Rebloging this funny, fanstic and true view of Jeff Fitzgeralds West Viriginas love of “EYE-Talian” food. Thank you Jeff for thinking about what makes our state so wonderful…. really it is its people and their love of food JEFF FITZGERALD (this article was first published August 2, 2012) Miners’ children playing. U.S. Coal and Coke […]
One of the projects that has been taking up some of my extra time these days is a dream project involving creating a Heritage Apple Orchard at the 1870’s Adaland Mansion in Barbour County, West Virginia. I actually started work on this project last spring during the Covid shut down. Volunteers came together to apply […]
Over the last 25 years trying to live close to the land in West Virginia, I have had several adventures with grape vines. I love the vines for their wildness. I sometimes wonder if the wild muscadine vines here are kin to roaches or coyotes because of their staying power. I think one day they will take […]
One of our family Christmas traditions since my husband was a small boy was making home-made hard candy to share with the friends and family. So this year I wanted to share the tradition with my Daughter-in-Law so that she could make the candy with my granddaughter when she gets just a little older. I […]
Yellow Flowers at Stuarts Park near Elkins WV So about two weeks ago I was told that the inherited eye disease that my family carries is beginning to do damage to my eyes too.The usual end result is legal blindness, although they say I may still be able to see some at the edges of my […]
As part of every episode of Barnwood builders Mark Bowe always likes to show off other skilled craftsman or tradesman who do things the old-fashioned way. So when producers from the show discovered that Tom was a farrier,they were thrilled to add his skills to their show. To film his farrier skills we needed a […]
My older son Cody has always made my life more fun with his unexpected ideas. So you never know what the boy has planned when you see him. Some times its,”Mom you got to see this” or “Mom how do you make this” or “you need to try this”… it is always so much fun […]
Since the terrible chemical spill into the Elk River in West Virginia on Thursday I have watched 300,000.00 of my states citizens suffer unheard of problems from just the simple lack of clean water. The chemical that my southern friends are exposed to are toxic enough to not only made the water undrinkable for humans or animals […]
I know, I am late…. Thanksgiving day is usually a very quite and reflective time for me. The boys hunt and I cook and everyone gets together for dinner around 5:30 and we spend the rest of the evening watching the little ones play and talk shop. So I usually have the day to myself, […]
Tom at the Bell Street entry of the Lovers Lane Trail 2018. Webster Springs, a small isolated mountain town in West Virginia, has recently reopened a river side boardwalk that was part of the community over 100 years ago. Lover’s Lane Boardwalk has been rebuild and is free and open to the public. The 3/4 […]
The history of the Barn Quilt or Barn Paintings in Appalachia can be traced back over 220 hundred years. If we consider Hex Sign painting, Under Ground Rail Road Quilts and Barn Quilts all as part of the larger history of using large symbolistic language in folk art. So if this is true then I […]
As many of you already know I love to take photos,I almost always have a camera with me. So I seem to find all kinds of wonderful things to take photos of. This spring has been so busy, I am surprised, that I have even found time for short bursts of creativity where I take […]
This year is a real treat for me as I work at Adaland Mansion for the first of hopefully many years. It is the first time in my life that I get to be surrounded by some of the most beautiful holiday trees covered in the warm glow of twinkle lights every day I work. […]
Yesterday as I stood at the dock of our local feed store, Southern States, I watched small pellets of snow falling in the cold morning air. Yet when I looked closer at the mysterious dust that slowly covered the roof of my car and the shoulders of my sweater I realize that the white dusting […]
