I am not sure how many know or do not know, but with my mom and dad's permission and blessings, I legally took my mother's maiden name of Boardman. Legally and practically, I am now Ron Boardman. I'll be killing this account soon enough, but if you are interested, my new LJ account is ronboardman.

Oftentimes, we forget just how much of a reawakening of our folk there was before WWII torpedoed it.

wassail friends!
I am taking a little break from LJ. Maybe a month or so. If you need to get in touch with me, I can be found in email still. Otherwise I'll probably post in about a month.:-) cheers!

He he
Fitna has been removed by user. I wonder why............


watch it here.

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/03/fitna-is-up.html

Watch them both because many don't want you to watch them. The moviemaker, Gert Wilder, is under active death threats because of this short.

If youtube blocks this, watch here.

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/03/fitna-is-up.html

whether pro or con stimulus,,this is interesting to note.none have read it? WTF?

I'm wishing dead guys happy birthday today. Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) Charles Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882).
200 year anniversary of birthday

I can;t believe how my moustahce was actually army regulation in this picture. I was always, I mean ALWAYS being told to trim my moustache. This has to be 1992. Oh yeah, I swear I was skinny once, here is proof!

My great great grandfather Alfred Boardman from Taunton Mass who served in both the Union army and Union navy during the Civil War.

We had some of the rabbit we raise the other night for dinner. neither Lily nor myself wanted to do anything fancy with it. no rabbit and dumpling or any other recipes. Then, I saw it. In the pantry. It was there. A box of SHAKE AND BAKE! Chicken flavoured shake and bake. So we shake and baked rabbit. Seems alittle like a crime, but it was actually pretty damned good. I don;t remember the last time I ahd shakle and bake, but it was there when we needed it. Lily just happened to see some shake and bake the other day and bought it. Good call.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7862804.stm

This should be of interest to those of us who think it stupid to have negative issues with someone because of their sexual orientation.

Tommy is off to Iraq today. I am full of pride, frustrations and a touch of jealousy.

Long weekend. Not that is was long, it was just 2 days as usual, but it
sure felt long. Saturday was spent with usual chores but come 11:00AM, I
had to drive down to Boston(4 hours round trip) and back as Kimble's
Yule leave is over and he had to fly back down to Ft Benning. This
caused me to miss Cat and Mike's 12th Night. This sucked, but oh well.
Always sad when Kimble's leave ends. Sunday morning, Tommy had to be at
the airport at 6:00AM for his 7:30AM flight. Soo, up at 3 and on the road by
3:45AM to get him to Boston. Lily simply stayed up til 6:00AM and never
went to sleep till then and when she finally lay down got only a couple
hours sleep. I got back around 8:00AM or so and wound up taking all kinds
fo cardboard down to Ingsleigh Hall after feeding the animals and then
burning thar cardboard in the hall's woodstove. Took a while, but it
sure warmed up in there. Came back inside said hi to everyone who was
now awake and then went back outside to crank up the forge. I made a
cloak pin for Mike and burnished it nicely and I also wound up making
Cat one of those triangles with a striker. You know, one of them
old,,,'Come and git it!' triangles you strike and clang. I should have
given it to her with leather thongs instead of using baling twine from
hay, but that is all I had. Miss Lily wants one now. Anyhow, after all
the chores and smithing was done, we loaded up and went to Cat and
Mike's. Skogafell. We brought sleds as we expected the kids would all
sled, and I also brough my Longsword and Rondel waster's. Mike and I
got some good striking and blocking practice in. We tried some new
techniques from Sigmund Ringeck's fechtbuch as opposed to some we had learned
before from Meyer's. We did mostly lower leg and hip strike and blocks
and then some overhead and side head srikes and blocks. We also
practised some upperbody/head blocks and counterattacks with a head
thrust. That was fun, but we are not all geared up so we do those thrusts slow
speed. No free sparring though. We just did the drills to gain some sort
of comfort. Ground was too slippery and snowy for safe free sparing. We
also practised some Dagger/rondel thrusts against an unarmed opponent
and the moves to fight back by the unarmed opponent. It was pretty
decent and effective. Mike picked that up from a 16th century fechtbuch
by Peiters, I think. Mike does a good job instructing grappling.

The kids started coming out to play in the snow, so Mike and I wound up
sledding with them. We did, however, get a good hour or so of longsword
practice in before we wound up having fun with the kids. Miss Lily and
Cat would up hanging indoors and cooking and talking farm talk. We had a
blast. Later on the ladies cooked up some of them Pizza Bite thingies
and we all went inside to eat them as a snack as the sun was setting.
While chowing on them bad boys(pizza bites) and having a beer, Cat's
folks showed up. It was nice to hang with her mom again and it was nice to
finally meet her dad. Mike cranked up the woodstove and we all had stew
and that nicely wrapped up the day. It was a good way to wrap up a
weekend full of sadness that both boys Yule leave are over.

Stick with this,,,it is kinda silly but it does wind up giving you some warm and fuzzies. So much happiness in dance.

So even after the nasty ice storm that devestaed much of new england, and the whollop of about 2 feet of snow the following week, which was yule and Mothers Night, it is easy to see the incredible beauty in it all. here are some pics of the farm this past weekend.

