Lee Harps

I can hardly believe it either! It has been nearly TWO YEARS(!) since I’ve made any new blog entries here! Much has happened in those two years, and my resolution for 2009 is to share some of my activities with you. The reason for this entry (aside from its being EXTREMELY interesting subject material) is to permit me to once again learn how to use this communication vehicle. 

 

Tonight’s entry revolves around a structure I first built back in the early 90’s when it was described in Fine Woodworking magazine (Fine Woodworking, August 1992, No. 95, pp. 40-41, by Pat Paterson). It is one of the most well-designed and most useful sets of saw horses (the article calls them “saw ponies”) I’ve ever seen. I have built quite a few sets of them, some as gifts, and have most recently built myself another set. Here is the article and the accompanying diagram. These are built from short 2×4 cutoffs and plywood scraps – items usually available around every garage or workshop!

 

 

 

I’m hoping that anyone wishing to build a set of these will be able to discern the measurements from the article scans I’ve included. 

 

Here is a photo of my old, original worn set of sawhorses and the new set I’ve built in the last few days. Note how “stackable” they are, and in doing so, one can use them stacked to make the working height user friendly. With their solid, no-wobble construction and the splayed legs, these ponies stand solid! Unlike most saw horses, there is no movement whatsoever where these stand! They are wonderful to have around as standing stools to repair a ceiling fixture or do high painting, they make a great paint can stand, or legs for a temporary tool stand. I’ve used them for thousands of things!

 

 

You may notice that, while I have sized my sawhorses to the measurements of the diagram, I’ve made a few modifications that I am finding most helpful. I am just beginning the construction of a full set of kitchen cabinets for a house I’m rehabbing, and with my workshop being situated on the second floor of my garage, it is quite difficult for me to deal with full sheets of plywood (particularly the weighty sheets of 3/4 inch birch ply) upstairs, so I needed a means to safely and easily saw my sheets of plywood into more manageable sizes for this project. I recently read an article describing the use of stud hangers to suspend 2×4s between  regular, all 2×4 saw horses for this purpose, and in thinking about it, I decided to modify these “pony” horses to do the same thing. 

 

I have never used the hinged top for my saw horses, but have always made openings into the plywood sides for the purpose of utilizing that space to stash tools and the like.

 

On this set, I decided to create a notch in the plywood that would support a 2×4 suspended between 2 horses.

 

 

In the house I’m working on, I removed some original 2×4s which, amazingly enough (duh!) were actually 2 inches by 4 inches in size! They really did make lumber the size they said it was at one time!!! Anyway, to make a long story short, when I modified the set of sawhorses, I used “modern” 2×4s to size the notches.  I decided this would be a good opportunity to put the old “odd sized” 2×4s to good use. Great idea, but they would NOT fit into the notches I had made. Easy solution: a few moments at the band saw and, voila!, they fit!

 

 

How one chooses to lay out a frame for sawing purposes depends a lot upon how small pieces of plywood one is planning to cut in this manner. Mine will be rather large, so I made a simple frame of the old 2×4s thusly:

 

One could easily add more cross pieces were it indicated for the cutting one needed to do. At some point in the future, it may be necessary that I make this structure more complex.

Above, the frame is laying atop the double-stacked sawhorses, the ends not yet inserted into the notches. In the photo below, the ends of the 2×4s have been inserted into the notches, thus creating a very solid, flat surface for me to use to cut the plywood.

Below, you can see a full, 4′x8′ sheet of 3/4 inch birch ply leaned against the structure, waiting to be placed on top for cutting.

Here, the plywood sheet has been placed horizontally on the frame, ready to be cut. A nice feature of the stacked horses in this application is that it really creates a comfortable height for this job. I am no longer young enough to be comfortable doing a lot of bending over, so this height is ideal!

I have made plywood guides for my saw that I clamp in place for cutting. This guide is about 5 feet long for horizontal cuts; I also have an 8 foot guide for lengthwise cuts. Here is mwah making the first cut on this sheet of plywood.

Here is that same sheet of plywood, now cut into smaller pieces, all ready to be carried to the second floor workshop. Cutting plywood in this manner using a makeshift arrangement of unsecured 2×4s, etc. can be dangerous. With this frame, the “table” on which the cutting occurs fully supports the plywood and there is no pinching, bucking, etc. at all. I have admittedly made cuts on a less than ideal surface, and have fortunately NOT lost any digits or other body parts to date.

At day’s end, after having cut several plywood sheets, it is a simple matter to remove the frame from the notches, stack the saw ponies, sweep up the sawdust, and head for the recliner!

This is the recliner! More on that later….. Zzzzzzzzz

It all started on Christmas Day when the Mrs. received a couple of new KitchenAid knives as gifts. I think it was December 26 when a post-a-note appeared on my computer monitor strongly suggesting that, since the NEW knives will not fit into the OLD knife rack, it might be nice if I would consider making a replacement knife rack. As the character, Rumpole, of the British sitcom series “Rumpole of the Bailey” says repeatedly under his breath about his wife: “She who must be obeyed….”

So here is the basic dilemma: 2 new kitchen knives (foreground), 1 very old (and filled, and ratty) hardwood knife block.

Not particularly wanting to recreate a larger version of the old knife block, I ventured into the cyberspace world of the Internet to see what I might learn there that would be helpful. I came upon the following design which I thought was 1) within the realm of my accomplishment and 2) was pretty darned clever! The part that stopped me was the $125 price tag (knives NOT included)!

You can visit the site at:

http://www.greenergrassdesign.com/martinrobitschschaschlik.html

Someone else had, on their site, made a very sculptured version of this same thing which I liked even more, so being the design thief that I am, I felt sure I could replicate something in this order for a few cents LESS THAN $125! To that end, I went to visit my local restaurant supply store and found various length bamboo skewers available.

I opted for the 10-inch version which, if I recall, were $1.69 per bag of 100. I purchased about 1500 of them, not knowing how many I would need. (I think my knife rack used only about 9 bags of the skewers.)

Wanting to see if we liked the concept in practical terms, I fashioned a down-’n-dirty quick prototype for the kitchen, using 1/8-inch plywood scraps.

With knives in place, it looked something like this:

The photo doesn’t show it well, but because the skewers were not packed in tightly enough in this prototype, the 5th knife from the right is sinking, with the handle moving down into the skewers. I made the prototype to accommodate the full 10-inch long skewers.

