Of Shields and 2 year old Theology

Here are some glam shots of the shields.
To get any sort of cooperation from the kids, I had to bribe them with chocolate chips. And even then, my St. George would only tolerate a few lukewarm glances at the camera after I was waving a handful of chocolate chips. St. Joan of Arc was more cooperative, and even smiled in hope for the chocolate chips not yet seen. Her faith was rewarded.

Awesomest toy kid helmet and sword ever from here

 I realized in the above shots Joan of Arc was wearing hot pink pants. I know they had bright colors back then, but I rushed out and got some brown pants that more matched my medieval sensibilities.

Joan of Arc was not thrilled. She wanted "no, no, duh pwetty pants!!!" It was some time before she would smile again. Only when reminded about the chocolate chips...

And you though Captain America on a motorcycle was cool....

St. George photobombing....

"En I spear duh dragon fru duh mouth"

Saints evidently have union rights. When Jenny said "I fight duh dwagon" Isaiah corrected her, "no, no! I fight duh dragon! You fight duh Engwish!"

I am so. proud. of. this. thing.

I did the rough outlines, Josh did the detail work. My toe is copyrighting this image in the corner, since I'm pretty sure no one wants to claim ownership of it....

We played under the table, with Christmas lights. Isaiah (surprise) decided it was "a gun!" Jenny called it fire, and had her pet pony eating the lights.

Isaiah loves Bible stories. It seems sometimes he gets them a little mixed up, and then transmits them to Jenny.
The other day, I was trying to peer into her ear (long story), and Jenny asked very matter of factly "you going to cut off my ear?"
"No, Jenny!"
"Jesus cut off Peter's ear, but he put it back"
I think that was Isaiah's oral tradition of Peter taking off Malchus' ear....

Isaiah loves hearing the story of the Prophet Elijah at bedtime, all the way from Carmel to God speaking to him on the mountain. Anyway, he's developed the disconcerting habit of repeating bits of the story randomly. Especially the sentences that get the most reaction out of me, such as "Dear God, pwease wet me die!"

(Another example, Isaiah repeatedly throwing the potty chair about the room while laughing maniacally and shouting "how DARE you turn my fadder's house into a den of feeves!")

Anyway, while they were eating, Isaiah announced "I died"
Jenny was disturbed and repremanded him "no, Idaiah not die!"
To which he maintained that he did.
Jenny was agitated at this, "No, Idaiah, JESUS died"
Evidently, dying is only something Jesus is allowed to.

She's enforcing doctrinal purity, at a very young age.

Thoughts on Making Faramir's Bow and Arrows

Faramir's bow is long, a little taller than he is. It looks to be a simple tillered sapling bow, and his arrows are painted/oiled dark brown and fletched with golden feathers.

To make Faramir's bow....when I first was planning on this outfit, I thought I'd just do a bow shaped object. But then I found this AWESOME WEBSITE (page with all the links) on "primitive technology" which tells you all you need to know to survive either a Zombie or Nuclear Apocolypse....making fire, making bows, fletching your own arrows, making musical instruments, all from ground zero from sticks and rocks and things, also with simpler options if you want to start with the hardware store....


For example there's a tutorial for growing your own bowstring, all about sinewing a bow with sinew, how to straighten sticks for your own arrows, but also they have tutorials that show you can string and sinew a bow with thin nylon rope, and how to make arrows with wooden dowels for shafts, how to make a bow from wood from the hardware store etc)

bow from a sapling (using a hatchet) by Stephen Coote

 On making a bow from a sapling, this article shows you how, this article on helpful techiniques in using a hatchet to whittle the sapling. Alas if I lived in AL still, finding saplings would be no problem. Out here in the desert (pine is a no no for bow making) its much harder to find an appropriate tree, and then hack it down without breaking someone's heart....

Cordage bow by Dick Baugh

Cordage Backed bow, looks really interesting. This is a copy of Inuit bows that used sinew to strengthen the wood. He uses thin nylon rope.

Cordage bow by Dick Baugh

 I really want to do this one. There's more articles on the main page, that seem to be written by engineers, with graphs and thoughts on the physics of bows, and charts on how much to tiller a bow given its length...

This article shows you how to fletch arrows by hand. There's more links on the main page for lots of fletching options, fletching jigs, etc.

I think, while the sapling bow is the obvious first try, given that we're in the desert, I'll start with the Bundled Bow , and after that, there's the board bow from supplies from a hardware store. I really want to cordage back the board bow. And ofcourse, fletch my own arrows. White feathers, I think, to keep with the sea-bird kind of theme of Gondor. 

                              

Faramir's bow is at least as tall as he is. Obviously, its not sinewed. But I think given Gondor's technology, it makes sense. So I say Faramir's bow was sinewed. So there.

My plans

1. Bundled Bow with tape fletched arrows
2. Board Bow, (cordage backed, 'sinewed' with nylon rope) with feather fletched arrows
3. Sapling Bow (cordage backed, 'sinewed' with nylon rope) with feather fletched arrows
4. Sapling Bow with seagull feather fletched arrows

(links to making all this stuff above)

I'm so excited. I haven't even looked into making arrow heads yet, tutorials which are also on the main page of primitive ways.

And we're definitely going to have archery as a subject in our homeschool :)