Well, I was down at the store one time and Mr. Stoner asked me, he says, “What does Bob do in the wintertime when it’s cold?” I said, “Well, one thing he does is he reads his Bible,” and as for me, “I piece quilts.” And that’s what the old people used to do. The women would card the wool and spin the thread and weave their clothing. Set the weave and keep the cradle in there. We’ve got the one that Bob slept in when he was a tiny baby. So in the wintertime that’s what we did, made quilts and molasses candy and had candy pullings and bean shellings; gather up the beans. We’d have bean shelling sand pea shellings mostly in the fall. But in the wintertime about all you would do was to keep warm. (Myrtle Merrell)
—Mountain Voices – Daily Life by Warren Moore
Recently Matt and I talked about what we like to do in the winter month’s while the gardens are resting. Matt said he liked to piddle at his workbench and hunt. I said I like to make cozy meals for my family. We both like to spend time warming by the woodstove.
Today’s Thankful November giveaway is used copy of Mountain Voices – Daily Life by Warren Moore. To be entered in the giveaway leave a comment on this post. Giveaway ends November 16, 2026.
Last night’s video: Planting Next Year’s Garlic.
Tipper
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As I read about about what they did during the cold weather, I was left with the thought of how everything they did had a purpose and a reason. yet, they found peace and contentment in that. today, we as a society spend too much time that God grants us with doing mindless or meaningless things. Thank you so much for what you do.
In the winter, I have always loved drawing or cuddling up with a good book. I have collected cookbooks for years and years, so you usually will find me cuddled up with a cookbook in my hand. Husband always said he wish I would cook as much as I read. Plus the birds! I feed them all year but especially during the winter when its cold outside. And once there is snow on the ground, i really do keep em fed good. Just can’t imagine living outside in the snow and being hungry.
Suppose to have our first snow this weekend so I am glad I stay well stocked in sunflower seeds and meal worms for my little friends.
God Bless all you Acorns and to all those with snow coming, please be safe. Norman, i am so sorry about your pipe. Do hope you can get that fixed!
I like to read and bake goodies for my family and friends. For years I fed the birds and loved watching them gather at the feeder. 13 cardinals at one time is quite a sight! Alas, a little over a year ago, I brought my granddaughter’s kitty boys to live with me in the country. The new baby had them stressed & we all know how stressed kitties respond. That was stressing out the new momma…so Mommer to the rescue. Opie and Lyle adjusted beautifully to outdoor life but their natural instincts kicked in so I chose to forgo the feeder. I did miss the birdwatching but the boys are great company when I’m working or walking around outdoors. And yes, we are a spoiled bunch nowadays. I love the remote start in my suv. Getting these old bones into a warm vehicle when it’s 20° is a real treat!!
I too like to piddle in the workshop in the winter . Also like to read
I remember my Granny cutting out strips from old dresses and shirts, sewing them to patterns that were made from newspapers. I never understood why she stitched to the papers first, and when I asked she said that’s the way I do it.
I pieced two quilt tops this past summer . We haven’t even had a frost yet in the foothills of NC, but we have had a few chilly evenings. The quilting has begun! I quilt totally by hand so this guarantees that my winter evenings, and maybe some days, will be spent with a thread, needle and memories of my grandmother, mother and aunts quilting during cold winters in my childhood.
While growing up in Ohio our winters there were long and cold. The wind blew constantly pushing the powdery snow into our driveway and up against the house and car. We spent a lot of time shoveling out the driveway and walkways. I have always loved being outdoors and the winter weather did not stop me. I helped with the shoveling of snow but I would bundle up and go on a trek way out behind our house making a snowman and playing in the snow. One year the snow was hard enough to take big chunks of it and make an igloo-like fort. I got a three-pound shortening can and made a fire in it to make it cozy inside the fort. I burnt my finger on the lid where a scar remains today. I also liked to read and still do. Today I read my Bible more and writings about it. My parents also were big readers, especially in the winter. They enjoyed reading the Bible and discussing it. Mom made special desserts like a Stack Cake, frosting it with her homemade apple butter.
Tipper, I enjoy reading your daily posts on mountain life! Been visiting those “hills” since I was 2 months old. I’m 66 now!
My grandparents had a place in Western NC… and it’s sill in our family today.
I have a collection of mountain books and would love to add “Mountain Voices”
Thank you.
Elizabeth
I like to work puzzles…300 big piece ones are my favorite now!
I’m reading some familiar things in the comments; cracking nuts, peeling apples, ‘piecing’ quilts, reading. Wintertime was, in some ways, a welcome change of pace from the demands of spring, summer and fall. Of course there was still necessities like feeding and watering the stock, getting in water, wood, coal, kindling, cooking etc. Seems as if we humans have never quite figured out the best measures to know when we are well off. But I know of one I heard and didn’t understand then. If I can have a time this winter with the “kids” and our one grandson together in peace, safety and health that will be the best earthly event. Strangehow we don’t understand our grandparents until we are one ourselves….
Too bad today’s world isn’t as peaceful with each person having something they like to do (social media excluded). My aunts pieced quilts. Daddy and my uncle worked but they used extra time in the winter to fix things they used in warm weather. They all grew up without central HVAC so they knew winters past where they had to work at keeping warm.
Mountain Voices is a book that I would enjoy.
