Year: 2013

Mt. Major

I've been thinking about trying to get the kids out hiking mountains more often than just Black Cap once per summer. So I took them out to Mt. Major yesterday morning. This was also their first hike with their own backpacks, complete with their own water bladders. They did really well, and the view of Lake Winnipesaukee from the top was phenomenal. There were also a ton of dogs on the summit, and the kids had a blast petting them all. I love this picture - I told them to give me some "muscle poses" because of how tough they were to climb all the way up there. This is what they came up with.

Electric Ukulele – Part 4

I worked on the pickguard over the weekend. I decided to go with a Lexan pickguard, as the 'standard' pickguard material I had ordered was just too thin - mostly because I didn't really know what to order, and it's a small instrument - so I just went with the thinnest they had. But it turned out to be way too floppy. So I got some nice strong Lexan and cut it to shape. I was originally just going to back-paint it black and be done with it, but I got the idea to make a mask for it and give it a little more pizazz. I used a portion of the same pattern I put together for the relief-carved ukulele hanger (which I am still working on). I think it came out real nice, and should really hammer the point home that this thing is still a uke at heart - and not just a wannabe electric guitar.

Electric Ukulele – Part 3

Got the cavities routed in the electric ukulele body. I drilled out the bulk of the waste with a big Forstner bit, and then used my palm router to clean up the cavities and get them to final shape. Next up, the pickguard!

Stone Zoo

Lori took the kids to the Stone Zoo while I was away for the weekend hiking. She said it was fun for the kids - but we've been spoiled now by the world-class zoo in San Diego.

Carter Notch Hike

This past weekend I hiked in to the Carter Notch Hut with my dad, brother-in-law, and a friend. We hiked in along the Nineteen Mike Brook Trail - which is in fact a whole lot less than 19 miles along. It was a nice, chilly morning and we made it to the hut before noon. The photo to the left is right before the hut - it's a tiny pond right at the base of Wildcat A.

The hut was one of the nicer ones I've been to - there were two separate bunk houses, and each bunk house had separate bunk rooms - so we ended up with a bunk room all to ourselves. On the roof of our bunk house was a small deck that could be reached by a ladder, and we spent a lot of time up there admiring the views - that's Mike on the roof in the photo below.

After a break at the hut, we dropped off most of our gear and continued on to Carter Dome - which is actually the peak you can see in the photo of Mike, above. The climb up to Carter Dome was pretty crazy. It was very steep for the first half - almost ridiculously so. Unfortunately, Carter Dome was almost completely wooded on top. Keith and I continued on to Mt. Hight, where the views were amazing. Mt. Hight is bald on top, and we had 360 degree views of the whole area. The photo below is of Keith looking east from Mt. Hight.


Dinner at the hut was phenomenal - although I'd bet anything would taste amazing after hiking all day. They put together a whole turkey dinner, complete with cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and dumplings. Fantastic! After dinner we sat on the front porch of our bunk house and chatted with a couple of AT through-hikers. One of them had a ukulele with him! The girl that was with him even started playing the first part of "First Day of My Life" by Bright Eyes, which is the first song I learned on the uke. She seemed surprised when I recognized it.

Unfortunately, it started raining on us during our hike out on Sunday morning. Luckily it was only a steady drizzle and it never really opened up like it could have. It was nice to get home, though. Between Friday night at the condo and Saturday night at the hut, I probably didn't get more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep combined. I managed to squeeze in a nap once I got home Sunday afternoon, and it felt great. I'd really like to get in a few more good hikes this fall - I really love hiking in that nice cool fall air, especially now that all the bugs seem to be gone.

Electric Ukulele – Part 2

Did some more work on the electric uke yesterday. Got the fretboard thicknessed, shaped, sanded, fretted, got the marker dots installed, and got the whole thing glued to the neck and sanded down flush. If that wasn't enough, I got the body shape cut out, got the neck pocket cut, and filed in the body contours. Next up is to route all of the body cavities (for the pickup, pots, etc.) and drill some holes for the various piece-parts (strap buttons, jack, bridge, etc.).

Electric Ukulele – Part 1

While starting to prep stock for the tenor acoustic ukes, I've also started messing around with building an electric ukulele. I've decided to go with a concert uke size - a 15" scale length. I started by drawing out my pattern full size, to make sure I liked the look of it and that I knew where I'd be able to fit my components. It's going to have one single-coil pickup, with a single tone knob and a single volume knob - I'm going to keep this first one nice and simple. I've ordered some hardtail-style adjustable saddles, but I'm going to have to fabricate my own bridge as I can't find any four-string ones at any of the usual online suppliers I typically use. The first big step - which I did last night - was cut out and shape the neck. That went pretty well - although the headstock ended up being a little smaller than what I had drawn, and I had to order a different set of tuners in order to get them to fit on there.