“Since most early families had hogs, it was not really essential for them to hunt wild game. Many did, however—to supplement their diets with fresh meat, to supplement their incomes with the money they could get from selling the hides, and for the fun and sport of hunting itself. As Mann Norton said, “They really didn’t have to hunt, but they liked the taste of wild meat.” Lon Reid agreed, “They didn’t have to hunt. They had hogs and a garden. But they enjoyed it. They liked the chase, and they liked a change and fresh meat.”
They also hunted to protect both themselves and their stock, from the early forests, with their unbroken miles of virgin chestnut trees and their paucity of settlements, were also filled with wildcats, bears, panthers (“painters”), and other predatory animals. It is easy, for example, to see how the early morning trip to the barn to find your cow slaughtered or all your chickens gone might be a disquieting experience—especially if your survival depended on your stock. It is also easy to understand the irritation caused by a polecat or fox who ate the eggs and young of prized fowl. And it is easy to see how the ringing squall of a panther on a lonely, starless night from the mountain just behind you might be a very real cause for alarm.
—The Foxfire Book
Today’s Thankful November giveaway is a used copy of The Foxfire Book. To be entered in the giveaway leave a comment on this post. Giveaway ends November 12, 2024.
Last night’s video: Matt Cooks Supper: Deer Meat, Pickled Corn, White Sweet Potatoes & Cornbread.
Tipper
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I am an 83-year-old lady who loves your website and read it every day and sometimes more than once a day. Even though I am from South Carolina, I talk like you and have at times been made fun of by fellow employees when I was working.
You keep up the good work and I am so glad to see someone who is proud of her inherited language.
I love all your blogs! I am looking forward to your next book you’ll read to us. I love the Foxfire books! It’s a joy to hear someone who sounds like me!
In 1975 my high school English teacher assigned this book as part of an oral history unit. I would love to own a copy.
I love the Fox Fires Books. So much written in them, I experienced. I remember me and my sister begging mom and dad to let us go fox hunting with granddaddy and a couple other fox hunters in the neighborhood. They finally let us go. They build a big fire, got the coffee going, some cornbread and side meat cooking on a stick. You could hear the dogs yelping in the distant. Each man knew his dog and which one was out in front. It was so cold and as you know, girls didn’t wear britches back then. It didn’t stop us, we just turned our behinds around close to the fire and then turned around again when we got cold in the front. I looked at granddaddy. He raised and sold Walker Hounds. Fox Hunting was not just a sport to granddaddy. I looked over at him with his L&M cigarette in his mouth and his plastic gallon jug he had whittled out covering his ear hollering his dog got it. why you would have thought he won the lottery. When they treed the fox, the dog out front wad announced to be the winner. By this time, the meat was done and the fire lite up the sky with hot cinders. It was bright enough to hear and SEE the Panther that jumped that fire between me and my sister. That was the LAST time we asked to go fox hunting. Wouldn’t change my life and growing up in these Smokies if I could. God bless all of you this Thanksgiving. We all have a lot to be thankful for.
I was raised in the mountains and far back in a holler. I know all about hunting , trapping , skinning what ever my dad and I caught. We went hunting almost every night and I would have to get up and go to school. I loved hunting with him. It was special times that I’ll never forget. This book brings back so many memories. I would love to have the book. This is my kind of reading. ❣️
I grew up having wild game on the dinner table, but never had pickled corn until a few years ago. I absolutely love it!
It’s a treat to see Matt in the kitchen occasionally. He is a keeper!
Growing up, venison was used at our house instead of beef. Also, we ate rabbit, squirrel and fish that were caught in the small creek behind our house.
I never enjoyed the taste of squirrel, no matter how it was fixed, when I was growing up. But now fried rabbit was a real treat to me but I don’t remember having it often! I t
I am a mountain girl and I remember the times as a child when we would be eating fresh squirrel dumplings, venison, hog, along with my sweet grandma’s vegetables from her garden. She would also make a big pan of cornbread, enough to feed a big crowd and we would feast on fresh sweet milk along with the bounty God blessed us with. Of course everything tasted good back then, it was cooked on Grandma’s big wood burning cookstove. We might have been poor in a lot of peoples eyes but we sure didn’t go hungry. We ate what was provided and made use of all the bounty and we were thankful and proud for what we had. God has always been so good to me and He is still my Faithful Heavenly Father.