We decided 10 inches was too high for this to be located under our upper cupboards, but the concept seemed valid, so I proceeded to build an 9-inch version as the final item. Using some eucalyptus scrap lumber that was left over from building my current personal “e-harp”,

(hey, cut me a break! I can include harp photos if I like; after all, this is the “LeeHARPS” blog!) I cut out the pieces (having too much fun to take photos….) cutting 45 degree cuts on the corners. The corners were then joined with masking tape on the outside, Tightbond glue was applied, and the box was clamped together with strap clamps.

If you look carefully, you can see how, by cutting the corner joints on a 45 degree angle, one can have a “wrap-around” effect with the wood grain.

With the corners glued, I installed a bottom, routed out the decorative side openings and, using a jig to cut diagonal slots in the corners, I was able to glue thin walnut strips into the slots, strengthening the corners and giving the box a decorative touch. I then applied fillers and spray-can lacquer as a finish and it was time to install the skewers. First I had to determine what the new skewer length would be (skewers come in even lengths – 6-8-10-12-inch).

Secondly, I noticed that the skewers were not totally even in length, so decided to invert them, point down, into a metal tea can to establish a common level for the pointed tips.

I thought of different ways to evenly hold the skewers for cutting and decided in the end to use a very handy shop item I use for many purposes called “flat twine”:

This product is like a very loooong roll of stretchy saran wrap with a handle. As you apply it, you stretch it and, after several wrappings, it becomes very tight.

With flat-twine-wrapped skewer bundle still in tea can, and holding the can bottom against a wood block on the miter guide of the bandsaw, it was very easy to cut the skewers to length and not have the cut-off pieces flying all over creation.

While doing all this, I was trying some new technics with my camera, (F-stops, delayed shutter, etc.) and, in the act of doing so, learned a valuable lesson: HOLD ON TO THE BUNDLE WHEN RUNNING IT THRU THE BANDSAW BLADE!

Here I was holding only the can and the blade made the bundle of skewers go NUTS! I had pieces of skewer all over the place! I did have to discard a portion of that bundle, but I did not lose any digits nor did I shed any blood in the process. (Rarely does one happen to get photo documentation of causing stupid things to happen, and I guess that is a good thing!)
When all was said and done, the skewers installed and the knives inserted into the new rack, it seems to have turned out reasonably satisfactory. I’ve heard NO complaints from “she who must be obeyed”.

As with most of my projects these days, a sprig of wheat seems to appear somewhere on it.

Imagine that: There is wheat on my harp also!

Coasters anyone?!

It’s difficult to believe, but it has been over 2 1/2 months since I had made an entry to this site. Happily, I’ve been in excellent health, the marriage is still holding together, the cat has not died, we’ve not had any natural disasters (locally, that is) and all is well. It’s just that, for a person who should be retired, there are just too many opportunities for fun things to do, with there being limited time left over for sharing those “good times” with my readers (EITHER of them….)!

Since this is primarily a photo blog and since my memory seems to fail from time to time, I’ve decided to use my photo collection from the past few months as a basis for the following entry. I think I have well over 50 photos earmarked for this posting, so unless you have a bit of time to spare, you may want to abort for now and come back later.

It’s been almost a non-winter here in PA thus far, but the autumn colors were quite beautiful. Here are some colors I found in the Carlisle, PA area.

I had occasion to take an old computer to a collection point in the Newville area and happened upon these sights.

For much too long I’ve wanted to organize our garden shed. As you can see here, it NEEDED it!

After having spent the better part of a whole day working on it, here is how it looked afterward.

In November, I had signed up to attend an Irish Weekend (I don’t think I have a drop of Irish blood in me….). It was held at the historic Hilltop House in Harper’s Ferry, WV.

Gatherings like this are for the enjoyment of the music, but also to afford would-be musicians like myself an opportunity to take classes in playing the instruments of one’s choice. This was a 3-day event and I chose to take classes with Cliff Moses. Here he is teaching a hammered dulcimer class.

Here you can see the top of my hammered dulcimer, facing Cliff Moses. In addition to hammered dulcimer, Cliff also taught classes in concertina. This is my friend mark playing his concertina.

The Hilltop House is a very old, historic inn and is located on the very top of the hill overlooking the valley below where Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia all come together, separated only by the rivers. This is the view I had to endure as I look out my 3rd floor bathroom window on Sunday morning.

My friend Mark is remarkably fluent on numerous instruments. Here he is playing a fairly obscure bagpipe called Cornish pipes.

This is an example of another type of bagpipe called a Galician bagpipe which comes from the Brittany section of Spain. The player is John Skelton.

There were big fiddle players,

little fiddle players…

(this little girl was 4 years old and walked all around the inn playing “Road to Lisdoonvarna”).

There were concerts,

There were even REDHATS! These ladies were having a redhat outing to Harper’s Ferry, unrelated to the Irish Weekend.

The activities I’m relating to you here are some of the reasons my time in the workshop for the latter quarter of 2006 has been minimal. Here are some more reasons:

Unknown to me, my lovely spouse had arranged with a lady at church to receive some plantings of rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan) plants to be planted at our house. The call arrived that the ladie’s gardener had filled a bucket with plants and we (I) could come pick them up. As I was driving out the driveway to do so, I could not help but stop and admire the goldfinch at our feeder swinging himself upsidedown to partake of the niger seed.

I had never been to the home of the lady who had the plants, and en route could not help but enjoy more fall colors as I gazed across a pond to see the ducks there.

The next surprise that awaited me was the SIZE of the bucket of plants! It was huge and heavy. Fortunately there was a man there who helped me lift the container into the back of my minivan. Once home, creating new beds for the Black-eyed Susans proved to be quite a workout as well. (So, what can I say beside, “Yes, dear!”?!)

November also found me spending two days with local 6th grade classes giving my “Log to Lute” presentation. Some years ago I felt it essential that, if, as a harp builder, I chose to call myself a “luthier”, it would be essential that I should actually have the construction of a lute in my portfolio! When my father died in 1996, I rescued a dirty log from the front of his workshop which, once split open, turned out to be nice Pennsylvania cherry wood. From this log I built a 6-course (12-string) lute from drawings made from a lute built in 1532. A teacher friend, knowing that I had built a lute, asked me to speak to her 6th graders about the lute, and I’ve been doing it ever since for the past 6-8 years! It is tied in with their Renaissance program.

This year I was given really LUXURY quarters for my presentation: The sunken study area in the school library. Here is a photo of my “props” all set up before the first class of the day.

Here is am playing for the students the single piece I know to play on the lute.

Here is a young lady playing, for the first time, a hurdy-gurdy which I built. It sounds pretty bad and I show it to them for comic relief.

The students also get a huge pleasure from splitting wood using ancient tools called a froe and mallet. Tuning pegs require split wood to give them the required strength for tuning stringed instruments.

