Forum Activity for @strumelia

My little ginseng ficus bonsai tree is supposed to come today. I'm both worried and excited, hoping it didn't suffer from any freezes during its 3 day fedex journey from Mississippi to me in freezing NY.

Yesterday I noticed several new leaf shoots emerging on my big split leaf philodendron (monstera deliciosa). I love how the bebe leaves on it are all tightly furled up like a green burrito. Then as it slowly gets bigger and unfurls each day you can see whether that leaf has splits or not. I look forward to it getting big enough for me to make cuttings to give to my two grown daughters.  :)

Ken that's great news!  It must feel so good to have your heart working properly now. 

You guys seem to have figured things out nicely, but one more little tip- whenever you do start a new thread somewhere, it really helps to give the thread a very descriptive title. An example:  instead of naming a thread "Strings?" it's better to be more specific like "Help with string gauges for baritone".  This enables people to zero in on discussions of interest to them while they browse the forums. It also helps people in the future who are searching the site for answers, maybe years from now.  :)

Actually, my daughter worked in the honeybee dept during her studies at Cornell before I kept bees. But... it's true I kept a couple pet tarantulas at home before she went off to college. 
I think it's super cool that your daughter is cultivating a plant collection in her room during the pandemic.

When i was a kid I wanted to be a naturalist when I grew up, but life got in the way. I guess that makes me a nerd. My older daughter does have a degree in entomology.. I suspect in part because i taught my kids to look under rocks and logs in the woods for bugs and spiders.  :)

I was able to pick up a super cheap plastic spray misting bottle today while buying bread at our farm store. I misted my big split leaf philodendron 'Monstera'. 

Yes that's the same company (in tennessee) that my bonsai will be coming from Dusty. In fact, I had a hard time deciding between the ginseng ficus and the Golden Gate ficus they offer... they both look appealing. I decided i really liked the weird bulbous roots of the Ginseng one, though the Golden Gate definitely looked more like a real miniature tree. I like that they have a section on their website specifically for easy care/beginner bonsai trees, since no hobbyist wants to waste a chunk of money on plants that need expert care. Wow, your daughter must have been thrilled to get that gift from you!

That's interesting that both of you mention bonsai... because last week I ordered a little bonsai tree online, and they are supposed to ship it out today. This is the first time I've ordered a live pant online and of course I worry about the cold but apparently they pack and insulate it very well and hopefully it will arrive without damage.
Do you two know what kind/species of bonsai trees you got?
The one i ordered is a ginseng ficus bonsai. Technically, the gnarly root is a ginseng ficus, with branches of a smaller-leaved ficus species grafted to the top of the roots. So, the best of two different ficus species together. I find that fascinating. Apparently, "ficus" is Latin for the fig tree family, which i didn't know.

I've had one cactus-like succulent for 14 years now, and it has slowly grown huge. It's a Euphoria Ingens/candelabra cactus (really a succulent). I repotted it only once when i first got it, and my plan is to finally repot it once the weather gets warmer. It'll be a monumental job, because the thing weighs about 35 lbs now and is about 4 feet tall. It's pretty impressive now. I'll need my husband's help in repotting that one!

We're a year into this pandemic quarantine and it's really cold and dreary outside. Going a bit stir crazy waiting for Spring.

I've always had a few indoor plants- mostly cactus and succulents mainly because our cats leave them alone.
Some of the ones I have now have thrived and grown for years, while others eventually went to the Big Greenhouse in the Sky.

It seems many folks have now discovered or rediscovered the joys of caring for indoor house plants.
Lately I've been repotting and pruning a couple of my older plants, and purchasing a few new ones as well. It's rewarding and peaceful to take care of some living green things while waiting out the pandemic!

Tell us about your favorite houseplants. Add photos if you like too! 

Our cat Sheba (aka BooBoo) carefully wrapped herself up in the top sheet like a burrito this morning, while I had the comforter and bedspread off being washed...

Of course the whole reason I had to take off the blankets to wash them was because 'someone' hurled up a big hairball on the bed when we weren't watching. Cats. This is why we can't have nice things.

BooBoo hiding her shame...

Great photos of the label!  Sure looks like Lazenby's name to me.

