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Day 1, October 16 Pete [Bull] and Bob [Manoogian] met us at our house. We took my truck to the airport. Had 4 hours to spare at the airport... Checking in went pretty smooth. Bob had a problem because someone had decided to give his proper name to the airline for his ticket. You would think Robert was OK, but, no, Bob is his given name. Had lunch, and on the plane we went. The Mullens, Dave Crocco, Dave Gaker were all waiting for us in Philadelphia. We got on the plane minus 3-4 of our party. They were coming from a connecting USAir flight. In fact, they were at our gate and 3 of the 4 made it but they shut the gate down on Ellen. Laura Brown was bitching from the inside and Ellen was bitching from the outside. Laura almost got arrested. They were feeding them a line about not being able to open the door once it had been closed. So they opened the door to arrest Laura and lo and behold! There stood Ellen. So what's the problem? Everyone had made it now. The flight to Gatwick/London was okay. Made it to London with all our baggage. Bloody Americans always have to carry so much. My carry-on bag with cameras got put in the cargo bay of the bus. So I couldn't take pictures. The bus was about two hours late. We stood upstairs for a while, then downstairs, then in the rain, then back upstairs. Finally we found the coffee hut to hang around till the bus got here. It did and we split for Glasgow. Stayed at the University for the night. We tried to get some dinner as a group, but they won't serve large groups here. They were either out of food, stopped serving or wouldn't let us in so we split up. Day 2We were told to have the bus packed by 8 a.m., eat breakfast and leave by 8:30. No bus, we ate, no bus, we waited, no bus, waited some more. Information does not flow too freely here either. Kinda reminds me of the States. But we all work on the information provided to us. When the bus got here, we packed it. Packing the bottom of one of these busses is a trip. There are no large voids anywhere, just a bunch of little cubby holes mixed amongst the electricals and fuels lines. Gotta be real careful how hard you pack stuff in. We had to use Frank's '72 VW bus to carry the rest of the stuff from Glasgow to Fort Augustus. Neat old van (bus). We made it to the Abbey. Rain off and on all day. It'll probably do this the whole time. We unloaded the bus, ate lunch and then about 5 of the rest of us toured the village here and then found a quaint little pub. Everybody got back from the site in time for dinner and, man, did it sound bleak. Wood is 25' off shore on a barge run aground with an 11,000 lb oak tree on it. So needless to say, no wood was unloaded. I'm feeling a bit Ohio'd tonight. Day 3Rode with Frank this morning 'cause we had to get petrol for the saws. God, he drives that van like a wild man. We sang some songs and that kind of lifted me spirits up a wee mite. .. Get to the site. Unloaded tools, set up army tents to work under, but they quickly became the tool sheds. The others unloaded the barge with a Manitou in the lake bed. Thank God for rock shorelines. The tree came off without a hitch. Even got some timbers laid out and started cutting wheels. Very Monty Python! Great day. Wayne (Col. Neel) showed us his model for the fixed weight treb. Wayne is one sick puppy. We did this at the pub. Only drank one beer. Kinda tired. Days 4, 5 
Wake up still tired. I guess I had a better time than I thought. The guys from Carpenter Oak showed up yesterday. They'll be helping us today from now on. [My daughter] Micah thinks the other journeyman from Germany is cute.
