Whipped at Winfield

The "Big Fast Train" has done come and gone. Just as I said in that post, there was a point at Winfield where I had to actually sit down onstage and start playing the tunes I'd been practicing for months. Georgia documented it (below). There was a lot that needed to happen before then, though, and no, I didn't really get "whipped" at Winfield. It's just a fun alliteration. I'd use "Winning at Winfield!" (with more exclamation marks) but I didn't win.

The trip to Dallas to pick up our new Casita went well. We stopped in Clarendon and had lunch with Brianna and Quenten which turned out to be a good thing as they ended up moving (to Claremore...what's next?  "Clareless"? "Clarefree"? "Clare-by-the-sea"?) the week I was at Winfield. We picked up the camper- another undramatic event, except that I had a blown fuse which was promptly fixed at the factory- and headed north to my half-sister's place near Pilot Point, TX. I'd asked for all kinds of advice for traveling through Dallas and we ended up taking 45 to 75 to 380. That was a good route but I have to say, north Dallas was the worst part of the whole trip!  Lots of traffic, lots of construction, fast drivers. However, it still all went without event and we even managed to stop at the Cabela's in Allen, TX.

The Motherlode of Egg Campers

Checking out floor models while waiting

Getting together for the first time.

Out in the lot, ready to roll!

We'd stopped at Cabela's in Fort Worth on the way in and were disappointed. The place was full of screaming kids, merchandise was on the floor, and we just didn't find anything we wanted. Plus, we only had an hour before they closed and when they close at 7 pm, that means they empty the floor at 6:30 pm. The Cabela's in Allen TX was a lot better to us. The former is 250,000 sq ft and the latter "only" 100,000 sq ft, but the Allen store was cleaner, neater, and.... better. Maybe it helped that it was Monday morning and not Sunday afternoon. We scored all kinds of stuff on our list including a Benjamin Titan NP air rifle with a slightly cracked stock for less than 1/2 price. Derek's been wanting one of these for ages but I didn't want to spend $160 on one. This one was marked to $80 and we put it in the basket along with a pair of camo overalls for $20. We found a lot of things and the stop here was well worth our time. We also managed a stop at In 'n Out Burger but, honestly... it was just okay. I like Five Guys' fries better.

Cabela's in Allen TX

After that, it was to my sister's place, whom I haven't seen in 12 years or so, although we talk on Facebook. Her and her husband train, raise, and sell horses and we had a fun, although way too short visit. Derek and I slept in the Casita for the first time and started figuring things out.

Derek, Bryan, and Ky after a successful meal

We took off at first light for Winfield and stopped at Bass Pro in OKC on the way. Prior to this trip, I'd bought a Garmin GPS and, while I'm good with maps, this proved to be a useful purchase for navigating big cities. The main thing is that it warns you of upcoming exits and you get a little picture of what the exit looks like. Armed and empowered with this technology, we navigated into Bass Pro where we spent more money!

Bass Pro in OKC

And then, on to Winfield! Our GPS was pretty helpful here. I'd never come to Winfield from the south and didn't realize that I-35 turns in a toll road. So, we bailed an exit early and the GPS helpfully suggested a road that ran straight to the road I wanted. Finally, around 2 pm, we parked the Casita and breathed a big sigh.

One of my antelope hunters had given Derek a really nice fly-tying kit and I knew there plenty of experienced fly-ty'ers in our camp.

Coy and Derek tying flies

Proulxs and Donohues

The Casita. Camping.

The Famous John Beaver

Dugas and Moe

"Are you SURE you want to learn to play banjo?"

The evening flight of turkey vultures coming to roost

Winfield was fun. I didn't place in either contest and there was no question about that. I did better in the mandolin contest than I did guitar and got a lot of nice comments. One of the most appreciated was when Steve Kaufman- the original and for a long time only 3-time winner of the guitar contest- came over, pointed his breakfast banana at me and said "You played great in the mandolin contest! Smooth, clean, interesting... that was good!" 

