Norstead Event Report
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:07 pm
Well
Im finally unpacked and recovering from the event
Its wasn’t as grand as last year but we made the best of it
It rained on an off for most of the time but cleared off (and dried up) for Saturdays Open to the Public day
We had a good time and I think some new/old friendships were made/renewed
The boys went hunting many mornings and the Brits even got a chance to shoot some real good ol fashion US artillery on one of our ‘off’ days
Thanks to some nearby ‘fresh’ roadkill one of the guys was able to demonstrate how to skin and prepare/preserve both a white tail deer and coyote skin on site (the coyote was done on the public day and drew in a lot of folks interested in that sort of thing)
The skins (when properly preserved) will adorn the walls of the main hall (along with the existing bear, horse, elk, Icelandic sheep, deer and various other skins)
One of the coolest parts of the event was that the guys from Skjaldborg got the first set of doors up on the main hall (those that slept in the hall said these doors made a HUGE difference)
The Skjaldborg guys went WAAAAAAAY out of their way to make us some VERY COOL hinges for the 3 sets of doors we have
Each set has a different appearance
They were hand forged and I really just don’t know that anyone could have out done them on this project
Here are some images of the hinges
[img]http://norstead.org/temp/norstead/Norstead_Hinges1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://norstead.org/temp/norstead/Norstead_Hinges2.jpg[/img]
Unfortunately the images don’t do the finished project much justice
They are absolutely gorgeous in person
Here is an image of the front and back doors on the main hall
[img]http://norstead.org/temp/norstead/front.jpg[/img]
[img]http://norstead.org/temp/norstead/rear.jpg[/img]
I will try to get more pics of the completed doors soon
All of the doors are constructed of 1 inch ash that we bought from the local barrel making factory that is near by.
Its all rough cut but kiln dried so we don’t have to deal with the amount of shrinkage we dealt with with the walls.
Skjaldborg brought along square washers for the doors but forged all of the rivets on site (after some slight modifications to their existing gear)
Sam mentioned that they are going to come back sometime in the future and along with finishing the other doors they plan to make pulls and other door accessories to complete the look of the doors.
While John (Chadwell) and I are both alpha males and have bumped heads in the past, we agreed to put it all behind us and work toward common goals
I can honestly say that I really enjoyed working with John and his guys (Chris, Devlin, and Derek) and we hope to work with them more in the future.
The second cool thing that we got done was tables and benches for the hall.
Jim from Gladsheim came out early and he and John (Sams son) worked their asses off to ensure that we had a table and bench for each ‘segment’ of the hall
This ensures that when we have a feast that no one needs to bring in their tables or benches…cause they are already there!
He also made several tables for the cook hall
All in all I think Jim and John made about a dozen tables and almost as many benches…all from random bits of wood we had left over from the loads of siding wood (and the two old doors which we decided not to use because of the weight)
As with so many of the other projects Gladsheim has been a part of we will NEVER be able to repay them for them time and work
The coolest part of this particular project is that Jim devised a cleat system that allows the tables to be hung on the walls when not in use
Even more clever (IMO) was that the cleats allow for the legs of each table to be stored with the tables!
As we did last year we had a bit of news coverage
The most interesting was when our group was visited by the local news station’s sports casters
They do a segment called Got Game?
