arby's guitars

2007-08-31T01:41:00.000-04:00

Roger passed away at 6:40 am on August 30th, 2007.

He was loved by many and will be greatly missed.

We love you Dad.

Paul, Jenny and Rose

No creativity found ...

2007-03-01T15:41:00.000-05:00

I am posting this only under duress...I haven't been able to find the creative juice since the last post so here is some uncreative cancer status.

I started chemo yesterday. It took form 8:30 in the morning until 7:00 in the evening. Of course that included blood test and doctor exam and a lot of waiting. The chemo is a combo of Carboplatin and Paclitaxel. The Placlitaxel comes first and has some major side effects in about 20% of patients and I hit the lottery. After the first few minutes my chest felt like an elephant was sitting on it and my lower back felt like an ice pick was being stabbed in with every heart beat. The nurses were right on it and had all that under control with IV Benedril and a steroid. After that everything went fine and after three hours the Paclitraxel was finished and they started the Carboplatin. With all this we got home just in time for American Idol ... well we missed the first babe..... I take some meds to control nausea and other stuff so I feel pretty much the same. Rose says that I look really red which I guess is the process of loosing my hair. That's really the worst part .... being bald!!! ;-) I got the study drug which I take every day between the chemo treatments. I don't know if it's a placebo or the real thing.

Things are starting to look like spring here on the farm .. already had 3 new baby cows and someone has purchased new fruit trees for spring planting. It's time to move Jim-bo back to the bachelor field (poor guy).

Home again

2007-01-19T10:24:00.000-05:00

I've been home for a little over a week after 7 days of IL-2 treatment. I had a little more trouble shaking off this round (six doses vs four the first time). I've gotten rid of a lot of fluid and am beginning to feel better. I go back later this month for some scans to see if the IL-2 is working and if it is, will do two more rounds in about 3 months.

Jenny and Lou are visiting on their way back home from Disney World (honeymoon). Jazz, Jenny's faithful dog, stayed with us while they were in Florida. She did really well. The AmeriGas guys are coming out today to install some gas logs so we have lots of activity right now.

I think it's time for some pictures and some content other than cancer so I've decided to let the creative juices flow for the next post

2007-01-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

Well here I am in the hospital (since Wednesday) I've gotten 4 IL-2 treatments and another to come in a few minutes. Will probably stey here until next thursday. I seel to be tolerating the treatments better wirh the protocol. (Although there black letters do look green ;-). So he plan is to get seven or eight IL-2 doses....we'll see. I feel pretty good except for 2.5 hours after the treatment, get the shivers. Then I sleep for about 4-6 hours because of the Demerol.

Well there is the latest from here.

Roger

Jim-bo (pictures censored) & Annie

2006-12-29T09:45:00.000-05:00

Well Jim-bo got a Christmas present. He was placed with his girls a week early. He is one happy camper! The cows have eaten down all of the hay fields on this side of the farm and so have been moved to the last of the hay fields. We typically begin feeding hay in the middle of January so we are right on track.

Bill is still busy taking care of his beautiful wife Annie. Her operation went well and she is getting around OK. But I have not seen her on the tractor over the past few weeks! Don and family are doing well with Don in dialysis 3 times a week it is truly a labor of love. Mike and Jan have had family in for the holidays. I met Jan's son Chad and he is OK...knows all the old bluegrass guys. And Santa brought Mike a new HDTV. Peggy and Ray are still volunteering and spending a lot of non-farm time with family. Too bad about Peggy's "skins" this year ... go Ravens!!!!! Smith and Theresa got a new roof for Christmas. And of course the Higgins family is very busy with kids activities while Darcy is overloaded with work at work. Dorothy and Peggy and the boys have become a real part of the farm family ... it's nice to have health care workers right here to bug me :-) And the holiday entrance decorations are GREAT! The dogs still meet daily in the orchard for their daily romp. The garden has been put to sleep for the winter and we all are expecting great things from Irene (she actually knows what she is doing).

So things are looking good for the Farmcolony community for the coming year.

Christmas and Anniversary

2006-12-25T12:42:00.000-05:00

After five days in the hospital I came home just in time for our 40Th anniversary on Saturday. We had a quiet day with my brother and his wife. Christmas came this morning and everyone did well. Santa is a good guy!

I go back for the second round of IL-2 on January 3.