Our woodworkers club was invited by the York club to have a booth at the York Woodworker’s Show. I volunteered to help “man the booth” for a few hours on a Saturday in November. This is our booth showing some “artifacts” displayed by members of the club.

Just for fun, I took along some wooden rhythm toys I had made as Christmas Gifts back in the ’80’s, and learned that even adults can find pleasure in playing with them.

This one happens to be a dancing cow. I had also taken along my St. Francis harp for display. This young lady spent quite a bit of time playing it.

Early in 2006, our daughter, who is a museum person (sorry, Jen, that I couldn’t describe what you do more elegantly) took a new position with the B&O Railroad Museum in Ellicott City, MD. Finally, in late November, her mother and I managed to visit the museum for the first time. We made a day of it, and here are a few of the photos I took there.

This is the main building of the museum.

Here is a view of the platform located on the back side of this building.

I’ve always wanted to see the inside of a real caboose, and here is how it really looks in there:

In an adjacent freight building is one of the finest permanent model train layouts I’ve seen.

Apparently set up by a local model train club, here are a couple of sample photos of the layout.

My good wife also had a birthday in November, so I opted to bake her a Birthday Pie rather than a birthday cake. This pumpkin pie turned out to be quite delicious!

In the midst of all this activity, I did manage a tiny bit of shop time, and managed to form a few harp shells. Here is a cherry, lap harp shell still in the vacuum press waiting for the glue to dry.

As you may have guessed, I’m a bit of a musical instrument nut and have always been fascinated by instruments of all kinds, particularly those that are more unusual. One Sunday morning in church we had a guest trumpeter as a soloist. He was quite skilled at trumpet and, in addition to the standard trumpet, played a small piccolo trumpet (very high pitched):

and, even more unusual, a valveless Baroque trumpet:

On the Baroque trumpet, all notes must be formed with the lips, there being no valves! Very difficult, but this gentleman did it so very well! Interestingly, there are a couple of tiny holes similar to recorder holes that are used as necessary to help refine the intonation of certain notes. It was fascinating to see and hear him play.

As November ended and Thanksgiving had passed, it was time to begin thinking about Christmas. I did a rude thing and decided to treat myself to a couple of new Christmas “toys” for the workshop, and began by replacing the vintage old drill press I had purchased used over 30 years ago.

One of the reasons I replaced it was to refine my ability to accurately drill the holes for the new harps I have in progress. I purchased what is called a Rikon “radial” drill press and also purchased for it a laser marker.

Each of the yellow things (above) send out a laser beam. By adjusting them to create crosshairs, one can simply slide one’s workpiece under the laser and know that the drill bit will bore a hole accurately where the beams cross.

It seemed appropriate for a harp maker since a harp neck of a 36-string harp requires the drilling of 108 holes!

Several people in our woodworking club have gotten into making wooden pens. Thanks to their bad influence (thanks, Kari!), I’ve decided to try it myself. Again, I had a vintage Sears wood lathe for which I had difficulty finding accessories, so I decided to trade up my old lathe as well.

This I replaced by a well-reviewed Rikon lathe. Here is the back of the lathe showing how I enlarged and modified the tool holder.

Having gotten that all set up, I was able to, in fact, turn out a couple of pens!

Ah, Christmas! The stockings were hung by the chimney with care….

I had the pleasure of having our son’s help with decorating the tree….

I purchased for my wife a couple of new kitchen knives and found a note on my computer saying the new knives would not fit into our wooden knife block; could I please remedy this?!

A bit of Internet research netted me this design for knife storage. Here is a quick prototype – a simple box filled with pointed, bamboo skewer sticks purchased at a local restaurant supply. The final version of this will be made with a bit more craftsmanship and is partially constructed, but will have to be the subject of a later entry when it is completed.

A real plus for having our son home was that I was able to steal from him some photography technics, use of F-stops and the like, which I have never understood. He took a forry into my now deceased garden and returned with some truly amazing and artful photos. While my efforts are not nearly as expert as his, I’ve been having a good time trying. I’d like to share with you some of the photos I’ve taken.

We have decorative grasses which grow to about 6 feet tall in summer, and turn brown or tan in the fall, still putting on quite a show. Here are some “up close” photos I’ve taken of them:

Do you remember the photos I had taken this summer of the bees harvesting necter from the pink flowers? Here is a photo of those same flower heads after the frost has turned them brown.

One of the joys I have found with using low F-stop setting is the detail one captures! My current camera, a Cannon S3-IS, permits manual F-stop, ISO and shutter speed settings and I am now, for the first time, teaching myself to use these features.

The Christmas season was a bit of a blurr for me this year with numerous playing engagements with the ensemble I play with, so by the time I had participated in a rehearsal and three Christmas Eve day services at church, I was pretty much a basket case as midnight arrived. Christmas day was delightful with family and good eating and it was a chance to appreciate all the wonderful blessings we have been given.

By the time New Year’s Eve arrived, I was, once again, rested up and had a most enjoyable evening in Harrisburg. Here is downtown Harrisburg around 8 PM New Year’s eve, all ready for the events to follow.

The huge Moravian star continued to hang over the chancel in our church, having been placed there on Christmas eve.

A lovely concert by the New Holland Band, Pierce Getz, organ and a female vocal soloist was held from 10 PM till midnight.

And the evening culminated with delightful fireworks, all set off right on the Harrisburg square in front of our church. The steeple to the left is Market Square Church.

Happy New Year one and all!!

Remember the “Tin Harp” entry some time ago? Out of the blue, the cousin of the man who built this harp found my site on the Internet and began corresponding about it. I referred her information to Pam, the owner of the harp, and here is the information they exchanged which we were so desparately seeking. This, I must tell you, is an all-text entry, but most interesting! A special thanks to Catherine Biggs for referring us to her cousin and harp builder, Earl Thompson. (I’m sorry it took me so long to get this all posted. I think you will find Earl’s history of the Linrud harps most enlightening. As it turns out, it is NOT a “tin” harp, but rather a fiberglass instrument!)
Catherine (Linrud) Biggs Says:
November 4th, 2006 at 11:58 am

Well I can tell you who made the harp!! My cousin Earl Thompson. He comes from a long line of instrument makers and musicians. His grandfather was a harp builder and his mother a harpist who even played for the Eisenhowers. His father made violins. I grew up playing this exact model plus a smaller lap version. Email me if you want his current contact information.

