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Yup, we're still working away...

Posted by RodandDenise on July 16, 2015

We are no longer building saddle trees, but we have two videos about how Western saddles fit horses available on our westernsaddlefit.com website.

2015 July 15 1 Rod cutting out saddle trees.jpg

I noticed that it has been a while since I posted anything about what had been going on around the shop work wise. Rod is still going at normal rate building trees. We had about 5 ½ or so month’s orders ahead of us when we got the diagnosis of his arthritis, so we have all those orders to fill for the time we had promised them before he can slow down at all. Other than the changes in how he uses his hands that we talked about before, it is pretty much same old, same old around here…

2015 July 15 2 Rod building saddle trees.jpg

Rod is still building trees

2015 July 15 3 Rod rawhiding a saddle tree.jpg

And rawhiding trees

2015 July 15 4 making rawhide.jpg

And making rawhide (so much nicer outside in the summer!)…

2015 July 15 5 Wade, Buster Welch and 3B saddle treees.jpg

Here’s some of what we have been building – a Wade, a Buster Welch and a 3B in this drying section…

2015 July 15 6 Wade, 2 Will James and a Modified Association saddle tree.jpg

And a Wade, a 12” wood post Will James, a 13” wood post Will James and a 13” Modified Association. It’s been swell fork week around here lately…

2015 July 15 7 exposed Jarrah horn cap 24 deg 3 high 4.5 cap 4.25 ST 1502024 exposed Jarrah horn cap.jpg

We’ve also done a couple with exposed wood horn caps

2015 July 15 8 no horn slick fork 3B 8 4 ST 1411137 8.375 GH fork.jpg

And one without a horn…

2015 July 15 9 testing testing.jpg

We’ve spent some time playing around with trees on horses, just to keep learning new stuff…

2015 July 15 10 building room in basement.jpg

And in our spare time we have (well, mainly Rod has) been putting in a room in our basement as a guestroom. We have a saddle maker coming toward the end of the month to learn to build his own trees and he needs someplace to stay…

2015 July 15 11 raspberries!.jpg

But there is always something to do outside as well, just to relax a little. The raspberries are coming on well and we’ll really enjoy them – whatever the grasshoppers don’t get to first…

COMMENTS:
Posted by Thomas Schmelzing on 
I certainly do hope that the changes Rod has made in how he uses and protects his hands have proven to ease the pain (at least some).

Best wishes!

Thomas
Posted by RodandDenise on 
It has helped a bit, Thomas. Hopefully once he can slow down a bit it will help more. Thanks for asking.

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