Raven Jake Dawes

Sierra Madre's 4th of July Parade

I just achieved something of a lifetime dream by riding in an Independence Day parade yesterday. The occasion was Sierra Madre's 4th of July Parade, and I was lucky enough to be honored as a Distinguished Artist with Sierra Madre's Friends of the Arts organization. To be honest, I had it better than the Grand Marshall. I got the banner carriers and the nice car, but then the FoA piled on the extras - Aztec Dancers with horns, an honor guard with a pink cow on a pallinquin [that one was my design - but they had the pink cow] signs that looked like orange crate lables proclaiming "Think Pink Cow Thoughts," a belly dancer with silver wings and a band in a truck following behind. Pretty nice! Then I got to meet-and-greet all the way down the street.  

The Friends of the Arts is an organization with a lot of opportunities to support artists of all types in the Sierra Madre area, and I sure look forward to more of their events. Special shout out to my friends Pat, Michelle and David for making it all happen. Jane got some video footage, so look for that coming up!

 

My "New" Piano

Y'all, I just became the proud owner of a new-to-me Krell piano. Now, I've never heard of a Krell before, but this is a real nice upright with a full baby grand harp (so it's tall) and although it ain't real fancy, it is black walnut. After stalking it for a couple o' weeks, I got it for $135 and spent $65 on the rental truck. So I figure if I ever need to unload it, I can probably get my investment money out of it. They don't say "draggin' a piano" for nothing; this sucker's heavy. So I'm going to refinish it before I move it inside the house. 'Cause I ain't moving it twice: one and done. Stay posted, and I'll let you peek at it again before it disappears into my office. It's got a pretty sound, but it could use a tuning. Here's the skinny, according to the Antique Piano Shop:

The Krell Piano Company was established by Albert Krell and his sons Alexander and Albert, Jr., in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1889. Alexander Krell died in 1895, and Albert Sr. died in 1900, leaving Albert Krell Jr. to run operations. Albert went into partnership with Jesse French to create the Krell-French Piano Company of Springfield, Ohio, but their factory was destroyed by fire soon after. Pianos continued to be made under the name 'Krell' and 'Krell-French'. In 1905 Albert left Krell-French to start the Auto-Grand Piano Company in Indiana. The Krell name continued to be produced until about 1950. The few extant Krell pianos that we have seen come through our shop have been of very good quality, indicating that Krell produced a higher grade piano than average.

Garden 2012, Week 13

Folks, those of you who haven't experienced a full-blown  ground squirrel  infestation might think of them as being cute. There's nothing cute about what they're doing to my vegetables, and I have exhausted all diplomatic resources in negotiating a hostage exchange.

Case in point, that picture to the right is all that remains of the zucchini. Malicious damage inflicted by a plague-carrying delinquent.

Below: The California ground squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi). NOT CUTE.

Avaricious is a better word. Squirrel, you're going down.

And over here to the right, evidence that I found at the scene of the crime. Caught you red-handed, varmint.

Garden 2012 Update

Well, folks - Sunday is going to be week 13, so I've got some catching up to do. Over at the right is week 9. Corn's getting taller, squash bushier. Lookin' good.

Here, we've got week 10 happenin.' Starting to pick some delicious  cucumbers  and some reasonable peppers. Initial results from the War on Rodents were positive.

 

 

By week 11, the  ground squirrels  were out of control and I went for a containment strategy. Now the "green kids" have their own room. It helps, but it ain't perfect. Those furry rats fave tunneled underneath, and they ate the  Brussels sprouts  with impunity. My "peace, love, and understanding" approach doesn't extend to being a sous chef for a gopher. Next year:  raised beds  and this year: By Any Means Necessary.

 

Week 12 - Still getting nice cucumbers and peppers and the tomatoes are starting to form. The squash have been decimated.The corn are the stars of the show right now - they're all taller than me, have their tassels in full effect and ears are starting to form. Up in front, we've got a cucumber cage crawling with yummy Japanese cucumbers.

Stay posted, it ain't over yet!

