tjnell

Venue

Once we acquire grounds, we will immediately be able to use them as a venue: Renaissance Fairs, Amtgard and other Live Action Role Playing (LARP) events, SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) and EMP (Empire for Medieval Pursuits) events, and other medieval themed events.

We likewise look forward to hosting weddings, Vacation Bible Schools, Good News Clubs, Church Retreats, and other events in line with our Christian beliefs.

Our grounds will be beautiful, with acreage dedicated to restoring habitats and biodiversity. Picturesque clover fields with rosemary bushes, lavender, and creeping thyme. Tree lined entry, with hedges, bushes, and shade trees screening off any views of modern life, while also providing important habitats for the warblers, moths, bats, butterflies, and bees in Texas. We can’t wait to see this vision become a reality, but it can’t happen without you. Help us by donating below, or purchase from our Ebay store or visit us at one of our vendor events to help us raise funds for the initial land purchase.

Donate Here
Halfling Home Accommodations

Our vision for on-site accommodations includes sustainably built, below ground dwellings that take inspiration from fantasy. Our “Halfling Homes” will be available for rent as quaint, themed AirBnBs, but will have priority given to those taking part in events on site, such as sword fighting tournaments, jousting, live action roleplay siege events, and more.

By being built underground, these homes will be better insulated from cold and heat. They will also be more intrinsically tied to nature. We hope to plant shallow rooted, pollinator encouraging plants on the roofs of these dwellings and include an educational nature walk with sign posts explaining the types of plants and their benefits.

Aside from being built underground and including biodiverse plantings, these Halfling Homes will be built sustainably, with recycled materials, built by hand (not shipped in), and we hope to power them with solar panels which will be screened away from view so as not to disturb the fantasy setting.
The Tavern

Our intent is to build a Medieval style Tavern as the center-point for our Medieval town where artisans, gamers, and role players can gather.

With thematic food like the classic turkey leg and mead, plus much more, we want people to be immersed in the beauty and slower time of the Middle Ages.

The Tavern will come after the grounds, community garden, and farms, but will be the central hub of everything. Table top roleplaying games will be upstairs, mead crafting downstairs, gorgeous wooden and stone accents everywhere for the main level where you can enjoy long tables and company, or quiet booth nooks for a more introverted dining experience.

We plan to have a central bard stage for local talent to introduce themselves nightly and create a fun, family-friendly, wholesome destination for everyone to enjoy.

We feel called as Christians to help the needy, and part of that comes with employment. We plan to be a second chance employer and help those who are attempting to re-enter the workforce, as well as those who struggle with disabilities. The other part of that comes with food: we hope to have fresh baked bread daily, and we plan to give any unused bread to food pantries – ensuring both that customers always have fresh bread and also that no unused food goes to waste.

Our community garden and farms will likewise be integrated into our tavern, with fresh produce being incorporated in our menu as a farm-to-table operation where we’re able to be.

We’re still in the fundraising phase, creating educational videos, saving up for equipment to start classes, and raising funds to buy land, but with your help, this can be a real possibility. Help us by donating below to see an epic, family friendly, fantasy escape in Wichita Falls!

Donate Here
Forgotten Skills

In line with a Medieval Tavern and wooded grounds to celebrate a slower, more intentional time period, we also plan to have thematic lessons on blacksmithing, woodworking, leather working, and other forgotten skills.

We currently have volunteer teachers on woodworking methods, sewing and leather working, and blacksmithing. We also have a volunteer creating educational materials for sustainable farming and recipes that incorporate the freshly grown ingredients. We plan to have content teaching crochet and knitting skills. Later, we plan to also teach on medicinal herbs, old remedies, and some basic survival skills on foraging and shelter creation.

Finally, we plan to host not only LARPers (live action roleplayers), but also live steel competitors and jousting. With this, comes a knight school to teach swordplay, self defense, and jousting techniques. Horseback riding lessons and animal husbandry will also be taught once we have the grounds and the animals for such content.

In the meantime (2025), while all of our volunteers are operating out of their own homes, we plan to release educational videos on woodworking, blacksmithing, farming, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, and cooking. We’re very excited to grow with our audience and offer more as we do. Our current status as of November 2025, is $1,500 out of $300,000 raised for our first stage of land purchase. We hope to make these expanded dreams a reality with your help!

Donate Here
TTRPG Tables

At Adventurer’s Respite (TM), we plan to have private TTRPG (Table Top Roleplaying Game) rooms with custom-made wooden tables. These rooms will have proper walls so you can be as loud as you want while being immersed in the gameplay your Dungeon Master offers you (or other title for other TTRPG systems). This also makes these rooms the perfect venue for sensory sensitive individuals – lights will be on dimmer switches, and rooms will be soundproof to a 50 STC rating.

We’re looking forward to creating a medieval masterpiece to increase the immersion factor of the games. We plan to have 3D printed pieces available for rent during the games for whatever adventure you can think of. We are very excited to partner with Psychologists, Social Workers, and Caseworkers to also make these rooms available to individuals with Autism and related disorders.

