Deer hunting in WV

 I could not decide which blog site to put this post on.  Somehow it did not seem right for my main blog site that is mostly genealogy.  But there is a bit of Serendipity in the story even though it is perhaps a bit odd.

I shopped at Kroger very early on Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  I didn't need much.  I just had forgotten a few items that I could have probably done without.  And as I found myself about two thirds of the way through the store almost to the frozen section, I saw two nice looking men who said just as I passed them:  Are you going deer hunting?  These men were not model attractive.  They were solid nice looking, normal men.  And I passed on by to pick up some cream cheese and some half and half and another item or two.  As I came back,..... I wanted to look at candles on the same aisle that they were still on.... chatting a bit.  And I could not help myself.  I said as I passed them:  " I don't think that I could live in a place that didn't have men talking about hunting"!  and they laughed appreciatively and said indeed that was exactly what they were doing.  They were even sharing photos on their phones.

And I meant what I said.  I love living in WV where one is constantly reminded of the men and women who settled here that are my ancestors.  I could not let loose of the ties to men who wielded guns and hunted to feed their families or to protect them in some instances....and women who probably did the same....

Coronavirus 2020 No sew facemarks

The brightest spot for me during this Coronavirus 2020 are my grandchildren, of course!  Because their best buddies are not allowed in anyone's house during the quarantine, my porch has become everyone's favorite place to hang out!  We have lego, and Knitting kits that actually turned out to be fun....no one is really knitting now, but I did get the comment:  "now I know what you are doing, Nana when you sit and knit"  Yesterday we did egg hunts in the side yard.

But the HUGE hit of the season was yesterday's project.  We made masks!  Much to my amazement all of the children LOVED their masks and actually wore them!  So here are the photos:









I received the pattern for this no sew mask via Blueprint.



I am happy to send you instructions if you want to make some of your own.  Just e-mail a request for the no sew face mask to my e-mail address:  mosesm@earthlink.net

I used up the fabric that I had on hand yesterday with our project, but I am contemplating cutting up some shirts/pants/etc that I have around the house to make more.  

Scrap knitting

A few of my knitting buddies were chatting about using scraps to knit projects.  Then by chance I received a pinterest note with the following project featured:



It is called a Scrappy bias shawl it was designed by Emily Clawson.    The pattern is a free download on Ravelry at:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/scrappy-bias-shawl

Just after I published this, I found another good pattern for scrap knitting:



It is called Entrelac Boho Scarf.  It is a free download on Craftsy.

 A Knitting Pattern by Leah Prestamo   

 Leah Prestamo 2015 www.weavingtales.com 

I downloaded the pattern and I am storing it on dropbox in Scarfs and Cowls.

The gauge is 20 stitches and 16 rows = 4 inches in stockinette  SUGGESTED YARN 520 yards of DK weight  PREFERRED BRAND/YARN Feederbrook Farms Entropy DK  COLORWAY Paradox

RECOMMENDED WITH THIS PATTERN

1 set straight or circular needles size 9

crochet hook to weave in loose ends

Fun "stuff" 2018

What a busy, wonderful year I have had this 2018!

Mary's twins were born December 2017 and I flew all night to get there for the birth on December 23rd.  

I spent most of January with Mary and Alberto and Jack and Galileo.  Two of our most entertaining events were the time spent getting the twins official papers as both Peruvian citizens and American citizens.

My time was cut short by the death of my mother-in-law, Sue Harris Moses.  I flew back to be part of the funeral gathering.  Sue's quality of life had greatly deteriorated after she passed the 95 year mark, so it was more of a celebration of her life than a sad event.  And grandchildren flew in from all over the map.  I was so glad to be a part of spending time with all of these very special people.

I wish that I had thought to get a photo of the family that gathered....it was really fun spending quality time with Sue's wonderful family!  I did do a blog post at the time that has photos of Sue:

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/search?q=sue+moses

In march I traveled to Boston for Rudy's birthday.  That has become something that I do every year.  Even the drive was specially fun in spite of the fact that I drove up in a snow storm so big that "they" gave it a name"....and then drove back in a second snow storm.  I had a huge genealogy day in Berks County, Pennsylvania where I would not have even visited this trip except that the snow kept me from taking the more northern route.  Serendipity at its finest!

Quality time with Rudy included time at the library gaming with the other kids after school:



Katie and Joel attended a Chrysler Meeting and I was soooooo lucky that I had the opportunity to take the Goldy Girls and Harper's good buddy, Rachel Oxley, to Columbus for a Cheer event.  Ellie is HUGE into Cheer with Amp here in Huntington.  From left to right:  Rachel, Harper, Ellie.



Mia, and Kya.


