Great video, Joe. I like wood. I like the smell of it when it's sawed. I guess because I was always around relatives building houses and other structures, starting as a kid. I like the comment from timberhoff: "There is something relaxing to see these videos. It’s like I don’t need this knowledge. I could just work a few hours and buy 10% dry boards from the shop. But it’s not that. It’s like something primal is still in our dna that makes these type of things interesting and enjoyable."
The closest neighbor out at the farm was standing in his yard near the road as I was leaving Wednesday. I've never had a conversation with him in which he didn't tell me at least one lie. He's good at it. It always takes a day or two for it to dawn on you, so I've never been able to question him at the time. I try to avoid talking to him at all. Instead of heading south toward home as usual, I decided to head north and circle around behind, on a smaller paved road, about a 3 mile side trip. It was just before dark. I've not been that way for a couple of years. Things change quickly back there. Every time I've taken that route there is something new. A couple new nice houses, two large estate like properties, one with a huge house, and one with a fancy metal gate that looks like a prison gate and is remotely operated. The house is not visible from the road. Maybe that's all there is---just a gate. This is a little structure in the middle of nowhere, that has been back there for the 35 years I've been roaming around out there, and it was old when I first saw it. No one ever uses it, but someone has made some improvements. On the opposite side of the road were two small dilapidated cabins, that looked like temporary residences, maybe summer vacation cabins? I wish I knew the history of them. I forgot to look this time because they are now completely overgrown with bushes. Over this hill, maybe one or two beyond, was a large old building sitting on top of a hill, too large to be a house, more like a hotel. You could only see it from a long distance farther around the circle. A friend who grew up in Georgia thought it might be one of those retreats that wealthy people used to go to in the summer, sometimes associated with a church. I don't know the correct terminology. I wish I knew someone old enough to tell me its story. It has been gone a long time. On around the circle someone has fenced and cleared off a large piece of land and put goats on it. You can barely see the white ones, in the distance heading home. I tried a video, but it was too dark. As soon as the holidays are over I think I'm going to call the fencer and see if I can get him to do some repairs and remove that tree off the fence in the back. Maybe he knows some stories. He was born and raised within 7 miles of there. Just one more picture, of a field, likely covered in broomsedge judging by color. The red made it pretty, but you had to be there.
You can make a lot of brooms, though. I think almost every plant that grows wild in this particular part of Georgia is invasive and a sign of low fertility. lol The poor soil comes from years of trying to get cotton to grow here, where it is only marginally suited, and never using any fertilizer. Plus erosion. Actually the broomsedge here isn't even very healthy.
Another wild plant that grows well in the poor soil here. Some kind of wild roses, almost like carnations. I've never been able to pin down the name. You see them a lot along the roadsides. They grow like vines, not bushes, and are loaded with thorns. This is not my picture, but I had a bank of these that were much prettier than these. The goats ate them all. It will be interesting to see if they come back. zoom
Company Coming?.. Sweep the yard! It was common for poor families living in the South to sweep the yard around a house. Grass was not welcome. Easy to do with red clay soil. Lots of cheap brooms were needed. "In an era long before [lawnmowers], keeping one’s lawn free of overgrown weeds was a tall order. With heavy populations of venomous snakes ranging from the Appalachian Mountains to the South Carolina low country, the fear of having their homes (which weren’t sealed off very well to begin with) invaded by an unwelcomed serpent led the nation’s inhabitants to take some pretty drastic measures — sweeping their yard. By sweeping their yards down to the dirt, early homesteaders were able to establish a perimeter around their homes which would ensure a safe play area for their children." Yard brooms were often made of twigs rather than sedge.
In Georgia's Swept Yards, a Dying Tradition By ANNE RAVER AUG. 8, 1993 "The design of these yards -- a church pew under the trees, an old bedspring gate on the hog pen, a clump of irises blooming out of a chimney foundation -- is the evolution of generations of making do and making art out of what others call junk." And the swept yard was the most important "room" of the household, the heart of the home. Slave quarters were cramped and hot. So you washed and cooked outside, and when the meal was over, everything could be swept into the fire. Sixteen years ago, when Richard Westmacott, an Englishman, came to Athens to teach landscape architecture at the University of Georgia, he and his wife, Jean, moved into an abandoned pre-Civil War house in rural Oglethorpe County, about 20 miles east of town. In visiting the gardens of his neighbors, he realized, like some latter-day de Tocqueville, that what the local people took for granted was the embodiment of a fast-disappearing culture." "I have no doubt that the swept yard did come from Africa -- and then was adopted by white folks," said Mr. Westmacott, whose book, "African-American Gardens and Yards in the Rural South," was published last year by the University of Tennessee. "Almost everybody had swept yards, including the plantations, which were swept by slaves or servants." A garden in these parts, by the way, is where you grow vegetables; a yard is for your flowers and shrubs." "People swept their yards long before the age of mowers, and nobody liked grass." "Any weed was called grass," Mr. Westmacott said. "And people battled against it because cotton didn't compete well with weeds." Making Do, Successfully"
It is approx 11:30 pm. Thirty minutes until the new year. I'm on the 3rd episode of Dr. Pimple Popper on TV. It's a pre-premier mini-marathon on TLC. I love this show. Made sauerkraut and sausage meatballs for snacks, about the size of ping-pong balls. They are really good. Need to save at least one 'til after midnight to qualify for good luck. At the stroke of midnight I'll have ONE shot of Old Crow---cowboy style. Two years ago I learned that you could do it that way and it wouldn't kill you. Saves all the trouble of buying a mixer, and gets it over with quickly. Happy New Year, everyone!
2018 Rainfall: Second Wettest Year On Record For Atlanta "We'll ring in the new year just under the record for most rainfall since 1948, when the Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service) began keeping weather records for Atlanta on Oct. 1, 1878." Almost 11 inches (10.89) here, just in December. Normal rain for December is about 3.7 inches.
The reason for the weather report above is I need all the excuses I can get. We have been granted a half day without rain today, but 3 more days of rain beginning tonight. Instead of doing something that needs to be done outside, I started something new. Started 34 cuttings from the hedge. I forgot the name again, and forgot how to do this. It may be too late. They have already started to sprout new growth. Maybe I left too many leaves? If 10 make it, that will be enough. They have red berries, not very pretty, but something to look at, in the winter. This is one half of the back yard this summer with a row of about 30 all started from cuttings. They need trimmed now. I want to replace a few hollies with awful thorns, on the other side, eventually, and maybe all along the back. It looks like the rain is coming any minute, so I'm going to take down the porch Christmas lights now. . . Edited To Add: All done and put away. 3:40 pm ..It's raining. . . .