Our Kuykendall Family Album

Folks, this album will continue to grow as I scan and upload the pictures to it. If you click the little blue picture icon in the lower right, you can see the complete album with captions for each picture. So, help me out, cousins, if you see something that needs correction, let me know.

Blue Ridge Book Festival

It was Mother's Day weekend and my girls went with me to the book festival in Hendersonville held at the Blue Ridge Community College. I actually got to have a few impromptu reunions there in the halls of the college. Here is honorary chairman, Robert Morgan, one of the kudzu cousins, introducing keynote Sharyn McCrumb, who spoke on finding truth in fiction. She's a consummate researcher. I was using a new camera that I wasn't used to and my picture of McCrumb didn't turn out.

Louise Bailey spoke on the cultural and historical dimensions of Henderson County. I came in a little late for that one, but was delighted to hear the story about Carl Sandburg having supper at her father's home where he enjoyed the fresh pole beans cooked with salt pork so much, not only did he have three helpings, he turned the serving bowl up and drank the pot liquor. His way of saying Henderson County pole beans are the best in the world, I reckon.

Mountain balladeer and stroyteller, Sheila Kay Adams, entertained us with her story, Whatever Happened to John Parrish's Boy, one of my favorites in her collection, Come Go Home with Me. I was very sorry to hear about the recent passing of her husband and performance partner, Jim.

Gary Carden, spoke on Western North Carolina stroytelling and folklore. He told stories about growing up with his grandparents in the mountains and how he came to study drama at Western Carolina. This session was the girls' favorite. I was going to ask him to tell the story about the trout who learned to walk on land, but we ran out of time. His play,The Prince of Dark Corners, about the Carolina bootlegger outlaw, Lewis Redmond is on DVD. I have a copy which I used in Tech Prep Chemistry when we study distillation.

Getting Back to the Garden

When Wal-Mart and fire ants came to Greer in the same year, I gave up having a big garden – and I mean BIG. For the past few years I’ve had only a few ‘mater plants because of the travel softball season being all over us. But, you know what? It makes me nervous not to have a garden, depending on so many outlanders to provide what I eat. So we are going back to the garden, starting little and building up to a putting-up garden. And with two acres, it’d be a sin not to. I’ll just keep an EpiPen in my britches pocket.

I planted some broccoli and onions and Romaine lettuce and beets way back before Spring break, and they are up a right nice size now. I started tomatoes from seed, Rutgers and Park’s Whoppers, which are just about ready to put out. The nine-pack of vegetables were a good price at Lowes a couple of weeks ago. I got one pack of Roma tomatoes. I have seeds for cucumbers, birdhouse gourds, crooked-neck squash, and eggplant. They will go out in May. I’ll have to go buy some Jalapenos and bell peppers. As much as I like okra, I’ll pass on it this time. It comes in after school starts when I have no time. But retirement is not too far off.

No corn this time, but I can flat out grow corn. I’ll never forget the year, ’81 to be exact, Uncle Marion and I tended that humongous garden down at the farm right next to the lake. SIX acres of Merritt sweet corn. It was also the summer I first found I was pregnant with Elizabeth. Oh, Lord! I hoed and puked and hoed and puked. Then I pulled ears and puked and shucked and puked and blanched and puked and cut off and puked and bagged it for freezing and puked. Then I ate nary a kernel of it until Thanksgiving when the nausea went away. My uncle said, “You’re just like Momma. Always got to be growing something.” I never told him what a complement that was. He was the same way. What a wonderful trait to pass down. Ah, good times, good memories.

I suspect more and more people will venture out to plant some vegetables with the recession and all, and some may do it because it’s just plain “greener” to eat locally grown foods – a victory garden sort of. But whatever your reasons, I’m just curious to know what you are growing this summer. Tell me.

Video of Hank Garland playing Sugarfoot Rag

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytme7s9pSx0

Startex/Tucapau Mill Village Reunion

A good many of you run across this blog while searching terms with the words Startex or Tucapau in them. The official mill village site is http://www.startex.org/. Next month, April 18, 2009, the historical society will hold a reunion. So visit the site and read about all the plans for the village. The organizers would welcome any memorabilia you have to share at the gathering. You can contact them from the information on the site.

