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	[Parent Directory]	-	Sat May 23 11:18:18 2009
	Last Dragoon Event for 2009	-	Mon Nov 16 21:13:36 2009
	Me presenting at Putnam Cottage November, 2009 The 15th was finally the last Dragoon event of the season, wrapping up a hectic schedule for 2009. The year closed out at one of my more favorite venues, Putnam Cottage and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Since this event was more of a school show format rather than the usual cavalry demo, I dragged out the currency exhibit again along with a few new props that I acquired (coins!) since I did the first demonstration at the beginning of the year. All in all, things went much smoother this time, though I suspect that the reason was the quality of the crowd rather than the quality of my presentation (those Greenwich folks are much more polite than school kids). Filed under: Rev War. No comments.
	Making a New Pick and Whisk	-	Sun Nov 08 21:37:30 2009
	Making a new pick and whisk chain. Note that the links are about 1 and 3/4 inches long before bending. After bending into a figure eight the final links are just over 3/4 on an inch. At some point of riding around in the tall grass at Old Store Fort I broke my pick and whisk chain and managed to lost most of the chain and the whisk. Given that the chain was made of small gauge brass wire this was inevitable. Given that you really need to have one of these when you do battles, I decided to make a replacement, but with much heaver gauge wire - and not just any wire, gold plated wire! I figured that if it was gold, it would be one less item that I would need to polish before each event. It turns out that all you need to make a pick and whisk chain are wire, wire cutters, pliers with duct tape on the jaws to make a soft grip, a fork, and some spare time. I’ll write out the instructions for the process of making the chain and whisk another time. Suffice to say, the whole project turned out better than expected, though the tips of my fingers hurt for about a day afterward from all the wire bending. Final result of all that link bending. Later on I might solder the links closed to further reduce the risk of the chain breaking, but for now I’ll leave it as it is until I make sure the length is where it should be. Filed under: Rev War. No comments.
	Window Seat Done	-	Fri Nov 06 12:15:36 2009
	The window seat as it looks right now (Nov 2009). Jason finished up the window seat the other day and it looks great! The only thing left to do is try to find some pillows that more correctly match the size of the window seat as it is now. The window seat as it was before it was replaced. As you can see in the before shot, because of the previous size we tended to use the seat as a table since it was too tall and narrow to sit on. It also wasn’t secured to the wall very well, so it tended to move a bit as well. Filed under: Uncategorized. No comments.
	Tawny is Missing	-	Fri Oct 30 12:13:46 2009
	Tawny shortly after she started being comfortable being inside the house. Tawny has been missing for some time now, and we fear the worst. She seemed to be having some difficulty, so we took her to the vet to get checked out and get her first vaccinations done. The vet told us they might make her sick, and she seemed to be OK. A few days later she started slowing down and not eating. At that point we made another appointment with the vet for the next day and couldn’t find Tawny after we let her out. It has been a few days and there has been no sign of her. Or fear is that she either died somewhere in the woods or that the fox or coyotes found here. Hopefully one of the neighbors may found here and took her to the vet. Filed under: Uncategorized. No comments.
	Copper Roasting Pan	-	Fri Oct 23 11:45:36 2009
	A 10.5 x 15 inch copper roasting pan found at the local Goodwill. This is one of the best items I managed to find at the local Goodwill yet - a brand new 10.5 x 15 inch copper roasting pan. Sure it needs a bit of cleaning, but for all of $9.99, how can you complain? For those wondering why I bother going to Goodwill in the first place, I’ll tell you that it is a has been great source of cheap brass, silver and pewter pieces - far cheaper than what you pay for similar items from Townsend or Godwin, though they tend to require a bit of dent removal. Most of the pewter you’ve seen melted down in previous posts, but a few of the more interesting pieces have been repaired and are used at Rev War reenactment events. So, if you are looking for a source cheap pewter or brass items, check out yous local Goodwill or equivalent thrift store. You never know what you might find. Filed under: Uncategorized. No comments.
	Annual Ladybug Invasion Begins	-	Thu Oct 22 11:40:26 2009
	Ladybugs - they are everywhere in the house. Every year the house gets invaded by ladybugs, and this year is no exception. Though, for some reason there seems to be more ladybugs inside the house than last year. I know the picture does a poor job of showing this, but there are EVERWHERE inside the house. On the windows, the walls, the floor, the counters - everywhere. Sweeping them up seems to do no good since more keep arriving. All we can do is wait a few more days they until they begin to go dormant so that we can begin to clean them up. Filed under: Uncategorized. No comments.
	New Window Seat	-	Sun Oct 18 11:19:54 2009
	First day of window seat construction. Construction began a few days ago on a new window seat. The old one was both too tall and to narrow to to be comfortable. After mentioning this to a buddy of mine, he offered to rip out the old one and install a new window seat in its place. The price he quoted was REALLY cheap, so we agreed. A few days later, Jason showed up to begin the work, with future work to be done as he had time. Filed under: Uncategorized. No comments.
	Two more Dragoon events	-	Mon Oct 12 09:12:05 2009
	Placeholder for the Saratoga National Historic Park event and the Old Stone Fort event. Filed under: Rev War. No comments.
	The Cat	-	Sun Sep 27 11:01:23 2009
	Stray cat that claimed us in late September of 2009. We later named the cat Tawny. In the time that I haven’t bothered to do updates, a few things have happened. One of them is that the wife started feeding a scruffy looking stray cat that has been hanging around the neighborhood. Specifically, the “mean gray cat”, as the neighbor put it. Any previous attempt to approach this cat would cause it to either run or hiss. Sometimes both. However, once the wife started feeding it, it started to become more friendly. What was unexpected was how quickly this cat went from running away from me to running towards me and wanting to be petted even when I didn’t have food. Within a span of two weeks it was starting to become clear that, while the cat still a bit cautions around us, the cat had more or less claimed us. Filed under: Uncategorized. No comments.
	No updates in a while	-	Fri Sep 18 21:25:27 2009
	4lbs of pewter from RotoMetals. Somehow I need to figure out how to make this into smaller pieces. Not that there’s much going on lately, but my 4lbs of R98 pewter that was ordered from RotoMetals online arrived the week before week plus my Oomoo 25 casting silicone sample packs this week (thank you Engineering Guy). Once I get my hands on a gram-weight scale I should be able to vastly improve the quality of my coins. Photos, plus and updated post to follow later. Filed under: Pewter Casting, Uncategorized. No comments.
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