Our YouTube channel Celebrating Appalachia turned six in the month of July. We’ve learned a lot during that time.
When we started we didn’t know much about filming, lighting, or sound. We still aren’t experts, but we fumbled around until we found what works best for us.
There’s many moving parts to managing a YouTube channel. We learned mostly by trial and error and by watching YouTube videos on the subject.
Our skin has thickened over the years. Trolls and haters are an unfortunate but real part of the online world.
Running the channel is definitely a full time job for both of us. In fact we often work longer hours than we did when we had public jobs. But we enjoy it so much!
We are beyond blessed to get to do what we love everyday of the world and also make a living. God has blessed us beyond measure.
Our online journey started way back in 2008 with this blog. If you’d like to hear the long story you can go here.
A week or so ago we went back and watched the very first video we uploaded to the Celebrating Appalachia channel. You can see it here.
I cringe when I watch that video today. I was so nervous and shaky, the lighting was off, the camera set up wasn’t good—in other words we didn’t take time to learn anything choosing instead just to jump and pick up the reins.
Even though there’s much to be improved upon in the video, it pleases me because our endeavor of celebrating Appalachia and all its goodness hasn’t strayed from that first video.
Key points of the video:
- The rich colorful language of Appalachia.
- Appalachian handicrafts.
- Creativity that abounds in the mountain people of Appalachia.
- Granny Donaldson sets the record straight about why she started creating the blankets—in other words she speaks to the real Appalachia not the cardboard cutout that’s often held up as a representation.
- Family importance is highlighted when Granny Donaldson says her daughter helps her since she’s gotten too old to do the work alone.
- Family and creativity are highlighted again as I talk about Granny and her okra stamped mirror.
I don’t know how long we’ll continue to do the blog and the YouTube channel, but I do know there’s plenty of fodder to celebrate Appalachia and its people—we’ve barely scratched the surface.
Last night’s video: Celebrating 6 Years on YouTube.
Tipper
Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox
My comment has to do with tomato sandwiches and the many members that love them. I just came from a funeral for my lifelong next door friend, cousin and fill in brother for the brother I never had. It was mentioned during the service how much George loved home grown tomato sandwiches but only if they were made with white bread, Dukes mayonnaise and extra black pepper. After the service was over but before his burial, tomato sandwiches made like this was served to the ones there and it was requested we eat one in memory and honor of George. Money can’t buy the happinesses and joy I have had in my lifetime with this boy and later on man. As young boys we spent many hours fishing for horney head minnows in the creek between our homes. I realize serving these sandwiches was unusual but I don’t see how it hurt anyone.
I read three words last night that will remain with me for the rest of my life “You are family”!
Congratulations on your sixth anniversary on YouTube. I watch every video and every live stream and enjoy them all. I admire you and Matt and your lovely family. Pay no attention to those trolls and those imbeciles behind the curtain. There are many of them in “OZ” land. Please continue to do what you do for many more years in the future. My thoughts and prayers are with you, all your family, and all the Acorns.
Happy 6th anniversary of your channel. I absolutely love all the videos and all your posts on this blog. Please don’t quit either anytime soon!!
Congratulations on y’all’s 6th Anniversary. You are truly doing a great job. Here’s hoping y’all keep it going for a long, long time more. At the least, continue until you feel good about all you’ve done, and move on to greater endeavors that you desire to do in your life. God bless all your endeavors today, tomorrow and always.
Congratulations on 6 years. I enjoy your videos so much. You’re the only YouTube channel I watch now. So keep them videos coming for all of us. Your family is the best. God has blessed you all.
❤️♀️
CONGRATULATIONS
I’ve been watching you on YouTube for about a year and now my husband joins me. We watch it on the tv. We can identify with your values and faith and find it encouraging that there are others in this crazy world who are the same. Congratulations on your success and don’t ever stop sharing.
Your posts are one of the highlights of my day!! I love all of the things you do. I didn’t see your BPA post until this morning and want to wish you a very happy belated birthday. My mother passed away November 4th last year, and ten days later I turned 65. It was such pain for me and I will miss her so much until we meet again.
God bless you!
Happy Anniversary! Thank you, Tipper, for investing in the thought, labor and good humor required to bring lovely Appalachia to us. Your workload is tremendous – and you bear it with such grace. Thank you!
Congratulations! Happy 6th Birthday to Celebrating Appalachia you tube channel ! You all are a huge blessing!
I watched Kayla’s channel last night & was delighted to see your cookbook on her shelf ! 🙂
Congratulations, Tipper!! You and your entire family should be proud of what you have accomplished! I do miss seeing Granny though. Your U Tube channel and this e mail is the highlight of many of my days! I have learned a lot about Appalachia, which is a world of difference from Iowa where I came from 6 years ago. I was already a gardener till my hubby of 50 years passed, and I barely knew anything about Appalachia other than the fact I would love to walk it some day, never expecting that I would , and yet I have with my daughter. Our favorite day trips are going to the mountain and getting apple cider and apple donuts! I hope you continue for a good long time!!
