Here’s a video of the Earth Day mule plowing demonstration in the Folk School’s garden. Watch Buildings and Grounds Manager John Clarke plowing and singing the “Muleskinner Blues” and work study student Harrison Topp seems to catch on pretty quick, too.

The 2 mules, Jim and Joe, owned by Danny Logan.
Hal Hogsed, Muleskinner.
Jim Weaver, Plowman.
Video by Jan Davidson.

Last Friday, Folk School students, staff, and community members excitedly
gathered in the garden to witness something that probably hasn’t happened at
the Folk School in the last 50 years. Brasstown neighbor, Danny Logan
brought his mules to help do some ploughing. The mules, not accustomed to
such hard work (or spectators with cameras) put on a good show as they
helped ready the tomato beds in the garden.  The Folk School motto “I sing
behind the plough” is taken from a Danish poem and encourages us to find joy
in everyday tasks. The photo from the Folk School’s archives below shows Oscar Cantrell, the Folk School’s first blacksmith plowing the fields.

We got snow! On Monday the sun was shining bright in a clear blue sky, but by Friday the weather reports were in, and sure enough the flakes began to fall.  It had been below-freezing for a couple of days, with night temperatures dipping down to nine degrees, so the snow stuck.

 As the sun began to set, I took a walk around campus and saw the beauty brought out by the wintery landscape.  The trees, the round hay bales in the field, the icicles in the goldfish pond, the red iron railing, the rocking chairs on the porch were all outlined in white.  Some one (probably the Snow Queen) had left snow angels in the parking lot. 

Thank you Tammy Godfrey for the nice photos!

There are treasures in the Folk School archives that help us get perspective for understanding the days we live in. Anna Shearouse, who works in our archives, found this item. It is one of the “Monday Morning Messages” of William H. Danforth, who founded the Purina company.  He wrote these to his employees for forty years. This one is dated May 23, 1932:

“Last week I visited the John C. Campbell Folk School at Brasstown, North Carolina.  There the community is taught singing games to bring more joy into the work of each day. It seemed to me that the birds were bursting their little throats, that the cows were more contented, that the roosters crowed louder, that the people were happier than in any other neighborhood that I had been in for a long time.  Why not, when they are living out their slogan: I SING BEHIND THE PLOUGH. An economist writes that we are in the thirty-seventh month of the depression and that if we haven’t already turned upward, we soon will.  Depressions take songs out of our hearts.  While we are all doing our level best to make things better, don’t you think it will help a lot if we can get a bit of song back into our lives?  We can’t sing good times back, but a song of courage on our lips will make our days more fruitful and help brighten the lives of those around us.  I’m not much for Pollyanna stuff, but I’m going to begin each day with a song; and I’m going to try to continue that song all the day long.  I’m going to sing behind my plough. How many of you will join me?”

An early version of the Folk School's logo

Here at the Folk School, we aim to find joy in every aspect of life.  We take pleasure in carving a life-like squirrel, playing a banjo, and knitting a sweater from homespun wool.  A week’s worth of hard work results in something we are proud to claim as a product of our own hands.  While the school’s motto expresses our blend of work and play, it was a literal statement when the school began in 1925.  One of the main reasons Brasstown was considered as a location for the Folk School was due to the strong presence of agriculture and the potential to build up rural life.  The phrase comes from a mid-1800s Danish poem by Mads Hansen, farmer and poet.  Olive Campbell adopted the phrase for the Folk School and her niece, June Coolidge Cary, probably designed the recognizable man and two horses.

I am just a simple farmer, downright and plain,
and yet I love my modest callings,
for around my little home grow blossoms fair with color and perfume.
Mine is the clear spring, mine is the fresh breeze.
I grew up to the song of the birds, learned a little of them, too.
I sing when the impulse comes to fly light and free.
I sing behind the plough and to the sound of the mowing.
Hills and woods give back my song.
And when I am weary with toil and day is done,
my spirit is fresh,my mind at ease, I am happy and free.
I would not change places with any man on earth,
nor will I leave this spot in the North.

-Mads Hansen