Thank you for your interesting posts each day. I would love a copy of the Foxfire book.
Enjoy the Foxfire books. Would love to have a copy of this one.
My dear wife knew how well I enjoyed the first Foxfire book that she insured that I owned them all through the years.
I cherish them like I did her.
Howdy everyone! Greetings from central Oklahoma. I really really enjoyed reading everyones post….puts a smile on my face.
Tipper, your such a jewel… always thinking about what to share. I’ve never heard of this book before, surprisingly I love to read, how could I have missed this….geez whiz!!
One of my favorite pictures of my mom when she was early 20’s, born in 1922, was drop dead gorgeous! She was living around Sivels Bend, Texas….dirt floors in the house way way out in the country….but she is sitting on a bucket, holding a shot gun in one hand, a dead squirrel in the other, short pants, wearing a man’s hat, smoking a cigar!! Now, to me that is my fondest memory of all. Lol
Thank you everyone for sharing your stories with me!
My kind of woman. No a days, you’d be hard pressed to get a woman to sit on a bucket. lol
I love all of the Foxfire publications ❤️
I might have told this story before, but I’m an old man and we like to repeat our tales.
My grandparents lived in the Needmore community in Nantahala Township in Swain County. My grandpa died in ’97. (He was buried in Maple Springs Baptist Church cemetery at the edge of the parking lot which I think means his was one of the first graves there.) My Pa’s oldest brother, Lee, was a teenager. He and my grandma tried to make a go of farming, but it was too much for them.
In the years following grandpa’s death, Lee took a job as a drover driving oxen propelled wagons across the mountains from Bryson to Maryville. I guess teenagers were a more responsible lot in those days because he was trusted to take the wagons through with only a bullwhip in his hands. He didn’t use it on the oxen but cracked it to motivate them.
The trip across the mountains required at least one overnight camp. On one trip a ‘painter’ got up on the ridge above him and the cattle late in the day. It was probably looking to make a meal off one of the oxen. Uncle Lee, having no weapon and concerned he would fall asleep and lose an ox, walked the oxen all night instead of making camp, cracking that whip at intervals when he heard the painter.
He said that his arm ached for a month after that trip. Grandma made him give up drovering when she heard about the painter.
There was a sayin’ in the holler, “If it didn’t come off a hog or out of the woods, we didn’t eat it”! Our circumstances were governed by the lack of electricity and refrigeration except down at the spring! We made great use of the “smokehouse” to preserve and hang our meat. Occasionally, sausage was canned – and then there was head cheese (souse). There are no bad “Foxfire” books • all are great reads ……
I would so love to have the Foxfire book. My mother had a set of them given to her by my brother. They contained a wealth of valuable information and I loved reading them. I was born and raised in a rural area in the Piedmont section of NC. Our family gardened, canned, trapped rabbits, shot squirrels and raised hogs. Your writings bring back wonderful memories of a simpler, yet busy existence. Thank you not only for sharing your stories, but for giving the readers a glimpse into your daily lives. God Bless you all…
I’ve heard of how good “Foxfire” is and its other publications. I’ve always been curious about it and love that snippet you shared! It’s fascinating learning about the survival skills and hardiness of those who lived and still do live in Appalachia.
Hi Tipper! Foxfire books!! Oh how my late husband and I enjoyed those books many many years ago! He dreamed of living off the grid away from people, being modern day pioneers. I had to yank him back. Yes, I often dreamed of being a pioneer crossing the country in a wagon, but now I’m a city girl…..well, I live in the country but raised in the city, and he was as well. We rented a farm once or twice in our 50 year marriage but the farmer had his cows and pigs on the farm, they weren’t ours. It was an experience to watch him butcher hogs, and when they separated the calves from their mamas the crying for several days of those poor calves was heartbreaking! And quite noisy because they were near non stop bawling. I would love reading another Foxfire book! May God bless you and your family, Tipper, and special blessings pour down on Granny! God’s blessings on all your many many fans as well.
