May 31, 2010
Friends, We've now posted some info that may be helpful to you regarding your final preparations for DID #10. PLEASE read them and pay special attention to the Survival Guide. A little time and preparation now can save you a lot of headache while here when you'd rather be enjoying the festivities. We have many new Citizens attending DID for the first time. We know that all of our older Citizens will be helpful in getting our new friends settled-in. Please also note that there is a gate this year with mandatory check-in and waiver-signing. Please help us to make this hassle-free and be prepared for this upon your arrival. We are putting what will have to be the finishing touches on the new performance area. The eternal issues of time and money will leave it less complete than we would have liked but a vast improvement in infrastructure over years-past. please feel free to forward any questions or issue to us as need be. We are looking forward to seeing you and celebrating DID 10 with you! All the Best!
Sheque, Kay, Katie, Amber and Jeanne
May 9, 2010
Dear Friends, We trrust the run-up to DID finds you all well. We are as busy as little bees trying to get the new performance area ready for its innaugural. I am enclosing photos that will show the progress made this weekend. Thanks to Tim and Caleb Albaugh, Tim Jefferson, Chris Boyd, Janet and Caleb Epperson and Owen Caldwell for their asssistance. We will work again next weekend endeavoring to get a start on the roof and to enclose the stage. We will also be doing some "grounskeeping" if anyone wants to join us. Please let me know ASAP if you plan to attend so I can arrange lodging and food for the proper number of participants. I am also pleased to officially announce a major blessing for our event. Channon Mondoux, a DID Citizen and long-time personal chef has graciously agreed to feed us our lunch and supper this year. Channon is an award-winning chef and SCA Laurel recognized for her culinary expertise. Channon's E-book "Celebrations At The Saray" was recently released to much acclaim and she was invited to Turkiye to share her publication. Beakfasts will be provided by Ingrid Caldwell, a local caterer known for her pastries and healthful cooking. What follows is a tentative menu for your perusal. As you can clearly see we will eat well at DID X. 3 Lunches Fri, Sat, Sun;2 dinners Fri, Sat.
Fri Lunch- Homemade Vegetarian Chili with cheese, homemade corn bread,
butter, salad, dessert
Fri Dinner- grilled burgers/veggie burgers, balsamic pasta salad,
cookies or brownies
Sat- Vegetarian Soup and Salad bar- cheese, greens, dressings, buns,
veggies, fruit
Saturday night Dinner- Traditional Turkish meal
Hummus bi Tahini, pita, Stuffed Grape Leaves (possibly a third dip),
Saffron Pilaf- long grain rice sautéed in butter, cooked in vegetarian
broth seasoned with saffron
Shish Tavuk - Chicken Kabobs marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, Aleppo pepper
Barbunya Pilaki- Bean Casserole with vegetables in a tomato sauce
Çoban Salatasi- Shepherd's Salad- cucumber, tomatoes, green peppers,
parsley salad with lemon/olive oil dressing
Baklava- Walnut filled phyllo baked in butter and soaked in simple syrup)
Sunday Lunch- Sandwich bar with cheese, meats, greens, fixins
Please contact us if you can attend our next work party or if you have any questions. Best Wishes to you all!! Scott, Kay, Katie, Amber and Jeanne
May 2, 2010
Friends, Just a quick note to say thanks to all recent registrants. We are looking at the best response in years. # 10 is shaping up to be another wonderful event. The energy at Spirithaven is ramping up; thanks, in no small part, to the energy of the friends who volunteered their time at the work party this weekend. The performance area is taking shape (We are including a few pix of the project in progress). We now have all of the posts set and the stage itself is about 80% finished. We had a great time, busted our cute butts and ate good food prepared by Mama Jeanne. Our wholehearted gratitude goes out to Mark Williams, Donovan and Kristin, Ted and Carla, Brian Beeman, Dee and Hannah, Tim Albaugh, Kenny Prutting, Larry Kreager, Pootie, Chris Owens, Chris Boyd, Janet Epperson and our Spirithaven Family. We could not do this without you. THANKS!! We will need to do work parties all this month to get this thing ready. Next weekend will be another big one and we need more help. If anyone can be here, please let me know ASAP so we can get lodging straight and an idea of what we will be able to tackle with the number of people available. Thanks again to all of you who give so much of yourselves to this event! All the Best!! Sheque, Kay, Katie, Amber and Jeanne
