Forum Activity for @strumelia

I just gotta add, about tuning wrenches:

Having used both the T shaped cheaper ones and the L shaped slightly more expensive ones... I urge people to get an L wrench-  you get way more control for fine tuning the zither pins- the fulcrum range is much wider. Truly, it's like twice as easy to fine tune by very small increments, and also the L wrench is much much easier on the hands.  It's almost like the difference in ease between plain wood tunings pegs that are sticky, and simple geared machine pegs.  My advice is to pay the extra couple of bucks and get an L wrench... it'll make your life easier!    ;D

When i saw the pictures of this dulcimer, I immediately thought that the maker used the carved swan head arm from an antique chair for the head stock.  Such carved swan head chair arms were fairly popular both long ago and again in later reproductions of Victorian furniture. I suspect the swan head was recycled from an old discarded chair, the rest of the dulcimer having been built at a later time than when the chair was made.  In my eyes, the smooth stylized mahogany swan head doesn't really seem to match the whole rest of the instrument which is decidedly more rustic. Look at some of these vintage and antique chairs for typical carved swan head arms. One like this one could have easily been cut and adapted as a head stock.  I also think the 'wing' decorative element might have come from recycled furniture, and the fretbord may have been a mahogany piece from furniture as well.  I think whoever made the dulcimer was into using old furniture wood for thier projects.

Ferrator, can you post here a photo or two of the entire instrument?  It's hard to tell anything from just a few closeups, without the 'big picture'.

I've been saving up ripe tomatillos from my garden for the past 10 days, and had a giant bowl of them ready for today.  I made my first green sauce!

After husking and washing the tomatillos, I cut them all in half, then quartered two onions and halved a large red italian pepper (also from my garden) and tossed all with a little olive oil and salt and black pepper.  (I can't eat too hot spicy so I didn't use jalapeno hot type peppers. Mild hot is ok for me though.)
I spread everything out on a big broiling pan in one layer and roasted it in a 425 oven about 20 minutes til everything was soft and a bit of charring of the tops. That was more than enough cooking. Removed some of the liquid with a turkey baster, because there was really way too much liquid. 

Spooned it all into the food processor and buzzed it just enough to to chop up the bigger onion/pepper pieces.  The resulting chunky sauce all filled a 2 quart pyrex pitcher.  I add a tablespoon or two of hot cilantro chutney, stirred that in, and then ladled into canning jars to keep in the refrigerator.  Recipes say it should be good for like 6 or 8 weeks... plenty of time for us to eat it all up!  It is reeeeally yummy!

There are way more green tomatillos still out there that are not ripe yet.  I think the next batch would be accumulated and ready in a couple weeks.  At that time I might make another batch but actually 'can' it with a hot water bath and seals so I can store it on a shelf for longer time, maybe give a few jars as Christmas presents.

These scruffy little pooches are so cute!!

Lois, you could create and name a new photo Gallery and then use the gallery's "+" button to add photos to the gallery.

BUT if your goal is to ask if people know who made your dulcimer, then you'd get a lot more responses if you just ASK that question in a new discussion in our Instruments/luthiers Forum:
https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/instruments-discuss-specific-features-luthiers-instrument-problems-questions
Notice that that forum has quite a few discussions asking who might have made a particular dulcimer.

Many people don't notice descriptions in a gallery or a photo. But a forum discussion, with pictures, WILL get more reads and more replies. A photo or photo gallery is not a great place to try to start a discussion or ask questions. Mostly people will just say "beautiful dulcimer!" when they comment on a photo. Discussion are easiest to conduct in Forums.

I suggest you create your new discussion in the appropriate forum (as I linked above), and then read the following thread for instructions on how to add your photos into your discussion posts :

https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/site-questions-how-do-i/33874/how-do-i-attach-photos-to-a-post

Thanks for the timely reminder, Robin! 

The answer to this mystery is described here:  https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/site-questions-how-do-i/35300/mystery-solved-comment-walls-not-indexed-in-site-searches

Comments in Comment Walls are not indexed within site searches.

Discussion threads in Groups and Forums ARE included in site searches for phrases.

Thanks SaltSprings!  That explains the mystery-  the word phrases Anne was searching this site for weren't actually used in that fotmd discussion... but rather they appear on the other site... the site that was linked to by Greg.  That's why they didn't turn up in any searches of this site.

Anne, I'm not having luck finding those terms either.  I also did a search of Greg's activity feed for those terms and had no luck doing that.  Not sure what else I can do!  Are you positive that it was here on FOTMD that you read that post? I'm thinking that the post was actually a COMMENT on an item like a video maybe, and it's possible that Comments don't show up in search results.