Morning all! It’s another wonderfully sunny and warm morning in southern middle TN! It’s so unusual but I love it all the same! Tipper, I love those Foxfire books and wish I had every one. Thanks for the opportunity! Franne
I would love to have the copy of the Foxfire Book. I have a few of various ones that my dad gave me before he passed and I have enjoyed them very much.
My husband has never got into hunting but I think he’d enjoy it. His work has him in front of a screen all day and I think the quiet, off screen time and pride of feeding our family would be so good for him. Very thankful I can enjoy our woods without checking over my shoulder to make sure a panther isn’t about to pounce!
My family long ago killed hogs and my grandfather ate everything edible that the hog provided. I’m just glad that I don’t have to look an animal in its dark eyes and shoot it. I guess if your family depended on what you provided you would do what you had to just to survive.
Finally got to eat some Pheasant again, and I love those Foxfire books!
Something in my DNA made me want to hunt. I began with a slingshot. Next, a borrowed BB rifle. Then my brother bought a Revelation single-shot .22 rifle from Western Auto. Then Dad acquired an old W. H. Hamilton 12- gauge double-barrelled shotgun. We only had birds and small game, and to this day I regret whacking robins and brown thrashers as a kid. My son has that shotgun now. I cautioned him not to shoot it with modern shotshells. It was made to shoot black powder loads.
That sounds like my hunting days, Gene. I too started with a slingshot and graduated to BB rifles, a bolt action 22 (from Monkey Wards), a 16 gauge Iver Johnson single shot, then a Winchester Model 12 pump.
My Pa (who was born in Swain in ’94) had a 12 ga. double barrelled Ithaca. It was made either in 1902 or 1912, I forget which. For most of my life the trigger and internal parts were wrapped in an oily rag in a 2lb coffee can with the stock and barrel stored with it in a closet. You see, I had 5 older brothers who weren’t exactly good stewards. When I turned 18, I dug that old Ithaca out of the closet and reassembled it. I got it to work fairly good except the safety slide was stubborn. I hunted with it a few times but mostly just kept it as a memento of my Pa who died when I turned 21. Years later I took it to a gunsmith in Houston who didn’t fix it but told me not to shoot it because it was built for black powder shells. I took it to McBrides in Austin where a real gunsmith made the slide as smooth as new. They test fired it as they do all guns they work on and told me to go ahead and use it. I hunted doves with it a few times but I’m now too old to go across rough ground.
Gene, I too have killed a lot of what I now call song birds when I was young boy. My Grandaddy had a cardinal rule about me shooting birds, it was you had better not kill a mockingbird or my redbirds. Doing this would have been very unhealthy for my butt, it would have been severely damaged!
I have heard my Daddy and others of his generation tell about killing both robins and blackbirds and making pies with them.I assume this was during the depression years. The best “chicken pot pie” I have ever ate was made using wild bobwhite quail instead of chicken.
It is hard to imagine the strength and perseverance our ancestors possessed to provide for their families.
so true. life was hard but more simple.
As a child I ate plenty of fried squirrel, fried rabbit and rabbit stew along with chicken cooked every way possible and of course pork from hog killings. We had to buy our beef because we didn’t raise cows. No one in my family deer hunted so we didn’t have deer meat. I remember my first trip to a McDonald’s was in my teens. The closest one was Raleigh. So different these days.
Gloria, I also remember eating my first restaurant bought hamburger when I was in the fourth grade. It was not from McDonalds but from another chain restaurant at that time -1964. My grammar/elementary school had taken us on a school trip to Furman University to listen to some type of concert -it may have been opera music, I guess they thought they could teach us country kids to have a little “class,” I just remember it being torture to have to sit there and listen to it.
I’ve always likes the taste of wild game over most of the stock we grew. A squirrel or rabbit was always better than chicken or pork that you couldn’t get all the salt removed from. Now when I want wild meat I have to cook it outside away from my wife’s over sensitive nose. We have a slow cooker for the kitchen and I have my own crock pot and a charcoal grill for the deer steaks or burgers.