Dear Catherine,

I was so excited to receive the forwarded copy of your email to Lee. I am the owner of the Linrud harp that he featured on his web page. I bought it in a yard sale in Fairfax, PA about 5 years ago. It needed a little repair work as a crack had formed where the arm and column meet, so we fixed that, Lee helped me re-string and clean it, and now I am taking lessons to learn how to play. I just adore this lovely little instrument. It has amazing sound and it so easy to play. But I have so many questions about it. If you would not mind sharing some contact information for your cousin, I would be so grateful. If he would prefer, you can give him my contact info.

Again, thank you so much for responding to Lee’s posting.

Pamela (Last name deleted)
Hello Pamela,
My cousin Earl Thompson can be reached at the following email addy: (deleted for privacy).He currently lives outside of Adams, Oregon. I will forward this email to him as well.
I am glad you like the harp. I really loved playing when I was a kid and learned to appreciate the remarkable workmanship that went into making these instruments after playing a number of other designs. Like I said, there is a very interesting history of this harp and our family. He is not in the best of health so if you don’t get much from him feel free to call or email me.

I received two emails today from Earl Thompson. One came in response to my letter to Catherine, which she forwarded to him. The second in response to my letter that he received an hour later. I included a picture of the harp that you had taken to be sure he would recognize the instrument.

Here are the letters:

It’s good to hear from someone that has one of my harps. For some years, we lived in Clarksville and near the Triadelphia resevour out between Washington D.C. and Baltimore. I have made over 1200 of that model harp and near 1400 of the smaller one. That harp you have was made while we lived in Riverside California between 1975 and 1979. We moved up here to Oregon in 1979. I have not finished a harp since about 6 years ago. I am 79 myself now and almost 4 years ago I had bypass surgery and have not had any energy to do any work since. I have a nice shop building here I built myself and I wanted to build some larger, full size harps. But that never did take place. My Grandfather Linurd made 6 large full size harps. I wish I had one of them. Last I knew, there was one in Brooklyn New York. But I do not know who it belongs to now. I did have a lot of problems with the wood over the years. I have rebuilt several harps like yours. One fell out of a car? I do not know how that ahppened, but it was fixed while there in Clarksville. One of my smaller harps is in a 1982 movie, The Tempist. It was made while we lved in Riverside. One day in 1977 A woman went in to the Lyon & Healy harp salon in Hollywood and asked about a small harp. Mr Woldridge that was tne manager of that store for Lyon & Healy, told the woman about me. She calld and the next day came out to Riverside 60 miles and bought one of my smaller model harps and 3 years later someone told mur daughter that one of my harps was in that Hollywood movie. I have a copy of that movie and it is not available any more. It’s kind of a dumb movie and I was lucky to get a copy of it on the internet. Well, you said you had some questions about the harp. You are welcome to write to this address and ask the questions. But I really do not feel like doing any repair work right now. I have my mothers 85 year old Lyon & Healy model 23 harp here and it needs work too. But I will be glad to answer any questions you have. And I do have a lot of parts. If you would rather write by snail mail. My address is (deleted for privacy purposes….)

Your e-mail message just arrived, after I sent one to you. It is interesting to hear about the harp. As I said my my message to you just a while ago. The metal sound box, is not metal. The one piece fibreglas body was made for me in Cleveland for a while by a man that made fibreglas things for the governemnt. I made the bodys myself for some years. I started this work in 1954 after my mother had visited Melville Clark in Saricuse New York. He wanted to make an all fibreglass harp and made several. I have one of the first ones. The harps I made were made with hard maple wood, mostly from upper Pensylvania, and New York State. I tried several out of Western maple, and it is much to soft. That harp has a total tension on the strings of over 1200 pounds. So the harp has to be strong. Harpo Marx ask for and I sent him one of my first harps in 1956. He sent me pictures of him playing one and he died in 1978 I think it was, a year before we moved west. I didn’t get to meet him. He lived out in Cathedral City near Palm Springs and I wish I could have met him. He liked my harps. My mother was the one that promoted me makeing harps. I myself played the harp from my age of 6, until I was, well, about 8 years ago and I am 79 now. I have played in 6 different orchestras over the years. I have not touched a harp string now is 6 or 8 years. I just don’t feel like it. I had trouble selling an all fibreglass body harp for some years and was just starting to sell them well, while in Riverside. Orders were comeing in faster then I could make them. But I was tired of small harps and had some good ideas for a full size all fibreglass harp. Fibreglass is the best thing about my harps. How many wood bridges do you see now days? Wood is nothing but trouble. I spent a year here building a shop building, then things fell apart here and the fulll size harps never did get started. Now I am too old for it. And the money has run out. I used to know a lady in Seattle that bought over 175 of my harps. She could teach you, and did, over 100 and more people to play any tune on the harp and make money at it. She had one student Lloyd Lindroth, ops. I don’t know how to spell his first name. Anyway, he was in the navy band in Washington and in 1984 I think it was, was playing in Los Vagas Nevada and makeing over $150,000. a year. Edith was something. At one time she taught a 16 year old girl how to play a large harp and the girl went on to Hawaii and make $1200 a week playing in the restaurant in a hotel in the evening. $1200 a week and room and board in a hotel at 16 is not bad for a young girl. Edith was a good harp player. She could play anything Bach to boogie. And she could start on Bach and be playing boogie before you could realize it. She lived on North 50th in Seattle west of I-5 and always had a harp in her front window. She played in hundreds of weddings in the Seattle area. She died in 197??? Ops, I don’t remember. She was a fun to know woman. She owned over 300 harps in the Seattle area and rented out many of them. Time passes on! ! ! ! Best Regards, Earl T.

Tonight, with the wind blowing and the temperatures dropping, it becomes most apparent that gardening, as we know it, will soon come to its end for the season and the winter will bring with it indoor activities so sorely ignored because of the garden’s perpetual requirements.

As the wind blew some of my wife’s scarves, it reminded me of a scene one might see in the movies.

Nearby, one of our many squirrels was enjoying a feast on the new bird feeder.

We have not yet experienced frost, so the insects continue to thrive, working until the very end of the season laying away necter for a long winter. Here are a couple of the local bees hard at work.

The veggies in the garden are still producing a bit. I had lost all my zucchini to the borers some time ago, but was surprised to find a small side shoot alive and well as I walked thru the garden this week. The fruit on it is small, but with a few additional warm days, it would have promise.

This tomato plant is looking a bit worse for wear, but even so, I was able to pick quite a few very nice tomatoes from it.

The sweet peppers, while less in numbers, are still producing quite nicely.

I had mentioned my “cole crop” late plantings in an earlier posting. It was quite warm mid-week, and to my chagrin, the white cabbage butterflies were having a heyday! I decided it wise to apply the bacterial remedy for them, bacillis thuringensis, which organically gives cabbage worms a fatal tummy ache. This is a liquid mixed into water and applied to the leaves via a sprinkling can.

