Rafter K Rustic Originals

06/16/2025

This is a song I wrote with my friend, Jim Cox. I'm slowly learning to play the guitar and the singing is what it is, but I like the song. I hope you do too.

This is a song I wrote with my friend, Jim Cox a while back. One of the common themes of Old Fart Country is looking back at happy memories and contemplatin...

01/18/2025

I invented a new genre of music called Old Fart Country. It's traditional country music with subject/story lines that are of interest to seasoned citizens, like me. This is a brave forray into that exciting new genre. 😉

A brave foray into the new genre, Old Fart Country Music. My appologies to anyone who can actually play and sing. I'm learning as I go.

06/21/2024

The Making of “The Birth Of The Aurora”

So, two paths in life entwined and produced this, my first photo art piece. Lately, I've been looking at posts by Shelly Porsch Chetty, who is an accomplished photo artist. I've been amazed at the way she uses framing, light, shadow and color to not only present an image, but tell a story. I just take pictures. Until now. I didn't even have to go to the source of all knowledge, great and small to become an artist myself. Thanks any way youtube.

Last week, we went to see my daughter in Seattle. I suffered through a couple of days flyfishing on the wild and beautiful Cedar River, and was thrilled when Kelly said she had something different for me to do. She wanted to go to the Chihuly Exhibit in Capital Hill. I agreed, thinking I was going to see a hot sauce factory and the CHAZ encampment. Imagine my momentary disappointment when I found out it wasn't Chilula, but Chihuly, which was a glass blowing art thing. I also didn't get to see CHAZ but oh well.

In one of the exhibits, they used glass and light to produce a simulation of the aurora borealis. To get the full effect I, the photographer had to lay on the floor. Using the framing techniques I will probably philanthropically post to the youtube university and the lighting and color effects that Dale Chihuly learned prolly from the same video I would have watched had I needed to, I was able to capture this Schmedlap Award winner I call the "Birth of The Aurora". It was taken with a Motorola 50MP Quad Pixel using ambient light and default shutter speed. Signed copies are available.

11/16/2023

My friend, Jim Cox sent me the title to this song and asked me to write a lyric for it. He took my lyic and made a song out of it. I love the way he peforms it in this video.

My buddy, Jim Cox sent me the title of this song and told me to make myself useful and write a lyric around it. He turned it into a song. I once wrote a po...

09/07/2023

Fighting inflation by going off the grid. Harvested the potato crop. Anybody have a modest proposal for how I can feed four of us without going to the store?

08/14/2023

Ty and I went fishing with my friend Tony Ortega and a bunch of his friends. Rough day fishing but I caught a dorado and made dorado ceviche and jerk fish tacos (with mango avocado salsa) for supper. Of course the star was the Cheetos jalapeno Mac and cheese. Not a Mac and cheese guy but that stuff is tasty.

07/24/2023

In a previous video, I said I'd come back with some more interesting sushi rolls. Here it is. I hope you get a kick out of it.

Sushi is a lot easier than it seems. These four rolls and three sauces have simple ingredients that are readily available. The techniques may not be sushi ...

06/29/2023

You probably weren't wondering where I was last week because you never write, you never call and your mom and me go to bed every night hoping and praying you made it home safe and aren't auditioning for some green card fiance reality show. We went on an anniversary trip to Alaska. The first picture is a sea otter. The second is a mountain goat. That's some fine photography. Then there's some mountains and glaciers and stuff and a picture of the back of our helicopter pilots head. Alaska is incredible, so is Kelly.

06/12/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyq7rYJiqSw

Big Sushi will tell you that you shouldn't make your own rolls because it's a semi religious art form that requires training and meditation and specialized t...

05/09/2022

Welcome to the workshop. This video is the making of a fishing lure from scrap wood. I don't like to waste anything and small things like this use scraps that otherwise would wind up in the trash. Thanks for watching.

I figure that if I was a fish, knowing I was going to spend my life expecting to get eaten by a big fish like a Goliath Grouper, I would make my life better ...

05/09/2022

A customer in Baton Rouge bought the original shoe rack from my Etsy store, but he said it was so nice that it never made it to his bedroom. It found a home in the entryway. He asked me to make this stackable version with the ash stained in Espresso to match his other furniture. The Espresso and natural Cedar look great together and he kindly let me list his design in my store. Thank you Jay.

03/30/2022

And now for something completely different. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGScWVT5BjY&t=1s