Wednesday Wives Tales~Happy New Year

Old-time mountain folks believed that New Year's Day was closely connected with what might be happening during the new year.

It is said that a woman who washes clothes on New Year's Day will have to work hard all year. Other's believe that if one doesn't get something of worth accomplished on that day, the entire year will be spent in an 'ildesome' stupor.

Its always been a tradition in my family to eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day~as it is with everyone that I know. But, I found this little saying about it that I thought all of you might enjoy:

"On New Year's you just eat black-eyed peas, with a dime under your plate, an' wear a pair of red garters, an' you'll have good luck the whole year".

So all of you have a very Happy New Year's Day~and don't forget to eat your black-eyed peas! (And if you happen to have a pair of red garters....:)

Merry Christmas

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself...

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

This essay was adapted from a sermon by Dr James Allan Francis in “The Real Jesus and Other Sermons” © 1926 by the Judson Press of Philadelphia (pp 123-124 titled “Arise Sir Knight!”).

Wishing all of my blogging friends a wonderful, beautiful, Merry Christmas!!

Wednesday Wives Tales~Christmas

These are not necessarily Ozark/Ouachita Mountain superstitions, but I thought that they were interesting.

To prevent your family from having a quarrel on Christmas day, everyone must place their shoes side by side on Christmas Eve night.

To have good luck during the following year, take three sips of salt water before eating your Christmas dinner.

And I was happy to find a Christmas superstition that goes with the 'dumb supper' ritual:

The dumb cake was made at midnight on Christmas Eve. It is prepared in complete silence by bachelors and spinsters. The baker of each cake left their initials on the upper surface of the cake--(I guess after it was done?). If their silence remained unbroken throughout the night, the future partner was believed to come and leave their initials on the cake. If one walked backwards to bed after eating dumb cake, a dream about a future spouse was sure to visit them.

Merry Christmas!

Only Four More Days!

Have you made your list and checked it twice? The big day is coming up fast, isn't it? I still have some things to prepare around the house. We are having a pork roast on Christmas Day, so that still has to come out of the freezer--probably tomorrow.

I hope you are all on schedule!


Here are a few of our Santas that I thought I'd share with you.

Wednesday Wives Tales

Ouachita and Ozark mountain folk have always enjoyed a good ghost story~especially at Christmas. I found this little tale that was probably enjoyed by a lot of youngsters huddled up close to the fire on crisp, cold evenings.

It seems that two men heard that the Devil was visiting at the local buryin' ground. Being just a little bit curious, the two hurried down there about dusk to see what they could see. They settled down behind a stone wall and waited.

Unbeknownst to them, two little boys, carrying a sack of paw paws they had gathered, arrived a few moments later and stopped on the other side of the stone wall. They spread the paw paws on the ground and began to divide them. "You take this one, I'll take that one; you take this one, I'll take that one," one boy repeated, placing the paw paws between them.

Finally, the other boy spoke: "Well, that's all, 'cept them two big ones over there. You take the dried up one and I'll take the fat one."

This seemed to describe the two men pretty well, and they broke out of hiding and ran, yelling all the way home. They had presumed some Evil Spirits had been dividing up the dead, and somehow, they had managed to be counted with them!

Merry Christmas!

Good Tuesday Morning!

Congratulations to Sue at Country Pleasures~you are the winner of my Christmas book giveaway! Sue was one of my very first blogging friends~so congrats, friend~send me your mailing addy and I'll get the book right out to you! Thank you all for entering the giveaway. I'll be having more after the first of the year.

We've been watching a lot of old Christmas movies around the Cordwood Cabin lately, and while Meet Me in St. Louis isn't technically a Christmas movie, my favorite scene in it is Christmas one~so enjoy this YouTube video of Judy Garland singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Saturday Smile

Good morning! My Saturday Smile is...a giveaway! Another Karla Dornacher book! This one is The Heart & Home of Christmas.

If you'd like to win this book, leave a comment below. I'll draw the winner's name on Tuesday morning, December 15th.