The row is looking pretty healthy.

On closer examination, some very nice heads of broccoli are developing.

We had a particularly nice return from the cantaloupe seeds I had “recycled” from an early season cantaloupe we had purchased to eat.

Like the “perfect” gardener, I was able to wash and dry more seeds for next summer; so much less expensive than buying seed.

Here’s an unusual caterpiller story. Several weeks ago, my Martha Stewart wife brought into the kitchen a bouquet of lovely dill blooms which she arranged artistically in a lovely little pitcher of water and placed it visually and strategically near the kitchen sink, mostly “for pretty”, as the Pa. Dutch would say it. Soon thereafter, we noticed that the dill was inhabited and being consumed – by a very lovely little caterpiller.

Isn’t this nice, thought we?! As with all beings that eat, what goes in must come out. Tiny though it was, Mr. Caterpiller didn’t have the greatest toilet habits and began to leave a most unpleasant residue of black pellets around the pitcher. After a short time of tolerating this, Mrs. Stewart decided that Mr. Caterpiller should spend the rest of his development on the deck.

Unfortunately, this story does not have a very happy ending (or so it seems). Yesterday, in the process of renewing the dill leaves for his diet, I was able to get a rather nice photo of him.

By evening yesterday, much to our dismay, Mr. Caterpiller was GONE! My guess is that one of our many birds happened to see this lovely dish and had a feast. SO, it was fun while it lasted.

It is surely fall, most of the final tomatoes have been picked.

and the annual decorative gourd collection seems to have appeared on the deck once again.

It’s a wonderful time of the year.

DISCLAIMER: Unless you are in the market for an electric shredder, you may want to skip this article. This is a consumer’s review that I wish I had been able for me to review PRIOR to having purchased the item above.

As I gazed upon the very haphazard, unsightly bits of cornstalks still partially standing in my garden, their numbers having been reduced by our neighbor’s annual “decorate the porch for Halloween” harvesting, I began looking for ways an older person might deal with the brown, bedraggled cornstalks that remained. Gasoline powered chippers and shredders are quite expensive and also unpleasantly noisey! As with so many things, my quest led me to an Internet search and I came upon the McCulloch Electric Chipper/Shredder shown above. There are a few reviews out there from which I learned: 1) the assembly instructions are “marginal at best”, 2) when attempting to shred wet material it tends to become stopped up and needs to be disassembled for cleaning, and 3) removal of the hopper for cleaning out the unit can be a bit tedious.
Perhaps I am not as mechanically challenged as some, but I found the assembly to be fairly straightforward with one minor exception. If you look at the way the tubular “legs” meet the body of the unit, you will see that they come in at an angle.

The bolts and bolt holes, on the other hand, must be inserted thru straight holes.

Getting the only-long-enough bolts and lock washers started on the first side were really easy. Doing so on the other side with the legs angled was another story. After some determination, the legs were finally firmly attached. (Advice: Only START the nuts on the first side, then START the nuts on the other side, THEN tighten them up.)
I think the greatest surprise for me was the feeding chute at the top. On all the photos, it appears to be a rather large funnel into which one simply dumps the leaves and debris, leaving the work to the machine. Look again:

What it has is a VERY small, VERTICAL opening, probably 1.5 x 5 inches in size above which is an oval opening with a self-closing flap. NOTHING is going to enter the chopping chamber on its own; one must PUSH any material into the chopper! This is made somewhat easier by an item that is included with the unit: a plastic PUSHER.

Using both hands, one can work (emphasis on “work”) the material into the chamber. Once in the chamber, the revolving blades do their thing (shown here with the hopper chamber removed).

Let me tell you about those blades: Those babies are SHARP!! On one of my first times having had to remove the hopper to clear away the jammed up debris, I casually cleared the material laying on the blade by sweeping it off with my bare hand. Bad decision! I am currently typing with a band aid on my 4th finger right hand because of it. I bleed well! It was THEN that I went for my gloves. I suppose a little blood letting isn’t all bad….

Here’s the story with hopper removal: There are three black, plastic knobs which hold the hopper in place. The one is located on the rear of the unit, just above the power switch.

This is probably the most important one, because under the threaded black metal gizmo projecting into the yellow hole is a safety switch. This switch is activated ONLY when the knob is screwed all the way in. The unit will not power up unless it is screwed all the way in.

There are two UNSWITCHED knobs, one on either side of the hopper, which stabilize the hopper, especially when one tilts the unit forward to roll it about on the wheels. Once assembly was completed, I could not, for the life of me, get these side knobs to screw into the holes provided for them. They are spring loaded and I discovered that a split lock-washer had been installed ABOVE the silver washer, thus preventing the bolts from extending far enough to reach the holes. I unscrewed knobs from their housing, removed the split washer (shown), reassembled them, and all was fine.

There is a discharge chute on the side of the shredder opposite the power switch. On it is a label stating clearly: NEVER PLACE HANDS INTO DISCHARGE CHUTE AS SERIOUS INJURY WILL OCCUR.

I’m sure I have voided any chances I have of getting the McCulloch folks to support me for the rest of my life, having admitted this, but I was soon to discover that, if instead of loosening THREE screws, cutting my finger on the sharp blades, and losing time reassembling the unit, if I simply turned off the power switch, reached up into the “DO NOT ENTER” chute (with GLOVED hand) and removed stuck debris, spinning the cutter wheel till it was clear, I could be back in operation in a fraction of the time required for disassembly.

One must remember, however, that even stopped, one is reaching into the sharp blades, so it is imperative that one proceeds with extreme caution. It made use of the unit SO much easier, however!

Just to give you a couple of more photos of the shredder, here is the big label attached to the hopper.

As you can see on the label, it has a 14 amp., 1600 watt motor that spins the blades. It should not be operated with a wimpy power cord.

Here is what the underside of the chute looks like when removed (sorry it was dirty from use when I took the photo):

It has nice wheels and wheel “hubcaps” which carry the McColloch name.

Here is the side chute for inserting branches. I only tried this on a few branches, but while not as aggressive nor as fast as would be a larger unit, I think it does okay.

Price? This unit lists at $320, a bit more than I was willing to pay. I found it now being offered on Amazon for a mere $199.99 — actually with Amazon being the agent for Target – it arrived from a Target warehouse near here. It’s a pretty substantial unit, weighing in at 87 pounds!
Is it worth $200? Probably not. It is a pretty McCulloch yellow, though, and I would really like to try it in the spring when I trim my fruit trees, just as an alternative to making bundles of my branches for the garbage folks. It really isn’t a workhorse and is more of a “toy for townies”, if you don’t mind my saying so. Being so vertical, it stores rather easily in my garden shed without taking up much space. Will I keep it? Probably so, but I was careful to keep the shipping box just in case….

