Introducing OkieRhio - oh wait, that's ME!

Renee's preferred avatar. 

When this blog was started 10 months ago, you readers were introduced to the resident regular writers around here.  Erin, Evelyn, Lokidude, David, and Chaplain Tim are all writers and preppers of no small prowess in my regard, and it is my great honor that they've decided to allow me to become one of their unique tribe here at Blue Collar Prepping.

I'm not, in the strictest sense, much of a prepper.  What I am is an Anachronist and Medievalist.  I've spent the past 28 or 29 years (you lose track after a while) playing with a group called the Society for Creative Anachronism. 

I am Lady Rhianna Maeve Selwyn, a Silver Wheel of House Rolling Thunder, Clan Archaic, Baronies of Namron and Weisenfeur, Kingdom of Ansteorra. I'm thrice a widow who rules her home without the benefit of male input, over seeing all aspects of controlling and maintaining a large extended estate.  I'm a freed-woman who was once a thrall (slave) to Viking captors, and am now a woman of independent means.  I'm a bard and merchant, and travel extensively in the pursuit of new and unusual spices, cloth, and knowledge.

... well, that's my medieval persona that I play under.  I am also - more mundanely - Renee Williams of Oklahoma, divorced mother of two grown children, medically retired due to Lupus, would-be crafting wizard and sometimes writer.  I owned and ran my own business from home for several years, making hand-crafted all-natural bath and body products.  I'm a professional soapmaker, as well as a singer and storyteller, and armchair philosopher.

The primary focus of my skills, and therefore the various articles that I'll be writing for this blog, are more along the lines of "Things it's handy to know when you're attempting to rebuild civilization after SHTF in a big way."  The various crafting skills that I've learned over the course of nearly 30 years as a medievalist range from soap making and brewing to the basics of metalwork and leather crafting.  I'm a Jill-of-all-Trades, but Mistress of None.

My prior Guest Writer posts here at BCP were listed under my everyday name: Renee Williams.  From here on out, my posts will be under OkieRhio, the name I've been using as a blog writer since 2010.  I hope you find something from the odds and ends of ancient and medieval crafting skills useful to you.  Even if you never find yourself having to rebuild civilization, low tech skills can be fun as well as ultimately helpful.

Sunday is my posting day, so look for me here next week!