And another piece of Serendipity....the darling restaurant that I had googled turned out to be in the parking lot of the motel that Katie had booked.  Photos taken at the restaurant that took such nice care of us.

In June Jason, Katie, and I took all of their kids to Vermont via train.  We stopped in Philadelphia for two nights to do Historical tours.  Then spent the weekend in Burlington to celebrate the finish of Sarah's four years in residency at the University of Vermont.  We all flew home at the end of the weekend!  But the train ride was fun.





Perhaps the kid's favorite event in Philly was the "Rocky Steps"!





Doctor Moses:



July I headed back to Peru for Jack and Galileo's baptism....








and stayed long enough to be present for the soft opening of Mercado 28.  Finally after many years of hard work, Mary realized her dream of opening a market in Lima.  I had a wonderful time celebrating with Mary and her partners what was an amazingly successful evening!







In August Sarah came for a visit as she had a bit of time off between Vermont and her new job.  One of the highlights was spending time with the Goldy family at Flat Top:







The fall brought band season for Eowyn and Homecoming and new learner's permit:







Along with Halloween:

Jackson:

And finally in November I drove to Buffalo to meet Sarah, Rudy and Michael for Rudy's Hockey tournament.  

The below photo is Sarah and me and Susan (One of Rudy's  coach's Mom).  Rudy is lucky enough to have a newly retired NHL player as one of his coaches so Susan was particularly fun to sit with as she actually knows something about the game from having watched her son through his growing up and then as a professional player for many years.

I wrote several blog posts about this trip.  One is below:

https://quakersinswohio.blogspot.com/2018/11/new-york-buffalo.html

Now I am looking forward to the holiday season.  Mary and her group are coming for two weeks for the holiday and Sarah is going to come for New Years'.  Fun stuff!

I just couldn't stand to not add a few December photos ....


Mary's family at Mercado No28...(her market in Lima)



Rudy in his helmet that he received for being MVP at his last hockey game.  He scored two goals in
the game!

Kids serendipity

Target always has fun stuff in their dollar bins as one walks into the store in our local Target.  I suppose that it is the same in other Targets?  The other day I walked in to buy something that was on my list of needs for the week.  There in the bins were what we used to call pipe cleaners.  They are very colorful and I could not resist them to have on hand for my grandkids.

Impulse purchase.

The first week Kya spent time unwrapping the packages that held them and twisted a few and lost interest.  I put them in a vase and put them in the middle of the table.

This week the kids brought them downstairs from the playroom and put them in the middle of my living room table.

The creativity of children can never be underestimated!

Bonus Day in November

Yesterday was the day that marks Jack's death seven years ago.  11/11/2007.  While others say that five years is the magic year that a death begins to be somewhat less .....hmmmmm the words escape me this morning....I give up....but it would be the opposite of Raw.  Somewhat more mitigated....a scar rather than a huge gash.....an aching rather than what one would describe as Pain.

For me it has been seven years rather than five that has been the magic number.  All of a sudden I feel strong enough to tackle the projects that I have put off.... and I am beginning to really accept the new me who was born when Jack's death caused  the "old me" to die as well.  I am beginning to think about travel beyond getting in the car and driving to a destination for a few days....of making real plans to DO things.  Certainly, no one would have accused me of "not living" during the last seven years, but I just feel stronger.

By chance, the Seven Year's mark was celebrated with serendipity as well!  I think that perhaps that word describes the new me better than any other word.  I miss the routines that were a part of Jack's and my life.  But I love the serendipity that has become a part of my life as a single person.

Gary Jones was finishing a project in Jason's old bedroom repairing the rod that had come down from too many off season clothes hung on old wire shelving.  He was using materials that Jack would have loved....the project is beautiful....it was not until late in the day when I stopped between golf and knitting to write Gary a check that I realized that the date was Nov 11th.

These photos are old....too busy having fun to remember to take photos!

The day was marked by an unexpected 70 degree day!  On a day when I have Katie's girls because she works on Tuesdays.....but then it turned out that the kids were out of school ....so we agreed that I would keep them over night and she would go in early and then come get them early so that I could play golf in the afternoon....and Mitzi turned out to be available to play golf at 11:30....which let us play 18 holes

and still let me make it to knitting by 4:00....and then Mitzi was a REAL friend and kept after me until I agreed to go to the Straight No Chaser concert at the Paramount Theater in Ashland with her two VERY musical buddies, Debbie and David at 7:30!  WOW....a day just doesn't get any better than that!  Grandchildren, golf, unseasonably nice weather, knitting group, and WONDERFUL concert with buddies....I even managed to sandwich in a quick salad and glass of chardonnay....Serendipity at it's BEST!

Photo to right is view of golf course from my porch.




Old photos of the kids....forgot to take any at Starbucks or in the playroom or out riding bikes...