The first round: I only could tolerate 4 doses because of my blood pressure dropping so low. I did not really have many of the dreaded side effects but did gain 30 pounds of fluid and have a rash on my head and face. The shivers started exactly two hours after the dose was administered but the nurses were quick with the Demerol which stopped that problem quickly. The biggest problem was sleeping on my back so the blood pressure cuff would work.

The doc plans on a little different protocol on Jan 3 that may allow more doses.

What's Happen'

2006-12-12T09:28:00.000-05:00

Well, I went back to the doc yesterday and I am really healthy based upon all the tests that they have done. So looks like I start the Interlukin-2 on Monday. This stuff is so toxic that they will keep me in the hospital infusing it every 8 hours until I can no longer tolerate it. I then come home for a week (40 th anniversary and Christmas) and go back to doc on 3 January for evaluation and then back in hospital for another round of the same. I then wait 3 months for another PET scan and if the tumors are unchanged or smaller I do the above dance again. I am really looking forward to getting this done and moving on! So I guess I can't wait until the last minute to do my holiday shopping this year ;-)

Grapes and Water

2006-12-08T10:27:00.000-05:00

Well, instead of building guitars I have been working on the kitchen. I put in tile and a pot filler behind the new range and hood. It's got a tuscan flavor with grapes etc. The lady who built this house was French so we tried to stay with that theme.

The medallion and trim are made of some kind of metalized material

Ahd the pot filler works great. Doesn't everyone NEED one of these. Two valves since there is no drain in the range ;-)

The nasty stuff

2006-12-05T09:46:00.000-05:00

Went to the new doc today and the good news is that the "thing" on my spine looks like a ruptured disc. The problem is that there is still melanoma in my lymph system. At this point it is growing so fast that operating would not be a good option. So I gave 10 pounds of blood for tests and will do a brain mri, nuc stress test, bone scan, and pulmonary function test this week to make sure that I can do the chemo(interleukin-2). If all is ok I will go into hospital for a week and get  the infusion and then home for a week and then back in hospital for another week and then wait a few weeks and get scanned again and if it is working go back for another round of the same. This is the only insurance approved treatment for what I have. The success rate is about 10% but the doc says that it tends to be long term solution (when it works). There is another drug that has a higher success rate but they don't know how long it lasts. It is still experimental and the insurance probably won't pay for it. But there are some clinical trials available if the insurance won't pay. So if the interleukin doesn't work we'll try that as well.

The side effects of the interleukin are pretty nasty "like having the worst flu plus". So we will do it and see what happens.

I'll keep you posted.

FARMCOLONY - the real story

2006-11-25T15:18:00.000-05:00

FARMCOLONY is a development alternative to the loss of agricultural land. The introduction of the FARMCOLONY concept 30 years ago gives the private sector a viable alternative to aid in agricultural land conservation. The basic concept of FARMCOLONY is to keep as much of the agricultural land in farming as possible while using the remainder of the non-farmland for residential development.

Panoramic views of the farmland from east to west

FARMCOLONY, in the Blue Ridge foothills, offers an opportunity to enjoy all of the benefits of living on a farm without the usual worries or responsibilities, and at far less cost than buying a farm individually. FARMCOLONY IS THAT SIMPLE.Most fine communities feature an amenity of some sort. A golf course, tennis courts, lake, common green areas or other type of visual or aesthetic enhancer to make the surrounding living area a more pleasant place. Instead of the usual golf course, or tennis courts, the amenity at FARMCOLONY is an incredibility beautiful farm - and your own forests, mountain and streams on its almost 300 acres.

The riding ring and hay field

Ownership of the farm is included with the purchase of your own building site. And cattle, horses, chickens, ducks, pastures, streams, ponds, walking and horse trails, camping shelters, barns, poultry house, workshops, sheds and even a huge farmhouse now used as a meeting place for the owners come with the purchase. And the fertile farm is completely equipped with operating machinery. For over two hundred years FARMCOLONY land has raised abundant crops of vegetables and healthy animals.

The Farm House

The honeymoon cottage :-)

Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, FARMCOLONY is such a picturesque environment words cannot describe it.

Looking toward Charlottesville across the valley

The horse barn, riding ring, pastures and hay fields

Perched in the woods on the side of a gently sloping mountain overlooking the farm and valley are forty-eight single family home sites averaging two acres each. Some home sites have streams running through them or boarder on a pond. Most are surrounded by tall dense forest. Some have spectacular 360 degree views of the rolling Virginia countryside. The total investment in your own home site and a share of all the other things ranges from $14,000 to $24,000 (this was 30 years ago).

