When I was a kid, Grandma had a wood cookstove in the kitchen, and she could sure turn out some fine eatin' from that thing. Me and my sisters used to come stay just so we could eat breakfast. Grandma would make us stuff like chocolate gravy and a plate of homemade sorghum syrup mashed full of butter to sop up with one of her big cathead biscuits.
I believe I am beginning to see where the cooking skills come from.
My grandpa was a good cook, and he was actually the one that first got me interested. Mom said that she had taught me how to make good biscuits by the time I was 6. But yeah, Grandma, Grandpa, and Mom were all excellent cooks. Dad could cook, but he hated to, unless you were off on a camping or hunting trip or something.
I love this thread so much. Sorry to hear about your mom, about to have to bury my father soon.
That kind of stuff is fascinating to me, too. My grandpa graded out the yard here with a mule and dragpan, and hauled the rocks for the foundation and retaining wall from his dad and mom's place across the river to here on a mule sled, because he wanted a connection to his old homeplace. Most of the wood in this house was cut on this place. A lot of the wood is wormy chestnut that he cut and sawed when they started dying.I love this thread so much. Sorry to hear about your mom, about to have to bury my father soon.
My grandparents house in southern WV is now owned by my uncle. My uncle will soon be the last living son, and I and my son will be the last living males in the family tree. Seems like no one could produce a boy back in the 60's and 70's.
Cant wait to see pics, after renovating our shack in the hills a few years ago, old houses and their stories have become a hobby with my wife and I. We found things in the walls that would blow your mind. Hand painted small creek rocks, magazines from the 50's, school work that I couldnt tell you how old and all sorts of things.
A 2x4 in the framing here is an actual 2x4.
Nice "shack!" My house has oak flooring under a layer of laminate. It would be a job to expose and refinish it, but I might one day.I completely understand the real 2X4's, hard as a woodpeckers lips. the other thing I find fascinating the way that old homes were engineered, for expansion but interwoven. I found during the renovation of the shack, the entire house was interwoven from the 'bones' side of the house. What I mean by that is that boards that should have terminated actually extended into another section or room.
Wormy Chestnut aya? I hear from the locals that my shack is full of Wormy Chestnut that by the way sells for a dollar a foot. I think that our house is more oak but I really dont have a clue to be honest.
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My wife and I did this during covid when the world was stupid. Saved my marriage.
As far as that couch with you sitting on it back in '67, I slept on a lot of those back in my youth. Wake up and peel your face off.
I befriended the previous owner of the shack (divorce, cried leaving the house) and she told me that I was crazy for refinishing those floors. We rented a sander and used hand sanders in the corners. We had no money, we had to renovate ourselves. Dang house broke us.
It was when we bought it. My wife and I grew up on the poor side of the tracks so we named this our 'shack' which would have been one of the nicest houses in the town back 50-75 years ago.
It looks great! I've spent half my life living in singlewide trailers because of the real estate market up here.
That was his last fishing trip. We went out to Fontana and tied up under the Little T bridge one night, and I mostly just stuck threadfin shad on his hook and took fish off when he swung 'em in the boat all night, like a guide.
He had a ball. Mixed bag of white bass, crappie, walleye, and trout. We had an epic fish fry a couple days later. He went to the doctor a short while after that, and discovered he had a tumor the size of a lemon in his lung.
That was his last fishing trip. We went out to Fontana and tied up under the Little T bridge one night, and I mostly just stuck threadfin shad on his hook and took fish off when he swung 'em in the boat all night, like a guide.
Yep.
I heard it said a while back that one day you'll catch your last fish or kill your last deer and you won't even know it will be your last.
