By Ashley Bunton
There’s been a running joke among my relatives that my hands and wrists are so small because I got stuck in a wringer-washer when I was a kid. I believe that’s why my granny — born in Hazard, and said that TV was sacrilegious — finally agreed the modern automatic washer and dryer that we use today is a good upgrade. Never did I think having small wrists would be helpful at work, until just the other day on Pine Mountain, when a white Dorper ewe’s lamb malpresented itself head-first.
The farm staff raced to the kitchen and brought back a jug of cooking oil just as I put on gloves to try to help the poor animal. With a small army of locals and a visitor circling around the pen, I carefully maneuvered the lamb’s legs forward, first its left and then the right, as the ewe grunted. Our executive director, Jason, whose work in animal husbandry is renowned nationwide, was out with his family, and surely none of us wanted to welcome him back with sorry news. It seemed like a miracle that within moments the lamb was standing on all fours. Bonding with its anxious mother through a chorus of bleating that caught the attention of the other ewes in the barn. The new Dorper’s are soon to join the herd at Pine Mountain Settlement School. The lamb is a ram, which means he’ll end up on a dinner table, or be sold at market, but no matter what his fate may be, I named him Wendell.
Everyone’s busy tending to the numerous projects and building upkeep as the campus prepares for the winter and the events for the 2027 calendar, as well as the curricula for the school students visiting the campus year-round. I began working at Pine Mountain Settlement School a little over a month ago after leaving a job in Appalachia Ohio.
I’ve always enjoyed working in rural communities, and Pine Mountain reminds me so much of other small towns which focus on solving problems that come with rural life. Every small town that I’ve lived in seems to have had its own troubles with mining and extraction, and it never ceases to amaze me how resilient, and similar, the folks are who wake up everyday, and get to work with their sleeves rolled up and a can-do attitude.
My co-workers on campus at Pine Mountain Settlement School are kind and helpful as I orient myself with the classrooms and traditions. I learned how to play the mountain dulcimer, as jam classes are happening weekly, and families travel here to participate in the music classes. Last week, a teacher from Louisville brought her dulcimers, and a student recounted her grandmother’s collection that they grew up with in West Virginia. The students have been writing lyrics and singing songs, with a focus on Pine Mountain.
One song that was written and sung here goes:
“Old of many homes
Sweet Appalachian Mountains
Known as Pine Mountain”
Our music teacher, Ben, was choked up about the effort the students were making when they were invited to perform with their peers. It was either that, or the recent news that he’s soon to be a new father. Over dinner with the staff, I asked if twins run in his family, to which he said: No, definitely not! We had a good chuckle a few days later when he updated us to say that his wife is expecting twins, afterall.
The staff enjoy gathering for meals and sharing stories, and probably the most important is that the dinner bell still rings at Laurel House when the meals are ready in the dining room, just like they have done for many years. Soon, staff will meet to talk about the potential plans for a wild game community dinner in 2027. I hear that our new kitchen manager, Kelton, knows how to make a good squirrel gravy and dumplings, and how to obtain the permits needed to make an event happen.
Elsewhere on campus, the blacksmith shop is open, and Jonathan is teaching classes and forging at the Draper building. Upstairs, the loom room showcases a vibrant display of student work and talented handcrafted weaving taught by Tristan. She recently attended a national conference about fiber arts. Across Appalachia, I have been meeting people feeling guided by the entrepreneurial spirit to revive locally made fiber products.
October is a good time to think about what our lives look like as we change through the year. It seems the spirit on the mountain today is similar to how it was a hundred years ago, with locals contributing to the campus, and students and staff working hard to ensure the school’s mission to enrich the lives of those connected to the land through agriculture and environmental literacy.
