1. For many years I collected angels. Then one day I realized I had all I needed and a few I didn’t. I gifted the extras and held onto the ones I enjoyed the most. I didn’t really set out to collect birds, but over the last few years I’ve become a collector of birds. A hand carved hummingbird hangs in my kitchen window. A sweet man won it at a SEOPA auction and gifted it to me. There’s several wooden birds from the Brasstown Carvers. Chitter gifted me most of them. There’s two especially nice birds made by Minnie Atkins who is a famed folk artist. For Christmas I ended up with four more birds. A red pie bird that was sent to me by a subscriber, two of the sweetest little blue bird salt and pepper shakers sent to me by Belva Jean Mooner who is a long time Blind Pig reader and a dear friend, and a small wooden crow Chatter put in my stocking.
2. Although I haven’t gotten any more snow, I’m still smiling about the skiff we got about two weeks ago. One morning this week we had flurries that were pretty to watch, but no accumulation. Yesterday morning it was a chilly 23 degrees with a big heavy frost. I was hoping the cold weather would stick around for the rain that was headed our way, but the warm air arrived before the rain so there wasn’t any snow.
3. For almost a year I’ve been interested in grinding wheat berries to make bread. I first learned about wheat berries from my friend Robbie Lynn Howle. You can see her talk about it here. I was especially attracted to the health benefits of using wheat berries. I did not know that valuable nutrients quickly dissipate after wheat is milled commercially nor that part of the wheat is removed in the process and the flour is then enriched to make up for what was taken out. I was afraid we might not like the bread, but we loved it! I’ve only made one loaf so I have much more to learn about grinding my own wheat berries to make bread.
4. Last week Jim Casada shared a video of The Tennessee Bluegrass Band performing an old Tom T. Hall song with me. The name of the song is “Tall Weeds and Rust.” The band does a wonderful job and the video is very well made. I’d never heard the song before, but it’s one I won’t forget. The lyrics really speak to my heart. I’ve always understood you can’t stop the changes that take place around you. From people dying to natural areas being turned into strip malls to subdivisions on the sides of mountains, I fully understand it’s the way of the world. But sometimes I wish I could take a magic wand and put the landscape around me back like it was when I was a small girl. To hear the song go here.
5. In the last two years we have been amazed at the kindness of strangers. People who’ve never met us, yet want to share their treasures because of our endeavor to celebrate Appalachia. I’m humbled, honored, and slightly embarrassed by the gifts. I’ve worked at jobs I disliked greatly now I get to do what I love every day of the world. It’s an amazing fact that I will forever be thankful for and the kindness of strangers is the cherry on top.
Last night’s video: Eating Scrambled Eggs on Light Bread in Appalachia.
Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox
I have a couple of small collections. The older I get the less I want though. After a lifetime it’s just “too much of too much”. I will keep the crocheted gifts of a dear friend. She is gone but her work remains. I called her my “second mama”.
I have a “pie bird” that has not been used in years to make pies. My pies are simple these days.
We do have a “living” collection of cats and dogs. They keep us good company when we can’t see the grandchildren who live far away.
sorry for another comment, but about the wheat berries….my adopted in laws grow wheat on our property. I have a country living grain mill & mill my own flour. To make the bread less dense, I use a sifter & sift out the bran. I then reserve the bran for making raisin bran muffins, etc…I absolutely use 100% whole wheat for the bread with no commercial white flour & the bread is great-not overly dense, light in color, and a nice crumb. I do not let the flour rest really. I grind what i need for the week, as I do an old fashioned baking day schedule on Fridays (laundry on Mondays ; ) ). My recipe does call for some powdered milk & brown sugar. I also use this flour for pie crusts and other things. It is delicious. I also cook the wheat berries in an InstantPot for hot breakfast cereal & also make a special salad with cooked wheat berries. It has cubed, roasted butternut squash, dried cherries, cranberries, or currants, greens, and a vinaigrette type dressing. It is light & refreshing & unique. If you grind more flour than you can use in a fairly short amount of time, just freeze the flour until use. It will keep it from going rancid. If you have a grain mill that has different settings of coarseness, you can make cracked wheat/cream of wheat for breakfast cereal, too. Just some thoughts, as I have really gotten into milling my own grain & corn. This year my adopted BIL planted rye, too. Very excited about that. 2022 was the year I got into sourdough, but haven’t used my milled flour for that yet.
