Glenn McDavid

Some of colgaffneyis members are at John O's, down near Winona for a project weekend ("Johndevous"). John has a very impressive shop and invited anybody in the group to come down there to work on their own camp projects. I decided not to go. I have a shop of my own. John's shop is better than mine, but not enough better to offset the hassle of driving to Winona and camping there. Also, here I do not have to share the tools.
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( Saturday )
( Sunday )

I took another look at that list of projects that I mentioned earlier today. I have finished 11 out of 14. Of course, I can think of a few additions....

mia_mcdavid is in Michigan for the weekend and the first couple days of next week. Her aunt died after a long struggle with Alzheimer's. She has posted about it, most recently here.

I cleaned off my workbench this morning, and am trying to make some progress on at least some of my unfinished projects. ( Quite a list )

Tomorrow I will go to Church in the morning, get there early for choir rehearsal. It will be Palm Sunday and there will be a lot going on. It occurred last week that joining the choir in the middle of Lent may not have been good timing. We have been working hard on music for Holy Week, the busiest time in the Church Year. However, it is certainly interesting.

After church I am going to the Day of Irish dance in downtown St. Paul, where I will be working at the Gaeltacht Minnesota table.

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My experience with colgaffneyis at Mankato was quite different from Big Island.( Read more... )

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A very cold day, subzero (Fahrenheit) all day long. However, the house furnace works, we have warm clothes, and at least one of our cars will start. That is really enough to get by.

The event of the day was colgaffneyis annual business meeting, featuring elections to the Board of Directors and the adoption of a budget.( Read more... )

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I did not do my part for the American retail industry. I bought some materials at Tandy Leather and at the local hardware store, which I need for a gift I am making for my older son James. That's it. Actually, I did my serious Christmas shopping months ago, and had no intention of going near a mall today.

I also started a batch of mead. After reading about rhymeswithghoti's mead brewing a while back I had been thinking it was time to brew again. This will be another of my sparkling dry ginger meads, which have been well received by many, including the dance guild of colgaffneyis. Long ago my father said that my mead was the only drinkable mead he had ever tasted. Anybody who knew him would recognize that this was quite a complement.

This morning our younger son Tom let mia_mcdavid and me sleep until 7:20--not as good as yesterday, but not bad by our standards. Later I was able to to do all of the mead preparation while Mia was taking a nap, and while I was also watching Tom--the aide we were supposed to have was AWOL. Tom was quite well behaved, and both of us actually had quite a pleasant time.

I had the day off, thanks to the 9 hours I worked on Sunday. It was quiet and relaxing, except for about 10 scary minutes when James was choking on a pill. This was only possible Tom was in school, and we had an aide to cope with him after school.

Did some housework and shopping with mia_mcdavid, then we went to the lunch buffet at the local Indian restaurant. The last is becoming a tradition on days when we are both free and we have coverage for Tom (Actually, the last phrase is redundant). After getting home we both napped. Later we went to the St. Paul Farmers Market to pick up our turkey (ordered long before) and a few other things.

While doing a yard chore for mia_mcdavid I remembered to bring my shaving horse indoors. I know of woodworkers who use their shaving horses outdoors all year long. None of them live in Minnesota.

In the late afternoon I did a little work in the shop. I am making a targe (17th century Scottish Highlander's shield) as a gift for James.He will be able to use it when we are at events of colgaffneyis. I was able to saw and file the plywood blank to a reasonable approximation of a circle, then glued a leather cover to what will be the inside. Later I will glue some heavier leather to the outside, then add the nails there, and finally the grips.