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    • TrafficJam wrote:

      Astro wrote:

      TrafficJam wrote:

      My terribly, screechy student violin is no more. I purchased one of better quality, it's still considered student level but it sounds much better.

      It only has one fine tuner on the E string so tuning has been hard...and it constantly needs tuning, I assume due to the strings being new?

      After a month of fiddle lessons, I can sight- read music and have worked on 10-15 easy songs. The challenge is playing fast, which I can't do. In fiddle music, the faster the better.

      My teacher is big on jam sessions and performing...I'll probably play at a scotch-Irish festival in a few months. It's been so much fun!
      Got me curious when you say the old one "is no more". Does that mean you traded it in, or did it meet a less pleasant demise? ?( Glad you are really enjoying it! :thumbup:
      It was mailed back to the place from where it was rented. Good riddance.
      I was hoping for a "Pete Townsend" with video :D
      If your Doctor is a tree, you're on acid.

    • StalkingTortoise wrote:

      Since we're talkin' violins...

      I returned the rental violin when my daughter showed that she was going to stick with the instrument and got a handcrafted model from a local shop for around $1000. The sound was quite an improvement over the rentals. And then she played her instructor's ~$5000 model and that was even mo' bettah! We eventually upgraded the bow but figured the violin was good enough.

      All of the lessons and purchases were worth it when we attended her final orchestra concert in her Senior year and the kids blew us away with an orchestral version of the song 'Clocks'.


      it's not uncommon for your bow to be worth more than your instrument. That's probably true on my case. I have a French bow (G. F. Lotte) and a cello made by the Gibson Guitar Company of Kzoo MI ca. 1940 -n oddity of the cello world.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by odd man out ().

    • StalkingTortoise wrote:

      Since we're talkin' violins...

      I returned the rental violin when my daughter showed that she was going to stick with the instrument and got a handcrafted model from a local shop for around $1000. The sound was quite an improvement over the rentals. And then she played her instructor's ~$5000 model and that was even mo' bettah! We eventually upgraded the bow but figured the violin was good enough.

      All of the lessons and purchases were worth it when we attended her final orchestra concert in her Senior year and the kids blew us away with an orchestral version of the song 'Clocks'.


      That is awesome.
      Lost in the right direction.

    • odd man out wrote:

      I also learned how to play the recorder back in HS, which could come in handy if I wanted to bring an instrument hiking (have considered it, but not done it yet). A plastic soprano recorder is indestructible, waterproof, lightweight, small, and easy to carry. None of these are true of my cello.
      I met a young lady in 2013 hauling a cello up Blood mountain, I always wonder how far she got as it was June 28 and she was "thru-hiking"!

    • odd man out wrote:

      I also learned how to play the recorder back in HS, which could come in handy if I wanted to bring an instrument hiking (have considered it, but not done it yet). A plastic soprano recorder is indestructible, waterproof, lightweight, small, and easy to carry. None of these are true of my cello.
      One could always use an electric Cello like the fellow in Flip Flop Flippin.

      Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.

    • SandyofPA wrote:

      odd man out wrote:

      I also learned how to play the recorder back in HS, which could come in handy if I wanted to bring an instrument hiking (have considered it, but not done it yet). A plastic soprano recorder is indestructible, waterproof, lightweight, small, and easy to carry. None of these are true of my cello.
      I met a young lady in 2013 hauling a cello up Blood mountain, I always wonder how far she got as it was June 28 and she was "thru-hiking"!
      My guess is she was "through hiking".
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.

    • Did a 10 miles float yesterday on the Locust Fork of the Warrior River with 37 others....with a pot luck dinner and beer afterwards. I made the mistake of using a provided canoe instead of taking a kayak...my back will require some rehab at the gym to get the kinks out.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.

    • Got my little garden planted: (3) 'mater plants, (1) red bell pepper, (1) jalapeno, (2) yellow squash, (1) zucchini, a handful of okra, (2) cucumber, (1) volunteer cucumber, (2) rows of sweet onions, and I have (3) rows of asparagus. All in about a 15' x 15' plot. Watered with water from a rain barrel that catches rain from the garage and fertilized with compost.
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference

    • NoAngel wrote:

      Got my little garden planted: (3) 'mater plants, (1) red bell pepper, (1) jalapeno, (2) yellow squash, (1) zucchini, a handful of okra, (2) cucumber, (1) volunteer cucumber, (2) rows of sweet onions, and I have (3) rows of asparagus. All in about a 15' x 15' plot. Watered with water from a rain barrel that catches rain from the garage and fertilized with compost.
      I don't know what I'm puttin in yet...but my herb garden has took off.

