I picked one up at the library and read it. Brought back memories of my childhood in the hills of Tennessee.
My Grandfather Hunter was a Blacksmith, and Farmer. I remember seeing him put iron tires on wagon wheels. He made iron shoes for Horses and Oxen, and then shod the animals. He always was making metal fixtures for wagons, and farm implaments. He had me driving a team of mules at the age of seven to a farm wagon hauling hay down the creek from the hay fields up in the holler. A few years ago I took my son Skyler and showed him the ruts ground in the slab rocks of the creekbed by wagon tires. Five generations of Hunters drove wagons over those ruts. I walked up the creek and showed him where they raised hay on a hillside field. He could not believe the work involved in raising, mowing, raking, loading on wagons and hauling to the barns. Then the horse powered rope and trolley system used to load it up into the loft. All this done with Mules, Horses or Oxen.
My Grandfather Williams was a harness maker and Horse and Mule trader, as well as a Farmer. He was also into Moonshining and Bootlegging too.
I remember both of them Killing and Butchering their own hogs, goats, and sheep. Then salting down the meat and smoking it. My Grandmothers would render the lard store it. Everything got used, or sold. The hides would be salted and sold in Red Boiling Springs, Carthridge, or Gainsboro. They both built their own homes. I don't mean they hired a contractor, I mean they laid the foundation themselves and did all the framing. They put up the walls and roof. Then finished the inside. I remember in the early 50s, me sitting on a stool at a drill press, drilling pilot holes in Asbestos shingles so Dad and my Grandfathers could nail them on the side of the houses. Without pilot holes the shingles would crack when nailed in place.
Both my Grandmothers milked cows by hand, then made their own Butter. They canned fruits and vegatables from their gardens. They also canned some of the meats as well. They kept fresh milk in the spring house.
Much of the things I read in those books discribed my Grandparents daily lives.
