Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

Making a raised planter out of a horse feeder

The favorite way of using this kind of trough feeder as a planter is to build in a reservoir to hold a supply of water before putting in the potting soil. This gives you a planter which will require less water and fewer waterings.

Tape over any holes in the bottom of the trough and then drill a series of 3/4 inch diameter drain holes in the walls of the trough about 1 1/2 inches above the bottom as shown here. When the water depth gets over 1 1/4 inches deep, the excess water will drain out through the drain holes. I put drain holes only on one side of the planter so that water would drain toward the outside of the deck and not all over the deck floor.

If you want to prevent your soil from running out the drain holes, use a sheet of landscape cloth to line the trough. If you don't have access to landscape cloth, sheets of cardboard will keep the soil from running out with the water.

Put a generous inch of gravel in the bottom of the trough to act as a reservoir. Even layers of newspaper will do. If you don't have access to gravel, fill the reservoir space with Perlite or Vermiculate. Anything that is inert and non-water absorbent will do. Marbles, broken pottery, even bits of brick can be used.


Once your reservoir space is filled to the bottom of the drain holes, cover the filler with landscape cloth or sheets of corrugated cardboard. Acually anything inert that allows water to percolate through will be fine.

Make up a potting soil of 1/3 Perlite or vermiculate, 1//3 composted manure, and 1/3 topsoil and mix it thoroughly.  The final mixture should be light and easy to work with.

Fill the trough with the potting soil and cut off any surplus landscape cloth or cardboard and you are ready to plant

This potting soil is about 1/2 as heavy as an equivalent amount of top soil and your planter will be light enough to move if needed.

The runners on the bottom make it quite easy to rearrange the planter on a deck or on a patio.

Dealing with a balky Emergency Generator

We were snowed in for a few days and ice built up on the trees to the point where branches were snapping off and blocking the roads.

Here is a picture of our lane taken by Tom King as he and a chainsaw-wielding neighbor cleared their way to the main road.

I was completing a backlog of Christmas framing projects when the power went out but I was not too concerned because I thought my emergency generator was ready to go and save the day. After all, I had started it every few weeks after the last storm and everything had been working perfectly.

I had purchased an extra spark plug in case it was needed and had three 5 gallon cans of gasoline in addition to a full tank on the generator. I felt that I was much better prepared than last year.

Little did I know.

We Appreciate Simple Pleasures in Hard Times

It's 18 degrees outside and the wind is picking up, so the chill factor is probably 8 degrees. The weather in Floyd today is brisk.

Fortunately, we decided a long time ago that we would install one of those new-fangled wood burning stoves with an outside air feed. Our medium-sized wood stove keeps our 1650 sq ft house comfortably warm with no other heat sources except for tiny bathroom heaters in the remote ends of the house.

Our 3 1/2 acre property supplies enough oak firewood that we do not expect to need any other fuel source  for the next four years. Our winter fuel costs include chainsaw parts, gasoline, and bar oil but not much more.

How much technology is enough?

Having been a designer of high-tech things for many years, I never thought I would find myself looking at the possibility of limiting the amount of technology I am willing to accept in my daily life.

Technology applied to your life can save lots of time and money but it has a drawback. It makes life easier so you incorporate more of it into your life until you spend more time managing your technology and playing with it than living your life.

So, how do you know if you have sufficient technology in your life? Are your living life to the fullest or are you tending and fixing your technological wonders instead?

Technology is the application of knowledge to achieve certain ends. It started with simple principles like the lever and screw and progressed to using the behavior of electrical particles and properties of matter to accomplish tasks that would otherwise require immense amounts of brute strength.

Technology makes it possible for us to drink water without carrying it miles from the nearest waterhole in jars on our heads. It means that we prepare meals in minutes instead of hours. It means that we can travel more miles in one hour than great grandfather did in his lifetime. It gives everyone living in a modern civilization the leisure time to study anything they choose.

Consider living off the grid and see how much time is spent on the mundane details of daily life. Growing and preparing food, cleaning and mending clothes, heating a dwelling, these tasks leave little time for commerce or craft work or study of any kind.

