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.