A Sunflower Grows in Lutz

Recently I have posted quite a number of blog posts about my birdhouses.  Having birdhouses and bird feeders brings quite a large number of birds around the house.  Yesterday I discovered one of the weird side effects of having birds hanging around.

The bird feeder has the usual kinds of wild bird seed in it.  But the ones the birds and squirrels love the most is the sunflower seed.  In a "Damn nature!  You scary!" kind of way something pretty funny happened.  It seems one of the birds dropped a sunflower seed in the rain gutter.  Well, if a tree can grow in Brooklyn, then a sunflower can grow in my rain gutter.

And even though I am posting this on April 1st, I assure you this is not an April Fool's Day joke.

Here's a wide shot of the sunflower.

I actually noticed it when I was looking at the roof.  The reason I was looking at the roof is because all the pollen has piled up there.  I knew I was eventually going to have to go up there with the blower, and clear everything off the roof and clean the gutters.

I do need to clean the gutters, but I'm really having a hard time determining how clean I want it.  I don't want to get rid of the sunflower, but I really need that gutter clear.  We do get a lot of rain here in Florida, and it pays to keep the gutters clear.  I've got time to decide what to do.  After all, it's raining out there now.

Buzzards: Nature's Recyclers

It was a sad day today.  A small deer did not make it across the road.  Well, it kinda did.  It just ended up there dead.  But as this is Florida, and as sure as the sun will shine, meat will not be wasted.  Not with all the buzzards that are hanging around Lutz.

It was a pretty wild scene.  At least 40 or so black buzzards were writhing around like a pit of vipers.  Once I broke my camera out a few of them became camera shy.  But I got a few good pictures of them.

I love that lone buzzard hanging out in the road.  Buzza don't care!

But I was not content to just take pictures.  I took some video clips with my camera.  You can see how excited the buzzards were.  At least that's what I think when I look at them.

I want to report that all buzzards got their fill.  About two hours after I took these photos, there were only two buzzards eating.  All the rest were hanging in the trees and pooping.  To be honest, they took care of that deer pretty quick.  They truly are nature's recycling machines.

Guitar Project #7, The Rosewood Telecaster, Part 2

Here is Part 1:  http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2012/05/guitar-project-7-rosewood-telecaster.html

Today was a perfect Saturday afternoon for woodworking.  I was actually working on two Telecasters, but I will only talk about the rosewood one in the post.

First off, I had a few things I wanted to accomplish.  I'll show the photo first, and way what I did to it.

First up, I routed out the neck pocket perfectly.  I am getting much better than I was.  I also cleaned up the pickup and cavity routes.

Next, I took the bandsaw, and cut the rest of the body into shape.  It reminds me of a very early piece of advice I got when I started my luthier training.  Cut the neck pocket first, then cut out the rest of the body.

Next, I cleaned up the neck pocket, and added the screw holes.

Mostly, I sanded the crap out of this thing.  Man, I thought maple was hard.  This rosewood ranks right up there with it.  I am so thankful for my spindal sander.  It helps with 90 degree sanding, and I don't know what I ever did before I had one.

This has me worried.  I was originally happy with this being a one piece block of rosewood.  However, this is a calcium deposit that is running right down the middle of the tree.  I have a feeling that I am going to have to fill it in with CA glue mixed with rosewood dust.

I wanted to get an idea of what this body would look like once I put a finish on it.  The easy way to do that is to wet the wood.  It also gives me an idea if I would want to darken the wood, or leave it the way it is.

My next step is do keep sanding.  I can't really do much more than that until I order parts for it.  So far I am pretty happy with it.

This Divided Highway

The original post:  http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2011/02/divided-highway.html

The second post:  http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2011/02/divided-highway-part-2.html

Well the time has come for me to record my album with my band "Possum Apple."  After much thought I am going to name it, "This Divided Highway."  Today I recorded the guitar tracks for five of the songs with my friend Josh.  I look back at my post from over a year and a half ago, and see how my vision has progressed.  Some songs are still on my list, and others are going to be saved for another day.

Here's the songs that I have planned for the album (this time around.)

Part 1.

1.  Buffalo
2.  The Road
3.  Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
4.  Who's Knocking?
5.  The Bride Wore Sneakers

Part 2.

6.  Good Cocaine
7.  The Midnight Special

Part 3.

8.  Crevasses and Glaciers
9.  Dark Horizons
10.  Season of the Fireflys
11.  Secret Path
12.  Everyday People

The first part is going to be Southern Rock/ Americana/ Alt. Country.  The second part is going to be old timey songs with a modern day twist.  Seriously, those two are pre-ASCAP.  And the third part is going to be more Coffeehouse style music.

I know exactly how I want the cover art to look for this album.  I want it to be a picture of me leaning against a divided highway sign.  I'll have my back to the camera, and you will be seeing me in my traveling coat and hat.  I want the picture to be in sepia or a faded type color.  I have a friend James,who loves to take pictures.  He's really, really good at it.  He offered to take the pictures for me, and I honestly feel great about that.  He was showing me what his camera could do, and I'll admit, it blew my mind.

