My daughter Misty and her husband Devon became parents Friday at 12:45PM. My new granddaughter's name is Chelsea Elizabeth Hughes. She's 6 1/2 pounds and very healthy with bright pink skin and a full head of dark hair. She came about a month earlier than she was supposed to come but the doctor and the nurses are not concerned. Misty did very well before during and after the birth. The baby shower was planned for today at my house but I think Misty will still be in the hospital.

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Harville, Ruth Elizabeth September 12, 2005   Ruth Elizabeth Bryan Harville 48, of Indianapolis, passed away September 11, 2005 in her residence. She was born May 28, 1957 in Granite City IL., to the late Irby and Patricia (Parrish) Bryan. She was a homemaker and member of the Ben Davis Christian Church. A funeral service will be held Wednesday, September 14 at 11:00 a.m. in the Hampton-Gentry Funeral Home, Plainfield, where friends may call on Tuesday, September 13 from 4 to 8 p.m. Burial will be in Maple Hill Cemetery. Survivors include her husband, Joseph Steven Harville; children, Jason and Joseph Harville, Misty Hughes; sisters, Sylvia McCrae, Pam Wright, Faith and Judy Bryan; brothers, Irby Jr., Malcolm and Ricky Bryan and 2 grandchildren.

My son Joseph found my wife Ruth had died in her sleep Sunday morning September 11. She had been having back pains which developed into leg pains.She had gotten to the point she couldn't walk and the hospital prescribed painkillers and a wheelchair. She was asleep in the wheelchair Saturday night. We put her to bed and she was mumbling incoherently. Sunday morning she was back in the wheelchair watching tv when my son found her. The coroner said she died in her sleep of a heart attack or a stroke which are part of her medical history. We have set the funeral for 11:00AM Wednesday in Plainfield, IN. Hampton Gentry Funeral Home.

I'm back in Arkansas after my trip to Talequah. I met a lot of great people and had a good time. I picked everyone's brains on string and arrow making and I think I figured out some of the things I was doing wrong. The main thing is to practice a lot. Also, a skinny point penetrates a lot better than my thick ones, Also, wood tips splinter when they hit rock....  My main problem was hitting the target from 100 yards. Now I need to see about starting Cornstalk shooting in Indiana.

I'm heading to Arkansas this afternoon. I'll practice as much as I can before heading over to Oklahoma. I planned to practice at the range yesterday, but I forgot there was a Wednesday 3d shoot going on. The rangemaster told me it would be too dangerous. So I shot in a new subdivision (no houses yet). I was shooting pretty good. The wood tips don't like to hit rock. I resharpened them and made me an armguard from rawhide last night. I'll string up the final gut string this morning and see if it breaks.

I trimmed my feathers this morning because I didn't think I needed such tall feathers for 100 yards. The first shots this afternoon went 30 yards farther than yesterday holding on the same mark. I found them all in the beanfield behind the target. I noticed the bow had taken more set in the bottom limb where I had cut around a knot. I flipped it over and made the lower limb the top limb. It shot better that way even though the bow is curved to the other side. I held the bow kinda sideways and it shot good. I was getting about 10 inches penetration in the excelsior bale.

Well, my plan (plan) may turn out to bite me. My wife is determined to go to Arkansas to visit family, even if I'm not ready to compete in the Cornstalk primitive class. So, for insurance, I'll be prepared to shoot the Indian bow class, whatever that is. I  rounded off the square edged nocks so they would work with regular string. I made up a linen string and tied it on like the rawhide strings. I took my arrows and bow out to the target range and practiced at 100 yards on the field target bales. I'm gonna have to practice more to get my left-right aim down pat. The osage tipped cane penetrated the pine board backstop very well but the fine point dulls quickly when it hits wood. I resharpened the points to a more obtuse angle and fire hardened the tips when I got home. The arrows all weigh about 685-700 grains.

I got home last night and tried out a 6 strand gut string. The strings didn't shrink as much as I thought they would, probably because the fat kept the strands from gluing together. It seemed OK. This morning I restrung it and it broke. I tried the 7 strand and it broke. I even broke the 8 strand string. So, I guess I could try again with gut and scrape the fat this time. Or get some squirrel hides since squirrel season is open. Or get some groundhog hides..... But the Cornstalk shoot is next weekend!

The cow rawhide makes too big a string if I make it strong enough to keep from breaking. I had made one string from gut and it makes a small strong string. I looked at Jim Hamm's book and noticed that most of the Cherokee bows have gut strings. I found a sausage maker here in town who sells beef casings and I got 2 hanks. It's a lot of gut, about 30-40 yards per hank, about 1 1/2 inches diameter when filled with water. I soaked the salt out of them and split them using a "splitting horn" I made from a razor blade and some locust wood. I soaked them last night in a weak lye solution to get the fat inside them to liquefy, changing the solution several times. Soaked in clean water a couple of times this morning and started making strings. I made two with 6 strands, one with 8 strands and one with 7 strands. I hope the 6 strand will hold up to shooting. I will let them dry this week while I am out of town. I'll practice shooting and do some tuning the next week before the trip to Oklahoma.

On the way back from picking up the casings I noticed a groundhog behind the house. I never knew there were groundhogs so close. I snuck back there to see if I could get a shot, but he ran down the hole. I sat next to a bush for a while waiting on him to come back up, but I was getting funny looks from people passing on the road so I gave up on him.

Splitting Horn, kinda like the one in this article, it took some work and some adjustment to figure out how to use it.

Test string made from 6 strands of narrow gut strips. I couldn't break it at 85 pounds. It's too short to try on the bow. The six strand ones I'm drying now were from wider strips of gut. This one fits my regular arrow nocks.

 6, 8, 6, 7 strand gut strings - you can see the fat squeezing out as the gut shrinks. The one on the left has been drying about 6 hours, the one on the right is about two hours old. 

The bow all slicked up with bacon grease.  

I went out in the field behind the house and took a few 100 yard shots with the new bow yesterday. I shot even with the target but off to the right a few feet. Today I decided to try the rawhide string. It broke on the first shot. I had not cut the rawhide evenly and one part of the string had several thin places in the strands right next to each other. So much for a "precision" string. I have a second one from the goat rawhide drying now and some cow rawhide soakiing.

I only have 2 locust shafts semi shaped to size. I decided to rework some cane arrows I haven't been using. I split a chunk of osage and drilled holes in one end. I cut slots about halfway the depth of the holes and tapered the ends of the cane arrows to a force fit. They are glued and drying now. I'll shape the osage to a point.