“The Butterfly” played by Barak Bruerd on an Overton Low D

As an Irish musician (a very flexible term when applied to myself), I have a certain affinity for flutes and whistles.  So it’s no small thing for me to have sold my Copeland Low D whistle on ebay.  Copeland whistles are the Cadillac of Irish whistles.  They are hand made from brass and are the only conical bore whistle made from actual tube (versus sheet metal wrapped around a mandrel and welded).  As opposed to cylindrical tube instruments, a tapered bore balances pitch across both the high and low octaves and allows for a more consistent tone.  The Copeland design innovates on many fronts, most notably drawing on the designs of organ pipes which have a wall around the windway to stabilize the tone.  When constructing a whistle there are over a hundred points which must be carefully balanced to achieve desired pitch, tone, responsiveness and other qualities.  Woodwind crafting is both a science and an art.

But I sold my Copeland and bought an Overton.  If Copelands are the Cadillac then Overtons are… well, actually I know nothing about cars so I really couldn’t make a very good association.  I suppose the Overton would be one of those cool vintage sports cars from the 50s that have a personality all their own; a few quirks and design flaws but that just contributes to the allure.  Not that there are any design flaws in an Overton – quite the opposite.  But the tone quality of the Overton has it’s own quirks and imperfections which lead to the captivating sound they produce.

While the Copeland is rich and pure and almost reedy due to the dense nature of brass and the smooth polished edges, the Overtons carry breathy over-tones and subtle harmonics, which create an ethereal quality that sings of foggy moors and woodland glades.  The Copeland whistles have an aesthetic that is unrivaled; the conical taper, rounded head joint, and brass patina make it an absolute work of art.  The Overton on the other hand is a brushed-aluminum tube with a square head joint that mirrors the raw utilitarian heritage of the clans of old.   The Copeland is a tribute to the achievements of science and modern instrument crafting while the Overton is the father of all low whistles.

Both rank at the top of any professional Irish musician’s instrument list.

So why did I get rid of my Copeland?  It’s really a matter of economics.  I loved the Copeland, but to a large degree the sound is too perfect.  Not that I don’t love perfect sound, but it sounds like a flute and I have flutes.  The Overton has a sound all it’s own that is mystical in all the imperfections that captivate the imagination and you simply cannot achieve that on a flute.  I would have kept the Copeland except that Copelands are expensive and I can own several keys in an Overton for the price of one Copeland.

I also have two complaints about the Copelands.  I’ve discovered two flaws in the conical bore instruments that are improved on by their more primative cylindrical sisters.  The first is a very weak low E – the second note from the bottom.  The physics of the bore force an extremely small hole which results in a choked sound compared to the root note or the third.  The second is that while the tapered bore allow for extreme resonance in the low register and rich tone in the mid-range, the taper constricts the airflow necessary for the high register which leads to a somewhat shrill quality to the notes leading up to the third octave.  For someone like me who appreciates the full range of notes that Irish fusion demands, that upper range is extremely critical.  Trad players may not find this range quite so useful, but it has found its way into the modern styles of players like Davy Spillane and Cormac Breatnach and I appreciate the versatility.

Someday when cash becomes available I may re-purchase a Copeland.  There’s a sterling silver model that is extremely mellow.  But for now I’ll be playing to the organic roots of Ireland.

Alcohol stoves have two primary benefits over commercial stoves: (1) they are extremely lightweight and (2) they are a heck of a lot more fun.  To be fair we have to define lightweight and we have to define fun.

Because they are typically constructed from soda cans or other lighweight cans (such as soup cans or tinned cat food), they are significantly lighter than their commercial counterparts.  However, they also run on alcohol, and therefore not as heat/fuel efficient as say a canister stove.  In the real, world this means that alcohol stoves are more weight efficient in the short-term but after about 5 days, the amount of alcohol you have to carry catches up with you and at that point commercial stoves become more weight-efficient.  So for those weekend trips you’re better off with one of these but should us your high-tech gigwatt stove for those two-week wilderness treks.

The fun-factor is definitely a matter of perspective.  For those who prefer high-tech solutions which self-prime, have nice little control dials and buttons, this stove may fall in to the category of a “hassle”.  For those who love low-tech solutions, fiddling with designs and playing with fire, and especially the satisfaction of building your own stove and using it, this is definitely “fun”.

