mondoblogo is back down south for the holidaze

 I am back in 

Appalachia

for Christmas,

and while digging around 

in some of my old childhood stuff 

I came across 

the amazing book,

"The Foxfire Book"

that my Dad gave me for my

10th birthday.

I remember being fascinated by it then,

but,

I think I was a tad too young to truly

get it....

Now I do.

 Aunt Ari

(The author's not mine.)

 Bill Lamb with a hickory

ox yoke

made by Mac Hopper,
the best yoke maker in the county.

 Beulah Perry shows the author

how to make a basket.

 Lon Reid with one of the

tall-backed chairs he makes.

 Detail from a 150 year old

"Friendship Quilt".

(This is one of the 55 makers names.)

 Pearl Martin

"Makin' soap" 

with store bought 

Red Devil Lye"

 "Dan Manous in front of his 

old abandoned bread wagon."

 Margaret Norton churnin'

her own butter.

 "Hobe, John, Mrs. Hopper and Lum Williams

work over the hog until it is scraped clean."

 Hobe prepares to gut the hog.

 A hard and lonely job.

Unless you speak mule

that is....

Plow resting.

 "They was two fellas a'goin' along 

one time in th' woods 

an' saw two snakes 

a'tangled up fightin'..."

Harley Carpenter

 Kenny Runion holding 

"rattlesnack" weed.

Cures a "rattlesnack" bite he says.

 Lon Reid tellin'

snake tales....

 Hillard Green,

snake whisperer and killer.

That's a big rattler'!!!

 "Harley Carpenter

during one of his
snake hunting tales."

Buck Carver with his one-gallon still.

 

Still architecture and construction.

"Moonshining as a Fine Art"

 My Dad holding my Grandfather's

"cough syurp".

 Yum!

 Clyde's whiskey concoction is 

now 55 years old...

  Instructions for a homemade "pain killer"

 Harley Carpenter with his "crow call".

 Ray Conner with some of his kills.

 Har Reid with one of his ginseng plants.

 Harley Carpenter holds a 

yellowroot pant.

 The author Eliot Wiggington

with Aunt Arie.