Sir I was watching the news last night. You are getting record rains and flooding.
Are you OK? Hope all them Marcous are high and dry.
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SHoe,
It id rather damp just now, although the Galgate manse is not prone to floods except of the once-every-500-years kind.
Of course precedent in these matters may become redundant as some fool is warming up Greenland which may be living up to its name ere long (it is currently whiteland in fact). However, even a rising sea may not reach the shed, some 25 metres above mean high water mark. But the Fylde plain, to the west of here, is full of folk who might be drowned unless they come looking for a home in my shed. "No room! No room"!!
The Marcous live safely in the hoosey, upstairs and behind several locked doors, barbed wire and a couple of machine gun nests. Also, there are savage cats on guard. I take the Marcous to the shed in pairs for work, as any casual thief will be unable to resist snatching both and so will be easily caught as the combined weight will knock several seconds off his 100 yard dash. There would also be a savage cat clinging to his head and slashing wildly below.
The shed is warm and dry then. This week I have resumed woodworking in there (a walnut hall table) since it is blowing gales as well as raining, so cycling is not so attractive a prospect. Even the archery is rained-off a bit, although I have acquired a pair of Muckboots (superior wellies) so it is possible to plodge back and forth to the target despite the sodden field.
England. It is a wet spot sometimes. Of course, it is also green and pleasant.......
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Galgate Mill from the University of Lancaster
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The Bay Horse pub near Galgate - archery field through the gap.
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The Kendal-to-Preston canal at Galgate
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Rail nostalgia on the main London-to-Glasgow line through Galgate.
Lataxe, a lucky fellow.
Lucky indeed!Those beautiful surroundings must bring joy to you each day.Frosty“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert,
in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.” Milton Friedman
Glad to hear you are safe and sound. Did not know you were and archer. Did you make your own long bow?Nice pics. Lovely country side! Did you ever paddle down the Canal there?25 meter high water mark, so in a couple years you will have lake front property. Just like every one in Alberta is waiting for the "Big One" so BC can slide into the Pacific Ocean and have ocean front come to them!!This is a pic of looking South across Pasqua Lake at Leader Point. This was last fall.This time of year there is lots of waterfowl passing on thru.
I'll try and get a pic of the Canada Geese. The ice has been coming and going and the geese stay on the edge of the ice. We have had a warm fall here.
But it is hard to sleep when you have 1500 geese chucking all night, but well worth the entertainment during the day.
Shoe,
Gallowsgate is a rather pleasant spot, is it not - especially since they stopped transporting all of Lancashire's hapless witches and crmnls through here, to the gibbet at Lancaster Assizes, just over the hill.
The canal is still functional for the winding 50-odd miles atween Preston and Tewitfield (a tewit is the local name for a lapwing) but the last 10 miles to Kendal is now all silted-up and unused. There has been no commercial transport on the canal since about 1850, as the railways came and took all the trade from the barge & horsey men. (The canal dates from around 1790). Only pleasure barges now ply the watery conduit, which is consequently a haven for all sorts of wildlife preferring a bit of the splashy stuff.
As to noisy avian items in Galgate, it is the ducks! They are especially vocal in early spring, when Mrs Duck suffers the attentions of many a rowdy man-duck, to the extent that one must hide the raucous and debauched scenes from the eyes and ears of impressionable children and ladee-wimmin of delicate sensibilities.
I have swum and paddled a canoe in the waterway; but mostly the ladywife and I use the towpath as our footpath to the pub at Conder Green (6 mile round trip) or to the city of Lancaster (10 mile round trip). It is a very pleasant way to go from hither to thither and justifies a large lunch.
***
I am new to archery (3 months) and currently going down the high-tech recurve bow route. In fact, I just acquired an excellent item made in the US of A by a Mr Hoyt. It goes hiss-thwock! in a very satisfying manner. One merely has to resist the urge to sit on the roof picking off annoying children, noisy neighbours and passers-by who look like they might be Marcou-burglars.
There is a two-day course run by a local chap under the auspices of the local coppice-makers association, for making a green-ash longbow. A couple of the chaps down at the archery club have made such bows, which are primitive, need careful drying and even more careful "breaking in". (Unfortunately "break" is often the operative word). One shoots such a bow by instinct, as there are no sights, longrods or other modern conveniences. The owners seem to spend more time looking for arrows that have missed and gone into the long grass, than shooting the arrows.
Nevertheless, bowmaking is on my list. But I fancies a go at making a laminated one, which are not easy to make but much more resilient (I am told).
Always there are more woodworking adventures.
Lataxe
Lataxe..
Making a laminated bow is fun! I have made a few that worked very well. I tried sever 'self' bows but they did not turn out as well as i would have liked.
