Spring Salutations

Well here I am back sharing with you all. At this time I am going to unveil the new view from my front door here in Tennessee at the new Hickery Holler here on the Cumberland Plateau. And just in time to wish you all a blessed Easter. It has been an eventful winter with a February ice storm that was unusual for this area and quite exciting. We sustained little damage other than a jump on next winters wood supply for the fireplace and lots of cleanup in the yard. We did however lose electric service for about a day and a half but with plenty of quilts and a fireplace we managed quite well. Many of our neighbors were not so lucky.

We have settled in nicely and I have my corner of our little cottage living room staked out. Right next to the fireplace and near a window for plenty of light.

I have used these winter months to teach myself to knit. You are never too old to learn new skills and I can crochet but never learned to knit. The Internet is such a useful tool when used constructively.

O Wise One has staked out the opposite side of the fireplace for his own space and has settled in nicely as well.

I have planted my first flowers at the new house but look forward to many more in the years to come. Nothing says Spring like a pot of pansies. Pinterest projects have also kept me busy this winter as you can see by the milk can. (I deliberately hid  the address)

And my new Easter wreath to welcome guests.

But with the warmer temperatures of early spring the daffodils are blooming and the neighbors trees as well. So in true Hickery Holler fashion O Wise One has begun construction of our first three raised beds. We will also be experimenting with some hugelkultur beds and straw bale gardening also. We have constructed three temporary compost piles for all the fall leaves. This area is notorious for shallow top soil so we will have to get creative with our gardening but think that we can rise to the occasion. 

O Wise One and I  take the time regularly to ride through the mountain back roads and have found the beauty of the area to be breathtaking. The people warm, welcoming and proud of their rich history. 

So as we take time to celebrate our faith we hope that you all have a safe and happy Easter.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Another Year

This has turned out to be a long and full week. My produce is stored that was picked before frost. The onions are either dehydrated or in the freezer. The peppers are all frozen and safely tucked away. We have been doing some pruning and I have sat aside some willow and will also save some grapevines because I want to make some wreaths and crafts during the winter. O Wise One, Baby O and myself have got half the porch painted and will continue to paint on Monday. Tomorrow ( Saturday) I am taking off because  you see it is my birthday. They have a dinner planned and the painting can wait.   

Now for all you prayer warriors out there I have a little birthday request. Please lift my boys up in your prayers this weekend. They lost a dear friend this week and are devastated. A young man named Chad who was hit while surveying a road. Chad has known my boys since grade school. They all attended the same religious parochial school together and went on to high school together. They were Cub Scout brothers and soccer buddies. These boys became men together and good men all. Chad's laughter will be missed and his presence never forgotten. May his parents and family also somehow find peace after such a senseless accident and the loss of such a young life.  

Please I ask that you all remember to slow down for those surveyors and workmen that work along our highways and roads. 

Well on a happier note I am feeling naughty so I am going to post a poem that I got in the mail today from a girl friend tucked inside a birthday card. All us old women can understand : )

There was this couple who had been married for 50 years. They were sitting at the breakfast table one morning when the old gentleman said to his wife, "Just think, honey, we've been married for 50 years."
"Yeah", she replied, "Just think, fifty years ago we were sitting here at this breakfast table together."
"I know," the old man said, "We were probably sitting here naked as jaybirds fifty years ago."
"Well," Granny snickered, "What do you say...should we get naked?"
Where upon the two stripped to the buff and sat down at the table.
"You know, honey," the little old lady breathlessly replied, "My nipples are as hot for you today as they were fifty years ago." "I wouldn't be surprised," replied Gramps. "One's in your coffee and the other is in your oatmeal!!!"

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Holiday Tidings From The Holler

Christmas has come and gone again. We again were blessed with a white Christmas and the snow has remained pretty well through the holidays. Temperatures have dropped to bone chilling lows and O Wise One is busy most days keeping the animals in warm bedding and unfrozen water bowls. 

Our holiday was spent at home enjoying a light meal of homemade chicken soup and lots of orange juice because I have relapsed from my recent cold/flu. I have decided that the only way I am going to get better is to quarantine myself away from the grandchildren long enough to totally heal and my doctor agrees. SO I did not get to see the grandchildren for the holidays. I did not want to reinfect them with this bug that I am suffering with and they were preparing to go out of town to visit other family. So instead  we hunkered down and I spent most of the holidays on the couch visiting with O Wise One and Baby O and watching old movies. I have to say it was enjoyable. After the grandchildren get back from their trip I hope to be able to have a holiday dinner and exchange gifts. 

 

But for now I will be a good patient and stay indoors and down. They are saying we may get more snow Sunday night. I have so much that I want to do it is hard to rest but I am trying. 

The countryside outside my windows has been beautiful and with new gardening books that Baby O bought me for Christmas and seed catalogs rolling in daily I have been catching up on my reading and dreaming up lots of new projects.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas and will have an equally happy New Year. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter, O Wise One and Baby O

Your Questions

Sometimes the hardest part about blogging everyday is thinking up things to blog about. So yesterday i opened up the floor to questions. Oh my goodness I love all the questions and  I'm gonna tackle this one first!  

