I have been interested in gardening since I was a child and spent time with my great grandparents who were gardeners. The Square Foot Gardening method was developed in 1976 as a simple alternative to labor intensive and inefficient row gardening. Explore the possibilities . . .
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I’ve been threatening to build a storage shed at the ranch for some time now. After going through everything in the shop and selling, discarding, or giving everything away I could, it was still too crowded to work effectively. I needed more space. A friend had recently mentioned a sale on small buildings at Costco — it was worth a look.
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For the last ten years, we’ve been farming bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) around the place. It started when I planted a few seeds and gradually, they’ve bloomed and spread. Because I’m impatient, I also helped them along by mowing the plants after they had gone to seed and spreading the clippings to other parts of the ranch.
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Ikea makes a wonderful work light (JANSJÖ)that sells for about $13. I have several of them, and love the warm pool of light they provide on desk surfaces. Let’s convert one of them to solar power with the Altoids LED light project
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The Solar Powered Rainwater Project began about eight months ago, although one might argue it is the culmination of my rainwater system dreams beginning in 2002.
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The solar-powered rainwater system was complete — except for more panels, and a cable to isolate the rainwater power from the rest of the system. Construction on the rainwater system began in 2002, when I trenched the various wires and pipes into the ground. I needed power for the rainwater system, and tapped into an underground wire originally intended to supply power to the well.
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Every piano is different, and although there are recommended measurements for key dip, blow distance, hammer height, etc., changes are sometimes needed to suit a specific action. At this point, Danny Boone’s Regulating Grand Piano Touch and Tone suggested fully regulating … Continue reading →
With casters installed and a rudimentary understanding of action adjustments, I was able to tinker. Hammer alignment went quickly, and as predicted, the sotto voce pedal now worked properly. Since the rockers were not snugged into their final position, they tended to drift, so I touched up the hammer line and let-off, and put the action back into the piano. It was time to play!
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As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, the Weber had been without casters for about 20 years. After we moved to our log home, I was eager to make it more playable, but there was a distinct rattling!
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At the beginning of this project, my piano technician friend Jack recommended I read Regulating Grand Piano Touch and Tone by Danny L. Boone. It breaks the process down into 56 steps from reshaping the hammers to adjusting the pedals. I spent some time with it, but dove into the process with Bernard’s and Celeste’s help without really reading it all.
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