Good luck~and Merry Christmas!

Wednesday Wives Tales~Christmas

I thought that a few old Christmas superstition/folk beliefs might be fun for this week.

1. The child that is born on Christmas Day will always have good luck.

2. To have good health in the coming year, you must eat an apple on Christmas Eve.

3. Bread that is made on Christmas Eve will never grow mold. (I'm wondering if this is when Wonder Bread makes all of theirs, LOL! Wonder Bread is known never to mold in kid's science experiments).

4. Failing to decorate a Christmas tree will cause spring never to come.

5. The first person to open the front door on Christmas Day will have good luck all year. (I guess that here is where you can make up for not being born on Christmas Day!)

6. And...my favorite that I found: No work of any kind may be done on Christmas day if you want to have a lucky year.

Do you know any Christmas/folk superstitions?

Update on the Little Christmas Tree

I had guessed that some neighbor girls that live on a farm about three miles up the road had decorated the little Christmas tree. But, I saw their older sister in Wal Mart, and she said "no". She said it had been her first guess, too, when she saw it.

It was actually an older gentleman in the community that decorated it. Last spring, his daughter, age 36, passed away very unexpectedly. The little tree is decorated in her memory. The tree is located just outside of a pasture where he hunts. I don't think he ever actually kills anything, but just goes up there to walk and think. Most of the ornaments on the tree had been gifts to him and his wife from his daughter.

I know that he has been grieving a lot these past few months. His wife told me that this is a way that he wanted to deal with his grief and that 'Krissy' had always loved Christmas. So this is Krissy's Christmas tree.

Saturday Smile

We saw this cute little tree on a lonely roadside and it sure brought a smile to our faces!

For those who asked, I can't seem to post a picture of the tree that will 'blow-up' when you click on it, so here is a close up picture of the ornaments. I'm not sure why some pictures I post will get bigger and some will not~any ideas?

Have a great weekend.

Happy Friday!

Brrrrr....it's cold here today! Our high was 44 degrees with a stiff north wind. I think it was in the 70s just last week!

We've got a little bit of decorating done around the place. The dds did a little bit of work out on the porch and came up with these three sweet trees.

I put a small tree in the kitchen. First, I just left it's little burlap bottom on it, but finally settled on putting it in an old rusty coffee can. The ornaments are applesauce cinnamon ornaments that have been 'antiqued' with off-white paint and finished with a mixture of glue and water.

This is a view from the kitchen into the dining room.

Finally, this is our tree. As usual, it's loaded down with ornaments that we've collected through the years. Every year I say I'll put less on it, but I think it gets more crowded every year! I'll try and post some more pictures next week.
Everyone have a great weekend!

Wednesday Wives Tales

Unfortunately, it is the time of the year for sore throats, so I thought I'd look up a few cures.

1. Wear a dirty sock around your neck while you are sleeping.

2. Eat cloves of garlic or keep one clove in each cheek the whole day, changing them out periodically. Your sore throat should be gone by evening~probably along with everyone you know, LOL!

3. Eat fried onions (This one sounds good to me!)

4. Lemon and Honey mixed together and taken as a cough syrup

5. Gargling with Apple Cider Vinegar

6. Gargling with baking soda or salt

I do believe that gargling with the vinegar or salt/baking soda is great for a sore throat---it always makes mine feel better. Since garlic is known to have antibacterial and antibiotic properties, it probably does help, too. But I'm not sure I could stand the cloves in my mouth all day! I think honey would probably be good, too.

Do you know any good cures for a sore throat?

Monday

Hi everyone~I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I was supposed to get several projects done during my blogging break~and I did get a few of them finished, but still have a ways to go.

It's starting to look a little bit Christmas-y around the Cordwood Cabin, but I still have a long way to go. We have to move some furniture and store a few things away to make a little bit of room for our Christmas decorations.

I'll post some pictures of our decorations, as well as a couple of my craft projects by the end of the week~I hope!

I'm enjoying looking at all of your very Christmas-y blogs. Everyone have a great day!