April 22, 2010
Greetings from Spirithaven, We trust this note finds you all well. This is the first time I have been able to send ANY e-mail since the last message I sent over two weeks ago. We have been having some serious computer issues and I hope they are behind us at this point. I promise to get a tentative schedule out to you all and to respond to individual queries from many of you as soon as I can. I wanted to get this note out quickly as I am not sure when the next "crash" may be. Thanks so much to those of you who responded to my last message with registrations and monies. This has been SO important, THANK YOU!!! We now have the trusses (and have them paid for) for the performance area and the building site is basically level. We squared it yesterday and we are ready to set the first posts which we hope to accomplish mid week next. I have to do a little touch-up grading this weekend and then we will be good to go for the rest of the project. As per the requests of many of you, and per my promise, this is the call for volunteers for the first major work party in the overall "Barn Raising". Phase One will take place next weekend, April 30th, May 1st and 2nd. We could really use assistance from those of you who have a free weekend and are inclined to put your mark on the future of DID. If you can swing a hammer and drive a nail, great! If not, we can still use you and, perhaps, give you some practical knowledge in the process. If we had about 15 people to work (Saturday the 1st will be the most important day) we could get many of the trusses set and much of the project finished. If we can "kick butt" at the work party it is conceivable that the entire 40'x100' structure will be under roof for DID X. Those of you who have been here when we have real rain know what a blessing that will be to all of us. We will try to house as many people as possible in the guest house, Turtle dome and other sites. We will feed and water you as well. I know this will be a lot of fun. If you can give us a day or two we would be eternally grateful. Please let me know as soon as possible if you can make it and we will get your beds reserved. Thanks in advance to those of you who can help us and also to those of you who cannot but will send us good energy. I hope to hear from you soon. Blessings, Sheque/Scott
March 18, 2010
Friends, We wish you all could be with us as Spirithaven reawakens after a real winter. The Spring flowers are up, the peepers are going full-blast and the leopard frogs are just starting to court. It is magical and we trust that the approaching equinox will shift th energy in a good way for you all. We have, thanks to Olivia, the postcard/invitations in hand. These are for presentation to folks who our Citizens feel are appropriate for the event (and vice versa). If anyone is interested, please send me your names and addresses and I will get them off to you. Instructors - Please let me know how many you need as you go to your Spring events. Please give them to students/contacts who you'd like to see as part of our family. Send me ship-to addresses as well. The stage project is underway, thanks to all who have sent reg. monies and donations! The grading will begin next week and I have gotten some competitive prices on materials. We plan to have phase 1 of our educational/cultural center completed by DID X. I will let those of you who have volunteered for the construction parties know when we will be ready for your help. All are welcome, I will send out a general note at the proper time if anyone else wants to come have fun with us! Thanks so much! All the Best!
