Captain Jim

Welcome aboard, Mate, and make mine a Smithwick's.

Well said, sir. The very thing I'm teaching my kids. They don't get to carry afield until they can say the same and prove it on the range. I wish more of us had that in mind when we go out. We owe it to the animal to kill it quickly and not slop it all up because we are unsure of or unused to our guns.

Whip me up a pair, good sir, set me a price and send 'em on down. I'll definitely have some fun with them at late-night (after the kids are in bed, rules you know) cub scout camping trips. I don't smoke except at reenactments and occasionally while camping. The idea of a separate burning lens is definitely growing on me. In FL if the sun is shining at all the small lens works, but a big one would work even better. Jim

Welcome aboard, Mate. Busy sort of pyrate, but I suppose you have to be to keep the Rockies safe for pyracy!

I have one of those brass boxes with the lens built into the lid. I have used it occasionaly to light the slowmatch (takes about a second) and then use the match to light the pipe. Where did you find the tongs, or did you make them? I've seen several antiques but the prices are outlandish.

Hmmmm...Rhummmm....

And already on the cell phone...

And Foxe, too. So many December pyrates. Many happy returns, Mate.

You're not the critter I want pictures of! Stupid Mad Dogge. (I noticed people keep saying that a lot. Why is that? Fall off a gate again this year?)

Thanks, mate. If the winds don't change soon I'm going to start rowing! Dog paddling. Something.

Is there enough spark in a fire piston to light a pipe? I just may have to get one, if so.

Well, scorpions don't leave such a mark and are unlikely to show up in such numbers. Catepillars, however, do show up in groups. I once rubbed up against one of the saddlebacks on my arm, wrist to elbow, and thought that I had run up against a hot ember, unlikely while just walking through the woods. Welts, scabs and sloughing about a week later. Sounds like the critter, but visual evidence is better. Photos, anyone?

Congratulations on the new little pyrate.

If those are indeed the critters that tagged you, then they really hurt. I've been stung several times and it sucks. How many of those did you guys see down there.

Happy birthday, mate. And thanks again for your Journal each year. It's priceless.

I keep looking through the pictures of the event and I don't see you in any of them...me either...oh. Thanks for the well-wishes mate and I'll see you and your lovely wife next year.

Thanks, would that you could have, too. Next year.

Thank ya'll fer the well-wishes. I'm makin' plans ahead to be at PiP next year, and I'm bringin' along Morgan, and perhaps the rest of the gang so I won't have to worry about 'em. I surely did miss my Mid-Holiday Family Reunion.

Thank you all so very much. Next year all of us Decemberites will celebrate en masse down at PiP!

Close. If you're talking 2005, then it was Captain Jim, Patrick Hand, Mad Dog Mike Wilkinson, Giggles the Pirate and Myself. And leave us not forget Harry...without whose insani...ah, forbearance none of this could possibly have happened.

Get a bus, name it "Further" and the rest, as they say...

I hereby give my permission to my fellow pirates to use my photos for the purpose of presenting themselves as sexy, hawt, seafaring, wunderpirates. I was looking through your pictures, mate. Wonderful. Do you remember about five years ago when a few of us looked about the mostly empty fort, all three tents, thought "careening camp" and dreamed about a gathering of pyrates like no other? One where authenticity was not tantamount but striven for? Where all pyrates would feel welcome and a part of the action, with a crew affiliation or without? Then we got all evangelic and spread the word? People came. All were welcome. Many stepped up and organized, lead and became evangelical themselves. Wonderful people came from everywhere and it happened. I just saw pictures of the vision.

You own a race car? And you want to trade it for a picture of yourself? That's just silly...oh, wait,...ahh...CARD...oh, never mind...

Happy birthday to yet another fellow Decemberist. We will all gather at PiP next year for an annual communal pyratical party!

Yet another Decemberist. We'll all celebrate together at PiP next year, mate. Merry natal day sir.