We still have predators today. Some recent move-ins found their favorite dog or cat missing. They just let them out during the day or night and get upset when they don’t come back. Folks have tried to educate newcomers about pets being the favorite meal of the coyotes, bobcats, etc. Some of these newcomers are pretty hard-headed and think we’re ignorant. We aren’t; they are.
I grew up eating wild game and it is a great memory. This Foxfire book sounds like an especially good one!
I would love to read the Foxfire book. Thanks for all of your hard work!
Good morning everyone ! What a treasure to have these writings teaching or reminding us of the old ways & traditions. Or even just different ways of life . I love it ! Thank you , as always , for sharing your treasures ! Have a Blessed day everyone!
“A Firefox Christmas” is also a good read. I really enjoyed it, so imagine this one would also be a great read. (Tipper: I am only commenting – and say to choose one of the other commenters as a winner of your give-away. )
I love pickled corn!! How it makes my mouth water!!
I never liked venison, but watching the way Matt prepares it makes me want to try again. Foxfire books were very popular in the 70’s. Would like to have one TY❣️
The Fox fire book is a treasure of how it was and how we can do much of the same. We bought, if I remember correctly, all 6 volumes and subscribed to the magazine for many years. Someone will be greatly blessed when they receive the book. Thank you Tipper for keeping the Appalachian way alive. God bless you and yours. Praying for all❤❤
These posts are making me want to read every book about Appalachia that there is! Thank you, Tipper!!!
I haven’t had any deer meat since my brother passed away. When I was growing up we had deer meat, rabbit meat and an occasional squirrel. My dad made the best rabbit stew in the world! I’d give anything to have that meal again!
I love the Foxfire book! It was my first intro to Appalachian culture. An aunt gave it to me for Christmas one year, but I lost interest for a long while. Unfortunately, nowadays, it’s difficult to find copies.
Thank you for all the stories you share on a time and place so foreign to most of us. My ancestors were from the Kentucky Appalachian Hollers and my Mom has many stories from days long gone. She is 96 strong years and I credit this to good country values and food.
This sounds like a very interesting book. I think we would all enjoy reading it. I like the description of the starless night. I don’t think there’s anywhere as dark as it was at my grandparents when I was young. It sure seemed scary to be outside after dark to me. The only thing that you could see was a little bit of light coming from a house way down the hill.
Love all the posts especially the one about the best fried chicken!
We had hogs, chickens, and sometimes a beef but we still hunted squirrels and rabbits for a change of pace.
My hubby likes to deer hunt. We love deer burgers and deer steak. I ate squirrels as a child and loved it, but the thought of it now is very unappetizing…maybe it’s because my mom cooked it when I was a kid and now it would be up to me. My mom never ate it, but she made the best fried squirrels and squirrel gravy over mashed potatoes. Our predatory animals now are the deer that eat the flowers and garden vegetables, and the squirrels that eat my apples. We do have bobcats and black bears. A bear got into our garbage can about a month ago. He hasn’t been back since…he didn’t find anything good to eat. Luckily, he didn’t notice our bee hives. That could have been a disaster.
I never saw or heard of deer being seen or hunted in eastern Kentucky when I was growing up, and I doubt many are there today. Daddy hunted rabbits and squirrels but that was about all the wild game our area had to offer. I’d have to be mighty hungry to eat a bite of either now that I don’t have to. The Foxfire books I’ve read are the greatest books ever written. I had never heard of them until I became a Blind Pig reader years ago.
Would enjoy reading this book. Thanks for sharing. God bless you!
I run a food ministry in Palatka Florida. Since we are a not for profit, we are able to use wild meat and I have a cook who knows how to cook it. We are blessed with a few hunters who provide us with deer and wild hogs from time to time. Our folks love it, and it gives some folks a chance to donate meat to a good cause. I was an avid reader of the Foxfire books when I was a young man. One day I gathered them all up and gave them to my oldest daughter. She grew up in Florida and was interested in knowing more about her heritage . I could not think of a better explanation of where I grew up (Haywood County) and how we lived. I’m proud to be a mountain boy. As they say ,”you can take the boy out of the mountains but you can’t take the mountains out of the boy (or girl)”.