Sheque
March 2, 2010
Greetings Friends and Fellow Citizens of Darbukastan! Though you'd not know it from the scene out the windows of our home (Spirithaven is once again snow-covered - and it is still coming down!), it is just over three months until the Tenth Annual celebration of Darbukastani Independence Days! It is sometimes difficult to believe that this event has been in existence for a decade, but it is true! We are all in for a wonderful event again this year. As I know you are aware, our faculty and musical offerings this year are second-to-none. The plans are coming together for the first in a series of construction projects which we hope will yield us our performance area in three to four years. This year we hope to have a covered and permanent stage which we can add to in the future to better take care of us when Mother Nature challenges us as she has on occasions in years-past. Carla and Ted paid a visit to the farm in the last snow and we discussed details and came up with what seems a workable plan. Kay and I met with the Environmental Specialist yesterday and he feels our choice of sites is excellent and will disturb a mimimum of earth. We have the name of a gentleman who does grading and we hope to meet with him when the current snow is gone to get going on leveling the site. We have suppliers who will help us get building materials quite reasonably and a pool of volunteers who will assist with construction. What we are lacking at the moment are sufficient funds to do the job. We at DID-Central are not asking for donations to get this project going. Some of you have, without being asked, sent us some "supply money" and we are so grateful for that. What we are asking for is this: First, if you plan to attend DID 10, and can possibly handle it, (and have not done so already) would you consider sending your registration money to us as soon as you can? Secondly, if you know of someone who would be a "good fit" for DID, would you consider inviting them and encourageing them to attend? As this is our tenth anniversary we have planned an extra-special event for you and this has caused us to commit to spending more to bring this to fruition. We have historically set a maximum of 100 participants for DID and we plan to continue to hold to this. If we can make it to that level, we can afford to pay instructors what they are worth to bring their talents to the community and have a bit left over to help cover the cost of the stage. In recent years our participant level has done well to reach half of our maximum which leaves us nothing to work with. While we do not want to see "The Vibe" change by opening this event up to "The Masses", (we still do not want to advertise this) we realize we need to either entice Citizens who have not attended DID for a while to come home for number 10 or find an influx of new folk who will add to, not detract from, the general welfare and good-energy. We are asking your assistance to help us make this happen. We don't want to have to raise the registration fees for future events. We do want the event to continue and to grow appropriately. We will also be entertaining applications by folks who would like to be vendors at this and future DID's. If you know of anyone interested, please have them contact us at their convenience. There will be a jurying process and we would like to see photos of merchandise and the vendor's set-up. There will also be a fee in addition to the registration fee for those wishing to vend. Thanks so much for being part of a community we know we can count on to help us take DID to its highest level. Please let us know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions for us at this or any other time. We will be sending out a tentative schedule and description of course offerings shortly. May we request that any instructors who have not submitted course descriptions please do so at this time? Thanks again. With Warmest Regards, Sheque, Kay, Katie, Amber and Jeanne
January 11, 2010
Dearest Friends and Fellow Citizens of Darbukastan, Greetings and Happy New Year from Spirithaven!
We trust that your Holiday Seasons were happy and healthy and that you have a good start on this new decade. Speaking of decades, it is hard to imagine that, in the midst of record cold and daily dealings with frozen water pipes, in a mere 5 months we will be celebrating the 10th Anniversary of our Independence! When we consider that this event has been "Alive" for ten years, and begin to marvel at that fact, the reason for DID's continued existence is quite apparent. It began as, and continues to be a community effort: a contribution of the energies of the Citizenry to create a little Magick once a year and to be able to revisit that sweet experience in our minds through the year until we attempt to "raise the bar" the following year. Despite periodic challenges presented to us by Mother Nature, and economic issues that have recently made it more difficult for all of us, I believe we have been able to create a more complete experience with each successive attempt. While we could say that DID 2010 is just another event, and we should not place any more significance on it than any other year's celebration, we can't resist the somewhat natural tendency to celebrate a decade of Darbukastan's existence with an event which will leave us with sweet memories not only for a year, but for a Lifetime. To that end, we have been working hard to try to lay the groundwork for a celebration which will bring some new and exciting energy to DID 2010 while not losing track of what has given DID "the legs" to make it for ten years. I suppose we will find out whether we were successful in that attempt five months from now.
I would like to take a few moments to let you all know where we are in the process at this point in time. As DID #1 began as an idea of pooling the creative resources of three different but like-minded entities, it was of paramount importance to have all three involved in DID # 10. We are happy to report that this will be the case. The Ladies of Zafira will be with us for the 10th successive year to lead us in dance instruction. After a too-long hiatus, Brother Daveed Korup will be back with us and we are so happy to report that DID 10 will host a Turku reunion!! Other folks who have been staples of DID's-past who will be joining us again are (in no particular order): Onca O'Leary of Barakamundi and The Mezmer Society, Jennifer Speiden of Mandara, Ted and Carla Monnich, Denys Proteau and Farzad Faranghi of Turku, Roxanne Bruscha & Wine and Alchemy, Mavi, August Hoerr, Dragonsong and The CeltHix. I am sure I have forgotten a few friends and we have not gotten confirmation from some we hope to see back. In the area of "New and Exciting", we are pleased to announce that Raquy Danziger and Liron Peled will be with us as instructors and performing as Raquy and The Cavemen. Nina Amaya will be with us as a dance instructor this year.
