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The WhistleSmith NewsCleaning Your Wicked Good Whistle • Three Different WaysThis is a simple way to make an excellent cleaning tool for all size whistles. The materials are a 3/16" wooden dowel and a long strip of cotton cloth. The 3/16" wooden dowel costs $.78 cents at our local Lowes and is 48" long. You will have plenty of material to make two extra long cleaning rods that will fit up to a Low D whistle. I use a white 100% cotton cleaning towel and tear it into 2" strips the long length of the towel. One towel is enough to last a long time, so you can be neighborly and share with a friend if you like. If you have an old pillow case, that will work well and it can be any color you have on hand. I recommend 100% cotton because you will not get lint when you buff the bore of the whistle coming off and getting into the fingerholes and tuning joint. You will need to cut the slot in the end of the dowel with a sharp, fine tooth saw. I use the bandsaw to do the slot, but you can use a craft saw, coping saw, scroll saw or perhaps a neighbor might cut the slot for you. If you do not wish to cut a slot (I like the slot so I can change the cloth often), you can use a dab of Elmer's Glue and wrap your cloth around the dowel and glue it on. Wrap the cloth smoothly down the dowel by turning to the right with the dowel and feeding the cloth flat and pulling to the bottom of the dowel. Wrap enough cloth around the dowel so that it fits nicely into the bore of your whistle and let the tail end of the cloth pull down to the end of the dowel. Do not make the cloth fit too tightly or it can make a plug of cloth and be hard to remove. The tail end of the cloth should be left loose and hang outside the whistle so you can pull the cloth out of the whistle if it should come unattached from the cleaning end of the dowel. When cleaning and drying your whistle, you can push and pull the rod back and forth or using both hands, spin it in the whistle bore. If you want to use your electric drill, put the drill in forward mode (the same direction you would use to drill a hole with a drill bit) and push and pull back and forth to buff the whistle bore. If you forget and buff with the drill in reverse, the cloth will unwind and probably come off the dowel. This means you will have to pull on the tail end of the cloth and retrieve your buffing cloth out of the whistle bore. Rewind your dowel and you will be back in business.
You cannot hurt your whistle by buffing the whistle bore. The more times you buff, the smoother the bore will become and the better it will play.
Using a shot gun buff and electric drill to clean your whistle So many e-mailers wanted a picture of the cleaning setup I had mentioned this spring that I decided to post a picture of my top secret whistle cleaning apparatus. The woolen buff is for a 12 gauge shotgun(fits low whistles with a big bore) and will last a long time. A 410 size buff fits small diameter bore whistles.
You can use any type of drill, but cordless is great if you already own one. Be sure the drill is in tighten mode when you clean with it or the buff will unscrew and be left in the whistle. Several buffing sessions will improve the sound of any kind of whistle because the buffing head smooths the instrument inside and dries up the water. Doing this type of buffing is not the same as using a clarinet style bore wiper, because the buff generates heat while it is turning and the heat and rotation takes out residue and polishes the inside of the instrument. If you find that your instrument wets up easily in high humidity conditions, dry silicon spray available in hardware and automotive stores can be wiped into the bore after it has been cleaned and then buffed again to produce a finish that will absolutely shed water. Moisture in the bore will deaden sound quickly if conditions are humid because saliva is not plain water and the surface tension inside the bore makes it collect as a coating on the walls of the instrument. Silicon when buffed onto the surface makes surface tension minimal and improves the instruments internal vibration so you get more volume without having to increase the air flow. 
Everything is not Barter... Some things are "Being Neighborly"
Being Neighborly with a tune at the Scarecrow Festival at Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. Just as this photo was being taken, a tour bus pulled up and I played some tunes to the passengers who thought I was part of the festival welcoming committee. Barter is doing business without using man made money. Folks display their goods and you display what you will give them in return for those goods. This is the oldest kind of trade, swap or doing business that exists and a common method of exchange between neighbors and friends in rural Maine. Good & Plenty C Whistle
The Good and Plenty C whistle is the result of receiving so many requests for a back to basics whistle. Many folks asked for an easy to clean whistle with accurate tuning, no tuning slide, and an extra smooth bore for the best sound possible. I received this email from a whistler in Pennsylvania who lives near Lancaster in the midst of Amish country. Here is an excerpt of his letter.
