Schnell Girls are Fast!

Whenever I fill out paperwork in Newfoundland, the person on the other side of the desk asks where I'm from. Rast is a German name and I grew up on a farm in southern Alberta. I moved to Newfoundland in 1996. My mom was a "Schnell" from Saskatchewan -- Schnell in German means "fast" while Rast means "to rest". I think most people who know me can see that the Rast side won. In the past few years my dad has discovered a new nap between breakfast and lunch that I'm looking forward to inheriting one day.

The Tely10 Road Race takes place on July 26th this year and I'm hoping that I'll be in St. John's to participate. In this Sunday's edition of the Telegram (May 3rd) they are publishing a training schedule leading up to the race that I'm going to try to follow. I have some Schnell cousins in Saskatchewan who are very fast. Shelan and Renee Schnell have been running and winning marathons and half-marathons for the past several years. I'm just hoping to finish.

My mom (in green) wasn't a road racer, but she was fast in her own way. Dad told me a story a couple years ago from when they were courting. At the time dad was living in Alberta and mom was in Saskatchewan and dad would drive out to visit her on weekends. On one trip, mom was quiet and moody and eventually she confessed to what was troubling her; "We've been dating almost six weeks now and I don't even have an engagement ring yet." So dad had to bring a ring the next time he came out.

In a completely unrelated topic - yesterday was the 5 year anniversary of Lori and I getting our house on Craigmillar. We are celebrating with a final trip to the lawyers today (hopefully) to sign off on our new 5 year mortgage!

Photo Credits:
Top, Bottom: good question
Middle: Audio Visual Services, University of Regina

Photo Captions:
Top: Dad demonstrating how to remain a bachelor into your 40s
Middle: Renee winning a 10k race in 2005
Bottom: Color coded Schnells, Regina, Christmas 1969; Uncle Gary (blue), Aunt Janet (orange), Mom (green), Aunt Phyllis (yellow), Aunt Karen (black), Grandma Schnell (brown)

Chimps and Humans

I just read a very interesting article in the May 2009 Scientific American called "What Makes us Human?" . Chimps and Humans are almost 99% genetically identical, which is a familiar statistic to a lot of people. Its used to humble humans on one hand and promote the protection of our closest living relative on the other hand.

What made this article unique is that it focused on the 1% that makes us different and tries to explain how such a tiny change in our genetic code could make such an enormous difference between our species. Based on the tiny, harmless mutations that build up in our genetic code at a predictable rate over time, it looks like humans and chimps shared a common ancestor about 6 million years ago.

Other areas of our DNA show accelerated rates of change, over and above the random background changes that build-up slowly. Those are the areas that provide some evolutionary advantage and were naturally selected and preserved in our genetic make up. Geneticists are just identifying those areas now and are trying to work out what they do.

According to the article, the two areas that show the most change in Humans since we split with chimps are genetic sequences that affect brain development and bone development in our thumbs and wrists. Almost half of the accelerated sequences in humans have something to do with our brains. Over the same 6 million years our brains have tripled in size and in the last half of that time period we started making stone tools.

The oldest stone tools in the world come from Ethiopia and are over 2.5 Million years old. The changes in our hands made us more dextrous tool makers and the changes in our brains meant we could plan more complex tasks, like creating more sophisitcated tools.

That's one of the things that appeals to me about flintknapping and got me hooked. My knapping teacher back in Calgary, Don Hanna, used to say that we've been flintknapping longer than we've been human. Its research like that reported in Scientific American this month that really drives that point home and makes me feel like I'm part of something much bigger than myself.

Photo Credits: all found by googling

Photo Captions:
Top: Tarzan's Family Tree
Middle: Scientific American, May 2009
Bottom: Kanzi flintknapping

Storage Solutions: I got none

An opportunity came up to deliver a wholesale order ahead of schedule on Friday, which is a bit of a relief. This week is probably going to be hectic. I have a large Historic Sites Association order due in 9 days, at least one CCNL meeting to attend this week, and who knows how many bank or lawyer meetings to go to for the mortgage re-financing. So getting that order delivered earlier was a good thing -- it takes some pressure off.

I also found a stack of "From Beer Bottle to Arrowhead" booklets that I had printed last fall and forgotten about which will save a bit of time in filling the HSA order. I found the booklets when Lori and I launched a big attack on the basement on Sunday.

