The Other Christmas Tree Harvest

The start of the week has been about gathering materials, preparing for workshops, and getting ready to start some new projects. I'm also on the Human Resources committee at the Craft Council and we had a half day meeting yesterday morning at Devon House. It was a happy one without any big fires to put out.

In St. John's, this is the time of year that people are turfing their old Christmas trees onto the sidewalks in front of their house. Interesting fact: Old Christmas trees make great harpoon shafts. So I dragged a few home, cut off their branches and put the trunks in my workshop to continue drying. Compared to other poles of a similar size, the old Christmas trees don't tend to split. The month or two that they have been up in someone's house have dried them out slowly enough that they are pretty much stable by the time they hit the sidewalk. I have a big pile of branches in front of the house, but it occured to me in the middle of the night that I can save the thicker ones to use as handles in the hafting workshop coming up in Calgary.

Which was a much nicer middle-of-the-night realization than Monday night when I woke up and realized that I didn't have any empty beer bottles in the house for Thursday's Beer Bottle to Arrowhead workshop (space still available, RSVP on Facebook or by e-mail). Of course, the beer bottles aren't really a problem to find, but at 3 am, everything seems like a much bigger problem.

Other than that, I finished up the pressure flakers and assembled the knapping kits for the Beer Bottle workshop and my schedule is clear now to start work on a pretty cool secret project. I'll post about it when its done, but its something that I've never made before using one of my favourite materials. Its a gift and I can't say anymore until after its delivered.

Photo Credits:
First, Lori White
2nd & 3rd, Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
First: "Nothing Officer..."
Second: Finished flintknapping kits for workshop
Third: Making the pressure flakers.