Anyways, then we always cleaned off th’garden and fixed it and burnt all th’trash. We us t’have a big garden and we always had horses. My grandma Cabe give my daddy a horse when he got married. The horse’s name was Sam. I reckon he’s dead now. I use t’ride that horse t’work on th’farm on yon side a’th’river up and down below Grandma’s. Well, after we got th’garden cleaned off, we’d clean out th’barns and scatter that manure all over th’garden. Haul it out there with a one-horse sled. Then we’d take all our ashes that we’d burned durin’th’year and put them on th’garden. After Ulyss’ and I married we done th’same thing I do now. I’ve got a tub full a’ashes now. I was goin’ t’carry’em out this mornin’, but I said, “I can’t carry that tub out.” I forgot it last week, it was s’heavy, and that’s hard on me. I can’t hardly lift it.
After we got th’manure and ashes spread, then ol’ Sam always plowed our garden and mixed it all up, and it always made a good garden. Sam was th’best ol’ horse, law-w-w. We kept him till he was twenty-two year old. Then Poppy sold him t’somebody. I did hate that he sold that horse. I wish we’d kept him, y’know, cause three’r four a’us little ol’younguns, just as many as could, would ride on that poor ol’horse’s back. He never throwed nobody off, though. He was raised that way, yes sir.
—Aunt Arie A Foxfire Portrait
Today’s Thankful November giveaway is a used copy of Aunt Arie A Foxfire Portrait. To be entered in the giveaway leave a comment on this post. Giveaway ends November 25, 2025.
Last night’s video: The Book Signing Was A Huge Success!
Tipper
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That’s a sweet and telling story of life, back in the day. I think when a family had an animal back then they had a love for that animal. Not like having a pet, more like having another family member, but that also had to work for food. Enjoyed this one. Miss Tipper, Thanks again for all those memories.
When I was a child we had a pony. His name was Star because he had a patch of white that resembled a star on his forehead. After I was grown and married, my daddy bought a mini farm and had a couple of horses. They were pleasure horses,though, not work horses. My mom and dad used to ride them on mountain trails and at the beach. I tried riding myself but riding just wasn’t for me. But I did help take care of the horses and other farm animals when my parents traveled. My dad still owns one horse, named BoBo. Also, Tipper, I love all the books you read. I own many of them in my personal library. But I do not have this one.
Burning off the garden was a yearly chore for a long time and then we stopped doing it for some reason. Probably, when my brother set the adjacent field on fire.
That was a fun excerpt. I swear I can hear her voice as I read.
I have always thought that horses smelled good. I guess it’s a combination of hay, summer, sweat and sunny days on the farm. Miss them!
Love these old-time stories of how things were done.❤️
This new to me book, sounds like a good read. I was raised up where our mules, Nell (white) and Beck (dark brown) pulled out old farm machinery. Beck was stubborn and highstrung where as Nell was gentle and slow. The seemed so tall to me but I was under 10. It was all I could do to reach up and pet Nell’s velvet chin. Beck would have likely bitten me! I was never brave enough to get on their backs or horses backs either to ride. My son did as a wee little lad on a pony. He is still a natural as two of my grands are!
The older I get I realize how much I am missing my parents, grandparents and uncle aunts. I love watching you on YouTube. It always brings back such wonderful memories.
I’ve not heard if this book!
I cleaned out the barn many times and spread it on the garden or a field where we wanted to plant corn. All of this was done with a pitchfork and horse drawn wagon. When one of the horses died Dad found an old manure spreader and pulled it with the pickup. The loading was still done with a pitchfork. I don’t recall ever encountering a mean horse. If they are treated right most are docile and gentle. Mules are sometimes temperamental. All of the oxen I ever saw were gentle.
One year when we were through with the garden Dad turned the pigs into it. It rained and they rooted. We finally had to choose another garden plot. Once that red clay was rooted up wet there was no way to get rid of the clods. They were like lumps of concrete.
I cleaned out the fireplace and cook stove every evening and put the ashes in the garden the next morning. Once I failed to get them cleaned and mom awakened me the next morning. I cleaned out the fireplace coals and all and took them to the garden then. Before breakfast was ready Mom sent me to the garden to control the fire. I had dumped them to close to some grass and weeds and had a pretty good wildfire going.
