going up and down was fine but I just couldn't go backward. My iron was cooling down. It was still hot, as I learned when I flicked water on it and it sizzled, but I guess it wasn't hot enough!

I mentioned how irons cooling down fast in my presentations but I thought cool meant cool not less than blistering hot! And blistering hot it was as I can tell you by experience! I frequently grabbed the handle of the iron without the rag without thinking!

I guess its not really off the beaten path since I also have a habit of poking about the fire and for some reason thinking certain logs wouldn't be hot. Again........OUCH! Figures my daughter got the shot of me burning my hand on the handle!

The Library, Pickled Pigs Feet and the Scorching Heat of Hades, women in the civil war,

Today was library day. I spent 3 hours going through books to see if I could find any references to the Company Laundress. I didn't. Well, I suppose I did find the word, once. It was a reference to low class hospital workers. Other than that -nada!
I was just going to scan the pages, looking for a few keywords in hopes of finding some kind of information however small.

I can't say it was a waste of time as I found myself reading instead of scanning. I ended up checking out 4 of the 6 books I'd sat down with. There's one book I just couldn't part with, Sunday Mercury - Writing and Fighting the Civil War. Soldier Correspondence to the New York Sunday Mercury. What a good book! Although, so far, I haven't found laundress info, the book is interesting and a really great way to to get a glimpse of what was in the guys heads. I never knew they thought of the sutlers as blood sucking vampires and pretty passionately too! I couldn't put it down so I checked it out so I could go back and read the pages I'd merely scanned. The other 3 I haven't started reading yet. I found out the library is going to do a four month to-do on the Civil War starting in March. The kind lady that assisted me with my search took my name and number just in case there was something I could be involved with in the future. I hope there is.

In one of my recent antique shop treks I bought a "Mrs Potts" style sad iron. You know, the ones with the detachable wooden handle. Too bad I can't use them at reenactments. It wasn't patented until the 1870s. I wonder if they were available before the patent date. I'd love to use them. My old and antique laundry equipment collection grows! Tomorrow is D-Day. I'm going to get up-close and personal with my irons.

Also in an antique store I saw a tripod drying rack. Its not period correct as its from the 1920s but I really want it bad! I started reading up on drying methods and found that I have here at home, a few items that I can use. Hooray! I really need drying racks. This past year was so wet that having something to dry laundry in the tent would have been priceless!

I was getting all excited because I finally decided that I wanted to go to antietam 150th reenactment next year. But in classic Mrs. Peters fashion reality rained on my parade. Now, I could be reading this wrong but only A-Frame tents are allowed? I have a hospital tent.

(I think) Its roomy enough for me and my kids and it was the only tent I could afford. I'm thinking I can't use it. I'm going to have to get clarification on that. I'd really like to do one of the anniversary reenactments. I guess any large one would do, maybe Gettysburg if someone else in the unit was going. Let me rephrase that; I'd really like to do one of the anniversary reenactments. I guess any large one would do, any large one whose climate isn't that of the scorching heat of Hades and have large animals dying from said intolerable heat. Yes, I'm a wimp.

I'm also gathering recipes to make in camp next year. I want quick and easy, yet period correct. My mom is a wealth of information...and a wealth of weirdness. She likes pickled pigs feet. I love my mom so much. She's the greatest mom on the planet but for me that is so wrong on so many levels. Luckily she has never greeted me at the door with a big plate full. Geez, which would I choose..pickled pigs feet or the scorching heat of Hades? Anyone know how to make smores?