I am in Summerville SC and the growth here is out of control. Our countryside is rapidly disappearing and traffic is a nightmare. I was raised in Anderson SC and much of my childhood in the 50’s and early 60’s was similar to the Appalachian stories in your vlogs. I am 72 years old and find great joy in following you and your family’s lifestyle. I care for my husband who has advanced dementia and Celebrating Appalachia brings me joy. God Bless ❤
Same here in Willow Spring, NC (Johnston County). My husband and his siblings inherited the 100 acre family farm that has been in his family since the mid 1800s, and we and other family members still live here. We are hoping our children and grandchildren will want to keep it in tact as all the other farm land around is being developed.
I, too, am 72 years old and caring for my husband who has advanced multiple sclerosis. I look forward to every post made by Celebrating Appalachia and the Pressley Girls. It takes me back to my childhood and the sweet memories . The whole Pressley is a blessing.
In the ’40s and ’50s the city limits in Raleigh were about 12-15 city blocks apart. I grew up in Oakwood in northeast Raleigh, about a mile from the State Capitol. I remember that the city limits going South were just behind Memorial Auditorium, going West, at the railroad crossing before getting to Meredith College on Hillsboro (the way it was spelled then) Street. Going North, there was no Downtown (now Capitol) Boulevard. Instead, there was Person Street which carried US 1 through town. The city limits were just past where the old Mary Elizabeth Hospital stood at the Glascock Street corner. Only part of Oakwood Cemetery was in the city.
Now, 70 plus years later Raleigh sprawls from past Garner to Wake Forest and from Cary to Wendell, or so I’m told. I’ve not lived there for more than 30 years. Thousands of acres of productive farmland have been paved over for parking lots for strip malls, big box stores, and car dealerships. Thousands of suburban homes have been built. Where did all the people come from? What will the next 70 years do to Wake County?
Thank you for another great blog post, Tipper.
Blessings to All . . .
I lived in Halifax Court with my grandmother from 1960 until 1969. We lived right behind Peace College. The changes there and those you mentioned make everything unrecognizable and no longer feels like home. Progress is inevitable and good in many ways but it still saddens me to see so many changes.
Today we have 12-14 inches of Snow in Arkansas. Couldn’t help but wish you had some of it.
That song really tells the story of our lives for those of us who are of a certain age and questioning all of this so called progress that is being done now. We have watched farm after farm go up for sale and the only ones who can afford the price are big developers with the big money they have that turn the farms into strip malls and housing additions. I hate it but it is what it is. So much is lost and destroyed…….
I like what Kate said about returning gift’s received to those who gave it when our time draws near. I have a list tied to my will just for that purpose.
Keep doing what you are doing Tipper and family, each of you are a blessing from God!!
Denise, your first paragraph tells exactly of the things going on in my area of Greenville County, SC. I live in one of the most rural areas of the county and now the farm land of old is being snatched up as soon as it can be and being turned into housing developments. It has gotten so bad that the state legislature is considering a bill that would charge a one time fee of $250 for the drivers license of people that have moved in from out of state.
Randy, we watch the farmland disappear, but the inner cities are just decaying with crime, buildings falling down and our city governments allow it to happen. I believe our governing entities should do everything in their power to keep this from happening. If inner cities are kept up people do want to live there, but you can’t blame them for leaving when those locations end up in such decline. End of my political rant!
