Herbalsheila

As I see it, every day you do one of two things: build health or produce disease in yourself. [Davis]

Warmest Greetings and Salutations!

Logo for Star Trek Freedom

About Sheila

I am known on Star Trek: Freedom forum boards as herbalsheila, but of course my real name is Sheila. I run and own a brick and mortar natural health store called Herb-n-Oils [[1]] here in St. Joseph, Missouri USA. I formulate, market and create handcrafted Hearth Crafts bar soap. I handspin and weave wool, flax, silk, cotton and various other fibers whenever I have the chance, which isn't as often as I'd like.

I am an hysterical/historical reenactor and I have been a member of Society for Creative Anachronism [[2]] for a little over twenty years. My arms for the Society are pictured below. In the Society, I am known as Her Ladyship Gwennan nic Ailpein na Loch Shiel. I have also been part of the Civil War Missouri Irish Brigade Ladies Auxiliary [[3]] as a sutler, soapmaker and entertainer for about 3 years now.

I enjoy ballads, including madrigals, black gospel, rounds, and sacred choral music. I have sung for many years in church choirs as a soprano and second soprano and lately as a tenor. I love music from the eighties and early nineties and I have a soft spot for a lot of music from the fifties and sixties that came out of Motown. I love all different types of folk and ethnic music, but my favorite genre has to be Celtic, both historical and modern. I want to learn how to play my mint condition mandolin that I purchased for $50.00 at a garage sale, but so far I have no teacher, so I am looking into purchasing a teaching video and some beginning music. I am still arguing in English and not Gaelic with 'Bheag an Bheag', an online tutorial series published on the internet to teach Gaelic.

I keep fighting with my weight and do my own modified version of Tae Bo. I have long outgrown Kathy Smith and Richard Simmons' low impact areobic workouts. I stick to low/no impact areobic workouts due to my medical difficulties.

After getting involved with Star Trek Freedom, to my astonishment, I have discovered I have a penchant for writing. Who'd a thunk it?! After I picked my jaw up off the floor upon seeing people's reactions to my posts, especially my characters' introductory posts, I am seriously considering writing a Star Trek novel to submit to Simon and Schuster who work with CBS Paramount to print them. My husband is particularly proud of me and is thrilled that I write so poignantly. I am still astounded that I wrote this stuff!

Shayhiloosh's first post ended up being a little story all its own and getting hir onto the ship had to be done in two posts since I was attempting to allow the other players the chance to get to know hir a little better. Shayhiloosh is more reserved, but Maraht is more humorous; he waves his main phalange about to indicate laughter and has done so on numerous occassions, to the delight of the crew of the Hades and its players.

Maraht the Horta

This player has a character stationed aboard USS Hades!

Ensign Maraht on the USS Hades

My character Maraht the Horta passed his final exam at the Starfleet Academy on Holodeck 8 with his instructor Lt.Standorval Thrall with flying pebbles June 2006. Ensign Maraht (sg) had been assigned to the USS Mystique which had been mapping space in the unexplored beta sector. But now the crew has moved to USS Hades and has been exploring Beta Seranis III. After reboarding thier vessel, they have run into the Myrenu, a fantical war-like race, bent on conquering the galaxy using genocide with the threat of terraforming planets using thier version of the Genesis device.

For more information about Hortas please see The Horta Report. For more information about Maraht, please see Maraht the Horta.

I guess this by default makes me the unofficial Horta Reporta! LOL!

Shayhiloosh the Arborian

This player has a character stationed aboard USS Boudicca!

I now have a character called Ensign Shayhiloosh (jg) on the USS Boudicca as a Botanist as of October 2006. Hir is one of the species called the Arborians, a species I made up all by myself, with lots of encouragement from my dear spousal unit, Jim who plays Thom Hania on the USS Nimitz and my friend Connie who plays Brianna Frazier on the USS Champlain. Please feel free to read the articles and leave your comments under the discussion tabs.

Playing him is lots of fun since he has three eyes on long vine-like stalks and it's pretty cool to swivel those eyestalks around in a post. He has some minor telepathic abilities and has discovered the Boudicca's Dreamplane, but his abilities have become augmented with contact with a scruffy little creature, a Pelluvian Howler named Winston. Winston is considered a pet and he belongs to the ACSO Ensign Jonathon Linskens, his mate Francesca della Rosa and thier two year old daughter Inez.

Right now Shayhiloosh has just seen hir first battle up close and personal with some of Admiral Doenitz's not-so-nice Marines from the USS Exeter. Hir has gotten badly injured and is in agony from trying to defend Sickbay which still had two unconcious patients in critical condition that could not be evacuated. Feeling outraged that Marines would attack a place of healing and threaten the lives of those unable to defend themselves, Shayhiloosh shot with the phaser hir had been given and attempted to attack with hir longer roots, but got viciously torn up. We shall see how hir recovers though hir is attempting to spy on the invaders and report thier activities to the command staff of the Boudicca. Hir friend and coworker from Hydroponics, Crewman Jessie LaFramboise, was unconcious on a biobed and brutally blown to bits by one of the invading Marines's scatter gun in his efforts to interrogate.

Valek

This player has a character instructing at the Starfleet Academy!

I recently began playing an instructor as of January 2007. Rather than confuse or discombobulate newer players, I opted to go with a humanoid character and chose a Vulcan.

Lt. Valek (jg) is a dark skinned Vulcan who is known for being demanding on his cadets, but is willing to go the extra mile when he sees the cadet is doing thier best.

In Conclusion

At left, Sheila, with a friend, wet spinning line flax at an American Civil War reenactment. At right, Sheila and Connie at the Fortescue Civil War Reenactment, 2005

Gwennan's Arms: Vert, a flax distaff, dressed and tied, between two flaunches, or.

If you desperately desire to be the father of my children...we'll talk.