One cold January afternoon Mama began to discern weather signs. The chimney smoke settled close to the ground and the fire was making “trompin” sounds like boots swishing deep snow. Raising a cup of water to her mouth, she said “I can taste snow in th’ spring water. The stock was laying down this morning around the barn. Yes sir, a doozy of a snowstorm is a’comin. If we can’t make it to the outhouse, we’ll just have to pee in the gun barrel and shoot it out the window.”
—It’s Not My Mountain Anymore written by Barbara Taylor Woodall
Barbara shares the rest of the story in the book—they did indeed get a big snow. I love that her Mother said she could taste snow in the spring water. Matt says he can smell snow coming and his nose has been right as long as I’ve known him.
Today’s Thankful November giveaway is a used copy of It’s Not My Mountain Anymore written by Barbara Taylor Woodall. To be entered in the giveaway leave a comment on this post. Giveaway ends November 7, 2026.
Tipper
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I’ve always liked the smell of a fresh mown lawn. Barbara’s book sounds interesting.
My piano teacher knew when rain was coming in because she would always develop a headache. There’s other people I have known who also had the same problem, at least to me getting a headache every time it rained would be a problem.
I’m enjoying this wonderful mild weather and don’t like to think about snow. I wish this nice fall weather could last all winter, as I don’t really care for snow.
The excerpt you posted is funny but the title seems sad to me.
This would be an interesting book to read about Appalachian history.
Your family is often in my heart and certainly I think of what a blessing you have been to me. I discovered you when I was recovering from heart failure. There was just nothing else that I could listen to, but your family soothes my heart. Your almost identical values and love of the Lord makes it hard for me not to think of you as family, certainly we’re all part of the Lord‘s family. I pray for you all to continue to be blessed by Lord.
Thank goodness we don’t have to use an outhouse but I love her remedy to that dilemma! I can smell the snow as well, and though we don’t get the big snows we used to the same signs are still there. The birds are a give away here, busy as they can be the day or two before the ground gets covered. I taught my daughters to “see” the snow in the clouds, they have a certain look when they are snow clouds and now that my daughter lives in Boone, NC where the snows are much more frequent she says that skill has served her well many times over! I am in the same camp as Tipper and always wish for a big snow each year.
I grew up in the Bronx (NY). While it could get cold, we would only get snow flakes and some slush. Plenty of yellow snow to be found. All the children in the state would spend their winter mornings listening to the radio praying for a “snow day” (school closure). We rarely got them.
We did get one big snow that was so deep it buried cars and partially buried our front doors. We had a grand time making sleds out of cardboard boxes and riding them down the stairs that separated the house alleys to the basement level. When you hit the bottom, you were thrown into a snow bank.
Now I’m in north central Florida in the Ocala National Forest. We’re too far south to get the rare panhandle snows. It does get cold in these woods. We did get a couple of freezes last year. My game cameras registered 17 degrees in my poor garden. We managed to keep our datil peppers alive because they were in 5 gallon buckets that were shuttled back and forth into my she-shed where there was a space heater and grow lights. Unfortunately I had to be down in much warmer Miami for business and my husband had to shoulder everything alone. I hope it doesn’t get that cold again this year because we had several nights of burst PVC pipes that fed water to our hunting dogs in their pens.
I have heard of “listening to the fire” for the sound of boots walking in snow and of “smoke hugging the ground” on a very cold day as signs of a coming snow. I came from a “hog-killing family” and my grandaddy often quoted the old saying, “November’s meat will never spoil”, but I remember once after killing four hogs, it did. The weather turned off warm and rainy and the freshly killed hogs did ruin in the smokehouse despite my grandfather’s best efforts. It has been the longest “Indian Summer” I can remember. It is a little strange. I imagine it is just a weather cycle that will pass. In the meantime, my pocketbook is “liking” the warmer temps! Don’t forget to go vote today!
I love all the old signs and sayings. There is so much truth in them. I often share old folklore or medical wisdom I learned from my grandmother to the younger generation at work. They usually have one of two responses, 1. How do you know that..or 2. you are crazy……
I agree, I can smell snow and rain coming. We used to get loads of snow, but not so much any more. I’m the odd one out, but I love snow! Snow me in a few days with the woodstove going and big pot of something cooking on it. Peaceful!
I’ve never heard the phrase used about peeing in the gun barrel and shooting it out the window. I love that! Boy howdy, I’ve peed in a chamber pot, or off the end of the porch, many a time though. When we go to our grandson’s horse show we still must use outhouses. They all just grumble and I remind them how nice it is to have a modern outhouse. They just carry on and say it’s STILL an outhouse! Spoilt! My grandparents had a two seater and that just sends them over the edge thinking about going with someone else in there. LOL
I sat here this morning reading through all the comments yesterday and was just thrilled how many responses there were. I love hearing y’all’s cornbread stories! It’s one of my very favorite things, but I have diverticulosis and have to be careful. Unsweetened for me… with buttermilk the next day! Tipper, when you mentioned Daniel Boone cornmeal way back I had to order some and it did make amazing cornbread! I wish I could eat it and grits every single day!!
God bless y’all! May you find many blessings in your day! God is so good!
My Granddaddy would watch the birds, his chickens and other animals and was pretty accurate at predicting storms or bad weather. He also would watch the smoke from a chimney. The people of his time had to watch for other signs, they didn’t have this high dollar equipment today’s weathermen have but were just about as accurate. I like what she said about the snow being so deep. This year’s weather is surprising to me, usually by now we usually would have had a killing frost. So far we haven’t even had one on the roof top or windshield. When looking at a monthly forecast for November, I didn’t see any night time temperatures below the high 30 degrees. With the weather of today you couldn’t kill your hog around Thanksgiving, salt the meat down and keep it a large wooden box in an outside building like we did in 50 and 60’s during my younger days.