Goodbye, WKNTNKA

Now it was with a heavy heart that I bid farewell to the scrap iron in the driveway this week. Our landlord wanted it gone and well, it was time. So we called Pick Your Part and they took the Camry we had about 2 grand invested in - someone's gonna like the new transmission, new brakes and new power windows on that wreck - my F250 that I bought to replace the F150 and only lasted about two months before the transmission blew, but worst of all was losing my white buffalo, WKNTNKA. And the '72 Arrow camper.

Especially the camper. Man, did we have some good times in that thing. I'm not sure it is replaceable. I got it from my friend Jim, a guy I was working with, in about 2002 or so.  He and his wife had gotten a new motor home and just wanted it gone. It was immaculate. We took it on our honeymoon and a bunch of adventures since. Of course, city living hasn't been kind to it and its suffered all kinds of dings and dents since then.

I always picture it as looking just like this, though. Here's Jane and me, sittin' on the tailgate on our honeymoon back in 2003. We were doing a mostly-Arizona trip and ended up camping in a field near Walnut Canyon National Monument. It was an amazing journey, full of new discoveries and happy memories.

Now the truck it's sitting on, WKNTNKA, has had some issues, and they turned out to be terminal. Our truck doctor, Gazo, has kept it going years past its natural life expectancy, but on the last trip to see if the radiator could be replaced, he discovered that it also needed a new water pump and the engine was mostly shot.  It crapped out on me about 1,000 yards from home and I had to push it the final block. And shout out to the anonymous kids on the bus bench for helping out. I hate to admit it, but it helped put closure on a very sad day.

So now we've got a big ol' empty driveway, 'cept for my drum trailer, but now that the shock's wearin' off, there are a few perks. For one, we can now get to the woodpile. And I'm feeling like the back yard could use some raised beds...

Farewell, WKNTNKA/Arrow. Sometimes you just need to clear out some old stuff to make room for some new stuff. I can't wait.

Insider Magazine Article

Here's a special preview of my upcoming profile in Insider Magazine. Thanks, Matt!

Open publication - Free publishing - More blog

Music Showcase at Citrus College

Here's a cell phone clip of me last night at  Citrus College  performing "The Moon Fell Down," one of my original tunes.

Garden 2012: Week 8

Gettin' into week 8 now. Rodent predation is way down; still having some leaf-eating bug issues. They've been decimating the tomatillos pretty regularly, and the salsa verde forcast is looking grim. We ate two little teeny crookneck squash yesterday and a couple of green onions, so it ain't just the ground squirrels who are eating good. Actually, I think I may have ended their reign of terror permanently, but we'll see - in a garden things are changin' all the time. For example - the corn's starting to tassel and the cucumbers are really coming along. And using discarded carpet as a ground cover is the best idea ever, so big thanks to Mel Bartholomew and Square Foot Gardening for that one.

Rodent Jihad

That's right, folks - due to recent terrorist activity, I've been forced to declare a holy war against yard rodents, specifically ground squirrels. Here we are at week six and three of the corn plants were sucked underground, some of the beans have been decimated and all of the young squash have been chewed right off the vine. The tomatilos are recovering from the grasshopper predation, the radishes are coming along nicely and there are lots of tomato blossoms, but no little tomatoesyet. In the meantime, ground squirrels have overrun the yard, setting up a base of operation under the woodpile. While we were sitting out by the garden the other afternoon, a rat ran out of the garage and along the fence.

Now I've got no great love of rats, but they freak Jane right out. She sees them as scuttling plague vectors, so it doesn't take much to get her goin'. Ironically, we were reading Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitantsby Robert Sullivan at the time. It's quite a page-turner. I thought Jane might be a little too fragile to handle a whole book about rats, but she seems to be coping nicely. On the other hand, those rats better watch out. Same with the gophers and the ground squirrels. Y'all mind your own business, and we'll get along fine. Mess with my garden, and suffer primate wrath.

Berzerker!

Now you all know me as being that folksy guy always ready with a song or a story or some grooming tips. But that ain't the whole story. I'm also a part-time Berzerker, as the photo at right clearly attests.

Just kidding. I made the little dog sled there for a movie I was working on; I was just in the scene there for  scale; the actor who plays the Iditarod dwarf stands about even with the top of the sled. I also made a small, old-timey boxing ring for another one of the little people from the project, which  turned out great. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of myself as the Boxing Giant, so you'll just have to take my word for it.