Granny shares her birthday with Blind Pig and The Acorn. This blog turned 14 on Sunday.
Fourteen years is almost unheard of in the blogosphere. In other words, Blind Pig and The Acorn is ancient.
How have I continued to blog for longer than most folks?
From the beginning I had a strong sense about what I wanted to do—which in a nutshell was to celebrate Appalachia. There are a myriad of things to celebrate about the rich culture of Appalachia so I never run out of things to talk about and thankfully my passion for the region I call home has only grown over the years.
In addition to my strong desire to pump out content about the Appalachian Mountains I’ve had the best blog readers in the world! Some of you have been with me from the beginning, some of you are new to Blind Pig and The Acorn, and some of the readers are now gone from this earth—but all readers encourage me to continue. And the comments readers leave add wisdom and knowledge to my writings.
My passion and the wonderful readers are the reason the blog has lasted so long.
Back in 2008 when I first started the blog I had no idea that it would reach all the way around the world, nor that it would enrich and change my life in the way that it has.
I started my endeavor of celebrating Appalachia on one of the first computers we ever had in our spare guest room, also known as the dangerous room 🙂
The room was our catch all, my office, and a guest room when we had company. Once the girls grew up and wanted their own rooms we gave the room to Chatter and I moved my office to a cramped space in my bedroom. When I get a little sad about Chatter getting married and flying the coop I remind myself how nice its going to be to move back into my old office 🙂
I’m madly in love with Appalachia—the people, music, food, folklore, culture, language, towering mountains and deep dark hollers. And I thank each of you who come sit a spell with me to celebrate and preserve it all.
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CONGRATULATIONS TIPPER. LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR STORIES. GOD BLESS YOU WITH MANY MORE. I’M TRYING TO CATCH UP. MY BROTHER HAS BEEN IN THE HOSPITAL.
Happy anniversary and congratulations! I’m so glad I stumbled upon your blog and your videos. They’re fun to watch and always so interesting. Continue doing what you do. God has richly blessed your endeavor and I’m sure will continue too!!
Your blog is a highlight of my morning. Congratulations and best wishes for many more years of Blind Pig and The Acorn. I am one of your newer followers.
Happy Birthday Dear Granny
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday Dear Granny
Happy Birthday to You.
And many many more!
(I have butter ready for your nose too along with 82 kisses!)
Tipper,
I am from the Blue Ridge Mts. We are several hills over from Buffalo Mtn. My family has been here since 1790 the best we can tell. We fuse the old and new. I can my green beans and tomatoes, soak sores in salt water, pick blackberries and plantain (planten), chew on mahogony switches (black birch), and kill snakes with my hoe if I have too. We combine modern with the old ways. I cover my tomato plants that I set out in the spring with laurel leaves for shade just like my mother did.
I’m new to Blind Pig and the Acorn but I love it. Tipper, you do things like we do. Charles and I have been to Brasstown , Young Harris, and Murphy.
You are precious and so are your family members. Fourteen years is a long time but time here in the mountains can go really fast. Keep up the great work. Love you, Kathy Patterson
Thank you Tipper for your blog. I really enjoy it and am so glad you started it; I only wish I had found it sooner that I did. I did not grow up in the mountains of North Carolina (I do visit there often) but I am very familiar with many of the things you talk about. It is also really good to know that your blog will always have a family oriented Christian theme about it. Also I really enjoy the music. Thank you for the blessing you give to your readers. Dennis Morgan
Congratulations! I started blogging in September 2008. It wasn’t long after that, I think In January of 2009, that you first commented on my blog. I don’t blog like I used to, but still put up a post every now and then.
It’s been a wonderful gift. Very happy to have found BPandA!
Happy Birthday to The Blind Pig and the Acorn!! I look forward to your posts and also your YouTube channel. My Shelties, who love to watch tv, got very excited seeing Olive in the garden. I couldn’t hardly hear you and I told them they were messing up my Appalachia lesson! Lol
You and your family are a blessing to me and I love and appreciate all you do.
Happy Birthday also to Granny! I especially love the videos that feature her.
God bless you dear Tipper!
congratulations on the great milestone for your blog and grany for her age
Congratulations
Congratulations! Your blog is the highlight of my day.
I really can’t imagine NOT reading The Blind Pig! Thank you for sharing so many blessings with us all, with love and sunshine.
Matthew 5:14-16 says we are a light to the world. Perhaps your blog and your youtube channel are your light to a world that needs enlightened now more than ever.
You have been the beginning of my day for most of the 14 years we are celebrating. Only when you were ill was I unable to get the kickstart I needed every morning. All those days seemed different. Like something was missing. All day long!
