Monday 15. June 2009 The preparations are on their way...

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Salut!

Since three weeks I am back again in Romania. As I arrived at the CASA CALFELOR some things had to be organized and of course I had to go to Don Titi with Anda, Ed and Matze, to drink some of the famous Ursus Pilsner. This year is the third time that I come to Romania, but so far I haven’t seen a lot from the country, beside Sibiu. I decided to pack all my things, took a tent and got on the train to Sigisoara, because Sigisoara is a station on the way north, direction Ukraine / Moldova. But before going far to the north I wanted to visit a retired travelling journeyman of my brotherhood, who stays 80 K’s north from Sibiu in a town named Appold. I tried to hitchhike from Sigisoara, but it took me a long time to catch a ride. In the middle of the night I arrived in Appold. It wasn’t hard to find the church fortress, because that building is the biggest one in the village. There was a light still shinning in one of the upper rooms, so I knocked on the door and my friend FVD Rehlein opened.
And like these things always seem to go, … this visit was intended to be a short one but turned out to be a longer one. Because Rehlein told me that there was a construction side going on. A German wanted to build an access balcony as a timber framed construction, out of oak lumber. The next week we sawed, plane and mortise probably many hundred years old lumber. Supper was grilled over fire in the atrium of the fortress and we slept in the parapet walk in one of the towers from the castle. With the last wooden nail banged into the timber framed construction, Sebastian the client started the topping-out ceremony. And in the end of that evening we were asked, if we can build a new yard gate for the parsonage. I said: “Yes, I will do it“, but before starting with this I had to go back to Sibiu for the weekend. Back at the CASA CALFELOR I met Moritz, travelling journeyman from the brotherhood FBS, who just returned to Europe from his Israel trip. He said he will help me with the yard gate. And again the next week was an intensive week of wood work. As the yard gate was ready we had to think about a good solution for the attachment, because everything from the old gate was destroyed, as a truck cracked apart whole thing in pieces. By coincidences a blacksmith travelled by and with using a hair dryer to heat up the fire, he made new fittings and hinges for the new yard gate. Afterwards we also repaired a big broken part in a fence and a baptismal font from the 18th century. The next weekend we spent once more in Sibiu, because we wanted to see the concert of the band: Tito & Tarantula. On Monday we made it up to Daniela’s place in Marpod, where we also built a new yard gate and also two wooden beds.

And then the shock:

One evening a phone call received Daniela in which Ed told her something about a pregnant Romanian women, who was crying in front of the CASA CALFELOR, shouting for Christian Rummel to speak. As I answered the phone, my heart was banging inside my throat. And the voice on the other end said:

“Hi there, Companion!“

It was FVD Steffen, who had to bring a glass boot to this year project, because he had broken the old one last year. We made an appointment for the next day at the CASA CALFELOR. Already some new Journeymen had arrived. FFB Tank and FFB Pawel, the retired travelling journeyman Martin and the retired travelling journeyman, typesetter Albrecht, FBS. At this evening the festival: “Rock in Transylvania“ began and we spent night and day rocking with bands like: “In Extremo“, for example.

The preparations for this year summer project are on the way. The demonstration workshop will take place at the same spot as last year, in the shade of the medieval city wall, Cetatii road. All journeymen participating this year will sleep in a place ten minutes away from the city center and we already have a long list of work to do for the trades: carpenters, cabinet makers, brick layers and stone masons. Our cultural happenings in front of the CASA CALFELOR are dealing with the topic of representing almost disappeared trades, this year. We will show the documentation: “The last of his trade“. Also in Sigisoara the medieval Festival starts soon and at Piata Mica we will organize an event of making timber out of logs. So who ever wants to swing the adz is very welcome!

Last but not least I like to ask all participating journeymen to bring along some of their tolls to make all things happen!

I’m looking forward to see a lot of journeymen this Year!

The retired travelling journeyman FVD Christian Rummel