Forum Activity for @susie

I'm enjoying your posts...keep them coming. It's interesting to see what you all have.

Six traditional pieces. 26 inch Betty, 26 inch Homer repro, 26 inch Dulcimore, 28 inch Thomas repro, 28 inch Ultra-lite and a 36 inch Grand. I play them all regularly!

I have 5 mountain dulcimers but always looking at new ones : 

• McCafferty chromatic - walnut/redwood top
• McSpadden diatonic - cherry/redwood top
• Folkroots - diatonic strung as a baritone
• Clemmer Ban-Jammer - walnut, chromatic
• Folkcraft - diatonic, all walnut

Also:

• 5 ukuleles of various types - banjo hybrid, ebony tenor, Fluke, etc.
• Bowed psaltery - Pete Braden 1997
• Ugears hurdy-gurdey
• Rick Thum 17/17 chromatic hammered dulcimer -  gently used - Adirondack spruce/ walnut/ hard rock maple - newest addition to the music room 

I own 6. 1Capritaures, 1 Mcspadden& 4 Cedar Creek.

I now have 12 including 2 zitters both with staple frets. Most of mine are traditional style with staple frets, several with wooden tuners. Only one with a 6 1/2 fret.

Ten, plus one in process:

Jacob Gross fretted zither -- replica of one in the Mercer Museum
Large Burnsville NC holly leaf
Small Burnsville NC holly leaf
Til Holloway hourglass  -- out on loan
Harry Wicker KY hourglass
Ozark Walking Stick coffin shape
Korean Honda hourglass -- out on loan
John Knopf JE Thomas replica hourglass 
Bobby Ratliff Hogfiddle elliptical
Bobby Ratliff Cumberland Travel model elliptical -- in transit from Virginia

In process:
Buckeye Pattern Ohio pre-revival two-bout

Plus three Anglo-Saxon Lyres, a Bowed Psaltery and 4 Mirlitons

I own 5, with 1 more on the way...

1. Doug Berch custom (sassafras/walnut)

2. Folkcraft custom (butternut/walnut)

3. Folkcraft Baritone custom (cherry)

4. McSpadden standard (26") (walnut)

5. McSpadden Ginger (GDG) (cherry)

6. McSpadden Ginger (DAD) (on order) (spruce/walnut)

We did this 11 years ago, and then again 8 years ago. So, I thought it would be fun to do it again, and see members' current lists. I know I enjoy seeing what dulcimers (makes/models) others own. After all, DAD (dulcimer acquisition disease) is real.

John, I think your mom's cactus can be given some slack considering our pandemic year. Everything is behind schedule, maybe the poor cactus is too!

Ken, I know what you mean since i lived in Puerto Rico for 13 years. Our neighbor had me over once and brought a night blooming cereus flower out of her fridge where she kept it at night- the perfume almost knocked you out! It was spectacular and strange. People keep many potted plants on their patios there. I always grew my own gandules (pigeon peas), passion fruit, quenepas... it's a whole different world in the tropics.

Dusty, maybe I'll take a pic of a pile of dirty laundry sometime- it could look like renaissance linen drapery! Would be an interesting project...finding the beauty in mundane things around the house. Did you know my mother was a photographer? It always annoyed me when she kept trying to take my picture when i was little.
The thing about photographing my plants is that they are always next to windows with light coming in- it makes it tricky to get a good photo without too much glare, unless I were to drag lights around which is too much bother.  lol

Strumelia, your house plants all look interesting and beautiful, but I also know you to be a superb photographer, so it could all be illusion. I am convinced you could take a picture of your dirty dishes stacked in the sink and it would like like a baroque sculpture.

We don't use pots much for plants except some orchids out by the pool and to start things like papaya seedlings and rooting  pineapple tops.  We've got bromeliads growing all over the yard.  Air plants on the trunks and branches of almost everything.  Night Blooming Cereus climbing the trunks of the laurel oak and mahogany tree in the front yard and mango tree alongside the house.  The neighbor across the street has a 20 ft tall Schefflera that blooms once or twice a year.    Most places Geraniums are annuals... here they're perrenials!

@venni, I hope you are getting professional medical care and that you recover fully.

Yes, please do! The new variants are even faster than the first variety ...

Dusty, thanks for all the info. I like trying out new possibilities, hearing all the new discoveries that are possible with the dulcimer. With an extra dulcimer & extra time, it's fun to explore 

Venni,

Take care & hugs from all of us

My mom's Christmas cactus got mixed-up and started blooming at Easter!  Is that normal?  At least it was the other Christian holiday...

Yes Venni, you really need to have a doctor take a look at you. 

@venni Go to the hospital as fast as possible. Covid-19 can get seriously dangerous very fast, very soon. Take care and I hope you get better soon!

