michaelsbagley

Okay try again with a photo taken on a much better camera.... Still not a perfect picture (chalk that up to my photographic skills, I should have begged the wife to do it)... But here they are. Oh, and Lady B, these are much smaller than dimes even. I couldn't find a dime in my pocket or under the sofa cushion to add to the photo for size comparison though.

There is the URL to my mySpace on my profile... But that is kind of shucked away in the "information" panel that I am guessing few people ever actually view... But otherwise, the link is http://www.myspace.com/michaelsbagley

Ya know, I know I took at least a few pictures of you (because I was impressed, but then I am not most people), but they seem to be in the lot of photos that have not been posted yet... Or at least I hope so, a lot of the photos I took were blurry and crappy, because I am just not trained in the use of the wife's nice camera very well. But I did find This One of you

There are instructions for doing a basic passementerie button on This Web Page, but keep in mind, there are a lot of variants and different weaves one could use, and even mix materials (fabric and metal threads etc.)

That's a very interesting question... I think my answer would be that the topic of many of my blog entries are often about projects I am working on. Over the last year since I have started making wine and mead again, a lot of the time I am rambling on about my experiences with that (or sewing projects, or other types of crafty things). While this does have a limited audience, I don't mind sharing those blog entries, and actually prefer posting those "publicly" rather than keeping them private... I do post some more journal type entries as well, and I do keep in mind the potential audience with those. Those I post in case some distant friends are interested in what I have been doing lately, but I am cautious not to post anything too personal... But to me, those tend to fall more into the category of "of not much interest to many (or anyone)", and I am cautious enough not to post any information that if read by a complete stranger can be of any harm to me. So I guess, while I do it for me, there is a little bit of hope that some will read it and comment if it strikes them.

Funny you should mention maple syrup... It didn't survive the move. True story, while moving the box with all the those types of things, the bottom of the box fell out just before I was going to set it on the counter at the new place, and all the glass bottles dropped to the floor... Only the maple syrup bottle broke. All of the other bottles (which included a couple of bottles of rum) did however survive. While I mourn for my maple syrup, I do however have the option of burying my sorrows in some really good rum.

Dude, collectively the wife and I have three better cameras... But we are still unpacking. Word to the wise, never move over the holiday season... it just takes too much longer to get everything done. But yes, I will try and take a better picture and post it instead when I get the chance.

After ignoring this style of button for a long time, I have finally given them a try. However, as I wanted to use them on a shirt, and I like my shirt buttons very small... I think I may have driven myself insane with these. I also took it a small step in another direction by avoiding the use of any ring. The ring on these is nothing more than thread wrapped around my forming tool (wrapped about 20 times)... Anyways, here is the picture. I had to use my stupid camera phone so the image is kind of grainy (good camera is still packed away somewhere....)

I blog, but infrequently. I think I average about two posts a month, although there have been months where I have not posted, and other times where I will post a couple of times a week. I use mySpace to blog on, although out of the easy free available options, it is likely the most difficult to customize well (most people on mySpace turn their page into these horrid looking things that could be described as slot machines on bad heroin). From others I know that blog that use either Live Journal or Blogspot, I think I have heard more good feedback from the Live Journal site. As for the why's, I do it mostly for self gratification. There are some of my blog entries that I think others would find entertaining, educational, or otherwise amusing, but I would wager that the majority of my blog entries would be of little value to anyone other than myself to refer back to.

Yeah! Stupid, stupid Rats! (Actually, I think he took one of the two photos, I want to steal, and I think Red Jessi stole the camera from him to take the other of the two I want to hijack).... But thanks!

Oi, M.A. d'Dogge! Do you mind if I steal a few of these and repost them on mySpace and whot-naught? If you say yeah, I'll make sure I post photo credits, otherwise I'll just do it and not say anything!

Hey, at least she got it right... Most spectators just prefer to think of you as "Colonial Boy" (or was it "Colonial Man"?)

I know this is a dead topic... But I just stumbled across This Blog Entry while surfing around... I particularly like this as it relates to how we appear to the average person who isn't into re-enacting or history, which hypothetically is the bulk of our spectators. On a more personal note, I found it more amusing that I met the author of this blog last month, and didn't realize it (nor did she), as coincidence would have it, she works for the real estate agent we bought our condo from last month.

Thanks for clearing that up for me! Now I know to look for those coins as they existed, and that they just may have not been used (much?) in the colonies.

I don't know anything much about Spanish coins at the moment (pieces of eight were Spanish coins, weren't they?)... But I have been doing a fair bit of reading on period English coins recently... And as far as I can figure, English coin denominations go something like this...' Guinea (Gold coins) = 4 crowns or 20 shillings Crown (Silver or gold coins, there is some question according to Wikipedia as to whether these were used in our period or not) = 5 shillings (or a 1/4 guinea) Shilling = 12 pence Pence/Pennies = four farthings Farthing (copper coins) = 1/4 pence (four farthings to a pence) I've managed to collect originals for the Charles II reign (and some in the Queen Anne reign) in most of the lower denominations, but so far guineas and crowns seem to be out of my price range. Perhaps if you look up the Spanish coins by their Spanish names, you might have better luck in discovering their value?

Hey all, For those who live in apartments or have similar mailboxes that are in banks, you may have noticed that the post office labels your box on the inside with the current residents name. I recently had a package shipped to me that was labeled with our character names (Souris instead of Bagley)... While I did receive the package, because I recently performed an address change, when the wife went to check our old address mail box (we still have the apartment until the end of the month), she noticed that the post office had changed the name on the inside of our box to our character names. I am guessing that because of the online filed address change, and a package arriving to a "new name", they thought that they would change the name to that "new name". This is likely a rare and unusual circumstance, but I though I would throw this out there as a cautionary tale for those who address mail or packages to people's character names instead of their real names. Regardless, have a happy holidays to one and all! And yes William, that means we got our shirts, and they are AWESOME!!!!

The wife and I will be taking a hiatus from this event this year as well... There will be a ton of people we won't get to see because of this, and we will sorely miss them all, but we need to start cutting back on some of the travel. With Searle's Raid and some of the other events we want to attend this spring, something had to take the hit, and it just happened to be RF this year.

Okay, here is the picture of my coal tongs... I am squeezing them in this picture, their natural state is closed. And after looking at them again, I am fairly certain they are not made from an old coat hanger, the copper wire is too thick for that, so it is likely they were made from thick wire from the hardware store.

There is Morgan Drake's photos from PiP/Fort Taylor Pirate Fest on mySpace... I think she posted many of these on Facebook as well. Which is where I stole the good picture of my mid-air tumble Mission... There are some good ones of you and Cousin Robbie in there as well M.A. d'Dogge. My wife caught a bunch of good photos from the walk the plank contest as well... But you will have to sort through the over 250 photos she posted from PiP (out of the over 1200 she took to see them.

Actually, Matty has a good point. River pirates were a thing of the more late 18th and early 19th century... and all of my gear is either late 17th or early 18th century. And Matt, Crew or not, the input is welcome and was helpful! I would think just doing GAoP would be easiest, although I could definitely pull out all the stops on a La Salle's voyage type impression. While I do plan on eventually putting together some later period nautical gear, I was hoping to use my existing gear for this one.

That would be Shay Gailen (not sure on the spelling, or Greg as he is sometimes called) I wasn't there yet, but I would guess it would be Jill Handed Red, Buxom Marie, and/or Jingles (aka Drop Dead) I think that would have been Tiger Lee (although there was another guy whose name escapes me at the moment who you might be talking about) Crudbeard, and his wife (whose name escapes me at the moment) Got me beat on this one...

Happy Birthday Widow Chole! (belated?) May you have the best year ever, with better to come! (As long as you keep the coffee coming, at least )

I think this one is a likely good candidate for us. We have our wedge (at about 9 X 8), and we have out tarp shelter which when set up generally take up a 13 X 13 foot area.

Don't quote me on this, but I believe the rental on the ship is in the $200 to $300 per hour range (I asked Linda this question once, it is a shame I didn't commit the answer to memory), and we would likely have to book for at least 3 or 4 hours to prevent another booking... And since one of the main underlying reasons we do these events is to raise money for the ship, it almost seems counter productive... But then again, the money for a rental would be going to the ship anyways. I dunno, I just think that in order to guarantee there are no double bookings, the easiest solution would be to charge the re-enactors for attending... And to me, there is just something very wrong in charging volunteers money who have traveled (for some a great distance) and put a great deal of time and effort into helping out. I think it would be better to just test our luck, after all, last May there was nothing booked. In fact, out of the 4 events we have run so far on the ship, this past September's wedding was the first "interruption" in our having the ship for the entire weekend. Not to mention, that the only time there was a booking, it caused me to look for an alternative outing. While there were some small hiccups in that outing (no food at the place I found), it turned into a really good fund raiser. So I am kind of seeing things as adversity creates interesting opportunities. Edit: Since this is not worth another post, I will also mention here that I have added a MySpace Page for this event for them that prefer MySpace to Facebook (or those who just wanna be on both like me )

I have a set of these types of clamps that were gifted to me back in October. I think the gent that made them told me he made them from a coat hanger, or perhaps some thick unshielded copper wiring from the hardware store. My set are about 6 inches long (give or take). Bo, the guy that gave me that is Jean Phillipe from Frontier Folk if you know him at all. Callenish, I had those at the Lockhouse back in November, did you see them? I used them to light my pipe when we were sitting around the fire Saturday night. They're likely still packed, but I will try and have a look for them and post a pic or two in the next few days if I can find them.