Valentine Countdown BONUS! My Gee Gee From The Fiji Isle, Todd Weinhold

Valentine Countdown: Love And Marriage, Frank Sinatra

Valentine Countdown: When You Say Nothing At All, Keith Whitley and Allison Krauss

 The duet that never happened...

Valentine Countdown: Blue Eyes, Elton John

Valentine Countdown: Eighteen Wheels And A Dozen Roses, Kathy Mattea

Valentine Countdown: Love At The Five And Dime

Valentine Countdown: Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Patti Page, 1952

Plus, Henry Burr and the Peerless Quartet, 1911!

Valentine Countdown: Brand New Key, Melanie Safka, February 3, 1947- January 23, 2024

Valentine Countdown Bonus! Frankie and Johnny, Jimmie Rodgers, 1929

The Wood That Won't Fit In

 Robert Service wrote about men like that: 

"There's a race of men that don't fit in,

A race that can't stay still;

So they break the hearts of kith and kin,

And they roam the world at will."

They break the hearts of their kin. There is always wood that won't fit in, and I usually find it a year later when it is soaked, rotting, and maybe frozen to the ground, breaking my heart. Making firewood is sorta like getting the milk and cereal to come out even in the morning. Well, I am going out tomorrow to look for oyster mushrooms after the rain, fog, and warmth. Should I take one bag and not have enough room for all the mushrooms I find, or take two, which will jinx me and I won't find even one.

Valentine Countdown, Love Nest, John Steel, 1920

Valentine Countdown Bonus! Frying Pan, John Prine

Valentine Countdown: A Little Kiss Each Morning, Rudy Vallee

Valentine Countdown: I Only Want To Be With You, Dusty Springfield

Valentine Countdown: Stardust, Hoagy Carmichael

Valentine Countdown: Your Song, Elton John

Valentine Countdown: Just The Way You Are, Billy Joel

Valentine Countdown: You Are The Song, Arlo Guthrie and the University of Kentucky Orchestra

Valentine Countdown: Tea For Two, Comedian Harmonists

 

Valentine Countdown: Can't Help Falling In Love With You, Brooklyn Duo

Valentine Countdown: That Lovin' Traumerei, Al Jolson

Raggin' classic tunes was Moses' specialty!

The Valentine Countdown Begins! Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey...

 Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey! Ada Jones, 1911

A Bit Of Easy Firewood

 Not many ash trees are still alive in Illinois now. Many are still standing, but that won't last long. This is a tree we planted 48 years ago, and it is fascinating to see how the roots decayed and let go of the soil. We drive by an ash a bit bigger than this on the west side of IL Hwy 242, just north of McLeansboro. I hold my breath every time I go by it, because it leans to the road. There is a good chance it will kill or injure someone if IL DOT doesn't take it down soon. Anyway, with cold weather on the way, I want more wood in the stack, and this was an easy one. I cut it and brought one load home, split it and stacked it, and went back in the rain the next day to pick up the rest. It's easy, and it is ready to burn. 

aaa

Pull Off Your Shoes If That Helps...

 ...you count. I've been aggravated lately from a logging site on Fbook. People, (Trolls, I think.) keep posting photos of trees and saying ridiculous ages for them, like 500 year old oak trees that are obviously a fraction of that. I doubt any of them have ever counted tree rings. I've counted a bunch over the years, and it is important for foresters to do that whenever they encounter stumps in the timber they are walking. You have to know what sites will do, and stumps will tell you. This black oak in the photo was dying, and I cut in in 2009. It counted out 90 years. O.T. is the guy behind me with the walking stick. He was 89 at the time, and he made it to 90, too.

If You Can Make It For A Dime And Sell It For A Dollar...

...there's bound to be a lot of liars in the business." ( from The Furniture Doctor, George Grotz, Doubleday, 1962) This photo from the cover of Mizzou's Alumni Association Magazine from Summer of 2009 shows a common, frustrating problem that plagues violinists and fiddlers: gunky rosin buildup under the strings, on the body of the fiddle and the fingerboard. This stuff sets up and the violin has to go into the shop to have it removed with a secret process in the backroom where no-one is allowed to watch.

Most violins are finished with a shellac formula, which will be modified by the violin maker to include some resins to toughen it, but it is still mostly shellac, which is soluble in alcohol. This type of finish is great for violins, because it can easily be repaired, re-amalgamated, stripped, replaced, or added to. It dries fast, too, so it doesn't pick up dust and lint while the finish is curing in the shop.

The polish sold to you by violin shops is an oil product which will leave a nice shine on the violin, plus water to help pick up dirt as you rub your fiddle, plus a little soap, and enough alcohol to make the oil and water mix with the soap when you shake it up. Leave the lid off the polish while it sits in the sun, and soon, the ingredients don't stay mixed so well, because the alcohol evaporates. The alcohol insures that the violin owner has to bring the fiddle in occasionally to have the finish restored, because the more you polish, the faster your shellac finish is wiped away. The oil which gives you the nice shine makes rosin stick, and the proud violin owner must take it to the shop to have it cleaned.

This type of product looks so innocent, but it actually hurts what it is sold to protect, and it provides a steady string of return customer visits for violin shop owners. Who knew? What should you use on your stringed instruments? Paste wax. We touched up the damage ourselves, (after much research) and began using Simoniz car wax with great results. The finish could be dusted easily after playing sessions with no more annoying rosin buildup. If your wax coats build up too much after a few years, the wax can be removed with a bit of mineral spirits. Hard paste wax is difficult to find on most store shelves nowadays. The last time we needed some we found good paste wax in Sears with their wood finishing supplies. Keep the lid on tight when it is not being used, because it will turn into a brick pretty quickly if the mineral spirits are allowed to escape.

