Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Whose "To Do" List?

Imagine the young man Abram getting up one morning and checking out his “to do” list. As he wondered where to start, a voice called out to him “Abram, Abram”. It was a voice he would become very familiar with in future years.

“Abram, I want you to pack up all your belongings, leave your people and your father’s household (and your to do list) and go to the land I will show you.” The Voice tells him why he is going and what is in store for him but not where he is going. Genesis 12:4 says “So Abram left as the LORD had told him”. Abram tore up his “to do” list and embraced God’s. Through his obedience, the whole world has been blessed.

This morning as most mornings, I sat on the porch with my coffee, Bible, and notebook. I carefully crafted my “to do” list which was fairly simple since I basically had to just copy yesterday’s list! For those of you following my blog, I took my Gurdy key chest to the Music Funfest in Evart Michigan two weeks ago with the intention of doing the final fitting of the keys while tending our booth. The extremely high humidity and heat did a number on the wood and tightened even the loose keys. The keys would have to wait until we got home. Our return home included visits from family, a wedding, and the need to bag and ship a Hurdy gurdy and two Symphonies. All good, but definitely not on my list!

God is teaching me that it’s good to make a “to do” list, but don’t let it get in the way of His for me! I will have new Gurdy pictures for you soon, or rather In His Time.

Posted by Ann Dorries ann@anndorries.com at 9:40 AM 0 comments Monday, June 28, 2010


A Slight Delay

Like a ham hanging in the smoke house, my gurdy, “The Monarch” has hung in the spray booth for over a week. The time lapse on both it’s construction and my blog entries is due to a couple miss guided adults who decided that they had more right to my Lap Top, Jewelry (all of it except my wedding band and two cheap pair of earrings) and several other items of an electronic nature than we did. I am finally back on line but still trying to get back in the shop. Meanwhile, gurdy hangs waiting for her new coat of finish.

Posted by Ann Dorries ann@anndorries.com at 5:39 PM 1 comments Thursday, June 17, 2010

Keys Fit, Stains Drying

Wow! I thought I would have the keys fit to their respective places by early morning. After 4 1/2 hours, they were finally finished, except for the buttons, tangents, etc. Mel says nothing is ever as easy or quick as you think. Gurdy's body and main parts are sanded and a coat of filler and light stain is drying.

I played HG music while I worked on her. Its kind of like reading or playing Brahms to an unborn child. I hope it will help Gurdy make beautiful music in a few weeks.
Some of you have heard the story of how we met our first Hurdy-gurdy and I would like to thank the special lady who not only was playing it but was gracious enough to give us an intimate introduction to this intriguing instrument. Thanks Judith.

Posted by Ann Dorries ann@anndorries.com at 8:40 PM 0 comments Wednesday, June 16, 2010



Anybody Out There?

Blogging is almost as lonely as building a Hurdy gurdy. Most Gurdy players are sure they are the only ones in the state unless they happen to be fortunate enough to belong to a "group", rare in Michigan and surrounding states, but worth the effort sometimes. Then at other times solitude seems like the best state to live in.

Well, in blogging the only way to find out if anyone is listening/reading is to inject a typo into the copy. Even then you never know since only your best friends will call it to your attention. Thank you for the encouragement friend.

The top and bottom are on and the keys almost fitted to their corresponding spaces. "the keys must be not too loose and not too tight" the inspector says over my shoulder. Who does he think he is anyway? a gurdy builder? I have only had to take one long drive to cope so far.

Posted by Ann Dorries ann@anndorries.com at 5:07 PM 2 comments Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Welcome to our new home

Realizing that my Hurdy-gurdy adventures had nearly drowned out my writers blog, I decided to start a new blog devoted to that unique and wonderful instrument the Hurdy-gurdy! I have attempted to move the material to this site but my woodworking skills far outshine my blogging skills so you may find some things missing from the beginning of the journey. From here on I will stop by at least once a week to catch you up on my building adventures.Your patience and feed back will be much appreciated as we share in the gurdy building. I hope you will share your stories with me and any suggestions you might feel are valuable.

Building a Monarch

The first of February I shared a bit about our Hurdy-gurdy business and promised more later. Well later has arrived but not the way I expected. At that time I intended to regal you all with a bit of Gurdy history and the story of our blind date with it. Maybe later. For now I have a different adventure to share with you, my treasured readers. For some reason after many months of writing a builder’s manual for our Gurdy kit, wrapping and shipping parts, Gurdies, and kits all over the world, last week I decided to build my own Gurdy from one of our kits. We had sold my hurdy-gurdy just before Christmas and since then I have been gurdiless. This makes it impossible to practice my coo (fancy name for the way we Gurdy players turn the crank to get a buzz). Ah, the solution. I will build one myself. Besides what better way to test the accuracy and user friendly aspect of that Manual we labored over!

February 21, 2010
Sunday after church, Mel helped me select a suitable body from our shelf , and laying out my personal copy of the manual, I began my journey. Those of you who know me well will not be surprised if I tell you that I was sure I could have it nearly done in a couple of weeks. Yesterday I assembled the building brace and the three braces that give the body shape and strength. I was constantly reminded of those IQ tests we used to take in school. Which shape looks like another one? Which piece is the mirror of another piece and now how in the world do they go together? Oh I guess I need to turn the page on my manual…

 Tuesday February 23

Today, I sanded, trimmed, sanded, and trimmed some more until the braces fit snugly in their place. I won’t bore you with all the details but suffice it to say it took me most of the day to get them glued in place and then glue in the rest of the bracing called kerfing! Tomorrow I will sand the arch for the top and hopefully glue on the top and bottom. If you have time to stop back tomorrow, I will include a few pictures.

Finally glue is dry on the braces and I even have the holes cut out and the Monarch inserts glued in. We used a small ring of soundboard material glued to the underside to make a ring reinforcement for the sound holes.