June 30 - activities

Well, we moved from Columbia MD to Stanardsville VA last August. There are still boxes that have not been unpacked. This morning, I decided to take my Dobro apart and (re) fix a crack in the top. I decided it would be a good idea to find my stash of Paul Beard "Special 29's" Phosphor Bronze Resonator Guitar Strings ... but alas where could they be? Must be in one of the boxes that have not been unpacked! Now most of the remaining boxes belong to my wife and are stored in the closet in the basement that we have decided will be her Nikken central sales facility. The boxes were not well organized when packed last summer because ... well, her friend Debbie and I packed up Rose's office and basically pushed stuff into boxes as fast as we could. So I pulled all of the boxes out of the closet and decided to unpack and put stuff together that kinda looked alike. The closet has sufficient storage space for lots of stuff ... It contains 3 file cabinets, a credenza, and a roll around cabinet with drawers. Three hours later and I still have not found the "Special 29's"! So I decide to look in the 5 drawer file cabinet that stores old family records (stuff that I'm too lazy to throw away) and guess what ... There they are. So now I'm so far along with the unpacking that I need to finish it ... the part I don't like is the trip to the dump with a truck full of empty boxes.

June 29 - The guitar box complete

This guitar is inspired by and modeled after the C.F. Martin OM that was designed in 1929. I started working on it about six months ago. I did not put a whole lot of time in this spring because of farm activities. The next steps are to build a neck and cut the neck to body dovetail joints. I've never done that before (my dobros have bolt on necks) so it may take a while. Greg I has volunteered to help if I get stuck.








This is a sitka spruce top from Mario DaCosta located in Terrace BC. It is really a fine top material. The top is domed at a 16' radius











This is the rosette. I'll need to figure out how to do real close-ups with this camera. The inner and outer rings are actually three rings each of black/white/black the center ring is abaloney between two more rings of black/white/black










The back is mahogany. I got this wood from a local luthier friend Greg I. This is actually the second back. The first one exploaded before I got it glued to the sides. I thing I did a poor job of gluing the braces on the back and did the gluing while the humidity was high. The back is actually doamed at a 26' radius. Some really nice figure!







The sides match the back and came from the same piece of mahogany. I bent the sides with a heat blanket, controller and timer. I found this equipment on the luthierforum.com web site. A great place to find everything from specialized tool to expert help to lots of encouragement.











Here is the ebony end graft with ebony binding on the top and bottom. It's difficult to see but there is also white/black/white perfing.











This is the binding and perfing along the top. I kinda got carried away so there are a number of lines here. It's actually ebony binding with white/black/white and black/white/black perfing. I think the white/black/white would have been plenty.











This is a close-up of the side showing the binding and perfing. The whole box get some scraping and fine sanding befor the finish goes on.

The garden

Here are some pictures of the farm garden. The ground is really difficult, lots of red clay. After watering or rain it turns to concrete. Requires lots of tilling.
A look at the snow peas:














And here are the potatoes and onions:

















And the cabbage:




















Lettuce and beets and turnips


Some flowers and herbs:



And snow peas:

We have also harvested broccoli, radishes, collards, spring onions, various lettuce, cauliflower
Still to come are red potatoes and Yukon gold potatoes various peppers and tomatoes, sweet potatoes, several kinds of green beans, sweet corn, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkins, watermelons and cantaloupe.

Wednesday June 28

Well it rained all day yesterday. I won't need to water the garden for a while. It really rained hard in the area where we moved from last year, Columbia, MD. I spent a lot of time playing with the dog (she's really boared) and messing around with the ebony binding. Based upon what Grant says I'm sure the problem is my ebony has grain runout (not quarter sawn or flat sawn). I have ordered some more to finish the last half of the guitar back.

I got out this morning with the ole weed whacker and did a once around the house and driveway so now I have organic material all over me. It's suppose to be hot and humid today so I may just go take a shower and chill out for the rest of the day.

Guess what? The FEDEX guy just came with some more ebony so I can finish that task today....hopefully! Here aresome pictures of the guitar body....
























And here is the dog,Abbey



















She is part Aus Sheppard and part Boarder Collie .... lots of energy!!!!

Tuesday June, 27 (on the farm)

Several of us went out yesterday to try and "fix" a new calf that was born several days ago without any human noticing. It is easy to band the baby bulls just after birth because they have not gained enough strength to run away. We have waited too long. No way mere humands can catch that calf without cowboy lessons.

It has been raining for several days which is real good for the pastures and hay fields. We have not gotten the real gully washers like other parts of Virginia, DC and MD have experienced. With the rain I've been spending more time in the shop working on the ebony bindings on the guitar I'm building. What a pain! The ebony I'm using has serious grain runout so the is almost impossible to bend ... another lesson learned.

I talked to Bruce from Virginia Tile yesterday. He just got back from Finland where he was visiting the mfg of soapstone fireplaces etc. He claims he will have the bid for our kitchen tile ready this week.

New Farm Animal