Ed Ammons thanks for the information! That was very interesting. Aunt Arie was quite a character!❤️
I remember my Mom would get a load of horse manure delivered every year for her next garden season. What a stink!
Manure that stinks ain’t ready to put on your garden. It needs to “go through a heat” (compost), elsewise it could “burn” your plants and your nose. Composting kills unwanted seeds and other noxious things.
This may get posted twice, my big finger hit the wrong “key” the first time. Spreading manure on your garden straight out of the barn accomplices two things-it adds nutrients to the soil and issuers having a fine crop of grass grown from the grass seeds in the manure!
We always left the manure compost until the 2nd year. The heat from the composting process kills the seeds and other insidious ingredients. Steam from the manure pile will rise like smoke from a chimney in the winter. We say “It’s cooking!” Once the pile cools it is safe to put on you gardens and fields. Fresh manure will kill or stunt garden plants.
That sounds like a mighty hard life. I’m not that strong at my age…
Would have loved sharing a pot of coffee with Aunt Arie.
I so agree, while reading you can hear the words being spoken. lol. One must concentrate just a little more.
So sweet !!!
I love that story. I would love a copy of the book. Have a wonderful day.
We always had a riding horse that would also “work”… My dad loved horses and I love horsepower!!!
When Daddy retired from the Army and we came back home to east Tennessee our neighbors in the little community of Pandora had plow horses and one had a mule. Mr Stout and Mr Roberts had big blonde Belgian Draught (draft) Horses and they teamed them to make a twin pair on the big jobs like the tobacco fields. Mr Roberts would plow our garden on the hill behind our house because it was beside his. I think the horses were named Pat and Jake. Then our neighbor across the highway, Mr Shoun, had the mule. It was a medium gray and and as sulky as Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. Mr Shoun would harness that mule to the cultivator, disc or plow every morning that there wasn’t snow on the ground. I guess he was exercising him. But they would go to the garden and stand there in the same row for days till the mule wanted to plow a few feet. Mr Shoun did a lot of fussin’ and cussin’ but I don’t think that mule spoke a word of English because he never did what he was told. We would sit on our front porch or tn ourselves in lawn chairs while we watched and listened. It made for a fun summer for us kids. That was back in the early 1970’s.
I would love to have a copy of this book!
My father in law had a work horse for many years that he used around his farm, her name was Kate
Aunt Arie painted a vivid picture of how they prepared the garden plot to add more nutrients to the soil and used ole Sam to plow it. Good reading!
I can almost hear Aunt Arie speaking. I would love to read the Foxfire books. Wishing a blessed day to all.
Arie Cabe Carpenter born in 1885 in Macon County NC and died in 1978 in Dillard, Rabun County, Georgia. She was the niece of the wife of my 2nd cousin 3x removed.
Before I conclude that Aunt Arie’s way of talking was anything different than my own, I have to realize that what I’m reading isn’t her at all. No! There is a third party and a fourth. This book is the result of an interview of her by a high school student(s) and a review by an editor. All those contractions and apostrophes are the result of what the interviewer heard and tried to translate into standard English. AND the editor let it pass.
Their translation: “I use t’ride that horse t’work on th’farm on yon side a’th’river”
Mine: I used tuh ride that horse tuh work on thuh farm on yon side uh thuh river.
Am I being petty? I think not! In 1972 when this book was being compiled I was working in Rabun County near the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School. I talked to many natives there (I could have even unknowingly encountered Aunt Arie herself) and none talked different than me.
My fear is that people who are not familiar with our language will read this book and think that there is a subculture that talks even stranger than we do. What they should realize is that this book was written by a child (or children) trying to transcribe what they had heard in an interview of an old woman living in the mountains of Rabun County, Georgia.
Are the Foxfire Books tainted? I think not. But before reading them one should research the story of the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School and the highschoolers who produced these books.
I would love to read this!
My grandpa’s horse was Bill. He was beautiful, spirited with a wild look in his eye. Every weekend I would sneak out back to the corrals to take him a treat. My mother forbade us to go near Bill, she felt he was too wild. My father sold Bill when my grandpa died, I was 12. I regret I never got to ride him.
As always, praying for Granny.
We had a pony when I was 9 years old. He was only nice with me and dad ( because we were the only ones who fed him). Everyone else pretty much steared clear of him! He got out of his pasture once and chased my sister, (who was trying to go to work and wearing high heels), all the way to the house. He would try to rub people off his back by gliding his body into honeysuckle bushes next to the fence. THERE WERE BUMBLEBEES IN THAT BUSH!
