Bottle Tree

A few years ago, Mary Ann and I heard an interesting piece on the radio about "bottle trees."  These are trees or bushes on which are suspended glass bottles, preferably blue, the intent of which is to ward off evil spirits or ghosts.  We found it amusing and actually acquired a few blue glass bottles in anticipation of someday having a bottle tree in our yard.

According to the Website maintained by Felder Rushing on the History of Bottle Trees,
"Although glass was made deliberately as early as 3500 B.C. in northern Africa, hollow glass bottles began appearing around 1600 B.C. in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Clear glass was invented in Alexandria around 100 A.D.

Soon around then, tales began to circulate that spirits could live in bottles - probably from when people heard sounds caused by wind blowing over bottle openings. This led to the belief in "bottle imps" and genies (from the Arabic word djinn) that could be captured in bottles (remember Aladdin and his magic lamp? This story originated as an Arabian folk tale dating back thousands of years, even before clear glass was invented). Somewhere in there, people started using glass to capture or repel bad spirits. The idea was, roaming night spirits would be lured into and trapped in bottles placed around entryways, and morning light would destroy them.

Incidentally, you will run into folks who refuse to put up bottle trees because of the connection to pagan superstitions. HOWEVER, before people learned about cold germs and allergies, early Greeks and Romans thought that sneezes were bad spirits being expelled. When someone sneezed, nearby people would snap their fingers to keep the spirit out of their own bodies, and say "Jupiter preserve you" to keep the spirit from reentering the sneezer. Because superstitions were so hard to stop, and pagan festivals were so ingrained, an early pope in the 3rd century A.D. (the same one who decided to "go with the flow" and put Christmas on the pagan winter solstice festivities, and Easter on the pagan spring fertility festivals) changed "Jupiter preserve you" to "God bless you."

All this is well-established, not lore. So, like it or not, or even if they aren’t aware of this historical fact, folks who say “God bless you” (or similar salutations) are performing an ancient pagan superstitious ritual. And they get indignant when this is pointed out - yet they continue to assume that those of us who love colorful bottle trees are somehow involved in pagan practices! Sheesh.

Anyway, the bottle imp/bad spirit thing was carried down through sub-Saharan Africa and up into eastern Europe, and eventually imported into the Americas by African slaves – and Germans, Irish, and other superstitious folk who among other things put hex symbols on barns and celebrated May Day and Halloween. Europeans brought "witch balls" (hollow balls with an opening in the bottom to capture witches) and "gazing balls" to repel witches.

Nowadays, bottle trees are mostly used as interesting garden ornaments that glisten in the sun, and the use of colorful glass garden art is on the upswing, as any visit to upscale garden shows (including the Chelsea Flower Show in London) will prove."

Well, Ebabe's gifts now has the latest gift for the bottle tree afficianado -- a solar-powered illuminated botte tree!!!  It has a small photovoltaic panel that faces the sun and charges a battery.  At night, the individual stalks on which the bottles reside glow with small light-emitting diodes.  Is that cool or what?

Elf Duty...

Claire Weatherly finds out that this is HER Autoharp!

Back in late November I had an email from an old friend, Jim Weatherly, a former Huntsville resident now living in St.Paul, Minnesota.  Margo and I were good friends of the Weatherly family (Jim and Anne) before they moved north and they honored us by asking us to be their children's (Christopher and Claire) Godparents.  Jim contacted me to let me know that Claire had asked for an Autoharp for Christmas.  He needed advice on what to buy.

I began by telling him in no uncertain terms to not buy a new one.  All production was shipped overseas in the early 1980's -- first to Japan, subsequently to Korea and then China.  I have worked on some of these later models and wouldn't take one as a gift.  I certainly would never recommend that someone buy a new one.  I told Jim to look for a US-built 1970's vintage Autoharp in good shape and that if he found one, I would restring, reconfigure, and rebuild it.  The quest began.  After a couple of unsuccessful bids on eBay, Jim finally submitted a successful bid on a 1970's Berkshire model 15-chord B-style Oscar Schmidt Autoharp.  He had it shipped to me.


When the instrument arrived around the 5th of December, I inspected it thoroughly.  It still had its original strings and they were all intact.  You can tell the original strings by the way they were attached to the tuning pins and wrapped around the pins.  The instrument smelled "fresh."  It had not been stored in a mildew or mold-infested environment.  The finish was remarkably untouched.  The felt dampers on the chord bars appeared brand new and had never been attacked by moths.  The only condition issue I found was a minor delamination of the maple pin block at the top of the Autoharp.  This is easily repairable.


