I’m going to be out of town on the actual day, so I’ll wish it to you now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Kind of like being a twofer. I’m doing a measure of good and having a great time doing it too. It’s almost like cheating.

What’s really fun is getting the next generation interested to keep it going. On the next couple of them I go to, I will be bringing more of those twenty-something guests. Two or three guys, and a young lady for whom we’ll have room in an end of the storage tent (we bought one that big for that very reason).

I’ll post pics of these when I return

That picture turned out pretty good. Where were you standing to get it at that angle? Were you up on the stage?

What is Emo?

So I’m writing this to let you know what’s been taking most of my time.

Ever since the end of the school year, I’ve been down at the shop quite a bit. I’ve been making some necessary changes to make the company more profitable, without losing our competitive edge. I even had to do the hard part of the job, and make some personel changes. We’ve taken on some bigger jobs (one that will net us $19,000 itself), and more custom work too.

The timing of all this was good, because toward the last two weeks of the school year, I was informed that they would no longer offer face to face art with the students (good bye teaching), and most of the high school classes will be online (this is something I predicted the day we got the internet in the school thirteen years ago). They will only have four full time high school faculty next year – all the rest will be using a community member at minimum wage to babysit in the comp lab, while the students take their coursework online. The elementary, however will remain untouched, as they need the face to face teaching more (though all students need that).

Anyway, the timing of all this worked out perfect for me. Here is a link for some pictures of the shop

it would have been the young ladies pictured that would have been interested in all that cool stuff. Of course that would have been rare too. I presently know a small group of college aged folks that have peaked an interst in aspects of living history. It is a mixed group. We are presently planning a few primitive canoe trips out to the wilderness. The plan is to even go in period dress with black powder guns, and camp voyageur style (as in the picture – the pic is of a typical “canoe camp” and is of a reenactor friend of mine). We also plan to put up a wigwam or wickiup, at sites we like and would like to come back to at a later date.

The two lads who came with to my last rendezvous are a part of that group.