The Heart of the Ozarks Bluegrass Association had its spring festival Thursday, Friday, and Saturday over in West Plains.  For those of us who could not attend, the internet gave us some wonderful photos and videos of music being made.  Cheyenne McIntosh, in addition to being a talented musician herself, is an amazingly patient music teacher at our Skyline School.  She has set a bunch of young guitar players on a good learning path.  It turns out she is also an excellent videographer.  Sharry Lovan, of Stringed Union, expressed her appreciation for the videos and photos, as do we.  Among the many musicians attending were those Backyard Bluegrass fellows, as well as the TLC women—Theresa, Lynette, and Carol.    Music is a great unifier.  It is medicine for many of us and a great help for Champions who are continually striving these days to look on the Bright Side.


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The John Deere Model 40 tractor was manufactured from 1953-1955 in Dubuque, Iowa.  A total of 18,000 were made with an original price of $1,500. based on the 1954 model.  One of these is to be given away at the fall show of the Ozarks Older Iron Club fall show on October 14th.  Get tickets from any club member or call (417) 259-0648. You do not have to be present to win, but the show will be a lot of fun to attend.  The pulling contests and barrel rolling events are fun to watch and there are vendors and demonstrators from the Spinners and Weaver’s Guild and others.  It is a real farm festival with a lot of nice people and maybe some music.

June is busting out all over!  It started with the birthday of Dr. Amanda Zappler, audiologist, and artist extraordinaire.  For some beauty, optimism and whimsy check out her work at https://www.arteparalavida.info/  Talented multi-media artist, Margie Cohen, up in Kutztown, Pennsylvania surely had a beautiful birthday on the 3rd.  The porcelain work pouring out of her studio is amazing.  The Vanzant bluegrass jammers will be singing a belated birthday to banjo virtuoso David Medlock when they meet again on the 8th.  Dave’s birthday is on the 6th.  Ava Hurt’s birthday is on the 8th.  She was a Skyline R2 School student in the 2nd grade and will start the third grade in a new school in the fall.  Skyliners have been having an exciting summer school session.

June 2nd, Felix the Farmer sang that happy birthday song to his grand-Papa who has fifty some odd tomato plants in his garden, lots of peppers, basil, and many other good things.  He noticed that his garlic is about ready to be harvested. The 2023 Blum’s Almanac indicates that good harvesting days will be the 11th and 12th, also the 15th-17th.  Some try their best to garden by the signs, that is, with the moon phases, but they often wind up just doing what they can when they can.  The almanac indicated that the 5th would be a good day to prune to encourage growth.  One Old Champion, while pruning the suckers from her tomato plants, accidentally pruned the top off the plant.  It is in a glass of water now where she hopes it will root.  Though Shakespeare said, “Expectation is the root of all heartache,” gardeners cannot help but be optimistic.  Richard Feynman, a noted theoretical physicist, said, “Knowledge isn’t free.  You have to pay attention.” Henry van Dyke said, “Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is not.”  So, time seems subjective.  Some thought that growing old would take longer.  In Champion—Looking on the Bright Side.

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