Mountain Farm Museum Woodshed and Ash Hopper

The woodshed on the farmstead is a replica of the type of woodshed that was on the Davis-Queen property. Keeping a well-stocked woodshed was a very important, albeit time-consuming part of life in the Smoky Mountains. During the winter months, woodfires were the only way that a family kept warm. Wood fires were also the only way a family was able to cook their meals. It was important to keep the wood covered and as dry as possible due to the fact that wet wood does not burn as hot or evenly. Therefore, a proper cover for the wood collected by the family was extremely important.

Along with keeping a family warm and fed, fires in the stove or fireplace produced ashes which had many different purposes on a farmstead. Ashes were used commonly used as an insect repellent in gardens. However, once the ashes reached the soil, they also provided important nutrients that kept the soil fertile. Another use of ashes was to create lye which was used to make soap. Lye was made by taking ashes from the stoves and fireplaces and placing them in the ash hopper which is the small box that is sitting next to the woodshed. Once the ash hopper was full and the family was ready to make lye, they poured water through the ashes which pulled out the alkali that is located in the ashes. The liquid that came through the other side was lye. To make strong lye, it was best to use ashes from hardwoods. One of the ways that a family determined if their lye was strong or not, was to place an egg or a potato into the lye liquid. If they floated, that was an indication that the lye was strong enough to make soap out of it. Soap was made by mixing lye with animal fat and cooked down to create lye soap. Besides soap, lye was also used to make hominy from corn. However, once lye was commercially produced, families stopped making their own lye as buying it from the store saved time and energy

Tom Robbins, Mountain Farm Museum (Gatlinburg: Great Smoky Mountains Association), 5.