Therapeutic Gaming Certifications are available through Geek Therapeutics and it is an increasingly popular certification for professionals working with people with Autism and related disorders. We know Table Top Games, like Dungeons and Dragons, can be an invaluable way to form community, develop social skills and teamwork, and to enjoy a unique special interest that has so many nuances to it.

We need your help to make this possible – if you love table top roleplaying and have always wished there would be a TTRPG retreat, then help us make this dream a reality by donating now. 100% of donations go to our building goals.

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“Keyhole” Gardening

by Alexina Wages

I’m sure your first question is, “what on earth is keyhole gardening?” And I would reply with far too much enthusiasm: “a great way to maximize your garden’s productivity in a natural and sustainable way!” And it’s precisely that.

This practice originated in Lesotho, South Africa in the 1990s, where the arid climate, extreme drought, and poor soil conditions made gardening a challenge. Ideally, the “keyhole” is your source of nutrients – the compost that will nourish your entire garden. Another major factor is placement of said “keyhole”.

When designing your garden, a horseshoe like shape is most desired when attempting this method. Towards the middle of the bed, the ideal practice is to have the compost mounded above the level of the soil in the bed, allowing the nutrients to naturally spread throughout the declining angles of your garden. You could say it’s the KEY to unlocking fantastic produce!

“But how am I supposed to build a horseshoe shaped garden bed?”

With whatever you have available! Since this style of gardening originated in Lesotho – even trash was used! Many methods have included brick, logs, or even broken concrete has been used before! Truly, it can be whatever your imagination can come up with that will help hold the shape of the soil.

For my own personal design, I’ll be using recycled and free materials. I’m also going to be using chicken wire to create a “cage” for my keyhole. Any permeable material can be used. This helps the compost leech out, feeding the surrounding soil.

How does this method hold up compared to an average, above ground garden bed? We’re about to find out! I have a few traditional garden beds already and will be experimenting with keyhole farming side by side. This method will have continuous updates along with pros and cons that may appear along the journey!

Happy growing!

Alex Wages
Secretary
Adventurer’s Respite
Biodiversity & Community Garden
Our plan to help the local environment and community through plantings is 3-fold:
1. Biodiversity: Acquire land and preserve its local ecosystem as much as possible, while also planting native and/or drought resistant plants ;
2. Plant Nursery: Establish a plant nursery that sells starts for these native and/or drought resistant plants at lower than normal costs in order to encourage increased plantings in the area;
3. Community Garden: Establish a community garden that allows people to grow their own food as well as have a section dedicated to producing food for the Tavern.
Biodiversity: We plan to acquire hundreds of acres to make the biggest impact on the local environment through plantings on our own acreage – practicing what we preach. Any land we acquire will have invasive plants taken out and native and/or drought resistant plants planted.

The ideal will be for native plants to be planted. However, extremely beneficial and drought-resistant plants will be emphasized to help the environment. Things like lavender, creeping thyme, rosemary, and other plants that bolster polinators and improve the soil, but are not native to the Texoma area will still be planted to help the local ecosystem.

Plant Nursery: We understand how expensive it is to plant grass, much less a hobbyist garden. We also have seen the devastation that Oak Wilt and other local diseases have wrought on the plant population. Texoma is a hard area to plant in since it gets both extreme heat and extreme cold. Knowing this, we want to bring plantings into the realm of possibility for every homeowner in Wichita and Clay Counties who wish to improve their local landscaping. Our plan is to sell drought-resistant and local bushes, trees, and flowers at a much lower cost than regular nurseries or online. We hope to make gardening accessible to people in the area, and by extension, beautify and re-green the local counties.

Community Garden: The picture of sustainability is a home grown garden full of everything you need – a few starches, a few vegetables, and a few fruits. However, it’s very hard to come by the space to do such activities – or the permission, when renting. We hope to establish a community garden where community members have a space to grow their own food, and where we will also plant our own crops.

We plan to have our Medieval Tavern supplied by our own garden – farm to table – and for any excess crops that can’t be used by the tavern to go to local food pantries to help with food insecurity. This is why we will always plant things like green beans, corn, zucchini, and cucumber – all of which tend towards bumper crops.

Help us make a difference in the local environment and make these dreams a reality!

Donate Now!
Charitable Purposes

Adventurer’s Respite holds many ambitions for improving the local community while simultaneously creating an amazing, forested escape for Renaissance Fairs, LARP (Live Action Role Play) group events, and Live Steel events.

We’ll break down each goal in a separate blog to explain how we’re trying to benefit the community, but none of this will be possible without your support. Even a $5 donation per person goes a long way with the number of people interested in our goals! For those in Amtgard, SCA, or HEMA, we actually have a donation competition with rewards. For the general public wanting to see our Fantasy Disneyland come to fruition – vote below to let us know what kind of reward you would be interested in for donating: