Darren8306

The young man who was trying to beat me, did so. Hard. His first attempt at that strava mile, he was 30 seconds slower than me. Now, he has reached almost 2 minutes faster than me. For the non-runners out there, that means I'll have to cut a BUNCH of weight, or make my legs a decade or three younger...not sure which approach makes most sense to me yet. Seriously though, I couldn't be happier. Watched the kid grow up next door, and take up athletics in his late 20s. Started running because I hectored him into it. I don't have a lot of hope, but I mean to go try it later today, and if it's warm enough, I'll drop a layer before starting it. Wish me luck! (pic is my little Ethyl, looking at the start/finish line on Range Lake)

When I was a kid, we had a family celebration for my first communion. Mom served rappie pie to everyone, which is a traditional Acadian dish requiring a huge prep and beloved by all the attending family. I was upset, and remember insisting that it was MY first communion, and we should be able to have hot dogs instead!

I make the cheapest chicken dogs ever, with teeny wraps as buns, and tell everyone they are called 'glizzies'. One day, a friend will go to Illinois and unwittingly start a riot.

Happy New Year! Anyone coming for an icy run today?

Haven't tried kangaroo hides before. Does anyone know what kind of friction it would add, to try to get these from north of the border? And what the HECK do I make with a kangaroo hide of ANY colour ? Thanks for thinking of us here, @Ferg I hope you can easily find new homes for the items you want to clear out.

Coffee is dripping, kettle is boiling, my dog is enjoying her Christmas breakfast, and I'm just waiting for my sweetheart to get up. Merry Christmas!

Excellent work! I hope their guitar playing keeps up with it

Your feed sounds good. Wish I was near enough to nose my way into it. Your family is lucky to have you and your son. We just did some groceries, and are tucking in for some movies and maybe a hot cocoa. Happy Christmas, everyone. Oh, and a pal of mine came by to try making a wallet. She's doing great so far. I could learn from her, if only I would listen

when sewing boxing style mittens, the back is larger than the palm. To gather them evenly, they are handsewn with single stitches at first. One stitch at 12 o'clock, one at 4 o'clock, one at 8 o'clock. Then split the difference... so next at 2 and 10 o'clock, then continue single stitches at the biggest gaps. This makes the gathers even, but again, no machine works that way, except the human hands.

Incredible work. Thanks for sharing.

I bet that smells great! lol Last night I visited an underwhelming buffet restaurant, with amazing company That man is a hero! I hope he finds a twenty in an old jacket from the back of his closet.

Our autumn is similarly chill. Holy effing eff I love winter. We live in a paradise, @Sheilajeanne I wasn't going to, but did want to dip a toe into the market. I'll give it a whirl, and see if it's worth it. Probably not, but then again, you don't know til you try. I'm going to do a bunch of sanding, to prep a pretty house for its first coat of paint. Also monotonous, but I'm looking forward to it. I find some of that monotony soothing.

Thanks, I do appreciate that's the normal way. But if they wanted to make it in their store themselves, I'd help him set up. If they wanted to have a copy of the stamp to use themselves, glad to let them. I'm the opposite of territorial in this case.

Cool, sounds like a good 'standard practice' way to address it. Of course, the final say goes to Mr. M (who runs that company) I'm still asking if I can just keep it and use it willy-nilly. Doubt they can do that, but this owner is a different breed.

I think I'm in the midst of making a mistake around leatherwork. So a local business, with a very recognizable logo are interested in some key chains. I'm sure that logo would also sell in galleries, since it is northern themed. I haven't talked to the gents who own the company, but expect they would want control of that logo. Or need it. (finance is funny) How does this usually shake out? Would it be billing the company a one-time fee for the production of the stamp? Or splitting it over an order or two? Good thing I'm slow, but my test stamp (ordered for my own purpose) will be here in a day or two, and I am going to do a run of a dozen once or twice, to get a feel for production time. But I will have to figure this out, before I can exploit this lovely opportunity (I really like the company and owners)

when spending long hours training outside, I wore a cowboy hat. They are a surprisingly good hat to go sweat outside it. Shouldn't be surprising though. Somehow blocks out all the sky, without limiting vision.

Gave it a go. It's a much better result, even if my circle IS off a bit. Thanks again. Also, I didn't see the hairs sticking out until I was processing the photos. Guess I need improved lighting on my work.

That sounds worth trying. Thanks a lot, @chuck123wapati

Thanks guys. The stitches are layed out in the die, and the stamp couldn't have been stamped any harder (short of breaking my hardwood stamp). One of the other problems, pointed out by a stranger who didn't see it, is the quality of leather. Bought some cheap from Tandy, to try as liner. It dyes weird, is strange to handle and probably has problems I am unfit to describe well. The 'stranger' was 'Armitage Leather' on youtube. He has a 2h sewing presentation, and early on, he told me something I've known a long time, and keep having to be told. Buy quality. Leather of high quality, he says, works consistently and that limits the errors to the worker, simplifying troubleshooting. This leather, as I said, is the opposite. I think it will be worth going back to Hermann Oaks, or whatever other quality stuff I can find in Canada. It's better, and the errors are more often 'mine'. I will try to make tension consistent, and avoid the backstitch, so thanks for that. I'll be banging out a few of these crappy ones, while meditating on some of these issues. The quality stuff will be after I've got a better result, as I do still have some HO scraps around somewhere. As a side note, it seems to be too slow to include sealhide in this fashion. Also, the hairs look too long for this size of project, I think. Anyhow, onward and thank you guys.

Those are BEAUTIFUL! And the messy bench makes me less ashamed of mine lol. (currently a similar mess on the kitchen table, while Sweetheart is away)

I ordered a cheap clicker die from Temu, and can now make use of some of my scrap. The die is CRAP lol. I knew that going in, but it isn't the problem I'm having. I'm not even SURE what problem I'm having. This thing looks like boiled ass, and I'm not even sure why. The stitching, often a favourite part, looks like I never learned how... Sometimes I have trouble seeing my work properly, until taking a break and looking the next day. Still looks bad. Can you fellows try to say why? At the moment there is not yet edge kote, or a finish on, by the way.

Ya, this morning I stumbled across a quote attributed to Friedrich Hayek: The other thing is more...um...mechanical. I can have quite a lot of 'success' from grant money, but then how would I know that my work was good quality? I know a lot of people take advantage, and some of those that I know do very high quality work, but there really isn't a leathercrafting community here. The best really clear feedback I can expect is money. The grant doesn't care at all about the quality of my work. At least as far as I can tell from here.

The sandals are the ones used my Mr. H, for his trailrunning. The Tandy offering looks to me like a product from China, which doesn't really count. (in my crazy counting mind)

I used to wear a cowboy hat for running, when I was training for ultras. So many hours under the sun, and I really began to appreciate how suitable that hat is for protection. Can see everything but the sky, and mainly keeps the rain off. Comfy to wear for hours, and you can fill it with ice if it's really warm out.

I have used sealhide spats to improve 'normal' shoes for use indeep snow. Still had to get shoes from China...