A pond, some geese and cows wondering what is going on

With ownership of a building site comes joint ownership of the farm, through the FARMCOLONY Homeowners' Association. Only you as a home site owner can belong to this association. The association holds title to the common farm areas, the mountain preserve, twelve buildings, livestock, machinery and equipment. This common ownership is simple and workable. Simpler actually than belonging to a country club. Through an elected five member executive committee all decisions relating to the farm are made. Committees of owners make specific decision on farm activities, such as the garden, cows, horses, pastures, hay making etc. An owner can choose to do as much or as little farm work as they desire. There is no pressure to contribute labor but most farm families choose to be deeply involved. After all, that is why they choose to live here.

Some equipment and the critters winter food

The equipment barn

The egg machines, yes Rose eggs do come from chickens!

Besides the beautiful scenery, healthful environment and enjoyable living environment,there are also many additional benefits such as being able to gather freshly laid eggs, buy fresh beef or harvest your own farm fresh vegetables untouched by harmful chemicals or middlemen – at a fraction of the cost at stores.

The common garden (previous posts have more pictures)

The focal center of social activity on the farm is centered around the farm clubhouse. This restored nineteenth century structure has a huge living room where parties, meetings, lectures and other cultural events take place. In addition, there are private bedrooms where owners and their guests are welcome to stay and there are complete kitchen and laundry facilities. The clubhouse allows property owners to enjoy their purchase in comfort before building a home and is always a warm and friendly gathering spot for everyone. It is not unusual to find several owners spending a weekend at the farmhouse eating fresh farm produced food and really enjoying life.

The meeting room

One of the bedrooms

The kitchen

The location of FARMCOLONY is ideal. Three and one-half miles from Stanardsville, a wonderfully quaint and small town still bound in down-home traditions. Traditions like storekeepers and bankers knowing you by first name and being able to leave your car unlocked; traditions like farmers and mountain men gathering at the general store to talk crops, politics and weather. Close by (20 to25 minutes) is Charlottesville with its wonderful health and education facilities, large regional shopping centers and cultural events of every type. Other facilities are available close by such as golf and tennis (10 minutes), skiing (25 minutes) and of course, the famous Skyline Drive entrance is only 10 minutes away from FARMCOLONY.

Farm living is what people have always dreamed about but have never been able to do. Watching your children and grandchildren ride a pony, or play in a barnful of sweet smelling hay used to be just a dream, or at best an expensive venture. Watching your own food grow, fresh eggs, beef that hasn't been “treated” with additives, and garden fresh vegetables are now a reality. Taking a hayride through crisp fall air is a unique experience and is just a small part of what farm life is all about. FARMCOLONY for the first time makes this a practical reality at a modest cost.

Sarah the farm donkey

Another happy farm resident sunning herself

Jim-bo patiently avaiting 1 January (he gets to visit his girls)

FARMCOLONY, of course, cannot be compared to anything else because there is nothing else like it.

Thanks!

2006-11-21T10:36:00.000-05:00

Went back to Dr. yesterday. My "wound" has really healed well. No longer need to pack it two times a day but just put some Neosporum on it and cover. I go next Monday for my next CT/PET scan which will find out if there are any tumors remaining. If all clear I'll go into a clinical trial of immune-therapy. If more lymph nodes are positive then more surgery. If it's gone to other places then we do some kind of chemo or some other ugly thing.

We are getting ready for Thanksgiving. Mom, Allen and Sonnie will be coming up tomorrow. Gotta go get the turkey today and the pies tomorrow. I told Rose that I would do the cooking. She has always done the thanksgiving cooking. The pressure is on!

The farm is doing well. The new garden committee has been busy with prep work. The heifers have gone to market. The chickens are producing again. Michael and Jack have been out riding their horses. Annie has been taking care of her medical problems. Bill has been taking care of Annie. Don has been doing better and Susan has been doing the mother hen thing. Peggy has been taking care of her kids and family while Ray tries to fit in farm activities. Theresa has finally gotten approval to begin work on her PhD Thesis and Smith is very busy with his middle school group. They were here on the farm last weekend learning all kinds of stuff. The Hauss family is very busy with house remodeling. The Neitchie's have finally moved in to their new log house. Jan is doing the hiking thing with a new group of people while Mike makes the two hour one way trek to norther Va. to his teaching job. Bill D. has been out replacing some fence line around the pond where it is always very wet. The Higgins have been busy with kid activities, soccer and band. So basically we all have a hole lot to be thankful for here on the farm.