Wanted to include a pic of the funny cactus in the kitchen. It started out when i bought it maybe 12 yrs ago consisting of three stalks about 8 inches high. Now it has reached the top of that window. The reason it's so tall and skinny is because it doesn't get full sun. Doesn't seem to care much though, it keeps growing cheerfully! That one i did repot about two yrs ago so it doesn't need it again for a while.

Here are the two beautiful Red Chestnut bromeliads in the living room I repotted two weeks ago. I pruned off about 20 lower leaves from each bromeliad so that I could more easily get them repotted. They will love their new orchid mix type soil. Isn't it magical how the sun glows burgundy through their striped leaves like stained glass?...

Then here's the 40+ pound spiny cactus that I needed help from my husband to repot- what a monstrous job that was!
Thank goodness it may not ever need a repot again- that last time was 14 years ago! Here it is all happy in its new pot in the bedroom (that blue thingy is a humidifier we use during the winter with the dry house heat)...

@venni I hope you can get help with your worsening covid symptoms!  Take care.

Most of my friends have had very little or no reaction to the vaccines other than a sore arm for a few days.
I got that weird "Covid Arm" reaction a week after my first Moderna vaccine but nothing much else. But then after my second shot, like Robin I was bedridden for a day and a half- very major immune system reaction. I'd do it all over again in a second because I feel so relieved now.
Today I went to the supermarket and for the first time in over a year I did not have that creepy feeling every time someone passed close by me, or just from touching things. Yes i used a mask and Purell but I felt sooooo much safer. Oh happy day!

Today I made a date for next week with a dear old friend (also vaccinated)- it'll be my first visit indoors with no masks, with someone other than my husband. Feels so strange to ease back into 'normal' by baby steps. 

Who knew a year ago we'd all be swapping vaccine stories and brands by now?  I've heard of people with no reactions (other than local soreness you'd get from any injection), I've heard of people getting kicked with the second shot, I've heard of mild stuff in between.  I have one coworker who actually got the Covid Arm thing a week after her 1st Moderna!  They moved up the eligibility here in WA.  We became eligible 3/31, and now all adults will be eligible as of 4/15, so I wanted to get my butt in gear a little ahead of that!

Yay, @lisavb!  

My first Moderna shot was a piece of cake.  About 12 hours after my second shot, my immune system kicked in hard.  It's good to know my immune system is working well.  

Excited to report we each have our 1st Pfizer shots scheduled for next week!

You're welcome, Dusty. And it will be a great loss for the dulcimer community.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks for sharing that, Ken.  Unfortunately, the last line reiterates something Bonnie has posted on her website: when their current supply of wood is used up, they will cease building dulcimers.  That will be a loss for all of us.

In case anyone interested is not already aware, Bonnie and Max were also the subject of The Hearts of the Dulcimer Podcast #042 by @wayne-jiang and @patricia-delich.

You're welcome, Susie. I thought it was.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks Ken, that was interesting.

I thought some folks would enjoy this article: https://themtnear.com/2021/04/award-winning-dulcimer-maker-and-musician-bonnie-carol/

Ken,

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I learned of this several months ago and thought it was pretty cool, Dusty.  Thanks for the post!  

I don't know what's best about this, that it was a kid who came up with the idea or that it can be created with a 3-D printer.  I immediately started thinking about a dulcimer fretboard, though, and the debate about just intonation vs equal temperament, or diatonic vs chromatic fretboards.  This idea would put an end to those debates forever since every instrument would be infinitely adjustable. 

Thanks for sharing that article, Dusty. I found it informative and interesting.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

It is chilly & wet here in my little corner of SE Ohio US this morning.  The guitar player in the house and I get our second vaccines on Saturday-- yay!  

March started like a lamb... going out like a Lion.  The good thing is we've both been doubled jabbed.  Lots of other not so good stuff happening though...

We had a lovely bike ride around Buttermere here in Cumbria yesterday. It was good to feel the heat if the sun. Unfortunately covid19restrictions are being eased soon and I fear it will be mayhem.

Beautiful (but windy) day in northern California as well. Took the dog on an early morning walk , which meant I got to practice maintaining my dignity while carrying a little bag of poop. 

March 30th is National Walk in a Park Day in the USA.  A beautiful sunny day in Kentucky with temperatures in the low 70's.  My husband and I  took a walk in a park in downtown Somerset. Just lovely to be out in nature. Nina

A sunny spring day in Bonn and I got out of home office at 2 pm. I spent the afternoon on the grass near the Rhine promenade of the Beuel district playing dulcimer. Some people even asked (while maintaining social distancing) what kind of instrument I played and asked "So you play it like a guitar?" 

So this was quite cheerful, wish you all have a good time

Here's an interesting online article about research being done at McGill University that has found that music we like stimulates the same part of the brain that responds to certain pleasure signals, especially pleasure related to survival, such as eating food when you're really hungry.  

https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/why-music-makes-us-happy-survival-science