The music will always be in you John and I know your Mary will be glad to hear you play again as will all at FOTMD. We think and talk of you quiet a lot here in Ireland John, Mary is afraid that you might not want to talk to us, now that you are so famous. Best wishes from us both. Val.
John,
I hope the songs you've held in your heart through the years can ring again, be a balm to your spirit.
Mark informed me my DPN arrived-- I should get to see it come Sunday. :)
While Dan Landrum is a great photographer, he's no magician-- you made a handsome subject!
xxx
Chuckle................don't be misled by the extraordinary skills shown by Dan Lundrum when wielding a camera..............he very nearly managed to make a 'silk purse out of a sows ear' on this occasion ! I have'nt seem the article in question, so cannot reply to your comment KenH, except to say I'm still learning to play.
Have been in a black place for the last few months, lost any music in me, but have booked for a week of dulcimer stuff in May, only problem is it coincides with the time Mary left the house and never came back ???
Lisa, don't despair, I have just purchased an iPad, so maybe in the future I shall be back to normal asking 'how do I' questions, and Val........
I had bet money that Ireland would upset our apple cart !!!
There is some great stuff being posted here, a privilege to be able to hear it, thanks to all concerned for the sharing
JohnH
I see that! Got my issue today.
Poor feller; had to whittle his first dulcimer out of a Sycamore timber so he could learn to play...
Careful, he's wielding a knife! 
Big congratulations to dear John Henry Crocker 
He's looking great, love it.
Thank you, Salt Springs!
of the new Dulcimer Player News! <3
PS- Having tech woes and can't upload the link. :(
Greg, so true! One would hope that a maker would allow sufficient width of a staple fret to accommodate either string, if it were built intended to service a pair of strings. But you're right- in our non-perfect world it's a point to watch for when choosing which melody string to remove.
Subversive Jesus by Craig Greenfield, and A Creative Minority: Influencing Culture Through Redemptive Participation by Jon Tyson.
I agree with Lisa with one exception. If you are playing a dulcimer that has staple-style frets, you will want to keep the string that is most centered over the frets. These partial frets have a tendency to let the string slide right off the fret. Not a problem with full-width frets, but annoying when playing over partial frets. That being said, most reproductions utilizing staple-style frets or partial frets are built with only three strings, so what to do with the extra melody string is not an issue.
I agree! For noter playing , keep the melody string on that is closest to you and the edge of the fret board. 
In most cases, Elidh, it will be the string closest to you. If you played across all the strings, you would want the remaining three strings to be equidistant from one another. But if you are playing noter/drone, then there is no harm in having the melody string a bit further from the other two.
I'm reading Ordinary Grace, by William Kent Krueger. Pretty good so far.
I'm reading some things on family genealogy, Henry the Fifth by Shakespeare, and a series of books about a fat vampire. Great for a laugh. And generally anything that doesn't move and has words printed on it. If I don't have a book in one hand, my Nook is in the other.
Thanks everyone for your kind responses. Your are wonderful and supportive community. John
Thanks for sharing that poem John.It is beautiful. I'm adding it to my collection of dulcimer related literature.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Very nice poem. By looking at the lines carefully due to the spacing, I could read the poem which gives a sense of time and space that I think was intended with this particular poem and its form. They are often hard to duplicate in certain venues; especially, a place like Facebook is really difficult as I have put poems on there from poets who were having a birthday and the poems never duplicate very well in the form for which it was written and intended.
But alas, it is poetry and it should be written, read, and heard.
Lumber/Limber Jacks (tree choppers) are/were somewhat common here, but we still have fun with them. You could always make a dancing Swagman/Bushranger/Ned Kelly!!!
Thanks perhaps I will, but Kangaroos are somewhat common place here.
I had thought of a dog but I think a man of some sort first. Will definitely work on a design for a Roo.
Thanks All!
That's wonderful, John! Thanks so much for sharing that.
You've got to make a "dancing kangaroo" limberjack!
Omg Ken- great idea! 
You've got to make a "dancing kangaroo" limberjack!
I dunno, John, I kinda like the first version with the oddly spaced lines... reminds me of some Nordic verse I've seen.
The poem should read as follows:
"Dulcimer Days"
There is no storm
When the dulcimer sings.
Hatred and hurricanes
Wait in the wings.