Photo taken by three year old Mia early Tuesday morning....."Nana, can I play with your phone?" and my answer as I try to lay in bed just a few more minutes is of course, yes.....anything to keep Mia busy for a few more minutes....I forget that she is an enthusiastic photography nut.....And I am caught napping....










 Straight No Chaser gave permission to post any of their photos or music....I had tried to insert some of their music at the time that I wrote this post.  However, the music quit working here.  The group sang   "Let it GO!" from Frozen which was my theme song that year.  I use that line daily to remind myself that much of what happens in this life deserves to be let go!  The group also sang Jack and Diane and the You Tube version that I was using of that is also out of date  This song  seemed to haunt me the first seven years after Jack's death.  I am rewriting this in 2016.  I no longer think of that song much.    I don't know why it seemed like my song those first years:  Oh, Yeah....Life goes on.  Long after the thrill of living has gone....

Dulcimer

When I was a small child, there were three of us who lived in close proximity in our neighborhood.  We were all three girls of almost the same age and in the same grade in school.  We were in and out of each others homes for many years.  Our families were very different from each other.  But when one is small, close proximity of homes often defines with whom one spends time.

First day of school 1953

Marsha, Karen, Mary

This past week the three of us had a reunion in my home for several days.  It was great fun!  But the story that I am going to tell is about the dulcimer.

Mary and her husband were the reason for the reunion.  They live in upstate New York.  Mary has become a part of a group that is almost entirely ukuleles that plays in a Unitarian Universalist Congregation.  She is the only one of the group that plays the mountain dulcimer.   The dulcimer has become a passion for Mary.....  So much so that Mary and Ken were on their way to the NC mountains for a five day class in which Mary had enrolled to improve her dulcimer skills.

One of the goals of the visit to Huntington was to find the grave of a man named Charles N. Prichard who had lived in Huntington where he made Dulcimers.  Mr. Prichard died in 1904 and was said to be buried in Springhill Cemetery.  The office of the Cemetery in Huntington was helpful and we found the grave easily.  We took many photos of each other, the dulcimer, and the grave.  I fell in love with the dulcimer and hope to buy one to share with my grandchildren.  All in all it was a day of ultimate Serendipty!


 Mary has a beautiful instrument that she bought from a company in Indiana called Folkcraft.

 She played for me .....a small concert....but lots of songs that were absolutely captivating for me!  Some of my favorite songs that Mary played were:

Black Mountain Rag which Mary says is easy to play.  A Shaker number called Mother's Tongue by DA Buckingham.  Mary explained that the tune was about the fact that the Shakers lived in such closeness that they often reminded themselves that they should speak nicely to each other as did Mother Anne.

A more difficult number, Ashokan Farewell,  was written by Jay Ungar.    This number was written for the ending of special week of camp for families and adults that took place near where Mary and Ken live in Hurley, New York.  This piece was actually written originally for the fiddle.  Ken Burns used the fiddle tune in his  Civil War Series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh_2yn5mZeg  (to hear it with fiddle---be sure to use the skip add button)


and for the dulcimer rendition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gshcdtaS9lY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmToqZ5yEsE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fpw7-qe3vg



This first site had this information:  Ashokan Farewell on the mountain dulcimer. Lots of folk believe this to be an old fiddle tune from the Civil War, but that's because Ken Burns fooled you when he used it in his documentary. The song was written in the 1980s by Jay Ungar. So my advice is not to listen to me, but listen to Mr. Ungar himself:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kZASM8OX7s&feature=youtu.be
and for the dulcimer rendition

Sheet music:  http://www.threeriversdulcimersociety.net/music/ashokanfarewell.pdf

Mary showed me two books of music by Carol Walker for the Dulcimer that are particularly easy introduction to playing the dulcimer:  DNA Dulcimer Ditties Vol I and II.

I started this blog so that I wouldn't loose these thoughts.

OK....go forward to October....just a few months later.  I have been thinking about buying a Dulcimer since Mary's visit.  I always plan something fun either on the way down or on the way back from JAX when I travel for my routine semi-annual follow-up visit at Mayo from breast cancer surgery in 2011.   This year I decided to buy a Dulcimer in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia.  I honestly can not remember how I decided to buy from Walter.  But I found him via his website:

http://www.cabincreekmusic.com/cabincreekmusicmain.html

I called ahead to make sure that he indeed had some Dulcimers on hand to sell as his website showed mostly models that were already sold.  And he did have some finished and on hand as he is traveling to an event near Roanoke later this month.

First question was where the heck is Mouth of Wilson, Virginia?