I enjoyed today’s post, I remember my Dad having a set of Foxfire books when I was young. I asked him about them but he doesn’t know where they went. I would really enjoy reading them, I’d like to get some for my book collection.
I sometimes think of The Blind Pig and the Acorn as a continuing version of the Foxfire books, & Celebrating Appalachia as the video form. I’m happy you had the foresight to realize how valuable your content would be & to make it available to the world. We all need the practical knowledge you present as well as the beautiful example of the good and caring family you are.
My pappaw raised hogs. He didn’t have a place to keep them, but our neighbor had a barn. He let Pappaw use it in exchange for some of the hog meat. Early morning before daylight, he was on his way to slop the hogs when he felt something come up behind him and start eating from the slop bucket. He thought for sure that it was a bear only to turn around and see that another neighbor’s mule had gotten out and was following him.
I think I’ve mentioned before that many years ago I purchased the whole volume of Fox Fire books for my Daddy for Christmas. He loved reading them and said many times that’s just how we did it:) When Daddy passed, I gave the Foxfire books to our oldest son. He treasures them too. He had heard the stories from his Grandfather, and had been taught how to safely hunt and take care of his hunting gun. His Grandfather took him hunting for quail and pheasant and he also taught him how to train a good bird dog. The deer had been gone for sometime in NE MS when Daddy grew up on a farm there so he never hunted deer, but the deer are back now. When Daddy was young he hunted squirrel, rabbit and birds. Oh, my goodness, in my minds-eye I can just see Mother’s old black cast iron skillet filled plum full of squirrel meat frying up, a bowl of milk gravy made from the grease that fried up the squirrel, and a plate of hot steaming cat-head biscuits. To me that was one of the best meals!
Matt you did a great job showing your skills at preparing and cooking deer meat and helping out by making a delicious and healthy meal for your family. You and Tipper work as a team and what a special asset you are to her and your family. Your cast-iron skillets are seasoned way better than mine. God bless ya all!
Nobody uses the word “paucity” any more and I was surprised that it knew its meaning. It’s a shame that words can all but die out and the same has to be said for those chestnut trees.
It took a tough person to survive life back then. I’m grateful for those who came before us to tame the wilderness.
I grew up reading my Aunt’s Foxfire Books. I would love to have one of my own. Thank you for your wonderful give aways
Waking up to the chicken coop being raided by night marauders was always the start to a bad day. Raccoons were usually to blame but not always. The occasional squirrel, rabbit or quail was a welcome change to our table, giving us a break from chicken or pork. Hunting was part of growing up, father allowing us to go with him was a monumental change in our ranking and status for us boys as family members. It meant he thought we were responsible enough to listen and do as he instructed.
The Foxfire Project and the resulting books, magazines and village are a wonderful treasure trove of Appalachian history, ways, wisdom and sayings.
The Deer Hunter’s videos for cooking deer meat have been a big help to me; I won’t use anyone else’s techniques and recipes but his!
It was never unusual for rabbit and squirrel with dumplings to be on our supper table since the men in my family were avid hunters! Tasted pretty good to this Appalachian girl!
Enjoyed reading the post today. I’ve read several Foxfire books provided by our city library.
I have heard of the Foxfire series but have never read any that I can recall. I love that you give away hardcopies. Reading digitally is just not the same experience.
I would love to have a copy of the Foxfire books. My grandparents had a set I remember but not sure what happened to them.
It would be quite the adventure just going to the outhouse at night not knowing what could be sitting next to you. I didn’t like going in the day light.
A big part of why the deer disappeared from the mountains was hogs. People let their cattle and hogs run wild and fenced in their gardens from them. The hogs ate all the acorns and berries and stuff that the deer needed to eat. The deer either died off or moved on to less populated places. Then people started fencing in their livestock and the deer returned. In the absence of deer, people had forgotten the taste of the wild game they had eaten since humanity began. So now we eat tasteless juvenile pork and chicken that was raised in factory farm barns, having never seen the rain or the sunlight and having never set foot on this good earth.
Which is more inhumane, harvesting an animal in the wild, or in a slaughterhouse by workers trained to be heartless?