A week or so ago, I was informed by my wife (she who FEEDS and waters the birds), that the bird feeder was no longer in good health and it might be good of me to replace it. A new feeder has been built, MOSTLY for the birds, but also in response to my wife’s request.

When my father was still living, he always had a round, squirrel resistant bird feeder just outside his front door, the construction of which always fascinated me. In the past 10 years or so, I’ve tried to copy his ideas for our bird feeders. This is not a great photo, but this is a distant photo of the one that was “failing”.

Here is the one I have spent the past week building as a replacement for the one above:

In this one, I have again used redwood for the shingles, pressure treated southern pine for the post mounting, fir sheathing plywood for the round base and roof bottom, maple for the ball on the top, a bit of cedar for the round piece under the ball, 1×2-inch wire for the squirrel barrier and copper tubing for the posts and the circular perch. I have recycled the bird seed bin in the center from the original feeder. Here you can see some of the detail of the construction:

Corresponding holes in the two plywood circles permit the ends of the 1 x 2 inch wire to create a fairly successful squirrel barrier. In the past feeders I’ve built, the 8 vertical posts around the outside were made of wood. Seems the squirrels felt that, if they chewed them off, they could access the bird feed inside. I had to replace them several times! I’m waiting to see if they have copper filings on their teeth now that I’ve used copper tubing for the posts on ths feeder! I have also replaced the original round wooden “perch” with a circle of 3/8″ copper tubing. The shingles are made of redwood, all cut out with a taper on the bandsaw, then the widths tapered to fit the cone shape of the roof. I have used building cement (in a caulking gun) to install the shingles. Here is a photo showing the interior of the lid:

Having also learned from past feeders that the squirrels will chew their way into the interior of the feeder by removing the shingles, I have installed aluminum over the “rafters”, to which I have glued the shingles. There is NO WAY a squirrel can chew thru that! If they decide to try, I’ll just have to install more shingles, I guess. If you notice, the seed bin extends up into the roof, thus making the filling of it a less frequent necessity. The roof hinges at the back and the lower ends of the “rafters” rest on the upper sheet of plywood when the lid is closed, thus keeping the lid flush with the body of the feeder. Also a new addition to this feeder, I have installed eyelets and a chain to act as a “stop” when the lid is opened for filling the feeder:

On the previous feeder, the roof overhang simply rested on the vertical posts in the back, and consequently damaged the shingles and the posts.

And, there you have it: probably the most brief entry I’ve made to date.

Now you can understand why the French Harp is on hold. Winter is coming….

Until now, I’ve always been a bit loathe to take up serious issues in this forum, having limited my entries to more gentle, mundane things like gardening, photo walks around town, workshop projects and the like.

As many of you know, I have spent my medical career as a nurse. One of the “perks” of my employment is that my bag lunch frequently spends noontime remaining in the staff refridgerator as I find the lunch room arrayed with food, commonly referred to as a “drug lunch”. An interesting sequence of events occurred yesterday: As my turkey sandwich languished in the ‘fridge, I found myself partaking of a very nice chicken breast entree, eggplant parmesan, a pasta dish, nice salad and soft drinks of choice, all being offered by a very pleasant, well dressed gentleman in a dark suit, always referred to as a “drug rep.”, which he was. An array of delicious soft cookies awaited for dessert. I found the paper plates, the plastic utensils and napkins, and partook heartily (I have a GREAT appetite).

As some of you may also know, I am an avid movie watcher and utilize my Netflix membership heartily as well. When I returned home from work, in the day’s mail was my next Netflix DVD and, as chance would have it, the movie within was the 2005 film, “Side Effects”.

“Side Effects” is a fictional film that was written and produced by Kathleen Slatterly-Moschkau last year. It is based upon the reflections of her 10-year career as a pharmaceutical drug rep. The drug rep. in the “Side Effects” is played by the lovely Katherine Heigl of “Gray’s Anatomy” (a sitcom I’ve not had the priviledge of seeing).

Until I managed to find time to “check it out”, it was already nearly bedtime, but I thought I would see what the film was all about. End result: I couldn’t turn it off and ended up getting to bed well past midnight!

I have been an admittedly HAPPY recipient of hundreds of “drug lunches” over the years, I’ve received scores of trinkets, all slathered with drug names, and I’ve only recently cut away the very worn leather fob on my key ring on which I could no longer read the name of the drug “responsible” for my having had it in the first place. (I must sadly admit that I cannot even tell you which pharmaceutical company or which particular drug was being promoted at yesterday’s luncheon, even though I had a nice one-on-one chat with the rep about things other than the drugs he was pushing — BAD ME! I know neither his name nor his product NOR his company’s name! Oops!)

“Side Effects” is, as admitted by the producer, a low-budget film with limited “glitz”, but while probably not up for any awards, I found it to be well worth the watch. The acting, for the most part, is believable, but the story line would probably not stand up to most Hollywood standards. On the surface, it is really a “chick flick” with a smattering of subtle sex and cleavage – it has an “R” rating – (you girls will love the role of Zac, Katherine’s counterpart), but it was the message that I found to be most interesting, since I’ve been at least peripherally exposed to the recipient “hospital” side of this scene for my entire career.

I am not about to go into the details of the film itself, I am not going to comment on the ethics of the way pharmaceutical companies operate, I am not going to say the drug companies are wrong in trying to turn a buck for the products they come up with ; after all, were it not for the drug companies, our pharmacies would still be stocked with herbs and leaves and preparations of dried, obscure animal parts! Research costs money. Drugs are the basis of my livelihood. I, myself, take medications daily and expect them to be available to me. I will leave the subject of the film speak for itself and recommend highly that you plan to see it.

The dilemma for me is: When I encounter a “drug lunch” next week, should I walk by it and take my sandwich from the ‘fridge and eat it instead, there in the presence of the others? Or should I say the problem is too rampant and that, having had a hard morning, I deserve a nice tasty lunch and my single plate of food (probably with “seconds”, of course) will have virtually no effect on my neighbor’s prescription cost at the local CVS Pharmacy? What would you do?

One more comment: I have watched this film twice and I would recommend you do the same. The first time, watch it simply as an entertaining film, so you understand the story line. THEN, go to the menu and under the “extras” menu turn on the “medical commentary” and watch it again. With the commentary on, the author gives a running, overdubbed, commentary on the things depicted in the film as the entire film replays, based upon her personal experience. I think you will find it entertaining, revealing and, as it did for me, most provocative.