    • Dan76 wrote:

      NoAngel wrote:

      Got my little garden planted: (3) 'mater plants, (1) red bell pepper, (1) jalapeno, (2) yellow squash, (1) zucchini,
      There's no such concept as "(1) zucchini ".
      One zucchini, enough for the whole neighborhood! My garden is still in pots, too cold for tomatoes and peppers. I am eating asparagus, radishes, and green onions. I will plant everything on May 21, the day before I go hiking, and pray for no late frost. I use a lot of mulch because my husband doesn't weed during my up to 6 week spring hike. Love my veggies almost as much as hiking!

    • NoAngel wrote:

      Sandy,
      What do you use for mulch? Straw?
      Straw, grass clippings, horse bedding, cardboard, anything I can get my paws on that doesn't have weed seeds. Feed the worms and they feed the plants, holds the moisture, blocks light to the weeds. I have been growing an organic garden since I was 3 years old, the minimum age in my family to get your very own little plot. Good thing I like radishes. :D

    • SandyofPA wrote:

      NoAngel wrote:

      Sandy,
      What do you use for mulch? Straw?
      Straw, grass clippings, horse bedding, cardboard, anything I can get my paws on that doesn't have weed seeds. Feed the worms and they feed the plants, holds the moisture, blocks light to the weeds. I have been growing an organic garden since I was 3 years old, the minimum age in my family to get your very own little plot. Good thing I like radishes. :D
      I've used straw and newspapers. Cardboard- that's a good idea.
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference

    • SandyofPA wrote:

      NoAngel wrote:

      Sandy,
      What do you use for mulch? Straw?
      Straw, grass clippings, horse bedding, cardboard, anything I can get my paws on that doesn't have weed seeds. Feed the worms and they feed the plants, holds the moisture, blocks light to the weeds. I have been growing an organic garden since I was 3 years old, the minimum age in my family to get your very own little plot. Good thing I like radishes. :D
      Sandy have you ever used soap and water for pest control? Does it work? Any thoughts?

    • meat wrote:

      SandyofPA wrote:

      NoAngel wrote:

      Sandy,
      What do you use for mulch? Straw?
      Straw, grass clippings, horse bedding, cardboard, anything I can get my paws on that doesn't have weed seeds. Feed the worms and they feed the plants, holds the moisture, blocks light to the weeds. I have been growing an organic garden since I was 3 years old, the minimum age in my family to get your very own little plot. Good thing I like radishes. :D
      Sandy have you ever used soap and water for pest control? Does it work? Any thoughts?
      I've successfully used several drops of a mild soap in water to rid aphids from various plants as the neighborhood ladybugs were regularly decimated by the overuse of pesticides by ignorant neighbors.

      Suggest caution when mulching with stall bedding and wood chips. Horses fed alfalfa treated with most herbicides allows the the chemical to pass through and contaminate your garden soil. Wood chips have also been found to carry herbicides when the tree was killed by herbicide usage.

      Lest we forget.....


      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC

    • Dan76 wrote:

      meat wrote:

      SandyofPA wrote:

      NoAngel wrote:

      Sandy,
      What do you use for mulch? Straw?
      Straw, grass clippings, horse bedding, cardboard, anything I can get my paws on that doesn't have weed seeds. Feed the worms and they feed the plants, holds the moisture, blocks light to the weeds. I have been growing an organic garden since I was 3 years old, the minimum age in my family to get your very own little plot. Good thing I like radishes. :D
      Sandy have you ever used soap and water for pest control? Does it work? Any thoughts?
      I've successfully used several drops of a mild soap in water to rid aphids from various plants as the neighborhood ladybugs were regularly decimated by the overuse of pesticides by ignorant neighbors.
      Suggest caution when mulching with stall bedding and wood chips. Horses fed alfalfa treated with most herbicides allows the the chemical to pass through and contaminate your garden soil. Wood chips have also been found to carry herbicides when the tree was killed by herbicide usage.
      I use the pine shavings BEFORE a horse poops in it! Certified pine from Canada, used to buy it for my horse. Developed an allergy to horses in 2007 had to give up after 35 years of riding, training, and teaching as a hobby. Went back to my old hobby of hiking that I did before I had a horse.
      Never used soapy water, but don't have many aphids around here. Cabbage worms and Japanese beetles are the big pests in my garden along with the mole that keeps rototilling the wrong spots. Had to put up a better fence this spring for my neighbors pet groundhog, it did in my beans last fall.