I am not a follower of yours. I follow no mortal. I only follow Jesus Christ as I’m sure do you. We are fellow travelers. We inspire each other although I get much more inspiration than I give. You provide fuel for my thoughts, an ember for my fire, a melody for my words and a song for my heart.
Before you start getting a big head, I don’t believe that all the good you do comes from you. All that is good comes from God. So, it is God working through you that we see. Be proud that God has chosen you!
14 ain’t nothing! You can’t even drive yet! Just wait ’til you are 16 and can get behind the wheel. You are going places dear lady!
Tipper, please convey our warmest congratulations to your Mother on her 82nd Birthday. From your blog, I knew she had a big birthday coming, and I still missed it!
Congratulations on 14 years of sharing the beauty of our Appalachian region with the world. I usually begin my morning around 6 A.M. with a cup of coffee and your blog. I truly enjoy the variety of things that you bring to our attention.
Congratulations Tipper and to the Blind Pig and the Acorn for 14 years. I believe everyone who reads your blog loves those mountains and ways of life as much as you do but we can’t be privileged to be living there and experiencing it so we do it thru you. Thank you so much for inviting us into your place on this wonderful world God has created and sharing the Herriages of your family and the people and places that you live around. Keep up the great blog.
Congratulations! You and your family have brought joy to my life. I have learned so much about Appalachia. Looking forward to many more years of this blog and YouTube. Take care and God bless ❤️
Happy anniversary! And happy birthday to your amazing mother!
Happy happy 14th anniversary and happy birthday to Granny! Your blog is one of the best out there about any topic but especially about Appalachia. Every day I thank God and my parents for letting me grow up in this wonderful place. As long as you keep writing about it, we’ll keep reading!
Happy Birthday to Granny and the Blind Pig blog. Thank you, Tipper, for providing such a wonderful blog for other lovers of Appalachia.
Happy Birthday to the Blind Pig and Acorn! Time sure does fly as we get older. I don’t remember how I stumbled upon your blog Tipper, but at that time you played Pap’s music and I loved the hymns. I was drawn to it because I think I was hearing words and comments about a way of living that I knew existed in NE MS and other areas too. Example, being driving down a country road and meeting strangers waving to you even if they didn’t know you personally. Knowing the names of old places by who used to live there and remembering them out in the yard or sitting on the porch waving to you as you drove past. Those sweet precious memories are pressed between the pages of our mind. Thanks again for providing those sweet memories of words we’ve heard and cooking dishes that bring to mind Mother’s or Grandmother’s wonderful cooking and putting up for the winter. I know you have a busy time especially now with the 12th coming up this Saturday, but I know you are truly blessed as Corie will not be that far from you. Thanks again for reminding us of those special times.
Tipper, you and your blog have endured because you naturally bring all of us into your family and make us a living part of what you do. It’s like a good book or a favorite place where you visit often and always feel that tug to return – from stories of our rich history, real music that resonates in our souls and to many other things that keep us close to our cherished Appalachian roots. And where else could we have learned about Granny’s Holy Smoke Cake! Thanks and keep on blogging
Congratulations Tipper!! You’re right, it’s rare for a blog to last that long. My own blog is 13 years old and I still enjoy it as much as I did at the very beginning. Plus, it makes me a very nice full-time income just for doing what I love!! I hope you have many, many more years of blogging about your favorite things!
Happy Birthday BP&A, and Thank You!
Happy Birthday Granny and Congrats Blind Pig!!! I have enjoyed your stories, music, recipes and friendship for at least 10 of those years. Yes, you do feel like a good friend! ♥
I sure wish I had known about you from the beginning, Tipper! I can’t tell you how much your blog and utube means to me! Thank you so much!!! Happy Birthday, Granny!!
Here’s wishing you 14 more!
Thank you for writing every day and thank you for recording a culture and way of life .
Happy Birthday to Granny and The Blind Pig & The Acorn. Thank you for showing the world what Appalachia is about.
Congratulations on your many successes!
Keep on keepin’ on!
Congratulations on 14 wonderful years blogging! We greatly appreciate your passionate desire to educate and entice the world about the unique culture of our beloved Appalachian mountains.
Thank you and may you be blessed with many more years Celebrating Appalachia!
I’m so glad I found your You Tube channel and blog! I pray that God continues to give you fresh inspiration daily (in every area of your life). You are such a blessing! Thank You & CONGRATULATIONS on your 14th anniversary!
Congratulations on 14 years. Wow that is amazing. You do a great job with your blog and everyone can tell its something you love and want to share. Here is to 14 more years. Thank you for sharing so much.
