sweasel.com

Good Morning All!

My favorite tool is the mattock variation of the grub hoe, followed closely by the Pulaski.

But can you find a glaive-guisarme? Or a voulge? Perhaps a bohemian ear-spoon?

Pulaski is a tool?

Aye, she’s a right jubbly old pig stunner, she is.

I bet that thing makes a pretty good minor noble smacker when necessary.

Ango-Saxon war toys anyone?

Sweas, yeah it is a tool used for wildland firefighting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulaski_%28tool%29

And Spad13 is right. Your average feudal army consisted of nobles, mounted knights, bowmen, and a levy of your average farmers who would not know what to do with a sword if given one. But they did understand farm tools. So they brought them.

An armored knight with sword and lance is pretty well invulnerable to the peasants as long as he is mounted. However, get the bugger on the ground, and it is a matter of finding a can opener. The process generally involved something thin and pointy inserted into joints and eyeholes, or something like a pole axe or bloody great mallet.

Given the alternative, it is not surprising that the noble-types were great fans of ransom. Two problems. Surrendering in combat has always been one of the hardest things to successfully accomplish on the battlefield, because it is easier to kill and loot them than take a prisoner [if a peasant took a noble prisoner, the peasant’s noble would make off with him and not share the ransom]. The other problem is convincing the peasants that you were trying to surrender. Your attempts to do so probably would be in a language they would not understand, and would be more than a bit muffled from the armor you are in while doing an imitation of an inverted turtle in the mud.

Subotai Bahadur

I love things like this, too.

I’m thinking about applying to have my name legally changed to “Pig Stunner II”.

Wildland firefighters: cuttin’ line and kickin’ ash

when we lived over there we would take American visitors, or anyone that would agree to go, to the carboot sale at Banham Zoo Sunday morning (don’t tell the Pastor). The assemblage of stuff and sheer variety and novelty was mindboggling. And there is a winery/cidery right across the road. The zoo specializes in owls, I believe.

The saddest thing I ever saw was a gent that had several really nice, well, they were nice once, American pistols suitably neutered by the authorities. These once proud emblems of American freedom had been cut, welded, pinned
and had their orifices jammed full. A sad moment to an otherwise bright day out in the Suffolk countryside.

http://www.banhamzoo.co.uk/Visit/CarBoot.aspx

The website isn’t very informative unless you are looking to go there.

We’re never up early enough for the boot sales 🙁