At the first sale, I bought a tiny hereford calf hide. And a plank of cedar, probably from a book case or similar. Sales kind of blend together in my mind after that. One with a sad old lady trying to clear out the home of her sister who had gone into aged care. She was scaring sales away by asking people $20 for items she would take $2 for, but she was torn between the eternal twin motivations of wanting to raise money and wanting to get rid of stuff. I bought a couple of linen napkins and a short length of wool fabric from her. I did not even ask how much the beautiful skeins of wool were. The magnificent specimen of fossilised tree was not for sale. Oh well.

Another place sold me a vase and a pilates mat. Another place sold me a cat tunnel. And I also bought a leather apron, a really sweet little sledge hammer, the sturdy timber clothes drying rack I've been wanting, two lengths of pure wool from the Warrnambool Woolen Mill, some synthetic damask, and the girls picked up a handful of jewellery between them.

The girls got sick of it at about the same time I had the feeling that anything really exciting would have already sold, so we came home.

One of the first songs I learned that specifically pertains to the SCA is the Agincourt Carol. I learned by ear from two different (very different) sources. Even after all these years, in which I must have sung it with a group at least ten or even a dozen times, I'm still not singing what the other people I'm singing with are singing.

So I looked on you-tube, hoping to find a rendering that resembles the local version closely enough that I might be able to learn to comply closely enough that I won't feel so much like a riderless horse in a cavalry charge when singing it with other people.

A soloist in the first part of this (poor sound)recording has the line that I'm singing, and it sounds "right" to me. So if I'm singing that, why does it sound so messy and incongruous?

The soloist here sings a tune that is... somewhat similar. Ish. In spots.

The small choir here... once again similar only really quite different.

It's no great surprise that the Maddie Prior versions bear little resemblance to the tune I'm after.

Hmm.

Ooh! -- this is really quite pretty with two, wait... three voices harmonising. Beautiful period instruments accompanying, too. The melody and timing and stuff are all about spot on. But again... the word placement is disturbing me. How many beats of "AAAA" and "OOOH" for a given phrase seems not to match up with what I hear locally. And it's one of the things that makes me most nervous.

If any singers I'm likely to sing this with could confirm that their oooh's and aaah's are placed differently to the local version, I'd appreciate the sanity-check.

It seems that every "valley" has a different rendering, but I really like this song and I would like not to sound quite so much like a foreigner when I'm singing it.


And something else the search turned up: All You Need To Know About The Battle Of Agincourt in five minutes. It's pretty, and seems to provide a neat potted overview. Is it accurate, I wonder?

There's another, from the same creator, about the Battle of Hastings -- and a heap of other post-period battles and famous people.

Sunday evening just on cloak-o-clock I was strolling up the lane beside the pine plantation, heading for my tent to fetch some blankets and drinks in anticipation of another extended evening of fire-gazing. There was no breeze at all, and the fine dust of the track made my footfalls silent. But all around me was an ambient hubbub; discussions in all directions, snippets of singing, children exclaiming, punctuated once or twice by cast iron cookware bumping together and bursts of laughter of many textures. I stopped just to listen to it; this exceptionally wonderful Surveying Expedition, distilled into warm, embracing sound.

All in a moment a collage of the event came to me; setting up, being felled by the heat of Friday mid afternoon after merely pitching my own tent. Finding the soup kitchen, helping latecomers set their tents up, sitting in the beer garden, waking early to the smell of bacon, attending collegia, mending garb, kids with boffers on the list field, huge black pots arrayed between the kitchen and the cook fire, the spicy aroma of the cabbage-beef parcels.

Dark pines as both backdrop and battleground, a stag running, leaping amidst the branches with hunters in pursuit, ginger bunny skins hung to dry, Yurt! Lady Ava hastening hither and yon, combatants armouring up, roaring as they race into battle, later shedding their helms to feel the light wind move across the wash of sweat on their forelocks, horses nudging their handlers, children waiting patiently for the amiable beasts to bear them around the paddock for a little way.

Gentles selecting food from the laden board, Hrothgar crying announcements, craftspeople gradually following the shade progressing around the sheltering trees. Court announcements, awards, portentious portents of strange (strange, strange) old men, huzzahs bouncing off the pines in the twilight stillness, climbing under a mound of blankets and sleeping instantly, only the mournful bellowing of the Murray Grey steer punctuating the night (sounding ever more delicious) until the roosters announced the dawn and the smell of pancakes drew us from our beds for another day.

