Paint and Dye

I have started collecting urine for indigo dye. Kate came and helped me pee in the bucket. Bald guy thought it was utterly gross. I don't care. I am going to do it and ferment it.

I have been distracted with scrolls and working on some other stuff. I am kind of excited about the scroll work though. I am also doing lampwork glass beads but I haven't had much luck with them. I am getting better and teaching it to others.

Paint and finishes.

I love the day after scriptorium when my head is swimming with ideas.

Bodily fluids were and still are an important part of art and painting. Anyone who has been the parent of an exuberant child has probably seen the artistic results of an exploration of a diaper. It isn't pretty, in the traditional sense.

Medieval artists used everything at their disposal to create paints and pigments. They made lovely greens by oxidation of copper sheets in urine to create copper resinate green. Leads white is made by dropping bits of lead pipes in vinegar. This creates lead carbonate crystals, which for white lead, lead-tin yellow, and red lead. "In the 1558 edition of "The secretes of the reverende Maister Alexis of Piemount" there is a recipe for staining wood for use in joinery, using horse manure, alum, gum arabic, and unspecified dyes." (http://www.his.com/~tom/sca/finishes.html) I will definitely be following up on this.

Common Agricultural Tasks for Medieval Workers

I grew up on a small farm. We had loads of tasks that had to be done each month. If one considers my area of California to be similar to Spain, you can get a rough idea of how things were the same when I was growing up. I am 42 and our area was very poor when I was little. My family was thrifty so many of the same tasks occured on our ranch. We farmed the whole thing with plums, prunes (Yes, there is a difference.) apricots, walnuts and peaches. To this day, I have never had a peach as wonderful as the ones we used to grow. We also had a commercial fishing boat, so a lot of things were the same.

Common Farm Tasks by Month

January & February - work indoors repairing hunting nets, sharpening tools, making utensils - on mild days work outdoors gather firewood, prune vines and mend fences. Sewing, embrodiery, picking out paint colors for spring, sorting seeds, making any metal repairs in the shop (this could be forging, forming or welding at our house), and repairing ditches and the roof if needed. We also replaced trees at this time.

March - work in the fields, plowing and cultivating. Running through the mustard, picking flowers, weeding everything in sight, encouraging the ducks to go into the gardens to eat the snails, pruning in California is usually done in March. We also would work frost control. Fishing was a big deal in March as we would start thinking of crab and herring. My uncle did his herring fishing in the Bay this year, and we got to see him right at the end of pier 45. They pinned the herring up against the docks this year.

April - clean ditches, pruning trees, fixing sheds, hauling timber, and repairing roofs. Weeding! We spent almost all of April cleaning up after animals and sorting things out of the yard. The garden should be started in late April. This meant sowing seeds, picking out what would be planted and starting to can fish and any citrus stuff.

May - sheep cleaning and shearing, planting and field maintenance. We worked on cars, planted the garden, harvested the last of the winter garden and finger pruned young trees. The tractor would be taken out and the first serious breaking of the ground was around May 1. There is also a lot of problems with animals and skin diseases this time of year.

June - mowing hay crop and raking it into piles. Thank goodness we didn't do hay! This is when we would start working seriously with the animals and painting. Horses and cattle would finish being halter trained and hooves would be in perfect condition. The skin diseases would be treated and the pigs would be put in the pasture at my friend's house as the piglets were big enough. This is a time of really working on grape vines too. Weeding is never ending.

July - harvest grains, bundle sheaves, weeding gardens. Yes, more weeding! Also major inside projects like painting, and repairs. Anything you can do in the barn is good because of the heat. The first of the plums and peaches are coming in. We dried some peaches, sold some and canned as much as possible. Our bees had a thing about swarming in July too. We did one light disking with the tractor. This is also the time for blackberries and we had to get several jars of jam.

August - threshing and winnowing of grains, grinding of grains into flower. PRUNE SEASON!! Our reason for living. We did one deep disking, one light disking and then pulled a heavy roller over the orchard. The reason is that commercial harvest demands perfect fruit even if you plan on drying it. The prunes were harvested usually in the second week of August. Once the sugar was high, we would go out with long hook poles in the early morning and shake the trees. The ripe fruit would fall onto the soft, super flat and cushy dirt. The fruit fell about 8 to 15 feet and wasn't damaged. Then we would crawl on the ground and pick it up and put it in a wooden box. Each box was about 45lbs and you got paid from 45 cents to 70 cents per box if you were a picker. If we dried them at home, we dipped them in a sulfer solution and put them on racks at about 2pm. This stinks. I liked taking them to the processor and just getting a check.