Denny144December 2, 2013 at 6:31 PMDo you cut a fresh tree from your property? My in- laws, who live in Missouri, would go to a friend's farm and cut the rattiest looking cedar tree and that's what my husband grew up with. My family always bought a fir/spruce. One of our biggest newlywed fights was over what kind of tree to have and I won mainly because the lots where we lived didn't have cedars.

Oh my gracious Denny you bring back such memories for me that I could just cry. Maybe I will go cut me a ratty cedar Christmas tree. 

You see this is the house I grew up in not long after my parents bought it sometime around the early 50's. Daddy had gotten out of the merchant marines after the war and he and mama had traveled the country in a travel trailer. Daddy was working the pipelines and such as an iron worker and they were saving money for a home. Initially they bought this old cypress Acadian style home and 30 acres. They sold the travel trailer and settled down and started accumulating kids. 

And a mule!

Daddy worked during the day, mama stayed home and gardened and canned. Milked the cows, took care of the stock and the house and daddy worked nights and weekends on the farm. We lived off that garden and what the land provided. Fruit from the trees, fish from the swamp and game from the woods. Cedar trees grew plentiful and who was going to throw away good money buying a dead tree? Like everything else it had to come from the farm.  So my father bundles up his children and we all helped to pick out that ratty cedar. And to a child the cedar was 20 feet tall and plated in gold and my Dad was the greatest man of all time. 

To this day I can close my eyes and see the interior of that old cypress tongue and groove ceiling. The smell of fat pine lighter over by the fireplace and smell the twang of cedar from the Christmas tree. It may have been lopsided but to us it was the most beautiful tree God ever made. It always set in the window there right by Mom's treasured shiny white World Book encyclopedias because her kids weren't gonna grow up to be no dummies! Seems like everything we owned back in those days came from the Sears and Roebuck catalog if it didn't come off that land. 

Time went by and Mom and Dad bought more land, and finally built a shiny new red brick ranch home complete with turquoise tile bathrooms and asbestos floor tile. And that ratty old cedar Christmas tree was still beautiful

It was an exciting time of colored television and talking dolls. Mama dressed me up to match them and my hair was permanently kinked now with those new fangled home perms every year just for Christmas.  New dolls called Barbie and Ken, and Chatty Kathy dolls that talked.  Electric trains that you dropped little white pills in and they puffed smoke. I still have many of my Christmas presents from then. Sapphire birthstone rings and music boxes, and probably my most treasured posession is my white leather King James Version with my name engraved on the front in gold. A present from my parents that has lasted a lifetime.

Then Mama decided we needed to get modern and the old ratty cedar was no more. It was the 60's after all and we had to have a shiny new silver tinsel tree complete with color wheel. And while to a child still beautiful it just never had the appeal of that old ratty cedar dripping with mismatched glass balls and peppermint canes.  

Years ago when I lived in the city as a young woman we bought a tree every year, like you, usually a fir or spruce. Then my oldest daughter developed horrible allergies to them and I had to go to an artificial tree because of that. So I invested in a huge and expensive artificial tree. The oldest daughter has since married and left home. Now that she has little ones of her own I have given her the big tree for her family and now have a small artificial tree. I have started passing some of the family ornaments that belonged to the children on to them for their own trees. 

And that little farm girl in all these pictures grew up and moved to the city.

And like that tinsel tree with the color wheel I sparkled for awhile.

And then I realized that like that old ratty cedar I belonged back on the farm. That deep down the season is in the message and not the trappings. 

 And perhaps it is the most simple that shines the brightest and the purest of heart that receives it. 

Ya know what though. 

Maybe I will see if I can find me a ratty cedar for old times sake and load it down with crocheted ornaments, popcorn strings, candy canes and mismatched balls. 

Your turn! 

I want to know about your childhood Christmas memories too!

What kind of tree did you have and how was it decorated? 

PS Keep those questions coming!

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

A Gentleman's Choice

I would like to wish all my readers a 

Happy Valentines Day! 

O Wise One and I tend do do holidays a little different than most people, often times completely boycotting those commercial holiday traditions . We are not big on the prices they charge during these holidays for things like chocolate and candy and even cards. If I get flowers I want them in the form of a bush, plant or seeds and I will grow my own for years to come from one initial purchase. Often times we will do something special together or maybe make a special meal for the other and get a movie that we both want to see,  we have been known to completely forego gifts until we find something that we really want maybe even at a later date. We will buy a little candy or something for the grandbabies though. 

This year for his Valentines meal O Wise One wanted fried food. You see 6 years ago he had a heart attack and had to have two stints put in. His family has a horrible history of heart attack and stroke. So for us fried food is a treat the we get a couple times a year. Fried chicken for maybe father's day or his birthday. Fried fish for the 4th of July. Other times we either oven fry,  bake or grill most meats.  Our french fries are now oven fries and even our fish are oven fried most of the time or grilled. So it came as no surprise that O Wise One wanted fried rabbit for Valentines Day. We knew we would be babysitting Hank on Valentines Day so we did our Valentines meal a day early. 