Whichever camp you fall in, alcohol stoves are definitely a great survival skill to have under your hat.  It’s also a great travel companion to throw in a pack with a 3oz bottle of methylated spirits and some Ramen noodles.  I often take one with me to Africa – like this photo of me in Central African Republic cooking noodles in a 24oz Heineken can.  Which by the way makes a fantastic ultra-light cooking pot.  I highly recommend getting a $5 horizontal can-opener which leaves a rounded edge and use that to cut the top off.  Then you can use the top as a lid.

There are a lot of awesome designs out there.  My absolute favorite is the Penny Alcohol Stove.  You can find detailed construction instructions here.  Wikipedia has a great article and Zen Stoves has a huge amount of resources and links.  My absolute favorite stove designer is a Minibull Designs.  My favorite designs from Minibull are the MBD Elite 2 which is a double-wall design and the Nion 3.  Here’s a video on one of his prototypes.  I bought both awhile back and then reversed engineered them.  Tinny’s a great guy and loves helping out fellow stove-inventors.  He has it down to a science.

One tip on fuel – all alcohol is not equal.  I avoid Isopropal (rubbing alcohol) like what you get at the pharmacy.  Instead go for methylated spirits.  The yellow bottle of “HEET” that you get at automotive stores or gas stations is perfect.

A number of years ago I found myself inexorably drawn into the realm of woodwind crafting.  A tangent of one of my lesser known, and much neglected skills – flute playing.  I started off with classical flute in the 6th grade.  No, scratch that… I started off with recorder when I was 7 years old.  I remember, quite distinctly, sitting on my bed in Sierra Leone with my mom, both of us tooting on plastic recorders she’d brought over from the United States the year before.  With no TV for entertainment (heck, no electricity), it was a worthy way to pass the time and gave me a head start on piano when I came back to the States in ’84.  But I digress.  Classical flute gave way to Irish flute and Irish whistles.  I have flirted here and there with other forms of folk music and ethnic tangents, but have always returned to my Irish roots.  Like many of my pass-times, it proved rather expensive, especially since folk woodwinds are not chromatic instruments – meaning they only play one root key.  Therefore it is necessary to amass a full range of keys.  Which was perfectly fine by me.  However, there were also many various and sundry kinds of folk woodwinds, each with their subtle tones and quirks, and each requiring a range of keys and modes.

And so, as with so many of my interests, what I couldn’t afford to buy, I aspired to make.  And thus my woodwind crafting days began.  I won’t regale you with tales of hours spent researching the internet, ordering obscure books, chiseling out specialized tools, and days and weeks whittling away at pipes and blocks of wood.  My first flutes looked like something chipped out by an early paleolithic caveman.  Fortunately, with the help of the internet, my skills evolved much more rapidly, and after several months I emerged from the late mesozoic era with something that hissed and rasped like a chain-smoking goat.  Over time, my clunky instruments, which were heavy and required a small team of mules to haul around, became more delicate, and the craftsmanship became more refined.  I was privileged to spend a day with world-renown flute maker Patrick Olwell as well as the multitalented Erik Sampson.  I learned to craft Quena, Shakuhachi, Pan Pipes, and Native American flutes.  A few were hand turned on a lathe, but most were made from a species of bamboo known as arundinaria gigantea which thrives in the southern United States.  I spent most days covered in wood dust and smelling like smoke from the woodburning tools I used to engrave and inlay design on the finished instruments.

In blogs of long ago I posted some of my instruments, but none exist yet on this latest installment; and since returning from Cambodia I have yet to take up my flutecrafting tools (mostly because I can’t get to my workbenches in the garage for all the junk).  So, I post here one of my favorite pieces, a Native American flute inlaid with sterling silver and bands of Honduran rosewood.  A recording I made of this instrument can be found here.

My dad is a fantastic cook, but of all his cuisine, none stands out more than his panache for breakfast; pancakes especially. Particularly living in the bush in Africa or the highlands of Papua New Guinea, nothing quite felt like America as a huge stack of pancakes with homemade syrup, a glass of milk, and if we were really lucky, bacon.

You may wonder what has inspired the reminiscence of so distant a memory as pancake Sunday. While not as regular as a weekly event, my family is developing our own traditions; albeit along the lines of Tara’s innate gourmet leanings. We do crepes; an entire meal event consisting entirely of crepes – and if Tara is inspired (which she usually is) candles, china, and music. The main course usually begins with smoked ham layered with tomatoes and swiss, and seasoned with thyme. Sometimes though, we do breakfast crepes with eggs, cheese and sausage all wrapped up in the crepe. A little green chili and salsa makes them huevos rancheros crepes, and tomatoes and swiss makes them provincial.

