John, I don't really do anything that special. I like to mix sweet fruits and berries with tart fruits and berries to balance it out to my own taste. I have a friend who collects wild honey so I use that whenever I get the chance, but usually I like brown sugar, and sometimes settle for white sugar. I leave all the pulp and skin in the mixture, then filter it out after fermentation. I use champagne yeast and a specific gravity gauge to measure the alcohol content and usually stop fermentation at 15% abv. I filter it with cheesecloth and allow the fine particulate pulp to remain, because I believe that a small amount of flesh and skin can decrease hangover symptoms.

So Nate......Care to share your small batch recipe???? I'm "re attempting" my elderberry blossom "cordial".....Last time it ended up like rocket fuel....

Ooh, that is exciting Nate, you are a winemaker now!
we have blueberries coming soon on our backyard bushes. We already put the netting over them to keep the birds from eating them. The blue jays and squirrels would eat them all otherwise. 🤷🏼

@nate That's just doggone cool.  

Very excited to see that the Oregon grape bush in front of my apartment is ripening! Oregon grape is the state flower of Oregon, but a lot of folks here don't know that it's edible and makes a delicious tart wine when fermented. The flavor is like a pomegranate flesh with a plum skin. I am stoked to be starting a gallon of wine today!

Thanks for the support, NATE

Really glad to hear you're recovering, John. I'll keep you in my prayers. Hope you're feeling well soon.

THANKS DUSTY

John, I'm so glad you're back home and healing. I hope you're feeling stronger every day and I look forward to hearing more of your music.

thanks GORDON.

John, thank goodness you are back home and on the mend please take good care of yourself and rest well. Pneumonia is nothing to sneeze at!😊

John, I hope you continue to feel better!  

Jan, that is so nice you got to meet Cynthia!  I always enjoyed her videos and her participation here. 

Jan, that is wonderful that you were able to visit Cynthia. On the way there and back you could have visited many more members of FOTMD who are not far off the route you traveled. I have not seen Cynthia participating here in a long time and must admit that I've been neglectful in contacting her.  Thank you for your report on your visit.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks Ken

Hey!  Guess what?!  After 4 1/2 years of talking on the phone nearly every day, Cynthia Wigington and I finally got to meet in person and spend a week together in her Vermont community of West Fairlee.  My husband Craig and I drove up from Kentucky and got to enjoy the sights from Ohio to Mass. and up north from there.  We stayed at a nice Airbnb about a mile from her house and enjoyed many meals at local restaurants (think lobster, clams, scallops...yum!)  We even played a little music together!  We thank FOTMD for introducing us to each other so we could become friends during COVID.  

I'm happy to hear that you are back home. I pray that you recover fully and heal quickly.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

John I'm so glad you are on the mend. That sounds like it was no fun at all.
Big hugs to you...

Thanks John!

Glad to see you on the mend. Try and rest, seek some sunshine, and the opportunity you have to be "in the garden" where you're never alone....

Shalom

Hi Everyone,  A couple of days ago I just got back from a six day stay at the hospital with pneumonia.

I am glad to be in rehabilitation now at home. Thanks for your prayers and support. John McKinstry

We're proud to "have you on the bus", Nate!  You have some amazing ideas.  Thanks for sharing them with us.

With the loss of such a positive support beam in the dulcimer community, it reminds me to express my gratitude to y'all. I am very grateful to have found this community of kind, helpful, non-judgmental, encouraging, and inviting folks who I can share the dulcimer with. You have all had a tremendously positive impact on me, and I'm grateful to be able to interface with all you great folks.
I love you all,
God bless all,
Nate

Hi Ken, Your Christmas activities sound lovely.  I forgot about the film A Child's Christmas! Adding it to my list of movies to watch.  I know you're a gourmet cook so your goodies will be delicious.  I just saw a recipe for Wassail that I want to try.  Our Christmas will be quiet, too. Just the way I like it.  Merry Christmas. Nina (from the Berea meet-up)

Quiet home Christmas mostly.  Sally's daughter is coming down from Baltimore so 4 of us for the traditional English Christmas Dinner. 

Later this week we're going with some friends on a 1/8 scale mini-train Night ride around our favorite walking park -- Lakes Park -- where we volunteer with the bird patrol and trash pickup.  The train museum goes all out decorating with lights and such long the several miles of track through the park.  

We're also hosting our annual friend party to watch the classic Denholm Elliot version of Dylan Thomas'  A Child's Christmas In Wales.  I'm making mince tarts and apple biscotti for both events, with Apple Cider and non-alcoholic Wassail Punch.

