Mountain stories
Something occurred to me this weekend. In a way, I am a story teller, telling the day-to-day nonsense that goes on in our lives here on this blog. I know that’s pretty much what blogging is all about and it’s pretty cool how I get involved in other people’s lives and how (I suppose) some of you, dear friends, become involved in our lives. I enjoy telling our stories, for, like sands through an hourglass, these are the days of our lives.
Anyhow, this realization came to me while at an actual concert put on by a real, professional story teller, Lorna MacDonald Czarnota. My friend Granny Sue held a house concert where both she and Ms. Czarnota told several diverse stories and sang ballads. I don’t know if you have ever heard a professional story teller, but if you ever get a chance, go and listen.
Lorna MacDonald Czarnota
Granny Sue is our neighbor so I knew her house. She has a fantastic house in the woods surrounded by trees and birds and flowers. Her home is incredible, filled with antiques and mountain heritage and beautiful glassware and books. She invited us to walk about her house and drink sassafras tea and enjoy a variety of snacks. It was a beautiful arrangement and truly an awesome experience. It’s what story telling was at its beginning…friends and neighbors getting together to tell stories and enjoy each other’s company.
Abigail and I had a great time and she re-told the stories we heard the whole way home. I am not sure I am really much of a story teller, but I am delighted that Abigail had so much fun listening and re-telling stories. I hope she will learn some mountain stories and make up some of her own. However she wants to communicate, the wonderful imagination that will be fed from these mountains makes me happy!
This entry was posted in Fun, Thoughts, WV and tagged Appalachia, Family, Fun, Mountains, Not a soap opera!, WV by warrenAt the auction
Last weekend I went to an auction that benefits the FFA in Ravenswood, WV. I heard about it sort of accidentally so I didn’t really have any sort of a plan together but I heard that there were several different qualities of junk available.
I have heard people say that at flea markets and auctions, you can only get junk…you can find your plain old, run of the mill junk up through first class junk. As I wandered around the Jackson County Fairgrounds, I was surprised. To be sure, there was a lot of junk available for a few dollars per ton. There was some really great stuff too, and since I really like stuff like this, I spent a few hours perusing the piles.
I think what I enjoyed more than anything was the sound of the auctioneers. Most everyone knows the general sound of the auctioneer’s call and most people wonder how anyone knows what price they are paying for something. If you have never heard a real auctioneer calling, take a listen to a recording I made of my favorite guy.
From the recording, it is hard to tell what is going on I suppose, but I have to tell you, in person, I was never really in doubt about what he was selling (even if he just named it a big box of junk) or what the current bid was when he was calling. If you have never been, go to an auction some time!
I think next year I will go again to this auction and this time, I will have a plan!
This entry was posted in Audio, Fun, WV and tagged auctioneers are cool, Audio, Fun, My lips would be numb by warrenThe importance of pudding and its perfect state
Pudding is one of those things that is a real delight and one that I do not enjoy often enough. I worked pretty hard on a few things this weekend and I took a couple of ugly falls, climbed under cabinets for a few hours and even broke a fingernail. As always, I had to harass Isaac a little also, and with his size nowadays, that is no small feat. So, as I browsed the pantry the other night, I saw, peeking around the box of saltine crackers, a package of french vanilla cook-and-serve pudding.
Now truth be told, there is nothing finer than made-from-scratch vanilla pudding (like we put in creampuffs), but barring the real thing, I am pretty happy to make it from a mix. Here is the important part though…I only eat it when it is hot/warm and it is best with the lumps and skin that develop. The skin turns instantly nasty when it gets cold, so I am not talking about that skin. No, the warm skin and lumps are the ones that make pudding perfect.
I mixed up a 6-serving box right before bed and ate half of it, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to get the lumps. Emily and the kids will eat the cold pudding later…eeewwww. Anyhow, with all of my bumps and bruises, it was just perfect and just what the doctor ordered. Pudding fixes things, my friends. It’s sort of magical and the real magic is in the lumps!
