1. Chatter’s room smells like a trapper’s cabin! No she’s not been running trap lines as a side hustle 🙂 But she has made a run of pine tar soap that smells like it belongs in an old time trappers cabin. Someone requested she make the soap for them so she gave it a go. It didn’t turn out exactly like she’d hoped, but it does lather up right nicely. The person who requested the soap is no longer interested, so it sort of seems like a lost project, unless you happen to like the smell of a trapper’s cabin 🙂
2. Granny loves flowers. She’s just plum foolish about them. Every time I had to take her somewhere this summer she begged me to stop and dig up a certain pink flower for her. I’d tell her “You just can’t do that today or you’ll get in trouble.” Granny said she used to have some of the pink flowers and that’s exactly how she got them—by digging them up on the side of the road. She said “I’d brought mother home with me to stay a few days and I seen some just yonder behind the stop sign. I asked her if she’d be scared if I left her in the car to get the flowers and she said why no she’d be just fine so I got out and dug them up. I had them for years and years growing in the back yard, but somehow they got away from me.” Well after hearing that story I was almost moved to stop and dig them up myself even if they were on someone else’s property, but Paul saved the day by finding a clump behind his building over in Martins Creek. If you know the name of the wildflower please share it with us.
3. Last Christmas Miss Cindy got me a subscription to Green Prints. I had never heard of the small magazine before, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it! It’s full of gardening stories. Some will make you laugh and others will make you cry. All of them will speak to your heart if you’re a gardener. You can visit their website here. If you decide to purchase a subscription for yourself or someone else, please tell them Tipper at Blind Pig and The Acorn sent you.
4. “The Prisoner’s Waltz” by David Grisman & Tony Rice has been the soundtrack to my summer. If you’ve never heard the tune you can give it a listen here.
5. Appalachia dressed in its full summer garments is beyond beautiful.
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Was wondering if the soap not coming out as Chatter anticipated was because of the smell? I made some and it didn’t smell like the commercial one I’ve smelled before, smoky and piney; more of a turpentine smell. Amazingly, there is actually turpentine soap out there as well as pine tar soap, and people sing its praises for the skin. Will see how this does after curing completely.
Therese-that was it the smell 🙂
I’ve never been in a trapper’s cabin, but I like pine tar soap! If I could purchase a bar or two I’d be happy to do so 🙂
Quinn-thank you for offering! She has sold it all now 🙂
Oh well, that’s my perfect timing 🙂 Thanks for letting me know, Tipper.
Common rose pink or carolina lily
Hi Tipper. Please tell Chatter that her pine soap is sold for poison ivy relief. It helps remove any urushiol oils that you get from contact with poison ivy, poison oak, and sumac. If you break out from it it helps dry the skin irritation and prevent infection from the scratching.
I have used it for years and it really helps!!!!
Granny loves her flowers! Not nice to cancel an order for unusual soap after Chatter has already made it! That’s a beautiful picture and that’s our country, we are so fortunate to live in the mountains of Western North Carolina!! We don’t call this God’s Country for nothin’!!!
Yes, I’d like to try a bar of the soap.
JD-I sent your email to Chatter she will be contacting you 🙂
Yep, thank you, and responded..
And I keep meaning to ask, is the phrase ‘ eat up with’…’ familiar to you?
JD-we use eat up all the time 🙂 I might get eat up by the chiggers or might say that boy down the road is just eat up with meanness 🙂
I have been with people who stopped beside the road to dig up a plant they wanted and I have stopped beside the road to dig up a plant I wanted (never in anyone’s yard!) I have used shampoo with pine tar in it; it works well to keep dandruff away but I got tired of how it made my hair smell so I stopped using it!
1(Chatter,sorry the pine tar soap didn’t turn out as you hoped,but I’m really sorry the buyer changed his mind.
2(My wife is like Granny, she’s had me digging up flowers all over East Tennessee, and how can I say no.
3(Green Prints,from what I’ve seen looks like a nice magazine. Gardening can be very relaxing and enjoyable. A subscription would be a very nice gift.
4(The Prisoners Waltz, never heard it before, but it sure was beautiful.To be talented enough to play like that would be wonderful,yet I’m thankful to be able to listen and enjoy.
5(Appalachia Dressed in Summer Garments, Yes Tipper, Beyond Beautiful,How Her Mountains,reach out and touch the heart.
