Down on his luck, a farmer raffles off a dead mule. While preparing a Sunday dinner, a woman finds her lost diamond in a chicken gizzard. A rural post office closes for bush-hogging and dog dipping. A litter of orphaned baby possums finds a home.Kirk Neely"s down-home stories are about his neck of the woods. Just like his blue jeans after an adventure in Dead Horse Canyon, Neely"s tales are caked with red clay. These 50 country tales are set in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the rivers of the Piedmont Carolinas, the cotton mills, and the lumberyard.Neely, a beloved Baptist preacher from South Carolina, writes about the ordinary: casseroles and sweet tea, black bears and beagles, WD-40 and duct tape, Tabasco Sauce and fatback. Accompanied by striking pen-and-ink sketches by his nephew Emory Cash, these stories will make you laugh out loud or bring a tear to your eye.Steeped in Southern charm and down-home lore, this volume promises to be a keeper.