The Green Spring Kitchen & Thrift

10/03/2026

Green Spring folks, bring a little piece of home into 2027!

I’ve created the Green Spring, WV 2027 Calendar for Appalachian Pride Prints, featuring river crossings, old bridges, and mountain scenery from the place we call home.

Hang it in your own home, or give it to someone who’s moved away but still holds Green Spring close to their heart. It’s a thoughtful holiday gift with hometown meaning.

Take a look here:

A 2027 wall calendar of Green Spring, WV: river crossings, old bridges, and mountain scenery, one month at a time.

10/01/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C8SZwreEb/

A place we call home.

09/28/2026

https://appalachianprideprints.com/

A place we call home.

09/28/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14srrdQXH1v/

09/24/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19dMjDBkQA/ Going to be fab day in the hollow. :)

09/23/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FUcwT69ZB/

09/22/2026

Diary of a Crazy Old Lady in a Little Appalachian Town, Green Spring, WV

Good morning, diary…
It is September 22, 2026 — can you believe it — the first day of Fall. Well… summer is officially over for this year, at least on the calendar. Whether Mother Nature decides to throw us a curveball at the last minute still remains to be seen. Hopefully the heat of this summer is gone for good. Who knows. But checking the weather moving forward… the heat of this summer is only a memory now. Amen.

Nights will be very cool and days a comfortable 70 degrees thereabouts going forward. Great sleeping weather in these mountains. Last night I slept like a rock. Cool sleeping nights are a blessing after the summer we had.

It is currently a very dark-dark 5 a.m., misty, calling for another wet day in the hollow with drizzle off and on. It is 59 degrees with a high today of 59… lol. Right now, as dark and early as it is, the high for today is only going to get as high as it is at 5 a.m. Weird, huh? I gather this can only mean a very wet and dreary day in this hollow with no chance the sun will warm things up. I love rainy days in these hills. They are always special when they come. We need the moisture too.

Yesterday was a cool, wet one too. I’m glad I keep my flannel shirts within arm’s reach. With the rain, I had an opportunity to get some housework done. Good Lord… it wasn’t like it wasn’t long overdue. OMG, the cobwebs and dust that gathered. Well, it took some doing, but I got my house back from those damnable little spiders. I swear the outside was coming in to stay. It seems they were settled in for a long winter for sure. It was a bit of a fight, too — they had taken up permanent residence from the looks of my ceilings. Yeah… I made the mistake of looking up. LOL.

With my knee — which, by the way, is doing better — I couldn’t do much other than keep up with feeding times for my critters around here. With the change in temperatures, I got my yard work caught up in one good day… and this rain gave me a reason to focus on my own house. Which, I must admit, made me feel bad. I have stayed so focused on Green Spring over the last several years… I put off so much of my own work.

There is only so much time in a day and only so much energy to give. When you live alone, it gives you the luxury of saying, “I’ll get that later.” Yeah… I’m bad for putting my own stuff off. Dusting is the worst. I swear, how one home gets so much dirt inside is beyond my understanding. You don’t want to come into my home with a white glove. After a while, it is just too much, and I need to clean. The time set aside is when it rains.

When I was younger, my mother would do deep seasonal cleanings twice a year — once in early spring as the weather changed from winter to spring around April, and again in early November just before Thanksgiving, the start of the holidays. My mother always did weekly cleanings, but twice a year she did what she called a deep clean. As her oldest daughter, I was always recruited to help. I think if she knew I cleaned now when it rains, she would flip out. Cleaning on rainy days just wasn’t done.

I never remember her cleaning on rainy days. Even her weekly cleans were done on days she could open all the windows and doors, drag rugs out, shake them, and hang out bed sheets. Clothes hung on a bright sunny day would be taken down as soon as they dried, and a whole new set would follow. Doing several hangings on a sunny day was not unheard of. It was easy to have several clotheslines full, and as soon as they dried, you took them down and replaced them with clean wet clothes — hopefully all dried by dark. Oh, it was a whole process.