In the past, only the very wealthy or powerful had the leisure time to study the stars or to investigate natural phenomena. Today, almost anyone can attend online university courses and do research if they wish because the time spent preparing food, cleaning clothes, even earning a living has been reduced by technology to an amazing level.

However, I think we have reached an unfortunate level of technology abuse in recent years. I see people driving along with earbuds or cellphones stuck in their ears, people texting during meetings, children texting during meals, families driving through nature with kids watching cartoons on the car video. TVs left on all day with the sound turned up as a background to family conversations.

On the managing side, who has not struggled to save files from a dying computer or has not struggled to install some new generation of software on a computer that will not accept it. Some people are still struggling to block spam from their email. Others have simply given up and check their email only after they are called and told that they have an important email in their inbox.

Everyone has a comfort level regarding the inclusion of technology in their lives. Perhaps the determining factor is observing whether technology frees you up to do creative and useful things or does it monopolize your waking moments with subtle distractions.

I have become aware of how certain specific levels of technology detract from the pleasant experiences of life. I am looking to simplify in those areas and will write about my adventures in simplification.

What has been your experience with technology impacting quality of life?

(Image from http://www.wearable-consult.com/index_en.html showing technology in a work situation)

A good day to be working at home

Here in our corner of Floyd, Virginia, we are enjoying this last day of November from our vantage point near the woodstove.

It has been raining and freezing all night. As you can see from the weather map, we will probably have more of the same for the rest of the day.

This winter storm also means that the astronauts now in orbit will not be landing at Canaveral today where their families are waiting. They are expected to land in California instead. We hope that all goes well.

We are cloud-bound at this moment and our visibility is less than 75 feet. The wind is blowing from the east and the ice-covered trees are creaking in unison. The tinkling sound of falling ice continues unabated.

I put out some seed to see if I could attract some feathered visitors and the birds acted like shoppers on Black Friday. The freezing rain did not slow them down at all.

As you can see on this feeder, icicles continued to form even though the temperature is above freezing.

This year, I was better prepared in terms of an adequate firewood supply. I found someone who needed firewood and we worked out a deal where they cut up logs and took home half of what they cut. I am not as well stocked as blogger Fred First, but I have enough well-seasoned firewood for several months. A tractor and an electric log splitter makes preparing more firewood an easy chore.

We now have electric heat, but there is nothing like a wood stove for comfort on a day of freezing rain.

On the other hand, I need to get back into the workshop this afternoon because our custom framing business seems to have picked up again and I have a project to complete for a local musician.

With a pellet stove to keep the shop warm and a CD player keeping the beat, it is a grand way to spend my working hours.

I hear that other small businesses are also seeing an upturn and I hope that it continues for a while.

Like so many other business owners, I have been working to create bargains for those customers who are looking for something different. I think I have found something that is quite appropriate for the uncertain times we find ourselves in.

In this part of the country, recycled materials are viewed favorably when incorporated into new designs. I have found that customers appreciate opportunities to purchase custom frames at huge savings. Cutting down existing frames and refinishing them opens the door to offering superb designs at unusual prices.

I haven't had a chance to update the website yet with the newest product offerings, but I am very pleased at the opportunity to work with local artist Karen Sewell on a line of custom etched mirrors.

Things that ought to be treasured

The recent loss of our beloved cat Sherman has me looking with new eyes at the many things Gretchen and I view as being important in life.

Not all aspects of life contribute equally to our emotional well-being and it feels like it's time to reassess the relative importance of things we have against the things we do and the actions we share with others.

We have worked hard over many years to acquire the skills that will enable us to earn a living under many different circumstances. These skills and their use to help others seem to be of paramount importance in a continually changing world where passive investments or government programs may not be able to help us now or in years to come.

At the same time, we learned that working in an environment that provides income at the cost of personal integrity and sanity is a losing game. We decided that whatever we do to earn a living must be something that enhances our lives rather than drains it of meaning.

The accumulation of things, like clothes, shelter, vehicles is only important as far as these things provide a working framework in which to get on with life and share it with others. Too few things and one's attention is stuck on the grim necessity of surviving on a day to day basis. Too many things and one's attention is stuck on protecting it all from loss and not enough attention is available for living.

