Silver pins and golden needles...................

Somehow, I have managed to be somewhat productive over the last little bit. I have gotten at least a decent start on the pile of leather projects that has been on the back burner for a good while. I hope by the coming weekend that I will have at least a bottle covered with leather, two or three holsters done as well as one or two other small items done. It is rather strange that I have to be in a certain mood to do types of work, and the thought of working leather just hasn't been one of the "trip my trigger" kind of things. I would much rather read or work on other things, but you can't always do what you want to do.

Doing my leather work did have a unexpected surprise for me. I have a real good friend (He is also our vet and takes care of all the critters around Casa Williams) that I was telling about what I was up to, and he asked me if I could make a holster for a old handgun that he had at the house. I told him that I would be more than happy to. A few days later, he handed me a paper towel wrapped object that turned out to be a original 1851 Colt revolver. It has been a real pleasure to handle a true piece of history like this old lady is. She is in good shape, the action is tight and she has a nice smooth brown finish all over. You can bet that I will use every bit of care and skill that I have to make the holster for this old girl .

Other than that, I have been working on my knees trying to get them squared away. My doc keeps telling me that they didn't get screwed up overnight, so I will not be able to get them better overnight. I know that on several levels but I am not the most patient person in the world. They are a wee bit better, but I am still having problems. I took a few weeks off of my reenacting schedule just to give them a break and it did help.

Speaking of which, I am getting ready to take to the road once more. I have two events that are coming up that I am looking forward to, the first, will be at Richard Caswell-CSS Neuse historic site here in North Carolina on the weekend of August 16-17. At this event, I will be doing RevWar navy, and will more than likely bring my rope work to play with or some canvas that I need to repair. This event will get me together with my friends in the Carolina Living History Guild.

The following weekend will take me to Alexandria VA for a 1812 event. This will be with my shipmates of the Dragon. This should be a very interesting event, since it commemorates the surrender of the town to the British Navy in the War of 1812. We will be portraying a landing party making sure that the citizens follow the terms of the surrender. Our commander for the event told me to bring limited small arms, since in his words, "If they started anything, we would retire to our ship and pound the town to dust with our 24 lbs." My kind of mission.

And then, the weekend after that, the hospital takes to the road and heads to the far reaches of PA to the Brandywine battlefield. At least the price of gas is a bit better, so these trips will not hurt QUITE so much.