On the road again.

#035

This week’s newsletter is landing a little later than usual. We’ve been on the road today and I’m sitting in Lynch, Kentucky drinking coffee and trying to stick to my routine of publishing every Friday. Somewhere outside Damascus, Virginia today, my wife reminded me that I’d yet to publish anything today, so here I am.

Yesterday, I spoke to a group of students, faculty, and donors at the Honors Program at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking there three times over the last dozen years. I talked about why photographing in Appalachia is so important to me, the historical representation of the region, and a bit about my working process and there was a great Q&A session afterward.

When we travel, and if time permits, we often select the “avoid highways” option in Google Maps. Aside from being able to silence the audible voice telling me which way to turn, avoid highways is my favorite feature. All that to say, I did drive two hours roundtrip - avoiding highways - at the beginning of our trip to pick up a new custom hat.

Today’s drive took us through Mocksville (Daniel Boone’s parents are buried there), Harmony, Union Grove (I picked up a new Case knife), Wilkesboro, and Boone in North Carolina. In Tennessee, we passed through Trade, Midway, Mountain City, Wills, and Laurel Bloomery. In Virginia, we stopped for an early supper in Damascus at Wilson’s Cafe and Grill (highly recommended!), then on to Abingdon (we’ll holler next time, Mike and Jackie!), Coeburn, Norton, Appalachia (yes, there’s a town with the name), before climbing Black Mountain (the highest point in Kentucky) and dropping down into Lynch, Kentucky. We’re attending a wedding tomorrow in Harlan then heading home Sunday.

As we drove through so much farmland today, I daydreamed about what it would be like to farm like that. I don’t mean I romanticized it, but just dreamed about the ups and downs, the winters, droughts, and the harvests. I thought about stolen lands and the legacy of always trying to get more, grow more, earn more, more, more. I thought about Wendell Berry and the wisdom he’s offered all of us for more than half a century. And I missed our small acreage on our ridge in West Virginia.

Last year, I bought a tractor. It’s been an incredibly useful tool on our property, but I bought it because I bought into the dream of all the things I could do with it. Honey and I are developing our dream for the land we’re on. We’ve been here for just over five years and we’ve taken note of the animals we see, the types of trees around us, how the water drains (or doesn’t), and where best to grow our garden so it can get as much sun as possible. We don’t intend to be off the grid, but we do intend to be more self-sufficient, grow more of our own food, contribute more than we take, and live in better harmony with the land and with each other.

Oh, and I’d really love to have a sawmill.

Over the last several months, Honey started a nonprofit, assembled a board, and began the deep work of fundraising, planning, and developing her vision for this work. I’m excited for where this passion project leads. I look forward to sharing more in the near future.

Have a great weekend, y’all.

- Roger

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