Our relationships with others and our ability to share experiences in a meaningful way are the real treasures that often slips through our fingers in the press of meeting deadlines so we can pay bills.

We need to deliberately chart our course in life so that we create time to share moments with family, friends, pets and others who fill our lives with joy or inspire us.

At the end of the year do we remember the satisfaction meeting deadlines or of paying our bills? Perhaps. But it is far more likely that we look back fondly on those few golden moments when we shared a moment of understanding and we communicated in a way that increased our affinity for someone.

Those moments are what make life worthwhile. If we have none to look back on, we have a barren and lonely existence. If we have many of them, our capacity for facing the future is enormously enhanced.

Care for and treasure those who enhance our lives. Put those relationships at the very top of the list of things to do every day and life will be a lot happier and we will probably be more productive. Our attention will be on the things that are really needed by ourselves and those we care for.

Building strong relationships with those people, pets, plants and other living things that share our lives is more productive and more pro-survival than merely accumulating things and eating well. All of these are necessary, but maintaining the correct balance is vital.

People who give of themselves

I am constantly amazed at the number of people in Floyd who put service to others above self interest. In this county where there is very little money to spare, there always seems to be people willing to give a helping hand to others.

McCabe Coolidge and Karen Day operate Wildfire Pots located under the Sun Music Hall in Floyd. When they are not making pots and creating artwork, they are heavily involved in food programs for school children and help distribute produce to folks who can't get around very well.

I caught them in the midst of preparing produce for distribution.

The fresh produce looks delicious in McCabe's pottery. Actually, we have found that everything looks better in his pottery. The forms are organic and every piece shows the touch of the artists hand.

They are open from 11 to 4 on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturday.

If you are in the vicinity of the Sun Music hall, drop in and enjoy their hospitality.

McCabe and Karen have always provided space in their studios to promote other artists. It is just another aspect of their willingness to help others.

When you drop in at Wildfire, you will see work by other artists such as handcrafted jewelry and the fiber art of Glenda George in addition to McCabes unique pottery.

Karen is developing a new promo piece for their expanding activities and I felt it should have wider exposure. It tells their story on one small piece of handmade paper.

(click to enlarge)

Serendipity plays a huge part in career decisions

Forty years ago when I was designing electronic systems to capture missile test data, I would have laughed uproariously if someone had suggested that I might end up framing artwork in a rural community in Southwest Virginia. My goal then was to live on the beach in California and drive fast cars.

Twenty years ago I was living on the beach in California and driving a Shelby version of the Dodge Charger. If someone had made the same suggestion, I would have carefully explained to them that I had a mission to change the world for the better and I could not see Virginia and picture framing as part of that goal.

Fast forward through numerous career changes to last year when my wife Gretchen asked me to frame some of her pastels for an exhibition. I found it to be more of a challenge than I ever expected. By the time her friends had asked me to frame their artwork, I was seriously engrossed in learning the ancient art of picture framing and I realized that I had an awful lot to learn.

It is now a year later and I am deeply involved in cutting-edge picture framing which marries computer technology, fine woodworking and many aspects of graphic design to enhance the presentation of every kind of artwork imaginable. At Floyd Custom Framing, I am using every bit of my technical and business training and am scrambling to learn more about design every day.

Custom picture framing is every bit as challenging as designing computer systems and is a lot more rewarding. In both cases, one has to think outside the box to come up with a viable solution and pedestrian solutions are not acceptable.

Successful computer designs may affect more lives, but there is a "wow" factor in completing a challenging custom frame design that creates a bond with clients and enriches my life.

Every day I have to solve design problems that test me to the limit and give me added insight into the complexities of making artwork "pop" without overwhelming the art with an overly elaborate design or intense color scheme. The technical and artistic challenges are significant. See floydcustomframing.com for more information on what is involved.

Fortunately the picture framing industry is a tightly-knit group of fairly small businesses and these business owners share business and design information freely on the Internet. Most of us have an abiding interest in art and in preserving and displaying it. We are beset by competition from big box retailers and few of us are computer literate.