It was below freezing this morning and the site was quite windy today. If you stopped working for ten minutes, you'd catch a chill. I cut out wheel parts. Other pieces being made today were a man-powered lathe, axle parts for the wheel base of the fixed dude and a few other parts. We got some fire barrels today. It took a while to get the fires going but they were quite handy for lunch. There was not enough food for lunch today and there were also some very cold and mad people. Apparently we didn't eat every sandwich yesterday so they held back today, but we had more people today... By the end of the day, we had an on-site lunch wagon to provide us with hot coffee and lunches. Good idea, Martin and Frank. All in all things went well and we worked till 6:30. I'm so tired I'm going to bed right now at 9. There is supposed to be a meeting tonight for the presentation of the other treb but I think I'll go to sleep instead. Micah went to town with Cindy Mullen and Cora Levin and my credit cards to get some more warm clothing. Day 6Another great breakfast. Eggs, sausage, ham, potato cakes, beans and fried (no fat) tomatoes. They (the weathermen) were calling for gale force winds and a white out. Not a chance. It's a bit balmy out, but the sky is blue. 'Twas a beautiful day to be on the site early in the morning but we had to have this production meeting for the movie people. I got my chain saw sharpened. We didn't get to the site till around 10:30 or so. We finished the wheels -- minus pegging -- installed on the axles. By the end of the day, we had the base of the fixed machine assembled on its track. A little cook trailer independent contractor served lunch. Curried veggies or curry chicken or curry curry. Yes, he was Indian. Not bad. It was hot and way better than finger sandwiches we had been eating. We have yet to fire up any electric tools. Okay, they did use a skill saw to rip some plywood. The chain saw is definitely our tool of choice. Another great day of work. We felt so good, Peter and I stopped at the store to buy a few bottles of wine for dinner and a bottle of scotch. We had meat pie, sort of like curried beef for dinner. Oh, yeah, and mushroom pancakes for the vegetarians. Micah liked the pancakes. We played ping pong and lost. At that meeting thing in the morning, Hew Kennedy talked to us about laminating the arm of the fixed machine. They put Renaud up front to talk about the hinged machine and didn't tell him that was what he was there for. He was quite uncomfortable and not prepared. Poor fellow -- nice man ... beautiful French accent. They also delivered the projectiles today at the end of the day: 250 lb sandstone balls -- pretty cool looking. Day 7We were all expecting the worst of weather today. It turned out being one of the most beautiful days of rain and the sun shone all day. Filming went great. We got started on the hinged machine base and rolled (par-buckled) the hinged arm Doug fir out of the water today. What an absolutely beautiful stick! The fixed arm is now hewn on two sides. It has a wicked S shape so we decided to follow it since it will be in line with the rotation. The hinged base is all laid out and partially cut. Lunch was lasagna, baked potato and salad, buttered hamburg or hot dog roll and a candy bar. I discovered the bus driver is not being fed lunch. Not acceptable... Tonight Frank, Peter and I went back to the site to scrounge up hard hats. The castle is absolutely magnificent at night. Seems funny how we couldn't find near as many hard hats as I know I've seen being worn. We had to round up more hats so we could go to Sterling Castle and enter the construction site. They only have 20 hats. But before we left to get the hard hats, we were blessed to have the film crew eat dinner with us. These film people do their jobs much like I do mine -- piecemeal. And for dessert, Al Thomas gave us our own personal presentation of treb VMI style. It's untitled but it was perfect. He could give even your most beloved poet a run for their money. Oh, hell, there's that word again. I mustn't think of it, not here, not now. I know my friend Uncle Milty would cringe if he heard me say that. Sorry, H. Ross. Dinner was every part of every animal they have here in Scotland. Just add a little mint sauce. Day 8Slept late, breakfast was late, we were to leave at 9:00 for Sterling Castle. Most everybody went. A few stayed behind to go cruck frame hunting. Several from Carpenter, Oak or more of the transient carpenter oakers or road rangers and a few other of our crew went. Heard they saw two nice crucks -- one intact, the other half dilapidated. They said somebody was hired years ago to fix it, they took the roof off and they never saw them again -- tough! One cruck was only about 5 minutes up the road from the site. Meanwhile the rest of us braved 6 hours of bus ride to see Sterling Castle. It was the same ride as coming up from Glasgow. We spent an hour and a half touring the castle. 'Twas very nice of them to let us into the Great Hall under construction. Four million pounds of timber and the most awesome double raftered hammer beam roof system you'd ever want to see. Very fine work done by our brothers and colleagues at Carpenter, Oak. Micah, Cora and I had lunch with Brian and Janice at the Castle Bistrol. Shepherd's pie and a beer -- perfect. We spent too much time talking and didn't have enough time to see the town. That's okay, there'll be other chances, I hope! We made it back to the Abbey in time for dinner: salmon, carrots, peas, rice and, lord, let's not forget those potatoes. We also hooked up with the crew from Carpenter Oak. Bill, David, Steve, Brian, Bruce Tim, Sam, Joe, ... Gees, I can't remember 'em all. Great guys. A few of us made it to the Lock Inn in time for a beer and a few songs. But before we did, we chatted a while in Michail's room. D2 [Dave Dauerty], Steve, Cormac and myself. Talked a lot about employee status vs sole proprietor UK style and USA brand. We also concluded that Michael Barnes is sort of like the Jerry Springer of documentary. You know, present a confrontational air about the project and see what happens or doesn't happen. What is really funny is that we are not giving him that. He is getting everything but! It should make for a great show anyway. 'Twould be nice to add a little Monty Python flair to us.
