My Life, In Rags

The Great Crush Collision March, by Scott Joplin.

From The writeup on YouTube: CORY HALL (b. 1963) is a retired concert artist, college professor, and church organist who currently devotes his time to making YouTube videos and composing. He wishes to inspire and offer advice to aspiring pianists and musicians worldwide via videos with his thought-provoking performances and tutorials. An independent scholar as well as performer, Hall holds graduate degrees in piano and historical musicology from The Eastman School of Music and The University of Kansas. BachScholar™ website: http://www.bachscholar.com.

Weekend Steam

The March 1922 American Thresherman magazine provided this pleasant threshing scene.

Crankin' It Up

Ted Lewis recorded this little fox trot on Feb 15, 1921.

Basic Falling Cuts Review

Winter is a great time to be in the woods, and lots of people are out working up firewood during the weekends now. It's a good time to review the basic cuts you need to drop a tree where you want it. This tree is a black oak snag, with very little top left, and pretty well balanced. We made a high stump because there was some rot down low, and I wanted to work in solid wood. The stump height is more important on sawlogs, where a tall stump represents dollars left behind in the woods. I like to cut stumps off as close to the ground as possible when I work up a tree, so the tractor and cart can roll over them with no problem.

Have You Been Watching The Moonshiners?

 We've been enjoying the show about moonshining on the Discovery Channel, and we have fun spotting bogosity in the well produced depiction of the way moonshiners might work.  One of the sad truths about real moonshining is that much of it is made primarily with sugar.  The corn in the mix does little more than provide a little flavor, and that type of whiskey isn't what moonshining used to be.  Not so many year ago, moonshiners would soak their corn, let it sprout, dry it, then take the malted corn to a mill and have it cracked before they mixed their mash.  The enzymes produced in the sprouted corn converted the corn starch to sugar, and that produced the alcohol, instead of cane sugar in poorly crafted illegal whiskey.  I bought this burr mill many years ago from the miller who ran it near Martin, Kentucky, and I asked him whether his mill had ground malted corn; and YES it did!  (The red Sears engine in the background ran this mill.)

 Just about every major creek in Appalachia had a place to have corn ground, so folks could have their daily bread.  Most folks didn't have much money, so the miller would take a toll, typically about 1/10 of the corn to pay for milling.  Malted corn couldn't be sold to corn-less customers, so millers simply remembered how much was ground for moonshining, and took the toll later, of unmalted corn from the same customer.  This engine was on a remote creek in Pike County, and it's mill, barely visible in the background of the last photo, undoubtedly ground malted corn, too.

 D.T. Bohon is a pretty rare label on gas engines, and we tried to purchase this engine on several occasions.

We drove up to look at it one day, and it was gone.  I hope it went to a collector, and not a scrapper.

Let's Review The Basic Falling Cuts

Dropping a black oak snag. The cuts are shown in order at the beginning.

There was rot down low, and I wanted to stay in solid wood. A low stump isn't all that important when the whole tree is going into firewood.

DavidN23Skidoo 14 hours ago

What is with the incredibly high stump?

Sure Beats A Monster Maul

Click Here to watch a Monster Maul in action.

Dave Spaulding Shows Us How To Grip Your Pistol Effectively

"Dave Spaulding is back again, this time with the Ruger SR1911™, to show some basic training tips designed to enhance your skills with the Ruger SR1911. In this episode Dave discusses where to position your hands to best take advantage of the classic 1911 ergonomics." Courtesy of RugerFirearms.

A New Year Of Mondays

Back To The Old Grind!

Not My Victrola

Uploaded by bsgs98 on Dec 5, 2011

Unfortunate Blues
Words and music by Henry Winston and Fred Ham
Ted Lewis and His Band
Recorded Dec. 4, 1923, Chicago
Columbia 48-D

Personnel:
Walter Kahn, Dave Klein - cornets
Harry Raderman - trombone
Ted Lewis - clarinet, director
Dick Reynolds - piano
Harry Barth - tuba
John Lucas - drums

Ted Lewis was born June 6, 1892 in Circleville Ohio. With his brother Edgar, he played in a local boys' band. Ted organized his own band in 1910. In 1916 he went to New York, worked at the College Arms Cabaret before joining Earl Fuller's Band. During this time he also toured in vaudeville. In 1917 he formed his first professional band. In the mid 1920s he had his own night club and appeared there often. His career spanned more than 60 years. He worked mostly as a band leader, featured on clarinet and vocals, sang in a lazy, half-talking style that earned the title "The High-Hat Tragedian of Song." His famed trademark was the battered top hat and catch-phrase "Is Everybody happy?" During his career he employed many famous jazz musicians including: Harry Raderman, George Brunis, Don Murray, Muggsie Spanier, and Jimmy Dorsey. His recordings in the 1930s often featured outstanding personnel such as Benny Goodman and Fats Waller. In the 1930s and 1940s, he led larger sweet-styled bands, and toured with his own show in the 1950s. His last major engagement was at New York's Latin Quarter in 1965. He appeared on TV several times in his later years. Ted died in New York on August 25, 1971.