Yarn For My Next Project

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Originally uploaded by tormash9

At the Churchill Weavers auction last summer I picked up a plastic barrel to use for a rain barrel. The barrel had been used to collect scraps of yarn from the looms and was still full of yarn.

Being the pack rat that I am, I couldn't throw it away, so I sat down and balled up the colors I wanted to use for an afghan. This is about half of it, so I should have plenty. The biggest drawback is that these balls of yarn are made up of pieces about a yard long, so there will be a lot of piecing. The yarn is fuzzy, so the ends shouldn't slip out. I can't wait to see what the colors look like crocheted together.

Knitting Socks

Knitting has never been my thing just because it was always soooo slow. But thanks to Learning 2.0 I found a couple podcasts that talked about techniques to increase speed. Eastern offered a Knitting Class which Debbie, Beth and I all signed up for and I've now completed my first ever pair of socks.

Actually before this the most I had ever made were some little Christmas ornaments and a washcloth. But I guess I'm hooked now, because I'm almost done with another pair of socks and about half done with a sweater for my great-niece.

Just what I needed was another hobby.

Oral History Preservation 101 Workshop

Last week I attended the above workshop organized by the Kentucky Oral History Commission. It was only one day, but I came back to work with an overwhelming amount of information. Since I tend to misplace paper, I’m posting some of it here for reference purposes.

Since most of the attendees were interested in reformatting for preservation or improved access or both all three speakers discussed some aspect of that. The first speaker was Harry Rice, Berea College Sound Archivist. He talked about analog audio formats, preservation problems with each and demonstrated repair techniques for each. He shared an article on cassette repair that appeared in the Library Journal November 15, 1989.

Need to know checklist

• Chemical makeup
• Length
• Recording Speed

Most common formats are:

• reel to reel which includes:

• paper backed tape
• acetate tape, curls, dries out and gets brittle
• polyester tape, subject to sticky tape syndrome which leaves a sticky deposit on player heads.

• Cassette (all polyester)

Places to get supplies:
Tape Center
Bags Unlimited

Best Practices for Audio Preservation:
Sound Directions
Safeguarding of the Audio Heritage

Equipment Sales and Service:
Magnetic Tape Recorder Company, 601 Baxter Ave, Louisville, KY (502) 587-1848
Play it Again Sam’s, (718) 478-6060
Sweetwater Sound
B & H Photo, Video, Pro-Audio

Reformatting/Restoration Providers:
Audio Preservation & Restoration Directory
VidiPax
Safe Sound Archive
The Cutting Corporation
Video Lab

Audio Editing Software:

For PCs
Adobe Audition
Audacity
Cakewalk Sonar Power Studio
Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio
CD Architect
Soundforge
Soundforge Audio Studio

For Macs
Bias Peak Pro
Logic
Logic Express
Spark XL

For Both operating systems
Pro Tools M-Powered (works exclusively with M-Audio hardware)

Video Editing Software

For PCs
Vegas 6 or Vegas Movie Studio

For Macs
Final Cut
Final Cut Studio

For Kentucky institutions IMLS grants are available through KDLA to help provide access to historical resources.

Things to keep in mind are:

• Any Digital Audio Tapes (DAT) should be the top priority for preservation as they are the most unstable.
• Using high grade, professional equipment will give the best results.
• Software and equipment (minus computer) can be purchases for about $1000
• Check with radio stations for equipment that they no longer need to reduce costs.
• Tapes should be stored on edge rather than flat in a cool dry location.
• Don’t freeze audio formats.
• WAVE format is the archival standard, uncompressed format.
• When making audio accessible online, streaming offers more control as they can’t be downloaded.

Computer Specs are:

• Pentium 4 or higher
• 2 gigs of RAM or higher
• 40 gig Hard Drive or larger
• Drives must be at least 7200 RPM

April Fool's Day

Chalk one up for my daughter. She got me good.