Oh Tipper that video was haunting, I’ve always had a certain feeling when I think about such things but that band put it into words, I guess. Before we moved to Idaho we lived across the border In Washington state and the nearest big town, an hour’s drive away, was Spokane. On the outskirts, just before you got into the town there was the cutest little house where an elderly couple lived and they had the most gorgeous garden every year that you’d ever see. Then one year, it all was just gone. There was a new fire station where the little homestead had been. I always wondered what happened to that couple, if one or both of them died. Or had been put in a nursing home. While I know fire stations are a good thing, it just breaks my heart every time I go by that place now. Thank goodness I am not in WA state much anymore. There are so many places like that though and it breaks my heart. Blessings.
Thank you for sharing that song. It sure spoke to my heart because I also see so much change that it breaks my heart. I don’t like change but know we can’t stop it. From our family and friends passing away to all the landscape changes. Husband and I were just talking about how we can’t take a relaxing Sunday drive out in the country anymore because the beautiful farmland that we once knew is now bombarded with subdivisions and traffic. It’s just what Randy said, a farm will go up for sale and then another housing development is started, and here in Johnston County we are so overcrowded. On a lighter note, Tipper, I loved the birds. Beautiful!!
Have you done a video on grinding wheat berries? I would be interested in knowing how to do it.
Ron-not yet 🙂 You can see my friend grind hers here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56caaMk6nis&t=282s
I enjoyed your post as always. I enjoyed watching Robin and the Homestead Pastor talk about making their own bread and milling their own flour. Plus I loved all the scripture references they used. I had no idea that the store flour had been stripped of the grains nutrients. I really need to start making my own bread again, but it’s been years since I have. Plus I need to learn more about milling grains to make my own flour and corn meal. I also watched the video of The Tennessee Bluegrass Band. They played beautifully. That song made me tear up and miss my family that has gone on from this world. Made me feel homesick. Tipper, you and your family are all such a blessing. Thank you for sharing all you do with us.
Our old home and all the outbuildings, which was in our family for decades, met the bulldozer and is now a corn field. You would never know all the living that took place on that site. Such precious memories. One good thing: they spared the barn. So now we have a reference to recall where the house, smokehouse, chicken house, garage, garden, etc. once sat. The song, “Tall Weeds and Rust”, was great. I loved this band.
5 Things
#1 Your Blog – gives me time to reflect on the past around ME & appreciate the history of my own region & family.
#2 Old dishes. Got lost on the internet the other day, dating some of the very old dishes that I have been gifted over the years. I have one lone plate from an ancestor, Catherine Fitzpatrick Flanagan, that is from 1875!
#3 Old needle working books. Just scored some free from local library. I won’t really make any of the patterns, but I LOVE reading the text/descriptions. They are great entertainment & women of that day were reading much more substantial vocabulary. Gives my brain a work out!
#4 Legos. I spent the afternoon making weird lego things with the little boy I babysit 1 day a week. He wants me to follow the instructions, but I like to just jumble things together. LOL.
#5 Horses. My daughter & I are taking care of friends’ horses while they are in Florida for 10 days. I love the whole routine & rhythm of doing their chores. I love being near horses and it reminds me of the appaloosa horse we had as kids. Her name was Glory, shortened for Spots Galore. She was a stubborn old thing, but I remember pouring my heart out to her & thinking she really could understand me. My parents finally decided to give her back to the original owner because, true to teenager fashion, my sister & I got “too busy” and stopped spending much time with her. Upon further adult reflection, I would have been better off spending more time with the horse & less time with the boys. I would love to buy my daughter a horse, but money……..
I love to see pie birds – they remind me of the nursery rhyme Four and twenty blackbirds which makes me smile thinking about it. I imagine a HUGE oven with a huge pie baked and 24 pie birds stuck into it. What a celebration that must have been when they got it out and all the birds were singing for the king. I wonder what the real meaning of the nursery rhyme is? I know that Humpty Dumpty was to scare children from climbing up the walls surrounding the village – to keep them from falling. Just not sure about the singing blackbirds. I’m also thinking one of my 5 great things is having this wonderful blog to read and stir up old memories. I would love to say I collect them but my brain just seems to forget them until I read your words and the words of your commenters. Love those simple memories so!