If Chatter is interested is selling some bars please let me know and I will gladly buy some. I like washing my hair with it so please let me know via email! I would like to try making it, but not sure of any recipes out there, but I haven’t looked that deeply into yet. I did make my 2nd batch of soap yesterday and it turned out great again, so tell your daughter thank you for the recipe and video you two did a couple of months ago.
Denise-I sent your contact info to Chatter 🙂
Yes mam I love the smell on PINE anything lol
I love the story of granny & her mom where she dug up those flowers beside the road and behind the stop sign lol As you know I’ve shared with you that I don’t like to read a lot but I do enjoy reading your stories on here. Thanks! Have a blessed day Ms. Tipper!
The smell of Pine Tar is an Elixir from Heaven ..
Is Green Prints a paper or digital magazine? I couldn’t tell? And I assume 4 issues a year? Their website doesn’t say. It just gives the price for one year subscription without telling how many issue you receive. It looks really good.
Jenny-its a paper magazine. It is 4 issues a year, plus a bonus issue of some of their best articles 🙂
Thank you….I’ve been browsing the archives….so very good! Thanks for sharing.
Jenny-so glad you’re enjoying the blog!
I’m like granny, I live all kinds of flowers. Ask my husband and he tell ya, I see one some where and I will say , get me that. If it’s an old abandoned house or something or along side the Mountain Rd. He will get for me.
I love the smell of pine and like Granny I love flowers along side the road although I’m not sure what the flowers in the picture are called. The music was beautiful and that last picture of Appalachia should be printed on canvas and put in your living room – spectacular! We have been thru the Blue Ridge many times and celebrated our 50th Anniversary above Gatlinburg.
Wondering if anyone has used pine tar soap for relief of psoriasis and eczema. My sister has both and , so far, prescriptions are either exorbitantly priced or just don’t work. If she’d like to sell a few bars of the soap, I’d like to buy some. What are the ingredients?
Thoughts on today’s “5 things”:
1. Chatter is up for a challenge as well as being kind and helpful.
2. Granny is a woman after my own heart – not familiar with the flowers shown but I’m eager to get back to gardening again and this just whets my appetite all the more!
3. Eager to see what Green Prints has to offer; I’ll be checking into it.
4. Music always speaks to my heart. Listening to this collection was a real gift. Loved the Prisoner’s waltz so I started checking out their other music – Morning Sun especially spoke to me today. – then, lo and behold, there they are with Jerry Garcia!
5. Ahh – a peaceful view – and time to consider the small and the mighty and all that’s in between.
Just what I was thinking, Tamela!
The sky is beautiful in the picture. The picture looks like the mountains in Virginia.
The blacksmith has made pine tar soap for years. He uses it daily in the shower. I love it when he gets a new bar out.
We so enjoyed your hello video Pattie Bagley showed us. Take care!
That pine tar soap is supposed to be good for relieving Psoriasis and Eczema. It also can be kept in medicine cabinet for Summer bug bite relief. Your story about Granny and the flowers reminds me of my Mom. She was always digging up something or the other, and Dad once grabbed her heart by snitching a baby from a Spider plant in his doctor’s office. Always honest to the umpth degree I do not think he ever felt like those treasures of nature were stealing. I kept that Spider Plant for many years. An older lady had thrown the extra tubers from her flower garden down near the mailboxes. Beautiful flowers were thick each year at my mailbox, especially what we called Easter Lilies. I watched while a strange lady jumped out of her car at my mailbox once and started digging feverishly from the lovely flowers. I just thought, “Oh well.” Still not sure if that strip of land belonged to me, God, or fell into the category of public or roadway right of way. I am sure she has enjoyed them, and that is what matters. 🙂
1. Wishy-washy about soap! Did I say that first?
2. I’ve seen them flares before but have no idea what they are. I think I’ve mentioned before, I’m not much of a flare person.
3. “Weeders Digest” Now that’s funny!!!
4. “The Prisoners Waltz” Slow, Sweet and Simple. I said simple, not easy. Simple is not always easy. In fact it’s rarely easy.
5. Is that a walnut tree right at the left edge of the picture? There will be some goody goodness on the ground before you know it. Could be a black locust though.
I have an app on my phone that States that it is a Rosepink, it’s genus is Rose Gentians (Sabbatia). It is a native of eastern North American. It can grow nearly ten feet tall, It is cultivated ornamentally for these mid summer blooms. The genus name , Sabbatia, was given in honor of the Italian Botanist, Liberato Sabbati
I thought I was the only one who stopped along the road and dug up flowers that I liked. I have a garden full. Some I know what they are and some I don’t know what they are. But every time I see one that I like to do that. Also if I go estate sailing and I see a bush outside someone’s house I will take a little slip of something that is so beautiful. Sometimes they take off and sometimes they don’t but it sure is worth the try to get them to grow.