The pool of gold on the horizon was shrinking, being absorbed by the deepening blue of darkness when I blinked out of my reverie and bade my sore legs to move me closer to my tent and my cloak. The happy sounds of the event in the evening gave me a flash of quiet exultation, but the first stars were visible and the still cold air told me that I wanted to be sure that all my family's beds were ready. And that I wanted chocolate port and a comfortable place to sit before it got too much darker. What a great event.

Preparations are proceeding apace for Surveying Expedition. Yesterday a bunch of people worked on the site and things are coming along nicely. More needs to be done in a timely way, but I like the way this event is shaping up. :)

The forecast was worrying me; hot on Friday for set-up, but with the offer of a cool wind change in the evening. Today the BOM have revealed that they predict the Saturday to be a rather pleasant 25 degrees. Both nights to be 14 degrees.

That kind of temperature range combined with the 20km/h winds a ought to provide comfortable conditions for combat and A&S, cooks and all.

For my own preparations; I have a lot of sewing to do if my girls and I are to be reasonably clad and, due to leaving it to the last minute, and thrown off track by the also last minute rescheduling of a family event, minimal time left to sew in. So if my girls and I appear a bit oddly dressed from time to time, just squint a bit and chant "An attempt. An attempt!" under your breath until you adjust. ;-)

I have a cunning plan.

I've had the idea since my first Festival, and intend to offer it around a bit more overtly henceforth.

The problem it would be intended to solve is the one of newcomers being ignored at events. As a regular participant at SCA events, I find that I hang back when new faces appear, because I do not know whether they are wayfaring, newcomers, recently returned after time out of the game/in another place or what.

I have also been a mature newcomer, and found other SCA people a bit hesitant to place me as a newcomer, probably expecting that I was wayfaring, returning or something. Also, there are many children who have been in the SCA longer than I have and there are children who have only been to a few events, so some unfamiliar children require a little more supervision, direction and assistance from the parent-herd than others.

The solution (partial, optional etc) I've thought up is that of having an option for newcomers to wear some kind of indicative token. I use the term "Green Leaf" as the placeholder token in my own mind, there may well be a more appropriate item I have not thought of. But for the purposes of discussion, green leaves will suffice. Say the green leaf is a simple leaf shape cut out of green leather with a string or piece of leather thonging to secure it by. It could be worn tied or pinned, on wrist, neck, hat or garb at the discretion of the newcomer, or not at all. Purely an optional thing.

I would expect that regular players (who would have to be informed of the meaning of the green leaf), on seeing an unfamiliar face, would be able to spot the leaf (given fair eyesight) if it was being worn and be able to offer greetings, hospitality, information, introductions and assistance to the newcomer as appropriate. No risk of being embarrassed by finding out that the "new" person is a long-time player. No fear of one's welcome being unwelcome or rebuffed coldly, as the green leaf expressly invites such warm and cordial welcomes.

The newcomer would be welcome to wear the leaf for as long as they felt "new". They could choose not to wear it to local trainings after the first couple of times, say, but prefer to wear it at their first big event, their first wayfaring experience or similar.

The only down-side I can see is that newcomers may be overwhelmed by people rushing to greet them, help them and learn about their interests. There is also the possibility that it would, over many years, lapse into being used by long time players as a kind of "talk to me" signal, thus clouding the waters.

So I'm curious to know whether other people have opinions on this matter and whether maybe something similar has been tried before? Ideas? Suggestions?

There is something seriously wrong with me this evening. When I saw this image on thistlethreads I thought the exquisitely attired lady was... texting.

*facepalm*

Hi, I have set aside the larger bones from the goose I baked and I'm wondering whether they might be suitable for some SCA purpose. Or do the bones need to be boiled to be usable?

Also, I think the fruits on my local walnut tree are ready to make pickled walnuts. I'm planning to give that a go.

On arriving at the site, it was fine but threatening rain, so I had to choose between trying to get a fire going to provide warmth and cooking heat, or pitching the tent to provide shelter.

The tent went up which, of course, accorded us hours of warmth and sunshine.

The place at which I had intended to buy dry firewood (there being a certain wetness to the free-beside-the-road, firewood) had none. Waah! However, a poplar tree was down nearby, and was suitable for firewood, so I fetched out one of the axes from the boot and laid in to it. It was very satisfying to cut softwood. Very rewarding, even for someone as out of practice and out of shape as I am.

