Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Lazy days and lazy nights....

Ahhh..it is soooo good to be home. To not have to pick up and carry a lot of heavy stuff all day. Okay, so I had to move a fridge. And a futon. And a load of stock. Hey wait a minuit....grin!
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/explore/object.cfm?ID=BHC1821 here is a link to a collection of ship paintings. Just thought it would be interesting to see and do something different. I expect I'll publish more later, when I get back from the states with the new order. Rob did well at the new show for me....sold about 2 to three dollars per patron he did!

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Wot a surprise!

The new show at the Royal Botanical Gardens actually happened. I couldn't believe it! I think they got 500 people on Saturday, and Sunday it rained....so I expect 300 or so. Lets see.....800 people....after taxes and RBG's cut, ten bucks a head. That would be 8000 bucks. Thirty five actors at 60 bucks a day. (or more...) The Tartan Terrors at $1300 bucks a day, The Limey Birds at $800 or more a day, Zoltan at a grand a day, (oh cummon Z....think you would even unpack a razor blade for less?) a dozen security guards, ticket takers, and a dozen kids picking up garbage. Nope....it'll have to do better than that! Here's a hint guys....drop the security guards...they don't do anything you couldn't do yourselves. Drop the actors to 20 or less! Get rid of the Morriss dancers...I know they are not doing it for nothing, and there are 25 of them at least!

Ah well....at least Rob was enjoying himself as owner of his own business.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Wildlife here on the site


Here is a very scared baby eagle....just learning to fly. His wings were just so tiny that he flew much like a chicken...that is, not at all. He looked fierce enough though when Bailey the dog got close to him!

Just a pile of wreckage


Here it is. Already to load into the container!

pix of the site

Sucess!

Its been a long hot summer....heat emergency after heat emergency. The only good part of this heat is that the wood is being put in the container dry, not wet. Lots of ants in this wood. I can just imagine what is going to happen if I don't unload the container in Ottawa quickly...I'll go into it and find a huge load of sawdust! I found a lot of the ant killer in the local Rona store, and used it liberally, as well as the ant hotels. Don't know that any of it will work, but, better than nothing. I may try and find a company in Ottawa which will come in and fumigate the thing...or else put a "roach bomb" in it and close the door.
I just hope I have not trapped a racoon in there somewhere. If I have, well, it will get pretty whiffy by the time I open the container in Metcalfe!
Chatted with Jon Angel. He bought three more booths just two weeks before the show got cancelled. He gave Brenda one of them, and yesterday I took an hour out to take down the beams. 12 foot six by sixes. Would not want to leave them behind. Brenda wants me to build her a second story deck with them, and Jon thought that was just so cute that he gave Brenda the booth. Me get to take it down...grunt grunt!!
The new Abingdon Faire looks to be stalled in the water....not a lot of stuff being built there. Oh well, it is supposed to be a "soft" faire, that is, a faire made up mostly of tents, so perhaps things are better than they look. I have asked for the insurance information to be faxed to me, but as usual, I seem to be overlooked. Oh well....won't be so bad if I can get in on a group insurance plan, better than the several hundred dollars insurance it would cost otherwise.
Rob L.... will be doing the show in my name, but he will essentially be doing it on his own hook. I dunno....if I were offered a chance to run a business, use somebody elses merchant credit accounts, and get the stock provided free...I would be a lot more keen on getting my own pst numbers and register my own business. As it is, he seems to have an "employee" mindset which is hard to shift. Of course, it IS summer, he has a nice bike and a hot girlfriend, and a business would cut into his free time A LOT! Running your own business sounds good until you try to do it, and try to get some free time at the same time. I would almost be willing to state that you cannot run a business and a family at the same time, though I have known people who have done so. Me....I have the best of both worlds. As long as I don't get too big too quick, I will have a lot of "me" time.
Chatted with Darryl last week. He dropped in to pick up some cheap wood, and worked all day in the heat. As a blacksmith, he is not unused to the heat, but even he found it hard to keep on slugging it out.
Well, enough of this....time I got to work