We hauled everything out of the back half of the basement into the yard. Lori cleaned the back room and I assembled shelves. Then we brought everything back in. The shelves made a big difference (believe it or not), but we still need at least one more day to compress boxes and purge unwanted crap. We want to get rid of the big pile of junk in the middle of the floor so we can put the treadmill there.

I might post more photos when we're done, but I'm not going to pretend to offer advice on organization. That big rock metaphor is as far as I can get my head wrapped around organizing myself. Here's a friend of a friend who can help you get organized.

Photo Credits:
Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top: Half our basement out on the lawn
Middle: Me build shelves, Lori mop floor
Bottom: Basement Progress!

Labrador and Ulus

I didn't have a very productive day yesterday. I made one brief trip to the workshop and then wasted most of the rest of the day. Earlier in the week I finished up all of the knapping that I need to do for the big wholesale order that I'm working on and shipped a box of product out to Norton's Cove.

I think I'm distracted. I've been talking to people that I've done work for in the past about some possible contracts that will bridge the gap between the end of the spring wholesale season and the start of the fall/Christmas retail season. I've been doing up quotes and working out a schedule, but that work is all still up in the air and the uncertainty is distracting.

I've moved into dusty work in the workshop. I have 4 ground slate ulus on the go and I want to finish them all before Monday. The ulus I make are based on artifacts that have been found in Thule Inuit sites in Labrador. The dates for the Thule arrival in Labrador have always been a bit vague, but sometime around AD 1400 seems reasonable. Ground stone tools are made differently from flintknapped tools. Slate breaks apart along flat planes and is too soft to flintknap, but it can be ground to a straight sharp edge.

Sometimes the way slate breaks is beneficial. Yesterday morning I was working on 3 ulus - one of them was chubbier than the other two. Part way through grinding it, the thick one seperated right down the middle into two ulu shaped flat sheets. Each half was thick enough that I have 4 ulus now!

I'm glad to include ground slate ulus in my artifact reproduction repertoire for museums and universities, but to be perfectly honest, I wish there was an Inuit or Metis craftsperson in Labrador making ground stone ulus for the wholesale market. There is a small niche market for replica stone ulus, and an archaeologist who makes artifact reproductions is one way to fill that niche, but I think an aboriginal craftsperson would probably be a better fit. I'd buy one.

Maybe we'll see some soon on the Labrador Craft Marketing Agency's brand new blog! Check it out and give Jim some support.

Photo Credits:
Top:Tim Rast
Middle: Newfoundland Museum
Bottom: Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top: Elfshot Ulus in progress
Middle: Ulu image from the Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Website
Bottom: Labrador Ulu on display in The Rooms

2009 Fine Craft and Design Fair, St. John's

One of the big rocks in my annual schedule is the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador's Fine Craft and Design Fair, held in St. John's each November. When I first exhibited at the show in 1998, It was held at Memorial Stadium, which has since become a supermarket. We had an eight year run at the Convention Centre from 2001-2008, which I enjoyed, but they have continued to raise their costs and we've been seriously searching for alternative venues for the past several years.

In 2009, we have the opportunity to expand the fair to 10 days at a new venue at the Arts and Culture Centre in St. John's.

This wasn't an easy decision, but the CCNL executive, the Craft Fair committee and staff have gone over all the options and polled everyone who has been involved with the fair over the past several years before concluding that now was the time to make the move from the Convention Centre and try something new at the Arts and Culture Centre. We had options to drastically raise booth fees, move to a smaller venue, or shorten the length of the fair. Those weren't popular choices with the majority of the members.

We chose to expand the fair to 10 days, with a break in the middle to allow a switch over in booths. Some boothholders will be there for all 10 days, while others will be there for the first half or the second half. The ACC has over 460 parking spaces for shoppers, we'll have additional promotion through the ACC, and we'll be within walking distance of the University, Health Sciences Centre, the Confederation Building, and CBC. As an organization, the CCNL has a much better chance of breaking even running this event -- which is crucial to guaranteeing that it will be around in the future. People who participated in CCNL craft fairs at the Arts and Culture Centre in the 1980s recall groups of shoppers wandering down from the government buildings on their lunch hour just to shop.

