"The Night Of Mis-Adventure" or
"The End Of the Begining"
either way, it was an interesting night
First, the good news. I am starting to get the feeling back in my legs :D ok, so I made that part up, but I got yer attention!
I took the pony bow upstairs, got her all
greased up , and started toasting it on the BBQ (thats Barbee to you Jay) ala Jim Hamm. all along the way I am thinking that I should never has picked out a board for this project, kinda felt like cheating, and doubting my grain selection. anyways.
threw it into the thing for 10-20 minutes somthing like that, and kept rotating it, doing everything just right, dont ya know. Everything would have been just fine, had I not decided to "maximize my time" and left well enough alone. but NO! I decide, while I am waiting, to put the pine pitch experment on the stove.
(I had rounded up a volunteer to smoke a cigarette, ya know, the abstract way to get ashes...no lady, IN THE CAN she thought I was kinda wierd, but I digress) because I was trying to get the right mixture of ashes, fat and pine sap to make pitch dontyaknow.
So...I decide that the wood is hot enough to bend, so instead of getting some clamps, laying out a form, I decide to support the ends on chunks of 2by4 and kneel in the reflex. by now you have gotten the idea that I never got that "Doctorate" in the mail yet. you would be right in that assumption. turns out, I didnt put weight on the stick even, and the
belly collapsed right on the part where the wood was sticking out of the BBQ (I only had the center section in there...was gonna put in the reflex first, the deflex one limb at a time) so I calmly decide that it is wrecked anyway, might as well see what the other side will do, and
broke that hardcore too. (this is art, not science...dont tell Lennie)
and that is when things started to get hazy.
I remember that I have pine pitch on the stove (of course it is a gas stove, and I have just set a tin can with a little pine sap in the bottom directly to that) I poke my head in the door, and can smell it at the same time I see the smoke pouring out of the can. I grab the pot holder and grab the can off...the now very runny sap, runs up the side of the can, simultainoiusly catching on fire. I now have a "flambe" going, and Martha Stewert is going balistic on the phone in the living room. (Did I mention she didnt want me using the BBQ for "so-called experiments?" LOL?
all I can think at this point is....Matt says, "Just make sure you dont burn it" as I take it outside and get the can "under control"
here is the moral to the story...
Never try and do two things at once, and
Pine Pitch makes an excellant fire starter.
oh yeah, and use a form for bending wood.
I am going to bed now. I will get started on the "B-Plan bow" right away, that one always wanted to be an Indian bow anyways. Wasnt it Tim Bakker that said "If it is going to not work, make it not work right away?" I took your advice Tim!!!