I have posted similar thoughts before. I believe things like You Tube and y’alls and many others creating communities of interests and then deeper inter-relationships is not accident or coincidence. I believe it is one example of a Providential provision of the counter to social disintegration and loss of unity, purpose, vision etc. Before there was a revolution in America, there was a Committee of Correspondence who exchanged letters among the colonies in order to form an overview of overall conditions. Even if not focused on political conditions, folks in contact strengthen bonds of unity and therefore union. Anyway, that’s how I see it.
What a profound comment, Ron. I appreciate reading your insights every day. Thank you so much.
Congratulations !! So glad I found your channel. Really enjoy whatever yall video.
Morning Everyone. I was surprised that video was the first. It was really well done. On to the HATERS. I don’t get it. If you don’t like what their doing or saying, move on. I think “Celebrating Appalachia” pretty much gives you an idea (ideal) what the videos are about. I think HATERS hate themselves but have to hate someone else. It’s hard to say but my daughter is like that. We spoke one time in almost 20 yrs. Thank goodness for my 2 sons. Keep doing what you are doing. Your family is special to so many. Anna from Arkansas.
I’m sorry! I will pray for her. Thank you!!
Happy Anniversary!!!! I have enjoyed every single episode since the very first one. Y’all are constantly improving and expanding!!!! So well done…just hoping for many more years to come! Much love from SC, Jane ♥️
There are some people who can’t bear the thought that someone else is happy.
First of all, happy belated birthday & how wonderful that your YouTube anniversary coincides within a day!! What a cause to celebrate with your family towards the end of summer ♡ The funny thing is, I happened upon some of your early videos and very much enjoyed them. Your sweet nature and sincerity came shining through. This was several years before I got rid of Dish TV (2+ years ago) and got wifi at home, in the country. I hadn’t actually “discovered” YouTube as such a personalized way of entertainment. I’m so grateful that when I did, your channel popped back up as a recommendation and the rest is history, as they say! I’ll be forever grateful. I look forever to MANY MORE YEARS of celebrating Appalachia through your lenses!!!
I can not understand why someone would say ‘you talk to much’ do they just want to look at pictures or videos with no sound? I watch a metal detector channel GMD (green mountain dector) such a nice great guy good voice very knowledgeable explaining his finds and he always gets comments to quit talking–who would not want to hear the story behind the find he just dug, or not hear your description of the view you are showing of family or sky or plants or gardens–even the cooking. These people must be people who live on their phones just texting for conversation rather than voice to voice…..these people are missing out on so many levels if they are not interested in hearing a voice
I hope and pray you can do this for many years to come–I wanted to comment on something Mat said in one of the recent lives (I think). He said he peaked in and Ira saw him and said ‘I will be right there’ and dropped everything to run to Mat–I have a few thoughts about that, I believe it is in Song of Songs (Solomon) he says to the woman (which is suppose to be how The Lord speaks about and to us) ‘with one glance of your eyes you captured my heart’. I think with one glance of Mat’s eyes he captured your heart and got your undying devotion and love ever since, and I think little Ira feels the same way because in Mat’s eyes you can see everything you need to know about Mat and that it is all good and right and he is worth following sticking close to and learning from him plus without a doubt you all know he will protect a provide always…which is how God intended every man to be. Secondly, my prayer is that Ira will always drop everything, say I will be right there, and then run to his grandpa with just a glance from Mat. No better earthly man for that ‘little man in the making’ to follow–and that can be said about your dad, your brothers, every male in your family and though I don’t know that much of Mat’s family I bet it holds just as true on his side. Thank you for all the work you two put in just to ‘entertain and enlighten us about all things Appalachia–I love the culture, the food, the language, the family closeness, it is all like how I grew up here in OK but as you know most of us long time Oklahomans almost all originated from North or South Carolina, Alabama, and worked our way first to Tennessee then slowly on toward OK when it was still just a Territory. In fact my great grandparents had so many kids by the time the last one was born they ran out of names so just named him after where he was born Oklahoma Territory, he was called Homa for short and that really is a true story, I think they had 15 children to live to adulthood.
The first video was well done and enjoyable. Thank you for sharing Appalachia with us.
For the haters — Just because you don’t agree doesn’t mean you’re right.
I truly hope you have just scratched the surface! That means you will have reason to continue providing educational and wholesome videos while we visit your family for many years to come. Keep celebrating Appalachia so the haters can find something to do with their miserable lives. Daddy used to say, “When they’re talking about me, they’re leaving somebody else alone.”
Congratulates on your sixth anniversary. I can’t remember when or how I stumbled across your posts but I immediately subscribed. And have enjoyed every minute that I have seen. Keep making the videos and I’ll keep watching as long as I can.