Advice from Steve before the contest

Wanna hear my contest tune? Video!

I drew next to last in the guitar contest and that gave me about 2.5 hours to listen to the other guys, get tense, and think about what I should've done. I played pretty good, but my arrangements and execution, honestly, are not up to Winfield standards. But I paid attention and brought some lessons home. This year was tough.  Of the 5 finalists, 4 were previous winners. And at least 3 previous winners did not make the cut, as well as a few professional musicians there to try their hand at the contest. So, it was no dishonor to not make it. I think I could've played better and done more, though. Next year, maybe I will.

Here comes that train!

Picking away!

Warming up for the guitar contest

I didn't play well, but here I am.

My view

Derek slept well.

That was Winfield. It was a fun but tiring week and we drove 1400 miles round trip. On the way home, I decided that 2015 would be my last year. Next year, I'm going elk bowhunting or fishing or whatever. It's getting really hard to hear in noisy environments and I had a hard time participating in anything other than very small group conversations. So, I'm done. Of course, when I got home, I started learning new tunes and practicing. Maybe I'll go but just not say anything.

This is long enough.  Next time, I'll talk about cattle shipping and the End of The Year. Maybe I'll even have a photo of me opening a box of the Revised and Updated 2nd Edition of "Falconry Equipment".  We'll see.

The Big Fast Train

The big fast train is here.  "What", you ask, "is 'the big fast train'?" It's a concept that I use to describe events that are a long time in the future and seem like they'll never get here.  Then, suddenly, they are here. I don't know if you've ever been out West (where the horizons are a long ways off) and watched a train coming, but you'll often see them way out there, sometimes as nothing more than a dot, a million miles away. You can sit beside the track and spit your tobacco (if you chew, and you really should quit if you do) and wait. Nothing happens. The dot doesn't seem to get closer but if you keep waiting, after awhile you'll start feeling the tracks vibrate a little. The train still seems a long ways off. When it gets closer, you can start making out details. Closer still and maybe the conductor will blow the whistle to warn you to get your foot off the track where you've been feeling for vibrations. And then, with a lot of noise and rumbling and flying cinders and whooshing air, the train is HERE! The ground shakes, the rails flex, your eardrums scream at the noise and commotion and then...WHOOSH!!!!.... it's gone. And off into the distance it goes until it becomes a small dot on the other horizon and before long maybe you don't trust that your memory was all that good and it really wasn't all that. So, wait for another train.

That's what long-anticipated events are like. You plan and prepare and it seems like the date will never get here and then, suddenly, it's here and like a fully loaded train, it sometimes threatens to just flat-out run you over.

My big train right now is "Winfield" or, as it's more formally called, the Walnut Valley Festival. This is home of the National Flatpicking Guitar (and other instruments) contest and this year, I'm entered in both mandolin and guitar. I did the guitar contest 4x- 1994, '97, '98, '99- and the mandolin once ('99, I think) but then quit contesting and just focused on playing. There is a maximum of 40 contestants, each of whom play 2 tunes. From these, 5 "make the cut" to the finals where they play 2 more tunes and from here, 3 are winners. It's a very prestigious contest and hard, too. On any given year, there will be 3-9 former winners and your first job, if you wanna make the cut, is to beat them. Also on any given year, only 1-2 of those former winners will make the cut themselves. It used to bother me that I competed for 4 years and didn't make the cut and then I thought harder about the fact that a lot of great players don't make it either.