The gentle song
Of the dulcimer strings
Is the unspoiled paasion
Of everything
A friend of mine, Val Coleman, of Sandisfield, MA. wrote a beautiful poem after listening to our "Sweet Strings" dulcimer group. I wish to share this tribute to the sweet music of the Mt. Dulcimer with all of you.
"Dulcimer Days"
There is no storm When the dulcimer sings. Hatred and hurricanes Wait in the wings.
The gentle song Of the dulcimer strings Is the unspoiled passion Of everything.
Have explored the sites selling lumberjacks and Ken's idea of making one seem more attractive. The cost of the limberjack is reasonable but shipping to Australia is prohibitive, one company wanted $72.00! The limberjack will have to wait a while as I finish up some other projects.
Many thanks for the responces!
Probably not a good idea to just throw on strings for which you don't know the gauge or provenance.
Point taken Ken, in future I'll be mindful of the gauges I use. Thanks for the handy link down there too. In my defence the dulcimer shipped from the luthier with these strings on. The luthier is not a US luthier and I think he's sort of drifting off in his own direction somewhat in terms of dulcimer building.
Carol Walker's "DNA* Dulcimer Ditties" Book 1 is a great starter book, especially if you're interested in chord-melody style playing. The dulcimer club here recommends it for newer players. She teaches techniques using a lot of familiar songs, and she provides fingering recommendations so you'll learn how to play the chords as you go. Her store page has a sample tune from the book so you can see what it's like: http://www.musicladycarol.com/store.html
If you're interested in fingerpicking, I'd also recommend Janita Baker's "Fingerpicking Dulcimer" book to go with it, and Sue Carpenter's "Patterns and Patchwork."
I will also add something to this long ago conversation. I just finished Stephen Seifert's Dulcimer Intensive. It was a local event of which I am truly grateful. It was literally three days. We started about 9 in the morning and ended at 4:30 pm. I have to say that is the best dulcimer workshop I have ever attended. It is well worth the money. Some of the topics were more advanced but I did learn about them. From the beginners to the advanced players, everyone came away with something. And if you felt like you were going to forget what was covered, Stephen provided links to videos for a review. He has a very easy going teaching style. He showed us various different fingerings for chords. That alone for me was worth the price. He discussed chord shapes, fingering exercises, breaking down difficult sheet music into easy, strum patterns, flat picking, finger picking, easy chords, safe notes, etc. If you ever get a chance to take his work shops, do it. You won't regret it. Even if you feel like something is more advanced than your current playing level you will learn it and you will (if you put in the work) feel like it's attainable. He is very encouraging and a really nice guy. He's always willing to answer questions. Yes, he had us work on a line of music over and over again but we all finally got it. That's a taste of putting in the work and it's worth it. I would rate his work shop a 5 star on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the best.
A 16 gauge string -- even a 16 wound guitar string is verging on too "floppy" normally for a bass string tuned to D3. As others have mentioned a 20 plain or wound to a 22w, 23w, 24w is the most appropriate bass string for for the common VSL dulcimers.
Probably not a good idea to just throw on strings for which you don't know the gauge or provenance.
I'm using (I think) a 0.016 electric guitar "G" string as my bass string. I usually tune DAd. It turns out I was wrong about the "too floppy" though, it's floppy but not so bad as to not be playable. I really didn't think it would work. Thanks for the advice and sorry about the incorrect assumption.
I agree; tuning down just a whole tone shouldn't be floppy at all. What is the vsl of the instrument? A .023 or .024 is what I use on most and I can go from C to E with no problems. Just as aside, I find most folks use strings way to light for the tuning they are using. Oh yeah, what tuning are you using? LOL.
The solution is that you need another set of strings, although standard gauge strings for common 26-28" VSL should readily tune DOWN one note from DAA to CGG or DAd to CGc. What gauges are you currently using?? If it's the bass string, as SKip suggests, just change it out for something on the order of .022-.024 which are the gauges usually found in the ordinary packet of dulcimer strings.
A heavier bass string, about .022-.023. Loosening the strings one tone [step] [ D3 to C3] really shouldn't get that bad, it's only about a half turn of a tuning machine unless you have a really light bass string.
http://www.strothers.com/string_choice.html
This can guide you in your string choices, it recommendations can be a bit light by a couple of sizes.
I bought a limberjack from Prairie Wind Toy Co. They're not expensive, the quality is quite good, and they even sell a kit you can build. Their website is prairiewindtoys.com.
Steven