My recent entry into the field has not hurt me in the least. There are new tools available this year which have changed the ground rules for running a framing business and have opened up new opportunities to give customers better service. The entire industry is in the throes of major changes and the playing field is no longer stacked in favor of old established framing companies.

I am receiving help from well-established framers and I can return the favor by helping them with technology issues. We are all working together for mutual support in this period of economic uncertainty. All in all, this is one of the most satisfying careers I have ever had.

It is also the most challenging in terms of creating a profitable business. Anything that involves custom work always carries the risk of discovering unknown issues and then having to solve them with style and grace. Great stuff! I wouldn't have it any other way!

How has serendipity affected your career choices?

House Concerts and 21st Century Touring

In response to my last post, Fran Snyder, a singer-songwriter based in Lawrence, KS, sent me a link to his website ConcertsInYourHome.com which is a resource for musicians and house concert hosts alike.

He also has a blog, house concerts and 21st century touring where he discusses the growing "house concert" movement  which creates meaningful and financially rewarding opportunities for artists and which brings neighborhoods and music lovers together in a common cause.

The music industry is changing and the old business models need to be re-examined if musicians are to thrive in a world where labels no longer control distribution and the economics of playing noisy clubs for tips is increasingly less rewarding.

Perhaps musicians can take a lesson from writers who have turned to self publishing in order to reach audiences and have successfully bypassed the traditional publishing industry and its insider network. Very few get rich, but most of the writers I know who have done this have managed to sell books and generate some income.

More and more musicians seem to be self publishing also, but what if they really got behind a grassroots effort to augment their income with performances in house concert venues?

One musician friend feels that playing for tips is demeaning for a professional musician. How about working for donations?  Working for a living always involves having to make choices and being able to draw an audience.

Providing background music in a club means that you are always interrupting someone's conversation. If you are good enough to command the attention of the crowd and willing to overlook the screamers in the front table, you may pull in enough tips and applause to make the day worth while.

How about setting up a few house concerts with congenial hosts?  Donations are understood to be the price of entry and you get an attentive audience. Your only problem as an entertainer is drawing a crowd through reputation and promotional activity.

I would be interested in hearing if there is a down side to house concerts from the musician's standpoint.

Let's have some discussion on the 21st Century touring model.

House Concerts are a time for coming together

It was a fine way of starting off the new year. People from all over Floyd County were greeting friends and making new ones at Mac and Jenny Traynham's farmhouse in Willis.

Mac and Jenny were hosting a house concert by the Hushpuppies, a Greensboro, NC, old-time music revival band.

It was an evening to remember, a full house of music lovers, lively tunes, and a bountiful spread of pot-luck refreshments.

The Hushpuppies entertained the packed house with old-time and gospel music they have learned from elderly fiddle and banjo players throughout the South. All four musicians sing and play several instruments. They are talented and likable entertainers.

From left to right in the photo, they are Molly Stouten, Jon Newlin, Amy Davis, and Steve Terrill. You can find out more about them and their music here.

They have a refreshing naturalness about them and they manage to integrate tunes from many sources into a style that is very much their own. From rousing dance tunes to wry musical commentaries on life, this talented quartet held the audience spellbound from their opening notes to the final flourish.

They shared the histories of the songs and told us about the musicians they had learned them from. They also invited the audience to sing along with them and there were many who joined in on the old time songs. People were happily singing along to tunes I had never heard before!

House concerts are becoming an increasingly popular venue for musicians and audiences alike. House concerts are hosted by fans in someone's house or private space. Donations are requested and go directly to the performers. CD sales are an important part of the evening for performers and the audience alike.

Everyone benefits. The audience gets to hear music performed in an intimate environment and can actually chat with the performers on a personal basis. In a house concert, the musicians get an attentive audience that is there to hear the music and they find house concerts to be more financially rewarding than playing cafes.

If you would like to find out more about house concerts, perhaps to put on one of your own, talk to Mac and Jenny Traynham or Google "house concerts". There is a lot more information available on this do-it-yourself concert phenomena.