WhistleSmith Good and Plenty Bb WhistleMany folks asked for an easy to clean whistle with accurate tuning, no tuning slide, and an extra smooth bore for the best sound possible. The Good and Plenty whistle is the result of receiving so many requests for a back to basics whistle. I received this email from a whistler in Pennsylvania who lives near Lancaster in the midst of Amish country. Here is an excerpt of his letter.
Posted by The WhistleSmith at 12:40 PM
Slide Flute finds New Friends and Places to Play!I have been busy making inventory this winter and one instrument that has been consistently in demand is the slide flute. The Pennywhistle and Symphony Slide Flutes have both been found to be very satisfactory instruments for children and adults with Down Syndrome.
Tips about Antique Reviews•Second Hand Instruments •Chat•RIP ArchivesI get a lot of calls and emails from folks inquiring about other whistle makers and instruments that they may have acquired second hand. Here is what I say. Blog Cleanup and Archived FilesIf you have been searching the Internet for information, you have probably run into hundreds of dead ends on your search. After finding a web site with information on the item you are looking for, you find the information to be old, out of date and many times out of business. I have been archiving many entries that no longer are valid into The Old Whistle Stuff Archive of this blog. Most entries have been edited out, but give you a redirect to the current instrument and how it is made. In this manner, you find only the new information and the updated features on that particular whistle, flute or fife. This blog always opens on the "Main Page" which contains the most current entries made on the web site. Please use the directory to go to information that you are interested in. I invite anyone to be an editor if you find a mistake or information that is out of date on the web site. I use all means possible to keep everything spelled and in proper context, but posting errors are often a problem when blogging. I appreciate your help on keeping things current. The Whistler of Blackstone Bluff
Last ride of the season on November the sixth. Temperature was 55 degrees in the afternoon for about two hours and I had to dress warm to be comfortable. By evening, we had snow on the ground again. Update on the Proto 3 slide flute
We have had a lot of response from the article on the new Prototype 1 whistle for physically challenged people. I took the information from the Proto1 instrument and built a second instrument and called it Proto 2. There were some technically nice things about Proto 2 which was the next step toward a production whistle. After working with Proto 2 for several week I decided the breath tube was collecting too much moisture and would always be a problem. I archived the design information and have moved on to Proto 3. Proto 1 Auto Slide Flute Due for Production
Here I am holding the original Proto 1 auto slide flute. The long tube is the air tube into which you blow to play the flute. The air tube is held in a ring of the wire that goes to the slide rod in the flute. The slide moves back and forth with your head movement to change the pitch and determine the note you are playing. My Top Secret, keep the lights burning project for the summer has been a whistle project with David Whalen from Scotia, New York. David approached me on the phone with the idea of making a slide whistle that he could play by moving the slide with just the movement of his head. The whistle would also have to be easy to blow, have a nice deep sound, and be easily cleaned and maintained. In addition to that, the cost should be as low as possible so a lot of folks could afford it in all kinds of countries and economic situations. WOW! You have to love a project and challenge like this! New Snow Record Blizzard HitsThe Snow Record for Maine had stood since 1955 at 181 inches. As I had mentioned earlier this winter, I was pretty sure it would be broken and it has been shattered by the last snowfall which moved the winter total to 185.7 inches. It is just March 23rd and we have a very good chance of moving the record up to 200 inches and even more by the end of snowfall in the month of April. Tips for Weatherizing your Wicked Good Whistle!
When you receive your whistle or flute it will be easier to play if you warm the instrument up first. Winter shipping makes for some pretty cold temperatures inside the box and a good warmup will prevent the instrument from holding onto all the moisture you are blowing inside the bore. If you do not warm up the instrument, it will respond by bogging down and not having the volume or tone that it should have. The only remedy is to clean the whistle and dry it out even though it is brand new. I have noticed several makers have started specifying a warm up for their whistles before playing.
