Forum Activity for @lexie-r-oakley

Well I have 3 of my dream dulcimers, now there is just one more which is a hogfiddle by Bobby Ratcliff.

Then a TMB by John Knopp would be nice.

This is very up setting for you. Will you be contacting that person?

I have my dream dulcimers, 2 by Kevin Messenger a Presnell and Thomas reproduction, one by Robert Schuler modeled by Jefferies, but one I have wanted is made by Bobby Ratcliff, like Ken H. has.

The real dream would have an original Presnell or Thomas.

 This is the one I like for the FOTMD Family! 

His name is Smiley, he is my favorite FOTMD Smiley cause he loves to sing to your songs.

Steamed Clams in beer on the beach....oh yum!

We have done beer butt chicken oh boy so good!

It is beautiful each year Lisa, truly enjoyed it again!

Thank you Lisa and Brian, you two just make me smile and Smiley sing!!!! Kinda want to jump into a snow drift....

Happy Solstice and Merry Christmas, I wish you Love and Peace. 

Aww Terry so sorry you got so sick, food poisoning is scary, oysters got me and I am amazed that I can tell the story.

I hope you do what Lisa, your wife and daughter tell you "Drink Water" and me....feel better soon.

Can you reschedule your gig, aww gee sure am thinking of you and your family.  

Cat, I hope your fingers and hands feel better so you can play your music. I know you can find your way to make it more comfortable and lots more satisfying to be able to play your dulcimers.

Keep strumming those sweet strings, even if it is just for a little while it sure brings peace for me.....

Thanks Sam, it will be fun to hear from these two men about the instruments. Great that you are sharing this story with us.

We are Excited!

Happy Anniversary Sam. Wow that is an interesting dulcimer. I hope you connect with the manager and let us know what you find out. 

Sounds like you are beginning a new family Christmas tradition Terry! It is fabulous you and your boys will be doing this together, I am sure the folks will enjoy your singing.

I am looking forward to the video.

Cat, I hope you find some relief from your finger pain. Splints really help me to play, and I am creative in that I don't grip tightly the pick or noter, my spoon noter cups in the palm of my hand and my thumb rests on top. With my hand splint, the splint itself holds my bamboo noter, works well.

You can get used to the splints, anything to play I say!! 

Awesome I really think the finish is interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Sharon, You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers..

Thanks for posting the article Ken, I enjoy seeing the progress of this little town and one day I hope to visit there.

Beautiful, I really enjoy the pipes. I am pleased that your loading of the video worked out for you.

JH.....You are in my heart and prayers. You are a part of my music and offered many of us your skill of the MD.

I will pray that when your days are quieter you will play a song again. I know that my playing of my MD's are a great healer.

What a beautiful tribute to your beloved wife John. You will continue to be in my thoughts and prayers, take care of yourself.

Thank you Friends for your heartfelt memories of Oliver, it is a wonderful tribute to a gentle and kind man whom I wish that only I had the opportunity to meet he and his wife (Sharon). 

I only chatted with Oliver and other's and yes Kevin, I agree that this site is special for all of us to share in our love of music and become so caring and connected.

Oliver shared his happiness with me about meeting lots of you and I really enjoy hearing your memories of our friend.

God Bless you all!!

My prayers are with Sharon.

Dear Friends,

I have been asked to please take a moment today to remember our Friend;

Oliver Ogden who passed away yesterday. Save a prayer for his family and friends who will miss him.

I had the pleasure of getting to know Oliver through our chats and he had a love for his music, dulcimer group and dulcimer festivals he got to attend, meeting up with his friends, lots of whom are from this site. Oliver loved his instruments and playing them and we lived through with him, a long waiting time for a luthier to finish one of his instruments, it was worth it in the end and he was pleased with his new banjamer.

Oliver described his library as having fossils, wonderful collection of books and his beloved turtles, I found him to be a very interesting guy.

He also shared that he was a hat maker in which made period (historical) hats for people in historical reenactments.  

I really enjoyed chatting with him about once a week a little neighbor boy came to Oliver's library so they could read books.

Rest in Peace my friend, I will remember you with love, I am thankful we connected.

Perhaps tomorrow we could play a song in remembrance of our friend Olive aka; OO7. 

Your link worked for me and I thought it sounded very good. Keep it coming and you'll get the videos to load right next time.

You have a real treasure there and it is such a nice thing that Rick Scott got in touch with you to give you information on JR dulcimers. This will give your dulcimer that much more pleasure and personal value and the coolest part is that it was your Father's.

Have fun with your Dulci Journey!

Sounds like you have a beauty enjoy your journey and I am sure other's will lead you to more information as you have lead me to the discovery of JR's dulcimers have fun.

Rick Scott playing JR's last dulcimer;

I went to youtube and found Rick Scott playing J.R's last dulcimer and JR playing a dulcimer very much like yours.

I looked up JR Stone and found a interesting article "Meeting Joni Mitchel" by Rick Scott. Which includes some back ground information on JR Stone. This might interest you. http://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=2682

Our Dear Friend John Henry, you and your family are in my prayers and I hope you find comfort in each other in the coming weeks as you remember your Sweet Mary.

Sending you Hugs.

Thank you for remembering Phil, he was a very fun Dulci buddy and is missed.

I can relate to having a dulci in my tiny car and my dog singing to Ole' Joe Clark. 

Very beautiful, enjoy!

I enjoyed learning about Ivan and how he has introduce our American Instrument to the people in Singapore. I hope that he will be able to come visit dulcimer communities in America and Jam someday.

Thank you for your work with the podcasts.

Susie, exciting that you got your new flute and very happy your husband seems like he will enjoy listening to you play.

Yes we would love to see a picture of it, sounds very beautiful.

I am sorry about your joint pain in your finger, I know it is painful and distracts from playing our sweet strings.

I have Rhematoid Arthritis and so I don't play for too long, I am happy when I get to practice my MD for a hour. Hand splints have helped me play, but I always use a noter because my finger joints won't handle the pressure of chording.

My noter I slip into my hand splint (a bambo chopstick) or when I am not using a hand splint I use a hard wood spoon for a noter. This allows my hand to loosely hold the spoon with the palm of my hand and takes tension off the small joints in my fingers. 

I think what has helped me is shorten my playing times or rest in between, but also I use foods or supplements in my diet to help joint health and inflammation. 

I eat lots of dark berries; raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, also fresh ginger, tumeric.

Some suppliments that help me are flaxseed oil, glucosamine and fishoil.

I wish you well in finding your way with this painful distraction and continue to enjoy playing your sweet strings. 

Great that you are challenging yourself with your new flute. It does have a beautiful tone and I think you'll be playing it really soon at your Pub gigs, you are sounding good.

Really great Lisa, you seem to be getting into playing the songs you like and enjoying it. I liked the tone of your flute.

Hugs; beautiful bag you have made. So happy you have your little dulci, enjoy!

Mark, I so enjoy listening to you play your wooden thing with sweet strings. We are excited for your win!!!

Pretty Fabulous, I hope this man strings it up and lets it sing. It would be wonderful to hear it.

We are excited about your win Mark! Thanks for representing our "Sweet Strings"!