Hallowe'en Pot Luck

Yummy, we're having a Hallowe'en Party so I've made some gourmet "Kitty Litter Casserole".

Can't wait to see people salivating over this one.

The Blogmaster Bears a Heavy Burden

It's a heavy load to bear when you're someone's blogmaster. Gryper called yesterday, knowing that I had added a link to Prince Charming's blog.

"What did you do to my blog?!?!" he asked accusingly. "There's nothing on the side of it!". Apparently the sidebar on the right side was not showing on the screen. I hadn't made any adjustments to Gryper's blog that should affect that. I tried to figure it out for about 45 minutes, but Blogger was really slow and acting weird. I had to get ready for band practice, so I decided to investigate further at another time.

After band practice and before going out for the evening, I checked and it was still not showing the sidebar. I decided, due to previous commitments (although unimportant in comparison), that I would have to leave it until morning to do any further checking.

Before the sun rose, I was awake, trying to figure out what to do about this catastrophe. After half an hour of tossing and turning under the weight of my blogmaster worries, I got up and decide to wrestle with the monster.

I went to Gryper's blog, and alas, all was well. Life was restored to normal. Gryper's handsome picture shows again.

Ah, crap! It's Snowing!

It's snowing! Only a little but it's snowing. I know it won't stay but it's snowing. Sigh .... I guess summer is really over.

Another point of view

Fiddling Granny gets poetic

Suddenly September

Just yesterday we thrilled at tiny buds on all the trees,
We anxiously awaited to see dragonflies and bees.
The days grew ever longer and warm breezes melted snow,
Now it’s suddenly September, where did the summer go?

Just yesterday we tapped the trees then boiled the golden treasure,
We dreamed and planned of endless days of summer play and leisure.
We delighted when the loons came home and cried their soulful call.
Now it’s suddenly September, coloured leaves have begun to fall.

Just yesterday the phoebes built a nest outside our door.
Summer days bred evening storms, with lightening’s flash and thunder’s roar.
Giggling children paddled toes in icy water off the dock,
Now it’s suddenly September, can I turn back the clock?

As I sit beside the cracking fire and ponder coming days,
There’s turkey dinners, pumpkin pies and Christmas holidays.
When days cool down and birds fly south and the harvest moon rises high,
Carpe diem, live for today, for it will suddenly be July.

copyright wmel 2006

More on the fiddlemaking

Okay ... here's the back of my fiddle with the sides sitting on it. I traced the outsides of the sides onto it, then with great anxiety made my way to the band saw.


I was pretty anxious about cutting into this beautiful one inch thick piece of maple, so I decide that I was just going to cut the corners off and take a few big "bites" off it, then I would quit for the day. As I got going and got the feel of it, I started to calm myself a bit, and then went hog-wild and cut the whole thing out.





Here's the sides sitting on the back. I've left about 5 mm all the way around for filing, sanding and finishing. What you see on this side will be the inside of the violin, but it will have to be carved out. That comes after I carve the outside.


















This is the sides and back sitting side by side ... what you see in this one will be the outside of the back. It has really pretty flames (the sort of stripes) and you can see the really cool bird's eye lines in the grain.
















Next I take my big gouge and start cutting away everything that doesn't look like a violin.

The sides are done

Okay, so here it is. I've installed the linings and the sides of my fiddle are now complete.

It was really stressful cutting into the corner block to fit the ends of the liners in. The cuts into the corner blocks aren't as pretty as the picture in my book of "how to", but I'm really proud of how it has turned out so far.

The next step is to draw the outline on the bird's eye maple back (it's one piece) and cut it ... then start carving.

Muggins' Blog

I'd tell the story of what happened today, but I think it's better coming from the main player in the scenerio.

Check out Muggins' Blog.

Beta & other Stuff

Susane has been trying to get us all to switch to the beta-version .... I'll look at it when I have some time in between other things, but this weekend is busy. Until then, apparently she won't be commenting, which must be killing her.

This is shaping up to be a lovely weekend in Fort Irwin ... it's sunny, and supposed to be in the mid 20's both today and tomorrow. It had already cooled down enough that I'd pulled out a knitting project that I'd put away a couple of years ago. It had what seemed to be an insurmountable error. Guess what .... two hours and I'm now finishing the seams. It should be done by the end of the weekend. I've pulled out another in progress one I worked on it for a while last night and now that's smoking along too.

Today, I have to take a few deep breaths and say a few yoga "aaoouums" in the lotus position to calm myself enough to glue in the linings on my in-progress fiddle. I'll have to do a little bit of intimidating work with a razor saw to install some of them properly. But, hey, "How hard can it be?".