I went for a little drive to fetch my lost and wandering children back to camp. They had gone to fetch fire wood, but wanted to see if they could get to the top of the mountain before returning, and surely it would not be further than the next turn of the path?

Getting the fire lit was a problem not alleviated by my not having a lighter in my feast box after all, nor in my car, nor on any of the people present so far. Then Ava and Hrothgar arrived and provided the missing element.

Lots of newspaper and assistance from Ava later, the fire started. Some goose and some sausages were cooked up first. The goose was too salty and, due to time constraints, too quickly cooked. We ended up with somewhat chewy "Goose bacon" as described by Richard. I can see it as being very good used much like bacon itself, in flavouring a dish.

The goose for roasting went into a large stock pot, atop a steel bowl so that there would not be undue contact with the sides of the pot. I'm not a goose expert, but I suspect that while baked goose is good, burned goose is not so good.

People played coits, cards and ran around swirling ribbons on the ends of sticks. Unfortunately, after the sausages and goose bacon were done, it began to rain in earnest, and as it was nearly the designated end time for the event, served as a pry-bar to dislodge us from the site.

The baked goose finished its cooking in a modern kitchen, and tastes rather like duck, only stronger and greasier. I am not convinced that I fancy it much, but I may be suffering the odd syndrome which afflicts people who prepare food from basic levels; if you've handled it raw, it does not taste as good cooked. Hmm.
----------------------------
Edit:
I finished the roasted goose on the stove top at home and when it had cooled, I stripped the meat from the carcass. I was exhausted, so put it in the fridge overnight. The following day, I essentially made pie filling. Three very small batches so I could do different things. One lot got onion, peas and carrots. One got prunes and walnuts. One got mushrooms. All were very tasty and too filling. Goose is a strong, pervasive flavour. On reflection I think it would be ideal in lots of very small pies. That maximises the pastry to meat ratio, and the strongly flavoured meat would taste just great.

Combinations I would love to try with goose:

Sage and black pepper.

Sage and lemon.

Edit: I've worked out that I want to try goose, sage and parsnip.

Apple and raspberry.

Preserved whole lemon... but it would have to be cut with something bland, too, and have some richer, contrasting flavour dotted through.

I think that for making larger goose pies or stews, it would be economical and possibly more palatable to use one part goose flesh to two or even three parts chicken flesh. If combined early, I believe that the goose flavour would easily spread with the grease as a medium to flavour all of it.

The owner of the geese says that they will all be sold before Christmas, and at optimal eating age in February/March. She says that she simply has too many and she is prepared to offer discounts for people to take "families" ie: both parents and their current clutch of offspring.

They are fed bread to keep them tame, but are free range and actually live off pasture grazing.

She also keeps chooks and guinea fowl, as well as peacocks; pied, white and regular. (They were displaying all over the place, because I could not help but call out to the first one I saw, and I do a pretty good imitation of an intruding peacock.)

I considered the largest of the geese on offer to be a reasonable, if unimpressive, size for the table, so I bought a pair and have duly dispatched them. They were not fully fledged, but there is still more meat on the carcasses than have been on any of the adult ducks I've cooked. One is in pieces, some bits in brine, some not. The other is in whole roastable form. I'll make up a stuffing for it this evening.

I have a box of down and softer feathers set aside, and will work out what to do with them, if anything. I found this helpful advice about harvesting duck feathers, but googling for details about preparing feathers for cushions just swamps me with retail links trying to sell me ready-made products. I expect that leaving them in a pillow case to dry and cure for a few weeks would be a good start, then, if there is any doubt, wash them in the bag and let them dry for longer.

The feathers were not grown out enough to use the flight feathers as quills, but I picked up a dozen or more of the larger feathers that were lying around at the farm. I will wash them up in plain cold water and try to remember to bring any that are in sound condition to WM next weekend.

I'm heading out to a farm to day to (hopefully) pick up a pair of geese which the owner has selected to be ready for the pot.

She has rather a lot of them and is asking $10 each, and I thought I'd mention this here in case anyone has advice for me, or if any local folks were interested in securing a lead on a possible supply of geese for the kitchen. (The lady also has peacocks and turkeys, by the way.)