Special thanks to Dusty Turtle and Robin Thompson for contributing/donating to the prizes and expenses of the contest. 

A big Thank You to ALL wonderful members of Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer... for making this site so much FUN and so rewarding to be a part of, for a whole ten years now.    

I especially want to extend a hug to those members who have been here since our first year- how terrific it is that you've been here for so many years of sharing and friendship and support.   :)

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To the five contest winners-  please send me a private message with your postal address so I can start the process of making sure you receive your PRIZE(s) in the mail !!!   

Here is the chart by which the winners were calculated.  The LUCKY NUMBER was 407 .

1st Prize....  @larry-goodwin  !!!

2nd Place Prize:  @hugssandi !

3rd Place Prize:  @dulcinina !

4th Place Prize:  @jan-potts !

5th Place Prize:  @lois-sprengnether-keel !

And the winners are......(drum roll please)...

Entries now CLOSED, winners announced this evening. 

--> TODAY is the last day you can enter this pickled dulcimer contest!!   

Entries will be closed at midnight tonight Wednesday the 31st!

--> TODAY is the last day you can enter this pickled dulcimer contest!! 

Entries will be closed at midnight tonight Wednesday the 31st!

--> Last 2 days to enter this contest before entries are closed!

Terry, I'm very grateful for the blessings I have in life, at least at this point in time.   :)

Still picking tons of blueberries.  I'm making a blueberry cobbler (8x8 glass pan) almost every day.  The bushes look like maybe another two weeks to go. Somehow my husband and I are just managing to keep up with eating them without having to preserve any.  I guess we can get back to less fattening stuff after the blueberries finish.  That's when the tomatoes kick in.  :)  We feel like bears during berry season, gorging ourselves. 
I'm also having bowls of yogurt with our own blueberries and raspberries, topped with walnuts.  Eating extra yogurt to recover my gut from having taken doxycycline for 5 days after a tick bite.  Dang ticks ruin all the fun!  We never walk in the woods or fields anymore due to ticks, but sometimes they get us even in our small backyard, like when I work in the veggie garden or pick our raspberries, or work near the beehives. 

I went to a Cajun 2-step dance party at a local pub, with pretty good cajun band.  A new experience for me, a little outside my comfort zone. I didn't expect to see more than 1 person I knew, but several people i know, and also a few contra dancers I know showed up.  I guess we were all there in order to get some dancing in.  They gave a modest lesson beforehand for a few minutes, and it was all real casual, so I didn't feel too embarrassed.  Everybody danced with everyone there...all nice folks.  It definitely wasn't as much movement as a zumba class (or as contra dancing either) but it was more fun than zumba for me, and my pedometer claimed i did about 6,000 steps during the dancing.
I'm going this Saturday to an all day outdoor festival that features a huge dance tent with contra dancing almost all day and night.  I'll get there before lunch and leave around 11pm or so like last year.  HUUUUUGE workout, which is why I'm trying to get a few zumba classes and other dancing under my belt  beforehand.

TODAY July 29th, 2019 is FOTMD's 10th anniversary!!!!

Only 3 days left to enter the contest- don't miss out!!  FIVE chances to win prizes!

(please enter only ONE time)

Unfortunately it seems the ED facebook group continues to be secret/hidden from public view. It's been almost two months now. 

Beverly, a couple of closeup photos would really help here-  one of the bridge with the strings in the slots... and another of the nut and including the first three frets.

Are the strings ancient?  Sometimes really old strings can sound a little out of tune when fretted.

26" is shorter than most standard McSpaddens.  You are also tuning CGC- lower than the most common standard tunings. The combination of these two factors means your strings are a little bit looser than normal setups.  Looser strings means when you pluck them (or pull offs), the arc at which they vibrate will be wider... they'll move more when vibrating.  This makes them accidentally buzz against one or more frets.

You can make those strings a bit more taut by one of two ways:  either tune UP a step to DAd and play in the key of D, OR simply get some slightly thicker gauge strings and put those on.  Thicker strings will be tighter even if you stay in CGC.  Look for strings that are just one step thicker-  for example if the current string is .022 get .024 instead.  
That's probably all you need to do for the buzzing to be gone. Fresh strings that are a wee bit heavier... thus tighter with less wild vibration arc when plucked.

Hard to believe, it seems like yesterday. 

A blast from the past:

https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/off-topic-discussions/3354/fotmd-one-year-anniversary-on-july-29th-2010#r3378

A BIG hug and much gratitude to the members who help support this site with their kind donations, both large and small.

