Staying out of the Mrs. hair and a History Lesson

The homestead is coming along great with the Mrs. doing her creative thing. That said yesterday to stay out of her hair while she finishes the house, the kids and I wondered out on an adventure. What do you get when you cross a bunch of hippies dancing around barefoot........

with a bunch of men in skirts........

No its not the Gay Pride Parade in San Fransisco, its the Richmond VA Celtic Festival and Highland Games. What is that you ask??? I'll explain it in pictures for those who have never been. This fest and games celebrate the Celtic Folk's (the Scots, Irish, Welsh and Brits) love of drinking whiskey, scotch and Guinness and then playing with weapons, fighting and playing extreme sports.....

Here I am showing the love by eating an Irish Sausage and drinking Guinness











After one drinks copious amounts of Guinness and hits the whiskey tasting table a dozen times or so then its off to the booths where you can buy your weapon of choice, be it a small Sgian Dubh (a ceremonial dagger) to a full blown Celtic sword weighing in at around 20lbs









From there its off to the battle axe throwing competition. The boy is still a warrior in training and had problems bouncing his axe off the intended target, I on the other hand landed mine deep into my opponents chest (well if it had been a Mel Gibson movie it would have been someones chest, but I had to settle for a bullseye on a piece of wood)











As I pulled the mighty axe out I let out a shrieking battle cry (okay so maybe it was a grunt because it was stuck)













For the faint at heart who don't enjoy the big swords and battle axe, you can jump in the ring and do a little fencing with this guy. The smaller holes in your chest don't hurt as much as say a battle axe.







All smartassness aside this was a great cultural event and I'm glad the kids are interested in their Irish roots. Next post will be a little lighter and less smart ass comments.