It turns out that it is in Grayson County.  Very close to Independence, Virginia .....my stop on the way home from JAX several years ago.  It was just after the death of Jeff Weaver.  I was so concerned that his wonderful website:  New River Notes might be in jeopardy after his death.  However I was reassured on my visit to the Grayson County Heritage Foundation that there were people committed to keeping the site alive.  That was a wonderful serendipity event all of it's own.  For information about this group go to:

http://www.graysonheritage.org

My Elliott family lived in this area during the Revolutionary War.  They were actually in what is now Galax, Virginia.

Back to my Dulcimer story....

I called ahead to find a room close to Mouth of Wilson and was told by the first B&B that they were fully booked.....but the lady gave me a phone number for the Sleepy Fox.  Thank goodness that I called ahead as I had absolutely no phone service anywhere in the mountains for the entire 24 hours or so that I was in the area.  The Sleepy Fox was an event of it's own!  In the middle of absolutely nowhere....but gorgeous and relaxing!  And amazingly enough, Loren told me that she was fully booked the night before and the night after....I was just lucky enough to be "sandwiched in"...as Loren said it was meant to be for me to find them!

Scott & Loren Webster have lived on Fox Ridge Farm for 33 years.  They are terrific hosts and their breakfast is scrumptious!  For a photo of the beautiful room in which I slept go to their site:

http://www.sleepyfoxinnandspa.com

Below photo is on the way from the "main road" to their home:

This is the actual road that leads to their home:

This is the sign that welcomes the visitor:

This is the path from where I stayed to their home:

This is the entryway into the area in which I stayed:

And this is the porch where I "hung out" and sipped wine with the lovely cheese plate that Loren brought me from the house:

The next morning I set out for Walter's home to choose my Dulcimer.  I thought that the Sleepy Fox was WAY out of the way......Walter's home is even more "out of the way"....but lovely!  Choosing MY Dulcimer was a surprise to me.  I had thought that I would choose by the look of it.  However, I found that what ended up being my shopping interest was the sound of each instrument.  Walter ended up having to lug out every single dulcimer so that I could make sure that the very first hour-glass shaped dulcimer that I looked at was indeed the one that I wished to take home!  Truly, I felt that my dulcimer had the very nicest sound of any!  Now if I can just learn to play it!

The final road to Walter's home and Workshop:

Walter's lovely Cosmos reminded me of the year when I fell in love with Cosmos and had them in my garden.  I would like to add them again next year!

Walter told me that the man from whom he bought this farm had build the stone fences with only the help of his horse.

Walter's workshop in the back of his home which he built himself:

Another view of his workshop:

I was amazed at Walter's workshop!

Walter doing the final finish work to eliminate a buzz that he was unhappy with in my dulcimer:

And finally MY DULCIMER!  Finished and ready to take home!

I have one post script to my story.  On another trip to JAX two years ago in 2012,  I drove to Pittsylvania County, Virginia via the Crooked Road (Route 58)!  I was captivated by the road and wrote a blog post at the time:

http://marshamoses.blogspot.com/search?q=Crooked+road

I vowed to myself that I would explore this road again.....and this trip had the huge surprise that there I was back on the Crooked Road again in another part of Virginia! It was fun when I turned onto The Crooked Road to get to the Sleepy Fox!

 Loren had told me to take 21 south from Wytheville to get to the Sleepy Fox.  Independence, Virginia is at the intersection of Rt. 21 and Rt. 58 where red marker is on map. 

To find the Sleepy Fox from Independence continue west on Route #58, go 10.2 mi. to Fox Ridge Rd.- Road #678, turn right on Fox Ridge Rd., go 1.3 mi. on Fox Ridge Rd. to box 1253 on the left, follow driveway to Sleepy Fox Inn.

When I left Walter, I took Rt93 from his home to near Sparta where I again picked up 21 south to Elkin, NC.  At Elkin I rejoined I77.  And then I did the opposite on the way home.  Thank goodness for the GPS in my car as my phone did not work anywhere in the mountains!


The Crooked Road:

Here are a few URL's for the Crooked Road:

https://www.myswva.org/tcr

http://www.tricities.com/news/article_c56f962e-17fe-11e4-8f2b-001a4bcf6878.html

http://blog.virginia.org/2014/08/crooked-road-straight-narrow/

And one last extra post script!  When I traveled the Crooked Road the last time, I was reading via audio a book by Lee Smith called The Devil's Dream.  Talk about serendipity!  Life is good!

I wrote a very short blog about the book at:

http://serendipityreading.blogspot.com/2012_10_01_archive.html

Sandra Ferguson sent me several links for you tube "lessons"

This one uses a noter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdMWYORTraI&feature=youtu.be

Here is another one that uses a noter for old time style:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8xCoV6lP68&feature=youtu.be


This one does a lot of finger picking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdMWYORTraI&feature=youtu.be

This is a very basic one on strumming:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYCEStBwtUU&feature=youtu.be