Thanks for sharing that song by Tom T. Hall. He’s one of my favorites and this group does it justice. Tom was a poet for sure, saw things lying around that no one else would look at twice
Hi Tipper! Michelle the Yankee from Boston, here. Sitting on my bed with my coffee..real strong & black, reading your post. My old cat Seabiscuit is beside me as usual. I am very thankful for your posts and sharing Appalachian heritage with everyone. I’m glad there’s YOU to keep these things alive for future generations. Maybe one day nobody will care anymore and I think that’ll be the death knell of humanity. There’s a group of artisans from West Virginia that come up to Massachusetts in late summer to sell their wares at an agricultural fair. I love the pottery and buy a new piece every year. BTW I used to bake my own bread and back in the late 60s people discovered the health benefits of wheat berries. They’re AWESOME added to bread dough but a couple things I found. You really can’t use all wheat berries or ground wheat berries in bread dough. I never had success. It makes a very dense bread that’s nearly like the brown, flat bread my mom from Denmark grew up on. It’s dense, sliced less than 1/4” thick. But for regular bread, you need whole wheat or white flour in there. Rye flour covers up the sweetness of the wheat berries. Using honey is good because it’s a humectant and keeps bread moister longer. If you do grind your own flour you need to let it rest before using it. I’ve forgotten how long but I think several months? Maybe contacting a Miller who could tell you. But if it doesn’t rest it will have way too much gluten. Ok thanks dear Tipper! Have a wonderful day!
What a sweet post! The crow in the picture has the cutest face! We had snow flurries in Richmond, Virginia a couple of weeks ago, but nothing stuck.
This is such an awesome post. I have been struck as we have driven around in our county over the past few days at the number of housing developments that are coming here and, in particular, how much pasture land and wooded acreage is being consumed to build these side by side by side homes. Our way of life is slipping away and it’s such a sad thing. “Tall weeds and rust” was a perfect song for this post. Thanks so much for your daily work and sharing your lives with us. I have been blessed to get to know y’all over the past several years. Strange how you can feel such kinship with folks you don’t really know. I attribute part of that to our kinship in Christ. I know if I never get to meet you on this side, I’ll meet you over there! Have a great day, Tipper! Much love from SC, Jane
I’d never heard Tall Weeds and Rust until now. What a beautiful song with a powerful message.
Nice post! As I have said before, my mornin’ kawfee jest ain’t right without Tipper…
Tipper, always enjoy your posts and those of your followers. I look forward to them every morning. God Bless you all.
You are right, “Tall Weeds and Rust” hit home and pulled on heart strings. Seems the older I get the more I appreciate what progress is taking.
Tipper, what a lovely post. That song takes me back and makes me cry. I miss the old times and ways. We are blessed to live in this era, but a heart longs for what was. I know Heaven will be wonderful!
I’m anxious to hear about how you like the wheat berries. We grind our own too and use some to sprout for our chickens.
We are getting a big snow now and oh how I love it! I’m one of few in a crowd that does. It’s like it washes the land for a while. So peaceful and quiet!
Momma loved angels and birds. 2 of her favorite things. I especially love that pie bird!!
Thank you for always starting our day out with a blessing!
Debbie, please tell us how you were able to get those paragraphs to post with separating spaces. I tried typing in Word then pasting but lost the paragraphs. Thank you, r.
Robert, I type it from my phone. I use the left curved arrow in the bottom right of where you type in your message. Right of the period.
My son and I have a large collection of Coleman lanterns and some stoves. I had a lantern and stove I used when we camped, but the collecting started with one 50 year old Coleman kerosene lantern model 237 bought at an antique store near Burnsville, NC. I don’t know the exact number but I would guess we now have around a hundred., very few newer than 1980. When I started, I never knew Coleman had made so many different models. I also agree with Brandi, I know things are going to change, my biggest concern is with all of development and especially housing development around going on in my county. Just as soon as land used for farming becomes available someone buys it and will start a housing development. Now many of the creeks and rivers are starting to flood when we only have an inch or two of rain because of so much land being turned into cement and asphalt and they wonder why this is happening. Nowadays for some common sense is in short supply. Tipper, my mother had a collection of red birds. Just a side note Coleman would stamp the date made on the stoves and lantern.