If you are playing in a room or outdoors and it is colder than 65 degrees, use some method to keep your whistle warm between sets. Putting your whistle in your sleeve is one method that works well. When playing outdoors in cold weather, I have a dress coat with a long pocket sewed into the sleeve that will hold up to a Low D size whistle. My neighbor made the alteration to the coat for me and it works just great. I think a pocket that used velcro and could be removed would be a great idea. If you blow the whistle backward from the bottom, the barrel will warm up and the moisture if any will be in the very bottom of the instrument where gravity will make it go away naturally. I have recommended turning the mouthpiece upside down when playing in windy or cold conditions in several tips articles. Finally, several e-mails have been received telling me what a help this technique is! The amazing thing about inverting the mouthpiece is that the whistle does not know the mouthpiece is upside down and may even sound better! The mouthpiece does not feel funny when turned over and several people have said that it feels more comfortable than the regular position. An added benefit in inverting the mouthpiece is moisture gets pushed by your breath and pulled by gravity out the sound hole and your whistle plays much drier. Wicked Important DiVinci Code Whistle InfoThings have been busy this winter at The WhistleSmith with lots of changes and revisions. You have perhaps noticed the Website has been newly refurbished with whistle pictures and descriptions. The type in the blog is now posting up with larger size type for better reading. Hai Yu has a new Buddy! Dim Sum arrives and takes over the house.
We have a new addition to our family. Hai Yu, our all black pug is three and Nadiene thought he could use some dog company to keep him happy. T\he new puppy is a fawn Pug and his name is Dim Sum just like the famous restaurants that serve all the tiny bits of good things to eat. Dim Sum means tiny Morsel in Chinese and he was very small two or three weeks ago. The two dogs are great pals and do everything together. Long afternoon naps and evening walks are a favorite. The wild strawberries are ripe in Maine right now, so a stop to pick and eat a few is necessary if you wish to be a popular dog walker. Pugs are fun loving, playful dogs and are noted for their personality and disposition. Originally Pugs were the eighty pound mastiffs that guarded the Chinese temples, but were imported into England by the Dutch traders and were bred down in size to about twenty pounds. They are very aware of what is going on and insist on being in the midst of everything. Whistle Up a Texas Fried Turkey!
When company comes unannounced and there is a large crowd to feed quickly, it is a big help to have a way to take care of the situation. I like to run down to my favorite grocer and get a nice fresh turkey. The one in the picture is about thirteen pounds and is just right to Texas Fry in my cooker. All you have to do is wash the turkey inside and out and dry it well to remove as much moisture from the bird as possible. Remember to take that funny little packet out of the bird before washing. Wicked Good Black Squirrels in Arlington Heights This year Nadiene and I spent Christmas with my younger son Jay and his wife Maya. Our newest grandson Ewan Thomas has just turned two months and granddaughter Anya is now heading for three and learning something new every day. Because it is a full days drive from Presque Isle to Boston even if the weather is good, we try to swap Christmas destinations every year to even out the travel distances. Rodney Lee, his wife Patty, grand daughter Marilyn, and my grandson Darren (2.5 years and growing) headed out from Mineral, Virginia to visit Uncle Jay in Boston and when everyone arrived the house was full. We had a great holiday with lots to eat and plenty of homemade cooking. Jay had just finished up the entire basement into a large apartment sized entertainment room with sleeping area and bath, so everyone could move around and have plenty of room to visit. The amount of presents around the tree was pretty incredible and I am certain everyone got what they wanted when Santa arrived. Of course the weather was the really incredible thing for Christmas. Green grass, 50 degree temperatures and although the sun was missing most of the time it was a good chance to walk around and see the neighborhood. We were actually in Arlington Heights just outside of Boston and the house is on top of the mountain which is capped by the Arlington Standpipe. This is a landmark for folks headed into Boston and is mirrored on the other side of 2A East by the Mormon Temple with its gold weather vane of Gabriel blowing his horn. It is pretty hard to miss the Arlington Heights turnoff with two giant landmarks like these. My grand daughter Marilyn and I decided to take our new Christmas whistles and take a walk up to the Standpipe and check out the acoustics of a huge round tower full of water. The Standpipe had a lot of folks going to visit their neighbors and people out for a jog, so we attracted a small group of folks stopping to listen to us play. Wicked Good Inside Scoop on Whistles!In making urns, I have used both red cedar which has the smell of a lead pencil when cut and Port Orford cedar from the west coast which has a delightful perfume smell like flowers. Port Orford is hard to obtain in large size and in extra clear grades. Ten years ago I purchased a large lot of this cedar as a high grade lot to make urns from. This cedar was stored inside an insulated tractor trailer and eventually lost most of its moisture and is very dry and straight grained. Port Orford is so waterproof that you can build a boat from it, never paint it and the boat will survive salt water and last for a hundred years!
