Flattered? Yes...

Once again, we here at Hillbilly Savants have been honored with another Thinking Blog Award. In a virtual game of "gotcha-last", the Weenie Wonks (their name, not mine) over at The West Virginia Hot Dog Blog have reciprocated some high praise on us. Thanks folks, for reading and spreading the word about Hillbilly Savants! We hope we'll continue to cut the mustard for you.

Playing within the rules of a Thinking Blog Award, it's now our turn to nominate five more blogs for the same award (you can read all about our first award and nominees here). It's not an easy task to choose just five blogs. As you can see under our Kith & Kin section in the left sidebar, we like blogs. A lot of blogs. In a long, excruciating process that involved a little Scotch and a fair amount of reading, here are my nominees:

1) Living Green: As a home designer professionally and as someone planning my own home construction, Aaron Doyle's real estate blog focusing on sustainable living is a great resource. It's a subject that all of us face as urban sprawl creeps deeper into Appalachia and energy consumption becomes more of a conscious decision.

2) BLDG BLOG: It's not based in or on Appalachia but this blog is probably the best blog I have ever read. If you are a fan of art and architecture, click the link.

3) Squirrel Meat's Journal: Techically not a blog, but Squirrel Meat is friend of HS and to us contributors that attended Emory & Henry College. The journal is his way of telling us what is happening as he hikes the Pacific Crest Trail. S'meat completed a southbound hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2003 and is tackling the Canada to Mexico trail on the west coast as I type.

4) Blue Ridge Muse: Just down Route 8 from me, in Floyd, Virginia, Blue Ridge Muse is full of wonderful photography and writing. I like it because Floyd is kind of like Las Vegas, word of what goes on there doesn't reach us on the main drag via the mainstream media until we find it on the blogs. Blue Ridge Muse is just one of many great bloggers from Floyd County, the arts center of the New River Valley.

5) Fretboard Journal Blog: Anyone with a slight interest in music and instruments will find this writing worthwhile.

And again, the rules from the thinking blog:

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

That was that! Please, remember to tag blogs with real merits, i.e. relative content, and above all - blogs that really get you thinking! It is the first time I am starting something with my blog so I hope it doesn't come back to haunt me.

Our First Award

The blog is doing pretty darn good here lately - really solid recent posts, some complimentary links, over 42,000 visits in just over a year, and now, (throwing confetti) we have received our first award - - - the Thinking Blogger Award!

Bam.

I am freaking ultra-cited about this, but before I get carried away in my own giddiness (dance party, Old Crow Medicine Show, and RC Cola anyone?), let me make some key statements.

First, we here at HS want to thank the folks over at Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi for nominating us. It means a heckuva' lot, guys - for ya'll who haven't checked out HCMCM do so - - - it is an damned excellent read.

Second, the Thinking Blogger Award is a nifty sorta' thing - it works on the principle that good bloggers know other good bloggers when they see'm. Makes sense, eh? Sure enough. So every blogger who receives the award is obliged to nominate five other "thinking blogs" who, in turn, do the same. I know, I know. It is brilliant. Of course blogs that have already been nominated can be renominated, but (as far as I can tell) not by their previous nominator. Regardless, it is a really interesting system creating networks of linked, high quality blogs that, I'd imagine, gradually become more and more diverse. Really interesting stuff.

Well, here at HS we're always interested in other blogs anyway - it is sort of an obsession for a few of us (when we're not distracted by our "jobs" or our "spouses" or our "responsibilities"). So we feel pretty darned qualified to nominate a few outstanding sites. And stuff. I dug through our links and found some doozies who 1) aren't contributors here at Hillbilly Savants (yet) and 2) absolutely deserve some national attention (Let me just say that I narrowed it down from our extensive link list to almost 30 sites from which I winnowed further - - - what does that mean? Our peer Appalachian sites are so good its like trying to choose a valedictorian from the Children of the Corn. Keep it up everyone. ). Consider:

1) The Bluegrass Blog: A great blog for anyone interested in virtually any topic or sub-topic having to do with Bluegrass. Listenlicious.

2) Lincoln Walks At Midnight: West Virginia politics and government covered in a clear, straightforward, easy to digest way. Politicalrific.

3) North Carolina Mountain Dreams: A tremendous read - the North Carolina Appalachian Mountains as seen by a Texan. Immigrationdacious.

4) The War in Appalachia: A blog obsessed with the politics and economics of coal mining and use - the sort of blog that makes you remember to turn off the light. Environmentalismo.

5) The West Virginia Hot Dog Blog: A blog about an incredibly narrow subject - hot dog culture in the Mountain State. How? Why? No one knows. And yet you will read. You will read.

For you guys nominated by us humble hillfolk, well, let me quote you the rules from the thinking blog that started this whole mess - ahem:

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

That was that! Please, remember to tag blogs with real merits, i.e. relative content, and above all - blogs that really get you thinking! It is the first time I am starting something with my blog so I hope it doesn't come back to haunt me.

Awesome. And Ilker Yoldas, thanks for putting this whole crazy mess together in the first place.