Dewey you have a beautiful dulcimer that looks to be in perfect condition. How wonderful that it was your father's dulcimer. If I were you I would not hesitate to try and contact Bob Lazenby with questions about your particular dulcimer- I'm sure he'd be tickled pink!

Do join our Beginner's Group which is the perfect place to ask all your questions in figuring out how to tune, how to play, etc. 

Dewey, if you could get a clear photo of that label, someone on here might be able to tell you for sure if it was made by @bob-lazenby .
It sure is a beautiful dulcimer!

Here's a link to one of my blog posts that might be helpful in figuring out how to tune your dulcimer:
https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-notes-do-i-tune-my-strings-to.html

In the blog post there's a link to a real online keyboard where you can HEAR the notes D3 and D4 for example. You'll want to e sure to tune to the notes in the correct octave so you don't break your string.

Good advice Robin. Venni, do join the group (you have to click the button there to "join" ...and then you'll be able to read all the complete discussions and post yourself.
Lots of helpful FOTMD members can guide you in the Beginner's Group, and you can ask all the questions you want there! 

Some great points made, Robin!

Leny-sue, that's what is called "decay" of the note, and is normal. It tends to be more noticeable on strings at looser tension and also wound strings, and more so when the strings are plucked hard. Most of us pick the first part or middle part of the sounding note to tune by, not the ending 'decaying' tone.

Venni that's good news for sure. I hope you've been looking in the Beginner Group here to learn about how to tune it for example... lots of good starting out info to be found there!
I hope it arrives safely and brightens your day!

Great post from @Lisa-Golladay. I particularly agree with her thoughts of: "I suspect that newbies are overwhelmed by the usual festival offerings. It's one thing to navigate a busy festival in person; online everything looks harder. The website, the downloads, the class schedule grid, how will this work, do I need a webcam, will my internet connection be up to snuff, am I a "beginner" or a "novice" and can I trust this site with my credit card number? Really it's a lot to handle.

I believe LisaG is so right in that. Dulcimer festivals are intimidating to begin with in person/pre-pandemic, ...and full pandemic/zoom festival online scheduling and commitment is enough to scare away many potential beginners would are not absolutely determined. Note my use of the word potential. Beginners who have not yet bought a dulcimer can join FOTMD and learn a gazillion things and get encouragement from dozens of people before they even touch or order an instrument. So much to explore, learn, listen to, watch, and ask! 
But in an online dulcimer zoomfestival, potential beginner players (some of whom may not even have dulcimers yet) would have pretty much nothing to actually do. I would think the experience would be confusing and discouraging. 

I've always noticed that the majority of new members here on FOTMD tend to be brand new beginner players. As a lark, I just now explored the 12 most recent new members' profile descriptions as of today Feb 21 2021.
Of the 12, only 3 had been playing mtn dulcimer for a while already... and of course they all owned dulcimers.
That left 9 others. All of those described themselves as either a new beginner or had not even gotten a dulcimer yet. Of those 9 beginners, 7 already had a dulcimer or had ordered one and were looking for help in learning to play. Two did not make clear whether they had a dulcimer yet but they still said they wanted to learn to play and were beginners.
So, of the random sampling of 12 new members, 3 were already dulcimer players with some experience, and 9 were beginners new to the dulcimer and looking to learn to play.

This is exciting! Steven I remember pix of that checkerboard TMB too. How great to have a choice of three historic repros to bring to events. You are indeed fortunate. 

I seem to recall that for a couple of years before the pandemic hit, there were various in-person dulcimer festivals that folded due to not enough attendees. Knowing the reason for that might give a clue as to how to turn that trend around. What was causing this slow decline of dulcimer festivals before the pandemic?

The tropical plant in my office is unfurling a new leaf. It looks so fresh and full of promise, especially now in front of the window pane with freezing snow and sleet falling on the other side only inches away...   I love in the morning when the sun comes through the green leaves. The unfurling leaf reminds me of when a butterfly emerges from its cocoon and opens its wings.

Another beauty!

Wonderful news about how you are healing well, Ken L!

I'm glad to have it clarified about the two different giant dulcimers- the Mawhee-ish by Dan Cox, and the Thomas-ish by John Knopf. Yes a boxing match between the giants... how fun! 