Rock on, Pressleys! You have a good, wholesome thing going.
Congratulations on 6 years of Celebrating Appalachia on YouTube! We are richly blessed by your videos, blogs and ALL you share with us. SO extremely thankful for all you and Matt do!
Congratulations on 6 years of awesome content and allowing us all to enjoy listening to great conversations, helpful gardening adventures, interesting interviews with local residents, great music, wonderful family gatherings, fun celebrations and delicious food. You, Matt and the girls have invited us into your lives like we are friends dropping by for a visit. At least that’s how I feel when I watch your videos. Livestream are even more so, but sadly I seem to miss them a lot, but I catch up on them when I can. I need to set a timer on my watch so come Monday I can catch the livestream. Hoping ya’ll can keep up the visits for many years to come. Blessings to you both!
Congratulations!! Keep doing what your doing, God is blessing you as you continue this endeavor!!
Congratulations on your sixth anniversary! I am so thankful that you started your YouTube channel and that one of your videos came across my screen one day! I enjoy watching all your videos (not just cooking and not just gardening ). Unlike some of your viewers, I found your Blind Pig and the Acorn blog through Celebrating Appalachia videos and not the other way around. I have enjoyed both for several years now.
Congratulations!! listening to y’all is like going home for a visit. with Ron’s health we’ve not been able to go back in person for several years But we get to visit home weekly! Thanks for all you do!
Why can people be so mean! It’s sad to think such wonderful people have to deal with that. I’ve never understand why people that don’t like or agree with something can’t just move on. Instead they feel THERE opinion needs to be in the mix. If THEY have such strong opinions they need to start their own channel! lol
Anyway, when I found you all a few years ago, I just fell in love with the channel and the message and the girls channel as well. I look forward to checking for videos every day. I am one who loves all aspects of it. Not just gardening or cooking or when Matt does one, I love them all. Makes me long for the close family I’ve always wanted.
I’m thrilled you have thickened skin and never left because the joy and knowledge and wholesomeness you bring to so many of us, is so precious. I love you all including Olive & Binks and the new cat! I drink out of my Celebrating Appalachia cup daily!
I’m in East Tennessee & love learning what I didn’t know about Appalachia.
May the Lord continue to Bless each of you.
Happy 6 Bday on YT! I LOVED your writing the part about haters and trolls and how you’ve grown THICK SKINNED! Let that be a lesson for younguns under 40 or so that no matter how nice you are people have to hate on you. I can’t see anybody trying to pick on you online, but it’s easy to talk a lot of “smack” hiding behind the curtain here in Oz. Pull that curtain back and all you have is a digital weakling and coward. I hope you keep going for another decade at least! There’s many of us who love you and call you friend. Have a blessed day and a celebration of a good meal with your great family! May it be a lovely day for you!
Tipper and Matt,
Congratulations! My wife and I really enjoy your and the girls videos.
We are Appalachian Yankees in Pennsylvania. Many things of language are the same as y’all say. And some of the recipes too.
God bless you and enjoy many more years of videos.
congratulations
I loved your first video. I can’t remember how I started reading your blogs and watching your videos, but I am grateful I found them. They are a special part of my day every day.
Congratulations on this six year anniversary. I have always loved the mountains of NC and am glad to get to “visit” with y’all like we all do. You do a great job with the videos, and the blog, and keeping in touch with folks.
I really dislike the thought of you having trolls and haters- I can’t quite imagine it. I have definitely come across videos on YouTube that I don’t like- some that I disagree with wholeheartedly. But I just don’t watch any more of their content and move on. I don’t feel the need to make negative comments. In fact, I guess I don’t understand negative comments at all. I’m not saying everyone has to agree with everything said or done in the videos they watch, but criticism is only ever helpful if it’s constructive. I’ve heard content creators say “Now, don’t come at me about this…” and I can’t fathom what it must be like for them to feel the need for that disclaimer. Of course, there are some YouTube channels that are…preachy and (in my opinion) don’t leave much room for opinions other than their own. But I figure, it’s their channel. You have always been gracious and respectful and humble. So, what is there to hate or troll?
Melanie, my sentiments exactly. I don’t think it speaks very highly of the character of the ones that do this.
Happy Anniversary! Thank you for mentioning 2008 as the year your blog started. I’ve been racking my brain trying to find a reminder of when I started following you. My guess is 2009 or 10. I’m looking forward to many more.
Congratulations on 6 years. Your baby is growing up. lol We wish you many many more.
Good morning Tipper and Matt. Congratulations on your 6 year Anniversary. Our Home/Appalachia is enriched with every post on this blog and your youtube channel. It has become a viable record of the oral history of our heritage and daily lives. TY so much for all you do to preserve our way of life. I love y’all.