Dogs

2006-11-02T09:37:00.000-05:00

Jenny visited last weekend. This is her faithful dog Jazz. I asked her to go find some firewood!

Boy, Viriginia is so pretty. I wish Ohio looked like this!

I think I hear some Virginia wildlife.

Jenny, thanks for letting me visit Stanardsville.

This is Abbey. Her job is making sure squirrels are not on the ground but in the trees where they belong.

OK, getting ready to make my squirrel run!

I know that someday I'll catch one! If only I could climb!

This round is complete....a success. All of them critters are high in the trees!

The Cruise

2006-10-25T10:23:00.000-04:00

Here are the details of our Bluegrass Cruise....
It's on an Italian ship - COSTA MAGICA

Leave Ft. Lauderdale 18 Febuary...to San Juan...St. Thomas...La Romana...Grand Turks/Caicos Islands and back to Ft. Lauderdale on Febuary 25.

We will be traveling with: Cherryholmes, Mark Newton, Audie Blaylock, Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road, Wildfire, Michael Cleveland, Marty Raybon, Tim Graves & Cherokee and Chasin' Steel.

It's a bring your instrument and jam kinda cruise... "let's see....Cherryholmes may need a dobro player?"

There is still room for you bluegrass nuts out there!!!!

Tubeless at last!

2006-10-24T11:30:00.000-04:00

Since the last post I've had all drain tubes removed including the vacuum. I still need to repack the left side wound two times a day but that seemes to go real well. The doctor says I can do pretty much whatever I want to do but should not overdo anything. I find that sitting for extended periods gets pretty uncomfortable but other than that I feel great. With all the time I have had to think, I have decided that the melanoma on both occasions was brought on by the use of Lamisil. Twenty five years ago when the three freckles grew into the first melanoma I was taking lamisil. Twelve to 18 months ago I took Lamisil. I believe that for me, lamisil equals melanoma. I don't know how it does it but I am pretty sure that it does! Now, how scientific is that conclusion? I actually filled out an online report to the FDA letting them know of my discovery.

I've begun the preliminary work on building a double bass. Because the wood costs so much I'm going to practice on some 2x lumber before I make the commitment. I could buy a nice laminated bass for less than the parts for a carved bass will cost. I have begun making templates and will soon begin construction of the "inner form" which is needed to construct the bass.

Rose, Don, Lenord, Susan and I made a trip over to Graves Mountain Sunday and picked up some peach wine from Rose River Winery (a very small operation).

I also signed myself and Rose up for a 7 day bluegrass cruse (with Cherryholmes). It departs Flordia in the middle of February.

Looking forward to Jenny coming down for a visit this week. It will be the first time that she has visited the farm as Mrs. Ruberto.

The Plan

2006-10-11T12:39:00.000-04:00

What I believe....

Puppies are a pain to raise ...
lambs are cute but turn into sheep ...
weeds are impossible to control ...
beef is good to eat ...
my kubota is great ...
people make decisions very early that effects their entire life...
personal responsibility is key to happiness ...
making guitars is difficult but rewarding ...
friends are much better than wealth ...
God has a plan for us ...
if you want to hear God laugh tell him YOUR plans ...
God's plan is strategic not tactical ...
Believing this has made my current medical problems much easier to face ...

Here is what I believe it is:

All through the old testament God tried to deal with his people by letting them earn the right to go to heaven. He set up simple laws that allowed the righteous to earn their way by following the rules. Time after time man proved that he could not, on his own, live up to the challenge. I believe that even the smallest sin disqualifies us from heaven.

The new testament makes it clear that even the thought of the sin is enough. Jimmy Carter admits that he has sinned in his heart. So what are we to do? God, knowing our hearts and our inability to be sin free sent his son to live the sin free life, to be killed for being good, and to defeat death and sit by the side of God in heaven. What I believe that this means for us is: if we believe in Jesus, when we die and face the judgment, that God will see his son standing in our place and will find us faultless. There is nothing we can do, no action we can take, no life on this earth that can achieve this goal. The only way to heaven is belief in Jesus as the son of God. And this is a free guift.

I know there are Christian religions that make all kinds of demands on their members to do this or not do that in order to get to heaven. I'm not buying it! There is only one thing and that is belief in the Christ. I believe we sin every day...it's impossible not to sin. But God has taken that burden away. I think we should try to live a Christ like life, but should also understand that we WILL fall short. That problem has been taken care of for the believer.

Life is good ...
God is good ...