Eþelæceres Swīn Blot

Yet again it has come to pass that my family has offered up swine for
Yule Blot here at Othala Acres/Eþelæceres. Surrounded by family and
dear friends, we gifted the Ese and Wen (Aesir and Vanir), the Gods
of our folk, with the rare and wonderful gift of swīn blot. And it was
good and right. This is what happened.

The sky was overcast and air cold, as befits a December(ærra Geola)
day here on our small farm in New Hampshire. The rabbits, sheep,
ducks, geese, chicken and turkeys did there thing and didn't seem to
notice the pig which I brought down to the Gods Grove. He was a
handsome pig, showing some Gloucester Old Spot ancestry in him. Large
dark spots covered him. Comfortable and lazy, he lay around. While
dear friends and family began showing up, the rabbit and dumpling stew
from our herd simmered in the dutch oven on the stove, as well as
another dutth oven of sweet and sour chicken. Jolkalenders were handed
out to the kids parents but lebkuchen were freely available to the
kids and anyone else who wanted them.

Once all that were coming came, the bunch were gathered at the top of
a small rise that leads to the Gods grove where the Yule swine was
waiting. We sithed, or processed, into the Grove while I sang my usual
opening portion of the prayer, or bede. Asking Hama/Heimdal and all
holy wighths, both high and low to see us. The bede went like this.

Wes Hal the Ese Wes Hal the Wen
Wassail the Aesir and Vanir
Wassail the Elves, Wassail the land wights, Wassail our ancestors bold

Wes Hal the modras Wassail the Mothers we honor you at the start of Yule
Mother's Night comes soon, but our blot comes sooner, let it bring
honor to all we hailed

The harvest is in, the woodpile is stacked, the oil is in the tank
Now together we gather during the darkest days and celebrate Sunna's triumph

Behind her there follows, a warg named Skoll, fast on her heals it comes
Yet faster still are her chariots hale steeds All swift and Early Riser

The days will lengthen as they always do, and the wheel continues to turn.
as always we struggle, be steadfast in might, a lesson of Sunna's flight

The hoar frost shall thaw and Earth shall turn green and fish will
return to the streams
The lambs shall thrive and the deer shall increase, I ken this to be true

As in eldritch days, our forefathers times, we stand here for Yule blot
a Swine stands here, as gift to our Gods, receive him with our love

It was at this point, that my wife touched the head of the unknowing
beast with a .22 rifle and sent the animal to our Gods in the heavens
in a thoroughly humane immediate manner. Up until then the swine had
drunk two beers and was beginning to eat an apple. Comlpetely happy
and unaware of his holy doom. I then cut the throat and we caught the
swine's life blood in a blotbowl. My wife passed around a horn of
Carla's homebrewed mead and words were uttered in thanks to the swine
and wassail to our Gods. Next came aspersing, with the use of a pine
bough, of the gathered folk, Ingsleigh Hall and the God Posts with the
contents of the blot bowl. The rite ended as I wassailed the contents
of the blotbowl at the feet of the Ing Frea and Thunar God Posts.

The butchering began almost immediately by the men while the womenfolk
tended to gather in the farmhouse or in Ingsleigh Hall, where both
places had woodstoves burning high, throwing heat to warm the
bones.Butchering soon was finished and the flesh of the swine was
turned to Husel, the sacral feast. Augmented by the rabbit and
dumplings and the sweet and sour chicken, the pork loin rounded out
the feast. It was then, when bellies were full and the kids fed that
friend gifted friend and laugheter really began over-filling the rooms
of the house. Adult laughter and young kids underfoot in the house
drove the teenage boys out to the fire in the Gods Grove for thr rest
of the night. It was good as they tended the fire to burn up the
leavings from the Yule swine.

After 8 consecutive years of blotting livestock to Our Gods, I am
still humbled by the holiness of blot and am thankful I have such dear
friends and family to be involved with it. Not to mention to greatness
of our Gods..

So Lily and I took a 10 pound turkey to the place down the commons known as 'Helping Hands'. It is a small buiding that takes donated clothes and food and then either sells 'em dirt cheap or donates 'em to whoever comes in needing them. I think they donate food boxes and sell clothes and whatever else is donated. I have actually never had the chance to visit but as we give hem fresh eggs from our chickens over the summer, we figured they could use a turkey for someone in towns Thanksgiving. There is like 1600 people in my town, so it really is helping your neighbors.

Well, we get to the helping hands and it isn't open, but there is a sign that says 'no food boxes being given out this week'. Crap, that means they don;t have any turkeys to give out, they must be in dire straights foodwise for not giving out boxes, and on Thanksgiving week to boot!

So now Lily and I have a turkey and nowhere for it to go. I have the idea to call our postmaster Marci, who is in the American legion with me as she knows everyone in town and would be able to tell me who could use a bird. She tells me it is better off to call the towns health and welfare lady, who is wife of another guy I am in the Legion with. I called her and she tells me to bring the bird on down, she could use some more. She had just bought 4 birds herself that same morning. She had enough cans of cranberry and potatos and such to make 5 food baskets, but only had 4 turkeys, ours brought it to 5 so she could now drop off 5 Thankgiving baskets with all the trimmings and fixings as well as turleys to brighten someones holiday.

She was so happy to see another bird it warmed my heart to see.

That milky white light of the full mooon on the snow dusting is gorgeous this morning. You can see everything.