Wednesday

No Wednesday Wives Tales today.

See ya in two weeks. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving!

Saturday Smile

It's a beautiful fall in the mountains! These pictures were taken at Mount Magazine State Park.

Wednesday Wives Tales~Raising Chickens

Raising chickens in the mountains can be a bit iffy. One has to worry about disease and most of all, varmits that are always looking for a tasty chicken meal. Then, there are other problems, such as getting a good hatch out of a batch of eggs. Through the years, Ozark and Ouachita mountain folks have found several ways of dealing with all of these problems.

Never raise chickens next to a potato patch. The smell of the potato plants will make hens quit laying eggs and start setting.

If you collect eggs and put them in a woman's bonnet to transfer them to be hatched, they will mostly hatch out pullets (hens). But, if you put the eggs in a man's hat, they will mostly hatch out to be roosters.

Any eggs that are elongated or sort of 'rough' on one end, are thought to be 'rooster' eggs and should be avoided putting in a clutch to hatch.

A sure trick to protect your chickens from varmits is to pull one feather from each chicken in the flock and bury the feathers deep in the dirt under the hen house. As long as they stay buried, the chickens will remain safe.

And most important~never give away a chick or you may be giving away your 'luck' with it. Any payment will prevent this curse, even just a trade of something, like a bucket of berries or garden produce for the chicks.

I've been trying to remember if we've given away any chicks, LOL!

Saturday Smile

These beautiful animals run wild in the National Forest area next to us and sometimes wander down our road. I think the owner has been fined~but they are still out there. I look for them whenever we are back there. I hope they stay safe!

Wednesday Wives Tales~Sweeping

I grew up hearing that you shouldn't let anyone sweep under the chair, over the feet of a single girl~else she might end up an 'old maid'.

There seems to be several more old wives tales about sweeping. For instance, you should never sweep your house on a Monday, else you might sweep away the family's 'money luck' for the entire week.

Be careful to never let a broom fall flat on the floor. And if it does, do NOT step over it~it will double your bad luck.

Never sweep the dirt out the front or back door at night, or you might sweep dirt into the faces of the ghosts and spirits that stand outside the cabin door in the dark. In fact, it seems to be bad luck to even sweep at night at all.

It is bad luck to stop sweeping a room before you finish it. And you should never burn the 'sweepings' in the fireplace or wood stove. They must be disposed of in some other way~like out the back door in the daytime.

In looking around the Internet, I also found this: When moving to a new house, if the broom is moved with the rest of the household furniture, you will not be successful. The broom should be burned while standing in the corner, being watched meanwhile, to prevent the house from taking fire. (I'm still puzzling over how one accomplishes this, LOL!)

Happy Sweeping!

Saturday Smile

Have a spooky day!

This creepy creature is standing in the doorway of an old abandoned house back on a mountain road. We were sort of surprised to see her in there! Hubby backed up and I took a shot of her.

Spooky October

Tipper at Blind Pig & the Acorn had been hosting a lot of Spooky October stories. My story isn't nearly as scary as some, but it has always been a puzzling incident to my mother and me.

I grew up in a house that my parent's built, so there was no 'past', no scary incidents that had happened in this house. The whole thing started when I was about fifteen years old. My mom always had a lot of trouble going to sleep at night, and I enjoyed staying up late, so we were up together a lot.

As a rule, we washed our dishes after supper and covered them with a clean dish towel~leaving them in the dish drying rack. One night, we were both reading and we heard the dishes 'shift' in the dish rack. Nothing unusual. But every night they seemed to 'shift' louder and louder. To the point that we got up and would go look at them. They hadn't moved.

Finally, the noise escalated to sound like the dishes were falling and breaking all over the floor. But nothing was ever moved. We started putting the dishes up at night~still heard them 'breaking'. It wasn't like a dish or two moved, it was like they were being thrown all over the room, yet nothing was ever broken.

To irritate us more, my dad purposely stayed up every once in a while to hear the 'racket'. Never made a sound. If he or my brother was up, no sound ever came from that kitchen.