The real reason for having crepes though is the desert course – generally fruit compote, or chocolate sauce or ice creme… okay, usually it’s a combination of all three. This last Sunday it was strawberries with a sweetened cream cheese sauce drizzled over top.

Now that I think about it, I think we just might make this a regular tradition.

Crepes may strike you as a posh and intimidating cuisine – I assure you they are not. In fact, they are little more than thin, eggy pancakes with a few simple fillers rolled up inside. The beauty is really in the simplicity of the dish coupled with a very satisfying array of flavors. Below is the basic crepe recipe our family uses and a few of our favorite fillers. If you have your own favorite ways for serving crepes, post them in the comments!

Basic Crepe Recipe (courtesy Alton Brown)
Ingredients
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons melted butter
Butter, for coating the pan

Preparation
In a blender, combine all of the ingredients and pulse for 10 seconds. Place the crepe batter in the refrigerator for 1 hour [we rarely bother with this]. This allows the bubbles to subside so the crepes will be less likely to tear during cooking. The batter will keep for up to 48 hours.

Heat a small non-stick pan. Add butter to coat. Pour 1 ounce of batter into the center of the pan and swirl to spread evenly [should be only a couple millimeters thick). Cook for 30 seconds and flip. Cook for another 10 seconds and remove to the cutting board. Lay them out flat so they can cool. Continue until all batter is gone. After they have cooled you can stack them and store in sealable plastic bags in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for up to two months. When using frozen crepes, thaw on a rack before gently peeling apart.

*Savory Variation Add 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs, spinach or sun-dried tomatoes to the egg mixture.

*Sweet Variation Add 21/2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of your favorite liqueur to the egg mixture.

Filler 1: Ham & Swiss
Ingredients
1. your favorite ham lunch meat
2. slices of swiss cheese
3. thinly sliced tomatoes
4. ground, dried thyme
5. salt & pepper

Preparation
Throw an already-made crepe in a pan and heat it up, lay down the ham, tomato, salt, pepper, thyme, and finally the swiss cheese. Fold over the edges of the crepe and press down the sides to crease the edges and then flip it over. The swiss cheese will melt and help hold down the folds. Shake it out onto a plate leaving the folded side down

Filler 2: Breakfast Crepes
Ingredients
1. eggs
2. cheese
3. favorite omelet ingredients (tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms, etc)
4. sausage or bacon
5. salsa and sour cream (optional)

Preparation
Essentially make a “scrambled” omelet, mixing in ingredients and scrambling the eggs. Sausage and bacon can be served in the crepe as part of the omelet or on the side. Heat and cover the crepes and fill each one with the egg mix wrap up like a burrito. For huevos rancheros serve with salsa and sour cream on top

Filler 3: Fruit and cream cheese sauce
Ingredients
1. fruit (mixed berries, peaches, strawberries are the best)
2. cream cheese
3. sweetened condensed milk

Preparation
Chop up the fruit and set aside. Soften cream cheese in the microwave or stove and add 2 parts cream cheese to one part sweetened condensed milk (e.g. one cup of creme cheese to half a cup of sweetened condensed milk). Whip till a smooth and creamy. Should be barely runny and slightly warm. Serve with fruit rolled up in the crepe and the sauce liberally poured over top.

Filler 4: Ice cream and chocolate sauce
Do I really need to say anything more? Make sure you chill the crepes in the fridge before filling them!

The community is in the throws of a large-scale water project. While most people have enough water for household needs very few have sufficient water for agricultural purposes. That and hand-liftng water from a 15 feet well and carrying it a couple hundred meters to a garden discourages most people from the 3 – 4 hour exercise irrigation inevitably demands. We’ve looked at multiple large-scale delivery systems but none are anything remotely sustainable. So, while not much cheaper, SP is undertaking a massive hand-dug well project.