I will post updates on what I learn, but if anyone can think of good and useful questions for me to ask about the geese, and comments here before I go out (I'm leaving in a bit over an hour), I can get answers directly.

I am a tad wary because it seems a little early for this seasons goslings to have attained a good size for the kitchen, but there is no way to be certain what the birds are like until I get a look at them. I may return home disappointed and empty handed. But maybe that means that there will be fat geese available in a few weeks. Hmm.

***Wavey "time travelling into the future" visuals***

Principalities of Lochac; one in the South, one in the North, one in the West and the later ones; the Central Eastern seaboard of The Big Bit and the Principality of the Far Eastern Isles.

All the groups are in a neat administrative hierarchy; the canton officers report to their Barony officers, the Barony and Shire officers report to the Principality officers and the Kingdom officers aggregate the reports of the Principality officers into nice, fat reports.

Coronet tourneys for each Principality sometimes clash, but that's not a problem for the combatants. The investitures are staged the following day -- the idea of delaying them for a stand-alone occasion was found to be inconvenient because it meant that reign changing took up too many weekends *and* that fewer people attended the investiture events. Analysis posited that the reason for this was that people with a special kinship to the one assuming reign numbered less than people with a special kinship to a coronet challenger who *might* win. So despite a solid base of loyal locals, the number of people prepared to travel when the person they had special kinship with had not won coronet... this is just historical conjecture, really, but the system as it stands works in the majority of places.

The Principalities have had another curious effect -- by reducing the sense of obligation for the King and Queen to be insanely generous with their time and personal resources (in that the Princes and Princesses can handle some pressures and provide "emergency cover" in case the King or Queen have a family crisis) more people contend for Crown. The rotation of "the Usual Suspects" in reigning (as happened very late in the piece) was short circuited when more fighters realised they could do justice to the Kingdom travel expectations (as opposed to "requirements") if they won Crown*. A lot of fighters focussed on improving their combat to compete for Coronet, and after a few seasons of training and tourney fighting and getting their head around the logistics involved in reigning in a Principality (whether winning Coronet or not), noticed that they were off a class and in a position to challenge for Crown.

Reflecting on the combat and officers, I realise how I am taking for granted the event organising people and the impact that the Principalities have on A&S endeavours. I remember waaay back when I started playing SCA, I used to pore over online photos of the abundance of amazing things that were displayed for approbation at events on other continents. I would then attend local events with A&S competitions of even Kingdom levels, and wonder at the lack of entries. I'm not sure whether it was the inspiration of local Royalty, the cross pollination of skills and ideas (and meterials) between groups, the formal classes, the competitive nature of A&S points counting in Wars and the like or what, but something changed for the better in the years since the Principalities started to come together.

I like the way things work now -- Rowany Festival has the Great War between the Principalities as a regular thing and it is splendid to behold. The Principalities camp in league with each other and share resources, and each Principality has its own major camping event held on an approximately rotating basis, which is attended by their own and by wayfarers who use the wide area aggregation and reciprocation ideas to cover transport and accommodation issues.

It took a lot of careful planning, trial runs and hard work to get here, but I'm grateful to everyone who had a hand in it, and I think everyone agrees that it was worth it to arrive at something this awesome that Just Works. :)


*All moot now that we have our flying cars, of course, but it was a very real obstacle to contending for Crown at the time.

I adore both of these songs, but in my head, they duel.

One choir sings a section of their song, the pauses to hear the rebuttal from the opposing choir, taking it in turns until the vehemence reaches a level at which they are both singing simultaneously with intensifying stridency, blending, clashing with passionate (dis)harmony in their battle over whether I should weep or be joyful.

( cut for embedded youtube thingoes )

There are so many recordings of choral performances in youtube that I am having a fair bit of success in finding SCA related songs to "learn by singalong". I am more confident that I'm not inadvertently learning the wrong version now that I can more or less tell whether the song as sung complies with the sheet music I've obtained from SCA songbook sources. :)

Bless me LiveJournal friends for I have sinned.

It has been ....nowhere near long enough since my last confession.

I stopped in at an op shop on the way home and though I missed out on the fabulous sideboard I wanted, I did buy:

2.5m of a soft, heavy fawn/cream houndstoothish wool blend.

2.5m woven dark brown, cream and grey with one band of stripes in those colours plus fawn and russet. It rather reminds me of 1970's waiting room furniture, but has potential become something a little more interesting than a plain version of the same fabric. Burns to nothing. Might be all wool.