This went on for years~and it was loud! It was still happening when I married and moved away. My mom doesn't know when it stopped, but gradually, years later, the sounds stopped with no explanation as to what it was.

My daughters thought I should also mention that this last week, our stereo has turned itself on all-by-itself three days in a row, LOL! I guess the old thing is going out~well, we think that's what it is.

Wednesday Wives Tales~Dumb Suppers

Have any of you heard of Dumb Suppers (sometimes called dummy suppers)? This is a very new thing to me. And it's so interesting that people actually did this sort of thing (maybe still do?) that I'm surprised I never heard of it before now.

The purpose of a dumb supper is for a young, unmarried woman to see the 'spirit' of the man that she is going to marry. The meal is prepared in complete silence~no talking (dumb) whatsoever. Most people believed that you had to walk backwards while cooking and serving the dumb supper.

When the dinner is done, an extra place is set at the table and the young girl (or girls if done in a group), open all the windows and doors and take their place at the table and bow their head. Sometimes all the lights are blown out, as well. The 'phantom' husbands are supposed to enter in silence. Each girl should be able to recognize the 'husband' that sits down beside her. If no one appears, it means that she will never marry. If only a dark blob appears, it means she will die within the year.

There are quite a few versions of this 'supper'. Some involve making the dinner using thimblefuls for ingredients instead of spoons and cups. In some versions, they see the 'reflection' of their husbands face in their empty plates.

Have any of you heard of this? Have any of you ever been to one?

Saturday Smile

These little primitive style jack-o-lanterns on my windowsill are just waiting for the 'big guy' to be carved and join the fun. Hope you're having a lot of smiles today!

Wednesday Wives Tales~Cats

There are a lot of superstitions about cats, but it wasn't until I moved to this little mountain community that I realized many people still believe them.

We are 'cat' people, and many of our neighbors think that we are a little bit odd because of it. Of course, they may think that for other reasons, too, LOL!

Most are especially leary of our two black cats, as a lot of them seem to associate them with witches. A neighbor recently commented to me "You sure do have a lot of black animals", like it was something very strange. (We have two black cats, one black dog, and several black chickens).

A few years ago, when the man came to assess our house for fire insurance, he stopped in the middle of the kitchen and stared at our cat, Brina.Finally he said, "You have a black cat?" (Like she had just appeared there on her own!). I finally had to pick her up and put her outside, as he seemed too afraid to look at the rest of the house! It was a very odd experience.

It is good luck for a stray black cat to visit your home, but bad luck if it decides to take of residence there.

It is bad luck to cross a black cat's trail. So if one crosses the road in front of you, you must turn around and find another way to get where you were going. (A neighbor told my mother that he would never, ever run over a black cat, even if he had to run off the road!).

It is very bad luck to kill a cat. (I'm thankful for this one!).

And surprisingly, it is very bad luck to be photographed with a cat!

Do you know any superstitions about cats? And do you know any people that are still superstitious about them?

Saturday Smile~A Winner!

The winner of The Blessing of Friendship by Karla Dornacher is Ranae of Ewe Creek Cottage. Congratulations, Ranae!

Still Time

A reminder that there's still time to register for the Karla Dornacher book giveaway~just scroll down to the giveaway post and register before ten o'clock CST Friday night!

Wednesday Wives Tales~Babies

Although many yarb doctors were men, it was the local Granny Woman that was called in when it was time for an Ozark Mountain woman to have her baby.

Granny women, yarb (herb) doctors in their own right, served as local midwives. Their skills and secrets were handed down from generation to generation, each generation revising and improving the 'recipes' as they learned new skills. They used a variety of herbs (yarbs) in their work. A Granny Woman often gave the mother-to-be slippery elm bark tea to speed delivery, blackberry tea to prevent hemorrhaging, and raspberry to relax uterine muscles.

Folk Beliefs that Granny Women used included letting the woman hold her husband's hat to symbolize her husband in the room, opening all the doors and windows (if there were any windows in the cabin) to 'open' to birth canal, and of course, putting an ax or large knife under the bed to 'cut' the pain.