During seasonal cleans, we dragged all kinds of stuff out into the yard to get fresh air and sun. Sometimes, like in spring, I would help drag bed mattresses out and let them sit in the sun for hours before dragging them back in and putting fresh sun‑dried sheets on the bed. In the fall, we would flip the mattresses, then make the bed with fresh sheets and clean blankets for the cold nights ahead. There was a process. Every spring, summer clothes, sheets, and curtains came out, and the winter stuff was put away. Then in the fall, the winter clothes, flannel sheets, and heavier curtains were washed and put out for winter. Come spring, the process repeated. Now I clean when it rains. 😊Don't tell.......

During these seasonal cleans, it was customary to wash everything before putting it away for the next season, and everything was rewashed when taken out of storage. I know, diary — I don’t do all that anymore. I may do one good seasonal clean a year. I can’t even tell you the last time I dragged a mattress outside. If my mattress gets flipped once a year, that’s the best I do. And washing sheets again, knowing they were washed before I put them away? Nope.

Times have changed. I can't help it but every year I remember how crazy it would get during these seasonal cleans when I was young.
Back then my mother had an electric washing machine and an old wringer. The wringer could be stuffed with sheets, blankets, and curtains and left to wash as long as you wanted. They stayed in hot soapy water with bleach until spotless. The electric washer mostly cleaned our personal clothes. I think every family in the hollow had an old wringer they praised. I’ve noticed all our Amish families use wringer washing machines. It brings back so many memories.

During seasonal cleans, our clothesline would be full of fresh washed curtains, blankets, and sheets on any given bright sunny day. We didn’t have a dryer, and I don’t remember a real vacuum cleaner in our house until much later in my teens. So an old whisk broom and dust rag were all you needed. Carl Dean, my father, liked a clean house, and this was women’s work. There was always a clear line on what was women’s work in our home.

Seasonal cleans were routine for most of the mountain folk I knew. All my aunts did seasonal cleans, and it was always a topic when the womenfolk got together. They would exchange ideas and help the younger wives with newer households to do it right. Trust me — back in those days, there was a right way and a wrong way to clean. If you did something that wasn’t done, someone would make sure you knew the right way. Lol.

Shall we change the subject…
I want to share some great news. Appalachian Pride Prints now has a website, and we are selling all kinds of stuff with our pictures on it. I just started this online store yesterday, so I need to spend more time getting things out, but we will be selling hats, coffee cups, T‑shirts, and hoodies with pictures of Green Spring to start.
https://AppalachianPridePrints.com

With time, I think this can become very lucrative for our community and help keep a regular flow of money coming in for us — hopefully long after I am gone. Everything I do is for our future.
Now, if I can get my scary stories of Green Spring published… The Green Spring Phantom and the Green Spring Troll...something else that needs money. Publishing anything isn’t cheap. I can self‑publish, but that is a few hundred… and publishers, like with my books, want a thousand. And though that is easier, I don’t have the money for that either. God, so much would be easier if money wasn’t always a drawback. God, it's a bitch to be poor. But things would be different quickly if I had the money to make the changes we need. But we don't, so we keep with prayer.

This winter I want to do some research on our history and find another grant we can push to help build that new food pantry I want for us. I haven’t given up on that.

It won’t be long before I need to start making candy for the holidays. Every year since 2019, I make on average 400 to 500 bags of holiday hardtack by myself. So from around Thanksgiving until Christmas, I am going strong until the first of the year. This money is a Godsend to get the food pantry through the winter. I start shopping for the food pantry for winter stock next week. TG for my donors.

Levi is talking about leaving the Indoor Market open throughout the winter. I hope so. From what I understand, we have a good staple client base that shops this place. You have no idea how happy this makes me. No one is going to get rich here… but knowing Green Spring is growing after decades of decline… it is a good feeling.

Well, diary, it’s time to close for today. Stay dry and warm. See you on Thursday. See less

A place we call home.

