ANST-Announce - Estrella17 Battle Pit Status Report

[Master Raffaelle]

Greetings to the Fighters of the Knowne Worlde,
her are the improvements you have to look forward to in the Estrella War 
Battle Pit

Master Raffaelle
Estrella17 Promotion and Publicity Coordinator\

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The new Spectator Areas on the south rim of the battle pit
are complete.  The views they offer of the fighting are marvelous.

The Castle and the Redoubts have been re-bermed.  The rain has
softened the ground, so we have been able to use ditch-and-berm
techniques.  The berms are a good bit higher (especially from the
outside) than last year.

The trails being cut into both sides of the Defile are about 80%
complete.  These trails will allow "dead", Marshals, and water
bearers to get into and out of the defile even when it is clogged
with fighting combatants.  There is still some water in the Defile, but less 
than the weekend before, even though it rained some.
This demonstrates that the problems we had with flood waters
coming into the pit from above have been dealt with.  The water
is evaporating slowly, since the defile is sheltered from the
Glorious Aten Sun. Worst case scenario is that we rent a sump
pump on Monday of War Week and pump out the water, then cover it with dry 
dirt from nearby, which will make for a lovely fighting surface by the time 
the War starts.

The Broken Field area has been policed and major issues(large dead trees, 
boards with nails, unsafe ravines and chuckholes) have been dealt with.  the 
moisture content of the  ground may stay high enough that we don't need to 
water it.
There is GRASS growing in some areas of the broken field !

There are a few small excavations not of our making in the Battle Pit..  We 
have permission to fill these at our leisure,and we will do so before the 
War Practice this Saturday. Shouldn't take more than an hour for all of 
them.

While there are still some further improvements we would like to make, and 
some minor trash removal that shouldbe done, these excavations are the only 
things we need to deal with before the War.

So, we are in great shape.  With the improvements to last year's features, 
and the quite exciting terrain and vegetation offered by the Broken Field 
area, the fighters at this years Estrella will have more fun than ever, and 
the spectators will have a better view of it.

K & Dennis O'Connor            dmoc at primenet.com
of the Estrella War Battle Pit Crew



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