This entry was posted in Fun and tagged Fun, Mmmmm...pudding! by warrenIf it has to snow…
If it has to snow, I guess we might as well do something to enjoy it. We didn’t get too much snow on Friday but Abigail in particular decided to make the most of it. I bribed her brother to go and sled with her and it worked…he fell for it.
I had decided earlier in the day not to wear any pants all Saturday. Before you think me too creepy, I wore shorts all day, even out in the 25 degree weather. I wasn’t cold for some reason and it had nothing to do with Uncle Bill’s special cold weather elixir.
Anyhow, hills in WV are plentiful but hills that won’t kill you are somewhat harder to find. The kids spent an hour or so rolling up and down the little hill out back with sleds and without. It was really a pretty awesome time. The kids had a lot of fun together and any time we get that chance, I will take it.
While standing out in the snow, I also discovered the my phone can take really awesome panoramic photos. I took a few pics of the area from different angles. I sort of hate to admit it but the whole scene was sort of pretty.
I guess I might have had blood flow issues though as my body tried to warm my legs so I do not want to fully commit to claiming any part of winter is nice.
I had the opportunity to enjoy my favorite holiday of the year with my kids and that was pretty cool. I know you are thinking that Groundhog Day can’t possibly be Warren’s favorite holiday but, friends, I am here to tell you it is! It means the days are starting to feel longer, the maples will soon be blooming and winter is soon to be over! This year Phil was very kind also. And just to go on the record, Punxsutawney Phil is the one true seer, the prognosticator of all prognosticators. The others are all impostors!
This entry was posted in Family, Fun and tagged Family, Fun, Snow still sucks by warrenOut of state
I have been pretty behind on saying much, but we have been busy! We have been on holiday vacation! We stayed at home for Christmas as we always do. I don’t like to rush around and do much of anything on Christmas day…it impedes my playing with my new toys/eating cookies/napping. This year, a few days after Christmas, we went to visit my brother and sister-in-law in Maryland (my parents met us there too). I mentioned in my last post about the snow storm…let me complain again…it sucked. A normally 6 hour drive took us 11 hours. Here is why:
Anyhow, once we got there, we had a great time. The boys stayed at home and ran the tractor, cleaned the chicken coop, drank…mountain dew. I had another run-in with an immovable object and my head…namely the chicken coop. Once again, I lost though it was slightly less gross/severe this time.
The ladies went on in to Washington DC to check out the art museums and enjoy the humanity around them on the metro.
We had a really great time and didn’t drink too much…mountain dew. Everyone made it home safe (in a second fairly bad snow storm) so I call it a success!
This entry was posted in Family, Fun and tagged Family, Fun, Snow Sucks by warrenThe cookie tragedy
It’s been awhile since I sat down long enough to do anything. Christmas has been super busy in a good way this year. We had a few Christmas parties, made some cookies, opened some presents, and traveled through Winter Storm Euclid (or was it Freyr?). When and why did they start naming snow storms? Well, I know the answer, but still, it seems weird. Anyhow, our normally-6-hour trip took 11 hours. That was a lot of fun. We saw many wrecks and people using colorful hand gestures to communicate the colorful lip movements we saw.
Anyhow, back to the subject at hand…the cookie tragedy. Along with Santa, I absolutely love sugar cookies with sugary icing. Emily, on the other hand, hates them. Really, she just hates making them. Since it was Santa (it wasn’t on my account I am sure), Emily mixed up the dough and put it in the fridge to chill. I discovered the dough and ate it…well, most of it anyhow. She had to mix up another batch which meant that there was no chance she was going to do any other sugar cookie related anything.
Being a culinary genius, I helped Abigail mix up some icing and we decorated the cookies ourselves. Emily said it was easy to identify the cookies I decorated. What do you think, friends?
Anyhow, we are still alive and jolly here in West-by-God-Virginia and hope you had a groovy Christmas! How about you?