It seems that almost all nutritional value has been so processes out of our food so that there is none left by the time food gets to the table!
We have yet to see any snow in my part of Virginia; just lots of cold rain. So this post was the perfect uplift for yet another soggy, chilly, dark morning!
Wonderful, uplifting post for this SODDEN Wednesday morning. As of today, a wintry mix is forecast for February 5 around here so maybe that will give y’all real snow. I love all of your posts.
God bless and stay dry!!!
Oh my, I am at a loss what to say to your five things. But #4 hit me where I live. I’m not a crying person but those words, that music, the pictures plus my own life experience brought my heart into my eyes. There is, for some anyway with an ‘old place’, a deep pain that comes with the years because we both remember how it was, see it like it is and know a measure of the loss by the difference. However, your #5 is an antidote. I am so glad you are blessed with the kindness of strangers, well strangers in the sense of never met but more like friends you haven’t yet met. You all have a lot of those.
Great song and love Tom T. Hall. Love your birds and always know we love you guys and look forward to what we learn. God Bless
A true treasure of “5 things!” “ Tall Weeds and Rust” should speak to anybody over thirty who has watched changes to a life they have treasured. Nature claims the land and old homesteads, but one can still go back and find small relics of the past. When the land is strip mined or a big mall is built, all is changed as to be unrecognizable. Some of my extended family was very upset when the Hatfield and McCoy Trail went through my grandpa’s old homeplace on Pinnacle Creek. The roads were rutted, and they resented the intrusion on what was their home in their youth. I had a different take on it, and am grateful it became part of something that will be preserved just by the fact it will remain wilderness. So much remains, and in a way nature has protected it instead of claiming. The old well was found even though all around appeared to have always been remote forest. A big rock still remains in the creek, where so many had stood and took pictures back in the day. They still make a trek up the creek occasionally and share pictures on FB. The old root cellar is still there, and although the wood part is gone, the rocks are still piled up nicely laid by my young uncles all those many years ago. Much of the family has been brought back from other states to be buried in the old family cemetery. By law, the cemetery will always remain the same. Loved your posting today, as always it sent my heart and mind down paths that bring comfort during changing times.
Oh wow, loved the song!!!! I’ll be looking up more of their music for sure! So good thank you, thank you for sharing!! And I love wheat berry bread, never ground any of my own, but definitely knew that’s one of the main problems with our processed foods today. Sadly much is over processed to the point of no nutritional value and adds to so much diabetes these days. We did get our forecasted snow here in East Central Illinois, so yay!! Woke up to about 2” and it’s supposed to continue to fall throughout the day. We prepared extra wood on the wood pile and plan to be in the kitchen makin a feast for supper to celebrate. I can’t tell you enough how much I appreciate being able to enjoy the snow, after 38 yrs of not enjoying it because of a hard job in it!
PS….when watching the Tennessee Bluegrass Band I ran across one of my favorite songs of all times…please look it up YOU WILL LOVE IT. Patty Loveless’ “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive”
Lorie
You probably already know this, but the twins sang that song, too. I do love Patty Lovelace’s voice, she is outstanding.
Oh my goodness, what a song! Very powerful words for sure. Can bring a lump to the throat. Thanks for sharing
I feel the same about the landscape! As fortunate as we are to live in Appalachia with so much of it still untouched, I do long to keep it safe from too much development. Thanks for all you’re doing, Tipper!
I’ve never heard this song before but I will never forget it ♡
You mentioned Collection of Birds. My step-mum ended up with such an accumulation herself. She had raised parrots & cockatiels besides finches. So when live birds were no longer a thing, we could gift her easier.
Our family had a thing of returning gifts near end of life. While certain gifts meant more than others, the most favored would be sitting on display close to the bed so it was always in view. Sounds as if you’d be hard pressed to chose your favorite.