Thunder in January

Sara heard thunder last night while I was sawing logs. She was just dozing when she detected a flash behind closed lids. Thinking Mary was taking pictures of her slobbering, with her mouth hanging open (they do that kind of thing to one another), she jumped up to swat at her, but nobody was there. That’s when she heard the thunder. “Oh, that’s a sign,” I said when she reported it this morning. It means that there will be snow in 10 days – the day before final exams for first semester, how lovely. Thunder in January is supposed to wake up the snakes, too. I ain’t about to go out in the woods to check.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We watched the Bowl games today and all our teams lost. :-(
We ate the traditional southern NY's Day fare, black-eyed peas and collard greens (you do know why we eat them, don't you?). I've learned how to gussy up the greens from my fancy chef son-in-law, though I still favor just a little bacon grease and chow chow on the side. On Tuesday, we smoked several pork loins with hickory, apple, and pecan woods. I let the loins soak up their juices for two days in giant zip-lock bags. OMG! they were delicious with the greens, sliced paper thin and piled on rolls and a little daub of Dukes on the bread. My youngest said it was the best meal I had made all year. Ha Ha Ha.

I will never make another pumpkin pie.

You won't either if you try this recipe over the holidays.

Pumpkin Cheese Cake
Preheat oven to 350

Crust in a 9 inch spring form pan
1 3/4 cup of mixed graham cracker and ginger snap crumbs
3T. light brown sugar
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1 stick melted butter

Filling
3 eight ounce pk cream cheese at room temp.
1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
3 eggs and 1 yolk
1 1/2 c. sugar1/4 c. sour cream
1 1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice
2 t. all purpose flour
2 t. vanilla-

Combine crust ingredients in a bowl and press into 9 in. spring form pan.
Beat cream cheese until smooth, add pumpkin, eggs , sour cream, sugar, and spice.
Blend, add flour and vanilla, and beat until well combined.
Pour into crust and spread evenly.
Bake one hour and 350 F.
Remove and let stand 15 minutes.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours

I had never made a cheese cake before because I didn't have a spring form pan. But I went out a few weeks ago with buying one on my mind. I found a set of 3 spring form pans at Big Lots for 7 bucks. The recipe is my variation of Paula Deen's recipe. She uses separate spices instead of pumpkin pie spice and plain graham crackers. I changed it to half graham and half ginger snaps for the crust.

Congrats to the Rebels

The Byrnes Rebels won their 6th 4A State Football Championship in seven years yesterday over at Clemson. Here they are just beginning the celebration before the presentation of the Championship trophy.

Sara was happy to be there, but her feet were cold. I wore my snow boots and my toes were toasty.

Mary and Dad snuggle to keep warm.

Rash at the Hub

Ron was at the HubBub Thursday night to do a reading of Serena. Of course he started with one of the best opening paragraphs of any novel ever (in medias res), where you know that blood is not far in coming.

Byrnes High faculty was well represented in the crowd that was treated to glimpses of training an eagle to hunt rattle snakes, and some other tidbits about how those golden eagles from Mongolia are bred and trained to hunt. He read the scene where Rachel plants her father’s headstone and remembers some loving moments with him which were few and far between.

Then there are the delightful continuing conversations of the loggers which remind me very much of some of the bird walks we take in my Tech Prep Chemistry class. Yesterday I got this from a girl out of the middle of nowhere, “Do you believe in the Big Bang Theory, Mrs. I? I don’t. I was taught creation.”

“Me neither. Jesus put me here. Hallelujah!” said the boy behind her, tongue-in-cheek and a dip in the other, which I’ve grown to ignore because apparently he needs one after lunch or he’ll be disruptive in class.

“I think it’s kinda both. Don’t you , Miz I? What if it was God that made the Big Bang to happen?” said another kid.

“I think you’re probably right. You know how I always say that chemistry is God's science. Now, look at calcium on the periodic table. I’ll use the laser pointer and let’s say the electron configuration together. Ready? 1s2..2s2…what comes next?”

Good News

One of my stories has been accepted to appear in Hub City's newest anthology, The Essential Fiction of Spartanburg, to come out in April 2009. It is edited by C. Michael Curtis, the senior editor of The Atlantic magazine. He is the John C. Cobb Professor of Humanities at Wofford College.

