Ice storm got us bad, over 12,000 without power,  13 days without power and 30 days without internet for me and TV streaming in North Mississippi. We had over 1000 line men from other states come and help us.
Had to cut our way out wit chainsaws to the Hwy. .
My 160 Acers has a lot of clean up to do, trees down everywhere.

1994 ice storm it was 30 days without power for me.

Hate to hear that Mark. We went through an ice storm a few weeks ago but not nearly as bad. Ice is the worst.Hope you can get back on your feet soon.

Yup ... I saw the National weather and that arctic  storm looked pretty bad back there. We typically get at least a couple of serious ice events here in Oregon every year about this time of year, but we are having just the opposite here. It's going to be 60 degrees tomorrow, the flowering plum tree is in full bloom, and tomorrow im going to mow the grass believe it or not...

Strange weather year.

That's tough being without power so long. Hopefully you had a generator to help keep things running a bit.   Kirk

Working on it Pat

No Generator for me Kirk, I stayed with my sister

here is a photo of out last big ice storm. this was a 50 year old pussy willow that was about 6' at the butt, and half of it fell on my wood shed. doesn't look very big in the photo, but it was large!

We had about 1000 power line polls down it the County

Quote from: Mad Max on March 01, 2026, 10:16:11 PMIce storm got us bad, over 12,000 without power,  13 days without power and 30 days without internet for me and TV streaming in North Mississippi. We had over 1000 line men from other states come and help us.
Had to cut our way out wit chainsaws to the Hwy. .
My 160 Acers has a lot of clean up to do, trees down everywhere.

1994 ice storm it was 30 days without power for me.

That's rough 😕   I had a couple days without power last December and thought it was as bad as it could get. Can't imagine 13 days.

With that last big one we had we were without power for 10 days. I had rented a generator right after the storm hit and got lucky. The drive into town was like a skating rink.     but those generators were all gone in the time i was there picking mine up.

We are pretty self sufficient here, and have a wood stove for heat, and propane cooking stoves. but the rough one is no water. Our well is 300' deep and runs a 3HP pump that's over 200'from the house. There is no running that pump with a portable generator pulling that kind of amperage through 500' of 8 gage copper wire. So i had to make water runs now and then.

The cool part about it was that the insurance company covered my generator rental cost & fuel along with repairs to the wood shed and tree removal. That tree was too big for me to handle solo leaning on a building.

48 years ago today Marcia and I got married and we celebrated today by voting and sharing a box of Puffs because we've been sick for almost a week. On the mend now but not quite there but the marriage is still strong.

Congrats on the 48th anniversary!       We are hitting 42 years in August.

Hope ya get to feeling better.

Thanks, Kirk.

Fought this grip cover for two hours.  Really makes a person appreciate a Hill style grip!!

But, only had to start over once. 

Yes Sir,  leather grips take a bit of practice. Different leather stretches differently depending non thickness. Every one is a bit different. It took me awhile to learn to pre stretch the leather around the grip I was wrapping first before making the seam cut, and leaving just enough space to pull it tight without stretching the slots out too much.

What type of leather punch are you using for your stitching holes? And what type of lacing?

I just finished an abstract project that was a bit more time consuming that I thought it would be.

Many Years ago my wife bought me a very cool looking copper weather vane for Christmas that I put up on our garden tool shed. But we had a bad wind storm and a tree fell on the shed. It spared the weather vane, but destroyed the shed.

So I built a new shed with a gambrel roof to simulate the old barn look, and had planned to build a cupola for the weather vane in the shop, but I got side tracked and  forgot about it. So the weather vane has been hanging up in the shop collecting dust, and getting seriously tarnished for almost 25 years now...

So  last week it caught my eye, and I took it down off the wall and knocked the dust off it. This baby needed some serious copper cleaner to polish it up right, so I ordered several different kinds before finally getting it done. It still took a lot of elbow grease with steel wool to get the years of build up, but I can share the stuff that worked best if anyone is interested.

Finally I used a product called "Ever Bright" for a clear coating with heavy UV blockers in it to keep it from tarnishing so quickly. VERY expensive stuff btw... but I was impressed with the clear coating. It Might make an excellent high gloss bow finish, but I'm not sure about its flexible properties.

Anyway.... Here is the finished product.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zn2A4bRXYghTUg7s6

Quote from: Kirkll on June 16, 2026, 10:06:59 PMYes Sir,  leather grips take a bit of practice. Different leather stretches differently depending non thickness. Every one is a bit different. It took me awhile to learn to pre stretch the leather around the grip I was wrapping first before making the seam cut, and leaving just enough space to pull it tight without stretching the slots out too much.

What type of leather punch are you using for your stitching holes? And what type of lacing?

I use the same diamond shaped one that I use for saddle stitching other projects.  Waxed artificial thread.  It's too fine of work to use a leather lace.

I'm going to try some shark skin on an upcoming ASL project.

An easy pattern for a handle wrap is to put 3 or 4 wraps of masking tape around the handle where you want the handle wrap to go. Then carefully with a sharp razor cut a line down the center of the tape on the back of the bow. Unpeel the tape in one piece and transfer to the leather. when you cut out the leather see how it fits. You may have to remove a small bit of leather from either side of the center line cut. Once you have cut out the leather you may need to wet the leather to help it form to the handle.I use a baseball stitch to secure the wrap, stitching first then go back tightening the stitch as you work along the stitch line.

...and if you don't already know, leather stretches more across the hide than it does along(head to tail) the hide.

I actually made a pattern like that but it's a little wonky when there's a locator.  It's the reason for the second try!   the second patern got me on target though.

I'm aware of the grain and stretch but didn't think about it on this.  Thanks for that reminder 🙂

I'm going to try some fish skins on a future project.

It will be wonky sometimes because of the irregular shape of the handle but you can wet the leather to shape it to the irregular handle shape. Use contact cement to glue the handle wrap all around but not on the back where the stitching goes. Once the glue is set trim the parts on the back so they almost meet. You can moisten this area before stitching and it should help draw both parts together. A thin piece of leather the same color as the handle wrap placed under the stitches will help hide any gap down the stitch line.

Quote from: Longcruise on June 18, 2026, 01:39:26 AM

Quote from: Kirkll on June 16, 2026, 10:06:59 PMYes Sir,  leather grips take a bit of practice. Different leather stretches differently depending non thickness. Every one is a bit different. It took me awhile to learn to pre stretch the leather around the grip I was wrapping first before making the seam cut, and leaving just enough space to pull it tight without stretching the slots out too much.

What type of leather punch are you using for your stitching holes? And what type of lacing?

I use the same diamond shaped one that I use for saddle stitching other projects.  Waxed artificial thread.  It's too fine of work to use a leather lace.

I'm going to try some shark skin on an upcoming ASL project.

Here is the one I use, but they have many others out there to choose from. I like the straight chisel cutter on this design.

https://www.google.com/search?q=leather+chisel+punches&sca_esv=3750d84e3b6f83f6&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS764US764&hl=en-US&sxsrf=APpeQnttGPBC6U6oHgwytEg4AYFBnWJx_g:1781883609157&source=univ&udm=28&ved=1t:6869&ictx=111&biw=1112&bih=702&dpr=2#ip=1&sv=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