small town....

You know you live in a small town when...

The Mayor, in his monthly chatty newsletter has this to say...

cut and paste follows....

Protecting Our Pigs in Osgoode Ward
Last week, City of Ottawa by-law officers were called to pick up a "pig on the loose" on River Road, near Mitch Owens Road. It took four people to lift the large porker into a vehicle to be taken to the City's pound at Leo's Livestock in Greely where it was held.

The next problem for By-law and Regulatory Services was to find the rightful owner of the pig on the loose. By-law called on the Rural Affairs Office to use their contacts in Osgoode Ward to assist with finding the farmer with the missing pig.

Staff would like to thank River Road resident Klaus Beltzner of Osgoode Ward, who after getting the call for assistance from the Rural Affairs Office, notified the City of the appropriate name and telephone number of a local resident looking for a missing pig, and helping the City reunite the pig with its owner.

Oh gracious me... are we hicks or what!!!???

Mortage slashing

Well, this is Yusef, and of course, we are not going to burn the mortage, we are going to slash it with swords!

Burned, slashed, soaked, and mutilated.

Watermelons are nice on a hot day. Make a nice touch of colour.

On July first, our mortage is finished. I don't regard this with the joy that so many others seem to feel. Now its mine instead of the Banks' property, so I guess I had better get cracking on fixing it up. I suspect the money I have been putting into the mortage will simply now be put into septic fields, roofs, decks and paint. Just a different pocket will get emptied, thats all.

I also liked the attention the bank paid to me....when my job situation would change, they would get nervous. I was never late and never missed a payment, yet they got so nervous when they found out that pretty much all my income came only during the summer months. It was kind of cute actually, they maintained a file on me, my business, my press releases, and all sorts of stuff. Oh well, I still owe them a serious debt of gratitude, (not for loaning me the money, that is their job,) but for making sure that the powers that be did not take me to the cleaners when I moved to Ottawa from my previous posting. It was their attention to detail which enabled me to keep the house when the "man" tried to change the terms of our compensation package when they closed the base behind me.

renfaire in canada

the 2009 upper canada village renfaire. click on the images to enlarge... Above is beautiful young princess with her good buddy. the perfect date, doesn't talk back, empty headed, and abs like iron. like iron I tell ya!

Above is the gypsey, Barb B. Lovely people these gypsies. And if you look in the background, you can see the jousters.

here is Richard C. A renfaire actor, patron, worker, and in this case, King in Disguise. He also bakes cookies.

Princesses just seem to be attracted to the sharp stuff.

and here is one of a thousand snapshots of the South Tower Armouring Guild booth at the Upper Canada Renaissance Festival.

There are a some more pictures of this festival on my armouring blog site. http://southtowerarmouringguild.blogspot.com/

(click to enlarge)

Curiosity is a human trait.

The number of people who are actually ON the cutting edge of a profession, a sales position, a social studies job, or whatever are very few.

I asked in an open forum a few months ago "Why should I train my competition?" That being a question which can be applied to almost any business or profession. Though I felt it was a rhetorical question, I was a little curious about what was going on in people's minds when they wanted to come to me and "be my apprentice". (It happens every week...to every single person on that blacksmithing forum.)

The answers were quite illuminating, and I am glad I asked it. Generally speaking, the blacksmiths were united in their answers which were a variation on "I'll do it if I get paid/praised/laid." The students however seemed to be of three camps....

1) So that the skills don't get lost to perpetuity forever,

2) so that they could massage an arts and crafts bump to do a hobby, and

3) to learn enough that that they could do this as a living instead of working at the fast food franchise.

Answer 2 and 3 were expected and are totally praiseworthy of course, but I was a little surprised at the large number who answered with number one.Its kind of funny that none of the professional blacksmiths actually said "I want to teach this because otherwise the information will be lost forever." I don't think any blacksmith, metal worker, or pretty much any professional is actually on the "cutting edge" of even re-discovered information. Perhaps people on the outside of the trade feel that that continually developing a new skill set is analagous to being on the "cutting edge", that if there are no new discoveries in the world, there are at least new discoveries in their own life.

It is really not too hard to imagine a black smith or a metalworker who does such stunning work that it stands out like Paul Anka writing and singing "My Way" . We all want to experience that flash of genius. I fear most of us will simply have to accept the metalworking equivalent of singing in the shower. The important thing, of course, is just roll up your sleeves and get out there and DO IT. Even a shower song is better than no song at all.

Spring Ride 09

Mila and me on a spring bike ride.

My bike looks soooooo dusty!

wotta week!