The way I envisioned "Possum Apple" was that it was a roaming band of whoever decided to stop by.  Maybe someone would be a member for that night's performance, or maybe they would hang around for a while.  Here's an example, I have a relatively new friend in Chris.  She is a pretty good bass player, and I asked her to lay down the bass tracks.  She said she was more than happy to.

Josh has a friend who plays great leads, and thought about bringing him in to work on the tracks.  I'm all for it.  I need someone to take a different sort of look at my songs, and put down some lead tracks on it.

So the good news is a lot of what's in the planning stages is now being put into action.  I'm feeling really good about this.  I will update my blog as things progress.

Amazing Blog Post #300

That's right.  This is my 300th post.  It all started with a suggestion and then a dream.  First it was my sister who said that with all the crazy ideas I had, I should really have a blog to express those ideas.  I then had a dream to write a blog about destruction, hence the name of my blog, "Destruction for Fun and Profit." 

It all started when Myspace was the big social network to be on.  Myspace was kind of an all in one website, that's why I liked having my blog on it.  But Myspace decided to change their format multiple times, and made it more and more user unfriendly.

So I decided to move my blog over to blogger, and I couldn't be happier.  Their format allows me to easily post photos and videos, and make my blogs even more entertaining.  It was one of the best decisions for my writing and blogging. 

But I can't believe it.  300 posts.  This is a perfect time to make a 300 joke.

Back when I started my blog, I made myself a promise that I would try to post once a week.  I thought that would be a fair amount.  But once I decided that I would post about more than just destruction, I found out I had a lot more to say.  So instead of posting just once a week, I have averaged about 80 posts a year.

Today just happens to be exactly one year since I moved my blog over to Blogger.  I switched over on Saturday February 26th, 2011.  I remember it well.  It was right around the time I got really sick with my gall bladder.  After surgery, I found that I had plenty of time to blog since I was going to be out of work for a while.

Once April 4th comes around, it will be exactly four years that I have been blogging.  I am glad I expanded beyond just talking about destruction.  I have posted true life stories, odd thoughts, pranks, tall tales, picture posts, and some general mayhem. 

I am very proud of quite a number of these blogs I have written.  I always try to outdo myself, and hope that somewhere in my next 300 blogs I will be able to do that.  I always try to entertain and hope that I will continue to do so. 

The Ongoing Baritone/ Tele/ Cello Project, Part 4, Not So Baritone

The original post, http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2011/03/baritone-cello-guitar.html

Part 1, http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2011/05/ongoing-baritone-cello-tele-project.html

Part 2, http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2011/05/ongoing-baritone-tele-cello-project.html

Part 3, http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2011/05/ongoing-baritone-tele-cello-project_29.html

So I've had a little change of heart/ design when it comes to the Tele project.  Frankly, I can't get a good baritone neck at a decent price, so I got a regular Tele neck.  I got it from the same place that Fender gets their higher end Squier series, from Hong Kong. 

I've found a nice little place where I can order things straight from the Hong Kong factories.

http://www.eyguitarmusic.com/

I have been really happy with what I have ordered.  I am getting the same stuff I would normally get from other places, I'm just cutting out two middlemen, and two trips of shipping.

Here's the pictures of the neck.

I also got the last pieces to complete the build.

You wouldn't believe how hard it has been to find an output jack.  I've been to just about every store in the bay area, and can't find one.  It's bordering on ridulousness.  But, this place has all the output jacks I want to buy.

And one other thing...

A double bladed hot rodded bridge pickup.  I have a thing for double bladed pickups, and this one is right up my alley.  And if I hate it, I have another Kent Armstrong pickup that I can replace it with.

My next step is to route out the neck.  Here's a picture for clarity.

The body is basically complete except for routing out the neck pocket.  So, I am going to do that in the near future, and post another blog when my wood work is hopefully complete.

Backyard Birds

One of the fun things about living in Lutz is that, it's just far enough out of the city for country living.  I have seen a lot of birds in my backyard.  I couldn't keep enough food in my bird feeder for all of them.  I was seriously going through one pound of birdfood a day.  I must of had half the cardinals in the state of Florida stopping by.  I have also had ducks, cattle egrets, and sandhill cranes stop by in the backyard.

So imagine my surprise when I was working in my workshop (in the front of the house) when I spot a pair of sandhill cranes.  And it's not like they were down the street.  They were just a few yards from me.  I know I wouldn't believe me, especially on the internet.  So I did the smart thing, I took pictures.

That's right.  I took pictures.  The sandhill cranes were digging through the soft dirt looking for worms and bugs.  You can kind of see the one on the left with his beak in the dirt.

As you can see I am pretty close to them, and they don't really seem to care.  They are more interested in the earthworms that are hanging out in the soil.

At this point I am starting to get a wee bit too close. 

And this is where I start to chase them .

The one of the left is not trusting me, and the one on right would not be paying attention.

Now they are running, and I stop taking pictures to chase after them like a retarded 8 year old.  If I would have really wanted to have caught one I could have.  They have gotten pretty lazy.  One of them squawked something at me.  I'm sure a bird translator would have said that it translates as "jerk."  I just can't wait until they come by again.