I would love to hear your comments!

I was asked by fellow harpmaker, Al Winter, of Silvershell Musical Instruments, to join him in presenting a program about using vacuum to accomplish veneering and as very effective clamping device. We had presented it some time ago to our local woodworkers’ club, SAW-PA, and were asked to repeat it for the York club, the Susquehanna Trail Woodworkers’ Guild. As a hobbyist woodworker, I must admit that I personally felt a little intimidated by the task ahead, knowing that many of the York club are quite skilled craftsmen. I’ve learned that, at my age, one just barges ahead and hopes for the best. I couldn’t have been more pleased with the reception we received and the interest shown by the group!

The setting was just wonderful! The York group meets on Princess St. in York in the lobby of the Industrial Museum. Here is a photo of president, Ray Parson, leading the preliminary club business meeting.

It was a wonderful space for the meeting and the attendance was quite good. Early on, I noticed a man taking lots of photos. I learned, as the evening progressed, that his name is Bob Aspey and it just so happens that their club has an official photographer and HE IS THAT MAN! At the end of the evening, he offered to send me some photos by email and, with some arm twisting, he generously agreed to mail a CD of ALL his photos to me. A few days later, the CD arrived with 62 photos on it! Bob further gave me permission to use them here, so the remaining photos in this entry are thanks to you, Bob! I hope you don’t mind if I did a little cropping along the way to make the photos best fit my narrative.

Vacuum clamping is probably one of the most effective methods available for applying even, intense pressure over a given clamping area. Both Al and I have “gerry-rigged”, home-built suction devices that we took along. This was mostly a show-and-tell event, with Al and I sharing some of the devices and procedures we use in our own shops.

Here are photos of our vacuum pump setups, first mine:

and then here’s Al Winter with his ELEGANT vacuum pump (he takes great pride in telling how, at a yard sale, he only paid $5.00 for the little pump on the bottom — clearly worth many many times more than that !)

Here are Al and I about to get started with the demo – here, Al’s “spiffy” vacuum unit has not yet been lifted to the table. You can see some of the props we brought along for the demo.

To demonstrate the primary reason I have developed a vacuum veneering setup for my workshop, I brought along the harp I have built of eucalyptus wood which has a rounded back, formed with the vacuum bag technic.

In the “rough”, here is how the rounded back looks “right out of the bag”, so to speak, the “bag” being the vacuum bag!

What you see here is a fiberglass-covered foam form over which is formed a combination of two inner layers of 1/8 inch bending plywood and an outer layer of veneer of choice; in this instance the veneer is of PURPLEHEART wood, a somewhat rarely used wood from South America.

Here I am holding a photo which shows the various ‘layers’ that are necessary to perform a vacuum-veneered round-backed harp shell.

Before I permitted Al to have the floor, I described the components of a veneering operation and actually did a small demo veneer glue-up to show the group. It would be drying throughout the remainder of the demonstration. First, I showed them the components needed: a substrate, pieces of veneer, glue, waxed paper, a caul to make the surface flat, a piece of wire screen to permit distribution of the vacuum, a vinyl vacuum bag, a bag closure device and the vacuum pump connected to the bag with the white hose.

The blue tape in the photo above is used, in addition to veneer tape on the underside of the veneer, to keep the veneer pieces tightly together until the veneer is glued in place.

Here I am applying veneer glue to the substrate (plywood) over which the veneer will be applied.

A wooden layer (caul) is placed over the veneer to provide equal distribution of the pressure over the entire surface, thus assuring a very flat finished product. Since veneer glue is “squished” out from the pressure, a sheet of waxed paper is applied immediately over the veneer to prevent the caul from being glued to the finished product.

Here, the glue has been applied, all the layers are in their proper places, so the entire “stack” is then positioned inside the vinyl bag in anticipation of the application of the vacuum.

Using a special wooden closure device and Quik-Grip clamps, the vinyl bag is sealed, the vacuum pump is turned on, and the air has been evacuated from the interior of the bag. The vacuum applies, at 20 inches of mercury, about 1200 pounds of pressure per square foot, evenly distributed across the surface of the item being veneered.

At this point, I turned the program over to Al. Al described in some detail the components necessary to make a functional vacuum setup, including the valves, reservoir tanks, gauges, tubings, vacuum switches and, of course, the CHEAP VACUUM PUMP!

Another function that a vacuum pump is excellent for is that of holding one’s workpiece for other functions such as routing, sanding, etc. Some wood turners, I understand, are also using vacuum to chuck their wood to the lathe for turning.

Here Al is showing a vacuum system that does not use a CHEAP PUMP, but rather attaches to one’s air compresser and uses the Venturi (fly sprayer) principle to create a vacuum. This is probably one of the most inexpensive approaches to vacuum veneering, provided one already owns an air compressor. Here is a closeup of the Venturi device.

Al also described how one constructs the vinyl bags, the special vinyl glues one uses and the precautions one must take in doing so in an effort to prevent liver damage from breathing the fumes. He showed how leaks may be sealed in the bags by applying liquid vinyl glue to the leaking areas while under vacuum so that the vacuum will draw the glue into the leaks, thus creating a seal. A very complete resource for all supplies needed (and pages of very valuable advice) can be found online at Joe Woodworker, a supplier who is in the Baltimore area if I’m not mistaken.

Al then gave a very neat demo on the use of vacuum as general workshop clamping device. Here he has constructed a special vacuum jig which he uses in forming his harp necks. The plywood center has foam window stripping both on the perimeter of the under surface and, on the top, in the shape of the harp neck.

By applying vacuum to either of the brass fittings to the right of the photo, the board is “sucked” firmly to the table top and the harp neck is firmly drawn down to the top surface, all at the same time! When one side is completed (sanded, routed or whatever), he releases the vacuum, reattaches the vacuum tube to the opposite side, flips the harp neck over, and once again, draws the workpiece tight for finishing on the other side. This is very efficient and such a reliable and rigid clamping device!

Al also demonstrated a handled device he has made which, unlike the neck device which attaches itself to the table, holds the workpiece in a more portable manner, this way giving the workpiece a temporary handle for machining or shaping. Here he is with the workpiece firmly “vacuumed” to the handle:

Do you think it’s very tight? (Sorry, Al, I had to include this photo!)

There was considerable interest in the harp I had brought along, so I spent some time describing the challenges of building a harp that is both structurally sound enough to withstand the constant 1200-plus pound tension of the strings, yet to make it light and delicate enough to have a decent tone.

I described how the two narrow glue joints, one at each side of the soundboard, must be durable enough to remain intact with the string tension tugging at the center of the soundboard 24/7!