Since they are on spring break this week, she is at work in the little store she works at. I just got a call with her crying (probably laughing) that I needed to come and get her right now, because the store just got robbed. I believed it just long enough for my stomach to drop to my toes and she said April Fool's.

Now what can I do to pay her back? Any suggestions are welcome.

Learning 2.0 Pays Off in Strange Ways

Last summer I went to UK to hear Barbara Kingsolver talk about her year of eating locally and the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which documented that year. I admire her ability to make that happen without giving in to the food addictions of her family. For mine family it's macaroni and cheese that they can't live without among other things like Ale8 and Pepsi addictions.

I have been interested in sustainable living for most of my adult life. Resources are not infinite and the throw-away society we live in really bothers me, largely because of the environmental impact this lifestyle.

Last year we grew a garden for the first time in years, but the weeds took over. I just couldn't keep ahead of them. The most fertile spot on the place was also the weediest of course. So I need another strategy. Gardening guru, Dick Raymond, recommends buckwheat tilled in several times to block and kill the weeds organically. Maybe.

In step with the eating locally effort, we bought 50 baby chicks. 25 heavy roosters and 25 straight run Rhode Island Reds (a straight run is hens and roosters) for more roosters and hens for eggs. We built a portable pen that we could move so the chicks could graze and that worked well. The problem came when the chicks got to be 10 weeks old.

Chicks are ready to be harvested between 8 and 12 weeks for fryers. But they just didn't seem to be real heavy. They needed to gain more weight. It didn't take long to figure out that they weren't going to get any heavier. So I decided to start harvesting.

This is where Barbara and I came to a parting of ways. I have never done anything so awful in my life. I can't even squash a bug most of the time. Especially if it is a big juicy one. Why did I think I could do this? I struggled through 15 birds, before I called it quits.

Later, while helping Ike with some web stuff (teaching him to set up a blog and redesigning web pages) I found out that he is an expert at processing chickens. We traded. I think I got the best end of the deal. Thank goodness for web 2.0. Now to get the kids to eat chicken again since we have a freezer full of very expensive chicken.

To read his column on the experience, click here.

Be Careful What You Ask For

My oldest daughter is a junior in high school. She has a friend who sleeps on the bus and sleeps in class. M. has taken it on herself to spare this friend the embarrassment of being caught asleep when classes change and getting her off the bus at school and at home.

A couple days ago her friend woke up at the end of class and growled at M. that she was getting real tired of waking up to her voice. Wrong thing to say. They ride the same bus and M gets off right before her friend who lives a half mile down the road.

True to form her friend was sleeping, but this time she didn't get a wake-up call. The bus driver didn't see her and drove right past her house. About fifteen minutes later the bus went back past our house to turn around. Apparently she woke up at the end of the bus route and had to be taken back home.

According to M, revenge is sweet.

Going to Work to Rest

Have you ever felt like you had to go to work on Monday to rest up from the weekend? Of course sleeping in would be better, but I never seem to have that luxury.

Since it wasn't rainy this weekend and was reasonably warm, I worked outside most of the weekend. I've decided that I need one of three things: a smaller place, someone with muscles who likes to do outside work or machinery.

A smaller place wouldn't have helped much this weekend since most of the work I did was within 100 feet of the house. I don't see anyone with muscles in my immediate future, or long term future for that matter, so I guess the alternative is machinery. Machinery with an engine, not the wheelbarrow kind. But machinery doesn't like me and since I am trying to be environmentally conscious, I guess it will be the wheelbarrow for a while.

I just wish rock and dirt wasn't so dog gone heavy. It is amazing how much the backfill around the house has settled. Dozens of wheelbarrow loads moved Saturday and more to go.

But peas, lettuce and spinach are up, and I got 50 strawberry plants in the ground. The compost bin is built and in place and I've almost moved enough dirt to plant some honeysuckle to cascade over the retaining wall by the deck. And the peach tree is pruned, so maybe we'll have peaches this summer.