I had a busy summer and fall last year, so I wasn't able to participate in the 2008 fair. I'm going to plan to attend this year, no matter what comes up. Sales are an important part of the show, but what I really missed was interaction with my customers and other craftspeople. The Fine Craft and Design Fair is where I field test new products and its the one time of the year where I crawl out of my cave and feel like I'm part of a community.

Knowing that its there is a big comfort to me. I'll talk a bit more on Friday about some of the big rocks that are falling into place for the summer, but once they are wrapped up I can look forward to the fair in the Fall, then Christmas, then next year's wholesale season and I know that I'll be okay for at least the next 12-15 months. There are little jobs and pots of money to pay the bills on the horizon for as far as I can see into the future and that's very important for getting a good sleep at night.

Photo Credits:
Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top: The Elfshot Booth at 2006's Fine Craft and Design Fair, St. John's
Bottom: Lori demonstrating the correct method for purchasing a Spindrift moose flap cap.

Big Rocks First

A couple big pieces of my yearly schedule are falling into place this week and it reminded me of an interesting piece of Spam someone sent me a long, long time ago. It stuck in my head because it has some good solid rock packing advice in it. One of the important events that I need to schedule for 2009 is a rock run to collect more material before next winter.

Anyhow, the Spam -- I'll paraphrase it:

A motivational speaker is in front of an audience to talk about time management techniques and he has a big glass jar and a pile of fist-sized cobbles sitting on a table. He takes the rocks and puts them in the jar one at a time until he can't put any more in, and asks the audience; "Is the jar full?"

Everyone says "yes."

He pulls out a bag of gravel and pours the pebbles into the jar and they jiggle down between the big rocks and he asks again; "Is the jar full now?"

The audience is starting to catch on and say "um.. no probably not..."

Next he pours sand into the jar and shakes it until the sand fills it up to the top. He sets a glass of water on the table and asks the audience; "How about now?"

Everyone says "No!" and he pours the glass of water into the jar, filling it completely.

When he asks the audience what this illustrates, someone says "If you really look, you can always find more space to fit something in."

And the speaker replies, "No, it shows that if you don't put your big rocks in first, you'll never get them in."

===============

I think that's good advice, and you can apply it to all sorts of things in your life that need planning. I'm probably biased towards rock-based metaphors and the reason that I haven't forgotten it is that I'm always packing or repacking boxes of rocks. But as an analogy, its a useful way to visualize any problem that needs a bit of planning, from setting up a booth at a craft show to planning your annual schedule. Sometimes its good to stop and think about what the "big rocks" are in your life and make sure that you've made them the priority.

Thanks for Visiting!

Thanks for stopping by, let me put the kettle on...

I started Elfshot: Sticks and Stones about 2 months ago and I really appreciate all your feedback and comments. I'm starting to find my groove here so this post is a little housekeeping post about the blog.

Posting Schedule: For the people who check in regularily, I've penciled blog updates into my schedule for every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I'm going to try to stick to that routine as much as possible. My posts tend to be on the long-ish side, so three a week is plenty.

Followers: Thanks for following! The follower gadget was a default setting when I started the blog and I'm glad I kept it. It helps me gauge who is watching the site and what topics might be of interest to them. I also use it as a shortcut between different sites. Its a really good way to browse blogs of people with similar interests to your own. If you have a blog, I recommend adding the follower gadget. If you've visited my site more than once, please consider adding yourself as a follower. It will help you find your way back here, navigate to other similar sites, and let me know that you are out there reading.

Comments: Thanks for commenting! So far it seems like the most commented on posts are the ones about running a craft business. And Lori. Again, the comments really help plot the direction that the blog will take. I have heard from one reader using a government computer that they can view the site, but can't post comments. I've made the commenting options as wide open as possible, but it doesn't seem to help. Which sucks, but given some of the IT restrictions that the Government puts on their own computers it doesn't really surprise me.

Thanks again for reading, don't forget to "follow" blogs you enjoy and I'll see you on Monday.

Photo Credits:
Tim Rast

Photo Captions:
Top: Dorset Palaeoeskimo reproduction soapstone lamp and pot
Middle: Maritime Archaic Indian marine hunting reproductions
Bottom: Lori's ear.