Nothing stays the same....

Just got a call from Dave Exxxxxxx last night...seems the Ontario Renaissance Festival is going the way of the last of the Mohicans! My head is reeling! We went through about 8 stages in about 10 minutes...shock, anger, denial and so forth. Considering that the ORF makes me, what...75 percent of my income...thats a serious hit. Dammmit! I thought things were going a little too smooth to be true! So now, at the age of 48, I start all over again at the bottom!
Well, maybe not quite at the bottom...I still have the shop, and I still have a backlog. I have my health, and a family....and even without the Ren Faire, I still have the coolest job in the world. Guess now I will have to work on this expansion thing. Push the 25% up somewhat.
Was up most of the night trying to make plans with insufficient information. Perhaps somebody else will buy the show, perhaps other investors will jump in. Perhaps I will have to take down the buildings and erect them at some other show...in which case I better get entry into some other show! Wonder if Maryland has an opening.... This show was not showing any signs of being bad...in fact, I had the best year ever, and the people I talked to at the front office told me that they had the highest attendance ever, so go figure. Not looking forward to dismanling that post and beam building....though I built it so I can take it down!
On a lighter note! Shayne fixed my computer! I know...doesn't sound like much, however those who are in this business might be interested in the obscure chain of events which resulted in the poor old Aptiva not getting past its setup boot. It would boot up into safe mode just fine. None of the backups would change anything. Turns out that I had suceeded in clearing out Comet Cursor (yet one more time) and the mouse was looking for it on boot up! Shayne did it in DOS, but apparently I could have done it in Windows...went through all the settings and looked for things which were different in anything between safe and normal boot up. The cursor was set for some "dilbert" cutsey cursor for some reason. It set itself there after a bad shutdown. Go figure!
The patches are in! Now my club can put patches on all their gear...gambesons, shields, whatever! Nice looking things.
Well, its ten o'clock...start time around here. Guess I better make some stuff, get started on that "expansion".

Montreal was a blast!

I always enjoy Montreal! The magic was wearing a little thin at 7 in the morning the Saturday I got to the convention, but it came on again like a carnival in the evening. Here in Ottawa, the parking lots charge you to park during the day, and are usually un-manned in the evening so you can park free of charge and go off pubbing. In Montreal, the parking attendant doesn't come on duty until 8 in the evening! No doubt about it, Montreal is a party town! Nice to see things have really turned around the last few years...6 or 7 years ago everything was for sale or rent south of Place Bonaventure, now its all factories which are working and employing people. I think it is thanks to the Quebec government's policy of rewarding young entrepreneurs with interest free or interest delayed loans to start businesses. The Ontario government could take notice!
Con-Cept is a small fan run convention. Doesn't attract near enough people for its quality. Monsffa is the organizing body, and they are competent. Thats saying a lot! http://www.theendoftheuniverse.ca/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=78

Everthing went smoothly. Nobody cut themselves on the swords or knives, and I made a huge number of contacts. Who knows, I might even get a few seminars in Montreal! I'll have to see what I can do about advertising this event for them some more...the local papers seem to have a problem with it...I think the English language dailies think it is too French, and the French language dailies think it is too English! I wish they got a tenth of the publicity that the animation festival gets. Well, its quarter to ten, time to get to work!
(starting to look forward to going to work these days!)

Mice in the walls. Deceased. And an armour picture.

Below is the best pic I have of the perfectly preserved mouse skeletons which I found when I pulled the insulation away from the wall. Their little skulls are almost transparent on top!





Below here I am attempting to show off a helm I made.

Behind schedule again!

Had a couple of old clients drop in, one to pick up some armour he is having me make. Neat armour...a scale mantle, as worn by a Roman soldier. What with training a new employee, I was about 4 or 5 hours delayed, and they will have to come back today to pick it up. Not an ideal situation, but oh well! Such is the life of an armourer! Finish that off today, and then work some more on the female armour for Maggie. (odd stuff that female armour....it is made sort of upside down....with the breast plate overlapping the waist plates instead of the other way around. This weekend, the CON-CEPT science fiction convention in Montreal! Should be fun, it is the joining together of the two big SF clubs in Montreal in a single convention. Its really fun because there is so much French content...very refreshing.
Snow all yesterday...but it didn't hang around. Hired a young high school student to sweep up around the place...requires constant supervision. Had him do small stuff, like drilling out scales and simple manufacturing jobs. He really IS more trouble than he is worth, putting the folding legs on the plywood backwards. Had to re-do it last night...in the cold. Ah well...I remember how I was at that age (2 decades ago! Oh all right, 3 decades!) and if people never gave me a chance I would never have had a chance. Well, this morning, I have a folding table to take to the convention tomorrow! 5 am departure tomorrow.. OMG! 5am is when I put the book down and go to sleep!
Got the new key to the motorcycle. The dealership won't cut it...but they will sell me a blank for only 14 dollars! Arrgh! Well, today, finish off the armour, take the air conditioners out, maybe caulk up the windows upstairs with removable caulking. STILL Dont have hot water in the house! Tradesmen who run gas are even more unreliable than armourers! Cold showers....hard on the love life, but my natural gas bill is miniscule!

