The Little Kiltie Makes An Appearance

The St. Louis Scottish Festival is always on the first weekend of October. And unless I'm off on some damned fool adventure (like attending the Woodworking In America conference in Cincinnati, OH, which was my excuse last year), there's a good chance you'll see me there in one of my kilts.

And now there's a good chance you'll see Finley there in his kilt, as well. His new kilt (it was a new size, not a new tartan, which is Ancient Campbell) was delivered just in time, thanks to Neil at Baby Kilts. (You might also take note of the fact that Finley is one of the babies pictured on the front page of Neil's website... yeah, he's a model.)

It was interesting to see what aspects of the festival Finley liked and didn't like.  For example, we thought the pipe and drum bands would be too loud for him, but he loved them!  He kept leading us closer and closer, though we stopped far enough away that it wasn't too loud for his sensitive little ears.

On the other hand, he wasn't at all interested in the border collie demonstration, where they herded a bunch of sheep around the field.  I thought that weird because he always like dogs, but he really couldn't have been bothered.  Maybe it was the angle we had to watch it from.  Or maybe the police helicopter flying overhead was too much of a distraction.

At one time (this was before I was born, in the early 70's), I think my parents may have been the only proud owners of a herd of highland cattle in the state of Missouri. They didn't last but a year or two, though. Apparently highland cattle don't like fences and are quite deft when it comes to circumventing them. Or, at least, they were good at breaking free from the fences on our farm. After chasing them down one too many times, the diminutive bovines ended up on a shipping truck. I don't know if my mom has any pictures of them - if I find any, I'll append this post with them. 

Watching Finley's reaction to the two highland cattle at the St. Louis Scottish Games made me want to go out and get another herd!  He really enjoyed getting up close to them and they're small enough that they didn't scare him.  I venture to say he could have ridden one...

(As an aside, I think these cows were probably raised in America, because I didn't hear any kind of accent when they mooed.  Not even a bad Kevin Costner one...)

Working With Wood In A Different Sort Of Way...

I have to start off by saying Jim Malcolm was in brilliant form last night. Not only is he a great singer, song writer, and musician, but he also has a great sense of humor. This year he added a bit of theatrics as well, coming out on stage for the second half of the show dressed up as Robert Burns.

I don't really have any good photos of him, however, as I tried to avoid taking any pictures with the flash on - I'm sure it is distracting when you're up on stage. This is the best of the lot, honestly. I recorded video of a few songs with Dana's digital camera, but the quality and sound isn't as good as if taken from a real video camera, so haven't yet decided if I'll post them on YouTube or not.

I was excited for the chance to wear a kilt - I went with the Irish National tartan this time. The sporran is a custom Thorfinn by Turpin Ballard, in case anyone is wondering. Thorfinn sporrans are designed to have interchangeable flaps so you can get one made to go with every kilt you own. I need to try and sniff out a bit of some Ancient Campbell of Argyle tartan so I can have him make a sporran flap to match my other kilt, too.

Anyway, if you like Scottish folk music and you ever get a chance to see Jim Malcolm in person, don't pass it up. I've already seen him two or three times (three, if you count the time I saw him when he was singing for Old Blind Dogs) and I'm sure I'll see him again.

Now on to woodworking in a different sort of way...

I didn't get any shop time in today. Instead, Dana and I decided to do a bit of necessary work outside. For about two years now, we've been talking about planting a few more trees in the yard. Hey, I'm all for anything that reduces the amount of grass I have to mow. But the question is, what do we plant? We're both very interested in having a yard filled with native plants and trees, so that always plays an important part in our decision.

And we always take a long time making what we consider to be "big" decisions. That said, we've probably over-done the thinking part of this project. We've been to a particular nursery near our house so many times they know us as the "Grow Native" couple who hasn't bought anything yet.

Ah, well. That changed today with our purchase of a service berry tree and a beauty berry bush! The service berry tree normally has yellow leaves in the spring and summer and then turns bright red in the fall. It produces black berries a lot of native birds use for a food source. This tree will also be a good between-bites perching point for our bird feeder on the east side of the house. The beauty berry bush produces light purple berries many native birds also enjoy and, once it is full grown, it will become a resting place for birds using the feeder on the south side of the house.

We were initially going to just buy the service berry tree, but I wanted to take out a Japanese plum tree the previous owner planted way too close to the southeast corner of the house and replace it with something I wouldn't have to trim up twice a year. So we bought the bush, as well.

When making the purchase, the owner of the nursery convinced me I could plant the service berry tree myself. Had it only been three feet tall, I wouldn't have even considered paying someone else to do it, but we wanted to go with something a little more established. The tree we bought has three main trunks and is roughly six feet tall. But in the interest of saving about $75, I thought I would go with her advice and give it a try.

Since the soil in our area is... well, non-porous would be an accurate description... I had to modify the planting technique a bit. The hole needed to be just 1/2 to 3/4 the depth of the potted tree and then 2 or 3 times the diameter of the pot. The Missouri Department of Conservation suggests the top 12" of the root base are the most important, anyway, as that is where the biggest portion of roots draw in the largest amount of nutrients.

So I dug the hole to size and mixed a large amount of the good soil removed from the hole with a bag of clean soil and several gallons of our very own compost. We positioned the tree in place, cut away the plastic pot, and alternately watered and filled in the hole until it mounded up to the top of the root ball. A few inches of cedar mulch helps keep it from drying out too fast.

