Rough Night on Troublesome Creek

March came in really hard on Troublesome with near-record flooding this past week.  The month was was only a few hours old when Vernon Douglas Jones caught this glimpse of the creek trying take away our factory.  No great harm done, however!  Hindman was only hit a glancing blow overall, especially when compared to other Eastern Kentucky communities, some of which were ravaged hard.  We lost some things stored in the basement of the Appalachian School of Luthiery, and a stack of black locust lumber tried to float down to the river, but that was about it.  Whew!

First Light

Hey!

Hope you all have wintered well! Down on The Creek, 2021 is off to a roaring start, with all hands busy about their work. Jeremy Haney is making great strides with our mandolin lines, while Nathan Smith focuses on guitar body-building. New hire Billy Feltner is building our Uncle Ed dulcimer line, while Luthier 1 Kris Patrick has been making guitar necks and doing lacquer finishing and I get to do design, fixturing, troubleshooting, setup and a whole lot of everything else.

In the past twelve months, although COVID 19 has paused us repeatedly, it hasn’t derailed the fine work that these guys are doing. And it won’t.

Feels a bit like first light after a long, chilly night now that we’re starting to get vaccinated! It will take a few months for everyone in KY to get through the process, but the crew will soon be able to get nose-to-nose again without so much worry!

😀