Your daily writing is the first thing I open each morning. I don’t remember when I found you, but it’s been a while, probably soon after I retired in 2011. Will never forget the day I received a package from you containing a couple of handmade cards and, of course, the crocheted head warmer. Even though I was born and raised in B’ham Alabama, technically not the Appalachians, close enough for me!
I have enjoyed the reading, it’s a morning thing with me, I have my coffee with ya. I’m not sure when I came on….but it’s been a few years, wished I wrote it down. Got lots a great recipes, and stories. And things to do. Watch your garden grow with my own. It’s like we are neighbors. Kinda!
Enjoy this summer….it’s coming.
Wish everyone the best. Happy birthdays, and all. And anniversary too!
Thank yo for sharing…
14 is a good number. Congratulations! You are having a series of memorable days coming close together. Shaping up as a memorable year.
I think you left out two key elements to the success of BP&A. And that is your character and your personality. We readers know when we come to BP&A we won’t be dragged down but instead will be lifted up. And we know if we go wrong somehow, maybe not knowing, you will be kind. We feel it that you do appreciate us (though we may feel you give far more that you receive) and it causes us to appreciate you the more. You are a light in a darkening world but I think you would probably say you don’t do anything that is “beyond common”, only that you way you spread good feeling is. You haven’t let your success spoil you and that is also endearing. There is a reason you have been called ‘the angel of Brasstown’. I’m pretty sure those who called you that would never have done so if they had not known you would be unchanged by praise. What Mordecai said of Esther comes to mind, “Who knows but that thou art come into the kingdom for such a time as this?” I for one feel that you have. And I very much think the thought that you might be suits you very well and absolute knowledge is not required.
Tipper, I was touched by your statement concerning “some new, some since the beginning and some gone from earth now.” That’s quite profound I think. The reason we are here is that somehow you find interesting topics that in one way or another people can relate to and it’s always interesting to see who comments on what. It’s non predictable at best. But we come because you’re so sweet and likable , not to mention pretty and humble, and your writing talent is really something you should be proud of! Your family seems wonderful and we all just look forward to what you’re up to and in to next!!! God bless you, Miss Tipper, in ALL YOU DO!!! You’ve been a blessing and bright star in my life. I won’t ever, never forget you. In the morning, after all my chores are done, I rush to see what’s happening in NC…you ARE the cat’s meow!!! I always find myself saying stuff like “my friend in NC shared about that and here’s what was said….”
Happy Anniversary to Blind Pig and The Acorn! Celebrating Appalachia… A delightful way to start the day!
I only recently found your blog, after seeing “The Presley girls” on U-Tube. That led me to your channel and then to the blog. I like reading about the customs, sayings, food, folklore and so on. It’s amazing how different and yet how alike our two areas are. I’ve been watching you start your garden and start your seeds indoors. This gave me the idea to do the same. Our growing season here starts a little later than yours so I have to wait to start my seeds. I enjoy trying some of your recipes. It’s almost like having dinner in Appalachia. Happy anniversary to the Bling Pig and Acorn.
Tipper,
Congratulations and thank you for keeping our “Appalachian Ways” front and center.
I’ve never lived in Appalachia (tax lawyer in Philadelphia), but I find the stories and recipes very interesting. And my family loves the chess cake I make from your recipe. Keep writing!
Reading your blog brings me so much joy ! We live in west central Alabama just on the outskirts of the Appalachia foothills but we visit the mountains often. If you could hear my husband talk you would think he was born and raised smack dab in the heart of Appalachia. Hope you can keep the blog going for many years to come. ❤
A late happy birthday to Granny. My birthday is also in March and people here bouts always said I was windy being born in this windy month. Not so btw.
Congratulations Tipper, you are the best and you must really have an active mind. You come up with more things in a month than I could in a year.
I want to apologize to people in the Midwest about the way I phrased a sentence in my long comment here. When I said that while I lived in Iowa I felt like I had stepped back in time several decades, I meant that in a very good way. My heart has always been drawn to the lifestyle of the early to mid 1900s. So when I lived in Iowa, I felt like I had stepped back to the 1950s, 1970s or even the 1930s, and that gave me such a peaceful warm feeling. In my small town in Iowa, life was still unhurried, and neighbors knew neighbors. The modern world of the 2000s had not overtaken life there, yet. And I thrived there! The Midwest will always have my heart! So many wonderful memories from there. Anyways, I just wanted to clarify I meant “stepping back several decades” as a good thing!!!