09/16/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19jfE48YPt/

09/10/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18wo1YuUzB/ Heads up, community!!!

09/07/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1bpwcxDKmu/ Happy Labor Day Happy BD to me! God Bless.

Diary of a Crazy Old Lady in a Little Appalachian Town, Green Spring, WV
Good Monday morning, diary,

It is Labor Day, September 7, 2026, 5:30 a.m., and today marks my 69th birthday, dear diary. Can you believe it? I am 69, and though my mind still thinks I’m a teenager… until I look in the mirror… and reality sets in. I can’t help but think you are such an idiot. 😊

People say age is just a number. Well, that’s true if you took care of yourself over the decades… but I can’t say that. I’ve been hard on this old set of bones, and when my internal rest finally comes, this body will have given its all. Hell, it’s there now. 😊 Every day I wonder how much more it will take, and every day I barely make it to bed at night, only to get up the next day and push this old body some more. Thank God for my bed at night.

Diary… my rooster friend… You should hear him. He is really giving his all this morning. It’s one of the coolest mornings we’ve had in these mountains in a long while, a cool 55 degrees. Maybe he has a chill he’s trying to get rid of. It is a pitch‑black morning in the hollow. Today is supposed to be clear and sunny, a beautiful 80 degrees, and I will welcome it with open arms. After all that heat we got over the summer, I appreciate the cooler temperatures — anything to keep the electric bill down.

For the fourth month in a row, my electric bill was less than my water and sewer, which is a fixed rate of 94 dollars after that county increase. Not long ago my water bill was around 70 dollars, and I thought that was too much for one old woman. And mind you, diary… I also power extra freezers and refrigeration for the pantry. But 90‑plus dollars a month for water and sewer for one person living alone? Good God. I’m grateful I have some control over how much electricity I use; I don’t with the water. It’s fixed. Now they tell me it won’t go any higher… like a 30‑dollar increase in one year isn’t bad enough. But I guess I can feel better knowing it’s as high as it will get… LOL OMG.

I’ve lived in six different states and several large cities, and even with a growing family, my water bill was never higher than my electric. The cost of living in Hampshire County is outrageous. Instead of finding cost‑effective ways to do better for the locals, they just keep raising costs on those who live here. That never made sense to me.

Charging locals more is easier than managing what they have. For every increase in utilities, taxes, and fees, I have to rearrange my finances to meet the cost… and I don’t have a whole county population funding me. If the county would just audit and manage funds better… But they get far more money out of us by acting like they have no choice. It’s sad. I know I’m not the only senior who feels this way living on a fixed income. It just makes us poorer as a community. God knows we have enough problems because of it.

It’s my birthday, diary… let’s talk about something else. None of this one person can change anyway.

Today is Labor Day and it falls this year on my birthday. 😊 It has done this a few times over my life. I asked AI how many times my birthday fell on Labor Day since my birth in 1957. Eleven times: 1959, 1964, 1970, 1981, 1987, 1992, 1998, 2009, 2015, 2020, 2026 (today). And the next time will be 2037. I looked for a pattern — there is none. Good God, if I live till 2037 I’ll be 80, in this body… yeah right. But do I feel special for it? Hell yeah. I have no idea if any of this has meaning, but having your birthday on a holiday makes it more special, I think.

How about a short life review, diary? I like looking back on my life on my birthday. Helps me appreciate how far I’ve come. Grateful.

I was born at 2 a.m. on September 7, 1957, as Belinda Sue Dean (Suzy), the first daughter to Eugene Carl Dean (Carl) and Betty Rosalie Ricewick (Rosie). My grandparents on both sides were from Green Spring — generational families with roots here since before the 1900s. I was born in the old Cumberland, MD hospital, and my parents moved me to Jersey City, New Jersey, when I was a little over a year old.

My father got work through Western Union, transferring us from Green Spring to the big city. In the late 1950s, Green Spring was still in its prime — long before the school and train station closed. The town was full of life. But jobs were getting slim, so new jobs, new location, and a fresh future for a young family seemed like a good move.

