Category: Fort at #4

  • Extant, Reproduction, Good Enough

    Extant, Reproduction, Good Enough

    —

    by

    Chris Johnson
    in

    Doing work at the Fort is wonderful. It is also an exercise in interpreting what you are seeing vs what you expect to see. When you look at the different items in the Fort, it is often surprising to find that they are “modern” items. We laugh when people pick up the wooden cup because…

  • Finding A Teacher

    Finding A Teacher

    —

    by

    Chris Johnson
    in ,

    A few weeks ago, I went up to the Fort at #4 to use their warping board. I have a warping board, I just do not know where it is. I could make a warping board, I didn’t want to spend the time to do so. On the way up, I stopped to pick up…

  • Yes, I did go to the Fort this weekend!

    —

    by

    Allyson
    in

    I’ll write more about my experience at the Fort later, but I leave you with a video of some bread making I did, put together by my friend Garrett. He’s filmed me at ren faires before, but I made a specific invite for him to come this weekend and see me doing something new. He…

  • AAR – Show and Tell at the Fort at #4

    AAR – Show and Tell at the Fort at #4

    —

    by

    Chris Johnson
    in ,

    It was a beautiful day for a visit to the Fort. You all would have had a chuckle if you had seen me. Remember the movie True Grit with John Wayne and Glen Campbell? Mattie Ross wore a black hat. That is the hat I felt I was wearing yesterday. Except mine didn’t have a…

  • Show and Tell At the Fort!

    Show and Tell At the Fort!

    —

    by

    Chris Johnson
    in ,

    I’m up at the Fort with Ally and my wife. They are having a show and tell. She picked out the garb to wear, and I have my black felt hat. Originally, I intended to do some wood working, but that is currently on hold until I get some raw lumber. The lathe needs bracing…

  • Learning A New Skill

    Learning A New Skill

    —

    by

    Chris Johnson
    in ,

    I like to learn new things. My goal is to be able to fix anything at The Fort At #4. A large part of that is learning how to turn wood. This is not as difficult as it could be because I have experience with a metal lathe. The concepts are similar, but very different.…

  • For Want of a Nail…

    For Want of a Nail…

    —

    by

    Chris Johnson
    in ,

    The Fort has been trying to recover from the lack of visitors during covid. It is also working with volunteers that know much about their area of interest, but not so much about other parts. Consider power transmission. We have been working with power transmission since ancient Roman times. What is power transmission? It is…

  • Spending a Week at the Fort

    —

    by

    Allyson
    in

    So back in May, I spent 8 days and 7 nights at the Fort at No. 4 up in Charlestown, NH. I was there for a number of reasons. First, they needed someone to do a cooking demo for a few school groups going through, and that’s entirely my wheelhouse. Second, there was a Rendezvous…

  • Turn about is fair play

    Turn about is fair play

    —

    by

    Chris Johnson
    in

    Yesterday, I went up to the Fort at #4 to pick up Allyson and to play with the Lathe. This time I took my chisels and was better prepared. I also took along some grease. With a bit of patience, I got the lathe belted back up. About that time, Allyson arrived. She took on…

  • At the Fort at #4

    —

    by

    Chris Johnson
    in

    I’ve been enjoying visiting the Fort. Hagar is a volunteer interpreter there. The first time I visited the Fort, Hagar showed me around. As we moved from room to room, I noticed that some artifacts were damaged or missing parts. One of the artifacts I noticed was missing some spindles and toppers. This is not…