Serena's Coming!

I'm excited as a mill-hill kid during fair week and I got my free ticket from my school teacher. Hey! I am a mill-hill kid and it IS Piedmont Interstate Fair week. But the reason I'm excited is that my copy of Ron Rash's latest novel, Serena, is on it's way. Should get mine today or tomorrow. You can read the first chapter if you go find the Serena page on Amazon. There is also an interesting essay by Ron on the page.

The book actually springs from a short story published in Ron's anthology, Chemistry. The story, Pemberton's Bride, features evil Serena and her new husband, and is set in a Western North Carolina lumber camp in the 1930s.

I like how he writes a short story and then it grows up to be a novel. That also happened with the novel, The World Made Straight. Perhaps one of my stories will grow up to be a big book some day. Ha.

Our school was fortunate to host Ron last spring when he came to speak to our students about writing. I was honored when the librarians asked me and a few other teachers to join them and Ron for dinner the night before. You know, everytime I see that guy he ask me what I'm working on - I know Ron from the Wildacres workshops. And he did that for our students, too. You don't get that very often with famous writers. After dinner I just had to ask about training an eagle to hunt rattlesnakes - you'll know what I'm talking about if you read the short story or novel. A very lively discussion about how he learned about it and researching for fiction in general followed.

This one is going to be big, folks.

Talk Like a Pirate Weekend

Since it's Talk Like a Pirate Day, Sept. 19, I decided to visit the blog of my favorite pirate romance author, Darlene Marshall, and was happy to see that she has finished her latest novel, A Sea Change. I can hardly wait for that one.

Tomorrow the Byrnes Rebels will host Florida High School football powerhouse, the Lincoln Trojans. It should be a good one. A Florida team up in South Carolina on TLAP Day. How appropriate. Arrr.

Henderson County Genealogical Society 25th Anniversary

A crowd of nearly 100 celebrated the 25th anniversary of the HCGHS on August 16 at The Chariot in Hendersonville, NC along with guest speaker, poet, novelist, and Daniel Boone biographer, Robert Morgan. Ron Rash once told me he thinks Morgan is "the greatest". I have to concur.

Currently the society is working on transcribing the court records for the first thirty years or so of the county's existance. I have a huge folder of 1858 records sitting by my Lay-Z-Boy. It ain't easy, let me tell you. I've read these photocopied microfilms till my eyes cross, transfering into composition books before typing them. The going is lots slower than I thought it would be.

Got published

My essay, "Ray and Me", about my relationship with my cousin with cerebral palsy, and my poem, "When I Plant Corn" have been accepted for publication in the second issue of The Petigru Review, South Carolina Writers Workshop's literary journal. Readers will be able to see these pieces in print near the end of October.

You can read about the judges in the contest here. http://myscww.org/anthologyjudges.htm

Thank y'all for reading my stuff and commenting on them.

the inside flap of her birthday card

My first memory of you
is not your face or voice,
but rather your hands and
forearms, slick and soapy,
holding me for my bath
in the kitchen sink.
I clinked measuring spoons.
A Startex calendar
towel with roosters and
chickens hung on the wall
over the stove. White light
flowed through the one window,
warming the counter top.
Have you noticed how I
always stare at you hands?

Slobot's Visit to Berry Shoals and the Tucapau Dam

Slobot goes to Berry Shoals Dam and Startex

When I got new glasses in the 5th grade

My cat-eyed glasses always dipped
below my right eyebrow because
my ears are set sigodlin on my head.
I cried when my teacher asked why
I couldn’t keep my glasses straight
on my face. I tucked a Kleenex wad
under the ear piece but it fell out.
Mavis Crisp called me four eyes and
laughed, showing green teeth, see-sawing
her hands in front of her own eyes.
I begged for contacts at the eye
exam. Not old enough he said.
Then he bent the ear piece down some.
Sliding the new pair on my face, he smiled.

Just wanted to show these two off.

Mary and Sara

Some Great Lye Soap Making Videos

These videos are on ExpertVillage.com and are very well done. I thought I'd do some myself, but there's no use with these great instructions. However, my handmilling technique is different. I use the microwave. That we need to get on a video.

http://www.expertvillage.com/video-series/171_make-soap-video.htm