I took rabbit loin strips and soaked them for a couple hours in a cup of buttermilk and half a cup of homemade Italian dressing. Then they were taken out and dredged in flour and fried until golden brown.

 And there you go fried rabbit nuggets. Some oven fries and an apple pie with vanilla ice cream over the top and we had a meal fit for a holiday. 

As for my present I am researching additional wine making supplies and equipment. The next time I have an abundance of fruit I want to be ready. So I took a rain check and will continue to research what I need to order.    

After all we've been in a drought and Mama aint made no hooch in awhile!

You've just not lived till you've had some Hickery Holler Hooch
  and maybe some fried rabbit: )

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Goodbye 2012

As we say our farewell to 2012 and welcome in the new year I cannot help but be thankful. Christmas was a quiet affair this year for us but enjoyed none the less. I took great pride in watching as my grown daughter made great efforts to establish new traditions for her young growing family and delighted that we were able to be a part of those. I delighted that she made many of her gifts herself and she and my grandchildren made all their Christmas candy homemade. It gave me great pride to see the young homemaker and mother she has become and was probably one of the highlights of the season for me.  

As we pack away the lights and take down the decorations I reflect on what a terrible time was predicted by many for this December of 2012 as end of the world predictions flew all over the media for the last year or so. Guess the Mayans got that one wrong. Although things have not been easy this year the world as we know it, good or bad, still exists. We have survived hurricanes, droughts, school shootings and horrible disasters to once again bring in a new beginning to another year. We are thankful for our blessings and mourn deeply for our losses but move on. None know what the future will bring, but for me ,  I will welcome in this new calendar year with hope and faith in my heart.   

The last year has not always been easy for our family. We mourned the loss of our beloved dog Sadie but gained the lives of her two precious puppies Marlowe and Moxie. 

We welcomed a new daughter in law into our lives last month and are expecting a new grandchild from our oldest daughter in April. We also mourned the passing of several old friends. As my husband and I age, many years now are marked by the loss of friends and loved ones. Each passing serving to remind us just how fragile and dear that life really is. Last month we also mourned the loss of a grandchild as another of my sons and his wife lost a baby. Even at my age sometimes these things are just so hard to understand. This wonderful life gone before it ever really had a chance to live. A child wanted so desperately and loved so much. We can only pray for the parents and hope that another blessing will be bestowed on this loving couple. 

But with 2013 also comes good news with the announcement that Baby O has once again won both the local and district Voice of Democracy essay contest. In February she will again journey to Missouri's capitol to compete in the state competition. The prize a $5,000  scholarship. She competed 2 years ago and won 6th place in the state.  We wish her luck again this coming year!

And as for O Wise One and I we will be right here cheering Baby O on in February. We'll  be waiting with open arms to welcome a new grandchild into the world in April. Loving God and each other and waiting....... 

Waiting for those first green crisp asparagus shoots to pop through the cool spring ground......

Waiting for those sweet juicy strawberries warm in the early summer sun.......

Waiting to again hear the hum of bees working those first apple blossoms.......

Waiting for the smell of fresh cut hay ...........

We hope you'll travel along  and we will look for you on that first glorious spring sunrise. We invite you to share our path. A path less taken these days but glorious none the less.  A path of hard work but also of great joy. And at the end of the day weary from hard labor a knowledge and satisfaction of a job well done. A path where nourishment comes not from a shelf but from the land and the animals that land nourishes and supports. Where we provide for ourselves first, live frugally and simply and then share where we can.  

A path like life, of sunrises and sunsets, of seeds and sowing, of pain and joy, of harvests and losses.  

A path of faith...

Faith in God, ourselves, family, humanity and the earth itself. 

We hope you will continue to visit in 2013 and may your new year be safe and blessed. 

  Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

A look at Christmas back in the 1950's

Andy and Opie Christmas

Grandpa Walton - Grandpa's Christmas Wish

The Christmas Guest. By Andy Griffith

Winter Holiday

As the snow gently melts over the land and winter returns to this farm we look forward to the upcoming holiday with family and friends. We are especially thankful for the wonderful blessings of children and grandchildren that surround us during this festive season. We continue to enjoy the simple gifts of a warm home, a full larder, good health, a loving family and a gracious God.     

We are also thankful for all of you, the men and women who visit this blog regularly reading, commenting and enjoying what we share. This just a small peek into our daily lives here on this farmstead.

With the upcoming celebrations I will be taking a week or so off to spend time with my family and have a bit of a rest. During this time I have a few videos and pictures prepared that will automatically publish so you won't think that I have completely abandoned you and I look forward to returning the first of next year refreshed and rested.

We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas

and a Happy New year from all of us here at Hickery Holler