Drunkin Peaches & Bend Over

We had a neighbor pick up a bushel of peaches Tuesday. So we made some drunken peaches. Believe it or not there are one whole bushel in those four gallon jars. Pretty easy cut up the peaches, add a lot of sugar and then lots of rum. Then you let it sit in a cool dark place until Christmas. I experimented a little and added pineapple and cherries to one of the jars. Be aware! The only liquid in there is rum!!!!

I noticed last week that my left leg was swollen. So with the advice of Rose ringing in my ears I went to see the doctor on Monday. He immediately decided to eliminate the possibility of a blood clot so sent me across the street to have a sonogram. That proved to be ok, but it did show a slightly enlarged lymph node on my upper leg. I went back yesterday for more exams. He did some blood work and sent me across the street of chest x-ray (long story there). I expect that he will call today and tell me to go get a small needle biopsy done on the node. To the bend over part - as Arlo said in Alice's Restaurant - they didn't leave no part untouched!

Abbie

RV & Bananna Peppers

Bill and Annie came back to the farm from their first RV trip. They actually purchased the RV on the way from here to Michigian. It's a "Bounder" a really big one. And I think it's about 9 years old with really low milage. My only comment is .... NICE!

Stopped by the garden and picked some green beans and corn and peppers and tomatos. The corn is a type of early yellow. The plants are pretty small as are the ears but the taste is just great. We tried a few and everyone approves. I picked some and froze them for later. Also froze some green peppers. I looked at the tomato pile and decided to check out the nearest cookbook and use the first tomato recipe that I found. Guspacho (sp) ... cold tomato soup. I actually needed to purchase a cucumber ... pretty poor planning by the gardner! Since Rose said she doesn't like cold soup I decided to add a little kick... there are lots of hot peppers in the garden just waiting for someone ... I thought that the bananna peppers were kinda mild .... WRONG! So after taking a bite I decided to seed the thing and ony use half of it. The really hot peppers I decided not to use. Rose took the bucket of green beans and cleaned them and has them cooking in the old southern style ... the longer they cook the better.

I think we are going to Harrisonberg Tuesday to pick up some peaches to make drunken peaches .... how many gallons will a bushel of peaches make?

Guitar Necks etc

Here is the fruit of 2 weeks of practice! The neck is fitting pretty well. It just needs a few adjustments after the carving is complete.

















This is a pretty good neck to body fit. As you can see the neck joint needs to come down about 1/8 of an inch. What you can't see is that the neck need to be tilted back just a little to make sure the action is correct. That means sanding just a little from the bottom of the joint and making the sides fit again.













After these pictures were taken I took the neck over to the 4" air filled drum sander and began to "carve" the neck. This is the first time that I have used this tool. It came as an extra on the Delta surface sander. The heel came out really well as did the carving on the peg head end of the fret board. I also glued some mahogany over the truss rod. Still have some carving to do between the heel and the peg head. After that is complete I can start on the fretboard ... again new territory so it will probably take a while. Greg came by last weekend and gave me a good ebony fret board. It needs to have the fret slots cut and the radius sanded into it.

Things are slow on the farm. Several families are on vacation. I am really excited to see Bill and Annie get back. They picked up a big RV on their way to Michigan. Now we need to work on them to become bluegrass fans and attend local festivals. And I think Smith and Teressa will be back soon. We need to get Olivia (13 months old) down to the garden to pick beans. She would go down earlier in the spring and pick a radish and munch on it - dirt and all.

Band Camp!

I signed up for band camp! Going to attend the fourth week (bluegrass) of Augusta at Davis and Elkins college in central West Virginia. I will take the intermediate/advance dobro sessions which is going to be taught by LeRoy Mack. He is one of my favorite people as well as a real good dobro player. He played in a group called Kentucky Colonels back in the sixties. Was even on the Andy Griffith show before the "Darlings" showed up. His band included the great Clarence White on guitar and his brother Roland on mando. After that gig he settled in California and started a group called the Born Again Bluegrass Band which was active until a few years ago when one of the members died. I actually attended a camp about five years ago (Common Ground on the Hill) with LeRoy as the master dobro teacher. A really great experience. He does a song called “I Don't Want a Praying mantas love affair”. Bet you can figure that out ... especially if you are the guy! ;-)

The camp will be the week of the 30 th and Rose has her 40 th class reunion on the 5 th of August so I'll leave from camp and meet her in Gauley Bridge. After that I'll go on down to Huntington to visit my mom and brother. I WILL remember to bring the guitar for my bro!

