Robert Force was once sitting in my living room and we decided to play together.  I pulled out my dulcimer and pick and the first thing Robert said was "I've been on a nutria hunt to get rid of those!"  He was pointing to my big red Herdim pick.

 Hmmm...I thought we dulcimer players HAD to use those funny looking triangular picks.  

 I didn't think too much of it, but over time I started to experiment.  Well folks, I'm here to tell you, I don't use them any more.  In fact, you can't give me one.  

 It took some experimentation, but I discovered that I prefer a rounded pick, of medium thickness with some embossed lettering that helps me hang onto it.   

So, how about you?  Are you using the pick you use because you know it's the pick for you, or just because that's what everyone around you is using?  

You know, picks are really cheap!  Splurge and experiment!

Uh oh!  Erika looks like it could impact Florida.  It's a little early to tell, but her is trajectory favorable to a Florida "strike."  However, it's projected to be just a low (not even a depression) in 5 days.  It is supposed to rake up the Caribbean islands providing lots of friction.  So, we'll see.  I'm not expecting much out of this one.  I guess that's my professional opinion.  Keep Stummin!

Well, the big switch over to the new EverythingDulcimer.com happened two days ago.  The tweaking continues.  It's such a content rich, multi-faceted site that this is a huge project.  The original idea was to have everything in place and ready, so that folks just wake up and it's completely different and everything is in place.

That wasn't going to happen thanks to other commitments and schedules.

For all these years, it's just been ME running the site.  That's okay until a site reaches a certain size and visitorship.  After that, it requires a team...some division of labor.  The current team consists of three of us doing the work at EverythingDulcimer.com...that's Dan Landrum bringing DPN's leadership, content and graphics talent, Steve Seifert helping with technical issues and myself.  My role has changed to that of forum administrator, newsletter author and kind of a spokesperson, I suppose.  

Over the last two day, I've gotten in on the discussion...something I haven't taken the time to do in a long time.  By sharing the burden, I think it'll actually let me enjoy the site a bit.  I'm looking forward to getting into some more discussions, submitting content and being more of a part of the EverythingDulcimer.com community.  Yippee!

(Did I mention how NICE it is to let someone else (Steve) handle technical issues...wow!)

So, I'm relishing this team concept for selfish reasons.  Naturally, a team means a better overall site with which to server the community as well.