I have not had the chance to read the Foxfire books. I would love to read them. Thanks for sharing.
I love to visit Foxfire whenever I get a chance!
Even though we had beef and pork that we raised, we als o enjoyed rabbit and squirrels that my dad hunted. I would love a copy of the Foxfire book. Thank you for your interesting posts everyday.
I would enjoy reading this book.
As a child, we ate wild rabbits, squirrels, fish from the river, even an occasional turtle. Children today don’t know how easy they have it. There was no going to McDonald’s, you ate what momma cooked.
I have always wanted to read the Foxfire books. This excerpt makes me even more interested. My boys love to hunt and we love venison!
Foxfire books hold a special place in my heart. Growing up at the foothills of the Adirondacks I dreamed of living in the Appalachians. I was able to get to the Foxfire museum a few years back and cannot wait to return.
My dad had a set of the Foxfire books and my son has them now. My dad really enjoyed them and took him back to his childhood and their way of life. I also remember the Foxfire movie starring John Denver and Jessica Tandy ( I think) anyhow the lady from Fried Green Tomatoes.
The Foxfire book sound like another interesting read.
when I first started to teach school in 1973 at Mt. Roger’s Combined School in Whitetop, Va, I clearly remember a Kindergartner, Lisa, telling me there are “painters” up the holler near her house. she told me they would cry out sounding like a woman loudly crying…
Venison not only tastes good, but is very nutritious too. It provided needed nutrition for early families as it does for families today.
I enjoy reading these excerpts and everyone’s comments. My mother’s side had hogs but I don’t remember them hunting at all. My aunt would usually always have a country ham. I was not familiar with Foxfire books before reading your blog. Thank you for the give away opportunities.
We often forget some of the challenges our ancestors faced. I’ve been following you for a few years now and always find some joy, inspiration and old-time good sense in your column.
I have always admired the Foxfire books; they are all true treasures. I’d be honored to have one that you have shared a part of.
Even though I hate to see any creature unalived, I do understand every sentiment the writer shared. I have never found sport in hunting nor do I understand that desire, but there’s many things I’m ignorant about. When it comes to survival, one must fight for his homestead-period. Have a blessed day and don’t a farm hog sausage biscuit sound mighty good this morning to take for a walk in these wonderful smelling AUTUMN woods…just saying-where’s my hog and cow and chickens-I been cheated of the REAL GOOD LIFE in my opinion to live in a town with its issues….God bless y’all in the fall!!!
While I lived in rural Indiana. We were surrounded by well established farms such as Dairy, pig and crop farmers.
Since we didn’t have much of a woods, are chickens were pretty safe.
We did have our share of escapees that came into our property. We had horses, pigs and other farm animals just show up. We would pen them and put up a “Found” sign at our local general store. We were afraid they would get hit by a car.
As far as hunting goes, my dad was a depression kid and he lived in a wooded area on Indiana. He said he would never hunt again because he had to hunt every day or so to get food on the table. It was very stressful for him. Then he got a job with the CCC building State Parks and sent the money home to his parents and siblings. He learned so much and It pulled the stress of having to hunt to keep food on the table.
I grew up watching my dad read the Foxfire books! Every year he would by the newest edition in the series, usually when we visited Mammoth Cave National Park at Easter time. He still talks about those books to this day.
Can’t say I’ve heard of that before but would love the read, it sounds interesting. But my kin always talked about having to be alert to the sounds of the country for the panther and bobcat and foxes and so on with their chickens and newly born calves and so on sometimes they say that it would be so heartbreaking to loose their source of living and then they would say that the wild hogs would just tear their hardens all up so that was bad too , I guess for the most part there ain’t too many folk worries about those things anymore. Tell all hello Tipper love and God Bless
I don’t know how, but I’m unfamiliar with the Firefox book. Looks like I need to do some research today. Have a blessed day.
I guess that what happened to the wolves that used to be in the forest over a hundred years back? I have read they were here
What started out as a writing project for students in Rabun Gap became a treasured keepsake of old timey ways archived in the Foxfire books. A visit to where it all started is worth the trip.
