You know, a couple of the posts on this thread, along with Richard's recent thread about the Finnish ladies artillery group that were using a Dom made howitzer, got me to cogitating upon the fact (or at least by me, percieved fact) that European women seem to enjoy our forum's hobby to a much greater extant than our homegrown St. Barbs; I wonder what accounts for this? I know that Brokenpole has mentioned that his daughter was getting (or got) a mortar, and I recall that there was a member (that doesn't post anymore) who had a cannon made as a present for his wifes retirement, but it seems to me that American women just don't seem to be interested to the degree that their European sisters are. Speaking from personal experience, mine could care less about this stuff, she tolerates it , but it just really doesn't interest her.