This year, I needed some motivation to practice guitar and I was starting to feel semi-creative again after a long non-creative period, so in March, I signed up for the contest.  This kicked me into a frenzy of tune preparation and practicing. I could see the big train down the line and knew it was coming and I wanted to be ready. The train isn't quite here yet, but the tracks are shaking. Our truck is loaded up and tomorrow, Derek and I head off to Dallas TX and then up to Winfield. Once I get to Winfield, I'll be able to see the conductor and hear the whistle. At the end of the week- on Friday, at approx 1 pm- after being intimidated by 15 year old hot-shots backstage, I will step on the mandolin stage, sit down in front of the mic, adjust my chair, look at my rhythm guitar player, and then...I'll play the first note of my first tune. At that point, the train will be upon me. I'll be a little nervous, but with any luck, I won't forget, mid-stream, what tune I'm playing like I did in the guitar contest one year when I had to just rip around in the scale for a few seconds until I remembered and got back on track. On Saturday morning, I'll do it again in the guitar contest, but having- hopefully- survived the mandolin contest, I should be more relaxed. My goal is to simply make the cut. If I make the cut in either contest, I will pass out backstage and be the first person in the history of the contest to fail to make the finals because he's passed out backstage from excitement.

If you want to hear quick recordings of my contest tunes, go here. These were done with a simple digital recorder sitting on my desk, just so I could hear how the tunes actually sounded.

In May, I noticed that I'd started to put finish wear on the top of my mandolin neck. I bought this mandolin new in 2002 and I've never worn a mandolin neck before- 2 guitar necks, yes, but never a mandolin. I took pictures.

Finish wear in June

Finish wear in Sept

Underside of neck. 

So, why I am going to Winfield via Dallas?  Well, several months ago, I got it into my head that we needed a Casita travel trailer. Derek and I have been doing a lot more fishing, archery shoots, and just getting out and I would really, really like to have a little trailer that I don't have to pop-up and which has a bathroom and shower. The Casita fits the bill. The family was a little hesitant but one day we headed off to Clayton Lake to go fishing and I brought up the topic. As we came down the hill to the lake, lo and behold, can you believe it? There was a Casita travel trailer! The owner kindly gave the family a quick tour and our fate was sealed.

This is not our trailer. This is what they look like.

We're getting a 16' for the lower weight

I started earnestly searching for a used one but they are hard to find and the only ones I found were 7-9 hour drives away and, yeah the pictures look good, but who knows what condition they were really in? I decided to check prices on new ones and what do you know? Casita is having a sale. The price quoted for a brand-new trailer was barely higher than what I was looking at for 10 year old trailers. I figured that in 10 years, I'd have a 10-year old trailer instead of a 20-year old trailer, and so, thanks to generous financial donation from my mother, I ordered a new one. Lead time was 2.5 months and there, folks, is another big fast train. After all this anticipation and preparation, Monday, Lord willing!, we will hook the new trailer to our truck.

In other news, Derek and I have been fly fishing. After testing the waters ourselves, I decided to hire a guide and jump start the process. We ended up selling 2 of our doe pronghorn permits and using that money to finance a full day's fishing on our local waters. We learned a LOT and had a lot of fun. I hope this is something that we'll be doing more of in upcoming years. Thanks to Eagle Nest Fly Shack in, appropriately, Eagle Nest, NM

Derek's first Brown trout (yes, the fish was back in the water quickly)

Stalking fish pre-guide

Derek and guide

Last bit of news... "Falconry Equipment" is being edited by my co-author Jim Hodge as we speak. When I get back from Winfield- Lord willing- I will make suggested corrections and send it off to the printer. I should have copies in hand by mid-October, if all goes well.

It's been a great summer. I'm looking forward to fall.

Nothing New Under The Sun

You could just go re-read last week's post, I suppose.  Same deal- cloudy skies, no rain.  They remind me of this passage from Jude, in which Jude is talking about false prophets:

They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots;  (Jude 1:12)

What we want to see is more along the lines of this:

Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. (1 Kings 18:45a)

Or this!

Ask the LORD for rain In the time of the latter rain. The LORD will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, Grass in the field for everyone.  (Zechariah 10:1)

We've certainly had the flashing clouds and the result was fires all over the place.  One ranch south of us was almost entirely burned up and the owner, who took to the air in a plane said it was almost like it just burned along their property boundaries.  We, so far, have been spared from fires.  And the weather forecast is still calling for 10-40% chances of rain every day for the rest of the week.  So, while it's tough, it could be worse.