September - fruits picked and dried or stored, grapes picked and pressed for juice and wine. Our grapes have never been harvested in September. We had five different wine grapes at one point. Our Chenin Blanc came in during August and everything else in October. In September, we did accounting. We did have muscat grapes around but gah! I don't like the grape so I don't eat them or drink muscato. We did get to play in September and the figs had to be processed. The last of the plums and peaches were done. We also put up pesto and vegetables.

October - gather nuts, roots, berries, and mushrooms, fields plowed and empty fields sown with winter wheat, repairing and cleaning equipment. This is the busy month. The chickens and ducks you don't keep get the axe. We sent our animals in then. Some go in August for the county fair but October was when things were often done. Grape harvest and cleaning up to head into winter starts now. The farm vehicles are all cleaned and put away for the year, just like in the middle ages. We would get the walnuts picked up and drying on racks. This is also a good time for special repair projects as it is cooler.

November - firewood gathered, split, and stacked for themselves and the lord, pigs and cows slaughtered and meat smoked, flax and hemp processed to make thread and rope. Oh we were so lazy by November. Persimmons were picked and if anyone could think of something to do with them, we did it. I still don't have enough things to do with them. We would clear several acres of brush for local wineries and farms and get the traps ready for trapping season. The grapes are all caned for the year. Also, make sure all the hooves are trimmed.

December - trim trees, grape vines pruned, and hunting. Yes, Grandma went hunting. We also ran the traplines every morning. Neighbors would call about problem animals which we would live trap. Skunks and fox were the biggest problem animals. We also stored things up and cleaned the garbage cans because from here until March, you can't go to the dumps because the road is too muddy. We also banked over the manure piles and some of the flowers.

Adapted from Nikola-Lisa, W. "Till year's good end: a calendar of Medieval Labor/" 1997
(Great Children's book on middle ages.)

Saturday: Beltane

Saturday was spent at Beltane with my poor-put-upon Laurel. We spent loads of time with the household and that helped me get to know them better. We also watched Fabian and Elishka step down. I don't know Radnor and Ysabeau of Guildemar step up. Vinhold also paid taxes but I wasn't really much of a help with them though the taxes that were paid were nice. They made Eric ropes for the kingdom. I loved the floor cloth project but the eric ropes wasn't as much fun and required sewing, which I hate.

I was very teary-eyed during Fabe's and Elishka's court because they knighted Brynne. The ceremony was beautiful and she was well-represented by every group in SCA. I think I will always think fondly of her because at my first war I told her I was scared I couldn't protect her and she said it didn't matter, just run when she did. Too bad I couldn't see behind me because she had loads of war-sense. She runs to where she is needed and most efficient. Plus, she was super nice even though I sucked. So was Brand but you know, it was another woman out there and she was damn good.

We got a chance to catch up with everyone. No one recognized me because of my hair. Giant ants tried to eat us. I played in the creek when no one was looking. I found a merchant who was carrying indigo leaf. I fussed all day in my head about dying and urine. I spent time with Master James who was very interested in talking about future projects. I wish he was closer than a half hour away. I shouldn't complain though as I used to think he was 10 hours away and I would never meet him. Talk about fortune smiling on me. Anyhow, I also got a chance to parade with the heralds, which was fun because Sir Gerstan and I walked together. I also made sure I complimented Hirsch on the herald report system he created. It made things so simple!

After a while, I decided I needed to go ask Rose de Le Mans about things. I wasn't sure I would remember her appearance so I mentioned it to Master James and Nyteshade. She marched me right over so I could pester Mistress Rose about her indigo and urine dye experiments. She gave me a rough overview that is enough to send me off to do my research. It is terribly exciting. I ran back to the merchant and asked for 6 ounces of indigo, which made him quite pleased. Rose suggested the equipment I will need (all things I already own) and some methods that she found easier.

When Susan and I got home that night, I found a new book in my mail. The Compleat Anachronist #129. From Woad to Blue by Christina Krupp and Marieke van de Dal. Hahahahahaha!!! I am again smiled on by fortune and collect urine.

