More Woodworking

I am still practicing turning and reeding. Here is a picture of a practice leg made from a spruce 2x4. Still need to refine my technique before I make 8 mahogany ones for a pair of night stands.

Spring ...almost, and the Ninja Duck.... no almost about him.

Spring has almost arrived at the head of Apple Valley. The fields are green but the trees are still leafless.

On the other hand the neighbor's attack duck is in full season.

My cousin thought that if I looked less like Mickey Mouse and more like Donald Duck things might be okay. My wife suggested not wearing amy red jacket might help. So I left my red jacket on the coat rack, and not having a sailor suit I settled for just wearing a blue jacket. However, as you can see the attack was still on. The darn duck chased me for about 100 yards before giving up.

Apple Valley Brook

Here are a few pictures of Apple Valley Brook. One feeder of this stream passes underneath my barn. These pictures were taken about 2 miles downstream.

Company and an Attack Duck

Had a weekend full of great company including long time friends from Glen Rock (two of whom now live in New Hampshire) and Jean's cousin, now from LA.

The really exciting news is that I have now had my fourth encounter with my neighbors Ninja attack duck. The neighbor keeps 15 Guinea fowl that wander around the neighborhood looking for bugs and seeds to eat. They make a great fuss and move and sound like a mix of cartoon characters and windup toys. They are great fun to watch and I am really happy to have them around. He also has a noisy gander and the aforementioned duck (probably a drake).

The duck and gander are nearly inseparable. I walk past the neighbor's house most days. Last week the duck decided I was major threat to him, the property, the fowl, or the world in general, I am not sure which. He started running ( waddling) after me, as fast as he could, all the while grumbling (quacking) away. I figured that perhaps he thought I would have some feed for him and would go away when I showed him I didn't. However, when I let him catch up to me he started pecking violently at my shoes and fluttering his wings.

This has happened three more times, this last with Jean as my witness. Its pretty funny to watch, but also pretty dangerous for the duck. I had to flag down two cars to keep them from hitting him as he ran across the road to get to me. All the while, the gander is noisily cheering the duck on. I also have to be careful not to hurt the duck as I ward him off and try to walk past. I have no idea what triggered this odd behavior. I don't know if he is doing this to anyone else. He certainly showed no interest in Jean.

Keystone Arches Bridge Trail

Here are some photos of the Westfield River taken on a trail about an hour from here. Jean and I walked along the Keystone Arch Bridge Trail, which follows the river for about two miles. The ten bridges were built around 1840 to carry the rail line that ran from Boston to Albany. It's amazing what people accomplished in this terrain with just man and ox power.



We helped clear some brush from the top of one bridge and cleaned up some refuse piles left by the 4 wheeler Bud Light crowd. [Bud Light cans seem to make up about 80 %of trail side and road side litter around here. Sometimes I wish that stuff were as poisonous as it tastes.]

Rock climbers  cleared brush and even medium sized trees from the face of the 70 foot high bridge.

 Here's a picture of the trail boss at work supervising the cleanup. He must have been the supervisor, he was the only one not working.

Actually, the event was run by Meredyth Babcock a very dedicated and talented worker for Wild and Scenic Westfield River, who did not stand still long enough to have her picture taken.

Spring Runoff

The streams of New England are perhaps its best natural features, especially when in spring spate. Apple Valley Brook, Smith Brook are two, very nearby examples. Apple Valley Brook goes largely unnoticed because there is a road along side it and so people just drive past without noticing its two miles of small but beautiful cascades. If the road were a foot trail the brook would be much better known. Smith Brook drains a small reservoir, which is till frozen over right now. It crosses Hawley Road, heads steeply downstream and then passes a few lonely trails so it is still relatively unknown except to those who live very close to it. I took a few pictures but they were not very good. I'll try to get better ones posted while they are still running with spring melt water. Where is Julia Verbrugge when I need her?

More Practice Turning and Reeding

Here's another practice piece. I am using parts of spruce 2 x 4 s. I have  some way to go before I start using high quality woods.

On Facebook Discovering the Real Me

I think facebook has caught up with who I really am. Facebook publishes advertisements on a sidebar. The sidebar on the pages I saw used to be full of ads about how to meet attractive women. Now its full of ads for medications and health remedies ( and now I see one for plastic surgery).

I posted this note on Facebook and then I followed up with this comment:

I posted a picture of some of my handiwork and 9 people noticed. I posted about Facebook finding out I'm not so young and 32 people notice. There is no justice in this world.

Returning to wood turning

A while ago I posted some drawings for night stands I hope to make which showed the turned and reeded legs. Then I started work on the china cabinet and was pretty successful on turning the the finial for the top molding. After that I managed to forget just about all I learned about turning wood so back to square one. After turning out a candlestick too ugly to show anyone, I tried again. This time using a brass one as a sort of model.

Finally

Over three hundred pieces of wood cut, lots of planing, shaping, chiseling, 

shellacking and compounding, after I started its about complete. If I could

measure correctly  and cut straight, it would have gone a lot faster, but it still

would have has as many pieces to make.

Music and Life

Tuesday I listened to a broadcast of a performance of a Beethoven string quartet by a group that is considered a rising star among classical musicians. It seemed that they got all the notes but none of the music. Intonation, phrasing, melody, were all missing. It sounded as abstract as a piece by a post modernist.

That evening I went to a concert given by Opus One, a chamber orchestra comprised mostly of students from U MAss Amherst. Their performance of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 lacked the extreme precision of professionals but it was still the best, most exciting, and satisfying performance of this piece I've ever heard. They caught the melody, the structure, the implied phrasing, perfectly. One could see how focused they were and feel the enthusiasm they felt for the music.

Thinking about this a bit, I realized it was a perfect metaphor for the way many of us live at least part of the time. We are so busy getting the details perfect while missing out on the spirit of the things we do. Make sure you live the melody, not just the notes.

A great winter

Been getting lot's of snowshoeing in. Here are some photos of my wife, our friends the Rapps, and myself, while snowshoeing near Pine Hill NY. This area has some of the most under rated scenery in the east.

Those old long socks did not help keep the bottom of my jeans dry. I'll stick to real mountaineering gators and synthetic fabrics, for any real winter treks. 

China Cabinet Part 3 (or is it Part 4?)

Upper doors, and therefore cabinet, are almost complete; just need to mount hinges,mount the knobs, install the catch, get the glass cut, install the glass and 
two more coats of finish.

Ken Burns

I simply forgot to post about what was one of the more inspiring evenings of the last few years. Jean and I went to see Ken Burns present a  preview of his new series on the three Roosevelts who influenced this country's history so dramatically, Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor.  I was not expecting to be impressed,  the little I've seen of his work seemed too slow paced and somewhat too focused on a particular point to be made.

I has an epiphany. The material he presented on the Roosevelts was excellent and I now plan to watch the full series when it is broadcast this fall.

What was even more impressive was Burns himself. He was articulate, intelligent, and amazingly well informed; the best speaker I have heard in a long time. Perhaps he is helped by not running for office.

He made several statements that were impressive for their clarity, for their  profundity, and perhaps most for his sincerity in expressing them. The one that seems to be central to his beliefs is " there are no ordinary people."

Here's a link to an article about the event.

http://www.recorder.com/home/10672263-95/there-are-no-ordinary-people