Carving and Playing

 After working for what seemed like days to get the maple back plate hollowed out and graduated, starting on the spruce is always surprising.  Very easy to cut by comparison.  Within about 15 minutes, down to the point where the big thumb plane can be used, very gratifying to run out long shavings.  Makes life good.

And speaking of good, we've had the chance to play at some spectacular spots in this past week.  Tim's place (Purple Sage Farms) for rehearsal on Thursday night. New lambs and a surprise new calf.  Sunset still visible at rehearsal time due to the changing day length and the recent switch to (or is it from?) Day Light Saving Time. 

We attended an English Country Dance ball in La Grande on Saturday, and a musicians' workshop Sunday morning, as students.  The workshop was held at one of the local member's home, and has a million-dollar view.

One does not live by music, dance, and views alone.  We also ate lunch, twice, at a new Brew Pub in La Grande.  Side A.  Good spot.  Tasty flatbread pizza, and a good array of beer choices.  Their Swedish Compass Winter Warmer, with a touch of anise, was certainly worth a repeat.

End of Skiing, for us, this season

Always nice to get out into the mountains.  We work with harvested wood, at the bench, inside, so really worth seeing the trees outside, in the wild.

We've been going to Ponderosa State Park, near McCall, Idaho, for many years now, both in the snow and not.  Beautiful wildflowers to be seen in the Spring.  But we really like it in the snow.

This little aspen grove is one of my favorite places.

We've been cross-country skiing here a few times this season.  Late start to the snow this year, and it looks like it's fading fast.  Snowed the night before, but the trees were shedding it in big plops during the late morning and early afternoon.

Freezing at night, above freezing during the day.

The lake is still frozen over, but barely.  Not too many folks willing to risk being out there now.  It's off in the distance, middle right, in this photo.

We skied up the penninsula a ways, climbing at the end, and stopped for a lunch on the skis.  Hot tea, rye bread, and brunost.

Given our schedule for the next few weeks, we won't get out again until next Winter.  Sad and something to look forward to at the same time.

Hardanger plate hollowing

Flipped the Hardanger plates over, started hollowing.  Mostly done now.  Details to finish up. Edgework I do after the plates are glued to the ribs.  Gives me a chance to not have clamp damage.  Seems that no matter how careful I am, I always bang one or two of the clamps against the edge, then have to spend time restoring it.  So now I leave a little more meat around the edges.

One does not live by fiddles alone, certainly.  There is also bread.  Here's a double batch of sourdough after fermenting some 12 hours or so.

Standard Fiesta-ware coffee cup for scale. 

Dump out the fermented dough, break it up into two parts, form loaves.  I have one rising basket, so one goes in there, the other on a floured towel.

Up on top the refrigerator for a second rise.

And after baking --

A friend of mine, Jan B, is decluttering, gave me a copy of a bread book, "World Sourdoughs from Antiquity".  I recall the book coming out in the 1980s, was tempted, but didn't have the money or need at the time, I suppose.  Anyway, I used my Sahti starter to make a couple "Malt Beer Bread" loaves, the recipe from this work.  I mostly followed it.  Seemed to work fine.

Interesting to note that the book was printed in Cascade, Idaho, which is a town between here and McCall, where we went skiing, as reported in the last post.

Nordic skiing at Ponderosa

Finally some decent snowfall this year in the mountains, with cold temperatures.  We again got out for a day of cross-country skiing at Ponderosa State Park near McCall, Idaho.  Pretty day, with heavy snow flurries in between blue sky & sunshine.  And vise versa.

My lovely bride double-poling on a downward slope.

 Yours truly, taking photos with my fancy phone-machine.

After a few hours of a good workout in the woods, back to McCall for a couple beers and food at Salmon River Brewing.  Payette Lake is frozen over -- it wasn't in January -- and here you can see the frozen-over Lake, with blue skies and a snow flurry in the distance.

With McCall enjoying the snow cover.  Good day.  Back to the bench.

Hardanger f-holes

Following Salve Håkedal's on-line tutorial, I am tryng to carve Hardanger f-holes.  He has placed a fair number of nice photos there, but even so, I am having a hard time understanding some details of the geometry.  So the carving is painfully slow.  Cut a bit away.  Look at it.  Look at Salve's photos.  Turn the top around.  Look again.  Cut a little more away.  Curse under my breath.  Look.  Cut.  And so on.