While I was working on the service berry, Dana pruned down the Japanese plum and started trying to dig out the root ball. She took a short break to help me backfill and water around the service berry and then I joined her, digging and clipping away until the root ball popped out and we had a 2' x 3' hole by the corner of our house. Planting the beauty bush went just about the same was as planting the service berry, only the hole wasn't nearly as big. Again, I got to use some of our home-made compost, which was such a great feeling, and again we finished it off with a few inches of cedar mulch. This variety shouldn't get but 4' or 5' tall with a total diameter of about 3' to 4', which is just perfect for this distance from the house.

While I didn't get a chance to work on my inlay pieces today, I did, technically, at least get to work with some wood. And it felt good to get outside and make some changes to the yard we've wanted to do for some time.

The Kilted Woodworker...

Picture this...

A large crowd of galoots (that would be hand-tool enthusiasts), milling about in unbifercated garments (tartan or contemporary), 2" slicks sticking out from the tops of their right leg stockings, attending demonstrations and classes on hand tool use and techniques. Rivalries aside, a MacDonald shares a workbench with a Campbell, both eager to learn from some of the masters of the trade. After a morning of classes and lectures and a hearty lunch of haggis and shepherd's pie, friendly competitions begin in a nearby field.

Welcome to the first annual Neanderthal Kilted Woodworking Conference!

Obviously, picking the proper location would be crucial to such a gathering. We could hold it in Dublin, OH, Aberdeen, MD, or Ayr, NE.

In addition to the normal classes on mortise/tenon and dovetail joinery, using hand saws, sharpening, and tuning hand planes, we could have demonstrations with titles like:
Tapering Your Caber With Spokeshaves
How Sharp Is Sharp? Methods Of Shearing Sheep With A Chisel
The Shop Apron vs. The Sporran
Carve Your Own Sgian Dubh Handle
Installing Crown Moulding While Kilted (a lesson from the Modest Woodworker Series)
Finish The Finish - Rubbing Out Shellac With Sheep Wool

Friendly competitions might include:
Maydole Hammer Throw - Like the traditional hammer throw, but with a 16 oz. hammer instead of a 16 lb. hammer. Slightly farther distances should be expected.
Pipe-Clamp Toss - A long, black pipe clamp is stood upright and hoisted by the competitor, where it is balanced in the vertical position. It is then thrown in such a way so that it turns end over end and strikes the ground, falling away from the athlete. Points are scored according to how close the clamp comes to landing in the 12 o'clock position.
Stanley Transitional Plane Put - A take on the traditional stone put, this is a nod to the legendary Patrick Leach and a great way to put some of these old tools to good, and final, use.
Throwing Chisels - Competitors attempt to stick their old pitted chisels in a target at 30 paces. The target? An effigy of Norm Abrhams - this is a neanderthal conference, after all!

Most importantly, we could discuss the pleasures of the complete freedom one can only achieve by using hand tools while being kilted.

Fate strikes again...

If you knew me for any length of time, you would understand the title of this entry to be the foretelling of doom and gloom. I’m a big believer in Karma and in Fate. That said, I’m not really sure what I’ve done to warrant the string of poor luck I’ve had lately…

(Have my college days finally caught up with me?)

Prime Example: A little over a month ago, my wife started asking me what I wanted for my birthday. After a bit of thought, I wondered if a second kilt might not be a bad idea. I wanted a less-expensive kilt I could wear in a more “casual” manner and not worry so much about having $400 worth of wool wrapped around my waist.

I spent a little time searching on-line and finally found a place in Scotland that offers PV (poly-viscose) kilts for about $85 delivered. Since my wool kilt is in a Campbell tartan (in honor of my wife’s family), I wanted to get one in the Irish National tartan (to honor my Irish heritage). Being PV, and only $85, I wouldn’t be as worried about wearing it hiking or to a sporting event or Carnivale or whatever.

I sent the link to my wife and indicated I would need a size 34 waist. She said if that is what I really wanted then she would get one for me.

Several weeks passed. I didn’t say anything more about it because I do try to maintain SOME element of surprise in my birthday when possible.

And then yesterday I got an e-mail from her. She said she tried to make the order, but it looked like they didn’t have the size 34 waist in stock anymore!

“NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

I hoped she was mistaken, but I checked the website and, sure enough, she was right. Feelings of dismay and disappointment rushed over me. How could this happen? Like I need to ask; most of my life tends to be a series of small (and sometimes large) misfortunes.

Ah, well. It wasn’t the end of the world. “In all honesty,” I thought to myself, “I’ll just be happy if my mom remembers my birthday this year.”

(Can you guess what happened last year?)

And then, as it seems to do when I actually DO take things in stride, fatum kicks in with an e-mail this morning from Kevin Brennan at the Kansas City Windsor Tool Works. It announced another production run is getting ready to start up on the Windsor No. 7 Beader!

Be still my giddy heart.

I’ve been waiting for this e-mail for nigh on six months now when I signed up for a pre-order notification! THIS was it. What great luck it would go out the day after the kilt purchase fell through! Kevin wanted to know if I would be willing to put down pre-order money to confirm the order and set my pre-order price. But before I could respond, I had to run this by the committee…

“Hey, sweetie! I just might have an alternate idea for my birthday present…”