Jam in my ears

Just got back from going to the local bluegrass jam in the West Hamblin County Volunteer Firehouse. I'm going to try and get the hang of bluegrass and jamming. So far so good; I've been doing pretty well following along with Feather (my tenor guitar; strung to an A instead of an E, which means I have to transpose as I go along). And I've heard some pretty songs, and even bought a CD last week so I can learn some songs and fit in. A lot of the pleasure of jamming seems to be the pleasure of recognition: hearing songs you already know so you can play along. This is kind of a twist on the way I normally do things, but I'll give it a try. So I've just spent 2 1/2 hours listening to, and playing along with, the local favorites, and I have chord changes ringing in my ears. I'd really like to learn to do this with the mandolin, as the group that shows up is usually long on guitars and short on everything else. Also, unusually in my experience, the composition is overwhelmingly male. I think I was the only woman today. This is not the way it usually is in filk circles. But the men were very welcoming.

Had a Little Accident with the dehydrator today; I forgot to turn the heat down (since fruit starts out so wet, and evaporation cools things, you can start a load about 20 degrees F hotter than the normal drying temperature as long as you turn the temp down about 2 hours in) and all my apple slices turned unusually brown. Oh well, we'll just eat these soon; I have more apples and I'll try again tomorrow.