It was my job to clean the stall and wheelbarrow it to the compost pile. I remember the blisters on my hands. Blisters are the sign of a day not wasted. We always had a lovely garden!
My parents used horse manure, if they had any, on their garden, and then used the horse to plow. Daddy would remove the plow and hook an old metal bed spring to the horse so it could drag the lumps out of the soil. Chicken manure was a favorite fertilizer, but the gardener had to know how to use it, or it could burn any plant it got too close to. We had very few wood ashes for the garden, as coal was used in the heat and cook stove. I wish I had known Aunt Arie.
I never think about gardens and such without thinking of my granddaddy disking his garden one time with his old Studebaker truck. I don’t know how he managed to hook that thing up, but dust was rising up to the clouds like a dust bowl. He had two mules he called Kate and Tobe. I was always afraid of them. He was about 5’-6” tall and wasn’t afraid of any animals. He was called Doc Franklin and doctored everybody’s animals. Again mountain people were very creative.
So interesting to learn about gardens. My grandparents always had gardens, and a horse named Tony. They didn’t have a big variety of veggies. But it was always good.
Love the Foxfire books.
We used to scatter manure and ashes on our garden plus anything that would loosen up the soil and give it nutrients.
We also work our wood ashes into the garden, with a tractor. We don’t have any farm animals but we live in a farming community, so wouldn’t be hard to get a load of manure. I love reading your foxfire articles from past posts so I know I would love this one.
What Aunt Aries describes is both a waste-nothing and a take-care manner of living. And that is how it has to be when you depend on the land to feed you. Add to that lots of years on the same piece of ground and one result is that attachment to place. It also tends to make for noticing the little things that make a difference; clay ground vs sandy, sunny vs shady, dry vs wet and so on. Your posts are like that, Tipper. You know your homeplace on that north slope. It has it’s challenges and opportunities. By now you know most all of them and have made good use of the knowledge.
That’s a nice story. Sounds like a good book.
I could about feel the garden dirt all newly worked and cool from a fresh turning under my feet! My Grandpa Stamper was a mule man through and through, all my uncles trained/ showed Tennessee Walkers, but grandpa loved those mules! I can smell the barn in my mind now.
What another wonderful memory from Aunt Arie! We have much to learn from the older generations.
Love this story about the days gone by.
The Foxfire books are great! A friend is a librarian, and she told me about them a while ago. So many interesting stories and the books started as a project … a teacher gave the assignment that his students should interview their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and collect their stories. It started as a magazine! Then the articles were collected into books, to preserve the culture and traditions. Am so glad that teacher did so!
Thanks for taking us along to your book signing. It looked like so much fun and y’all are well loved by so many people and well deserved.
I liked the Sam The Horse story. Your childhood was filled with sweet memories and memories your parents told you about.
Have a blessed day. Love and hugs❣️
Love Aunt Arie stories.
We had a horse with no name. Probably called him horsie!!
Mommy always spread ashes from the coal stove around her peonies. She had beautiful peonies.
Tipper, I thoroughly enjoyed the book signing video. Don’t know who enjoyed it more your guest or you and Matt! You all need to do more day trips when time permits!!
Yes Kelly I can certainly hear Scarlett calling for Big Sam!! I’ve always thought SAM was a strong southern name even for a horse!
Everyone have a great day!
“We had a horse with no name….”
So did the recording group America, if you recall… 😉
Love hearing these stories from not so long ago. We could do with a little less electronics and more ‘earthing’. Bless you!
Love Aunt Arie! A true mentor to a lot of us.
We had a mule we called Red that I always rode on around the farm.
I love the way Aunt Arie talked. Like somebody else commented, you can almost hear her. We had horses growing up. My daddy was a farmer/rancher in Texas. My favorite was a horse named Buttons we got as a colt. When Dad passed away when I was a teenager, we had to sell her. But when my sister got married ten or so years later, her husband who is a horse trainer, found Buttons and bought her back for my sister. She went on to have a mare colt they named Bows. So theyhad Buttons and Bows and still do as far as I know. ❤️
Sounds like many readers use good gardening practices to enrich the soil, just as Matt & Tipper do. Good to know that knowledge keeps being passed down through the generations.