I’ve just been reading up (again) on making pine tar soap and decided not to tackle it. Seems problematic when it comes to adding and distributing the pine tar before it wants to become solid. Seeing Chatter’s soap looking so good makes me want to have a go. I find the smell intriguing; supposed to be a “manly man’s” soap. Years ago I worked for a pharmacy and someone special ordered a bar. Every time I passed by that bar I had to stop and smell it. Maybe I’ll give it a go after all…
They look like what my Granny called Sweet William…not the cultivated Sweet William found in nurseries. These grew wild in the woods and had a faint, but pleasant smell. All those I have seen were blueish-violet, but when I googled “wild sweet William Kentucky” the resulting images showed shades of pink as well as the pale lavender I remember. They bear no resemblance to the Sweet William people plant in their flower beds.
When I was a child, we would find old homeplaces in the country and dig up whatever we wanted. Different times, but I think the roadside is for everyone. After all, they will just be mowed down sooner or later. I collected some vinca from the roadside and it is beautiful.
Well, I for one like the smell of pine tar and pine tar soap. It has a lot of good memories associated; campfires, wildfires, warming fires, kindling burning in the old wood cook stove when I was a boy and Grandma’s homemade salve to name some of them. And those reminders recall the people and the circumstances. I can’t use it all but I’ll buy some. She can email me particulars. I think you have the address.
My Mom loved flowers to. she could never have enough on the place. I think your wildflower is one called Rose Gentian or Rose Pink (Sabatia angularis). If so, the center is “yellow green” and the stem is “strongly 4-angled”. (In the picture they do not appear to be 4-angled though, so it may not be rose gentian.) The rose gentian grows as an annual or biennial in moist ground. So it will not stay around unless it naturally reseeds.
I’m glad for you that you have that favorite mountain view nearby. I confess to being a bit envious though envy is not a good thing. The only mountain view I have is a thin rim of blue of the very southern edge of the mountains about 10-15 air miles north. Still, I’m glad to have that much.
We should care more about other people, especially those with whom we make a contract. I know that if I were asked me to make a batch of something, I’d want to have some compensation regardless of whether they changed their minds and whether they be family or friends. The next time they ask Chatter to make something for them, her response might not be so trusting and willing to please. Now Chatter has the expense of time and money in getting rid of the soap or finding another buyer. She may have also lost some faith in those kind of people, and that’s even worse. Just my opinion. We care for your family and truly appreciate all they do. So we don’t want to see them treated with such a calloused or selfish attitude.
Custom orders should be paid for in advance, so if the buyer backs out, you are not stuck.
If that soap is still available. I’d be interested in purchasing some.
Larry-thank you! I sent your email to Chatter 🙂
Those look like phlox to me but, hey, I’m no botanist. Once I picked a rhododendron out of a National Forest ( be it tiny) and took it home to my daddy who asked where I got it. Then he told me I could be jailed or fined or both. I was 16 then and never pilfered from the National Forests again in my whole life! I understand Granny’s flower lust completely. I’ve been tempted to pull up flowers on somebody’s lawn usually by the road but the whole idea of getting shot over a flower snaps me back to reality and this AINT Oz where the poppies grow…. Sometimes Murray just rolls his eyes and drives on…. lol. Perhaps some day you’ll find mine and Granny’s pictures on a WANTED poster over flowers absconded by the road side. God bless you all and Chatter don’t ever waste your soap skills on wishy washy fly by nighters who change their minds like the wind changes… smh but since I love pine candles, pine sol and pine anything I’d love to sniff the aroma of the soap. It’s pretty too I think.
They might be “ Rose Pink”
Tipper – forget my earlier comment! Years ago someone had told me it’s lewisia but it’s Not – it is rose pink but somehow ( old age?) The lewisia name stuck in my head! So sorry for the confusion
Are the flowers spring beauties? I’m not 100% sure but they sure look like ’em. That sure is alot of pine tar soap! Bless her heart, it’s disheartening to put all that work into something and then someone decide they don’t need or want it. I’m sure she’ll put it to good use or hopefully find someone who needs it. That’s a nifty gift from Miss Cindy! I’ll have to take a listen to that Waltz today 🙂 Appalachia in all of its beauty, there’s nothing better (maybe I’m biased lol). Beautiful picture! Have a blessed day, Mrs. Tipper!