As part of the Ministerial Alliance in town I get 15 min a day on the local radio station about every 5 weeks.  The above passages are probably overflow from my most recent series, which was on....drum roll... rain!   I looked at a lot of verses on rain, and it was clear that God uses it to accomplish both chastisement and reward.  I did the same thing in 2008 and I'll probably do it again in a few years.

This week, the 58th Annual Camp Meeting is coming up and I'm doing the daily Bible study as well as preaching the closing sermon on Sunday.  In light of everyone's recent and current struggles, I'm thinking I'll look at Job, particularly:

And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD." In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.  (Job 1:21-22)

and

But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.  (Job 2:10)

Of course, times of trouble aren't easy- Job tore his robe and shaved his head.   The author of Hebrews says:

Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.  (Hebrews 12:11)

So, there's not much to do here but examine ourselves, try to ride it out, and hope for better times.  Hard times certainly make us appreciate the good times more.   Oh wait... here's the famous 2 Chronicles passage:

When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.   (2 Chronicles 7:13-14)

Well, that's pretty much my message for Camp Meeting this week!  :)  However, you don't get the brisket and beans that we'll be getting.  Yummy.

Moving to more mundane things, a neighbor came over on Monday and we "pulled" the windmill in last week's blog.  This involves hooking up ropes and pulleys and pulling the sucker rods up, unscrewing each one, laying them out carefully, and then getting to the valve which enables water pumping.  There are circular leather bushings on that valve and if they get rust, dirt, and junk in them, the mill won't pump.  We were getting some rust flakes when pounding on the pipe and so decided to see what was down there.  Found a couple of flakes, put new leathers on, and it seems to be a little better.  Sorry I didn't get pictures- next time!

On the falcon front, training of the prairie falcon is moving along.  She's a little challenging, but we're starting to make some progress and I've gotten her to eat off the lure and take food from my glove.  Here she is relaxing on her window perch.  This is good as it shows that she really can relax.  As soon as I get her out flying, she'll be able to burn off some of the energy and aggression that's causing our training issues and things should progress even better.

The peregrine is growing up:

Being taken at a much younger age, being a peregrine, and being a male, he's got a totally different attitude than the prairie.  He likes to play with us, is much more sociable (which will create its own training challenges in a bit), and far more vocal.  His feathers are growing by the minute and he's now moved from a creature who could barely walk 2 weeks ago to one that's flapping and running around  his mews (8' x 12').  I don't think I'd been able to take him at this age!

And finally, what with our ranch income uncertain, I've been stepping up the guitar business again. My intent this year was the reverse- back off the guitars and focus more on the ranch, but it just hasn't worked out that way.  So, I contacted all the people I put on "hold" and told 'em the gates were open. So far this week, I've done 2 bridges, 2 bridgeplates, 1 neck reset, 1 nut, 1 saddle, shaved a couple of braces, and I have another neck reset lined up once the guitar has a chance to react to the new bridge/plate.  I like working on guitars.

Here's a 70's Martin D-41 getting a new bridge:

And, I guess that's it for today.  I need to go out and "doctor" a couple of sick cattle in the pasture, do some guitar work, get ready for Bible study tonight (we're going thru Matthew, chapter by chapter, reading it, and then seeing what jumps out at everyone), and praying/hoping for rain!!!   THIS is what it should look like this time of the year:

"Fire On The Mountain...

...lightning in the air"
- Marshall Tucker Band

That's mostly what's been going on here on the High Plains.  It is DRY.  We haven't had any measurable precipitation since I reported it in my blog back on, what, June 4th?  Last year by this time we'd had 3"+ of rain.  Currently, we've had 1/2".   On the upside, storm clouds are beginning to build but on the downside, they're just bringing lightning.  Last night there were 4 lightning strikes in a single area and me and B2 got called out on our first jobs as new Volunteer Fire Department members.  I have trouble with the radio so I'm a grunt, which is fine with me.  I ended up manning our water tanker.  Field trucks come by and fill up and what I did was basically just hook them up to our hose.  It was a cool job, literally, as I ended up getting pretty wet from spilling hoses.  We started about 5 pm and I got home around 10 pm.  B2 was still in the field and spent the night at a neighbor's house.

