Some Old Green Sunfish...

 A visit to Morgan resulted in some work done on premises and a little fishing. Pictures of work later. Here's the fishing report. 

The pond is still in a bit of the late summer doldrums. Water levels are down, not terrible, sunfishing is at best fair (all fishing done with lures) but the bass are still a bit frisky. Here's one Morgan caught. 



Here's one I caught. It was on a small crankbait that was tucked away in the corner of my tackle box and probably dates to the mid 1980s. I also caught a bass on a plastic worm which is something I do about every 5 years. I was right tricky with my fishing this weekend.     

More Back Porch Band Music...

Written and sung by Runt Brewster "The Request" longs for old fashion dancing to replace the narcissistic "look at me line dance" world we live in. I know that's heavy but Runt drinks from the red solo cup of truth. 

http://soundcloud.com/carl-wallace-1/line-dance-blues

Fall is in the Air...

 A little walk in the woods revels that fall is in the East Tex air. Catfish are jumping and the river is high. Wildlife stirs from hidden lairs and is glad for the recent cooling rains.

While I was out I spotted this critter. Anyone know the limit on these? I need to know quick and the Department of Natural Resources is not responding to my tweets. I am also open for recipes.

Just So Ya'll Will Know...

I post a recent picture of Cathy at the lake just so ya'll dudes and dudettes will know it's Friday for me!

Got Some New Furniture...

No, not really. I just noticed this stuff dumped out on the side of the road on the way home from church today and I can remember when I lived in houses that had couches like this. I was pretty young and thought I was living pretty good. Later on I got better couches. I never threw the old ones out. I passed them on to another person trying to get there stuff together or maybe one of the kids to get a start in their household. 

Second photo is another angle showing some baby type stuff, a carrier or car seat. I just pulled over to the side of the road  and took these crappy cell phone picks. I guess I should have looked around to make sure the baby was not laying there. At least large men with different color skin than mine did not jump out and beat the piss out of me. I get emails warning me of that all the time that things like this happen when you stopfor a car seat on the side of the road. I bet you do to. Nobody has beaten the piss out of me yet and Lord knows I have deserved it at times but I think this stuff deserved a second chance somewhere. Maybe not the house I live in now or your house but some where this stained and worn couch would give someone a seat. 

Following this train of thought I stopped in a local junk/antique shop with a closing sign "everything must go $10 a box" out front.  Inside the boxes held mostly dishes, vases and glass nicknacks. Perfectly good stuff  of good quality just a little dusty and way out of style. I remembered plenty of times in another life where I ate and ate good  off plates uglier than those, gave a girl flowers in a corny glass that she immediately threw on the ground or put on a shelf a stupid keep sake I later could not remember from where it came. 

Guess my whole point is that with many complaining how bad things were and predicting worse everywhere I look I see perfectly good stuff thrown away. Stuff much better than you might see in use in a third world country. Stuff which many would consider less than standard or less than stylish. Stuff thrown away. I heard a song lyric the otehr day "keep your thankfulness greater than your expectations," or something to that effect. 

Sorry the pictures aren't better. 

Here's a Tune...

Slow weekend here working. In that case we will use the wayback machine for a photo from an old StratKat gig and a new song recorded at a Back Porch Band rehearsal a couple of weeks ago. It's been posted on the Back Porch facebook page. 

It's an original tune called "My Memories." written by Runt who is pictured here on the right of Mudbelly.
Here's the link:
 http://soundcloud.com/carl-wallace-1/my-memories-1

Here's Another New Blog Character...

Introducing a new blog character. He's soon to make his appearance as the son of Rose and Juan. Name will be Warren Xavier. Due date looks to be around the end of November.  

Church Festival Music...

 One person asked why my band did not play at this recent Church Festival. Guess that is not enough to consider there were any real tears shed over a non appearence by Los StratKats or The Back Porch Band. Anyway I was busy in the raffle booth. Nice to do some different work and a whole lot easier than all the set up and planning that goes into entertainment.

These guys did play and while I don't know their name I saw them at last spring's Cinco de Mayo. Their march in through the parking lot reminded me of a Balkan Beat Box concert except no one was wearing pig and dog masks. The tunes, Hispanic instead of Eastern European had about the same groove.

Visited a New Lake...