It’s actually pretty cool – you sit a concrete ring on the ground (one that’s about 3 feet in diameter), stand inside it, and start digging away the dirt underneath. As it descends you keep adding rings on top until you are about 10 to 15 feet down with a big stack of rings around you keeping the dirt from caving in. If you are lucky, you don’t hit water till about 8 feet at which point you have a diesel powered pump madly sucking the water out of your well as it fills up around your ankles. Generally you give up once you are about 6 feet below the water table. And presto! You have a well. The Cambodians can’t afford to line their wells, so they manage to dig about 6 to 8 feet before they get claustrophobic and nervous of the walls caving in on them. If your well runs dry during the dry season you’re out of luck. With the concrete ring method, you can dig wells down 20 feet or more ensuring you always have water. Even if your well goes dry you can always just hop down (or be lowered on a rope for the less spry who can’t handle a 15 food vertical drop), start digging, and as the whole column of concrete rings shift down, add more rings on top until you hit water again. It’s a beautiful thing.

Not only are we lining and deepening their wells but we are capping them (a novelty that keeps frogs, dogs, children, and other pollutants from contaminating your well) and putting on a pump. We have two flavors of pumps: rope pumps and treadle pumps. Rope pumps are a nifty rig that takes a bike tire, crank, and a bunch of rope with little toggles and magically draws out water at about 8 cubic meters per hour as you stand there and crank your arms off. The treadle pump is like a Cambodian stairmaster that pumps out water while burning calories at the same time. In our community which has so many amputee’s, the nature of the handicap determines the pump. Folks with one or no legs get a rope pump and folks with no arms get a treadle pump. It’s a fairly equitable solution and one they are pretty excited about. If my flippant and un-pc remarks about the physically challenged disturb you, fret not. For these folks it’s a fact of life and one they readily make light of despite it’s inherent hardships in this environment. Shoot, they even had a kickboxing tournament held in the community last month. Ever seen a kickboxing match between a one-legged man and a man with only one arm? It’s hoot! No removing of prosthetics for use as weapons though, that’s cheating. Veil Thom even has a disabled volleyball team that competes nationally. Last year we had a group of high-profile donors out visiting and they decided to play the disabled team and got their butts smoked. It was a fun time.

Anyway, back to the water system. We estimate about 75% of the community will participate. About 50% of the community will be able to pay the $12 fee which they established as their portion of responsibility of the water system in addition to providing the labor. SP will also work with the 20% poorest in the community (some of whom make less than 75 cents a day), allowing them to donate work time to the community land as payment for their water systems since they can’t afford the fee.

Overall we hope to put in 225 wells in the next three months which will be very exciting for the community.

Written about in Chinese texts 2000 years ago, utilized by the Romans, and now employed across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, clay pitcher irrigation is a low-tech solution that is helping thousands of communities in arid regions of the world cultivate farmland during dry seasons of the year. These buried, unglazed pots allow water to seep through the clay’s micropores and into the surrounding soil at a rate that is limited by the soil and the plant’s water uptake. This subsurface irrigation eliminates water losses to surface evaporation and infiltration through the soil, improving water savings by up to 70% over conventional surface irrigation methods. Furthermore, productivity is often increased since the plant’s energies are diverted from developing root mass needed for acquiring water, to increasing overall plant yield. Further benefits include decreased soil crusting and erosion, reduction in weeds, and improved efficiency in chemical fertilizers and insecticides applied through the pot. Clay pitcher irrigation is also beneficial in regions where soil salinity is a problem.

Overview
Clay pitcher irrigation is a simple, low-cost solution for dryland farming. Unglazed clay pots with a capacity of seven to ten liters, a conical body and narrow neck, are buried approximately one meter apart with the mouth of the pot exposed. Crops are planted around each pot which are filled with water every four to seven days. Water loss from the pot is regulated by soil moisture content. As water is used by the plant, hydrostatic pressure in the soil decreases and water is transmitted out of the pot. When the surrounding soil reaches field capacity, water loss from the pot decreases. This natural, self-regulating mechanism is what makes clay pitcher irrigation extremely efficient.

Pot Construction
Most third world cultures possess the knowledge for making and firing unglazed pots. Purchasing through local vendors not only provides a
sustainable source of inexpensive pots, but also provides an outlet for income generation, benefiting the local economy. If suitable pots are not available, they can be easily made by hand or on a pottery wheel. Depending on the clay, sand, rice hulls, or sawdust may be added at a ratio of up to 1:4 to increase the porosity of the pots. Although closed-oven firing at temperatures exceeding 450 degrees Celsius is ideal, pots can be fired in open pits at temperatures of 200 to 300 degrees Celsius.