Winter activities are so different now compared to 60 or 70 years ago. My mother talks about winters 70 plus years ago. Snow here in PA caused lots of headaches and days you were truly snowed in. She remembers winters fondly, but I’m sure my grandparents viewed those days very differently. My grandparents small home was heated with a coal oil stove and it would clog up frequently and shut off. Pap would fuss with that thing for hours to get heat back running to warm the house but wouldn’t worry about pipes freezing because they had no indoor plumbing or water.
Winter is one of ny favorite seasons, I love the coziness of it. Growing up, I was the youngest by over 8 years, so it seemed like everybody was always busy, work, 2 big gardens. My dad did side jobs, in our garage often til midnight, worked as an auto bodyman in the shop 6 days a week. I loved that the cold sort of forced us all together. Less to do outside. I still love winter for the same reason. I live in my childhood home now, the woodstove was long ago replaced by propane. The lovely smell of a fire in the morning, warming up by it after playing outside in the snow… I do miss the ol Buckstove.
making stew on the Woodstock and baking bread.
Tipper,
I can remember standing by the heating stove and turning from time to time to warm front and back.
Seemed to be really cold back then, but considering the house had no insulation, that could explain why the house was so cold.
I remember my Grandmother and Grandfather scraping an apple. Perhaps, it was because they had lost their teeth and could not chew an apple with false teeth?
I would so enjoy this book. God bless!
Winter activities for us have involved repainting the inside of our house, which it does need, so we do a area at a time. Our kitchen is up next. I also like to do cross stitching and crocheting, and I have a shell/painting project that I’ve been working on. And cooking is something else I really enjoy doing, I like to cook those dishes that require using the oven in the winter to help keep the house warm. My husband likes to play his guitar, which is a year round hobby and watch different shows on Youtube, like your’s Tipper! Plus we like to travel and head south to get out of the cold.
I quess we will stay at home and try staying warm this winter. My wife may work on making clothes, dresses, and quilts. I will read some books,etc.
Quilting was such a big part of my family when I was growing up. Fortunately today I have so many of the quilts that they finished. What a great memory.
Looks like winter is finally starting in North Georgia and Wilson Hollow. I don’t like cold but thankful to have a warm place to live. We are blessed in so many ways. I still remember Grandma, her sister and more sitting around a hanging quilt. Tipper, keep on bringing back the good memories.
I loved that she “pieced quilts “.
That’s what my mother did in the winter.
Sometimes I wonder, too, what people do in winter. Thanks for posting this excerpt!
We are a little spoiled today when it comes to keeping our homes warm. But as a kid and teenager we heated our home with a wood furnace. I’m seventy now and it would be harder heating with wood. But the thought of everyone sitting around that stove brings back some warm memories.
In the winter months, I love to cook and bake for my family, and spend time with them. Our November, December and January are busy with hunting seasons (deer and bear), Thanksgiving and Christmas, and hog butchering. I am so thankful and blessed.
There’s always something that needs tending too, isn’t there? I like to read my Bible, too. It’s also a time for me to try new recipes. I’m hoping to finish a strip quilt, make a couple of sock monkeys, and just read a few good books. I make my jelly now that it’s getting cooler and I will work on canning our beef and sausage.
My husband purchased an electric canner so I don’t have to stand and watch the canner for the meat. Boy howdy, does it make that so much easier! I can’t make a big run at a time, but I can do other things while it’s processing. I don’t use it for the veggies because a regular canner holds a bigger amount and doesn’t take too long, but for the meat it’s dandy!
I’m open to suggestions for books! I’m thinking Wendell Berry’s book Jayber Crow is first on the list. I’ve never read his work and since his passing there has been much discussion about him and his writing.
I love hearing all the things everyone shares each day! God bless all y’all! May you find many blessings in your day! God is good!
I would enjoy reading a book about daily mountain life. I enjoy your family’s blog and videos so much.God bless you and Happy Thanksgiving!
Good morning friends, God bless us all, got to get some kind of wrap to stop a plumbing leak under the house, I can’t afford a plumber, got the little cat to get across the road to the neighbor’s house to get flea drops ,got to catch her and put her in a tote, that’s the part I dread, supposed to get down in the twenties this weekend, I wish it wouldn’t, God bless you all friends
I’m sorry Norman.
while it sounds very peaceful and calming to sit around and spin wool to make your own clothes, I bet that was hard work!
I liked to bird (quail) hunt or rabbit hunt with my father in law. When I was growing up I helped my Daddy with cutting and getting up the firewood for our fireplace and would feed the chickens and hog for Daddy before he came home from work. As a young child, I loved laying in the floor in front of our fireplace beside of my Daddy and eat parched peanuts. Daddy would rather lay on the floor than sit in a chair. We had grew the peanuts. Mother would sit in her chair doing various things while my sister would be playing. We had an old TV but it would be lucky to see see one channel out of the three channels at that time. Mother would read the Bible to us and have a family devotion before we went to bed. My maternal Grandparents lived pretty much in one room of their old home during the winter, Granddaddy would sit on one side of their stove while Grandmother sit on the other side, they would often be breaking and picking out nuts from pecans or black walnuts. Each night both would read their Bibles. Granddaddy liked to also read his Progressive Farmer magazine or a free sales paper called the Market Bulletin put out twice a month by the SC agricultural department. They never owned a TV. Nowadays I like to read books, I still do not care to watch TV except for Gunsmoke and The Rifleman. Some days I never turn the TV on. One other memory of Granddaddy would be of him peeling an apple and then scrapping it with a case kitchen knife and making it like applesauce before eating it off the knife blade.