Wooden whistles are always interesting. I have been involved in wood turning and making urns and artistic pieces on the lathe for over forty years. Because I know a bit about wood and its inherent problems, I have rethought the manufacture of whistles from this material. Some of the opinions I had originally on using wood can be balanced by using new techniques in preparing the wood and replacing the water content even in seasoned and aged wood.
Have a Wicked Good Holiday!
I would like to personally thank all those folks that have made this an interesting and busy year. If I had stayed in Lake City, we would have been neighbors, so this true little story is for Don Kuse over in Live Oak, Florida. After the hurricane that flooded Columbia County, Florida in the late 1947, neighbors depended on neighbors and folks made do with what they had. This is a true story, as I remember it from my childhood.
Whistling in the Wind at St Froid LakeThis fall, I had the privilege to be invited to Cry of the Lost Hunter Campground for Sunday dinner with Frances Cushman and her daughter Ann. Located on St. Froid Lake at Quimby, Maine ,the campground was home to my boys and Nadiene and I in the summer for many years.
Here I am playing away in an extremely cold and stiff wind. Whistle worked great! The WhistleSmith Visits Grizzly IndustrialMy wife Nadiene and I usually get in some vacation time in the fall. We go when the autumn leaves are finished in Maine and are still beautiful in the rest of New England. This year we traveled from Presque Isle to Portland for a days visit on the historic waterfront and a chance to check out some shopping and for me to do a hands on look around the Rockler store. Then it was on to Scranton, Pennsylvania where we pick up Route 81 and head down the Blue Ridge toward Virginia and the town of Mineral where my older son Rodney Lee runs the Montana tractor dealership and Ultra Touch Landscaping.
Here is a small amount of Grizzly Mill and Drill Machinery. How to Make a Poplar WhistleMaking a poplar whistle is one of the rites of spring and a heritage well worth passing on the next generation. I learned to make these whistles from my childhood friend, Victor Bear who had been taught by his father. 
You make poplar whistles in the spring time when the sap is running and the trees are leafing out. The sap in the bark makes it easy to slide the whistle apart when you take the bark off to cut the inside out. Sound Recorder Can Improve Your Playing!I'm not a big fan of using sound files to make judgements on how a whistle plays for a prospective customer. I find many sound files have been corrected with filters in the recording process and are no longer true to how the whistle really sounds if you picked it up and played it. Correcting sound for a commercial album is accepted policy, but a sound file made for a buyer should be as factual to the instrument as possible. No reverb, no filters, just the way it comes out of the whistle. Check out the New Whistlesmith Mailing ListIf you haven't figured it out by now, we want to provide you the best Whistlesmith news in any shape or form possible. Because of that, we've been adding tools to make your Whistlesmith.com reading experience more enjoyable and even easier. One of our newest tools is a great weekly update from FeedBlitz. This email has the Whistlesmith Weekly Roundup and shows up in your mailbox before you wake up each Monday morning. That way, you can keep up with everything you might have missed during your busy week. We promise not to bombard you with email or sell your name to the blackmarket. We just want another way to communicate with you - our reader. We even promise some "subscriber-only" news and exclusives down the road. So hop over to the right sidebar or below and enter your email to join our mailing list or simply click here to join the mailing list.
Posted by The WhistleSmith at 8:48 AM
There is no Magic Whistle, Mary JaneReviews and chat room discussions posted on the internet are prevalent and easy to find. The reviewers uses one or two whistles from a maker and try to make the playing attributes and physical appearance of those instruments clear to the reader. Using close up photography, material lists, and tuning descriptions obtained from electronic devices, the prospective buyer should have enough information to purchase a whistle that is perfect for their use. Because most whistles are made to last a lifetime, the buyer need only buy the Magic Whistle once and be set for life. Right, Mary Jane? Written music notation covers everything you need to know to play a piece of music as long as you can read the symbols and do the math. When you describe the sound of the Magic Whistle to another person, you use the same words describing the sound that you use to convey the complexities of food and drink. Rich, smooth, sharp, kind of flat, complex, dark, subtle undertones (i.e. flavors). and so on. When we run out of descriptive terms for food we add in air based terms like breathy, airy, breezy, and the infamous (but not universally known) term of CHIFFY! Why all this descriptive chaos to describe the whistle and the sounds it makes? Here are some quotes I thought you might want to remember that came to me via e-mail.
