acidbasement

A few miles outside Erickson.

There's a definite endorphin rush from doing anything outside at this temperature, that's for sure.

Not a snow complaint, but jeezus, it was -29C here this morning. We don't usually get that till late December. It hurt my face to feed the cattle.

Once again I didn't get the yard cleaned up before the snow covered everything.

Got started on a diamond willow headphone stand today. Still need to whittle a bit more, sand with a finer grit paper, and then treat it with something, but you get the idea. Apologies for crappy pic.

Happy birthday Juan!

Happy birthday!

I saw Spirit of the West in Regina on Friday. They've been around for 30+ years, and are very influential on the Canadian folk-rock scene. I've been listening to them on and off for 20 years, and they're one of Eleanor's favourites. This song is a pub and social staple, and we Canucks consider it the undisputed national anthem of partying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPJD3qcIL7s It was an amazing concert, super-energetic. A bunch of us who were stuck in the cheap seats ended up rushing the stage, so there were about 150-200 of us dancing in front of a mostly-seated room. John Mann, their lead singer, went public a couple of months ago that he has early onset Alzheimer's disease after battling cancer. He's 51 years old. He's still performing and even writing songs, but he doesn't play the guitar anymore and he uses an iPad through the entire show to help him remember the lyrics. It's really sad to see that happen to anyone, let alone such a talented musician who otherwise would probably have another 20 years of playing left in him, but it's really inspiring that his band is supporting him and helping him keep doing what he wants to do. His voice is still amazing, and his performance is still really passionate. I hope I get to see them at least one more time before he can't do it anymore.

Wow. Purdy.

Happy birthday JP#s!

Line dancing? People still do that? Awesome. They did when I was in high school 20 years ago, but I haven't seen it since. I thought it had died out, but maybe it's just that I haven't spent much (if any) time in country bars. Sounds like it was a fun day.

Happy birthday, Alex!

Interesting. I wonder if anyone buys those. They're nice looking blocks of wood, and the history is neat, but there are more comfortable things to sit on. Off topic, I've been thinking about making a headphone stand in a similar way, using a block of wood at a branch intersection. In addition to poplar, I've got a lot of willow here, and some of it has the diamond pattern, like this.

Sounds like she deserves one of these:

This is a bloody funny tumblr.

Happy birthday Dinny!

Lots of trial and error to get them sitting at the right height and angle, I expect. But at least I can just burn the rejects. We have a lot of beavers, so there's no shortage of well-seasoned wood, mostly white and black poplar.

Yeah, I'm thinking about a tree trunk as a stand. I'm no woodworker.

I'm stupid about this stuff. Is it a no-no to use one piece of solid wood as a speaker stand? Would that make bad resonances? I've got a chainsaw and several forests, and scant few opportunities to convince my missus that spending another cent on audio is a good idea.

Let the whisky flow! Have a good one.

Happy birthday Chris!

We're planning to drive to CA, and will definitely be packing our camping gear. The kids love camping. My wife is going to be at a conference in the San Bernardino area, so Death Valley should be easy enough for the boys and me to get to.

Here's what Jude sayeth: "Over the past couple of years, I've been to all of the wildly successful Southern California Head-Fi Meets organized by third_eye (Ethan) and warrenpchi (Warren). Witnessing the growing scale and quality of their meets, the three of us met to explore the idea of turning next year's Spring SoCal Head-Fi Meet into a full-blown annual CanJam event. And so, on March 28-29, 2015--at the Westin South Coast Plaza Hotel--CanJam will return to California, as a standalone event, bigger and better than ever!"

Google image search. Looks a wee bit sketchy.