Ukulele Building, cont

Not only does Pat make the ukuleles from scratch he also makes all the required “jigs” and there are several used in the construction of the instrument. This is a close up of the press he built and uses to bend the sides of the instrument. First the 3 inch by 20 inch thin piece of Koa was soaked in water.Click on the image to see it bigger. See that wider red plastic looking thing. That is sort of an electric heating blanket. It is made of rubber and it gets very hot while the rollers are being screwed down to force the Koa wood around the curves. As those rollers are slowly screwed down the Koa wood must be sprayed with water so that it doesn’t dry out and crack. This is where the extra set of hands comes in handy. It doesn’t take long maybe 5 minutes, then the now curved wood side is put into another jig to hold the shape while it cools and dries. Pat quickly bends the other side and puts it in the other jig. I will show you this next time. Stay tuned

Ukulele Building

Most of my loyal blog followers know that Barbara and our Granddaughter Clara and I take ukulele lessons and our Granddaughter Julia takes guitar lessons from Pat every Friday for an hour that usually goes for 2 hours. We love it. Pat has been playing the ukulele for 50 years and he is good at it, very, very good at it. He is also a very good teacher. Well, besides playing and teaching he also makes custom instruments to order. He has made over 40 and has several orders that he is trying to fill. He builds them completely from scratch. He does it all, starting with cutting up raw lumber. Some of the many processes are very difficult to do if you only have two hands, that is all Pat is equipped with. So he asked me if I would help him from time to time and for that he will teach me how to make a ukulele. We had our first session yesterday. This is a picture of Pat bending the sides. This is a piece of Koa, 3 inches wide and 20 inches long about 1/8 thick. It is bent wet. More to come, stay tuned .

An Old Friend

I drug this old camera out of a box a few weeks ago. Planning on selling it on Ebay. To be sure everything was working I shot a couple of rolls of film with it. How nice it is to work with a really simple camera. This is a 1950s vintage Zeiss Super Ikonta 532/16. It makes 11 exposures on a roll of 120 film, 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches. On second thought maybe I will keep it.

Angel Trumpet

Abandoned Mill

Part of what is left of the last sugar mill on the big island in Pahala

Green Vegatable

And somebodies toes

Anthuriums In The Market

Hilo Farmers Market

Local Lemons

I know these locally grown lemons are not very pretty but they sure are good. So much better than those bright yellow hard things that are offered in the big supermarkets with Sunkissed stamped on the side. But I don't think Safeway would ever put these ugly babies out for sale. What do you think?

Art Poetry Music

This was as far as I got on my Saturday walk about in downtown Hilo. After I took this shot it started to rain. So I walked into this store to find a place to sit and put my camera away. I had a nice conversation with owner. He is an artist and was busy working on a drawing.

Tomatoes

We really do get great tomatoes here.

Greens

Hilo Farmers Market

Lava River Bridge

Every morning first thing, I check the USGS site to see what is going on with the lava flow. These two USGS pictures are so interesting (at least to me) that I want to share them with you. Somehow the lava river has made a bridge over itself and is flowing under the bridge. I am not sure you can see it in the small image but click on it and it will expand. Hot stuff!

Rainbow-jo

Downtown Hilo, a very colorful place

Sidewalk Scene

Downtown Hilo

Halo Halo

I have no idea what Halo Halo means

Tropical Flowers

Hilo Farmers Market

Coconut Vendor

It can't get any fresher than this. This chap whacks the outside of the coconut off with that big knife seldom removing any of his fingers. After he gets the brown outside off, the last whack cuts off the top leaving a small hole. Stick in a straw and you have a very refreshing drink. After you have drained it, you take it back to him and he will whack the whole thing into pieces so you can now eat the coconut meat. Very good and good for you. All for $1.00

Mango

Hilo Farmers Market

Mustard Cabbage

Hilo Farmers Market

Red Fruit

There are many strange fruits displayed in the Hilo Farmers Market. Here is one of them. I wish I knew the name of it.