Four Day Vacation

2006-10-10T11:40:00.000-04:00

The saga continues ... when I went back to the doctoe on Monday they removed one of the drains from my left side. Everything looked ok. Tuesday morning I woke up and found that the other two drains had lost suction and the drainage was happening out of the incision and down my leg. I tried until Thursday to keep everything dry but was having no luck so I called the doctor and went in for an appointment on Friday morning. The wound had opened and had begun to get infected so back into the hospital (another Four Day Vacation) for massive antibotics and wound care. They decided to put a "wound vac" on me. It's a small vacuum that compresses the opening and removes the drainage. I went back to doctor yesterday for check and he is really happy with the wound progress. Probably another two to three weeks of vacuuming my leg. I'mfeeling pretty good and can get around again.

Mother nature is taking care of the farm ... cows are beginning to have their fall babies. Ray and Peggy just became grandparents again. The trees are just beginning to show signs of changing color. Susan and her three daughters spent the other day eating dim sum and shopping in Leesburg. Bill Dictel's doctor son just had his second heart operation and is doing well. Some dog's attacked and killed some of Malou's sheep. Deiter has cleaned out the chicken coop and it is spic and span and the farm fresh eggs are flowing again. The garden has been cleaned up and awaiting compost to be tilled in. Five new pregnant cows were delivered late last week so we should have a good crop of spring cows. Bill Bohn has been trying to keep up with the fences while his small trailer seems to have disappeared. The sun is out and it is a beautiful day.

It amazes me at how lucky I have been during this health battle. Friends and family have been absolutely fantastic in their support. The food keeps coming and Rose is crying uncle (she is gaining weight). It is not easy for me to be the center of attention and accept all of the help that has been offered. But it means a lot to both Rose and me ... we can feel the love. Calls and e-mails from friends and co-workers have brightened my days. I even got an e-mail from an old friend and co-worker (Paul) and found out two weeks later that he has been in the hospital undergoing pancreatic (sp) cancer surgery. That is some serious stuff. When I commented to my doctor that 9 hours was a long operation he said that the pancreatic surgery lasted 16-18 hours. So, Paul my preyers are with you and hope you have a quick recovery!

I think I may write a brief essay on what I think is important in life and what I believe. That could be the end of this blog!!!! ;-)

Cut the damn thing out!

2006-09-23T16:25:00.000-04:00

In one of my previous posts I mentioned that my left leg was swelling. I went to the doctor who suspected a blood clot and sent me to have a sonagram. No blood clot but enlarged lymph nodes so back to the hospital for biopsy. Turned out to be positive for melanoma. I had a melanoma removed from that leg 25 years ago. So we found a really good doctor at UVA that specializes in melanoma treatment and research. He sent me for CT and MRI scans and the for CT/PET scan (just got the bill for that one - $6000). The scans showed that the tumors were active in my lymph nodes in both legs and on the left up into my belly. Everything else was clear.

The biopsy results happened on Friday 28, July. I began bluegrass dobro camp at Davis & Elking college on Sunday the 30th. Needless to say I was a bit distracted during that week. Rose and I visited the new doctor (Slingluff) on the next Monday and got the news about what options were available. None of them were very good. I chose to "cut the damn thing out". There is still a very high risk that pieces of the melanoma are floating around and could lodge and any organ that filters blood or lymph. My post op treatment will consist of close monitoring to determine if there is still some in there. In the mean time Jenny got married in a beautiful ceremony – overall a great weekend. We did not tell her about this until after the wedding. She was under enough stress!

I showed up at UVA at 11 am on Sept 13 th and was in the operating room by 1pm. After a nine hour procedure I got to my room at 11 pm. That must have been the longest night of my life. Coming off the general, with an epidural and with morphine injected into my drip was a real experience. I would fall off to sleep and wake up only to see that 3 minutes had passed. In less than 8 hours I was up and on the way to the bathroom. Then they gave me perkaset (sp). Things really got colorful with voices and all!!! I decided that was enough and stopped taking all drugs except Advil Sunday morning at 2 am. They released me from the hospital at 12 on Sunday. It looks like my stitches are healing well and the drains are still running off whatever liquid they drain.

I can get around and walk, have taken a shower, and watched a lot of TV. I shoot for shows that really boar me and I fall of to sleep. I'm getting real tired of being on my back so much so I tried sleeping on my right side last night. It worked pretty well although I continued to wake up on my back. So, I go back Monday to begin the next phase (whatever that may be) and hopefully to get some of these drains removed. I would post some pictures of my stitches but can't figure out how to block off some parts that are really swollen :-)

Jenny & Lou's Wedding

2006-09-11T08:45:00.000-04:00

Beautiful bride and proud dad!