Dusty that's great! That huge black dulcimer is a sort of Thomas model, isn't it?

I hope you like your new dulcimer when it arrives!

@ken-longfield that's a shame about your vaccine delay. It must be frustrating. On the bright side, the delay is 'only' 12 days, so I'll keep my fingers crossed your new appt goes as planned! 

Around our area the snowstorm turned out to be almost all rain (there was ice last night) and was in the mid 30s today. Our 45 min drive was no problem at all, just wet. We were just plain lucky here, when so many are suffering from the current huge winter storm(s).

I got my first covid Moderna shot today - was so excited!     It was ultra quick and easy. I had filled out the vaccine forms ahead of time at home, no crowds or lines at all  -only took 7 minutes total from when i walked into Walgreen's til when i walked out... and i got to wait the 15 minutes observation time afterwards out in our car with my husband instead of sitting inside the drugstore. 
My only reaction was my cheeks got noticeably pink and flushed for several hours afterwards   but i felt just fine and had no fever. Arm site is getting a little sore now hours later but that's really common with vaccines.

Unfortunately my husband does not turn 65 until July, so he still does not qualify in NY state yet. I wish we could get the shots at the same time! But he's always home while I do all the shopping trips, so it's good I get the shots started now. My second shot is in 1 month, same place.

Great answers to a great question!

The calculator will help you avoid putting on strings that would be either too slack or so tight that they might break. It's so useful when you want to try out a new tuning or key for a particular sized dulcimer. (btw, it works well for other stringed instruments as well, not just dulcimers!)

@kusani I'm very sorry to hear about your brother in law passing away from covid. How awful this virus is.

We'll be doing some snow blowing and shoveling here tomorrow too, Bill!

I'm pretty excited- tomorrow I am getting my first covid vaccine! Will be driving to a Walgreens about 45 minutes away, but well worth the trip i think! 

@peter-w I still cannot find a way to get to the tabs you are referring to here in this thread. Can you please give us a link to where/how to find them?  I suspect the pdf attachments were lost when this site transitioned to a new platform. 

It does my heart good to hear that Dusty. Get her access to Joni's album Ladies of the Canyon as well. Arguably as good as the Blue album. Joni is a national treasure.

It is not uncommon for the Norwegian langeleik to have wooden frets. Langeleiks are considered to be one of several traditional instruments that may be antecedents of the American mountain dulcimer.

Well said Robin!   

Great idea about mailing and then sharing the cup of tea together, Cynthia! Like a little tea club.
There will be some roof raking going on here today as well.

We too 'embrace the hyggelig'. I draped strings of various little lights like a canopy over our little kitchen table where we eat... feels like eating under the stars, but of many colors... sooo cozy we decided we'll be leaving them up for the coming months. We always line up several candles on the table as well when we eat meals.

Jan you're right I forgot about the organizing/purging pandemic fad. I did some of that too and successfully sold off a substantial bunch of stuff on ebay. Didn't purge as many things as I was hoping to, but I did make a nice chunk of change while I was enthused.  :)

In terms of cleaning/organizing projects-  Last month I went through every bed pillow in the house (16 of them!) and threw out 6 of the oldest ones and bought 2 new ones. Some of those 'heirloom' feather pillows were decades old. (yuk)  I also tossed the old inner zipper pillow protectors and bought new ones for every pillow. (got a couple 8-packs of cotton zipper pillow protectors on am*z*n.)  Nice to have that fresh pillow feeling! 

We also decided to get rid of the 30 yr old high quality LLBean real down comforter on our bed- it just didn't seem to fluff up much anymore and I suspected the feathers inside were slowly breaking down over time. It was time.  I took a chance on ordering a down-substitute duvet insert this time instead of real down (which is SO expensive now anyway). Also got new duvet zipper covers for it. It was so lightweight that we had doubts, but the first few nights I was so overheated i kept asking Brian to turn the night thermostat lower. This duvet is way warmer than our ancient real down one, and we wound up reducing the heat at night by 4 degrees... which will save money.

We spend so much time at home waiting out the covid blues. Doing things that give us a sense of positivity, connection, and renewal is helpful.  :)

Traildad, thanks. 