Henrietta's first day!

Well, I have hired Henrietta sort of pro tem...don't know for sure how she will do, but the first day went well. A little surprised in the gaps in her knowledge, but super impressed by her overall accomplishments. She has her own forge over in Morewood, and will be doing 4 or 5 hours a day before coming over here. Monday was supposed to be a day off, but she was so excited about working here that she dropped in. She had these cool little life size steel chili peppers she had forged...they just have to be painted to look to look right. She made them with the top part hooked so they could be hung from a Christmas tree.
The garage is mostly dry walled, and mostly painted. The frost is hitting every morning now, so Brenda made a command decision to start moving stuff back into the garage. She doesn't want it frozen into the ground. Me...I like an uncluttered work area...and the shelves are just a pain in the tushy. Painted the walls a parchment yellow, baseboarded it, and calked under the baseboard. No air leaking in there! Then installed the shelves. Surprise...they don't fit any more because there is drywall on the ceiling! Okay then....so I had to trim off a few upright supports. We are now shelved. Now we are waiting on the garage door...an insulated item which should fit. The windows look really nice...maybe I can put them in tomorrow as well.
I see the trailer is well and truly filled up with garage junk...some of this stuff I wouldn't even sell on E-Bay! Oh well, pleasant outing of the day tomorrow...a trip to the dump!
Last night was a gorgeous display of Northern Lights! Don't think I have ever seen them so bright! They were even in the south sky! There was quite a bit of red...which is really unusual....usually they are green, blue and white. Coming home from watching The Incredibles. What a neat movie!
Did a little chat with the local Scout troupe this evening. Children! Oh well....always nice to make points in the community. Some of my armour is going to be in the Company of Fools production of Lady MacBeth. Might break from the drywalling and attend the play. It got good press...we'll see how good the reviews are.
And another day ends at the South Tower!

I did it! I bought the farm!

Okay, not the farm, but the next door lot anyways. Too small to be a farm...though I might plant hazelnuts or some other low maintenance crop on it...grin! I'll see what we are allowed to plant here in the village.
The property had a nice house on it until one of the owner's personalities decided that "They" are not going to get it. She lit the fire, and the others went for a shower. Everybody got out fine, though the emotional baggage from all concerned never gets any less! The court case is still pending, but after a year of having a crack house next door, (no, really, it was!) the city demolished it.
Nice place, big double lot, with another double lot in behind that the real-estate agent didn't know about until I put my offer in! Pretty sweet deal. Everybody wins except the poor lady who nearly owned it outright. As far as expanding my shop onto it...well...it might require a zoning change. Closure in at the end of the month, so nothing can be done until then.
We had a light dusting of snow this morning! Bloody Canada! Cold eh!

Brenda and I have booked SCUBA classes for ourselves. This should be fun! A bit expensive, of course, anything worth doing always is, but all in all, should be good prep for our visit to Malta in January. They tell me that there is really good diving on Malta!

And the last cool thing is that yesterday I have started the second class of the Chivalrous Sword Handling advanced series! I have forgotten how much I enjoyed sword fighting at speed! Hooo Ahhh!
Now I have promised that I will make everybody some armour....ooops! Well, I have Henrietta dropping by this afternoon to examine the facilities. She is a lady blacksmith who is working a forge in Morewood... a little burgh about 15 minutes away from me. She wants to make armour...so I will be pleased to show her. I think this might be the break I need!

Well, enough of this! Brenda just looked at Dierdre's pictures of Brittany, and all she can say is "wow!" Hope it was worth the hassle! Wear the garbage bags in the shower Dierdre....keep your feet dry. You might also think about dropping a few tablespoons of Drano down the shower drain. It is probably just a small bundle of hair in the U-bend. I know, its not your job, but if you don't do it, it probably wont get done! Hmm...should have put this little comment onto her blog....oh well....

Back to work! Woo hoo!