One way/idea in the link below:
His are what I call a HEAVY bow that I could not pull very well. Skinny old guy here so I stay at 50 to 75 pound pull. I have made mine from Hickory and Ash that were staved (like making a strong ladder rung). Just my way, but I use very thin multiple strips glued up into a slight recurve or no recurve. For the back of the bow I always use Hickory. Ash and once even Jatoba for rest. Jatoba did not stave very well so I just used quarter sawn strips. I like using staved strips. I make as many as I can and then pick and choose from the lot for similar bending characteris.
I size the thickness of the strips with a block plane and a depth jig. Yes, I use my hand planes on occasion. AND I have never used my routers on a bow that I can remember at the moment. Maybe, but don't think so.
I always add a handle that is fitted for my hand. I think no 'true' bowyer would even think of a handle. I need the handle because I tend to twist the bow when pulling and the added depth in my palm helps me correct my faults. (Strength?)
I bandsaw to basic shape and from then on, my card scrapers. Tillering can be a fit but like anything with wood a challange but rewarding if the outcome works.
By the way. I even made one glued together with Tightbond II for my son. He tells me it still works well. He is a hunter, I am NOT. He got a large Elk with my 70 pound bow glued with Tightbond II. He claims the bow still tillers well but he told me that he does protect it from soaking in the rain. He usually uses a fancy thing with steel cables and all sorts of pullies and other goodies that he loves.
http://www.alanesq.com/The-Back-Street-Bowyer.pdf
Original post to the pdf:
http://www.archery-interchange.net/forum/bow-building/23054-easy-way-make-laminate-bow.html
Lataxe.. I found my original post. This is the bow my son has.
http://forums.taunton.com/n/main.asp?qu=archery&find=Search&webtag=fw-knots&ctx=search&cl=724992&af=10000&o=relevance&be=0
I am sure it was the original post?
NOT THAT POST that came up.. I think FineWorking is less at fine WEBTHINGS!
Edited 11/22/2009 12:55 pm by WillGeorge
WillG,
Thank you for those links; I feel the urge to make a bow increasing.
Of course, hunting with a bow is not legal in Blighty. I'm not sure why although it seems likely that all sorts of eejits would only go around loosing arrows willy-nilly and either causing nobbut nasty wounds or perhaps impaling innocent passer-bys. This never happens in America as everyone is a good shot. :-)
I can imagine that getting the tiller right will be the hardest part of making a bow. One suspects that some trial and error may be involved. Aieee!
As to you being a skinny old weakling who can "only" pull 50 - 70llbs........ Well, I find I like to pull only 30 pounds with that Hoyt recurve bow and understand that even the mightiest recurve target bow chaps will be around 40-summick pounds draw weight. I think my spine would pop out if I tried to tug 75 llbs to a full draw! (Assuming the string didn't take my fingers off first).
Lataxe, who is currently still larnin' but managing to get the bull at 40 yards and will soon be putting the target out a bit more.
Lataxe,
I remember a phrase from reading of the exploits of a certain Hood-lum who lurked the confines of a forest, rescuing damsels and robbing the rich, giving to the poor ( maybe he should have been in parliament,not Sherwood?)--he carried, if memory serves, "a stout bow of English yew".
A buddy of mine here stateside participates in primitive archery events where they shoot 6' longbows at targets 100 yds away. Not only that, but I'm told they regularly hit those targets! Sometimes, the very ones they are aiming at. Said buddy has made a replica of an Apache Indian bow that is very stout, and backed with the sinews of a bison, held in place with hide glue (very authentic). He also has made a repeating medieval-style crossbow, which has a box-magazine that holds 10 or12 bolts, and shoots as fast as one can operate the pump-handle. It is fired from the waist, intended to repel those barbarians when they storm the castle. His future projects include a Mongolian recurve, made from horn, laminated with some other exotic materials indigenous to the steppes of Asia. His 1st project, a prehistoric atlatl, now seems tame by comparison.
If you can find it on your side of the ocean, a series of two or three books called, "The Bowyer's Bible", is an interesting read.
Ray, who prefers the burning of gunpowder over calories
Ray,
Your list of strange bows is somewhat familiar, as the secretary of the archery club is a "weird weapons" bloke who owns numerous queer bows of sundry shapes. He does bring one down to the range now and then but usually looses the arrows in to the far field boundary, as it seems difficult to aim or otherwise control these olde style weapons without many hours practice.
The fellow also owns a number of spears but he has been gently dissuaded from casting them about in the archery field.
Around 50 miles east of here is the city of Leeds in Yorkshire (where that Richard Jones lives and teaches). The city houses not only a fine archery store, full of exotic gubbins and folk talking techno-arch, but also the Royal Armoury Museum. This is full of all kinds of strange weaponry, including that object which our spear-chucking chap obsesses over most - an armoured elephant!
We have told him he cannot keep such a beast in a shed on the archery range, especially since he would get aboard and run amok in the village, spearing and arrowing innocent drinkers outside the pub, or even slow children and dogs, in his fantasms.
Lataxe, who likes his high-tech Hoyt.
