Busy Weekend

I apologize for my lack of blogs lately, but things have been pretty busy around the Homestead. I know, that's my excuse every time, but it's the truth! The final rounds of the PBR finals AND the opening of modern gun deer season coincided on the same weekend. We also decided to spend the weekend at hubby's folk's, since they have a lot more land and a bigger deer population. In between hunting, visiting, and watching PBR...it was a whirlwind weekend.

Results of the weekend - one bagged doe to fill one of our doe tags, and Brazilian rider Guilhermie Marchi is the 2008 PBR Champ.

Then, as soon as we got back, it was Fiddle Day! I finally feel I'm making good progress on my fiddle. I now have the sides glued together, and my last task was to add the "double lines", which add not only more support, but add more surface area for glueing on the front and back. On my next Fiddle Day I'll be cutting out the front and back and starting to whittle them to shape. The pic is from the first stages of my fiddle. I started with the side strips - three different length strips for each side, all sanded down to the same thickness and width, then soaked in hot water to make them pliable. (The water is cloudy because of all the red color that seeped out of the cherry wood strips). Once the strips were bendy enough, and the irons hot, the irons (using numerous potholders) are clamped into a vise, and each strip bent on the appropriate hot iron and clamped into a wooden fiddle-shaped pattern.


I feel very confident I'm not only going to finish this fiddle, but finish it in good time. In talking to Violet, I've found out there are a lot more of her fiddle-making students who have given up halfway through than have actually finished making a fiddle, for reasons such as lack of time, lack of interest, or lack of skill. I'm determined to make the time, I know I have the interest, and as far as skill - I'm just being extremely careful, and trying to not get in a hurry. On top of that, I'm pretty confident around a saw and a carving knife. So, my hopes are high, and so are Violet's. She's already given me wood to make a second fiddle with, and best of all, my OWN set of side-bending irons made by a blacksmith at Silver Dollar City. They were actually made for a woman in California who had high aspirations to make a fiddle, but gave up before she started and sent them back to Violet.

As far as fiddle playing, I'm progressing there, too, though not quite as fast. Of course the harder the songs get, the longer it takes to learn them.

I've now added:

Lost Indian

Arkansas Traveler (needs more practice)

Black-eyed Susie

Rose Nell

Down Yonder (in progress)


If I get confident enough, I *might* post a video. But don't hold your breath.