They basically try new types of ‘extreme’ sports and even some old ones
We gave them a bit of basic training and turned them loose against some of our veteran fighters
As you can image hilarity ensued
Here is their coverage http://www.wgem.com/Global/story.asp?s=9270867
(Im having some trouble capturing this with the suggested software in another thread so if anyone can help please drop me a line)
It was on a day where the local schools brought in their kids to see all the things we do to, that’s why all the kids are in the background
Here are a couple other nice pieces done by a separate new station at
http://www.ktvo.com/news/video.aspx?id=212338
http://www.ktvo.com/news/video.aspx?id=211528
And finally, thanks to all the guys and gals that worked to make this happen
Its not an easy task to pull even a simple event off
Throw in a little mass chaos and it really shows what sort of folks we have both in the group and those outside the group that support us
We will let you all know when we plan to do another event
There was some talk about a new comers event in early spring but I do not know much more about it at this time
More info as it becomes available
Im finally unpacked and recovering from the event
Its wasn’t as grand as last year but we made the best of it
It rained on an off for most of the time but cleared off (and dried up) for Saturdays Open to the Public day
We had a good time and I think some new/old friendships were made/renewed
The boys went hunting many mornings and the Brits even got a chance to shoot some real good ol fashion US artillery on one of our ‘off’ days
Thanks to some nearby ‘fresh’ roadkill one of the guys was able to demonstrate how to skin and prepare/preserve both a white tail deer and coyote skin on site (the coyote was done on the public day and drew in a lot of folks interested in that sort of thing)
The skins (when properly preserved) will adorn the walls of the main hall (along with the existing bear, horse, elk, Icelandic sheep, deer and various other skins)
One of the coolest parts of the event was that the guys from Skjaldborg got the first set of doors up on the main hall (those that slept in the hall said these doors made a HUGE difference)
The Skjaldborg guys went WAAAAAAAY out of their way to make us some VERY COOL hinges for the 3 sets of doors we have
Each set has a different appearance
They were hand forged and I really just don’t know that anyone could have out done them on this project
Here are some images of the hinges
[img]http://norstead.org/temp/norstead/Norstead_Hinges1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://norstead.org/temp/norstead/Norstead_Hinges2.jpg[/img]
Unfortunately the images don’t do the finished project much justice
They are absolutely gorgeous in person
Here is an image of the front and back doors on the main hall
[img]http://norstead.org/temp/norstead/front.jpg[/img]
[img]http://norstead.org/temp/norstead/rear.jpg[/img]
I will try to get more pics of the completed doors soon
All of the doors are constructed of 1 inch ash that we bought from the local barrel making factory that is near by.
Its all rough cut but kiln dried so we don’t have to deal with the amount of shrinkage we dealt with with the walls.
Skjaldborg brought along square washers for the doors but forged all of the rivets on site (after some slight modifications to their existing gear)
Sam mentioned that they are going to come back sometime in the future and along with finishing the other doors they plan to make pulls and other door accessories to complete the look of the doors.
While John (Chadwell) and I are both alpha males and have bumped heads in the past, we agreed to put it all behind us and work toward common goals
I can honestly say that I really enjoyed working with John and his guys (Chris, Devlin, and Derek) and we hope to work with them more in the future.
The second cool thing that we got done was tables and benches for the hall.
Jim from Gladsheim came out early and he and John (Sams son) worked their asses off to ensure that we had a table and bench for each ‘segment’ of the hall
This ensures that when we have a feast that no one needs to bring in their tables or benches…cause they are already there!
He also made several tables for the cook hall
All in all I think Jim and John made about a dozen tables and almost as many benches…all from random bits of wood we had left over from the loads of siding wood (and the two old doors which we decided not to use because of the weight)
As with so many of the other projects Gladsheim has been a part of we will NEVER be able to repay them for them time and work
The coolest part of this particular project is that Jim devised a cleat system that allows the tables to be hung on the walls when not in use
Even more clever (IMO) was that the cleats allow for the legs of each table to be stored with the tables!
As we did last year we had a bit of news coverage
The most interesting was when our group was visited by the local news station’s sports casters
They do a segment called Got Game?
They basically try new types of ‘extreme’ sports and even some old ones
We gave them a bit of basic training and turned them loose against some of our veteran fighters
As you can image hilarity ensued
Here is their coverage http://www.wgem.com/Global/story.asp?s=9270867
(Im having some trouble capturing this with the suggested software in another thread so if anyone can help please drop me a line)
It was on a day where the local schools brought in their kids to see all the things we do to, that’s why all the kids are in the background
Here are a couple other nice pieces done by a separate new station at
http://www.ktvo.com/news/video.aspx?id=212338
http://www.ktvo.com/news/video.aspx?id=211528
And finally, thanks to all the guys and gals that worked to make this happen
Its not an easy task to pull even a simple event off
Throw in a little mass chaos and it really shows what sort of folks we have both in the group and those outside the group that support us
We will let you all know when we plan to do another event
There was some talk about a new comers event in early spring but I do not know much more about it at this time
More info as it becomes available
