We had a visitor from Japan last week, Takihiro Mise.  He had recently taken a two week class at the Wooden Boat School and now he was in visiting Garrett Conover to learn a few North Woods skills and working a few days in my shop to learn about wood and canvas canoes. Takihiro had bit of boat building experience but had never worked with canvas canoes before.  He was a very good woodworker and excellent student.  Wanting to get the whole "American " experience, his next stop before going home is taking in a New York Broadway play!

The shop had a safety inspection from the state "Work Safe" program.  Unlike OSHA, they do not issue fines but are just there to help you improve the safety issues in the shop.  The did point out a few items that we were not aware of and a few that we knew about but had been ignoring, which is far too easy to do.  Bean has taken the report very seriously and insist that we provide her with better ear protection!