I'll be donating food and warm winter clothes to the homeless.

@john-c-knopf I'm grateful for the music she left behind-- it continues to enrich my life! 

Jean Ruth Ritchie was born 101 years ago today in Viper KY.

Our Christmas will be quiet as well…well as quiet as my granddaughters can be.  We will attend Christmas Eve services and Christmas Day.  I’ll dress for my grandchildren as St. Nicholas, (the one that really lived and still lives with Jesus), this Weds. on the feast day of St. Nicholas and tell his story.  

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This will be a quiet Christmas at home. I played at our local historical society's museum for our annual Festival of Ice the first weekend of this month. I played Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday music. We will visit our daughter's family after Christmas and help them pack up the first floor of their home which will be renovated in January and February. We will attend our usual service of worship on December 24th in the morning and the evening Christmas Eve service. For the most part I'm avoiding crowds until after mid-January as I will have cataract surgery on December 14 and January 4.I don't want to catch a cold or the flue and have to reschedule.  I'll be at home most of the time playing dulcimer.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks for the suggestion Strumelia. My family and I will celebrate Christmas from the perspective of the Biblical record, with praise and thanksgiving. We look forward to the Christmas fellowship at church and then the Christmas Eve candlelight service. It will be different this year as we lost my wife's dear sister passed due to cancer in September, so time will be spent to remember her.  We will share Christmas dinner with close family. Our daughter and her family will be with us for a day or two. There will be visits with family and neighbors. I will be making a homemade gift for my brother in law.  As of now I need to get started baking about 30 dozen cookies to share with many friends and some local businesses in the small town where I am. My list is growing so it may be more. I will play Christmas music most every day on the dulcimore.

Then as the Christmas Season passes into the New Year, we will continue to enjoy the birds which visit our 6 feeding stations daily. We also feed the wild deer, Canada geese, squirrels, an opossum we call Polly, a racoon we call Rocky,  and a few ducks that have taken up over the years. Some nights we listen to the call of the wild coyotes across the way.

In the Positive Thread... I'm just wondering what some of you are doing for the holiday season!  Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukka, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, or you just 'do cozy things'...  tell me what plans you have to make winter meaningful or enjoyable.
Are you looking forward to a family gathering or cooking a special meal?  Do you have a musical event planned or going to a cool concert?  Are you getting a new instrument to play?  Adopting a pet?  Reaching out to an estranged relative?  Traveling to a place far away?  Knitting some festive socks or making some other homemade gift?  Working a double shift so others can enjoy the holiday?  Having the neighbors over?  Honoring the memory of a loved one?  Setting up bird feeders for wildlife to enjoy?
Tell us how you add something positive to your December/January. ☃️ 🕯

Omg, this thread idea is amazing. I need positivety in my life! Hope everyone is having a fun safe Saturday! 

Best wishes to all at FOTMD.

Happy birthday, FOTMD!

Everybody is a mother and/or has a mother, so Happy Mother's Day, FOTMD!

Just saw this thread; what a great idea! In between playing dulcimer, if you have Apple TV, I can highly recommend Ted Lasso if you haven't seen it. Also, here is a photo of some happy chickens! 

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Those sound like positive developments and omens, Leo.
I was surprised to see a huge bald eagle flying over my village a few weeks ago. They sometimes hang out at the Hudson river which is near to us, but are seldom seen actually in our village. I saw one in a corn field here about 15 yrs ago while riding my bike. Snowy owls are equally majestic! I think i read there was one in NYC's Central Park last year.

I'm wishing positive new things for all FOTMD friends for this new year!

Well, Happy New Year to all!! 

I have to say, mine has had an auspicious start 'on steroids': Copies of my new album, 'Mixed Colors,' arrived 12/31 and on New Year's Day I saw the wonderful snowy owl, an arctic circle bird making the NYTimes etc for being in Southern California. Yes I am a birder too. AND, so over the top, I saw a rainbow on the way home from that. 

So, I'm either going to have a really good year, or I'm being set up by the fates for a big sucker punch! (Time will tell...)

I'm starting to put some of the tracks from the new album on YouTube, and am working on it 'streaming' and such. My YouTube channel is: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9OT1F765UQHoyaB2ChzxeQ  

I can also tell you there will be a '4-Equidistant Strings Dulcimer Day' on March 11 and 'read all about it': https://4-equidistant-dulcimer-day.simplerosites.com/     More information coming on all this.

Let's hope for another great year for mountain dulcimers!! 