Grandmother Carrie and Uncle Allen

The cake

All of the "babes" in one picture

My baby!

Grandson Dodge

Mom, doing what mons do.

local farmers

2006-09-03T11:03:00.000-04:00

Jenny is getting married next weekend. People from across the country will be converging in Lisbon Ohio to share in that happy day. I'll post some pictures next week.

August was a really dry month. All of the grass went dormant and even the weeds were drooping. Since I did not water the garden the rest of the corn died out, the peppers are stunted and the tomatoes are not doing well. I think the next garden upgrade needs to be a more effective way to get water to the garden. The tropical storm blew through here here late last week and dropped about two and a half inches of water ... within a day everything turned green again. It's really amazing how powerful water is in nature.

The above picture is taken from the back poarch, across the farm. Vineyard on foreground, then garden and orchard, then pastures into the distance. Two days ago it was all brown! And here is a shot of the main hay field. The second cutting was done last week so the field looks really good.

Here are some local farmers that stopped by to celebrate the end of summer.

dog days

2006-08-15T20:38:00.000-04:00

Well not much going on lately:

+ lots and lots of tomatoes in the garden
+ went to Grave's Mountain Sunday evening to see Cherryholmes - they were really good. Every time I see them they are better singers and pickers ... and they were good before
+ going to take truck in tomorrow morning for service and inspection
+ I think I'll go on down and talk to Bruce about the tile after the truck stuff
+ James Taylor is going to be at UVA Thursday but the tickets are $65 each plus about $15 for the privlege of buying the ticket ... and he's not really bluegrass

I steamed the neck off the guitar and will finish each separtely ... got the fret board done ... so guess I gotta get a bridge so I can place it and mask of the area before finish

more later

LeRoy and other dobros

2006-08-09T09:54:00.000-04:00

Well, we're back from a week at the Augusta Bluegrass camp. The festivities were held at Davis and Elkins college in Elkins WV. Just a three hour drive from here - west on Rt 33 until you run into it. Some really beautiful hill country on that drive! I think we miss a lot on the interstates.

I attended the LeRoy Mack sessions on dobro. LeRoy started out as a teenager in California with a group of other teens including Clarance and Roland White. Their group was called the Kentucky Colonels. They were featured on episode 19 of the Andy Griffith show. LeRoy's mentor was Josh Graves of the Flatt and Skruggs band. So he taught that style of dobro. We learned Houndog Ramble, Amazing Grace, Home Sweet Home, Fireball Mail and Foggy Mountain Rock.

The other instructors were equally fantastic... if you are a guitar flat picker, this was the place to be! Check out the Augusta web site for a list of these talented folks. Pat and Sully were there and made the week even more fun.

Here is LeRoy playing Foggy Mountain Rock. He is playing the LeRoy Mack edition of a Beard Guitar. It has 4 way book matched back and engraving everywhere. I think Paul charges about $4500 for this model.

vvv

This is the class picture. Guess who has the red dobro?

This is Leah. She is going to be a senior in high school this year and is REALLY talented! She is playing a new Paul Beard ... Mike Auldridge edition guitar. This thing sounds great (when she plays it)

And here is your's truly trying to play Foggy Mountain Rock for Rose. She was not impressed ;-) .... I've got the hard part but need to learn the rest.

Drunkin Peaches & Bend Over

2006-07-27T08:29:00.000-04:00

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

2006-07-24T16:27:00.000-04:00

RV & Bananna Peppers

2006-07-22T17:41:00.000-04:00

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

2006-07-21T10:11:00.000-04:00

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!

2006-07-20T14:56:00.000-04:00

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

2006-07-18T13:57:00.000-04:00

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

2006-07-14T12:23:00.000-04:00

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

2006-07-13T09:31:00.000-04:00

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

2006-07-11T10:48:00.000-04:00

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

2006-07-08T13:22:00.000-04:00

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

2006-07-03T11:59:00.000-04:00

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

2006-07-01T14:46:00.000-04:00

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

June 30 - activities

2006-06-30T10:47:00.000-04:00

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

2006-06-29T14:34:00.000-04:00

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

2006-06-28T16:46:00.000-04:00

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

2006-06-28T12:02:00.000-04:00

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)

2006-06-27T11:59:00.000-04:00

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

2006-06-27T09:10:00.000-04:00