What a crazy week! It started with a trip to Potsdam NY to participate in a demo involving armour making. Then the news that my licence to make armour based on that made by a famous artist came through, and I'll have to develop new and interesting pieces to justify his faith in me. The lawn tractor needed its blades sharpened, and that means flipping it on its back to get at them. The result of THAT exercise goes much more smoothly if you drain the fuel, oil, and remove the battery. None of these jobs went well...the oil drain plug was jammed, the battery cable needed to be cut off with clippers because there was no shifting the bolts! Which means of course I had to fabricate new cables AND new eyeletted ends out of scrap brass. And the fuel lines are all dried and cracked. Tires were flat. ARRRRGGGH.
Got some time in the shop...not as much as I would have liked...and made a pretty piece of armour. Hope it is what the customer wants. Its kind of neat and I never made anything quite like it before. Got one (count em, ONE) measely ride on the bike in.
A few school demonstrations will help to cover the mortgage, and we are getting ready for the big show this summer....the Upper Canada Renaissance Festival. Shayne Adams and his jousters will be there, (Yes Jennifer, they are the ones you know from the Ohio show) and this show will be kind of weird because there are two major components to it...the first two days will be all about putting little kids into armour and giving sword demonstrations, and the second two days will be all about selling swords like crazy.
The weekend was full of visitors. I had seven visitors on Saturday, and I was training some of them in the rain. Andrea came back to the forge after class Sunday, and did some fantastic work, much needed labour intensive stuff like grinding spun tops and cleaning the demo armour. We found a couple of broken straps which will need to be repaired before I can put it back into service, but nothing I can't handle.
Today was pleasant...we saw the new Star Trek movie on IMAX. Went to the early show, and I am glad I did....there was quite a line up to get into the later shows. Don't these kids have to go to school? A lunch at Wild Wings, and another convert to the joys of fancy chicken wings. An hour at that warehouse for guys "Princess Auto", made my day off worth while.
So tomorrow, I'll clean out the gunk which is causing my lawn tractor to sputter, and finally get those dandelions under control. Maybe go for a bike ride. Lay out a nice helmet, and get started on that sexy armour.
Ahh...life is unfolding as it should.

Risk

This is a re-post from waaaay back in ought five. Still valid though.

Spent a week in Toronto. Yet again, I have been amazed at the courtesy of Toronto drivers. Maybe Darwin was right...all the stupid ones have died off. What they DONT do is let you dawdle along doing the speed limit without tail gating you. Some of the unsafe passing was a little un-nerving.

I was working out our future business with my wife now that the Ren Fest has closed, and we were wondering if we should put time or money into one of the alternative proposals. "I dunno" she said "I'm not sure I want to risk whatever we could mortage...twenty or thirty thousand or so... on a business venture. Just at that moment, a Passant passes up at 90 klicks on a double solid line. A little startled, I checked my dashboard...yup, its a 60 zone and I am already doing 70. "Hmmmm" said I, "that fellow who just passed us is risking at least that much in his nice new car, risking the rest of his life, and risking damage to any on-coming car which might be coming over the hill at us. And for a payoff?

She looked at me....."so what is the connection?" "There are lots of people taking risk every day....huge risks, like that guy. Risk is part of life...no pain no gain....and of course risk can be evaluated. It helps if you don't think about it too closely." That guy is risking everything just for the hell of it.

My daddy used to tell me that you should never gamble more than you can afford to lose. He played crown and anchor, but never passed on a solid line. Like he said, don't gamble more than you are prepared to lose...and if you are going to do stupid things on the highway, or ride on "those" tires, or put off getting the new brake pads, you are not only gambling, but gambling stupidly because there is no payoff.

So what did we decide about our business venture....well for one thing, we decided that we had no control on the variables. We didn't own the show, didn't know how much the insurance would be, didn't know how much most of the expenses were. On the other hand, we had a fair idea of how much we could earn at the show. We have NO IDEA if earnings will exceed expenses. So investing in this show is like crossing on a double solid....we don't know what is coming over the hill at us. Obviously, most of these questions could be answered. For sure, we would earn SOMETHING....but will it be worth the losses?. The last question was...how much can we afford to lose on a gamble. JP Morgan once showed a broker the door when he said "well, this mining venture right here looks like a good gamble". Mr. Morgan replied..."I never gamble" and fired the broker. On the other hand...the broker went on to buy the mine, and made millions, and all his life regretted using the term "gambling" to describe a business venture. I think this venture is looking too much like a gamble. (And in fact, two years later, we feel that we made the right decision to pass on it.)

This whole line of thought came to me when I read a story in the Winnipeg Sun about road rage,http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2005/05/09/1031641-sun.htmland it recalled to me our conversation as we were driving. This is kind of funny actually, though of course the results were a little tragic.

Four seventeen year olds out for a drive, were in the drive through at MacDonalds, and for some stupid seventeen year old reason, threw candy at one of the other cars. The other car contained some "baaad dudes" who chased them down, trashed their car with a chain, beat them up and stole their wallets. A most interesting lesson in "consequences". They gambled and lost. They COULD have lost a lot more. Some would say, They weren't gambling at all, they were just being kids. Well, they participated in the high speed chase (that was a gamble that they could get away)....they provoked the conflict (gambling that what they did would have no consequences).....I think it was a pretty cheap lesson all in all.