Donna. : )
Your passion and your personality draw people in because you are a breath of fresh air in this crazy world and people are looking for something good, for stability and a different way of life. That strong sense about what you wanted to do was God whispering in your ear and you have followed Him in doing so and in turn have been blessed by being able to do what you love full time and having the following of great commenters and readers. Keep doing what you’re doing because we need it! Happy Birthday to BP&A. Thanks for what you do, not just here but your (and the girls) YouTube channel as well.
Tipper, I am so glad I found your blog fourteen years ago. I was living in the High Desert of California then. Even though I was only a couple hours north of San Diego, I missed my family and the familiarity of where I grew up. I had recently moved back to California from Iowa. I missed the old fashioned way of life I had in Iowa. I have always been an old soul in my heart, and it was like stepping back in time several decades while I lived in Iowa, and I missed that once I moved back to the big city, and then up to the desert. So one day I was searching on google for old fashioned cooking or living, or some words similar to that. Your blog came up. You had only two posts on it at that time, because you had just started it a couple days before. I immediately connected with you, and I hoped you would keep writing. Has that really been fourteen years ago??? Where has time gone? Shortly after finding your blog, I moved back home to San Diego, and your blog moved with me. I have learned so much from you. You have given me that comfortable, at home feeling, all these years. Even though at that time I had never been to the south, I knew it was my kind of living. My heart had always been drawn to the Appalachians since I was little, and I felt like I belonged there, even though I lived on the other side of the country in a huge city. When God called me to move to North Carolina five years ago, I did it without hesitation. I bought my house online, only having seen pictures of it through a reputable, long time real estate company. I had never even been to North Carolina before the day I pulled up to my house with all my belongings. I had felt God preparing me to move for about six months before I even started looking for my current house. I had seriously prayed about what I was to do. God closed doors in San Diego, and pretty much wherever else I looked at to move to, and opened them wide here in North Carolina. I think me finding your blog eight years before I moved here was His plan in preparing me for this state. I am here for a reason, I know that, because there has been so many things that have happened since I have been here that I know God has been keeping me here. He still is preparing me for something, I don’t know what, but I know there is something. God’s timing is not the same as ours. Years are just a blink to Him. Someday I will know the what and why. I had also never left a comment on your Blind Pig blog or any of your you tube channels. I loved everything you were posting, I was just too shy to comment I guess. But Christmas of 2020, when I was watching a music video on Blind Pig, I felt a strong nudge to comment. I wrestled with that feeling, but finally left a comment, and have since then. Thank you for this wonderful community you have given us! I love everything you post. I have enjoyed watching the girls grow up, and love their you tube channel, too. And the family music channel has introduced me to the kind of music my heart has always loved. Of course I grew up with the hymns, and some of the old country, but there are many artists and songs I have not ever heard of, that I now love. Thank you for all you are doing!! You have been a major force in my life for fourteen years. Amazing how God uses us for His purpose and we are never even aware of it.
Donna. : )
P. S. Thank you Mint2Be for your wonderful comment to me yesterday. You made me so happy! What you said gave me tears of joy, literally! I look forward to meeting you in Heaven someday, too. Until then, I cherish meeting you online!! Maybe someday there will be an opportunity to sit in person and visit while we are on this earth. God is so good!
I live in NC too! I am in the Piedmont area, what area are you in?
Many thanks for this Blog …one of the best is my thought. May you have continued success I look forward to ‘years’ to come. Be Well.
ps….Happy Birthday to Granny (going to try her Holy Smoke Cake soon).
Thanks, Tipper, for these wonderful 14 years of heartfelt stories, videos and all the content that you have so artfully penned. I’m new to this blog of yours but I go back to catch up. I doubt I have that much time to do it. You’re a sweet and precious lady and we all love you and your adorable family. We hope to see this blog go on forever even if it means that Chitter or Chatter are the ones to perpetuate it.
Thank you, for the face of Appalachia that you bring to the world. I follow you daily, but I am also aware that there are followers of The Blind Pig all over the world. As I read comments, I am both pleased of our heritage and the face of Appalachia that you present to the world!
You do us proud so you go girl!
Happy birthday to the Blind Pig!
Happy Birthday/Anniversary to the Blind Pig and Acorn
My beloved husband will be 81 end of this month.
Time flies when you’re having fun. ❤
Happy Anniversary to the Blind Pig! I’ve been reading your blog each morning for about 6-7 years and I enjoy it very much. I call it having coffee with the Pig. I know it must take a lot of time and energy to produce it each day and thank you for bringing Appalachian life to so many people. I became instantly interested in the blog the first time I read it because I was so familiar with the customs and dialect. Even though I didn’t know you personally I still knew you in a familiar way.
I look forward to many more cups of coffee with the Pig. Thank you!