It's not very often that I get to see my brother. He is the family doctor around here. He works about 8 miles from here.... which is fairly far away to me!!!! Anyhow, he came over today because he wanted to have a few rough cut boards planed, dimensioned, ect. I was NOT expecting him to show up with FIFTEEN FOOT long boards in his truck!!!
I said, "Stevie, you want to make those boards straight, same dimensions, ect. Have you lost your mind ???"
"Well, I thought you might not be excited about the idea. So, I thought I'd just show up with them."
My shop is fairly large..... 1220 square feet..... but, maneuvering a board that long is tough for even my shop. Lucky for me.... lucky for HIM.... a lot of my shop tables are on wheels. So, after moving stuff around, we were able to deal with those boards. (both my planer and joiner are positioned so that you can open the shop doors to the outside and send the boards out that way) I'm thankful they were poplar boards because I know I couldn't have picked up and wielded an oak board that size!!! I'm also thankful for "roller stands" that I have..... having a 76 inch jointer bed helps, but not that much when you're dealing with a board that long!!!
Anyhow, I did gain a banjo out of the deal. My friend, Bear, took one look at the banjo and said, "This is a good banjo, but the neck isn't where it should be."
Before I knew it, he'd taken the whole back off of the banjo, re-adjusted the neck, put the thing back together, and was playing the thing. It sounded great. For anyone that is a banjo or bluegrass fan, Earl Scruggs died today. I suppose he's no Michal Jackson or Whitney Houston, but, he's the guru of the banjo. So, while the media won't spend the next month pondering over why or how he died, he is a legend that will not be forgotten by us bluegrass folks. Cheers to Earl.
Hope everyone is doing well.
cheers,
bird.