I've been out in the shop practicing building guitar necks. I'm getting close. Right now I have the dovetail cut and the neck fit pretty close to where it needs to be. I cut the channel for the truss rod and roughed out the shape on the bandsaw. Currently gluing ebony on the backside of the peghead (haven't done that before). When I get that done I can carve the rest of the neck. I guess I should take some pictures.

Really sad news ... Pat's dad died Monday morning (Sully's wife). They will both be at Augusta so hope it provides some comfort ... music does that!

Wells, grass and corn

It has been so hot here that not much moves outside. I got up early Sunday and cut some grass. I was back inside by 7 am. Yesterday evening I met Ray and we fed the heifers and bulls and took some food down to the chickens. There are only four chicken left but the fox seems to have given up on trying to get them. Needless to say egg production has dropped off (from about 24 per day to just a couple). I think we are going to wait on Teressa's father to move into his new house before we purchase some more. Teressa and her husband Smith are currently visiting her family out west. Her dad is going through treatment for prostate cancer.

Don's daughter Susan and her husband Lennard have begun the process of moving into his house. He has gotten to the point of requiring assistance in his everyday processes plus he needs to go to dialysis 3 times a week. So they have been getting maintenance stuff done to the house. The basement waterproofing and re-tile should be completed today. The kitchen has been re-tiled and looks real good. In the process of dealing with the basement all of the water conditioning equipment needed to be moved . They discovered that the well was pumping too much sediment so the well guys showed up today to fix the problem. They need to replace the well pump and all of the galvanized pipe. The well is out in the woods and took quite an effort to get to.

This morning I decided to go down to the garden and "hoe" the second planting of corn. I used the little Mytas tiller and it did a great job. But it is so hot and humid that I was soaked by 8 am. We have tons of green beans that should already be picked. Maybe I'll get out there really early in the morning and harvest some. The only problem is it really kills my back. We could then cook the beans all day, southern style...Rose really likes them done that way. I may try to freeze some as well.

I have been spending a little time in the shop practicing guitar neck joints. It is unbelievably complicated to get all of the different geometry set up properly. But I am getting closer. I made another jig to do the neck half. I have been practicing the process of slowly adjusting the neck angle, relief and yaw to get the neck set properly and at the same time have nice tight neck to body joints. If this part is done poorly the guitar will not be playable.

Guitars and other stuff

Well,Don has ended up back in the hospital. During dialysis Tuesday they managed to puncture a vain in his arm. Over the next few hours he bled a lot under the skin and his daughter rushed him back to the hospital in Harrisonburg. They operated on his arm and drained over a pint of blood. They used his other arm for a transfusion and basically did the same thing. As of today he is still locked up. The doctor told him he will be more soar than he ever thought possible. We have been taking care of his cows while he is away. It has rained the last couple of days so I only go out as necessary. Have spent most of my time in the shop working on guitars.


This is my set up for getting the sides to match the 16'or 26' radius. The plywood "dish" under the form is routed out with the proper radius. After I get the sides to within range, I put sandpaper on the dish and sand the sides until they meet the dish.









While cleaning up the shop I decided to try and clamp the mahogany into some fixtures that I had been building. And it seemed promising so I adjusted and clamped and adjusted and pretty soon the box was stable enough to route the neck dovetail into. Here is Sully's jig mounted to the clamping stuff.








Here is the clamping arrangement. It's difficult to clamp because there are no square surfaces. I'm using som foam insulation to keep everything in place.

















And it worked! Looks pretty good ... I think.