Leo 

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Merry Christmas to all of our dulcimer friends.

Thankful for friends & family who survived Hurricane Ian whether they lost everything else, or nothing; thankful the dulcimer which has brought me so much joy over the years; and thankful for having been alive for nearly seventy-five years and having seen the changes, good and bad which have taken place around the world.

I'm thankful for a warm, well-lighted home to live in, family and friends, a meaningful job, the dulcimer that has brought joy and peace to thousands of folks worldwide, and like Richard, this Christmas season, I'm thankful for Christ stepping down from Heaven's splendor to be born as a baby, to show us God's love and the gift of salvation.

I am thankful for the Christ Whose birth we celebrate this time of year, for His love and peace and joy given to all who accept His gift of salvation and forgiveness of sins.

Things I am grateful for:

I am thankful for the many friends I have met through  the Friends of the Mt. Dulcimer website. They have sent me many touching messages of encouragement that I cherish.

 I am also thankful for the mountain dulcimer itself which produces such sweet, soothing music.

I am also thankful for family who take time to record my videos and encourage me to enter this larger world of sharing.

What a blessing to have found such a community that offers such peace, joy, and encouragement!

List 3-5 things you are grateful for right now. 🙌🏻  🎄  💕

You're correct John. I think it was in the $2,000 to 3,000 range, but I may not remember it all that well.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I don't remember this "Jeopardy!" episode, but I do recall the "Antiques Road Show" episode with the old Virginia dulcimore on it. The appraiser valued it way high, it seemed to me.

Good point, Dusty.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

The trick, Ken, is to record the show, memorize the answers, and then ask someone to watch it with you.  When you yell out all the answers they'll think you're so smart!

Haha, Dusty. I'm glad they repeat those old shows. Sometimes the second or third time through I can get the right question for the answer.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

If I'm only four or five months late, that's not bad.  I think of new music as anything played since the invention of the steam engine.

Jeopardy has been offering video and photo clues for years. That's nothing new. Also, this show is not new either. It was first broadcast in July of 2022.

Kwn

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Whaaaat?? I didn't think they showed picture clues on that show! Seems crazy.

As the question was asked, they showed a picture of a dulcimer, so the banjo answer was less informed than you might have thought.

That's actually pretty impressive!  Especially also considering that "mountain banjos" are actually a defined type of banjo.

On Jeopardy today:

Answer: The mountain this is the Kentucky state instrument.

Question: What is a dulcimer?

The first contestant to answer guessed a banjo, but the second one got it.

omg Dusty, too adorable! 

Do you love cats?  Do you love music?

Glad to see you active again. Looking forward to your participation.

I've been gone a long time.  Hoping to get back to trying to play again.

Hey friends, I created a new discussion entitled International Appalachian Dulcimer Day in the General Mountain Dulcimer Forum.  Let's move our discussion (especially the posters!!) over there and leave this space for other positive news.

Thanks.

Steve, I'll send you a private message through fotmd.

Strumelia, If you can send me an email address, I will send you a copy and you can edit as you wish.  Any help is appreciated.

Great poster!!!. Absolutely love it, the old timer sorta reminds  me of me😊....Robert.

I'm with Richard at thanking you for your original suggestion which got things rolling, @dusty-turtle!

National Guitar is February 11.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks Dusty for your original post. Now when is national guitar day? Seems that drifted off with the wind in all our talk of an International Dulcimer Day.

Hey everyone, I just want to say how wonderful it is that an off-the-cuff comment I made on National Guitar Day has led to a consensus here about International Appalachian Dulcimer Day.  When I get a chance (and recover from a long day at work) I'll create a new discussion somewhere else on FOTMD specific to IADD. We can share resources like Steve C's poster and, when the day arrives, share photos, videos, or just descriptions of what we do on that day.  (IF someone wants to do that before I get a chance, please go ahead.)

This is a positive outcome of a discussion on the positive thread!

I can adjust the contrast for the white text areas by deepening the yellow and pale blue background colors just a little, if anyone needs me to. Then it would be nicely readable if printed out or copied in greyscale.

Like those?

Thanks Stumelia!  I fixed it will try to get it re-sent

Great poster!

Note: the word "holding" at the bottom has a typo.

Also- many folks would be printing/copying this out in greyscale, and it'd be good to bump up the contrast between the lettering and the background colors so it's easy to read. ...making the background colors behind the white text just a bit darker. Here's how it prints out on a blk&white printer as it is now:

Great poster Steve

Good job on the poster, Steve!