Ted’s essays

tool tango

We are a couple months shy of five years since we started our move from our big subdivision home in Kuna, Idaho with my self-insulated, 5-car-garage shop to the Conner, Montana cabin. I spent the majority of that time estranged from my major tools. I had visitation rights, but the tools were not where I lived. I will never forget the gratitude I owe the great friend who housed them in a fully functional shop for me eight miles away. But, they were not where I lived. Today I am doing the happy dance around my tools. First things first, I fired up the mongo wood burner. Spotty insulation keeps my shop from getting real warm on cold days, but […]

to your health

Here is another collection of links. I had been saving each and every one for further review and sharing by themselves. This morning two thirds of my chicken flock went to a new home. There were too many for our existing facility. That is similar to my saved-up links: too many to get the individual attention they deserve. In no particular order, linked headlines with small exerpts: Niko niko pace – the gentle path to success Niko niko running is a Japanese concept pioneered by researcher dr Hiroaki Tanaka in his book ‘Slow jogging’ from 2016 (not a title destined to sell many copies in Europe or America but I decided to buy it anyway). Hiroaki Tanaka formalised his system […]

community music

I have been thinking a lot about our first meeting, and how that compared to what I had hoped for. That led me to this philosophical ruminating. You may or may not be curious about what motivated me to try creating this band. If you wonder, here is what I think I am trying to do. I have long thought the ideal musical developmental ground would be a community band where beginners sat among intermediates and experts. It doesn’t take great thinking for the newbies to figure playing ON TIME is your first priority, THE RIGHT NOTES is an important second, then tone quality, volume, articulation and other factors follow. Sitting among supportive musicians more advanced than you provides […]

tunes for the week

I spent the morning studying and shopping charts for next Saturday’s class. I settled on those below. Here is to hoping some, if not most work out. I spent some time at Music Notes .com reviewing, researching and purchasing trombone sheet music of the following: DON’T WORRY BE HAPPY Key of Eb Major (3 flats) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU Me and Bobby McGee Key of Bb Major (2 flats) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXV_QjenbDw St. James Infirmary Key of C Minor (3 flats) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzcpUdBw7gs Summertime Key of C Major https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYUqbnk7tCY Take Five Key of Gb Major (6 flats) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmDDOFXSgAs The Man I Love Key of Eb Major (3 flats) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySszeu4H4QI When I’m Sixty-Four Key of F Major (1 flat) https://vimeo.com/10898084 While My Guitar Gently Weeps Key of […]

Bitterroot Blues Band reality check

I thoroughly prepared for my first class night. I marketed the heck out of this class. If there are any musicians in these here woods, I shure shoulda shaken them out of the trees. I was also hoping a real leader might pop up. The Darby Schools music teacher set me up with a beginning jazz band book. I had 4 trumpet parts, 4 trombone parts, books for saxes, flutes, clarinets, guitars, drums, keyboards and so on. I studied the director’s book, score, first trombone book, played along with the audio training tracks. For a guy claiming no band leader skills and wanting to hide as 3rd trombone in a big band, I was as ready as I could get. […]

greenhouse sprouting

My January 1st plantings have sprouted, with few exceptions. Somewhat generous for some of them should have waited for 55-60 degree temperatures, but I gave them a chance to stretch the envelope. Today I got lights hung above the sprouts. Many have been complaining there was not enough coming through the windows on these short days. Only 10 days until the next full moon. I wonder what I will plant then. A couple weeks after that I will need to add more lights. By then I will have picked a favorite or two from the light-bar sampler I installed today. […]

Bitterroot Blues Band

Saturday evenings from now to June will mean playing in the band for me … and a dozen +/- fellow musicians. Everyone I talk with about this is ENTHUSIASTIC. The support from the Darby Schools and Adult Ed staff is phenominal. I was hopefully optimistic when I launched the idea. Now I am EXCITED. My dream gig, what I really want to do musically is play 3rd trombone in a blues, jazz, swing or big band. All that has been available to me in Montana is playing upright bass in a weekly bluegrass jam. This idea to use the marketing, support and facilities of the Darby Schools Adult Ed program to share with potential fellow blues musicians has taken on […]

my conversation with a chemtrail pilot

I had a long conversation with a spray plane pilot while I drove north under chemically striped skies. Okay, nobody was listening … heck, I didn’t even bother to speak out loud, but I was definitely shouting in his face from time to time. HOW CAN YOU BE INTELLIGENT ENOUGH TO DRESS YOURSELF YET STUPID ENOUGH TO POISON THE EARTH??? I would kill you right this minute, but you are an easily replaced idiot while I am significant. Your death would not be worth my trouble. The people at the top ordering up this program do not care about your toxic death, your family, your neighbors, nor the flora and fauna of Earth. How you could be stupid enough to […]

bombing Hawaii

I have been waiting with great interest for plausable stories regarding the missile warning issued to Hawaiians. For 32 minutes cell phones, televisions, Internet, highway message boards and other available media warned them to “Take cover incoming missile”. We are supposed to believe the official story that someone slipped on a banna peal and bumped the button triggering this message as they attempted to break their fall… or something as lame as that. For no particularly good reason, I am reminded of a book I read 30 years ago, The Day We Bombed Utah. Needless to say, as long as they are not present, any people and any place are expendable to the ruling elite. What did NOT happen in […]

website traffic

I have not looked for a long time at the statistics maintained by my web hosting service. Wow! I am very pleasantly surprised … impressed even. Thank you for stopping by. Your visits to my pages are both rewarding and inspiring. I’ll keep up my end of the deal as best I can. December 2017 statistics: Average number of visits per day = 332 Average number of pages viewed per day = 895 Average website hits per day = 1121 Over 400 of those visits lasted more than a half hour. As I said, I have not been looking at these stats for a long time. I had not noticed the growth. It now is unsurprising that my websites got […]

Chemtrail Flu

I am out sick this weekend … hopefully not too much longer. Pretty icky with intermittent sinus headache threatening to blow the left side of my head off, along with impressive lung/bronchial congestion and moderately yucky stomach. Not to mention if I do find any get-up-and-go, the symptoms rapidly ratchet up to punish me for thinking I could get anything done. Just a normal flu or cold? Perhaps. Sadly, it is not impossible to blame the elite’s spray-the-Earth program. How nice it would be to live in a world where that was indeed impossible. Where honor was the rule of the ruling elites, rather than the exception. Humans Are Free are among many websites documenting the poisonous spray programs. Do […]

scope this out

Rifle scopes have come a long ways from the early telescopes. I had no idea until I saw this video just how far combat optics have come, and what things scope producers have thought to put into their tools. If you are considering a rifle scope to use as defense against human targets, this sure looks like a good choice. It likely is just fine in hunting applications as well. Though some aspects may need rethinking, the fundamental crosshairs at various ranges would still be great.