Granny women were prevalent in mountain communities up until about WWII. Do any of you know any stories about Granny Women?

Giveaway!!

Good morning and Happy Columbus Day to all of you.


I've met many wonderful friends in blogland~and this giveaway is for you!!


If you are familiar with Karla Dornacher's books, you will know how sweet they are. This is a vintage (used) book, published in 2000, about the blessings of Christian friendship.


If you'd like to win this book~leave a comment below. I'll announce the winner on Saturday, October 17, 2009, for my Saturday Smile post!


Friendship isn't a big thing--it's a million little things...........Author Unknown

Saturday Smile

George (Georgia) is growing! She is such a sweetie pie and has brought a lot of smiles to our home:)

Wednesday Wives Tales~Earaches

When folks were too far from a doctor, they had to rely on the yarb women/grannies as well as their own knowledge of how to take care of any sort of ailment.

Earaches were fairly common and there were various remedies for them.

1. Vinegar poultice--soak a piece of light (white/wheat) bread in warm vinegar and apply it against your ear until it cools.

2. Blow tobacco smoke into the ear. When I was a child, I saw people do this to babies.

3. Plug the ear with a slice of warm bacon.

4. Put a few drops of warm oil in the ear.

5. Take wool from a black sheep and keep it in the ear.

6. Pierced ears were also believed to be a remedy for ear ailments.

Other than the warm oil, I'm not sure how any of these work. Do any of you know a sure cure for an earache?

Weekend Project

Our muscadines are ripe~well, at least some of them. I haven't made jelly in quite a few years, so I wasn't sure I was up to the task, but once I got started, I really enjoyed it!

First, I turned all those gorgeous little muscadines into juice. That was the longest process of this project. I put the juice into the refrigerator overnight and then strained it through cheesecloth the next morning. I had seven cups of muscadine juice.

This is the recipe that I used:

5 cups of juice

1/2 tsp. of butter (to reduce the foam)

one tablespoon of lemon juice

six cups of sugar

one package of Ball pectin

1. I mixed the five cups of juice, lemon juice, butter, and the pectin in a large Dutch oven and brought the mixuture to a full rolling boil.

2. Then, I added the sugar all at once, bringing all of that to a full rolling boil and letting it boil for one minute~stirring constantly.

3. I skimmed the small amount of foam off of the top and put in my ready jars! This made four pints of jelly.

I did not seal the jars, so they will be kept in the refrigerator. I also sent a pint and a half next door to my parents. If more are ripe this week, I'll probably seal and water-bath the next batch.

Saturday Smile

Lemon Balm...wish you could smell it!

Flea Market Finds

These are a few of the things I picked up last week and last weekend.

I found this cute vintage apron for $2. It has a few stains on it, but I thought it would make a perfect craft apron! I love the pockets.

These little bottle ornaments were just too cute to pass up at 25 cents each.

I bought this metal angel for $1. I'm thinking about sanding her and painting her with rusty paint for a nice primitive look.

Besides these things, I bought some other ornaments that I'll post later. And, between the two of us, hubby and I bought about 25 books! Now, we're ready for a long winter!

Wednesday Wives Tales~Hiccups

I think everyone must know at least one 'cure' for hiccups. In my research, I've come across many that I've never heard of and most are quite interesting.

One way is to run around the house seven times without taking a breath. I assume that depends on the size of one's house.

You can also stand on one leg and say "Hick-up, stick-up, lick-up, hick-up," three times without stopping to take a breath.

Or, you can touch back of the neck of the 'hiccup-er' with a rabbits foot~when he/she is least expecting it.

How about naming three kernels of corn for three friends, then putting the corn in a container of water and suspending it over your head? I wonder how long you have to leave it up there?

This was one of my favorites: Stick you fingers in your ears and have a person of the opposite sex pour nine cups of rainwater down your throat!