Posted by The WhistleSmith at 6:19 PM
Sliders are for Everyone! If you have read the article on Kevin's Whistle you will remember I have been working on a slide whistle for my nephew Kevin for a three year period of time. This is not only an excellent instrument for folks with missing and broken fingers and limbs, arthiritis, and disabilities, but an instrument that is enjoyable for a variety of musical applications. Most people relagate the slide whistle to a novelty sound effects instrument, but the "Slider" has a long history of musical applications and many compositions have been written for slide whistle.
After playing the prototype whistle for an extended period it became apparent that a flute version would be more appropriate for most applications. The flute is a bit more mellow, has more horizontal length for the attachment of clips and attachment devices, and is easier to hear over other instruments. A snap on clip is available for the whistle that allows you to rivit the clip to a velcro watch band. This allows you to place the whistle on you wrist if necessary to play the instrument. The clip can be modified to attach to a variety of appliances and head braces (harmonica brace works well) for playing using one hand.
Posted by The WhistleSmith at 8:00 PM
WhistleSmith Fife and Pail Corp.I personally feel that the Auto fife is perfect to get young players involved in fife and drum activities . This is a very easy instrument to start out on and is a one time investment in getting young folks involved in an excellent outdoor activity. I have been talking all winter to individuals about the idea of starting a FIFE AND PAIL CORP to participate in parades and events in our local area. A five gallon poly-pail is an excellent drum with the addtion of a strap (dog leashes work fine, they even have a swivel on one end). A pair of drumsticks and you have you rhythm section completely outfitted. I would be pleased to talk to individuals from any group interested in using my fifes to start a group. I currently have 100 Hi-D fifes completed and available for this project. E-mail us to find out details and how to qualify to do a FIFE AND PAIL project. I will keep the project open until all the fife inventory is gone and plan on repeating the project next year on a larger scale if possible.
Posted by The WhistleSmith at 7:53 PM
COLLECTING WHISTLESLast week, I had some folks drop into the shop to purchase two whistles for their collection. They pointed out some things I would not have thought about if I were purchasing a whistle to be a collectible. Here are some of the items I wrote down in my daily notes that seem like good ideas. Soft Foam Push Me, Pull Me. Whistle Cleaner
After trying a bunch of different materials to dry out whistles, I believe I have the ultimate material. The closed cell foam used in packing high end products turns out to be great stuff for drying out your whistle. Screenprinting Whistlesmith TeesI have been doing commercial artwork and screen printing since I was in high school, so naturally I put off doing the company tee shirts until last. Sign painters never have a decent sign, plumbers have a house full of leaking pipes and carpenters never fix their own front steps. Well, that goes for for screen printers who can't decide what design should go on the shirt they want to print.
Tuning Up for the Dance of the Frenzied TurkeysBeing a whistlesmith and making whistles all day can be a heavy burden. While you are working on whistles all day, your friends are out whistling away their time and having fun. The more they play, the better they get, until they actually begin to sound like real musicians. Soooooo, I decide to learn at least one new tune every week for an entire year. A cold weather whistle warmupA common problem for performance musicians playing outdoors is having a warm whistle ready to play at a moments notice. I face the same problem when folks drop by and want to try out a whistle in the acoustically perfect barn during the fall and winter.
Some easy techniques on playing Low D whistles that really workPlaying the Low D whistle is a little different than any of the other whistles. I have received many responses to the following article from folks around the world. Taking the time to read the steps about playing the Low D apply to all whistles and will give you a step up on being a good whistler. A BASKET OF THUMBRINGS FOR FALL
A basketful of thumbrings would hardly seem an exciting event, but after hand making this basketful I felt really grateful to be finished for a while. Actually, I recently did a marathon event of thumbring making for a client that required four hundred in a hurry and almost did my right hand in for good. These little beauties require a lot of hand work and I have improved the methods used in the process several times. The latest improvement has been to cross peen the rivets for a very tight fit and extra smooth interior on the ring section. A blacksmith of some 50 years of ability explained the set up for doing horse harness rivets on leather to me and it applies perfectly to making another improvement to the thumbring. UPDATE ON CLEANING YOUR WHISTLESo many e-mailers wanted a picture of the cleaning setup I had mentioned this spring that I decided to post a picture of my top secret whistle cleaning apparatus. The woolen buff is for a 12 gauge shotgun(fits low whistles with a big bore) and will last a long time. A 410 size buff fits small diameter bore whistles. 
