I spent the day with colgaffneyis at the Minnesota Scottish Fair and Highland Games. It was a good time, but exhausting. I did not have a woodworking demo scheduled but I brought some tools along anyway. Good thing — somebody else needed to borrow a couple of them for some emergency repairs. He was impressed by how sharp they were, which he discovered the hard way :-)> (Just a cut, no real harm).

I was a flag-bearer during the parade and mid-day ceremonies. This took some effort. It was a large flag (the Scottish Saltire) on a 14′ pike, with a strong west wind. Thank you to smuzikant for a great back rub afterwards.

Did an hour of guard duty, two military drill sessions, the parade and following ceremonies, two dance sessions, dishwashing after lunch, and worked on teardown at the end of the day. I did my duty. It was not until after 4 PM that I was able to get out and spend much time seeing the rest of the Fair,

Joke of the day: A Scottish Highlander sees an Englishman putting his hand into a stream to drink the water. He says, in Scots Gaelic: “Don’t drink it. The runoff from the field flows into the water. It is filled with sheep dung.”

The Englishman replies: “How dare you speak to me in that heathen tongue! I am an Englishman: Speak the King’s English!

The Highlander then says, in English: “Use both hands. You can drink faster.”