I personally try to hold my breath and count to 60. That usually works for me. As does trying to drink an entire glass of water without stopping.

Being scared unexpectedly has cured them, too, though it usually involved someone shouting all of a sudden or slamming a door unexpectedly. I've never had the rabbit foot rubbed on my neck!

How do you cure your hiccups?

Be sure and check out Tipper's post at Blind Pig & the Acorn on cures for toothaches.

Tuesday Morning

Good morning, everyone. I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend and a nice start to your week. We took off for Branson for the weekend. Sort of a spur of the moment thing~something we are not known for, LOL!

The weather was beautiful and the drive up and back was absolutely perfect! We went to flea markets, craft malls, and enjoyed eating out a couple of times. I saw a lot of neat ideas at the craft malls, as well as bought a few vintage items that I'll post on here when I get the chance to download the pictures from my camera.

It is cold outside this morning~46 degrees! Perfect fall weather.

Have a great day!

Saturday Smile!

The dogwoods are beginning to turn! Hope you're smiling about something today!

Please Pray

Everyone please pray for Ranae and her family today. Click on over to Ewe Creek Cottage and send her an encouraging word.

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Phillipians 4:6

WEDNESDAY WIVES TALES~S-S-SNAKES!

Snakes are not one of my favorite subjects, but there seems to be a lot of beliefs about them.

It is said that in the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains, that all snakes go blind and change their skin during the dog days of summer. I'm not sure the point of this belief, but apparently it is fairly common. It is also said that snakes are more likely to attack people during this period.

If you find a scorpion, there is a snake only a few feet away.

It seems there were some clans (families) back in the mountains that would never kill a snake. These were the snake doctors that you went to see when you had been bitten. They had their own secret 'cure' for snakebite. Since the cures were secret, not much is known about them, except that the snake that did the biting must not be injured at all and should be taken with you to the 'snake doctors', who would release them back into the woods.

An Appalachian belief concerning snakebites was that you must kill the snake, cut it up, and press the pieces to the bite, thus drawing out the poison and healing the bite.

The last one I will mention involves a good omen. That's right~something to make you feel good about snakes. Just remember this~if you find two snakes in your house at the same time, it is good luck for you! (I'd like to know how many of you believe this one, LOL!)

Do you know any wives tales about snakes?

Women of the West

I'm happy that so many of you enjoyed seeing the photo of the Chrisman sisters next to their sod house. I've done a little bit of research on the sisters, but there are some conflicts in what I've read. Some articles state that all the sisters made a claim and others state that by the time the youngest sister was eligible, all of the free land (at least locally to them) was taken. I recently purchased the book Women Of The West by Cathy Luchetti & Carol Olwell. I haven't read all of it yet, but if you are interested in the history of women heading west in America, I think you will like this book. It has lots of pictures, too, which is one of my favorite things about it.

Happy reading!

SATURDAY SMILE!

Reading about pioneer women is a favorite hobby of mine, especially women homesteaders. This is one of my favorite pictures~Lizzie, Lutie, Jenny, and Hattie Chrisman standing in front of their Nebraska sod house in 1886. I can only imagine the adventures they must have had!

Wednesday Wives Tales ~Rain~

Since most of the south is experiencing a long period of rain, I thought we might talk about folk beliefs that concern it.

It’s said if a cat sneezes in your house it means there will be rain that day. (But, if it is your wedding day, it means that you will have a long and happy marriage~with no rain for the day!)

When a fog rises away rapidly, it is always a sign of rain: "Fog goes up with a hop, Rain comes down with a drop". However, if fog seems to disappear into the ground, you can expect several days of clear weather.

When it rains on the first Sunday of the month, old-timers expect rain on the three following Sundays.

If chickens go into roost earlier than usual, it means a storm is coming.

These are two that I've heard all of my life:

If it rains while the sun is shining, the Devil is whipping his wife.

If it begins raining in the middle of the day and chickens remain out in the rain, it means it will rain all day. If they run for cover, it means we will only have a short shower and then it will clear up.

Do you know any rain signs?