UPDATE ON CLEANING YOUR WHISTLEThis is a simple way to make an excellent cleaning tool for all size whistles. The materials are a 3/16" wooden dowel and a long strip of cotton cloth. The 3/16" wooden dowel costs $.78 cents at our local Lowes and is 48" long. You will have plenty of material to make two extra long cleaning rods that will fit up to a Low D whistle. I use a white 100% cotton cleaning towel and tear it into 2" strips the long length of the towel. One towel is enough to last a long time, so you can be neighborly and share with a friend if you like. If you have an old pillow case, that will work well and it can be any color you have on hand. I recommend 100% cotton because you will not get lint when you buff the bore of the whistle coming off and getting into the fingerholes and tuning joint. You will need to cut the slot in the end of the dowel with a sharp, fine tooth saw. I use the bandsaw to do the slot, but you can use a craft saw, coping saw, scroll saw or perhaps a neighbor might cut the slot for you. If you do not wish to cut a slot (I like the slot so I can change the cloth often), you can use a dab of Elmer's Glue and wrap your cloth around the dowel and glue it on. Wrap the cloth smoothly down the dowel by turning to the right with the dowel and feeding the cloth flat and pulling to the bottom of the dowel. Wrap enough cloth around the dowel so that it fits nicely into the bore of your whistle and let the tail end of the cloth pull down to the end of the dowel. Do not make the cloth fit too tightly or it can make a plug of cloth and be hard to remove. The tail end of the cloth should be left loose and hang outside the whistle so you can pull the cloth out of the whistle if it should come unattached from the cleaning end of the dowel. When cleaning and drying your whistle, you can push and pull the rod back and forth or using both hands, spin it in the whistle bore. If you want to use your electric drill, put the drill in forward mode (the same direction you would use to drill a hole with a drill bit) and push and pull back and forth to buff the whistle bore. If you forget and buff with the drill in reverse, the cloth will unwind and probably come off the dowel. This means you will have to pull on the tail end of the cloth and retrieve your buffing cloth out of the whistle bore. Rewind your dowel and you will be back in business.
You cannot hurt your whistle by buffing the whistle bore. The more times you buff, the smoother the bore will become and the better it will play.
Using a shot gun buff and electric drill to clean your whistle So many e-mailers wanted a picture of the cleaning setup I had mentioned this spring that I decided to post a picture of my top secret whistle cleaning apparatus. The woolen buff is for a 12 gauge shotgun(fits low whistles with a big bore) and will last a long time. A 410 size buff fits small diameter bore whistles.
You can use any type of drill, but cordless is great if you already own one. Be sure the drill is in tighten mode when you clean with it or the buff will unscrew and be left in the whistle. Several buffing sessions will improve the sound of any kind of whistle because the buffing head smooths the instrument inside and dries up the water. Doing this type of buffing is not the same as using a clarinet style bore wiper, because the buff generates heat while it is turning and the heat and rotation takes out residue and polishes the inside of the instrument. If you find that your instrument wets up easily in high humidity conditions, dry silicon spray available in hardware and automotive stores can be wiped into the bore after it has been cleaned and then buffed again to produce a finish that will absolutely shed water. Moisture in the bore will deaden sound quickly if conditions are humid because saliva is not plain water and the surface tension inside the bore makes it collect as a coating on the walls of the instrument. Silicon when buffed onto the surface makes surface tension minimal and improves the instruments internal vibration so you get more volume without having to increase the air flow.
My Neighbor Sam's Bear Story The following story is by my neighbor Samuel Gray who is six years old. His Dad, Brian Gray is a Maine State Game Warden and he took Sam and his friends on a trip to find a mother bear and her cub that are part of the bear tracking program.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
I got up at 6:45. I met the Bear Crew at Ashland. The Biologist gave us a talk about bears and safety. We went 23 miles to Chandler Mountain. We climbed half a mile to get to the bear den. I got to hold the cub. It was a cute cub. The bear cub weighed five pounds. Lots of people held the bear cub. The bear cub was born the second week of January and its mother went into the den in October.