The VFD is all about team-work.

Fire on the mounta...err... sagebrush.

B2 awaits action

Portrait of the Artist as a VFD Member

On the falcon front, training is in progress for "Wendy", the prairie falcon.  Her feathers are all in and so I caught her one night, put jesses on her and she's basically been hooded ever since.  She's taken to the hood very well, as you can see here:

Hooded and Sleeping

Falcons are easy to keep

The great thing about falcons is that they're so easy to keep since they poop straight down.  Hawks bend over and shoot their poo horizontally which gets messy, obviously. 

The idea of this kind of hood training is to only remove the hood when the falcon is going to be fed.  Everytime she sees the falconer, it's a positive thing. You can leave them un-hooded on a perch, but then the falcon risks unpleasant experiences and is basically tied down against its will.  They come to resent that.  When they're hooded, they just shut off and the result is a much calmer bird.  Again, every time the hood comes off, there's a feeding opportunity and a pleasant experience that benefits the falcon.  After awhile, after we're flying and hunting, she can be left unhooded more and more, but by that time she'll be well-trained.  Right now, we're training.

The peregrine chick is doing fine, too.  He's much smaller and younger and his training is different.  While I'm trying to tame and calm the prairie, the key with the peregrine is to not let him get too tame.  If that happens, he'll look to me as the source of food and start screaming and food begging.  He has to be taught to tolerate my presence but to search out food on his own.  His training will be me giving him opportunities to feed instead of me feeding him.  Therefore, what I do with him is provide him with a bowl of food at all times.  He feeds when hungry and seeks that food out.  It's almost like you need to make the chick wild and then tame it.  The older prairie is already wild and my job is just to tame her, or more correctly, create positive experiences for her.  When the peregrine gets older and starts flying, I'll take him to the field and create feeding opportunities for him using a lure and later on, pigeons.  In this way, he'll become a hunter and aerial predator instead of a bird looking to me to feed him.

The Peregrine Ledge

In the box

Stuffed peregrine

 
The peregrine lives on this ledge during the day.  It's filled with gravel and he has a little box he can hide in to get away from stuff.  There's a bowl of chopped quail on the ledge and he eats whenever he wants.  He'll go into the box for awhile and then sit out on the ledge for awhile.  Not much else going on with him- just feeding and some casual handling.  He'll start getting hooded before too long.

And finally, even though I haven't had many pictures of it, I do work on guitars quite a bit.  I just sent an early 60's D-18 home after some renovation and I'm finishing up a 50's 0-18 that got a neck reset and new nut.  The little guitar is a lot of fun to play and is just great for hybrid (pick and fingers) playing, swing chords, stuff like that.  

Original Martin bridge w/ my saddle

Martin 0-18

Removing wood from valuable guitars

Today was "Guitar Day".  This is where I remove wood from perfectly good guitars in an effort to make them better.

This is a Martin D-18 GE and I did quite a few things to it.  Last night I pulled the bridge off, scraped off the finish underneath, and reglued it.  This morning, I shaved a couple of braces, removed another one, made a new pickguard (shown), made a new nut, and did some misc things.  The effect of all this is a guitar that's a bit more responsive, louder, crisper and just, IMHO, sounds better.  It also helps pay the bills and that's very, very important!

Here's the new nut I made.

This work took pretty much all day, but the guitar's done and ready to ship home.  With this done, I need to get ready for Bible study tonight.  We're going to start something new.   What, I don't know.  Maybe we'll study the parables of Jesus, maybe we'll work thru an entire book, maybe... well, I don't know.  I'll just have to see what The People want to do.