Events at the Barn

Groopstock Report – Day 3 (the meatfest)

The final day of Groopstock has, in the past at least, been capped off by a gargantuan meatfest for dinner.  We did it again this year, but first the highlights of the day.

photo courtesy of Joshua Klein

photo courtesy of Joshua Klein

Bill Robillard and I built the folding portable workbench in real time to start the day.  I will build another one in a month or so in order to blog in detail, and then compile those blogs into a downloadable PDF.

photo courtesy of Joshua Klein

photo courtesy of Joshua Klein

He then left to present a monumental project of restoring the dais and rostrum for the US House of Representatives.  I was still working downstairs, but I got to hear it at least.

After lunch Dave Reeves, Bill, and I began the ritual of meat grilling.  I grilled up ten racks of ribs while they worked on 85(?) bratwurst, cooking them first in beer and onions before cooking them over real wood charcoal, as I was doing a dozen yards away.  I had heard of Tennis Elbow, but this was the first time I’d ever been afflicted with Barbeque Shoulder.  Flipping those dozens of pounds of meat really got tiring, and I was pretty sore by the time it was all over.

photo courtesy of Joshua Klein

photo courtesy of Joshua Klein

While this was going on in the yard, up the hill at the Barn there were presentations by Jon Szalay on molding and casting (I think they did cast some bronze), Brian Webster on Building a Website, and finally Jim Young and Bruce Hamilton on Pricing and Estimating.

photo courtesy of Joshua Klein

photo courtesy of Joshua Klein

Those who were still mobile and non-catatonic after gorging on meat traipsed back up the the barn for Martin O’Brien’s discussion of historical varnish recipes recorded in the archives of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, which I still maintain is about as close to perfection as a museum can be.

Following that, a bunch of the crowd wanted to watch the rough cut of my upcoming video Historic Transparent Finishes, but by midnight I pulled the plug and told everybody to go to bed.  They did not necessarily obey, but I was asleep and did not care.