Cultivation
Pitcher irrigation as been used successfully for plants, shrubs, and trees in small gardens as well as larger-scale farming with 3,000 to 5,000 pots per hectare. Many factors affect the efficiency of clay pitcher irrigation; the shape, porosity, and volume of the pot along with soil composition and the number of plants surrounding the pot. Ideally, the soil around each pot should contain a 20% to 50% mixture of compost and/or manure to improve soil composition and porosity. Sand may also be added to soils with a high clay content to further improve the soil. The distance between each pot is generally one to two meters between centers, depending on the crop.

Click Here to see clay pot irrigation in use in Veil Thom, Cambodia where we are demonstrating the technology to local farmers.
For resources on clay pot irrigation visit the following sites:

The University of Pretoria has this is an excellent technical document on clay pot irrigation.

The Organization of American States also has an exellent article.

Pakissan.com has a nice overview article with a nice diagram as does ICARDA.

Chitin (kai-tin), one of the three must abundant organic compounds in nature (along with cellulose and starch), is the structural material found in the shells of crustaceans such as shrimp and crabs, and also in insect shells and fungi cell walls. From chitin we derive chitosan (kai-toe-zan). Chitosan is a natural wonder. Non-toxic, non-allergenic, anti-microbial, and biodegradable, it has a vast potential across industrial, nutritional, medical, and environmental fields. To top it off, it is a renewable resource obtained from commercial supplies of shrimp and crab shells. To turn the chitin into chitosan, the shells are taken through a simple process that is both environmentally friendly and cost effective.

Environmental and Development applications

In my field of environment conservation and community development, chitosan has incredible potential for water treatment. Chitosan is a polysaccharide molecule with a strong positive electrostatic charge that will attract suspended sediment particles, heavy metals, bacteria and even viruses, causing them to clump together and settle to the bottom. 1 part per million, or 1 teaspoon in 1300 gallons of water will turn a muddy industrial treatment pond into the Caribbean or treat hazardous waste water removing harmful heavy metals and organic compounds such as PCB’s. Similarly, a little chitosan in parasite infested water which is then filtered using a simple 55 gallon drum sand filter, will purify water to 5 time the US drinking water standards.

The applications are obvious. In the third world, chitosan would easily replace chlorine or boiling water as methods of purification. Chlorine has negative long-term effects on both the environment and health and does not remove all pathogens, particularly in water with large percentages of sediments and organics. As the world’s forests rapidly disappear, fuel to boil water is exceeding scarce in many regions of the world. In addition, the logistics of boiling several gallons of water in the family’s one and only cooking pot deters most third world communities from dealing with the incovenience. As chitosan becomes more available in third world countries, it will provide a superior alternative in water purification. Coastal communities will even be able to create micro enterprise production of chitosan from local shrimp and crabbing industries (very applicable to Southeast Asia).

The difficult part is making humanitarian and development agencies aware of the technology as well as third world businesses that could take advantage of it’s industrial applications, thus bringing it to their country where it can become accessible to the local people.

Other Applications

Medical Application: Chitin had wound-healing properties. Spun chitin filaments were developed in the 1970’s for sutures. These sutures enhance healing time by 35% to 50% and are absorbed by the body, eliminating the need for surgical removal. Chitin is also used to make dressings for burns, surface wounds, and skin-graft donor sites, which dramatically accelerate healing and reduce pain compared to standard treatments where the dressings must be removed. Other medical uses for chitin include anti-bacterial sponges and hospital dressings, artificial blood vessels, contact lenses, tumor inhibitors, dental plaque inhibitors, and blood cholesterol control.

Household products: These include sponges, diapers, feminine napkins, and tampons.

Dietary Supplements: Chitosan has been a fad fat blocker for many years in the United States. It has properties similar to plant fiber and can significantly bind fat, acting like a sponge in the digestive tract. It is not digestible itself and the bound fat leaves via the body without ever entering the bloodstream.

Cosmetics: Make-up powder; nail polish; moisturizers; face, hand, and body creams; and toothpaste are just a few consumer products that often contain chitin.

Agriculture: Seeds treated with chitosan are larger and stronger and more resistant to fungal diseases. Treating seeds with chitin can increase crop yields by up to 50%. Chitin is also added to commercial feed mixtures containing whey, a by-product of the cheese industry. Many animals find it hard to digest the high-lactose whey. Chitin supports the growth of beneficial microorganisms in the animals’ digestive tract that produce enzymes that help the animals digest the whey.

All this from shrimp shells.