As of about 6:30 p.m. there is no more carpentry remaining to be done on this project. It needs to be painted, and it would probably make sense to cover its open top with expanded steel mesh to keep circus acrobats from going in and stealing our swords. The door has been faced with pine paneling and it now has a short closet rod for hanging up garments.
Eric has been calling it the Armoury, which actually seems a better name for it than Arsenal, so Armoury it is.
Considerable progress (though not as much as hoped) made in a Saturday morning work binge. The Arsenal has all of its cubbies and its pegboard, creating an opportunity for non-monetary contributions in the form of painting it.
The gada is a sort of über-Indian club used for certain conditioning exercises. We now have one.
The Arsenal now has a door, but it has been fixed in place pending resolution of some range of motion issues.
Much progress on cubby construction in the Arsenal, which will soon be ready for an actual door.
Thanks to a couple of hours’ hard work by some of our weekend warriors, the Arsenal is now sheathed and ready for further improvement. Being able to store our gear just off the practice space will greatly increase the efficiency of our practices.
We tried a new thing and published a Meetup.com gathering for a longsword beginner’s workshop. Any of you guys are reading this, thanks for coming — it was fun. I always enjoy meeting new people in the martial arts. I had no idea if anyone would show up.
We had about ten people come in off the Meetup.com invite. Additionally, we had three Seattle Escrima Club members come over. Neal and I did a tag-team for the introduction and background about sword fighting and about Lonin. Then I ran through a basic active workout with an emphasis on balance, stance, footwork and hitting. Andrew helped with demos and circulated to help out the guys. Mark and Neal pitched in as well. I was a little concerned that the agenda would be too basic/boring but the participants seemed reasonably well-engaged, and a few said they would come back to check out a class. Good bunch of guys.
(As I mentioned at the end of class, the term “guys” is accurate as no gals were present. Sword-women, if you are out there, you are very welcome here.)
The arsenal now has a floor. Next: walls.