EJ's violin used to have this problem, too, (Photo Credit: St. Louis Symphony) until the light came on in my head one night long ago as we used the violin polish purchased in the same shop as the violin. We realized that the little bottle of miracle polish was actually removing varnish as we used it to put a shine on the fiddle! We went into research mode to learn about violin finishes, and polishes. The most useful information at the time came from "The Furniture Doctor," and we soon passed on what we found to the other violinists in our group of string friends.

December 7 Changed Everything,

and touched everyone. I've known lots of veterans from WWII, and it's true that most of them didn't talk much about their experiences. Usually you can glean only a little bit at a time, even with those you know well. Today, we really can't fathom the changes to everyone's life, as the entire country became focused on fighting a war, with the iron will to win it.

 How many parents felt their hearts sink when they received one of these?

Men from every corner of the country, all part of a team.  These guys even had a couple of Code Talkers with them.

"This guy got killed on Guam, this guy died on Iwo, this guy got shot all to hell, this guy went nuts.  I got tired of seeing the guy next to me get it." It's a wonder that any vets go to reunions.  The memories need to be kept under control.  Good things and bad come out when your vet opens up and talks a bit.  "Navy guys would trade booze for souvenirs."  "I always picked up the first BAR I could find after landing."  "When you came off, you would fill an ammo box with oil, put your .45 in it, and bury it under your bunk so you would have it next time."  "On Iwo, you would go hole to hole, and you always had either your .45 or your Ka-Bar in your hand when you went into a hole....I sure got tired of sticking that Ka-Bar in Japs." O.T. is the Marine holding a pith helmet.

Re-post from ten years ago.

Home Fires Are Burning

 Days have been warm but nights are cold now. We let it burn down through the day and build it up again in the evening.

Cherrybark Oaks Grow Like Weeds!

This photo of Susan and a cherrybark oak in the front yard was taken in 2000. We planted this tree as a twelve inch seedling in 1991 or 1992.

Look at it now! Cherrybark oak prefers 109 Raccoon soil here in Southern Illinois. Raccoon is a bottomland soil, but is not as tight as Bonnie and other bottomland soils. It functions like a transitional soil between slopes and the flattest bottoms. Cherrybark will grow well on Bonnie and also on many upland sites, so we used cherrybark seedlings in tree planting projects whenever they were available.

 I always think of Mel Gerardo when I see a planting project. Mel Gerado was the first district forester at Fairfield, IL in the 1950s, and later ran the state nursery at Anna, IL. He did a marvelous job of cranking out a huge variety and number of seedlings for the big Conservation Reserve planting years. Mel was a Marine and fought at the Chosin Reservoir. The thousands of acres of successful tree plantings in Illinois are a testament to his professionalism. If your third grader in Illinois brought home a seedling for Arbor Day, you may have a reminder of Mel at your house, too.

Same Old, Same Old

 

The Ugliness Of Poachers

 I pass this spot frequently when I am going back and forth through the country. Last year, and again this year, poachers are dumping deer carcasses along the road. (Six in one spot this year.) These deer had only the best cuts taken out of them and they were not field dressed or skinned. It is maddening to know we have people of such low morals nearby.

I Can't Even Spell Operating Engineer,

 but we put the replacement pole in the ground without any trouble. We used the old pole, steadied up with guy ropes and the loader, and lifted the new one with the RTV. Got it tamped in now and now we move the hardware.

20,000 Phone Calls Home

 We got Mom (Bea Johnson to the Blog World) a cell phone more than twenty years ago. With unlimited minutes we could talk whenever we wanted, and Mom enjoyed calling her brother Chuck every week and talking as long as they wanted. After Dad passed away we never failed to talk at least three times a day, morning, after work, and before turning in. Our last call was Thursday afternoon last week, and we could tell that it was the end. Mom passed at 9:29 Friday morning, November 10, 2023. 

When she was living alone in her house, she got nervous about being able to protect herself, so she took up shooting. We would go out to the local range every time I went to Iowa to see her, and she went to Reno a couple times to attend Mike Gallion's Gun Blogger Rendezvous. She took the Iowa concealed carry class and qualified with her .45 Blackhawk because that was her house gun, and the big cartridges were easier for her to handle than stuffing .22s into a magazine. I put together a small collection of photos for those who remember Bea here on our little blog. 

Habits die hard. Every time I look at the time, I think it is time to call Mom. 

Dance Macabre

Illinois' Gun, Magazine, Parts, And Accessory Ban Update

 Valinda Rowe of Illinois Carry provides some information on the status of heinous legislation that was dropped on Illinois residents in January. When she talks about vagueness, you must read and understand the law to see just what that means. Semi-autos with a barrel shroud are outlawed. The definition the law uses is any covering of the barrel that would protect your hand from being burned if the barrel is hot, so any stock that covers part of the barrel forward of the receiver makes the gun illegal, and the stock would then be an illegal assault weapon attachment. Any attachment you can grasp with your support hand is an illegal assault weapon attachment, so a bipod or rifle sling are both outlawed if the IL State Police take the law at its word. It is a mighty big can of worms. Here's Valinda:

Shooting Old U.S. Military Guns With Clint Smith