    • The huge, green, tomato worms are my worst enemy, tried to kill them off without pesticides last year, didn't eat many tomatoes after they started, my hearing is bad but the wife can find them by listening for them chewing, back to the seven dust this year....I will say though, those ugly green worms morph into magnificent moths.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.

    • Drybones wrote:

      Dan76 wrote:

      LIhikers wrote:

      A pet groundhog? That's funny.
      Folks in some circles would call it dinner.
      My son and wife to be took an 8 day hike in the Peruvian mountains, spoiled brats had sherpas to carry most of the gear and cook....one meal was ground hog, or the local equivalent.
      I would love to give it a bad case of lead poisoning, but in suburbia the houses are too close together to get him with my 22. Then there is my hubby who doesn't like to hurt the "cute little animals". I almost got him with a brick last fall, I may do a live trap then take it out where I could pop him, bring him back gutted and skinned cut in enough pieces the hubby wouldn't know what was. :D

    • SandyofPA wrote:

      Drybones wrote:

      Dan76 wrote:

      LIhikers wrote:

      A pet groundhog? That's funny.
      Folks in some circles would call it dinner.
      My son and wife to be took an 8 day hike in the Peruvian mountains, spoiled brats had sherpas to carry most of the gear and cook....one meal was ground hog, or the local equivalent.
      I would love to give it a bad case of lead poisoning, but in suburbia the houses are too close together to get him with my 22. Then there is my hubby who doesn't like to hurt the "cute little animals". I almost got him with a brick last fall, I may do a live trap then take it out where I could pop him, bring him back gutted and skinned cut in enough pieces the hubby wouldn't know what was. :D
      Cof124

      I just spotted

    • Drybones wrote:

      Dan76 wrote:

      LIhikers wrote:

      A pet groundhog? That's funny.
      Folks in some circles would call it dinner.
      My son and wife to be took an 8 day hike in the Peruvian mountains, spoiled brats had sherpas to carry most of the gear and cook....one meal was ground hog, or the local equivalent.
      Might have been guinea pig. It's a local delicacy in the area.

      Lest we forget.....


      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC

    • SandyofPA wrote:

      Drybones wrote:

      Dan76 wrote:

      LIhikers wrote:

      A pet groundhog? That's funny.
      Folks in some circles would call it dinner.
      My son and wife to be took an 8 day hike in the Peruvian mountains, spoiled brats had sherpas to carry most of the gear and cook....one meal was ground hog, or the local equivalent.
      I would love to give it a bad case of lead poisoning, but in suburbia the houses are too close together to get him with my 22. Then there is my hubby who doesn't like to hurt the "cute little animals". I almost got him with a brick last fall, I may do a live trap then take it out where I could pop him, bring him back gutted and skinned cut in enough pieces the hubby wouldn't know what was. :D
      My kind of woman.

      Lest we forget.....


      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC

    • SandyofPA wrote:

      Drybones wrote:

      Dan76 wrote:

      LIhikers wrote:

      A pet groundhog? That's funny.
      Folks in some circles would call it dinner.
      My son and wife to be took an 8 day hike in the Peruvian mountains, spoiled brats had sherpas to carry most of the gear and cook....one meal was ground hog, or the local equivalent.
      I would love to give it a bad case of lead poisoning, but in suburbia the houses are too close together to get him with my 22. Then there is my hubby who doesn't like to hurt the "cute little animals". I almost got him with a brick last fall, I may do a live trap then take it out where I could pop him, bring him back gutted and skinned cut in enough pieces the hubby wouldn't know what was. :D
      on my first trip to Mexico I could only find one thing that liked on the buffet at the hotel. I asked the waiter what it was. "Iguana Senor" lol !!!
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference