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Day 1:
We crawl from our tents, greeted by the warm sunshine and the sound of Col. Neel's bagpipes at 7 a.m. (In the background, Col. Mullen is rushing by, something he did a lot of that weekend.)
The shelter at VMI's McKethan Park, the center of action for the next four days: where we eat, where we work, and where we congregate around the fireplaces to keep warm. This is Virginia in April. It's not supposed to dip into the 30's at night.
After chowing down a hearty breakfast served by the VMI mess, we're called to action by Joel McCarty, standing tall, as Grigg Mullen looks on.
We all get name tags, although the amount of hair and dress are clearly distinguishing features to tell the framers from the cadets. Grigg tells us that many of the cadets haven't heard their first name in four years, so they may not react at first to hearing anything but "Mister."
Ed Levin presents his drawings and describes what the Guild instructors and volunteers will build (he hopes).
The group stands a respectful distance away, as Col. Neel demonstrates the wooden scale model he built of the trébuchet.
 He loads the sling with a small rock, he primes the machine ... Voilà! It works!
Now, all we have to do is build a bigger version ... a much bigger version (18' tall and weighing many tons). The goal is to use only hand tools, in order to maintain historical accuracy and to avoid injuries.
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