June
20, 2025 - Hay Time!
In spite of rather a wet spring
Steve managed to cut hay for mulch for the garden. And it dried
nicely on those in-between dry days. So the hay stack has begun
growing, as he rakes and hauls. This is a welcome sight for me! I'm
getting getting caught up on weeding and soon will be moving hay to
keep those pesky weeds from regrowing. They are loving this weather!
But so are the garden crops. It's an enthusiastic growing machine
out there.
Happy Summer!!
June
6, 2025 - Guitar Repair Project
 Last
week I did a quick cleanup and re-string job on an older tenor banjo
for a local antique shop. I've done this kind of work for years and
do enjoy the challenges some of these older instruments present. I
have accumulated a nice collection of instrument building and repair
tools so it is nice to get to use them once in a while.
Rick, the owner of Christopher's Antiques in Manistique had this
1930's Regal Parlor Guitar that his wife had fallen in love with and
stuffed away in a closet for safe keeping. She recently passed away
and Rick wanted the guitar brought back to playable or at least
presentable condition. When I got it the bridge had lifted
completely from the top, there was some significant impact damage to
the lower bout, it needed new strings and a general clean-up,
especially the celluloid fret-board. You can click on the photos to
see the 'before' condition of the guitar.
The first three photos show the damaged areas. This turned out to be
a pretty straight-forward repair; I first cleaned up then misted the
area and then applied multiple small clamps to gently press the top
and rib back to their correct shape. I left the clamps on overnight,
occasionally tightening them. It all came back into position pretty
well so I applied hide glue to the top cracks and end damaged spots,
put the clamps back on and let it all dry for another day.
In the first photo
above you can barely see the bridge laying loose on the top next to
the spot where it should be. Again, I cleaned the bridge and top,
devised a simple through-the-bridge-holes clamp and used hide glue
to secure the bridge back into position. These older instruments
were almost exclusively assembled with water-soluble hide glue. This
makes them quite easy to disassemble and repair but also explains
why some instruments that were stored in a humid environment could
literally fall apart.
I carved a tiny piece of beech to fit
in that spot where the purfuling was missing and dyed it to match
its neighbors. In the last photo you can see that it all came
together OK. In the end the guitar looks fine but to be really
playable it needs a luthier to reset the neck to lower the action
and it could use new frets. This isn't likely to happen with this
instrument. It looks kind of cool with those stenciled designs but
it probably never did have particularly good tone because of the
woods it was made from (spruce top & birch body) and the
ladder-bracing construction. I suspect Rick will just keep it for a
while and maybe eventually it will end up on someone's music room
wall. Rick liked the results and this was an enjoyable project for me.
 June
1, 2025 - Active Time!
Just a week ago this Chickadee
was checking out the first buds in the orchard thinking of blooming.
Now, a week later, this tree is lighting up the entire area with as
many full blossoms as it can possible fit on the tree! Some trees
are like that. Welcome to June!
May
28, 2025 - New Song / New Video
 The homestead provides unending
topics for musings and for songs, especially in the spring! Here
is one I wrote late winter, called "Days are Getting Brighter", as
we welcomed the longer days and more sun, and looked forward to
spring. The tune is from a David Holt song 'Too Late to Pray' which
we had learned long ago. While that song wasn’t in our repertoire
Steve would often noodle the tune when warming up and I found it
going through my head now and then. Before long words came, too, and
this song was born, with kind permission from David Holt to use his
tune.
Living in the north woods as we do with with the nearby wetlands,
our thoughts of spring include, quite naturally, black flies and
mosquitoes (which have just started enforce today!). A comment oft
heard when challenging winter weather is afoot is “at least there
are no mosquitoes!”, which puts it all in perspective. We live with
them, and they with us, and spring and summer up here is truly
wonderful, insects and all. And, as you can hear in the video, the
birds think so, too! Click
HERE or on the photo above to go to the video on YouTube.
P.S. The song, being posted on
this date, is also a Happy Birthday to Steve's sister! With minimal
black fly action this time compared to the infamous (to a very small
circle) of that ill-fated birthday video of 2021 ("It's a Wonderful
World"). It's all in the timing, and location!
--------------------------
“Days are Getting Brighter” lyrics by Sue Robishaw
(tune by David Holt)
The days are getting brighter; Hope is here to stay.
Spring flows in and seeds find kin; Spirits lift and sway.
Trees are popping budlets, Grass begins to grow.
Snakes move out and cranes fly in; Breezes melt the snow.
Insect life is plenty, Black flies have their day.
But when winter comes, we’re having fun, when
Mosquitoes have gone away.
Summer time is heaven; Music fills the air.
Gardens grow and berries flow, There’s oh so much to share.
Busy bees on flowers; Each one has its way.
Sparrows sing and swallows wing; Chipmunks chip and play.
chorus
We can laugh to see them, Thankful for the show.
The sky gives way and Rain comes down, to wash our cares away.
