Lighting

Many people commented on the darkness last event, and so I wanted to let you all know that we are taking steps to try to improve the conditions. Please note, we are never going to have this problem solved completely. There will be times when you will be fighting in very dark and less then desirable conditions. Hopefully though the improvements we make will help a bit. With these improvements will come the need for some added awareness for safety.

Tiki Torches on the Paths
We will be setting up tiki torches on the paths... about fourteen of them in total, for now. They will be bright, and they will be very securely planted in the ground. It is doubtful that they would be knocked down, however crashing into them still is highly unrecommended. With that in mind PLEASE be cautious and courteous to your opponent when fighting around these. If you see that you are backing someone up into a torch, stop and let them know, or pull back and make them go after you in the opposite direction, or SOMETHING other than letting them back into the torch.
As a side note we will now be taking an unlimited supply of torch oil as a now much needed donation.

High Quality Mod Lighting
Thanks to a donation from Kevin, we will be receiving many large high quality colored portable/chargeable, light fixtures. While we will not be using them on every mod at night, we will likely be using them for main mod and special mods and there presence should help to light up the area quite a bit. Also please be careful not to step on/ crash into these lights as well. While they may not hurt you, they may hurt the light, and they are quite costly because they are top shelf quality.

There you go! Heres to slightly better lighting conditions and everyone being responsible adults to make sure we all stay safe

As an added bonus, if that lamp oil is citronella, it can help with the mosquito issue.

Would you be willing to take solar lights as donations too? I am more than willing to purchase some to help out and I am sure others may too.

If you get solar, make sure they are A) Durable, and Elevated several feet. They WILL get stomped, smooshed, crushed, etc. otherwise. Even the ones at my house don't last that long, and it's a no-combat zone!

Really? I have solar and I have an insane Border collie and they have been around forever. Oh well, guess I am crazy lucky.

My experiences with solar lights have been pretty disappointing so far. They seem to turn on a full few hours before they are actually needed, get dim by 10 and then die completely around midnight. I think they are good for accent lighting. I wouldn't mind using solar lights in the Druids Grove and the paths back in that area. I suppose its possible the technology is getting better each year?

Probably not. Solar power is picky based on how much sun they get. I tend to forget that because I grew up in the desert where the sun never stays away. So too much shade may thwart its usefulness.

I may pick a small set try out and send them your way. Worst case scenario they suck. Best case scenario they work and we can bring some more next time. I will check out consumer reports to see what the best options are. Do you have specs for tiki torches? They are rather cheap at Costco.

The ones we got for the monastery seem to work well. They stay lit for quite a bit of time.

Im only getting a specific type of tiki torch, because the semi-permenant method I created to safely plant them requires them specifically. They are quite expensive but much more effective than other ones. These are 15 dollars each from Home depot. The torches I will buy, though torch oil will always be needed moving forward.

Is there a specific type of oil you are looking for, be it brand or otherwise?

No. They sell a kind that repels mosquitoes, but I'm not picky. We are prob going to use a lot, so regular stuff is just as well

James, if i amy make a suggestion for thge tiki torches.

instead of using the torch stabnds as thgey come, take a 8' landscape timber, bury it 2-3 feet into the ground. then on top put a container ( food cans painted black would work), use a wood screw to fasten it in place. Then put the canister from the tiki torch into that. it puts it above the heads of most people so being blinded isn't an issue. the posts (we used small locust wood trunks for the natural look), are sturdy and won't be easily knocked down if run into during combat), and the light spreads out a little farther as well.

The only issue is making sure the person going around to check them is tall enough to get the canisters down. Some of the kanarak pics at the face book page show the ones used there.

Oh and try diesel fuel. it's cheaper than torch fuel still and burns pretty clean (although you do need to wear gloves and probably a rubber apron to keep the fuel out of your clothes and skin).

Only issue with the landscape timbers is the rocky ground. Not sure how easy it would be to dig a 2 1/2 - 3 foot hole. If you could, they work better than anything else we tried. Nobody will be knocking them over at all.

So for about $6 or $7, you have permanence that can be there as long as you want. Between events simply pull the canisters and store them. The landscape timbers can serve, where appropriate, double duty as sign posts.

If you use diesel fuel, it makes a somewhat larger flame thus more light. Gallon for gallon, the Citronella will cost probably 1.5 to 2 times more and haven't seen a huge benefit as far as keeping the miniature vampires away.

let me second what balindor and kunkel have posted. we use the red off road diesel and works very well citronella is expensive and not reall successful for mosquitoes .
yes the torches ae a maintenance issue to keep filled also need to be dried out after rains eventually the rain water gets into the torch via the wick and displaces the void for fiesel fuel plus the wicks get polluted by the water and need to be pulled and dried out or replaced
and definitely use vinyl or other non latex gloves for filling

Filling the torches is a tedious and non glamorous task and is messy. Please use some type of rubber Nitrile, or vinyl gloves. old clothes or apron.We use a flat tub quite like a Bus tub to carry and store the canisters.

The best way to fill them is to use some type of container that can be laid on it's side equipped with a small valve that has nozzle that will fit into the torch opening. We have tried funnels and the squeeze type K-! pumps and several other methods But overfilling is quite probable and this wastes fuel plus makes a mess

Having said all this Tiki Torches are still the best way for remote lighting We also tried solar lights with little success

I'm just looking through this and have to ask a question. How...pungent do the torches get on diesel fuel? I don't know how well it burns in tiki torches, but I know smelling diesel all over camp and inhaling fumes or the byproducts of burned diesel all weekend is not going to be fun for many of us, myself included.

Annora wrote: I'm just looking through this and have to ask a question. How...pungent do the torches get on diesel fuel? I don't know how well it burns in tiki torches, but I know smelling diesel all over camp and inhaling fumes or the byproducts of burned diesel all weekend is not going to be fun for many of us, myself included.

If the smell gets too out of havd, blame the londwyns.
Also, there are also multi-colored tiki torch fuel things that you can get for mods and whatnot.