We lived in various towns in NJ, and my parents had my two younger sisters and my brother. We moved back to our roots in Green Spring in early 1972, onto land my father bought from Junior Whetzel on the day I was born — the land I live on today. 😊

I left home just before my 16th birthday, a year after we moved back. My teen years were raw and taught me hard lessons that shaped my future. Despite everything, I graduated high school and went to Potomac State for one year as pre‑med. I had big dreams. At one point I thought the Navy was a good choice. I wanted to be a nurse, and the Navy offered stability I didn’t have. The day before I was to take my oath and leave for boot camp, I got talked out of it — and shortly after, I married my first husband. We had one son, Jason Scott Whetzel, on November 5, 1976.

Then on September 7, 1980, at a birthday celebration, the tragic drowning of two men changed everything. It was the reason I got involved in Emergency Services. Then the flood came in November 1985, and by 1986 I was living in the suburbs of Atlanta after losing everything, married to my second husband before we left WV. Who will go back home soon after the move to GA

By late 1986, I was working for the Atlanta County Fire Department and would soon marry my partner there — my third husband. For the first time, life was going very well. New career, new home, new family. I finally had it all and was very happy… until it all changed one morning as I was getting ready for my shift.

By late 1994, I was wheelchair‑bound and told to get my affairs in order. I had MS and wasn’t looking good. Then came the experimental procedure that stopped the disease from progressing. My life flipped again. By 1996, I was back in Green Spring and divorced for the third time. I was full of anger and did things I knew were out of line… but I didn’t care. In my mind, my life was over anyway and I was back to raise hell in the very place to blame.

By 1999, I married for the fourth time — it lasted three months. I couldn’t get out fast enough. Someday I’ll tell that story. It didn’t last long, but I kept the last name as a reminder so I’d never do it again. My choice in men wasn’t the best. When you grow up with a warped sense of love, it leads you down the wrong paths. I’ve remained single since and have lived alone.

After leaving Green Spring in 1999, I went to Hagerstown to pick up what was left of my life. By 2006, I was ready to tackle the world again and my health was better. I moved to Ocean City, then Kansas City, chasing jobs and a new future. By 2010, I was back in Cumberland — homesick, hating the weather, missing mountains and rivers. One year was enough. Then my health turned again and I moved in with my son in Baltimore. I stayed until 2018, then moved back to Green Spring to retire. I was going to spend the rest of my life fishing… yeah, we saw how that turned out. 😊

Looking back, it’s been a long, hard road. The biggest thing, diary… is that I’m still here. That was in question for a long time. How? I have no idea. Many wrote me off. I guess I’m too stubborn to give up. Not everyone makes it to old age. I’ve buried many who didn’t. Life throws so many curveballs; it’s a wonder anyone gets old. I have one dear friend who is 96 and another who is 87 — their spirit amazes me. I’m sure they took better care of their bodies. Lol.

Diary, I am happier now than I’ve ever been. I’ve learned a lot, and that wisdom is priceless. It took a lot to get here, and using that knowledge to help Green Spring move into a stronger future… that’s the legacy I’ll be happy to end my life on. For each obstacle, struggle, and hardship — many caused by my own choices — I’m still here. Simply reaching 69, with no guarantee 70 will come, is a blessing. It’s sad, though… You get to the age where it all finally makes sense, and you’re at the end of your life. Crazy, huh?

Remember I told you I was going to do something differently? Well, to start… I got my hair cut and dyed. A small change, but uplifting for my spirit. I’ve been wearing a ball cap way too long. Lol. I’m also going to the hospital to finally see what we can do about this knee. I’ve put it off long enough. I’ll buy myself a nice meal somewhere… don’t know where yet… then come home and chill. I usually go camping, but not this year. So I guess a good movie with my fur babies around me... a perfect BD.

Diary, thank you… You mean the world to me. God Bless.