We are negotiating with a few folks at present to bring a different culinary experience to the event this year and will keep you posted as the plans come together. We are also considering opening the event up to a few more quality vendors for #10. Please let us know what you think about this and tell us of anyone we might consider who offers something a little different that you'd like to shop for.
After the success of the more organized performance area at DID 9, we are hoping to complete a permanent stage for this year's event which, with any luck and your continued support, will grow into a "bad weather-friendly" performance/class area over the next few years. With that in mind, and with the Darbukastani Treasury nearly in arrears, we must ask you to send in your registration dollars as soon as possible this year. We already have a few (Thank You, Thank You! We appreciate you so much!), but with every registration we receive we can buy the supplies needed to construct the stage. We have precious little on-hand at the present time, and this significant improvement in infrastructure will only happen if we begin construction soon. Anyone interested in participating in this project from the construction end, please contact us and we will let you know when we are planning work weekends.
Pre-Registration is being held at $175.00 again this year, which will include the meal plan. We greatly appreciate your support in getting the fees to us soon. We also need all of you to fill out new registration forms each and every year. Thank You! We are trusting that many of our "First Citizens" will return to Spirithaven this year to help commemorate the 10th anniversary of the event you helped build. As always, we welcome your comments and hope to hear from you all soon.
With Warmest Wishes, Sheque, Kay, Katie, Amber and Jeanne
October 18, 2009
Dear Citizens ad Friends of Darbukastan, Greetings from the colorful Capitol. It is a lovely day at Spirithaven and we are closing in on the "peak" for Fall color. We are a good several months away from the next Independence Day celebration but I wanted to give you all the official dates for DID this next year so you can put them on your calendars and reserve the weekend. This is, after all, the 10th anniversary of Darbukastani Independence Days and we are hoping for a Grand Event with a major homecoming for those of you who have not been able to be with us recently. The Dates to remember are June 4th, 5th and 6th, 2010. We hope to see you all back home again at that time. Also, The Citizenry has been very supportive of International music and has adopted The CeltHix the band to kick-off DID for several years. Many of you have suppoted the band at other events as well. We are currently collaborating with Klaus Weiland and Charlie Whipple on some really interesting music and have performed a couple of shows in the last few days. I was too inattentive to invite you all to the shows at The Sawtooth Center in Winston-Salem, NC and Stonefield Cellars Winery north of Greensboro, but we will play two more shows before Klaus and Charlie have to leave us. We will play at The Honduras Coffee Company in Stuart this coming Wednesday at 7:00 pm and at 6:00 pm to 9 or 10 on Friday the 23rd at The Daily Grind Coffee House in Martinsville, VA. We'd love to see any and all of you there. Please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions, All the Best, Sheque
March 22, 2009
Greetings from Flowering Spirithaven Farm! We trust that this note finds all well and enjoying Spring. Sure wish all of you could be here with us as Spirithaven wakes up. Kay and I ran into an amazing deal on bulbs which worked out to costing somewhere just under a penny apeice so we bought and planted 8000 daffodils, tulips and crocus this past winter and they are coming up now. Plans are coming together nicely for DID 2009 and we have had the good news that Chris Washburn will once again do the meal plan for us. This year the meal plan is included in the registration fee of $175.00 pre-reg.. We are pleased to be able to offer each registrant the excellent quality plan Chris treated us to last year. With Vegetarian and Omnivore selections this plan worked extremely well for us last year. With all registrants receiving the eight meals it will save them time and The Darbukastani Treasury money as we will get a better rate for an increased participation. This also makes it more convenient to the Citizenry as you will not have to bring as much in the way of supplies. May I ask the instructors to make sure you have sent us a class description as we would like to post the tentative schedule early next week. Thank You. Please feel welcome to e-mail any requests/questions to us at your convenience. We are looking forward to having you all with us again this year! All the Best!
Sheque