We also heated with wood and put the ashes, along with barn manure, on the garden at our Virginia mountain farm. And…we had a horse named Sam!
Aunt Arie A Foxfire Portrait is a book I’d like to win. Foxfire 1 came out when I was a freshman in high school. I thoroughly enjoyed that book then and still do. Aunt Arie is the main person I remember from Foxfire 1.
Sam sounds like he was a friendly and useful horse to have around. I love how Arie said, “law”. It reminds me of what Sheriff Taylor would say on the Andy Griffith Show. 🙂
Those were the days. People knew how to work hard and still find ways to enjoy life.
Aunt Arie would be an interesting read.
I woke a lot of mornings growing up to a mule braying from the barn. The mule belonged to the Burden family that lived on our place and helped with various farming chores in those days. I was glad Mr. Burden took the time to show me how to hook up the mule and let me plow some as he plowed a garden for several years when I was growing up in a different “galaxy”, long ago and far away. Not a lot of people these days have “walked behind a mule”, but I did (of course real farming was done with tractors). My daddy traded mules and horses all my life and ended up with some good draft animals from time to time. Of course later, a lot of those just pulled a wagon on leisurely Sunday afternoon “rides” through our forest. I am proud to have been raised by several “Aunt Arie’s” who were like bonus grandmother’s in my life. I am sure some here had those types of women in your lives that had to hug and/or feed you if it had been longer than a day since they last saw you. LOL.
I like this story
I loved reading that. The way she speaks is so familiar. Seems everyone had a mule named Kate.
I remember days like those. We always had a horse. One that would work as well as ride. Dad was a horse man. I am a horsepower man!!’ An a car but.
I love hearing about other people and their horses. We had 2 large ponies, Diamond and Rowdy which were brothers and more like small horses, and then we had Lady. She was a Morgan with Arabian mixed in as well. Dad had her bred twice, once to a Quarter horse and the other time to an Appaloosa. For me that was pure heaven having Dawn and Commanche to work with. Dawn belonged to my sister and Commanche was mine. I miss having horses to ride and have around, there’s just something about them that never goes away.
Sam sounds like a good ole horse. We always had gardens and we always had a horse. My horses were for riding though. We lived across from a little grocery store/gas station and every so often there was a wagon load of gypsies that stopped. My dad traded with them. I always had a horse but I never knew for how long. There was Dixie, and Rocky and Peanut and Rusty… and I remember a white horse named Shadrack. He was a bit rowdy. I rode him across the road to a big field once and out of the blue, he bucked me off right over his head. I just remember looking up and there was his face looking down at me as I lay under him between his legs. I can’t imagine all the things I would break now! lol. Then he ran off with me once, and I couldn’t get him to stop. Mama was so scared of him. Dad traded him off the next time the Gypsies came through town. I had other horses, including a miniature one we just petted but couldn’t ride. I just can’t remember all the names this morning.
I do love reading about Aunt Arie! I don’t have this particular one, but have been wanting to read it.
Sounds intereating
I love the way you can “hear” Aunt Arie speak as you read this!
We also put ashes from our wood stove and cleaned the cattle barn every spring to spread the manure over the garden. The difference is my husband used a tractor.
good morning everyone, God bless you and have a great day
Blessings to you, Norman, from Maine……have a wonderful day and weekend!
Sam sounds like a good horse. If i ever have another dog his name will be Big Sam…( i hear Scarlett O’Hara calling, “Big Sam,Big Sam!”).
Kelly, when I was a teenager, I had a beagle named Sam. His mother died when her puppies were about 4 weeks old, and he was given to me to try to raise. Sam and me were partners, we went and did many things together. A Farmall model A tractor has a flat platform under the seat, Sam would sit on this platform and ride when me when I was using the tractor.
We would have a large garden each year and grew just about all of our food. Daddy would also clean out the mule stall and spread the manure along with ashes from his wood stove on our garden. He would plow the garden spot up with his tractor, but “work the garden” with my Granddaddy’s mule named Kate. Kate had been beat real bad by men that had tried to use her to pull logs at a sawmill. Grandaddy bought her and won her trust back and was loved by all of us. We never tried to ride her, my neighbors had a mule named Pet and they would ride her barebacked and without a bridle, 2-3 at a time. I now have all of the mule plows that was used to work the garden.
All foxfire books are great. That one I don’t have yet!