Homer Ledford Festival, 2016!

Thank you so much, Dana, for another wonderful wonderful festival! Each year Dana and her family put their lives aside so that they can put on this wonderful festival. They welcomed me in from the beginning of my building career, and they've supported me in my endeavors. Gotta love 'em!


This year they even put me up in the swankiest bus I've ever been in. They converted this bus and remade it into a vehicle that they could travel around with and tow the antique machines that the family owns.

The inside is just as fantastic as the outside. There are widows all around the bus, and I woke up to a flock of turkeys outside in the donkey's pasture. The donkey belongs to the neighbors.



A bit of an aside here: Apple knows everything about me. It even knows how far I have to get home. But it didn't know that I wasn't supposed to be home yet. Apple is scary.


I really felt great staying at Dana's place. It reminded me so much of where I grew up. The geographical location is different, for sure, but the sentiment of the place is exactly the same! There were times as I was walking around the place that I traveled back in time.



Dana took the time to drive me around their farm, and it is huge. I don't recall the acreage, but it took us quite a while to get around it. And we couldn't even get to back part of the farm!



There were a lot of really cool things around the property. There was every type of machine I could imagine because her husband is a machinist/repairman who has a big ole shop, as well as a mobile one.


They even have a pond with two ducks and a bunch of fish, including a two-foot long koi fish.



I had a lot of time before I could set up at the festival, so I decided that I would find a place to run. There are a lot of places in and around Lexington to run, so I had to wade through a bunch to find a good one, which I did.

Thursday night was great because I got to hear Don Pedi did a talk about the history of the mountain dulcimer. It is really nice to hear the text of the books that I'm reading voiced with anecdotes. There were some technical difficulties with the videos, but it eventually got going.

So Don started us off with some some music and lots of stories. He put together a video from a slide show presentation, and the visuals were great. They were the ones from the aforementioned books. This is a wonderful way to set the tone for the festival.

There was a lot of music at the festival, of course. I love jamming, even though I don't really know how to play. I just play along and look like I know what I'm doing. But don't tell anyone that I'm a charlatan!

Setting up by myself was tough, but there were others there who helped me with suggestions, like that is a bit low on that side or move that over there.

I got all of our wooden goodies, bags and shirts, and instruments out. I had to take up another table, the round one. It was really nice to have everything out. We really do do a lot of wonderful work!

There are always a lot of surprises at shows, and some of them really wonderful, like this early Ledford instrument that a woman brought in for us to look at. It is really a remarkable instrument. And it has staple frets that go across the whole fretboard, which is something I've been thinking about.

And the people that come through are really great, too. There are so many characters at these festivals, some are participating and some just visiting. There is a woman who visited us last year and we talked for a while. She went to our web site and found out that Val did fabric crafts. She went home and got a bunch of stuff that she was no longer using and gave it to Val.

She came back this year, and when she found out that I'd tried Ale8 for the first time--but in a can. She brought me back these bottles because they are better than the cans, and these chips are a local treasure, too. She said I'm a Winchesterian!

Here is a video of a musician playing my gourd banjo.

Days 24-5: Home Again!

The last day was as amazing as the rest of the week. And we were just as busy! First, we had to reflect on the day before, which was an eleven hour day. It was full of emotion for me, as I'd never experienced another place like the Gettysburg Battlefield.

Our schedule was crazy. We had to put our final projects together. I never really talked about the group I was with, but I was teamed up with five other teachers. We had a lot of fun collaborating, for sure. And we were from a bunch of different places.

I'm going to do a presentation or four when I get my act together, but you can get a preview of what we did here. I plan on doing something at school, like talk about the whole process of getting the grant, how we studied what, and the results of that study. Then I want to do something at our public library because, well, why not? It'll be good practice for public speaking, which is a point of weakness for me.


There really are so many high points for me on this trip. One of them was definitely going to the National Archives to go through our soldier's records. It was an amazing experience to touch so far back in history and honor the dude by telling his story.

There is so much that will come out later, but he was an infantryman, calvary trooper, deserter, and he had a few wives and lots of kids! He really had an interesting life, as far aw we can tell from the documents. But the spaces between the documents are many, and I had so much fun filling in those gaps. Unfortunately, the evidence leads me to conclude that Hollingsworth's rascality was in the highest order!