This is the neck that I have been practicing my techniques on (ok, I messed it up) . I might be able to save it with some creative gluing. But I'm pretty sure that the heel of this neck is carved too much. I'll try to get some expert opernions.



















As you can see here. The dovetail cheeks would need to be added to. I wonder how some ebony would look in there?

More progress

The sides have dried and look real good.No waves on the bent areas. Here I am gluing the tail block. This attaches the two sides together at the bottom of the guitar.













And here is the neck block. It attaches the two sides at the top of the guitar. At some point it will have a dovetail cut into it fot the neck attachment.











In this picture I am gluing the perffed lining on to the top edge of the guitar sides. This provids some ridigity to the sides. Most importantly it provided more glue surface for the top.











Here is the rosewood back and Mario spruce top. These are both top quality wood pieces.










If you notice in the above pictures the sides are too deep. After the perffed linings were dried on the top edge, I flipped everything and cut off the excess with a thin kurffed saw. The next task is to profile the bottom and top edges. This is quite involved since the back goes from 4 inches at the tail block to 3-3/8 inches at the neck block. Of course it's not just a simple taper. Throw into that mix the fact that the top and back are domed and it really gets complex. The back is domed on a 16 foot radius while the top is domed at a 26 foot radius. More to come.

July 11 - Starting a new Guitar

Went down to the garden last evening and picked a bunch of peppers: green, banana, and halapinio. A few tomatoes were ripe and seemed to have survived the blossom end rot that the initial ones suffered. The first row of beand look like they are ready to pick and the corn is doing real well. All of the "melons" are not doing well at all...not sure what the problem is with them.

Man is it hot and humid! Too hot to work outside so I decided to put together the next guitar. (I know I haven't finished the last one) The new one will be East Indian Rosewood with a spruce top. I'll take some pictures of the process.





Here is one of the sides. It has been sanded to 85-90 thousands. I then create a sandwich of aluminum foil, paper towel (misted with water) the heat blanket, and stainless steel shim stock on the top and bottom.














I then turn on the heat and after about 10 minutes at 310 degrees I clamp the female form down on the package starting at the waist (the top of the form is three parts that are hinged). After carefully putting the pressure on, the side is bent at the most critical place. The upper and lower bouts are the pulled together and clamped. By this time the package has been at 310 degrees for about 15 minutes






This is the temperature controller and timer for the heat blanket. This setup makes it pretty easy to bend sides. I purchased the set-up from and fellow builder who puts the units together. I do two heatings. The first is at 310 degrees for 15 minutes. I then let the side come back to room temperature. The second heating is still at 310 degrees but only for 10 minutes. This process seems to lock in the bends with very little springback.













While waiting for the first side to cool, I decided to make the neck and tail blocks. They are mahogany. Yes that is a hand tool! After taking the side out of the bending form I put it into the guitat form and clamp the sides until they have completely dried. Pictures of that tomorrow.

July 8 Report

The past week was full of events here on the farm. Pat and Sully went back to Maryland Tuesday morning. Rose and I co-hosted the 4th of July party at the farmhouse. It was a bring your own meat to grill and a dish to share. We had about 40-50 people. Greg and Margaret (the other hosts) had a bunch of their friends come by with kids so there was lots of excitement and activity. Some of the old farm residents also showed up and it was real good to see everyone. It was my job to get the liquid refreshments and help to clean up after the party. Greg did a really nice fireworks show. Lucky it had rained so there was little danger of fire.

With recent rain the garden is going gangbusters. Lots of peppers and the beans are getting nearly ready to pick and the corn is looking good and there are tons of green tomatoes. We tried an experiment this spring and sprayed (Southern States) with a new broad leaf weed killer called GRAZON. The large hay field has a major problem with weeds. Two weeks after the first hay cutting they came out and sprayed. At first, I was a little disappointed but after a couple of rains the weeds got real sick and died and it looks like it is still putting them out of their misery. The field looks great!

That's Parker Mountain back there.

