Steve Kaufman's Acoustic Kamp

I'll be teaching Old-Time Banjo this year at Steve Kaufman's Acoustic Kamp. This is my first time teaching at the Kamp, and I'm really looking forward to working with everyone that signs up.

I do admit some apprehension about it, but I'm sure it's just "pre-camp jitters." I have some ideas and concepts I hope to share, but I admit that many of the things I do I just do... does that even make sense? I'm sure after you see some of these things first hand it will make more sense. Anyway, I think you'll find my teaching style more hands-on and less paper work, and I hope to give everyone plenty of opportunity to test drive some tunes and techniques.

Oh yeah, I'll be there June 8-15. Hope to see you there!

-=Jim

Pinewood Derby 2008

Pinewood Derby has come and gone in a flash. Samuel picked a pirate theme this year, and the car was a blast to make, and race.

This year we didn't have the benefit of computer timing, so we ran eliminations. That allowed everyone to race a lot more than before. Because of that this years event was a lot more fun. I'm getting ahead of myself...

After deciding on his design Samuel traced out a "sloop" pattern and we cut out the car. He picked out black for the color, and we added all the other details in white. Everything was hand painted, so it's not "perfect," but we thought it looked really neat!

We also decorated the bottom for a nice touch too. No one really got to see that bit, but we knew it was there. I wound up adding the flag the day before.

Race day... we weighed in at 4.9 oz, and could have added .1 oz, but opted not to. We figured it was "close enough." We didn't place this year in the show, but there were some really nice looking cars this year. We did have the best looking boat though. :)

Samuel won all but two of his races - pretty good I think. Though we both wish we'd have won, we'll try not to complain much about getting 3rd.

I think I could have perhaps made some better wheel adjustments, but everything at this point is mere conjecture. It would sure be nice to have a track that we could practice with, so if anyone out there has one they'd like to unload, I'd be glad to talk to you about it!

I think everyone had a good time. I learned some stuff, and got ideas for next year. I also got some ideas for the upcoming Awana Grand Prix. I'll keep you posted on that too!

-=Jim