u/LilStinkpot

A couple years ago I made a hollow body kalimba with a cedar body and spruce top. I found out the hard way that there’s a whole lot more involved in designing hollow bodied instruments. The biggest issue that time is that the bracket was too wide and the way it was sitting was deadening two tines on each side.

Now I’m working on the next version. I chose some nice hardwoods that would work nicely together, and will be making a hollow body that is much wider. It’s going to be pretty big, so I’ll be putting in some divots for my hands to fit in for reach. That’s not in the photos because my assistant making the photos for me was having difficulty understanding my instructions. I’ll be using a Seeds 34k two-layer bracket and keys.

There are sound holes, it was suggested I put them on the sides or back (I chose back) so that I could use my fingers to block them for sound effects. Good idea. The corners will also be much rounder, again my art assistant was having continued comprehension issues.

My art assistant was having a very had time understanding the direction I wanted my wood slats to go, and that gave me an idea. What about a horizontal, chromatic style with a single looooong bracket? I’d then play it like a piano with the sound holes in the side facing away from me.

I’ll be making it by cutting and stacking layered slats of wood. Think of those little wood models, see last photo, I’ll assemble it in three parts, smooth the insides, glue it all together, and then round the corners off the outside. Easier to do than explain TBH.

I’m partial to the two-layer, handheld version with the ergo cutouts, but I’d like to ask your opinions.

The last one was an Arizona mantis, today we have a California mantis, Stagnomantis wheelerii. Doesn’t make her any easier to find!

Find a cute little buggy friend watching me from its hiding spot in the slightly summer scorched landscaping.

Challenge round. I actually asked a mod before playing this one, wasn’t sure I could. Enjoy!

My grow tent, I call it an oversized terrarium, is mostly full of Nepenthes, but there are a few orchids special to me. The mystery Bulbophyllum has bloomed again. I’m super happy. I also took a couple minis and tied them to a cork branch I “liberated” from a storm-downed tree last winter. Neighbors doggo got the thin bits. Lastly, the little wee mini Phaelenopsis is a surprise super success story: it was from a mini I bought at a grocery store that had beautiful purple flowers with an almost blue under tone, absolutely not dyed. I didn’t catch the bacterial rot until it was too late, and the leaves had all liquified. I snipped the two flower stems and jammed them in the sphagnum moss filled pot of a handy Nepenthes. Six keikeis grew, four grew roots. Alas a had a bit of depression and lost three, but this last one is a super trooper and survived. It had one long root going four inches down into the moss, I was very surprised when I pulled it out. Hopefully it’ll bloom in a couple years.

Bonus N. ampullaria photo, because amps ROCK! I’m obsessed.

Assorted amps and amp x mirabilis hybrids, loads of basal shoots, one super chubby tubby amp x Viking cross, some mystery hybrid sold as “clumpy red”, unknown dark red hybrid (yeah my local source doesn’t really do name tags), a ventricosa x sibuyensis cross that LOVES to bury its huge pitchers anywhere it can jam a tendril, and an unknown truncata hybrid with a crazy leaf jump. Bonus roots st last pic. Roots weren’t bound yet but the plant has pretty much overgrown the pot.

I’m NUTS for N. ampullaria, and true to nature, I have two more coming in the mail.

I want to hang a few fishing rods inside the car. I have a set of those buckles but there are hanger hooks only at the first two rows, and not the third. If I hang them facing forward they have to go way far forward, too far to fit the surf rods. Facing backwards outs the reels in line with my head, and I already learned that that’s no fun. What can I attach to the ceiling in the back row to add a strap back there so I can keep the reels in the back?

After the first trip, this poor guy has 100% skunked every time he joins me at my local pay lake. I took him there at first because it’s a neat place, and then after the first skunking tried a couple more times literally the day after a fish plant refill and yet this fellah would zero out. Any time I’m with him I’d also catch fewer than usual. Normally I limit out at this place. What the heck is going on?

Our last trip, and definitely this buddy’s last time going, it was a midnight catfish derby. Again, despite us sharing bait, rigs, and distance, and literally side by side, he didn’t even get a nibble.

Now, what can I do to make this up for him? We’re in NorCal. I can’t afford to boy it 100% but I was thinking of going on a rockfish trip or something. What would you do?

With a little help from a clear plastic cup and later a 10” clear pot I’ll be watching this little peanut grow from seed and hopefully set some seeds.

There’s already some neat stuff going on. The roots are growing almost visibly, and I should start seeing root hairs today or tomorrow.

The way peanuts grow is neat. After pollination the old flower stalk is pushed down into the soil, called pegging, where then nut will grow in somewhat safety. I’m looking forward to this.

It may not be very large or very complicated, but I’m obsessed with these kits. If it’s a marble run I’ve seen it, and probably have a copy.

You can never have too many clamps. Of all sizes.

I have a lovely piece of green sandalwood scrap from a crochet hook project I’m slowly working on. Almost any other wood I’d toss it, but this stuff is hard to find, pretty, fragrant, and green. I have a couple “meh” ideas what to do with it: make a pendant, make it a long bead, make several beads. I’m not great at inlay or I’d slice it and inlay. So far the best idea is save other species’ scraps from the crochet project and make a bracelet? Hrmmmm.

What would you do?

I have a sapling Lucy Glo apple tree, in a very large pot, that bloomed for the first time this year. And then it set fruit, lots of fruit. Can I let it keep a few, or do I need to take all of them off? There are about two dozen last time I counted, but it looks like a few aborted recently.

Also sharing the cool pink flowers.

I wanted to try to replicate the color pattern on a shirt posted on Instagram by cloud9tiedyes, who was generous enough to share both the dye layout and the finished shirt. I sat there at the table for hours, trying to rewind the patterns identify the colors by powder look and end result. In the end I believe it was too much dye that did me in, and likely a few other factors. Still, it looks GREAT, I just need to try again. Last two pics are from cloud9tiedyes.

If I seem a little awkward at some angles, you’re correct. Some positions are new to my hands and so I’m still a little iffy there. It’s OK, hands will adapt. I also have rather small hands; these nuts are 55 mm wide.

I say, if you run across a set for sale, go for it. They’re really fun and different.

Now they’re flat.

OK, kidding about the sat on, but they sure are flat!