After working every day from May 29th through to June 15th, I decided that a little recreational work on Nicole's viola da gamba would not be a sin. Here you can see the inlay pattern for the back, the inlay pieces, a homemade line cutter, and a homemade router plane.


 Looking at all of the work that this inlay requires of me, I have only one conclusion: I am insane.


 

 

 

 

 

Now that I am back fro Fort Severn, I can return to finishing work that I had left.  The Tremblay canoe has received 37 rib end repairs, a bunch of back side rib repairs, new planking all along the sheer line,, gunnel ends, stem ends, deck, outer gunnels, canvas, and fill.  The owner will be doing all of the sanding and finishing.

 

 

 

There's a lot of painting to do on a 20' freighter canoe.  Over and over.  And we have 5 of them under way right now!

Three coats inside and outside.  Some guys get right to it,, but I can see on the faces of some of my guys that look that I also see on the faces of my kids when they have to do chores and you know that they'd rather be doing something else.

 

 

Sanding, sanding, sanding.  There's a lot of sanding to do on 20' freighter canoes.  Inside, outside, seats, gunnels, keels...Some teamwork makes it go a little easier.

So does training up the next generation.  We get some of the local kids dropping by to see what is going on inside of the canoe shop.  You can be sure that they've never seen anything like this before. One young fellow is a regular.  His name is Tarzan.  Really.

 

 

 

I showed some paddle making to the guys working in the shop with me.  This fellow seems to have really taken to it, like he's got the fever!  This is a generation that is caught between traditional and modern culture and is struggling to find itself.  In a small, isolated community such as Fort Severn, there is not a lot for the young people to get passionate about.  Really, though, its not that different from any other community, just more concentrated and obvious.

Here Herman is doing some layout and discussing paddle making with one of the local elders.  I later found out that the elder is also the grandfather of his girlfriend.  Hopefully this sort of thing can help family relations.