4m of a light brown/cream wool blend with speckles of chocolate, cream and russet. Again I'm having flashbacks to an old sofa I owned. A little hard in the hand, but I'll see how it washes up before working out what it might be used for.

2m of a green/cream wool blend with speckles of cream, russet and a dark yellow.

3-4m (possibly four yards?) each of a deep green and a burgundy synthetic velvet.

Also, 5m of lightweight and very white cotton canvas - it has the composition written on it on one corner as often happens to samples.

I'm weak. I can't resist the temptation of cheap fabric being all seductive at me. I have a problem. (Not enough room in the house.)


Maybe my pennance should be to, you know, sew something?

I was making a side gore viking apron dress for one of my girls, and had cut it out when Asfridh pointed this interesting front pleated arrangement to me. So the extra fabric at the back is now extra fabric at the front, the gores will stay and I will put the silk border on the upper edge.

I have a deep teal silk scarf that I've not been able to bring myself to donate to charity for about five years, yet never use. It may make its way into use as part of this garment. I know I have some purple silk dupion, but I'll have to see whether it will abide with the purple wool fabric I'm using.

Interesting that the front is higher than the back - the dress is quite long, so I'll just snip a strip off the back to get the appropriate difference, I think.

I'm going for the look rather than a correct redaction, but my objective is to use the pleats to provide an adjustable girth in this garment. I was going to put them in the back, under the sewn-on strap, but the style in the link offers a more authentic way to get the same function. :)

The bleak weather of the last few days has scared away the garage sales. There were not many, and there was nothing particularly exciting. Except a beautiful shell. A few metres of some attractive kind flannel fabric. Some new (new) clothes and shoes for the girls. A tub of horse shoes for a friend.

The girls bought another board game (it's okay, they do play with them and there is room to store them), an orientalesque pink silk painted parasol (which I hope will become bedroom decor where I will not see it) and another tiny plush toy rodent of some species I cannot identify.

I'm sleepy to the point of tingling and dizziness and I'd like to spend the day sewing in front of some catch-up viewing of doccos and TV series I've missed. I have cut out a viking apron dress for Splash. It's in a rather splendid purple wool twill, quite long with a deep hem and a couple of pleats in the back to allow for growth.  I need to run it together, but I can't foresee the next occasion she'd be in garb, so there's no real rush. her class have a slab of school time seta aside to work on an art/craft project later in the year, and she's planning to make garb then. I heartily endorse this idea. :)

Today's plaid flannel has the allure of being new to me and I feel inspired to make it into bogan tunics. It is prediminantly white with blue, olive green, salmon, fawn and black making the plaid pattern. It is a fairly soft look and will be exceedingly comfy for the girls to wear. Medieval jammies, perhaps? Anyway, I'm in a mood to chop-rip-measure-stitch my heart out.

But tomorrow is the official family party for Dune's birthday, so I probably should work on hiding signs of productivity in favour of creating the illusion that I have no need or desire to be productive, and in fact have domestic servants keeping the place in good order. Hmm.

Da Vinci's Mechanical Lion Brought To Life After 500 years

The comment thread cracks me up even more than the Spielberg jibe at the end of the article.

I was hoping to find furniture again, but the garage sale gods just laughed at me today. My girls spent $2.70 and bought a mauve purse (which was actually needed, and a good practical buy), a tiny, elegant soft toy of a Black Cockatoo (which is not needed but of which I approve) and a resin Tasmanian Devil (which I'm less keen on, though it is a good representation).

At the request of my birthday-girl, I bought a silly fake tubular fish tank which lights up and blows bubbles. We have yet to fill it with water and set it up, but ever since we've come home she's been going through her toys, working out which ones will fit into the tube, which are likely to float, which will be damaged by water etcetera. I am giggling as I type because so far the "let's give this a try" heap includes a tiny My Little Pony, R2D2 and CP30, a Kelly doll, a bunch of those little plastic farm animals and a stretchy rubber tarantula. *snarfle* 

Edit: Now she's asking whether we can dye the water bright green and find some small toy brains to keep in it. (I'm just bursting with pride!)