Autumn leaves are pretty; Chickadee caps are gay,
Woodshed’s full and asters bloom; And the bluejays has his say.
chorus
Copyright 2025 by Susan J. Robishaw (lyrics), David Holt (tune)
 05-25-2025 - Transitions
It's
that time of year when harvest starts transitioning from the
greenhouse to the garden. Some hardy souls were planted in the
garden in cold frames about a month ago and many were getting large
enough to thin and add to our lunch salad. Meantime, the older
plants in the greenhouse are thinning out as I start harvesting the
last leaves. The spinach has been gone for awhile but there were
several super lush plants in the garden that made it through the
winter in fine shape, for a welcome spring treat. And there are
always a few missed onions and maybe a carrot or two to discover.
It's a lot like Easter, finding gems here and there. It's simply a
wonderously fun, and delicious, time of year.
May 20, 2025 - Big Change on the Homestead
For almost 50 years we've had a close relationship to our beautiful
windmill, and the wind that has allowed it to pump our water from
way down underground up into our above ground water-tank.
 We
know the wind patterns here very well! As it is definitely a
hands-on management affair. The windmill has done its job well but
for a number of reasons we decided late winter to switch to an
electric deep-well (100 feet) pump. This was also a very hands-on
affair! What a project. For a little more than a week our days were
completely full of the pump project, starting with removing the
original pump-rod and pipe (did I mention 100 feet?!), and ending
with putting down the new (and beautiful in its own stainless steel
way) electric pump, run by the sun via our nearby PV panel array. So
few words for so big a project, including a few bumps along the way.
But it is now done. Pumping water now is fast, it is simple, the
management easy. (Should I admit that it is also a bit boring?) And
somewhat bittersweet as I truly loved (and still do) the water
pumping windmill. But the windmill is still there! On that sturdy
reliable tower. Now it is for looks, no longer for pumping, but
still an important, appreciated, and loved part of the homestead.
For more details and many photos of the whole project click
HERE to go to our Windmill
and Water page, where there is also the story of the original
windmill installation and a few other happenings along those lines
between then and now.
May 5, 2025 - New Video!
 We
did take quite a break from making videos but were inspired by a
beautiful, sunny day, warm enough for fingers and instruments to
play outside. So here is one of my songs from this winter's writing
spell called "The Delight of the Land" (informally called
'Critters'). It seemed appropriate for the wakening world of spring.
Hope you enjoy it. Click HERE
or on the photo to go to the video on YouTube. (For a list of our
previous videos you can go to our music video page
HERE).
---------------------------
"The Delight of the Land" by Sue Robishaw
The world is a magic; There's no need to hide.
We're surrounded by critters, Below and be-hind.
Look skyward, look closer; They're ev-ry where grand.
Be feathered or furried, The delight of the land.
I look out my window; I go out my door.
They are looking right at me; From their own grassy shore.
No reason to pa-nic; I've seen them be-fore.
They're letting us live here, Just out-ide their front door.
Be kind to those neigh-bors, So happy and free.
Coexisting with others, Doing just what they please.
They know what they're doing; We'll learn it from them.
To play and be merry; And to all be a friend.
Copyright 2025 by Susan J. Robishaw
May 4, 2025 - We're Back!
Well, we haven't really gone anywhere particular meantime but I
realized it had been a year and half since I last posted anything!
Life focus naturally changes and we simply hadn't been spending much
time at the computers. But we're still here, still enjoying life and
all that we do. And I decided to step back in to sharing some of
that news and happenings on the homestead as we go along, and
connecting with friends and family near and far. It may be sporadic
but it will be sincere!
A few highlights of this past winter:
 CARVING
- Steve was inspired to get back into the bowl carving mode this
winter and came out with three beautiful cherry bowls. The wood came
from a large wild black cherry tree growing just NE of the house
where that section of the woods start. That tree was fine but there
is a very large dying white birch that needs to be taken down before
it decides to come down on the house, and that black cherry was,
unfortunately, between it and where it needed to be dropped. So that
beautiful cherry gets to continue its life as beautiful bowls (and
maybe some spoons). Such is the life of the forest tree. Click
HERE to go to the bowl carving
page.
MUSIC - While Steve was carving I decided to dive into song writing.
I have, in the past, often added verses or changed lyrics or wrote
new ones to already established songs or tunes that we do, but I had
never started from scratch, writing not only the lyrics but the
music and chords. I had a folder and notebook full of bits and
pieces of word fun, some long, most short, little poems or lyrics
that run around in my head now and then. Sometimes I write them
down. I felt it was time to see if I could give some of them an
extended life as a song. It was quite an adventure, challenging but
enjoyable. I found I could write songs or tunes that I couldn't sing
or Steve couldn't play, but I ended up with some songs that I liked,
and Steve liked, and we could both do. A big surprise was how
difficult it was to learn a song neither of us had ever heard
before, realizing how much we learn by ear. We'll be sharing videos
of a few of these songs off and on (including in a few days!).
Actually, we started the year with one that I wrote a few years ago,
"Wild Hair Don't Care". Although I wrote the lyrics and the chorus
the main body of the tune is from the old Irish jig Lilliburlero.
HERE is a
link to that video on YouTube.
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