Jim-bo the bull has been reunited with his girls. He gets a three month visit two times a year. We have been feeding him regularly so he should be ready to do his duties. We also fixed and checked the electric fence line in the pasture and bush hogged the weeds. The cows are now in a new field and seem to be real happy with the new grass.

Notice the look on his face! And he's right where he wants to be.

I finally got around to making a cover plate to go around the 8" vent pipe that we just installed through the kitchen roof. It dressed up the installation really nicely. We still have not heard back from the tile guy with an estimate ... he would say "do you want good or do you want fast?" I started cleaning up the mess on the lower back porch. I have been dumping stuff there as I unpacked and cleaned up the basement. It also has a bunch of stuff from Barbara's garage. I need to get that taken care of pretty soon. I also went out this morning and cut the grass in the orchard. I really need to take the blades off and sharpen them.

Let's see what is still awaiting attention here?

+ finish the finish on the front doors
+ fix front steps
+ patch roof/clean out gutters
+ install tile in the kitchen
+ install pot filler in the kitchen
+ paint kitchen/great room
+ install hardwood floor in bedroom
+ paint bedroom
+ enclose part of back porch and install stairs to basement
+ landscape around house and install hard scape patio in front of house
+ pay for Jenny's wedding
+ make a neck for guitar
+ build a double bass
+ build a”killer”dobro (repeat)
+ cut grass
+ fight weeds
+ tend to garden

Here are some pictures of some of the other barnyard pets.

Here are last fall's heffers. They REALLY like the feed!

I thought the fox had eaten these geese. But they showed up today.

July 4 Holiday

Sulley and his wife Pat came down Sunday to do some work on his guitar build and get some R&R away from the big city life. I had the shop spruced up ... I actually opened the double garage door and used a leaf blower to do the clean-up. The window air conditioner that my neighbor gave me for the shop died during the last storm so I put in two 6000 btu window units that I had in storage. I tried one but it didn't hack yesterday's 95 degree temps. The two seem be be doing the job today. I think with AC in the shop I need to be real careful about opening the big garage door so the cold metal tools don't condense water and rust.

Since Sully and Pat are accomplished bluegrass performers and I decided it was time for a jam session we invited some new neighbors over for dinner and a jam. Dorothy plays and sings really well so we had a real good time.

Here are some pictures of Sully's progress:



Here are the sides waiting for the top and back.



This is the top with bracing in place waiting for final shaping and clean-up



And this is the back waiting for shaping and clean-up
Sully got a lot done this weekend.




















Sully shaping the braces.

July 1 - more retirement activities

I got up early this morning and was out in the garden by 6:45 am. The ground was pretty damp but seemed to be ok to till .... so I did. I have enough room between most of the rows to run my tractor pulled tiller through there. The corn and beens are doing really well. The first corn is showing signs of developing tassels and the newly planted is starting to pop up. The beans are looking really healthy ... I think I planted so much they have overwhelmed the bugs ... we'll see. I picked four tomatoes that had started to ripen but they all had blossom end rot. According to the web this should only happen to the first fruit .... we'll see. The peppers look great! I picked the last of the onions and some beets. The kale needs to be picked as does the last of the lettuce.

We are having a 4 th of July farm party ... maybe I'll make stuff to take that comes out of the garden. How do you cook turnips? Does anyone eat turnips? So it will be kale, wilted onions and lettuce, beets, scalloped potatoes and something to do with peppers.

I put Sully's guitar neck dovetail template together today and tried to cut the dovetail on the neck ... two tries no go. Operator error. Of course I used mahogany vs scrap wood for the test so now I have some nice firewood. I fixed the crack in the top of my red dobro yesterday afternoon. The crack was caused by too much downward pressure by the builder while installing the small round sound screen. The original repair failed because the repair technician made a patch with the grain running parallel to the crack. This same technician has since seen the folly of that approach and used a cross grain patch. After putting the new Beard "Special 29's" strings on I took the dobro down to the orchard where the neighbors have taken to meeting in the evenings to let the dogs play and have a wine tasting. Everyone seems to like the dobro ... not so sure about my playing though.

Beets and Onions