The only other interesting garage sale was one of the kind I wish I'd been at earlier. There were desirable items here and there with "sold" stickers on them, and gaps indicating the departure of unknown treasures. I bought two mystery boxes of fabric (which I am still to explore and sort out properly) some kind of tapestry frame and some leather. I'm not short of fabric and craft supplies, but A quick peek into the boxes showed useful lengths of good wool. Hmm. I'm going to stop typing and start burn-testing. :)

Edited to record what I scored:
Three or four metres of wide wool/cotton in light brown. Yay! New light-weight camping/work dress for Celsa!
Two metres of wide wide natural coloured wool blend of the kind used for baby blankets.
A metre of black pure wool, felted and a couple of smaller pieces of superb soft pure wool. Wah! I want metres and metres of them!
Two and a half yards (as written on the tag) of wide eye-gougingly red fuzzy wool.
Miles and miles of different plain coloured vintage cotton fabric.
A bunch of small quilting type printed cotton.
A small stack of synthetics to donate to after school care crafts.

I have been looking for a specific couple of pieces of furniture at garage sales lately, but today brought no success on that front.

I did get a few nifty things: a couple of vintage hat pins. A silver thimble. A little awl. A tidy little wooden plate for my feasting gear trunk. A groovy old drinking glass with a pounds/shillings/pence to dollars and cents conversion table printed on the side. A couple of pieces of fabric - a couple of metres each of light wool and heavy linen. Three nice mineral samples - two amethyst crystal fields and a slice of agate. All that at one sale for the princely sum of ten dollars. 

I Googled and found that the thimble, judging from the hallmarks, was made in the 1890's. It has a sort of daisy pattern over most of it. It is tarnished nearly black, but will be a very pretty thing once I clean it.

I also picked up a towel drying rack as my much used large clothes drying rack is threatening to break. Um...what else? A very fine chain dog leash for Maggie, who is inclined to chew through a regular leash. And another little fibreglass bow for a dollar.

The littler girls bought a board game and a particularly nice fairy costume. Splash bought a rug for her bedroom floor (which invites hope that she may be planning to find her bedroom floor) and a fantasy novel. I'm so pleased that they have stopped coveting the real junk at garage sales - an effect I gratefully report flows on into retail, too. They are unexcited by most of the shiny plastic crap in the shops now.  My evil plan is working!

I keep having the impulse to cultivate the capacity to set up a kind of Inn. Not a tavern, but... a B&B of the non-pointy-hat variety. I have the idea that while many people in the SCA have grown into a capacity or preference to stay in splendid medieval tents or off-site lodging at camping events, there are likely to be people for whom the issue of accommodation is a barrier to attendance.

If an inn style of accommodation consisting of a) a big tent with lots of ticking/straw mattresses and some privacy screens and / or b) a handful of smaller tents set up in a bunch, also with mattresses were available, would more people come along? If people could book a mattress and specify whether they would require blankets and so forth, they could travel light and in some cases be more autonomous. Would that be appealing to anyone except ...me?

My ideal set up would require there to be a largish camping event of at least two nights duration. I'd have three or five smaller tents and a much larger central tent. Ideally, I would have enough of the smaller tents to accommodate all who want them so that the large tent can be used as a communal living area and place to prepare breakfast. Last minute overflow bookings could be offered the option of sleeping on the floor of the main tent, but that space would be occupied by benches and stools if sitting inside proves comfortable.

The complexity and authenticity of the breakfast would vary wildly depending on everything from dietary restrictions to fire restrictions to the tone of the event. Provision of cooking cleaning and safety gear would be part of the Inn concept. Fruit and nuts go without saying. Cold options could include mundane cereal, bread/spreads (with breakfast beer optional *wink* ). If a cooking fire or alternative is available, then anything goes depending on what people want and who is prepared to cook it:  Bacon, pancakes, eggs however, soups, porridge, waffles, scones, damper, lunch, cheeses, more fruit, afternoon tea and a glass of port before bed.

Yep. The whole of a washed-out event could be spent lounging in the dry (I'd hope) interior of the big tent and a good time still be had by all. *grin*

I don't have the time to get this working at the moment, or in the foreseeable future, but I've been thinking about it for a year or so and given the right circumstances and the right team, it still seems like it could work ... and might be really nifty, convenient and fun. And the think I keep coming back to is that it is modular - the tents and seats are useful of themselves, the cooking gear, too. Bulk mattress covers are about the only thing I can't think of an existing use for. 

I suppose you could say that it is on my "maybe one day" list. *sigh*