I ordered a new set of strings and they arrived in a few days.  Although I was concerned that the string quality might have suffered over the years, the new strings turned out to be top-notch.  They were all precisely cut and the windings on the wound strings were all tight.  There were no "buzzers."  (Sometimes the windings will be loose at the end and cause a wound string to buzz when played.)

Gluing the pin block

I removed the old strings and thoroughly cleaned and polished the instrument.  Then I glued the area of delamination and let it dry for 48 hours.  In the meantime, I rebuilt the chord bar assembly.  I glued the return springs into the chord bar holders so they won't "escape" the next time someone disassembles the chord bars.   To make it a little prettier, I covered each chord bar with a printed duct tape strip in a blue abstract pattern.

One issue that every Autoharp player faces is the decision of what chords to include on an individual instrument and how to arrange them.  I chose an arrangement suggested by Evo Bluestein, a remarkable Autoharp player from Fresno, California.  He markets a custom-built Autoharp called the Evoharp, and the 15-chord model has its chord bars arranged (from the tuning pin end to the anchor bar end) as follows:  Fmaj, Dmin, C7, Cmaj, Amin, G7, Gmaj, Emin, D7, Dmaj, Bmin, A7, Amaj, F#min, E7.  With this arrangement, the Autoharp may be played in the major keys of C, G, D and A, and the minor keys of D minor and A minor.  It's a good flexible selection of chords and the pattern is such that each chord "set" is the same for any given key in which the instrument is being played.  


After reassembling the Autoharp and relabeling the chord bars, I tuned it several times over the next few days to stretch and stabilize the strings and fine tune it.  It turned out to be a fine sounding instrument, brought back to life.  It will provide many years of service.


Claire had no clue that she was receiving this gift.  I met the Weatherlys for lunch at Jason's Deli in Huntsville.  When we informed her that this was her Autoharp, she was totally speechless.  I felt that my Elf Duty was time well spent.

And to All...

Further Progress on the Tajmadog...

Faithful Sidekick Monty Love came up to Tennessee on Saturday and we made significant progress on the dog palace.  It's always fun learning as you go!  We finished the vinyl siding and metal cladding on the porch and gable end.  Unfortunately, I had miscalculated some of the material requirements so we ran out of certain vinyl components.  Thanks to Monty from me and the pups.

26⁰ and Frosty This Morning!

Took this picture just as the sun was about to come up...

Christmas at Ebabe's 2011

A Memorable Thanksgiving...

It was Thanksgiving, 2004.  Mary Ann and I had been married for four months.  We wanted to do something special.  That's when I heard a review on the radio (I think it was NPR) of a "different" way of preparing the turkey.  It was described as having a rich flavor and producing very moist, tender meat.  What could be better?!?  Here is the recipe that we decided to try:

10-12 pound turkey
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup milk or cream
1 cup water

• Heat oven to 325°F
• Prepare turkey for roasting.
• Combine peanut butter, flour, paprika, salt, celery salt and pepper.  Stir until blended, adding enough milk to make a medium paste.
• Spread paste over entire turkey, covering well.  Place on rack in roasting pan.  Add 1 cup water to pan.
• Bake at 325°F for 3-4 hours or until meat thermometer registers 180° to 185°F.  Baste every 30 minutes with pan juices.
• Note stuffed turkey requires 30-45 minutes more roasting time.

Our experience didn't exactly match the description I had had heard on the radio.  We combined the peanut butter, flour, paprika, salt, celery salt and pepper just as directed and added milk to form a medium paste.  We coated the bird generously and placed it on the rack in the roasting pan, adding water in the bottom of the pan.   With those preparations completed, we began to roast this tan-coated beauty.

The first thing I observed was that as soon as the bird began to warm up, the coating slid off like frosting on a warm summer day and formed a mound of goo in the roasting pan.  Very little remained on the bird.  That didn't seem to match the descriptions that I had heard.  This was supposed to form a delicious golden crust on the bird's skin.  We continued cooking.  I basted that bird every half hour just as I was supposed to.  The smell didn't seem to be encouraging.  The heat of the oven on the bottom of the roasting pan seemed to be burning the collected goo.

At the end of our allotted four hours, we retrieved the results from the oven.  The bird was inedible, the pan, encrusted with black tar, was practically uncleanable, and the entire house smelled like peanut flavored charcoal.  It was a less than successful experiment.

I have since learned that the recipe was originally published in The Black Family Reunion Cookbook (Recipes & Food Memories™), published in 1991 by the National Council of Negro Women.  I'd still like to try turkey cooked this way by someone with sufficient "soul" to make it work.