I know it has been forever since I last shared a blog with my fans.  We did visit Vegas with friends and family and there were lots of items that I could have written about but as they say “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”

We came home and recovered but I since then we both have developed colds.  This is going rampant in the community.

Lying around all day feeling pathetic.  One day Pat did not even get out of her PJs but lay on the couch watching Olympics with the fire on and mostly napping.  I am no better (although I did put clothes on)  Absolutely no desire to do anything.  The very thought of going down to the shop to work on the model as versus lying on the couch reading books seemed ridiculous.

I mean what is the whole point of making a model of a ship that was destroyed more than 300 years ago? It seems pointless (this is the cloudy cold mind process)  Why not just lay there hoping for a better life or death.

But I dragged myself down and took on a special project.  The Brodie Stove for the model.  Now this is an interesting component.

When you realize that these warships had anywhere from 200 to 800 crew how did they feed them?

In 1750 a guy named Brodie developed an Iron stove that fit between the decks in the forecastle of Royal Navy vessels.  It was innovative and every warship for the next 150 years had a variation.  It had kettles and little ovens and a series of spits on the front for roasting the salt beef or pork.  Basically an oven with compartments that made soup and boiled water and had an open hearth.  In the exhaust chimney was a fan driven by the rising heat that turned a gear that ran through a pulley and another pulley to turn the spit of the roasting pig.  Freeing up the cooks to work on other things.

Anyway I have added a Brodie stove in all the British warships I have built in the last 20 years (Andra and Kelly you can peek in through the fore gunports of your models and see it)  I grant you that this is a detail that no one will ever see, but like treenails, it is my style.

So sick as I was I went down and worked on the Brodie stove for the frigate I am building and I think I did a good job.  Apparently even with a cold, there is a purpose in life.  Maybe I will live on.