Mar 3, 2012

Leprecon in Stake Road Show as - 1st stave

I have had aa period of time in my life when I have had the opportunity to participate in various activities and hobbies. I have done woodburning, leatherwork, carving, and photography as my main hobbies. I have participated in ward and stake activities such as plays and roadshows. Well, in one of those ward roadshows  I combined activities. I was in a roadshow in the 4^th ward years ago and that was the time when I started playing a lot with staves. I was to be a leprecon in the roadshow and needed a small cane or stave to use in the play. So one day I walked up to where all of the plum trees were growing along the fence by Child’s field. I went into the small cluster of bush sized trees and found a limb that was fairly good sized for what I needed. It was about and inch and a half round and 4 feet  in length to where another large limb grew out of that limb at a right angle. I cut the limb off and then trimmed the smaller one to a few inches long and the removed all of the small twigs. It made a nice little cane and I later used it also as one of my staves at scout camps. It was the first stave I made followed by a 6 foot stave that I cut from a grove of trees about a half mile above Jolley’s Ranch. I cut it while on an outing with the ward held at Jolley’s and in the evening after I got the tent set up I hiked up the hill in search of a worthy tree trunk. I found it and cut it down and discovered that it wa a very hard wood. That particular stave then became my history stick as it made for carving letters that would not easily break or change while I was carving the words on the stave. I have since carved staves for other scout masters at timberline, for leaders at Girl’s camp and for scouts. It has been a lot of fun and vey rewarding as I have been able to give the staves to people who had served hard on various camps and in various activities and it was an easy way for me to show my appreciation.