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About Muzzies' Muzzies Country Lane Woodshop is located in Forest Glade, in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley. Sue and Murray Skaling have enjoyed crafting beautiful things from wood for a number of years, for their own use and as gifts for their family. Sue’s redesign of the adirondack chair, dubbed “senior friendly” has been especially well received. It has all the charming beauty of the classic but is much easier to enter and exit, and more comfortable for many folk, whether senior or not. Crates of their Kubb (an ancient Viking outdoor game) have been shipped half way across the country. Crokinole boards have become the most popular Muzzies' product and crokinole has become a big part of their lives - building boards, researching ways to improve methods and materials,  communicating with
customers and potential customers all over the world, and keeping up
with news of what others are doing in crokinole circles. They have
shipped boards throughout North America, Europe and across Asia, and
Muzzies' boards are exclusively available in Australia as well, through
GamesFromEverywhere.com.au.Their crokinole boards can be purchased online at muzzies.ca, and also locally at their workshop in the Annapolis Valley, and in Halifax at Jennifer's of Nova Scotia on Spring Garden Road. Sue and Murray say: "It is great to be able to work together at something we both enjoy. The first crokinole board we made was a gift for our daughter and her husband. We heard so many comments and compliments on it that we made a dozen to take to a local Christmas craft fair. Before we even finished setting up our booth other vendors were coming by to look and chat about crokinole, and as the weekend progressed it became obvious we'd struck a cord with many. People young and old stopped to look, play a round, and share stories about crokinole. The stories were memories- of family, and friends, of multi generations gathered around a crokinole board at the summer cottage, at Christmas gatherings, at community tournaments, of late night marathon games in college dorms. By the time the weekend was over we knew that there was a market for our boards and that this was going to be fun!" One of the great rewards they've enjoyed has been hearing many more stories people have shared over the years since then: The man who'd left
home in his youth to study and work in another part of the country, and
returned only years later to attend the funeral of his beloved
grandfather and claim the crokinole board they'd spent so many hours
around during his childhood. With tears in his eyes he revealed that he
never got the board. He had stayed away too long and it disappeared in
the meant time.
The family who have
enjoyed a big family tournament every Christmas season for years
-elaborate trophy and all - and now needed more boards for their
growing numbers.
The lady who came
with her daughter to buy a new board to surprise her sister. They had
grown up playing crokinole in their home, next door to the family
business, almost below Blomidon's red bluff. Generations of their
family were coopers, making wooden barrels for shipping Annapolis
Valley apples and Bay of Fundy fish to consumers all around the world.
She and her sister, who is in her nineties, still "play a few rounds"
almost every day of the week. Often, their brother is able to join them
as they compete, laugh, and talk of the old days.
 The
guy who grew up on a northern prairie farm, who had fond memories of
competitive play in the one room school house during long cold winter
lunch breaks, when it was way too cold to stick their noses outside.The retired farmer
who spoke fondly of the community highlight of the year in his eastern
Ontario home- the spring maple syrup "sugar off" celebration, and the
crokinole boards lined up in the community hall for the tournament that
was a big part of the special weekend.
The fellow who'd
honed his impressive skills playing solitary crokinole for endless
hours one winter, while living alone on an island in the Bay of Fundy,
tending a lighthouse.
The grandfather who
wanted the nicest board he could find to teach his grandson to play on
- he had grown up in a home where money was scarce. His father drilled
holes in the kitchen table for the "croke" hole and to place nails in
for pegs, and each evening would draw circles with chalk before the
games began.
Some of Murray's best crokinole memories are of playing with his own grandfather, who had his own unique "thumb" shot. (He had lost all the fingers on his right hand many years before in a sawmill accident - but was almost unbeatable!) and of teaching Sue to play, then their children, and now grandchildren. Great games, great times, great memories. Too many to share here. But they love hearing them, and love being part of new memories they are hearing about all the time. Parties, tournaments, gameclub nights, new traditions started with family and friends in locations all over the world, gathered around a Muzzies' crokinole board. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 1. Why Muzzies'? Its just a combo of nicknames the two of us have been called over the years. 2. What is the meaning of the board names? When we used the names of the stains people were sometimes confused and thought that our boards were cherry or mahogany woods, rather than all maple as our site states. We chose Annapolis, Fundy, and Blomidon because we live near the Bay of Fundy, on the mountain that forms the northern boundary of the Annapolis Valley. At the eastern end of our mountain, Blomidon, a clay bluff, juts out into the Bay, separating it from the Minas Basin. It is a beautiful part of God's creation that we get to call home. CONTACT Telephone:1-888-620-3377 (toll free) Telephone:1-902-765-3126 (local) Email: skaling@ns.sympatico.ca. |
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Muzzies'
is the best place online to buy high-quality handcrafted Crokinole
boards. Our boards bring hours of family enjoyment and are built to
last a lifetime from Canadian maple.
They can be ordered by phone or email, or be purchased directly from this website using any major credit card or PayPal. Although we use the PayPal system for our transactions, a PayPal account is not required.   REVIEWS @ BoardGameGeek.com: |
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