But did you know that most of the folks who donate are much the same people, over and over?  It'd be great to see a few new/different people step up occasionally. It costs me about $70 per month out of pocket to maintain Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer.  I and our 6 Moderators all freely volunteer our time and effort as a labor of love.  Member donations and for sale ad sponsors 'usually' provide enough to cover our monthly server and software fees... but not always.  

This month, FOTMD celebrates its TENTH Birthday!!!!!! 
THANK YOU to those few members whose donations help cover the continuing costs of keeping FOTMD up and running!    

If anyone else who has never before donated cares to chip in , even as little as $10 every year or two- it helps, believe me!  

Just use the Paypal button on our site's Home page.  (Remember that if you donate $35 or more, your Profile page will show a "Patron" banner designation under your profile page member photo for a year.)

The fact that this site is funded almost entirely from member donations speaks so highly of all the folks who are part of the FOTMD family.    

Thank you thank you thank you  !!

Hey i stumbled on this auction of a kantele on Ebay, and it looks pretty nice, at a good price, thought I'd share it here in case anyone is interested (i have no connection to the auction).  In the auction it's described as a 'dulcimer', btw.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/264403850737?ul_noapp=true

"...to the naw..."  Too funny! 

Sandi, swimming is a good way to exercise/move without overheating during the Summer. It's been so hot around here lately! Even my honeybees are too hot to stay in their hive- at midday, there are great BEARDS of thousands of them hanging from the fronts of their hives, keeping cooler than going inside. I should take a photo, it would scare most folks to death to see but they are pretty peaceful, just 'hangin' and 'chillin'.  lolol   We are blessed to have air conditioning in our house- especially needed as we get older i think.

Sandi I reeeally want to hear the funny zumba story!  Are you willing to post it here or will you PM me?

Entries now closed

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Guess the winning number!

Enter FOTMD's 10th Anniversary

Pickled Dulcimer CONTEST!!

  FOTMD is 10 years old!    

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It's hard to believe, but Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer site was born on July 29, 2009... a whole DECADE ago!!

In honor of the fast approaching day of FOTMD's 10 th anniversary , July 29 2019...

All members are invited to participate in

FOTMD's 10th birthday Pickled Dulcimer Contest !

Please READ the rules and conditions below carefully BEFORE entering....

Make your GUESS for the number of pickled dulcimers in the giant pickle jar !!!

--> Please note that the picture above is merely symbolic - so it's no use at all trying to count the dulcimers in the picture.

I will give you a hint though- the answer is a random number I will pick that is more than 10 and less than 500 . (thus, it could be any number from 11 to 499)  You can make only ONE guess. And it's perfectly ok if two or more people guess the same number, though that might produce tied winners. I've already told one non-participating FOTMD moderator the secret winning number , for safe keeping. ...and don't try bribing them for the answer! lol!

==========================

The following prizes will awarded to the closest guesses:

FIRST PRIZE:

A $20 gift certificate towards any purchase on Larry Conger's dulcimer site !

PLUS! : a genuine hand carved and painted 'mountain gal' LIMBERJACK! :

===================================

SECOND PRIZE:

Dusty Turtle's new "Lullabies From Around the World" dulcimer tab book !:

PLUS! : a brand new CD of "Rehab Reunion"  ...Bruce Hornsby's album where he wrote every song on the mountain dulcimer!

===================================

THIRD PRIZE:

Redwood Mountain Dulcimer All-Star Collection:

PLUS! :  Dusty Turtle's new   "Lullabies From Around the World"  dulcimer tab book !:

===================================

FOURTH PRIZE:

Jessica Comeau's lovely CD:  "Songs of the Earthly Pilgrimage:

Medieval and World Folk Music on the Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer"

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FIFTH PRIZE:

Steve Eulberg's CD: Whamdiddle dulcimer/fiddle tunes "Old School Old-Time"  

(Hey Kids!-this great CD features FOTMD's unofficial 'theme song':

"Spider Bit The Baby"!) 

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GOOD LUCK! and many Thanks to our prize sponsors and donors!

Hey even if you don't win a prize, consider visiting the prize links above and treating yourself by buying yourself a prize anyway from one of the talented artists and contest helpers. Support your friendly dulcimer world friends!

Last but not least, Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer always welcomes and appreciates any amount of donation you care to make (we have site costs to pay every month, and FOTMD is run entirely on the kind donations of members).  Without you wonderful members over the years, FOTMD would not have made it to ten years old. To support and donate to FOTMD in honor of it's 10th birthday, please use the Main page PayPal donation button.