I also find it interesting that in the old video he has a 6.5, an 8.5, and a 13.5 fret... but not the 1.5 fret which is the lower mate to the 8.5.  Then in the 2012 photo you can see he's included the 1.5.  I too have both the 1.5 and the 6.5 (and their matching octave higher mates) on my dulcimers that i used a lot for oldtime jamming. There are many accidental notes in oldtime tunes, notes that pop up but don't necessarily change the mode or the key, so those extra frets come in handy for that kind of fast oldtime jamming. If playing simple tunes at home I might opt for a purely diatonic dulcimer and retuning more to match modes as I like. In festival jams you have little control of what everyone's doing and you have to be able to get into a key and mode fast or else drop out... so I find the extra frets solve that problem neatly.

Ok, so it looks and sounds as though he's tuned (from bass to melody) Aee. His tonic note A in on the third fret, which means in this case he is definitely playing in ionian mode. His bass string is not very heavy, but still looks heavier than the melody string, which is in keeping with his tuning it to the same A note as most DAd players use for their middle string. So, he likely had a string gauge for his bass string which was similar to the middle string of DAA or DAd players. Then, I'm thinking he had thin gauge (.010) for both his middle and melody strings, the enable him to tune them both up to high e.  I imagine he had a dulcimer for playing in the keys of A and G (Aee and Gdd), and another dulcimer for playing in the keys of D and C. That's what i typically do in oldtime jams myself.

I notice he has wooden tuning pegs on this dulcimer but had installed some of those cheap freestanding in-line fine tuners to get perfectly in tune. I tried those out once but found they tend to wobble all over and also ate into the strings, making them break more often. I am guessing he's moved more to geared tuners since this 1994 video, especially for festival jamming. Here's a photo of a dulcimer he used in 2012 for a house concert jam, showing geared tuners.

I'll try to figure the tuning later, but they're playing in the key of A in this session. (Brian tells me the fiddler is Ross Mohn.)

Dave Goldberg on banjo (with his head down most of the time), our good friend Deb Tankard on bass (she lives in Woodstock). Linda Baker on guitar in purple shirt (r.i.p. Linda).  I'm not sure who the main fiddler is.

So the pandemic is now going on 1 year, and folks will be hanging close to home/social distancing for a while to come yet.

Let's see... what pandemic fads have we all gone through, while trying to do something that feels comforting or productive?

First there was the baking craze... lots of sourdough and other breads! Me, i was baking apple crumb muffins and choc chip cookies a whole lot.  Then i also started making yogurt since we love yogurt at home. Both those things I'm still enjoying doing.

Some people started knitting, or sewing masks. I used to knit a lot but did not take it back up during quarantine. I did however sew a couple dozen masks for us and our grown children. I sewed a new batch of masks a month ago to freshen our home supply.

Some people adopted dogs or other pets bring them cheer.

There was a lot of fitness walking during the warm months, and also people roller skating, and buying regular or indoor Peloton bikes, elipticals, mini trampolines, doing yoga online.  I got a little trampoline, my husband got a trainer to put his bike on- to ride in the livingroom. I sold my two old pairs of roller skates and roller gear on ebay for a good price!  :)

People got into gardening with a passion this year. I did my usual vegetable garden, but that's not new for me.

Now people have been diving into collecting houseplants in a big way. I think it's a way of bringing the promise of Spring and new change and growth to alleviate this dark pandemic winter. Plants in the house are a tonic and a comfort!  I've always had about a dozen nice cactus and succulents in various windows of our house. Years ago i opted for cactus because I knew our cats would leave them alone. heheh. One of my older cacti died last month after many years.
In the Fall I got a new snake plant for my office, which has been doing well and brings me joy. But today while buying some groceries at our local farm store, I really succumbed to temptation and bought two large new houseplants- a dark burgundy leaved rubber tree plant, and one of those trendy Monstera Deliciosa- those big green jungle-y plants with the splits and holes in their leaves. Luckily I had a couple of locations for them next to windows where they might do well. So nice to have green living things in the house during the dead of winter!

What pandemic fads have you guys tried out this past weird year? Have i forgotten some of the hobbies and trends that have been popular during this endless pandemic?

Ken, so happy to see your post and know you are 'fixed' and back home again for recovery. We missed you and we worried!   Yaaaaay Ken is back.