This will be the seventh year of our household Pennsic camp !
Go to http://www.pennsicwar.org/penn39/prereg.html for fees, maps, schedules, A&S, and to PRE-register! This site will answer a lot of general questions about the camp site. When you register ensure you choose: HOUSE BLACKSPEAR as your encampment. This helps us get more land.

At Pennsic, House Blackspear camps on block N-24. http://land.pennsicwar.org/maps/ We are up and away from the madness and congestion of the Serengeti.
Our spot is situated in the woods with lots of shade! You can see the general parking area from our gate. Your car is never more than a couple of minutes away! Whether a fighter, artisan or just looking for a retreat from the real world, we think our camp is the best place to be.

Fee break down:
All campers $5 for the truck. This gets all of the infrastructure up there.
If you need gear to go up on the truck there is an additional fee. We work that out once we know how many are in on the truck.
All Campers $5 per day this is for consumables on site.

Supper club is separate as well. (see page 5) There are food merchants if you choose not to join this. Additionally, for separate food plans using the kitchen area you’ll need to contact Sean,as this can get dicey in the conflict of resources.

We highly recommend a private cooler for your personal drinks and snacks. The kitchen has several large coolers where common food stores reside. There is also a beer cooler maintained by those who partake.

House Blackspear Camp Commandments
   1. Thou shalt have no Landocrat before Schecky. Sean is in charge of the camp. Bess is his XO, Maggie is her XO. Behave or Maggie will give you the evil glare of doom. Site acquisition, land negotiation, Tent placement, and all other gripes will be meted out by Sean. Sean will delegate a camp MAA, He/She will distribute and POST the chore list.
  2. Thou SHALT make a craven Pre-registered image of yourself on the Coopers lake campground site …EVERYONE must pre-reg.
  3. Plan to bring a friend ? Prevent us from taking their name in vain…. They MUST meet Sean, Bess and the most of the rest of the group BEFORE the event. See rule 8, Preferably a camping event.
  4. Remember and keep holy the Pack out day SATURDAY and keep it holy…Everyone stays for pack out Saturday. Again, this is not a hotel. We need everyone to help breaking down and pack the fabulous infrastructure we all used for our vacation
  5. Honor thy truck Fee EVERYONE must pitch in for the infrastructure to ride in the rental truck. $5.00 seems pretty cheap to get your shower, kitchen, gate, armor tent, common area, and more to Pennsic for your enjoyment. 5 $ per equal $10 a couple.
  6. Camp Fee EVERYONE must pay a $5.00 per day camp fee. This fee covers drinking water, firewood, propane, consumable kitchen stuff other than food. Soap. Paper plates, plastic utensils, cleaning stuff, trash bags etc. If a couple stays for 7 days it’s $70.
  7. Thou shalt Covet your neighbors Tiki fluid….EVERYONE brings two large bottles of Tiki Torch fuel.
  8. Thou shalt work …. Everybody works. We are not running a hotel. There is no maid or kitchen staff. Everyone Works! We are grateful to have a wonderful core group of people, NO ONE does all the chores everyday. Promise. Division of labor is always fair. Promise. If you think you have been stuck with more than your share, tell Sean, he’s in charge. Punishment is harsh for slackers. We will talk about you around the fire if you are a slacker. Promise.
  9. Thou shall not bring 17 years or younger to Camp with Blackspear. Pennsic is a long rugged adult event. Camp Grandma will be a much better vacation for the kids and the adults. We’ve been there and done it.
  10. Thou SHALT ‘convene’ at your neighbors house the day after….EVERYONE comes to Sean’s SUNDAY at NOON to unload the rental truck. Unloading a 24’ by myself isn’t pretty. The truck needs to go back by Monday morning and must be unloaded and parked in the rental place by 6pm Sunday.

Other info:
Our camp is in the shade and if we get rain drying becomes an issue. Prepare ahead of time for this inevitable circumstance. Plastic Bins for clothing and other items ruined by moisture. It is best to avoid bringing items ruined by moisture.

Keeping yourself OFF the ground is nearly mandatory if you wish to enjoy your experience. Buy or make on site a cot. Our ground has a spring beneath it. As we pound it down after time it draws the moisture up. On really hot days this very nice but on extended overcast / colder days/nights this can get really annoying when you wake up wet and can’t get anything dry.

Shoes: At Pennsic walking is your only way around. Bring several pairs of comfortable shoes. I recommend an open strap-on Teva type sandal , a sneaker type and a heavier construction boot. Flips-Flops are nearly useless except from the shower to your tent or porta-privy. All of these shoes can be ruined in an instant if the weather degrades so keep that in mind. So take some advice from John West…keep your Prada’s at home.

Features (House Blackspear is classified as a "Select Service" hospitality provider...Not to be confused with other "Select service hospitality establishments such as Courtyard by Marriott or :
We provide a 10X20 shower. w/ on-demand hot shower. Currently, there is only one shower head. We may be expanding this to a 2 shower stalls this year. Please be courteous about showering lengthy showers creates a muddy quagmire. This shower area is sectioned off into a changing room & provides limited shelving units for personal shower kits.

10 x20 Kitchen area: w/ 2x8 side board, several tables, large gas grill, other assorted grills, double-sink w/ water on demand, shelves for storage, full set of utensils and pots and pans, coolers and other assorted necessities

15 x18 Armor tent. This tent houses heavy armor. And is maintained by the heavy fighters in camp.

Gate We erect a nice gate that actually fairly simple to construct and makes finding us easier to find.

Med Kit we do bring a small med kit with basic first aid stuffs. This normally resides in the common area.

Chores:
We have a basic camping chores list that contains basics like: trash, dishes, general common are policing, fire pit cleaning. Etc. This list is posted on THE Whiteboard in the Kitchen area. It is the common forum for the camp. You can either sign up for a certain chore or you’ll be assigned we normally know whose done what. It’s best to past the work around. This board also contain lots of info like Day, temp other important activities for the day. If you use it please write clearly. We were never sure last year of who wrote messages in Sandskrit. Though I am sure there was someone at Pennsic who could have translated the Aramaic.
We also host a ‘Hospitality’ this is a chore. We assign normally a pair of campers to this task. Hospitality entails planning on staying in camp from afternoon 3 ish til that night about 30 past dark. 9 or so. During this time you maintain the camp, engage visitors with a drink and a comfortable chair they’ll want to rest after they get to our camp, take & pass messages from runners we WILL receive verbal messages! Some VERY important like battle time changes or other important event changes, keep a watch for heavy weather and secure the camp in the event of same. Set the camp for night time. Lite the tiki torches, maintain the campfire etc. We normally run Hospitality from the first Friday to the last Friday. So only 14 people draw this. We’ll normally assign one person who has done it with one that has not.

Food

The plan is simple:

• You provide dinner one evening for all the members of the supper club, up to 30 folks War Week.  You clean up your cooking.
• The other members then provide dinner and clean up for you for the other evenings of the supper club.
• We start the rotation Sunday Land Grab Weekend.
• Saturday night Land Grab it has become customary for all to make the journey into Butler, PA for the “Last Supper” historically celebrated at “The Red Lobster"
• We try to coordinate what's being cooked which night so that we don't end up with spaghetti and meat balls 3 nights in a row.
• We don't expect fancy medieval food, nor that you cook it over a pit fire.