I was Doing the Google earth and went to Galgate. Nice place. I found the water way and a approximate area of the pub. So what are you close to, or the allotment, but not to endanger the marcous and slings and arrows of misfortune, for ner do well's.I had a vision in my mind of you wearing Wellies, riding your bike with a 10 foot long bow strapped to your back. scarring all the old blue haired ladies, as you sped thru the twisting back streets.( with a background music, The Charge of the light Brigade)I have not shot an arrow in years but only to my lazyness. A friend has left his fancy compound recurve here and I am afraid I will only get hooked to much and $$$$.Lots of area around here to practise, we have a sepreate bow/primitive weapons season for most 4 leggers. I could knock a deer down from the kitchen window most mornings. But then again to lazy. The wee Colleen has hit 4 in the last 3 years as there populations are way up. Mazda 323 vs 6 point buck, not a pretty sight. They bounce off an nice big Chev truck a little better.
What ever one's opinion on hunting. tis far better having low fat meat in the freezer. Than have them slamming threw your windshield. Will thanks for the links. There is a big stack of cut offs waiting for a home. Now I may have found it.Now must watch the Western Final for our Football club. A good excuse to yell at the telly and drink grog. Go Rider's!!!
Shoe,
I never frighten old ladies. Indeed, I takes great trouble to help them across the road and listen to their interminable stories of their youthful adventures, as well as their complaints concerning the young, their neighbours, shopkeepers and fallen women (any female person they have taken a dislike to, which is most). This helpful attitude of mine is due to my natural altruism. Also, who knows what they might write in their wills concerning a certain charming fellow?
Compound bows are here referred to as "darkside things" and although many archers have one (they are unable to resist the high techno-gubbins factor of such bows) they are loathe to admit it. They sneek down to the archery field at dawn or dusk to shoot with the unclean objects.
I am told that compounds are regarded with suspicion as "they are too easy". Recurve bows, as shot in the Olympics and other competitions, are allowed no backsight. Compounds have not just backsights but also telescopes and other whizzy gizmos that mean only a complete cack-hand ever misses the bull. (I am not speaking from experience here, mind; I have just overheard the sneering remarks from well-practiced recurve archers).
As to hunting, this is where I would prefer to get any meat I eat. However, one does not like to see unpracticed eejits letting-off ordinance of one sort or another and merely causing horrible wounds that do not kill the beast, which then suffers for weeks or months. Then there are those who would kill everything and eat not one ounce.
Also, I know the temptations whispering within my own psyche concerning what I might do with that bow lurking in the cupboard. I am a generally nice chap; so imagine what the average nasty Brit might get up to should there be unrestricted access to weaponry and its use. One shudders to think of the many bodies that would litter the streets and fields.
So, all in all one tends to agree with the restrictive British laws concerning these matters.
Lataxe, who definitely requires external constrictions on his behaviours.
I find these easier than regular bows.
................................................
Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
Where do you put the gunpowder?
In the cannon.
................................................
Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
When you are done with that bow, send it here. I can get them in the ditch before jumping on the windshield.The deer are in a late rut due to warm weather. Now there a moose moving in to places not known. Coyotes and wolves also wrecking havoc.Just had my first Mule Deer roast and it was great, espcially when it was given. and a wack of sausage also. Late fall and a ton of geese around, to day I saw a half albino Canada Goose. were is a good camera when you need it??. So having geese still here late Nov is a sign of a warm fall. Hopefuly not like last winter.Shoe>> who like wildlife, just not on the bumper!
(Assuming the string didn't take my fingers off first)...LOL
So the bow string just takes off a slice of the forearm! Hardly ever the fingers.
hunting with a bow is not legal in Blighty,,
I would protest to the Queen. They never used a bow and arrowe?
OK... SO love your Queen for some reason. I think your lady love would be fitting for a Queen and also a Princess in wating... She IS a looker to behold.
All fun aside. Making a good or bad bow is a challange. Either is as hard to make! I trashs some when tillering,,,
Edited 11/22/2009 9:18 pm by WillGeorge
Edited 11/22/2009 9:25 pm by WillGeorge
Hi Lataxe>Of course, hunting with a bow is not legal in Blighty. I'm not sure why although it seems likely that all sorts of eejits would only go around loosing arrows willy-nilly and either causing nobbut nasty wounds or perhaps impaling innocent passer-bys.<Maybe incorporate it with fox hunting, which I believe is still legal, or the protesters - whatever your persuasion - you could have a new sport here mate.Going to Edinburgh for Xmas/New year, why don't you come on up and join me in a spot of haggis hunting, don't believe it has been done with bownarrers before. They are legal all year in Scotland.wotI started out with nothing...and I still have most of it left!
Some time back I walked by a fence and a very large Gosse was like a dog. Ya never wanted to go inside his fence!
Lataxe,You absolutely crack me up. Thanks for the good laugh.Jeff
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