The overlapping stems make it tough to carve.  Slice a bit away with a knife.  I have a bent knife which is actually fairly useful in some of the tight spots.  I may still have too much overlap; perhaps the under portion is still too far inwards.  That, however, can be remedied later, whereas if I cut too much away too soon, very hard to put back together.

I think they are finally starting to take shape. Being the first Hardanger I've attempted, I have so many, many things I don't know, every step is a learning experience.  A slow learning experience.

Of course I'm doing this because I'm interested in the music.  One thing I recently discovered, much to my surprise, is that the Norwegian state/public broadcasting, NRK, has an iPhone app where I can stream the Norwegian stations.  They seem to have a very nice folk music station.  Check it out.

Tool marks

Purfling installed on 4 plates (2 fronts, 2 backs) and now working down the arching.  Here is a spruce viola top.  Parallel gouge marks from the rough arching.  Smaller (aka smoother) tool marks around the purfling now, smoothing out the perimeter.  Starting to take the gouge marks along the spine out with finger planes. Then onto scrapers.  Then onto horsetail.  Smaller shavings with each successive tool.

Stephen Shepherd Obituary

Stephen in his Salt Lake shop, 1978.  Photo courtesy of George Stapleford.


Stephen's obituary can be found at this location -- http://www.premierfuneral.com/obituaries/Stephen-Shepherd/#!/Obituary

The text of his obituary --

Stephen Arden Shepherd
“Tater”

Stephen Shepherd, was born April 20, 1948 in Salt Lake City, UT, to Arden Warren and Vida Johnson Shepherd. He passed away January 24, 2018, a kind release from the debilitating effects of a stroke. He leaves a sister Merrily Runyan, Clovis, CA, and nieces and nephews.

Stephen Shepherd was a unique individual. Whether known as Stephen Shepherd the author, lecturer, and expert in 19th-Century Woodworking, or as “Tater”, the Mountain Man and adventurer, he influenced many people and sometimes irritated others with his infallible knowledge. Arguing historic technology with Stephen was frustrating and pointless – his knowledge was vast. And he shared that knowledge with anyone genuinely interested.

He was always building, repairing, tinkering and inventing, very often simply to see if he could do it – if it could even be done. Many of his friends are proud owners of a “Tater-made” item, from furniture to walking-sticks to quill pens. He shared his knowledge by writing four authoritative books on woodworking, and re-published two more “rescued” books of great value to historians of 19th-Century crafts.

For the most part he lived a 19th-Century life. Almost all his furniture and re-created items were made and restored using only hand tools. He had no power tools in his shop. His careful craftsmanship, restoration and renown finishing techniques, including gorgeous “painting and graining”, gained him world-wide recognition. His clients over the years included many wealthy collectors and The LDS Church Historic Collections.

He dressed for most of his adult life in 19th-Century-style clothing, including when traveling to other states. In 1976, during the bicentennial re-tracing of the Domingues/Escalante journey to Utah, Stephen and companions met the party in the desert, dressed authentically as fur-traders. Their clothing and accoutrement authenticity far outshone that of the re-creators! For decades he attended Mountain Man rendezvous all over the west, and was always welcomed by everyone.

People loved Stephen Shepherd, and were proud to know him. Sometimes they were friends of Stephen, sometimes friends of Tater, some not even knowing they were one and the same! His cheerful demeanor, his willingness to laugh at society’s faults, and his dedication to his friends make the memory of Stephen “Tater” Shepherd precious to all of us who were close to him.

Per Stephen’s wishes, no services will be held, donations may be made to This Is the Place Heritage Park in his memory.

********************

Stephen (left) and myself (right), Mill Creek Canyon, February 1975.  We camped this way.  We were much younger then.

George Stapleford (left) and Stephen (right) near Moab, Utah, March 1975.  Better camping conditions, still cold.

L to R, myself, Stephen, LaMar Higbee, Taos, New Mexico, May 1975.  Yet better camping conditions.

George, Stephen, and I, September 2016.