Working last summer at Lang Pioneer Village, I was looking for a vaguely time-period appropriate activity to do with my hands when the day slows. I had had my fill of knitting small washcloths to sell in the gift shop, knit my own pair of socks and wasn’t ready to find an other knitting project. I had also spent the summer telling people how the first settlers would have had to make everything that they needed and felt that I probably would need something more than a pair of socks and a few washcloths if I were in that situation. It occurred to me that I could probably make something useful out of wood. So I talked to the carpenter and he got me started carving a spoon out of wood.
We cut down a big block of wood using a saw and the shave horse and then when my wood was a shape closer to a spoon, I began carving with a knife and later a chisel. The spoon I created was not exactly useful, having pretty useless proportions, but I felt that I was on my way to making something.
As I started this year I again got the whittling bug. Dave, the carpenter has a pretty sweet knife this year and carving seems to be easier. I started by making a giant useless fork. It was supposed to be a soup cookin’ spoon, but looked fork-like as I was carving it… Later I realized that it looked more like a creepy doll arm. …and so my new project, something equally useless to someone settling ‘new land’ has begun. 
I’m working on a creepy doll. So far I have whittled some simple arms and I’m working on making legs that match. The first leg I tried was too blunt and thick, so I’ve started another. It seems to have a bit more of the same feel as the arms I have. When i have finished my doll, I’ll post it fer ye. 