At this point, an hour and a half had passed very quickly and it was time to remove the sample veneer project from the vacuum press.

The blue tape had to be removed. In some cases, the tape, even though it is supposed to be a low-tack tape which comes off easily, took some wood fibers with it on removal. A man who was present who does veneering for a living told me afterwards that his shop never uses tape on the surface for that reason. Here is the finished product:

Both Al and I were most gratified by the way we were received by the Susquehanna Trail folks and received a great deal of enjoyment in doing our presentation. We learned much ourselves from those present. Thanks for the invitation and, once again, thanks Bob for the use of your photos.

Another regular feature for woodworker events is that the membership do a bit of show-and-tell. Here is an item that was brought in by Dean:

This is quite a work of art. Dean is a master wood turner (meaning he works on wood that is spinning around on a lathe). This piece began as a most interesting piece of 3/4 inch wood with a very unusual and unique burl pattern. Somehow, Dean managed to turn a 1/4 inch circle on each side of the wood, leaving the remaining center section 1/4 inch thick as well. He is most adept at doing lathe projects that seem impossible and we always look forward to see what he has along for each meeting. Thanks Dean for sharing your talents with us!

I received an email from a friend this week who happened to mention that he has not seen any entries to my blog recently! Well, I guess it is time for me to explain why.

First of all, there’s this matter of the local temperature:

I’ve purchased a new digital thermometer for the kitchen window. It didn’t focus well, but in the photo it is reading 101.8 F! (Okay, so what if the sun was shining on it and, if you will look above that figure, it says the maximum temp for the day was 115.9. Shucks, it wasn’t anywhere near that. It was only about 99.6 in reality!). SO, with temps like that, there isn’t a lot being done by this person who would prefer to find a cool place and wait for cooler weather. ALSO, wife and I have been enjoying cooler parts, having just returned from a couple of week drive thru Canada, more specifically, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. There, the weather was GORGEOUS!

I took hundreds of photos on our trip (and will not bore you with ALL of them), but for this entry will simply give you an overview with a few photos, hoping to revisit the various stops in detail at a later date.

Our trek began with a drive to Kingston, Ontario, where we revisited some old haunts we learned to love when we used to take our children there for a music camp. Beginning with Kingston and continuing throughout the trip, we were awed by the beautiful flowers everywhere.

In Kingston, Ontario, we joined up with good friends from Bermuda and enjoyed the remainder of the trip with them as a foursome. We enjoyed some excellent eating and shopping in Kingston, I managed a trip out to old Ft. Henry, where I got to see the goat:

lots of “toy” soldiers

a bagpiper

and some kite flying.

After spending two nights in Kingston, we proceeded on to Quebec City, Quebec. We spent three nights in the old city of Quebec, staying at the Alberge du Tresor hotel.

There we saw many wonderful sights, ate more delicious food, saw more “toy” soldiers at the Citadel, and enjoyed the craftspeople, musicians, actors, artists and performers who graced the streets of this fine city.

Here is a photo of the changing of the guard at the Citadel:

Here is a photo of the Hotel du Frontenac which was located just across the green from our hotel:

Up the hill from the hotel, there was a flattened area where street performers do their thing. This photo was taken, I would guess, on a Wednesday evening and, as you can see, this is quite the tourist mecca.

While in Quebec, there was again much good eating to be enjoyed, and one of our most enjoyable meals there was at the Restaurant aux Ancient Canada.

You’ll hear more about this later as well.

I have many more photos I could share with you, but will do so at a later date. From Quebec, we drove to Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia, which is a lovely little fishing village sort of area, very quaint and picturesque.

Here is the famous Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse, famous because it houses a real live post office in the first floor and people send postcards to their friends postmarked “Peggy’s Cove”.

We spent two nights in Peggy’s Cove, then continued on to Baddeck, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Here we stayed at a very lovely bed and breakfast called “Duffus House”, located right on the water in Baddeck, Cape Breton.

Cape Breton is a wonderful get-away island with the St. Lawrence Seaway to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. Here we enjoyed many more wondrous sights, more delicious eating (surprise, surprise), and some really unique experiences. This was the summer home of Alexander Graham Bell and we not only were able to visit the museum in his honor (hardly anything about the telephone exhibited there…) where I enjoyed seeing his huge, propeller driven hydrofoil boat:

Also, via connections of our Bermuda travelling partners, we had the honor of receiving a private tour of the Bell estates which are still used by the family and which are not generally open to the public. Our tour began with Bell’s first home, “The Lodge”,

and I will have much more to show of the tour later. We also drove the 180+ mile “Cabot Trail” which goes around the perimeter of Cape Breton and saw sights such as this:

From Cape Breton, we headed west once again, returning our friends to Ottawa where they planned to remain an additional week, spending time with friends there. In Ottawa we enjoyed seeing the Rideau Canal.

Along the way, we enjoyed some very good food, and some that was a bit more marginal. This, for one, tasted good, but was a bit lacking in quality and nourishment. Having heard about it from our son who recently “enjoyed” it in Montreal, I ordered a hot dog with POUTIN.

French fries with gravy and CURD? Sounds awful, but it really is edible. We had much better food at a lovely new restaurant in Peggy’s Cove called “Rhubarb”.

For my wife and I, it was a rather pleasant, however long drive from Ottawa to Pennsylvania. It took nearly 10 hours and, having been away for 16 days, it became immediately evident that my work was cut out for me on the home front, what with the grass being very tall and the weeds having had a real heyday growing while my back was turned. We did have some rains in our absence, so the corn was tall:

The tomatoes had gotten some size, however NONE were yet ripe:

My soy beans were ready to yield some delicious edamame:

The zucchini had grown a bit larger than it should have:

The cantaloupes were really looking good:

and the potatoes were overdue for digging:

Other activities that awaited our return were a lovely wedding:

Repair of a friend’s harp:

repair of a hammered dulcimer:

And repair of, yes, a didgeridoo! I was shopping in Kingston, Ontario, found this item standing upright , in a basket, saw that it was badly broken and, before I knew it, I was being told by a sales clerk that I was welcome to take it if I wanted it. I was not anxious to drag it along for the whole trip, but decided the price was right.

This week I used a bit of epoxy and some plastic wraps and, here it is, all ready for some Austrailian aborigine to play:

Remember the French Repro Harp? Well, there hasn’t been a lot of progress, but there has been SOME! I am attempting to give myself some feel for the perspective of the 3-D carvings by using modeling clay (a first attempt with chisels and wood helped me realize I have a few things to learn before wasting more expensive wood). Here’s my initial feeble attempt; I feel there may be hope.