Immunization and History

PUSS! SCABS!!! POX!!! NEEDLES!!! These are my notes to date on Immunization History in the Middle Ages. My comments are in italics. My research is cut and pasted. I will keep the internet links here and then go off and find the appropriate periodicals as I find them.

Ok, listen up. Did this occur in period? We know Lady Mary Wortley Montagu brought the practice of variolation to England from Turkey in 1721.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/polio/virusvaccine/history.htm

Variolation

Long before the colonial period in Africa, some tribes practiced a method of protection against smallpox called variolation. It involved inserting fluid from smallpox blisters under the skin. This was intended to produce a mild form of the disease and give the person immunity from severe illness. In some parts of Asia, a mixture of smallpox scabs and pus was pricked into the skin. The Chinese blew powdered scabs into the nostrils.

The technique of scratching smallpox fluid onto healthy people was introduced to Britain and western Europe in the early 1700s. Variolation became quite popular for a short time but soon lost favor as its potential dangers became more apparent. The procedure also became popular in the American colonies for awhile, but was eventually outlawed by several states until shortly before the American Revolution (1775-1783). Variolation remained controversial until Jenner's famous 1798 announcement. (http://www.discoveriesinmedicine.com/Hu-Mor/Inoculation.html)

The great thing about variolation is that it comes in different forms. This site mentions scabs up the nose. Too cool! http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/smallpox/sp_variolation.html

Treating smallpox in China

The Chinese were the first to exploit the observation that survivors of disease did not get re-infected through an early form of vaccination called variolation, which was carried out as early as the 10th century and particularly between the 14th and 17th centuries.

The aim was to prevent smallpox by exposing healthy people to matter from the lesions caused by the disease, either by putting it under the skin, or, more often, inserting powdered scabs from smallpox pustules into the nose.
http://www.immunisation.nhs.uk/article.php?id=347

Timeline

Milestones in Immunisation

429 BC – Thucydides notices smallpox survivors did not get re-infected

900 AD – Chinese practise variolation

1700s – Variolation reaches Turkey and rest of Europe

1796 – Edward Jenner: from variolation to vaccination

1803 – Royal Jennerian Institute founded

1870s – Violent opposition to vaccination

1880s – Louis Pasteur - sheep trials and rabies

1890 - Emil von Behring discovers basis of diphtheria and tetanus vaccines

1920s – Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough) and BCG (against tuberculosis) vaccines widely available

1955 – Polio immunisation programme begins

1956 – WHO launch global drive to eradicate smallpox

1980 – Smallpox eradicated

Whoooooooo hooooooooo This demonstrates that there is a subject to pursue here. The 14th century documents are where most of my research is likely to take place but, I really want to find stuff from the 10th century. Powdered scabs are disgusting but the kids in class will love that. My sister would have too as she was a notorious scab picker.

A method for protection against naturally acquired smallpox infection appears to have been discovered in India sometime before ad 1000.^12,13 There it became the practice to deliberately inoculate, either into the skin or by nasal insufflation, scabs or pustular material from lesions of patients. This practice resulted in an infection that was usually less severe than an infection acquired naturally by inhalation of droplets. From India, the practice spread to China, western Asia, and Africa and finally, in the early 18th century, to Europe and North America.¹⁴ Case-fatality rates associated with variolation, as it was called, were about one tenth as great as when infection was naturally acquired, but those infected in this manner were capable of transmitting smallpox by droplet inhalation to others. After cowpox began to be used as a protective vaccine, the practice of variolation diminished. Even as recently as the 1960s and 1970s, however, variolation continued to be performed among remote populations in some parts of Ethiopia, western Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.⁴
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=vacc.chapter.3

Footnotes are my friend! Now we are getting somewhere. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=vacc.biblist.61 Shows the bibliography. This also shows two documents researching Chinese medical practices that I will have to get copies of for my work.

12. Macgowan DJ. Report on the health of Wenchow for the half-year ended 31 March 1884. China, Imperial Maritime Customs Medical Reports 27:9–18, 1884.

13. Needham J. China and the origins of immunology. Centre of Asian Studies Occasional Papers and Monographs No. 41, University of Hong Kong, 1980.

The bit on putting Lady Mary in her place and the WHO papers probably are less important. Needham sounds familiar from previous research so that may be an opportunity for an article and interview. Ooooooo look!!!