Here's a photo of Cathy and friend GW fishing a new lake just opened near Nacogdoches. It's call Naconochie. Apparently in the Caddo Indian language Na has been established to mean place. The article said and I quote "no meaning for the word Conochie has yet been established." 
We went to this lake because we heard report of channel catfish to 10 pounds. We did not catch any catfish. Maybe some other time. The lake is going to be know as a good bass lake and everyone seemed to be catching those things.
Best I can tell this might be a Conochie. 
Photo of the facilities. Small parking lot for about 30 trailers. Courtesy dock, covered fishing pier and swimming area. Lake is very pretty. Lots of folks kayak fishing. 




Two creek arms of the lake will be open to duck hunting. Looks like some good dead timber but will require some scouting for this activity as the banks seem to slope deep into the ravine of the creeks. It might make wading hazardous.   

Church Festival Yesterday...

 Me and Cathy worked the raffle booth for yesterdays Fiestas Patrias at Church. Pretty easy festival work for us compared to what we have done in times past.

In this photo Padre Reymundo inspects all tamales for good quality. I was able to get this photo because our raffle booth was right behind the tamale booth.


Little did padre know that Bocho, local proprietor of Morales Mexican Restaurant had already given these tamales a taste test.

Bandmaster reconstructed...

Might remember last week as I opened up the cabinet on my late 60s Fender Bandmaster Reverb and took out the old speakers to prepare for some new ones. They came and I put them in today. 

Here you see the empty speaker cab It's an old thing made back in the day when Hendrix was alive. I ordered a pair of Eminence Legends, a direct replacement for the originals recommended for rock, blues and country which will fit the bill around here. They are a heavier speaker that the originals and are made in USA. Everything on here is USA except for a mix of Russian, Chinese and old RCA tubes in the head. 

One curious thing was the nuts which held the old speakers in. I was able to date the speakers to December 1968. The nuts were were metric. 

After the install I spent the rest of the day breaking them in with various guitars. Sounds really good with my 1976 Fender Stratocaster and with a little break in will be great with the powerful pickups on the Baritone guitar. Good thing I was the only one around today. Well except for the neighbors of course. Past experience tells me they will call the Sheriff after 9pm.  

One thing I know from the business of the past two days is I do not want to cut wood or solder for a living. I am too old for one and not good at the other. 

I have been lucky with the four Fender amps I have bought in my life. All fit a particular thing. Great amps, not powerful enough to really mix it with the big boy Marshals and Mesas but I never tried to play that kind of music anyway. Take a good look at the bottom picture. Last time I opened that cab was maybe mid 80s. With a little luck it should outlast me before it needs any further service. 

Here's a recording I made today. It's a little muffled because I overdubbed percussion in the most primitive way possible. Maybe I'll add the unaltered track later.

  http://soundcloud.com/carl-wallace-1/pena-tonic-cuze-with-overdubs

 

Where is...

My son in laws, prospective son in laws, prospective daughter in laws and a grandchild big enough to carry a stick? 

Cut this firewood today. I'm tired. I think I'm getting too old for this. When it's all burned up I am looking at gas inserts. 

Should have worn hearing protection with the chain saw use. And course I was not too tired to whoop it up with the boys at band practice but that steel guitar sure seemed like it had lots of treble. 

I've Been Doing a Study....

Funded by the Government of course. No other way could a science mind like mine operate so free and clear without the fetters of modern day life dragging me down to say the level of FOx News or something like that.

Anyway what I am studying is the theory that if a person is "X" and the space in front of you is "Y" how much "FL" which is forward lean do you need to get to point "D" for destination without an interuniverse wobble into space "T" which stands for there as is occupied by the space on either lateral plane of "Y" which is you. I know "X" and "Y" values are a little confusing but thsi is math, there is a person and there is you so figure it out. 









Future studies will be how at what speed "F1" for fast, do you run and how far "F2" to catch "S" which is shadow.  

Bandmaster Deconstructed...

 This is my Fender Bandmaster reverb amp. First amp I ever bought sometime in the early 1980s. It's from 1969 or so when America was the land of bigger and better. It's rated at 40 watts. Not really all that powerful especially when in this day and age a 500 watt solid state bass head weights 8 pounds. Check old concert documentaries from mid 60s rock festivals and you will see these big cabs paired with Dual Showman amps and the occasional Bandmaster head sneaking in there. It was the best back line you could find in those days.

