WOW, that is sad, you just never know what might happen when you plan an event out doors. Glad to see you made it there safe, hope they pull it off with no more problems.
Pappy
Lemme tell ya, those Okies were sweating bullets and glued to their phones right up until Monday morning before the event. The peninsula where the event was hosted was mostly untouched. The woods where they were to set up the 3D shoot was burnt out. All the grass and ground cover was ash, but the trees were standing. Most of the trees will survive and I imagine when the spring rains set in that burnt ground will come back as fresh and green as anyone could imagine.
Lemme say that those Okies put on an event. While it has the wonderful generous atmosphere of the Tennessee Classic where everyone pitches in, there are some stark differences. OJAM is primarily a teaching event. They set up large event awning tents with about a dozen workbenches each, assign a few club members in yellow hats to each as mentors/teachers, and they proceed to work their butts off helping people turn out a bow. By 5:00 p.m. they sort of shut things down, whereas at Twin Oaks, things NEVER shut down (Remember Liyeliye123 last year? He turned out 5 finished bows in 4 days!)
I met a number of people I have known online for years, DVSHunter included. He looks like a taller version of Osage Outlaw!
Last fall I suffered another of my crisis of confidence episodes and I set aside three floor tillered projects. I took them along and finish tillered two of them. It was really good to throw a bow up on a tillering tree and ask anyone and everyone standing around to pop off with their opinions on what they were seeing. Master, journeyman, or rank apprentice, everyone got their say in what they were seeing. It was very helpful to hear people confirm what I saw, point out what I was missing, and pitch their ideas for progress. More often than not, experienced bowyers turned to ask brand new bowyers to speak on what they saw. My bows became teaching tools, and people LEARNED the craft.
One of my favorite acolytes was a 14 yr old kid there with his Scout group. He finished a bendy handle bow the very first day (He went barefoot or wore barely there sandals all weekend and had the biggest danged ol' toes on them trotters! I swear his daddy's last name had to be Squatch!). The tiller was perfect in spite of a lot of cosmetic "challenges" on that bow. Pretty or not, it shot well! The second day he became comfortable asking to borrow tools from my toolbox and never failed to call to my attention when he returned a tool AND say thanks. I lost two tools that weekend and neither one was borrowed by him. It wasn't long before he'd leave his bench when I went to a tillering tree. He was tentative at first asking questions about what we saw for flat spots and hinges, etc....but by noon that son had a calibrated eye for elliptical and circular tiller. I mean he was eagle-eye dead on! Unfortunately, both his parents are alive and well so my offer to adopt was summarily denied.
I only bought one stave. In going through the garage and storage unit to pack I realized I had a pretty fair backstock in half-finished bows and unstarted staves for now. However, I found ONE with nice rings and some very interesting snakiness that begged to visit the Rushmore State. For the $95 asking price I was willing to take the chance.
I have pics on my phone, and I'll drop those in their own post and give a little more commentary.