We have a pot-luck tomorrow so I made a big pot of Chili Mole (pronounced mole-ay). So now it's laundry, a bit of housework, some fiddling, and if the wind comes up, some sailing would be appropriate.

Nice to have another summer weekend ..... delay the nasty winter (that's for susane who can't comment with her "I love winter" b.s. LOL

More on the Wendivarius

So I've been working on my fiddle .... if you check the last posting that I did on it, you could see the corners weren't trimmed. I've spent a a lot of time with the plane, sandpaper and various other things getting the sides finished.

If you look at the corners they're nicely trimmed ... they just need a final go with the drum-sander to ensure they're perfectly square.

What you can't really see from this picture is that it's perfectly smooth and level on the top and bottom of the sides. The upper end is exactly 30 mm and the lower end is exactly 32 mm. Just as planned.

I'm still reeling with shock and awe. So next I fit the linings in, which are willow strips that support the sides and give the top and bottom a little more meat to hang onto.

After that is done the mould comes out of the middle and it will sit and wait patiently while I carve the belly, back and neck. I'm looking forward to doing the scroll!

I'll keep you posted as I go.

Back

So, I'm back in the land of blogging. It's been a busy summer with lots going on and is not always easy to get to reading the blogs, leaving commments on the blogs and creating new posts too. I'm back now. I've left comments on all the family blogs.

Now I'll just have to come up with something clever to blog about.

Never mind, I can't think of anything right now, I'm going to make a cuppa tea.

Skateboarding off the dock

Here it is:


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Grandsons' Visit

So this week was our grandson's summer visit. It was way too short, but we had a blast with them.


Although this picture is not very clear, I love it anyway because this is what Jamie looks like when we're playing cards or dominoes ... constantly giggling and being silly! He had us all laughing our heads off.






We hung out on the dock a lot, soaking up the nasty UV rays and drinking pop - okay, I had wine.

This is Jamie jumping off the dock into the water.
Just what summer holidays are all about.








Here's Jonathon during one of the Crazy 8's games. What a great smile!

This is something Jonathon has talked about doing for several years now. While we were on the dock, he tied off his skateboard so he wouldn't lose it and was riding it down the dock and into the water. He did different tricks that were fun to watch. (If I knew how to load video clips onto here I'd put one up, becuase they're quite cool!)

We had an awesome time eating junk food, homemade bread and just genereally hanging out.

Musical Instrument Construction Course

Okay, so here are the pictures of my violin. The first day we made templates from the plans and that took the whole day. It didn't seem like much at the end of the day, but it was a lot of work.

Day two we made the mould for the violin, I forgot to take a picture of it. It took a full day to make the mould and cut out where the corner blocks and end blocks go. Then I had to cut out the rectangles you see on the picture (below) with a coping saw for the clamps to fit into. Coping saws are quite the fun little gadget. It took me a while to get the hang of using it, and I was slow and not nearly as precise as I would have liked to have been.

Here's a picture of my work on day three, after I'd glued the corner blocks and the end blocks in place.





On day four two tornadoes went through the area and our class was cancelled due to a power outage at the school. That was really disappointing; we were all so anxious to get on with our projects.


However, the school is near the hospital, so day five, the electricity was back on in that area, (unlike where we live!) and we were back in action.

Here's my picture at the end of day five. You can see the side ribbing is all glued into place around the mould and it actually looks like it might be a violin some day! There are some mistakes, but I'm not pointing them out. I'm so excited that I was able to do something like that. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Eventually, when it comes off the mould, the corner blocks (pointy dark brown parts) will be inside the violin, but will be trimmed much smaller and the outside pointy bits will be cut down to the proper size. The two end blocks will be inside the violin too and the mould will be ready and waiting for my next violin.

Awesome course. Kudos to Philip Davis the instructor for his patience.

What the heck just happened???

Holy mackeral, is that what happens when you have electricity???

Finally after 6 days of candles, generators humming, ok, roaring and no hot water, we're back in the land of showers and dishwashers.

Now I'll blog the pix I from my course ... because I can!

Catching up a wee bit

OK, just to catch up.

Spamalot was awesome Jojo. I don't know that there was any time during the show when people weren't laughing. Lexiphage & I both laughed our behinds off.

I've been taking my Musical Instrument Construction course this week. I've learned sooooo much already. Yesterday, picked out the wood for our violins; I chose a Sitka Spruce (from Europe) for the front and Canadian bird's eye maple for the back and neck. Then we made templates from the plans, we're making a stradivarius copy. It took hours to make all the pieces we needed.

Today, we started working on our moulds. I didn't take pictures of my progress, but I'll take a couple tomorrow before I start, and after I'm done tomorrow and over the next few days, them I'll post them. There are some beautiful instruments being made by some really talented people. Everyone is willing to offer information, advice and the use of their tools.