This entry was posted in Fun and tagged Fun by warrenHuh…I’ll be danged
Well, here we are. I listened on the radio last night and was a little worried. It was quiet…dead quiet. Finally, one friend got on and talked with me so I knew all was not lost.
Oh well, I am still thankful for all of the things I listed yesterday and I only regret overindulging in some of those things. I guess one more thing that I would now add to the list is Pepto Bismol!
This entry was posted in Fun and tagged Fun by warrenThings I am going to miss
Since this is the last day we have together, dear friends, I thought I would say so long and thanks for all the fish. I guess the apocalypse comes tomorrow so our time is short. I am going to miss many things, but I guess that’s the way it goes. Well, here is a list of the top 12 things I am going to miss when I am gone:
- My family
- You, dear friends
- Tahitian Treat and Mountain Dew
- The Dukes of Hazzard
- Cinnamon mouthwash
- Spicy dill pickles
- Bagpipes
- Pop Rocks
- Horseshoes
- Tree frogs
- Bongo drums
- Blue ball point pens
I am signed up to be a “now zero days” ham radio operator, just in case the world takes a little time to end. I will broadcast over the air to keep track of how the apocalypse is going…I figure I can stay up late on the radio, since I won’t have to go to work. I probably won’t bother setting my alarm either. Hey, this isn’t sounding so bad!
Well friends, if by some miracle the world doesn’t end, I will be headed to the doc to pump my stomach to get rid of all of the dill pickles, pop rocks and Mountain Dew. Leave a light on for me just in case!
This entry was posted in Fun and tagged Fun by warrenHide the pickle
We like to play hide the pickle at our house. It’s an old tradition meant for the whole family to enjoy. We sometimes play hide the pickle when guests come to visit also. Gosh, I love to play hide the pickle!
When we lived in Nashville, we had a friend who worked part-time at a place that sold Christmas ornaments. One night at a get-together, she asked if we wanted to play hide the pickle. Being young and carefree, we eagerly agreed. She gave us a box with a glass pickle inside. I had never heard of the tradition but apparently folks back in the old country would hide a glass pickle ornament somewhere in their Christmas tree (check this out for an explanation).
I think whoever finds it has to clean the kitchen or do push-ups or something like that. The kids love that of course! So, we put our tree up the other night. Only since we moved back to West-by-God-Virginia have we had a real tree in the house for Christmas. We headed to the farmers’ market to get a tree grown in WV (which isn’t all of them at the market) the other night and finished decorating it finally. The finishing touch was for me to hide the pickle deep in the tree which delighted Abigail. Really, it’s a great tradition and one for which I am thankful!
Well friends, I don’t know about the people with whom you spend time, but if they ever ask you if you want to play hide the pickle, cautiously nod your head and see what happens!
This entry was posted in Family, Fun and tagged Christmas, Family, Fun, It's a Family Tradition by warrenSome fancy earrings
The other day, after my birthday hootenanny, my wife and kids only complained a few minutes (in honor of my day) when I said I wanted to roam about aimlessly in the local Cabela’s store. The Cabela’s people put on quite a show and I like looking at all of the things that I may buy cheaper elsewhere. There is something cool about actually fondling the products you are considering purchasing.
Anyhow, we all wandered by the fishing area where Abigail happened upon a lovely display of earrings they had out on display. She was amazed at how many varieties they had and how soft and fluffy they were. “Do they just leave them out in the open like that?” she asked. As Emily and I turned to see what she was talking about, we noticed that she had found the fly-fishing display and was holding one of the flies up to her ear to see how it would look. Thankfully she didn’t end up with a hook in her finger! I guess you could wear flies in your ears and they would be pretty cheap as earrings go. You’d better not walk too close to a stream though or a hungry trout may jump out of the water wanting a kiss!
This entry was posted in Family, Fun and tagged Family, Fun, Yikes! by warren