Thanks, Dotsie. Yeah, this outlook took awhile coming...believe me! Once I turned 40, life began to look different to me and by the time I hit 50, I wasn't even remotely close to the girl I'd been at 25. Can only imagine what 60 will bring in 2 years.....lol
It just keeps getting better.

Hi Boom...my Daddy was a coal miner as was his daddy, my uncles, cousins and any man who stayed in WV in our family...all coal miners. I've got kin who were buried, we hope not alive but don't know, in the last two cave ins in WV. It's a hard life, that's for sure.

Billy Barns is still at Ferrum, far as I know. His wife died sometime last year and he's since remarried.

all...

have never heard it's bad luck to tear down a barn but in our family a barn wasn't torn down unless the wood was needed for something else. It was more an issue of energy and where it was best placed. When time is a matter of survival and it takes quantity time to put food on the table and clothes on ones' back...energy isn't wasted tearing down something just to make thigs look "good".

Around here, you can see many an old house still standing, leaning I admit but still standing, because if electricity lines are still running to it, the house is a tax deduction...for folks who need such deductions. Now there's a sad sight...a dieing house when people are living on the streets.

During my family tree research trip, I discovered that my grandfather owned a coal mine. I know little details. He contacted TB and moved to NM for the dry climate. I have no idea where he got the money to own a mine.

Sandra....Just want to say I visited your website and I'm enchanted. Loved the history on it and it looks like a really great place.
I'm a knitter....so was especially interested about the fibers, fleece, spinning, etc.
Very nice website.

Teri, Thistle doesn't know it yet but we're all crashing her farm for a boomer sleep over.

Dotsie, think we can really pull the wool over Thistles eyes?

chick

Don't even say wool around Thistle. It makes her sheep nervous. And the next thing you know she will have raised a sheep, sheered the wool, spun it into thread and knitted the whole boomer herd a sweater. (Just typing all that exhausts me)

That Thistle doesn't fool around.
smile

You gals slay me!

Terri...thanks for visiting the website; greatly appreciated.

Dots...ya'll come on...I've got plenty of beds and even more floor space. If you make it soon, you can have some *fresh* smoked salmon!

Chick, you can pull the wool over my eyes if it's not on hooves /ggg/.

Smile...maybe not the whol boomer herd...I'm probabably too lazy to do that. My neighbor shears and I spin, knit and weave the wool...tons of fun too. Or maybe I'm easily entertained...?

I'm afraid to click on the back key because I'm afraid I'll lose what I've typed thus far. Someone said they are a knitter...was that you, Terri? Knitting is a great thing to do with idle hands. A few years ago I went to a dept. of highways meeting and knitted through it. A neighbor went with me and she was embarassed because I was knitting. When we left I asked her she had gotten anything out of the meeting; she said no. I held up my knitting and said, I got a hat. /ggg/