And I got paid handsomely for all of this! This is to help offset my travel, room and board, which it did. And it certainly won't put me in the next tax bracket. But I sure appreciate the money to make this wonderful study possible!

We finished at 4:30 PM yesterday. That was a Friday. So I had to get out of Arlington, you know, D.C., at rush hour on a Friday leading into the Fourth of July weekend. And the traffic really wasn't bad to the beltway, but after that there was traffic the entire way to TN. And it wasn't until around 10 PM that traffic died down. So I was up before 6 AM, had a wonderful, work-filled day, and drove nine hours home. I was tired!

Val met me at the door, after the alarm woke her up. But she and the boys welcomed me home. I kind of dropped everything in my shop. After all, it was 1 AM. I just had to get my toiletries out so I could shower and brush my teeth. Then I slept until about 7 AM.

I woke up and André was cuddling me. Then, at various times throughout the day, the boys continued to cuddle me. But then they were over it.

Today was a good day. We went to the farmer's market and got some fruits and veggies. We had corn for dinner and watermelon and berries from there for dessert.

And I worked on school stuff. I have to start getting prepared. I go back in a week and the kids just after that. I have some great projects lined up, and I hope the kids enjoy them. But it is never easy to say what a class of kids can do to a project. I have to be ready to go with the energy of the class.

And then Val and I worked on two straps for dulcimers that will go out soon. Well, one will, anyway. I've not even started on the second one. But we are trying to get it so that are straps are consistently made--and pretty. They've got to be pretty!

I don't think I'll try to cut any wood until I get my balance back. I have plenty of other stuff to do. My current work is doing a design for the top of a Blue Lion dulcimer. I'm really stoked about the project now that it is in front of me, and I can see some victorian designs gong on there!

Day 24: Brutality of War

I don't think it's going to be one of my depressed posts, but I'm not going to lie--going through the Gettysburg Battle Field was just terrible.

It is not that the museum was bad, and, if fact, it is one of the best historical museums I've been into. And the weather was beautiful. And some of the monuments honored the soldiers, and some of them were monumentally ostentatious and sickening!

Isaac Walton Taber, Drummer Boys, c. 1885

There was even some art there. One thing that this trip has done is made me fall in love with drawing and painting again. I get to teach my first studio art classes at CBA this year, and I'm stoked for that. I think y'all know that is where my heart is!

Okay, I'm not sure I fell out of love, but I definitely haven't been using tools to make that kind of art lately--unless you count the show where I had 19 drawings and two sculptures. Well, there was some good art this time!

I guess what really saddens me that I never realized until just today is that the War of the Rebellion has had fantastically long reaching effects--immeasurable effects. Like when hurricane Katrina washed all of the juices from Southern Louisiana into the Gulf of Mexico. There was a mixture of so many crappy, hazardous materials that whatever maladies the Katrina concoction creates will never be able to be tested or replicated. Just don't eat the grouper is all I'm saying.

Our vet, whom we found on this pretty bronze plaque, went on to do stuff in the world. Sure, we're not exactly sure what, but we know he lived up into the 20th Century. But there are so many lives that were snuffed out, and that would have been tragic enough. But think about all of the women who could not find a suitable mate because of the lack of options. How many inventions are as unknowable as the soldiers lying namelessly in soiled dirt. War just sucks.

"No man can see the end with any satisfaction." Said some soldier on the eve of Gettysburg. No, nobody could. But the battle was necessary. I hate that there is a moral justification for war, but slavery is wrong. Period.

There is a guy in our group. A man who molds the minds of SC children. From day one he has argued that the War of the Southern Rebellion was not about slavery. Today we were talking about monuments, and the offense that many in the south give. Someone brought up an idea of taking the ones that we should let go and put them in a garden, and not a prominent one. The jackass said we may be against them now, but we may not be in 100 years. Who the fuck says that? Did I say something? You know I did. Jackass racist jerkface!

