Restringing my Mandolin

On By CarynIn music

The 1895 era American Conservatory bowl back mandolin I purchased a couple months ago finally has new strings.

Photo description: bottom of the bowl of the American Conservatory Mandolin with aged strings and the wrist cover removed

I was nervous about restringing her, but she was quite supportive for the whole procedure. Mandolin strings have a loop at one end of that hooks onto raised metal tabs. I changed out pairs of strings, one set at a time, so that I didn’t move the bridge. I used cheesecloth to wipe away the dust, but did not do a deep clean or try anything aggressive.

Photo description: end of the mandolin with the wrist cover removed, showing the string loops and metal tabs

I am also experimenting with alternative tuning. I tuned to DGBE, as the top four strings of a guitar are tuned. These notes are lower than typical mandolin GDAE tuning and make the strings softer to press. Plus, it might make learning chords transferable to guitar. So far the mandolin is accepting the new tuning, and when all the strings are tuned, she still resonates with my voice. New strings take a long time to settle in and require frequent tuning. I will also keep a close eye on her construction to make sure the new tuning doesn’t cause stress damage.

Throwback Thursday: egg aprons

On By CarynIn chickens, Craft

In February of 2017 I did an egg apron experiment for a friend with chickens. I made three kinds of egg apron from simple white cotton fabric that I had in my stash.

Photo description: white egg apron with woven rope tie and two rows of pleated pockets
Photo description: round bottom apron with braided rope tie, large pocket with two hand access ports and division seams along the bottom edge to keep eggs from knocking together
Photo description: harvest style white apron with buttoned up large “pockets” to hold eggs or produce
Photo description: same harvest style white apron unbuttoned

The experiment was interesting. The round bottom apron was hard to get the eggs out, the pleated pockets were nice, but if you leaned over too fast the eggs rolled out, and the harvest apron didn’t keep the eggs separated.

Now, with three of my own chickens and one or two eggs, I just use my pants pockets. Even when we had more chickens the aprons were more of a pain than helpful. Egg baskets are a more practical solution.

Unusual clover

On By CarynIn Flora, Garden
Photo description: three-leaf clover with almost hour-glass shaped leaves

In looking for four-leaf clover, I found a different kind of leaf in another patch in the front yard that has inverted curves on the sides of the leaf, which make the leaves look hour-glass shaped. Clover is a good nitrogen fixer for soil and good companion for grass. And makes for interesting discoveries.

Clover

On By CarynIn Flora

Here is another opportunity for finding four-leaf clovers! My answer in the second picture.

Photo description: patch of clover in my front yard
Photo description: same patch of clover with seven purple circles on four-leaf clovers

Making my bed

On By CarynIn Garden

We have some bedding dirt left over from the front flower bed project, so I used left over stone to build new terraces between the house and the coop where the land slopes.

Photo description: first terrace started, the line of flagstone at the top of the hill is a path I’ve been slowly building over the last seven years, the second row of upright flagstone will hold dirt for the first terrace
Photo description: second terrace added with more flag stone

This was about all the stone and dirt I could haul in a day using a wheel barrow. The plan is to fill both new terraces with dirt, then maybe plant pumpkins.