I don't want to turn every drive into an expedition. I just want a communications plan that takes a few minutes to prepare and gives me options if the usual ones fail.

One of the greatest things about Hollercraft Academy has never been the gear, the classes, or even the skills themselves. It has been the people. Every festival, community event, training course, and conversation gives us another opportunity to meet someone new. Sometimes it is a family stopping by our booth for the first time. Sometimes it is a student arriving for a class unsure of exactly what to expect. Other times it is someone we have met before who comes back to share a story, ask...

An old lesson from the holler—and a new tool from the mountains of Kentucky When I was a boy growing up in the holler, we raised hogs. It wasn’t a hobby, and it wasn’t just about making a little money. Those hogs had a purpose. They helped put meat on the table when winter settled into the mountains and the days got short. There was a practicality to life in the holler. You took care of what you had. You fixed what broke. And you learned pretty quickly that the tools hanging in the shed or...