But I have to imagine that for things concerning monuments or the stuff carved into it change at a glacial pace because the sentiment is literally written stone. Not like our graffiti, though, which was written on plaster that had yet to cure. The study of the graffiti itself has been wonderful, but remember, we've tied those marks on the wall to a human. We know we did because we tracked his war and pension record. Then we went to a battlefield where he fought and survived.

So there have been a lot of ups and downs this past week, and I cannot imagine a better way to spend a part of my summer. I'm going to need a long rest after this, and I'll need a lot of alone time for the few days I have left in my summer break. But, really. I'm giddy about the whole thing. But it ain't been easy.

Day 23: Way Too Much Information

Today was a great day, but I'm exhausted. It is only 5pm, and I have so much work to do. I was going to go to DC and be a tourist, but I think I will nerd out and do some work with my veteran. For example, here is a map of his movements during the war--it'll be refined for my secret presentation.


More to follow.

Really big smiles to all!

Day 22: Ghosts in the Walls

I'm learning so much. I'm trying to suspend my judgement about all aspects of the war so that I can have an open heart and mind. Sometimes it is easy, but I must say that I'm becoming pretty uncomfortable with my new appreciation for the obstinance of Confederate descendants.

Jim Morin, The Miami Herald

Don't be confused by this, though. I in no way condone the flying of the Confederate flag, which is a long-time symbol of hate and racism. That flag should have been retired long ago. It is a symbol of slavery and the oppression of black people, you know, racism.

"...the Federal Government having perverted said powers, not only to the injury of the people of Virginia, but to the oppression of the Southern slaveholding States." Virginia Ordinance of Secession (April 17, 1861)

 But how fresh are the wounds? Did you know that there is a child of one Civil War veteran who was still receiving benefits from her father in 2015. I'm not making that up!

I got some stats today that are so heartbreaking. At the end of the Civil War there were only 2,719 boys in VA who would reach the age of 17. VA was the most populated in the south! 89.7% of all slave holders in the south were enlisted in Lee's army.



Could you imagine seeing some kid decapitated by a cannon ball? This kid, Edwin Jemison, was on July 1, 1862 at the Battle of Malvern Hill. How terrible the whole thing was. But the Union was right to fight for the abolition of slavery in the south.

I got some amazing pictures today! We went to two different places, The Graffiti House and Ben Lomond Historic Site. The reason that these images and the text are preserved is because of plaster. But you'll have to wait until I do my presentation to get the rest. Or look it up!

The house we went to today has been worked over really well so that it can be a legitimate museum, or so it feels. There was a stark contrast between both of today's visits and yesterday's, which is just an old house with graffiti permanently living in the walls, much like the ghosts of the soldiers who left their marks.

So there was much fakery, kind of like when I visited the Shaolin Temple. The temple has been located at the same place for 1500 years, but it has been burned down and rebuilt a number of times. It's latest manifestation seems fake in so many ways. When I was there I never felt further or closer to Disney World.

Again, though, I must learn to suspend my judgement so that I can be open to learning. How do I impart that to the kids? Speaking of kids, I was walking through the lobby of the hotel where I'm staying. There was this kid sitting there talking to some old dude, who turned out to be the kid's father. And the kid turned out to be one of my kids from Florida! He was my advisee for four years! I watched him grow from a 14 year old boy to a young man. And he just graduated college! Good on you Brett!

But the graffiti on the wall was not fake. Why did these guys vandalize these properties? Who were these guys? And why did it take so long for me to learn that those who were affected by the war lived well beyond 1865?

There were some pretty competent draftsmen who made the graffiti! There were all sorts of drawings with which I'm smitten! There are portraits, drawings of animals, and some great cartoons.

But the majority of the marks on the wall are text, and the majority of that text names the soldiers who passed through the houses for one reason or another.

And I found the veteran I'm going to research in the National Archives tomorrow in D.C. I don't know anything about him at this point except that he was a Union soldier. I've never done this type of research, and man is it fun! I will better be able to help my kids at school because of this trip, I'm sure. I don't know how the content will matter, but I hope it does. The form of this study, though, will definitely help because I'm going to use it as a model!

Then I had Chinese food for dinner. Yep. Kung Pao tofu ties into the theme of American Civil War very well.

Zaijian, lao pengyou!