Day 9
More parts are complete and I believe the fir hinged throwing arm is laid out for hewing. I don't think I mentioned getting that log on shore. It was delivered in the water with four other poles we will use as gin poles or shear legs. The first attempt was to shear leg walk the Doug fir log out of the loch by advancing the leaning shear legs always ahead of the movement of the load. Would look impressive for the camera, but as they attempted to lift the shear legs, it became abundantly clear they were too heavy and we didn't have enough pike poles. So we bagged it for the evening and par-buckled (rolled it on ramps) the next morning.
The fixed arm is shaping up nicely. It has quite the elegant S shape. Marcus [Brandt] now has the lathe going and shaped two axle parts today. Lunch was served up at the parking lot today. Hot beef stew with dumplings, peas and of course potatoes. If they ever run out of money in this country, they'll always be able to rely on potatoes. I guess they're kinda like peanut butter in America. This was a different caterer, definitely Scottish.
Today, we were asked to build a siege tower. Strange, how they have the budget to build more yet can't pay for all the people who work, like kids and spouses. I need to sit on the board and help stand up for everybody, not just my own interests. Al has a plan that might just remedy any worries. It sounds good. I just hope it's not too cold that day.
Day 10, Sunday
Jim's wife, Jean Whelan, took over the wheel carving AND drawing. It's time to move on. Bill Keir rounded one wheel today and part of yesterday and Rick Brown rounded another. One more wheel to round. Al Anderson finished pegging the last wheel, so that's the only one left to round out. Adzes, chisels and a scribe plane seem to do the job very well. The hinged base is now assembled and the bed timbers are in place for the fixed machine, thanks to Dave Gaker and Matt Hincman. They were grubbing around in the muck like 12th century surfs grubbing potatoes in the mud.
Have I said anything about the muck on site? Well, take the most fertile soil, you know, like glacier soil with really plush green grass on about a 15% incline, add rain every day, and then till it up with a big wheeled articulated four wheel drive Manitou, and we now have the biggest mud hole on the West coast of Loch Ness. We call it the Nessie Slip-n-Slide. The other thing that happened was we put a roof, Marcus has the correct name for it, on the castle wall.
Things look great and the pile of timbers is dwindling very quickly. They've mortised half way into the hinged oak arm and will be finishing that up tomorrow. Since the oak arm was a bit border line, they highlighted the hinge location by leaving its natural wain and then lambs-tongued the octagon fore and aft. Beautiful. Not only are we giving them two machines, they are really going to be works of art.
Martin now has Micah running the coffee tent. Andy Smith is splicing up the slings with the help of Cora Levin, Suzanne Kricker, Andrew Mullen, Chance and Cole Cooper and the Cooper girls cheering them on.
Tonight Steve from Carpenter Oak gave us a talk on the Sterling Castle job. The other boys from CO were of course there to help and heckle if needed.
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The Highland Fling: A Journal