History of Bioterrorism

A chronological History of Bioterrorism and Biowarfare Throughout the Ages.

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6th Century B.C.
Assyrians poison the wells of their enemies with rye ergot.

6th Century B.C.
Solon of Athens poisons the water supply with hellebore (skunk cabbage), an herb purgative, during the siege of Krissa.

184 B.C.
During the naval battle against King Eumenes of Pergamon, Hannibal's forces hurled earthen pots filled with serpents upon enemy decks. Hannibal won as the Pergamene were forced to fight against man and snake.

1346
During the siege of Kaffa, the Tartar army hurls its plague-ridden dead over the walls of the city. The defenders are forced to surrender.

1422
At the battle of Carolstein, bodies of plague-stricken soldiers plus 2000 cartloads of excrement are hurled into the ranks of enemy troops.

15th C
It has been said that during Pizarro's conquest of South America, he improved his chances of victory by presenting to the natives, as gifts, clothing laden with the variola virus.

1710
Russian troops hurl the corpses of plague victims over the city walls of Reval during Russia's war with Sweden.

1763
Captain Ecuyer of the Royal Americans, under the guise of friendship, presents to the native Americans two blankets and a handkerchief contaminated with smallpox.

http://www.bioterry.com/HistoryBioTerr.html

Oh my. Finally, could this be the evidence of corpse flinging? If they reference that stupid italian book as a source I shall scream. I do like how it has a 'send to a friend link' on a bioterrorism page. Bwhahahahaha.

And Sir Ralf Payne-Galwayt quotes a passage from Varrilas to the effect that " at his ineffectual siege of Carolstein in 1422, Coribut caused the bodies of his soldiers whom the besieged had killed to be thrown into the town in addition to 2,00() cart loads of manure. A great number of the defenders fell victims to the fever which resulted from the stench, and the remainder were only saved from death by the skill of a rich apothecary, who circulated Carolstein remedies against the poison which infected the town.,' http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/rg1927/ch10.htm

Poo flinging!!!! Stay on track Auree. No. I need to tag this as flinging. I am hungry. Time for lunch!

My Yearly Report to My Laurel

Stuff Wot I did in SCA so my Laurel can go to her first council meeting in like forever and ever and she looks like she knows wot I been up to:

1. I got leather tanned in dog poo to show people. I didn't do it, but a friend did.

2. Collected stale urine for future projects. The urine is sorted by 'every day' or' just your average pee' and 'first morning collected before dawn in total silence' pee. This will become important later when working on alchemy experiments. Oddly, there is some scientific reasoning at work here.

3. Finished reading about gunpowder to the point where I am willing to try it. I have made charcoal by burning fruit trees, I bought sulfer and I am looking for crystals in the manure pile. I decided against boiling down pee.

4. I researched North African and Byzantine feast foods for a yummy feast that includes camel meat.

5. Took six months but I found a camel supplier. Ok, someone did it for me but I plan on taking all the credit.

6. My untreated manure wall finally fell apart with 100% exposure to the elements. I am not sure it fell apart but that bossy bald guy screamed "It was broken and destroyed and you left it in the rain so I threw it away." I had noticed a lot of decay in the structure. We used improper materials and only built it out 1.5 inches and didn't seal or whitewash it. However, I did get a good grasp of how to build a real one.

7. Found Master James the specialist in medieval paint and get this... He moved from Caid into MY barony! I study with him twice a month and I am learning all about medieval painting.

8. I had an experiment with chicken poo go horribley wrong. I don't think we should discuss it.

9. I was appointed herald of the barony and have been learning court heraldry, ceremony writing (since the book is lost) and brushing up on the book heraldry. I researched old ceremonies by ripping off the brits. Oh and I was told by the baron to write ceeremonies for 3 awards.

10. Learned to paint scrolls.

11. Decided to get warranted for scrolls and will start production in 1 week, I think. Ask Master James as he is sitting there.

12. Won the Vinhold Seige Cooking competition.

13. Taught two classes on poo.

14. Studied the early period method of immunization which involves picking scabs, scraping a needle through the puss and then scratching a person with the needle. Cannot find volunteers to help. Request help from my laurel.

Hi and Welcome to the Poo Lady's Blog

I have so many things to blog about when it comes to manure and bodily fluids as they were used in the Middle Ages. Please feel free to post comments, suggestions and things you have found.