There is some vintage value to these. I saw a real clean one in a music store for $1000.  Mine has a smoke ring halo that will keep it's value below that but it can still be consided a player. Why I did not have the good sense to buy up some smaller Fenders in the early 80s hair metal days when they were less desirable. I don't know.

Here's the speakers. Thirty five screws held the back on. I had taken this off one time before 25 years ago. I was too lazy to replace all the screws. The speaker on the right is bad fizzy, especially  when played with the baritone guitar. I am going to replace them. That's the reason for this deconstruct. The amp head itself sounds glorious  through my Fender Bass cab with a 15' Eminance speaker I installed there a few years ago.

Nice pine cabinet. Maybe I can get the kids to bury me in it. Only one peice of particle board seen here is the baffle between the speakers.

See that dust? That's mojo powder. I need to be sure to put that back on the new speakers when I get some. I checked the date codes on these speakers. They are an Oxford speaker made the 50th week of 1968.  I have some mixed feelings taking out this set of oldsters. Been with me a long time and lots of jamming done. They can be reconed. New speakers do sound awful good. A quick e-bay search shows that these can be had for $50 a pair. I'll let these go for $35 to any tinkerers out there.

Fooled Around with Some Photo Effects...

 I make a lot of pictures. I think it takes a lot of pictures to get that one good photo. I got tons of stuff where the light was not quite right or was a little blured or some one blinked. I think I'll start messing around with these type photos.

Here's Pop and Geneva. Shadows on their faces make this picture poor but a little color and we have the posted for next spring's Pop Fest.



Cathy and Coraline shake sparkelers on the 4th of July.  

This was a good photo of Cathy, but Coraline's face was a little shiney. I like it a little better.   

Drove a Friend's Car the Other Day...

He had a button like this on the dashboard. I made a picture of it so you would not think I was making this stuff up. Not that anyone who visits here had thinks that I make stuff up or anything. 

This button appeared to be factory equipment. Did not seem to be like an option or any kind of after market add on. Cars kind of all look the same to me these days so I could not tell if it was an old car or a new car. 

Modern cars have phones, media players, DVD and more so why not? All that stuff is good evidence that everyone likes an interesting trip. 

Cigar Box Guitar...

Worked up an old Son House tune on my cigar box guitar this evening. I made this guitar from the cigar box I had left from the stoogies I gave out when Mary was born. It's a Travis Club, made in San Antone. I've put it's picture here before. I spent some time working it up into a kind of semi reliable low-fi instrument this past weekend. 

The Son House tune, "Death Letter" is maybe my favorite blues songs. Terrible subject matter. Scary on a lot of levels. Hope it never happens to me. 

Equipment used was a Fender Champ II and a tube screamer. 

http://soundcloud.com/carl-wallace-1/death-letter-2

Riding That Train...

I am going to ride that? 

Don't worry, Gamma will hold you safe. 

Times Do Change...

First picture dates from about 1986. Yeah, I know, not too smart, standing in the front of the boat making a picture like the dog is driving and drinking a beer. I have often thought what would have happen if I had fell out of the boat and the dog had continued on down the lake. Would some one have seen him and said, "there was a dog driving that boat!" Some one else would have probably said, "Ask him what he's catching them on."

Second picture is from 2012. This past weekend to be precise. I'm standing in the front of the boat and Coraline is driving. She is not drinking a beer, but then neither am I. I don't think she is driving as fast as the dog was. The old motor had a kind of set and forget feature. The new motor has all kinds of safety features to make sure you don't stand in the front and make a picture like the dog or kid is driving. 

Times do change. That old dog is buried in the backyard and I don't don't remember exactly where. That's ok, I have decide I don't really like dogs anyway. Maybe it was the beer, made me think I liked them. It does look like the grand kids are going to like driving old Pop-Pop around in the boat. 

Broke Down...

Well it did not top my record for time spent limping back to the boat ramp on the trolling motor, but it was close. The big outboard gave some sort of warning alarm, so we shut it down and slow poked it to the ramp on the electric motor in about 45 minutes. Will take it in to the shop for a check up tomorrow. Caught 6 catfish. We fried them for supper. 

So it was not like we can close to death or anything but you might keep in mind we can be dangerous on the water. My best advice is pack extra meds, cancel appointments and be sure and tell some one you are out with us. But then you might not want to do that either.