August Scenery

August Scenery/Mountain View as seen from our cabin.

My Friend the Red Tail Hawk sitting in a Walnut tree .

Wonderful Blue Wildflower

Another Blue Wildflower

A suprise Lavender Wild Flower

Pink Cosmos Wild Flower

Today I would like to share with you some of the beauty of our little spot here on the mountain. The first photograph is of the great view from our yard to the North West, of Mountain Scenery.

The sceond photograph is of my friend the Red Tail Hawk sitting in a Walnut tree about 2,000 yards from our yard...what a beautiful friend..but very camera shy.

The next few photographs are of some of our beautiful wild flowers that I planted from seeds in a new flower bed I made this year.

Answering The Challenge

Finished Drone Flute

Other side of Drone Flute


Close up of top of Flute


Wonderful Grain Patterns



More Wonderful Grain Patterns



View from front of Drone Flute

View of blowing end of Flute

Today I am posting photos of the finished Drone Flute, please forgive the surrounding clutter, this is to show you the whole flute and NOT the background...lol....Click on the photographs to view larger and more detailed views.

I have really enjoyed this challenge, as I learned many new things about the construction of a flute as I went...sometimes the best lessons are learned by doing rather than Reading about it...as the old saying goes.."Experience is the best teacher".

Loving a Challenge

I love a real Challenge, as those who know me could tell you, so I recently challenged myself to make a Flute called a "Drone Flute" which is a double barreled flute , one side having the 6 fingering holes to play the melody with and the side opposite of it having only one fingering hole which is placed on the underside of that barrel to be fingered with the thumb of the left hand thus allowing it to produce two harmonic notes.

The real challenge is in the layout and making of this type of flute and then shaping it so that both barrels can be played together or just the melody side by either placing part of the tongue over the drone side blow hole or the edge of the mouth for just the melody side or blowing both sides at the same time for the drone side to play along with the melody side.


I have been working on this new flute for several days now and will soon have it finished, within the next few days, and then I will post a couple photographs of it.

This flute is made from Aromatic Red Cedar in two pieces that are 3/4 inches thick by 2 inches wide and are routed out with side by side fast air chambers and sound chambers separated by only one eighth of an inch and then the routed out areas sanded very smooth and then the two side firmly glued together, all fingering holes drilled and then given the final shaping of the flute and then the fingering holes tuned by changing the size of each hole to bring it into tune, then given a good coat inside and out of Tongue Oil to seal the wood and protect it from moisture created when playing, all hand rubbed, and then given a couple coats of Johnson's Paste Wax for long range protection and buffed to a soft glow.

Check back to see the Final "Drone Flute" when I post it.

Several people have said "I bet the flutes must sound wonderful" well when you come to my blog, the music that you first hear when coming on is the Native American Flute being played, has a sound all it's own, this flute is also called the "Love Flute" as it was traditionally played by a young Native man to woo his sweetheart into accepting his proposal of marriage to him, after asking her father and family for her hand and meeting any and all requirements of gifts etc.

New Gourd Art/Finished Project

Front view of Finished Gourd Art

Close Up Of Symbolic Bear With Inlaid Turquoise

This is the Finished Gourd Art Project , as you can see in the photographs, I filled in the previously blank areas with a Symbolic Bear with center designs drawn on then wood burned in and a Diamond shaped piece of Turquoise that I cut and inlaid and sanded and polished flush with the gourd surface......click on the photos to enlarge for a more detailed view.

There are 4 nearly identical Bears in the 4 panels. Notice I say "Nearly Identical"..because it is impossible to do 4 exactly alike when doing by hand drawing and wood burning.

Another Update/Gourd Project

Front and top view

View From Top

With Top Off


View Of Bottom

I have to this point finished the top by wood burning in the designs of the 4 Directions and placing in the colors, White (North), Yellow (East),Blue (South),Black (West).

I have also used Waxed Irish Linen Thread to tightly wrap the stem of the gourd to be used as a handle.

After drawing on and wood burning in the Four "Thunderbirds" and surrounding designs, I used leather dyes to color in for contrast and also cut Four Circle of Turquoise and inlaid them into the gourd and ground and sanded down flush with the gourds surface and polished.

Under the Four Circles of Turquoise it is yet to be determined what will be put into that space...I am still listening to the Gourd tell me what it wants...today may be the day for the answer.

Note: I also completed the bottom design and wood burned that in and colored with Leather Dye.

Update/New Gourd Project

This is an Update on the new Gourd Project...here I show some of the designs that I had drawn on with pencil then wood burned in...there will be 4 panels of the design as well as some other designs yet to be determined. I will follow with more pictures as I progress.

Note the top picture showing the top cut out, and the inside of the Gourd, later(bottom picture) showing the Gourd with the top back on.


As usual...you can click on each photograph to enlarge for a better view.

New Gourd Project

Very Thick Canteen Gourd

View from Top

It has been quite some time now since I did another Gourd Art Project, I have been getting sidetracked by making flutes and other carving projects, so here I am back the the making of another Gourd Art Project.

I have chosen this very nice Canteen gourd for the new project, it is very thick, a full 1/2 inch thick I found after cutting it open to clean out.

I started to draw out some of the designs on the Gourd with pencil, and as you can see by the lines on it , I have chosen the layout of the top which I will cut out after wood burning the main design in the top and then carefully cutting out the top with an Exacto knife to remove as little of the material as possible so the top will fit back snugly when placed back on.

You may click on the photographs to enlarge for a better view.

I Will post more pictures as I go showing the progress of this new Project, pleas stay tuned, same blog, same station...girnning here....lol.

Finishing a Project

This is a Buffalo ( American Bison ) that I had started about seven years ago by cutting out the rough figure from a block of Black Walnut, with the intention of doing a detailed carving of, however I set it aside until the "Mood" was proper and the piece would show me how it was to be.

For some reason I kept drawing a blank in my mind so I put it up on a shelf till the vision would reappear to me once again and speak clearly to me...well it just didn't happen right away , so I moved on to other projects that were begging to be created.

I had almost forgotten about this wonderful piece of wood till after I had finished the last two flutes that I have posted here recently, and was drawing a blank once again as to what new project to begin...suddenly I heard this small voice from across my work shop...."Hey Bob...remember me?"...looking across the shop my eyes rested upon that rough cut Black Walnut blank of a Buffalo..and it began to speak to me once again.."It is time for you to finish what you started seven years ago..follow me I will show you how it will be."

I walked over to the shelf, picked it up , and could again see the vision of a Buffalo and just how it should look, so carving knives in hand I began to carve ever so carefully and precise, feeling the warmth of the wood admiring the grain and working the contures of the body shape with the grain and began to envision the depth of cuts and sanding to achieve a three dimensional figure that would represent the look and feel of a real Buffalo...well after about 5 days of hand carving..I think I have achieved a rather realistic rendition..and anatomically correct Buffalo...except..maybe I should have made the head a bit larger....click on the photographs for a larger and closer view..

The Buffalo stands Three and Three Quarter inches tall by Six inches long....and in case you didn't notice...it is a Bull Buffalo.

Rear view of Buffalo

View of Underside

View of Other Side