The woods and hills were full of critters back then!!! Both Mama and Daddy’s family depended on hunting squirrel and rabbit to supplement their food store. When the first Foxfire book came out in the early 70s, my uncle gave me a copy which I read cover-to-cover. Fascinating to me but my family knew and had experienced a lot of what Foxfire is all about.
I really appreciate the knowledge captured in the Foxfire books. So thankful that someone thought to do this before skills and knowledge were lost to the modern day.
My great grandma was born in 1900 and growing up with her influence has been invaluable on who I am today. Her wisdom was beyond what could be found in most folks. She often spoke of a “favorite” hog they used to have and how she would make sure “he got a biscuit on days we extree.” Thank you Tipper for reminding me of memories of those days gone by.
I know deer meat is your family’s favorite meat,but it is something we do not eat. My husband enjoys hunting, but we cannot get the wild taste out of the meat. So, if he does kill a deer we give the meat to families that will eat it, and are very happy to fill their freezer and feed their families….I guess it all works out for the good.
Enjoyed this post! it reall.y took me back to my childhood of hog killing time and deer season
I’m thankful for the few chickens I have that dutifully provide eggs every day.
My granddaddy was a dead eye dick as they called him. He would bring those squirrels up close with his little call that looked like a balloon. we couldn’t go with him because we were young and couldn’t sit still or be quiet. But we sure enjoyed eating them fried squirrels. Thanks for the story.
We had a hog that we killed each year, chickens and plenty of food from our garden that had been put up /preserved in some type of way to eat through the winter. Daddy did like to squirrel hunt, Mother would make squirrel dumplings but would not eat the meat. We did eat a lot of wild rabbits that had been caught in rabbit gums. Our chickens often ran loose (free range) as it is called today, but the chickens we were going to eat were kept in an off the ground wire bottom coop and fed dried corn and water. I now look think back to this coop and call it death row. You have never ate GOOD fried chicken until you eat a fat corn fed chicken fried in hog lard and a black cast iron skillet. Colonel Sanders would have been a General if he would have cooked chicken like this!
The only gun my Daddy ever owned was 22 cal. single shot bolt action Winchester rifle bought at the end of Word War II. He bought this rifle new for $6.50. I now have it. He was deadly with this rifle, he didn’t miss very often. In my life I liked to rabbit hunt with beagles but loved bird (quail) hunting with my bird dogs the best of all. For the first 25-30 years of my life there was no deer in my area, now there is nothing but deer and very few rabbits and no quail at all. Deer hunting does not appeal to me. The closest we have to a panther are a few bobcats. Many people think their scream sounds like a woman screaming.
Would love to win the book you are giving away! Love your posts!
Another interesting book!
Would enjoy reading the Foxfire book
I enjoy reading the excerpts from the books you have been posting on here and though I would enjoy receiving and reading each of the books I can not help but wonder are the give aways your own personal copy of the books and if so how can you part with them–I am of the generation who still considered a book a treasured possesion and you kept them so you could from time to time reread something from your collection (unlike the Louis Lamore books people buy read and exchange with other Louis Lamore readers-most other books were ‘keepers’). Your sweet kindness of giving away books is a special act of love in my eyes because of my belief that a book is a treasure and you are unselfishly and gladly giving away treasures…you are an exceptionally kind, thankful, and giving person. God bless, protect, and comfort you and your family.
Gaglia, I must be of the same generation, I have enough books to start a library. Most of them have something to do with the outdoor sporting life. I like to go back and reread many of them. Truthfully I really don’t have room for all of them. I have some in storage boxes. I like reading a book better than watching TV. I told a friend last night I was seriously thinking about doing away with my satellite TV and using the money I pay each month to buy more books to read, I would get more enjoyment from doing this. I bought another book yesterday by the same author that wrote “It’s Not My Mountain Anymore.” My mind is having memory problems this morning.
Polecats and foxes are still a problem here. Thankfully our coop is quite secure, but one never knows. We find paw prints, but haven’t had them get in.
Coyotes are a big threat to livestock here as there are many and they are unafraid when hungry and litters are being born. We do not let our grandchildren go out near dark alone.