Matt in the woods

It’s been a while since I shared a peek at our life in Southern Appalachia. In my latest video I do just that.

We’ve been busy with gardening, preserving, and music, but we’ve found time to enjoy the blooms, sounds, and sights of summer.

Even though the sun is beating down on my head and arms as I work in the garden I know the summer of 2021 will soon be a memory so I’ve been trying to wring every ounce of joy I can out of it before it’s gone.

I hope you enjoyed the sights and sounds of summer in Brasstown. The fiddle tune the girls played at the end was written by our dear friend David Kaynor. He composed the tune after spending a week with us and titled it “Wilson Holler.”

Some pretty special things have happened to girls in relation to David’s death. They are planning to do a video about them, once they get it made I’ll be sure to share it with you.

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13 Comments

  1. Was just thinking of some old, retired coal miners that I knew early on. These men actually had small coal chips inbedded into their skin. I worked with two of them at a plant in Knoxville while I was in high school. They would carry their lunch in a gallon lard bucket and it always rattled from the jar of ‘shine, which they drank under a shade tree at lunch time. Some of their words were also very unique, using, for example, a very rudimentary form of past tense. One example is “seed” vs “saw,” as in “I seed him coming from afar off.”

  2. Great video! We planted rattlesnake greenbeans for the first time this year as well, and they are the bean of choice for us from here on out, plus the added benefit of not bending over to pick bush beans makes the decision to make a change that much easier. We had our first batch tonight for supper and they were so good. Hopefully we will have enough to can and put up for winter.
    You had asked where is the favorite place to shuck corn and ours is at the top of our deck landing throwing the shucks down to the yard behind our house. My husband runs the lawnmower over them when cutting the grass, so it’s really not a mess.

  3. First and foremost I want to thank the Pressley family for allowing us into their lives… I am a recent addition to the cyber phamily that shares all the glorious memories and traditions @ the Blind Pig… While I was not directly raised in Appalachia (central Indiana) my history and heritage lies in some of the most beautiful parts of our wonderful country…

    Walt Holokai… Howzit??? I don’t know if this is kosher or not, but sir you have peaked my interest…
    I presently live in Honolulu… Long story on how I ended up here, but you can safely wager there was a woman involved… Off and on for 40+ years (4th time living here) of being affiliated with this gorgeous, heavenly rock out in the middle of the Pacific ocean…
    Anyway Walt Aloha Nui Loa…

    Hey Hawaiian! You miss da grindz braddah?
    Aloha Friday – Spam Musubi Giveaway!
    https://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/video/5843986-aloha-friday-spam-musubi-giveaway/

  4. You saying the phlox are ‘kinda a hot pink’ reminds me how our daughter called that color “pink hotty” when she was small. Those were good days.

    We do have a corn shucking place. It is the old dog lot, now just a three-sided fenced area. I blow it full of leaves in fall but in summer it gets all the garden scraps. I have a bit block of wood to sit things on and I can run the garden hose to it.

    I can see the Deer Hunter knows it doesn’t take a lot of fire to cook on. Lots of people don’t understand that, though camp stoves prove the point.

    Our blueberries are just about gone. My wife has made a blueberry cobbler and it is good. But she was disappointed herself.

    Thanks for the virtual visit.

  5. I loved the entire video! Thank you for the recipe. I am going to try it! I would love to eat at your house! I know it would be delicious and the company would be grand!

  6. My mind is filled with wonderful memories from the KY/TN border. Radios were battery-powered, and those batteries were larger than the radios, weighing a ton. Walking through the fields to visit family and friends, we’d often be asked, “How’s your battery holding up” and “we’ll be over Saturday evening to listen to the opry.” On those trips through the woods, long hollers and fields we’d always hear animals, small and large, the latter crashing through underbrush and going wild during rutting season. Some of the wild bird calls I seldom hear anymore, and I miss that. Mostly, I miss the country lanes that were so worn that you could walk them in bare feet without getting a stone bruise. I also miss the small animals like possums that we’d meet along the paths and “tame” with leftover bread crumbs.

  7. I adored the video as I always do! I thought you looked pretty shucking corn and I got a big laugh out of your compost commentary. I thought your beans were magnificent and the striped rattlesnake beans are beautiful! I got a laugh out of Chitter saying “Them’s our beans and it better give ‘em up!” I thought your upside down cherry cake looked delish as well as your scrumptious meals you let us see prepared in their colors and variety. The deer hunter’s fire was interesting and his soup snd coffee looked warming and inviting on a cool evening after a day in the woods. Your drying screens are impressive as is your outdoor setup for pressure canning. I can’t help but think after Chatter marries, she and Chitter won’t have the luxury of playing together as much as they do now. They’ll remember these sweet days of youth at home in fondness. I just think you hillbillies are wonderful and as always THANKYOU for a precious look into Appalachian life.

  8. Thank you so much for sharing your life with us. ALL of the food looks delicious! Tipper, you and your family are blessed to live in a beautiful spot of God’s creation. God bless!

  9. That noise is katydids right? that’s not the sound of cicadas, as I thought. Yes phlox have a divine perfume, you lucky duck having them wild….lookit them busy bees…wonderful colour of the flowers, LOL rattlesnake beans, fun name hey.Look at that blueberry [whatever] y’all making, my little tongue was hangin out wanting to lick that bowl! my if I lived at your place I’d be like Billy Bunter, you’d have to roll me around YUMYUM. What’s that called Tipper, how do you make it, I’d love the recipe, if you would be so gracious :))What’s that the man is eating? ALL THAT TROUBLE FOR A LITTLE BITTY DRINK N ALL, MY u r patient!!OH, that’s the deer killer hey?? LOL, I loved the music thx ladies too cute y’all are THAT’S WHAT TOO CUTE!! lolve Miss Pippi

  10. Thanks so much to you and the girls for sharing your lives with us. I feel like I’m your neighbor. The Pressley Girls are awesome performers and get better each time I hear them. I’ve never enjoyed a blog as much as yours. Have a fantastic rest of the summer. Cheers!

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