Some people went to track down the mother bear. They came back with her about a half an hour later. The mother bear weighed 124 lbs. I took off my snowshoes at the top of the mountain. My feet got very cold up there. I saw the mother bear while the biologist assistants were examining her. My friend Amos got to hold the bear cub again. My Dad and I got to hold the bear cub. I have pictures of the baby bear and the mother bear. They put tags in the cubs ears and they changed the mother bears radio collar. I had some questions for Randy Cross; he is the head bear biologist. He is a nice man and I learned a lot about bears. We snowshoed back to the trucks and drove out to Ashland.
Try a Seed Sock for your Visitors
The Seed Sock can be refilled over and over with oil rich seeds. Nothing attracts winter birds like one of these socks in addition a regular feeder. 
Help Your Winter Visitors For many years we had very few birds in the winter. About ten years ago my wife and I decided to make the feeding area a little more private and protected from the wind and it has paid off wonderfully. The birds in the photos are mostly Red Poles from the Arctic that visit Maine in the winter and return north in the spring to nest. In addition to Red Poles, we have a flock of about two dozen Mourning Doves that winter in our woods, six Blue jays that harass everything, a flock of Chickadees and several Nuthatches that drop by. The Downy woodpeckers hammer at the bird feeders and stumps on a regular basis picking flies out of the bark and digging for grubs. The sock with all the birds is filled with Nyjer seeds, the barrel feeder has sunflower seeds and the trough gets a full ration of mixed bird seed. Occasionally we add suet squares for the Blue jays and woodpeckers as an extra treat in extremely cold weather. This year we fed the birds about 100 pounds of seed per month to keep them happy. When spring comes, the Goldfinches and Hummingbirds will arrive with Robins and our resident family of crows that patrol all the back fields looking for pests. They never bother the garden or the other birds, so no one bothers them in return.
Girardin Family Whistle Project The Girardin family is adding music to their clog dancing routine that they present for family functions, church events and elderly entertainments. When I went searching for a flute player for the pictures of the Mystic Auto Fife, I got immeditate response from Leah Girardin. She and her two daughters Darryl Ann and Kayla were already doing clogging and they all agreed that learning the whistle might fit in just right with their routines and add another element to the entertainment. They do a great deal together as a family for the community and I am proud to have them adding their own music to this project. Whe have started out with D & C whistles and will be going on to Low whistles as the girls develop their skills.
Thursday nights will be Whistle Night at the Acoustically Perfect Barn outback. The two thousand square foot building is being cleared and cleaned to provide the local musicians in the area a place to try out different Keys and Kinds of whistles and to give instructional help to beginners and those that want to improve their whistling skills. I am sure that with the Girl Scouts, Girardin Family and all those testers who have had a part in getting things going that it will be a fun time. Dates and times will be posted in the end of April when it warms up around here enough to get outside and really enjoy it.
Moose Return for a Little Nap in the Snow The moose returned in the afternoon for a sunbath in the snow that lasted about four hours. After a good rest they feasted on some frozen crabapples and wandered off for a night on the town.
Girl Scouts Visit The Whistlesmith Recently we hosted Abnaki Girl Scout Troop #63 Junior Girl Scouts at The Whistlesmith in Northern Maine. The girls are 10 to 12 years in age and it was their first experience with playing the whistle. We gave several whistle demonstrations on the High C and High D whistles and the girls all had a great time. The girls and their leader Penny Kern, each received a High C whistle for their music project. They are going to play these whistles at the local nursing homes for the holidays to entertain the elderly.
Click on the picture for a larger version!
Posted by The WhistleSmith at 10:42 AM
Moose Visit The Whistlesmith We've been fortunate to have twin bull moose visit us on a daily basis right behind the whistle shop. These two thousand pound moose are definitely amazing and like to snort and stomp around eating frozen crabapples. Photos were take about 30 feet away from these two characters and I played them a couple of tunes on the whistle just to add to my list of whistling adventures.
Posted by The WhistleSmith at 10:16 AM
The WhistleSmith Whistle Bouquet
Posted by The WhistleSmith at 9:51 AM
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