Tag: Georgia

Regrets, I’ll Have At Least One. Cows go Moo, SapSuckers Go Tap Tap Tap

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz38 Comments

December 2023 me is going to cuss the living daylights out of January 2023 me. The way I took down the Christmas tree, with all the lights hanging/dangling/hiding/tangled between each section was a crime in the making. But I just didn’t have it in me to untangle, remove and sort the lights as a sane person would. I’m going to be so regretful of my impatience next Christmas.

*We generally go to GA for Thanksgiving and when we get back home, I stress about Christmas decorating because I’ve generally not done any shopping or planning and decorating just adds to my dread. (reading that again and it’s evident that I don’t have my shit together; I swear I used to) I declared to the Coach that this year, I will decorate the house entirely before we depart for Thanksgiving.

Hey, when November comes, can ya’ll remind me of this great idea and can someone come help with the light situation? Pretty please?

SHE’S SUCH A BABY, The DOLPHINS COWS MAKE HER CRY.

Peanut finally had her first visit to the Ranch just before we came back to Florida. The Coach wanted to document the property via his fancy-ass drone before more work on the land was done. The Cows were mooing and mooing as cows do and Peanut the Bad Ass was growling, from the safety of her SUV.

A bit later, when we were walking or in the UTV and a cow was close, The Bad Ass started shaking and hiding behind me. She’s such a baby.

As we were venturing around the property, I was really enjoying the Winter look to the place; I mean, it’s not as pretty as when everything is lush and green, but the winter perspective is to be appreciated. There were gobs of blue birds and downy woodpeckers flitting about; I’ve never seen a downy woodpecker (of course I got excited) and I rarely see bluebirds, so that was fun.

Our favorite tree
A still shot over part of the property that the Coach captured with his drone.

MORE PECKERS?!

Back at home, I spotted an unusual-to-me bird in the tree outside my office window. I knew it was a woodpecker, but what in the Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors is it? After squinting my eyes through the blinds at least twenty seven times and then looking through my handy dandy laminated bird guide for our area that arrived with my AARP card, I realized what I was seeing was a Yellow Bellied Sap Sucker. THEY DO EXIST!

Again, I might have gotten too excited about this and what has my life come to?

Did birds exist before I turned 50? Most likely, no.

Although, I still have this memory from when Lindsay was in kindergarten, explaining one morning to her teacher that she was So Tired because the birds woke her up early. I was probably too busy to notice them.

Please tell me I’m not alone in my enjoyment of The Birds and especially The New-to-me Birds.

Are you embarrassed at how I stored my tree for the next year?

XOXO

Could Green Acres Bee The Life For Me?

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz37 Comments

I’ve put this off long enough as I’m pretty forthcoming with things around here.

*looks around at no other human in the vicinity*

About a year ago, the Coach decided he wanted to have some property in GA near our mountain home. We love the house and the ‘hood, but like all POA’s/HOA’s, you are required to follow rules.

My husband? Not a fan of all the silly POA rules.

He’s been pining away for some land where he can ride four wheelers, safely shoot target practice and pee outside. (men and women are an entirely different species. Am I right or amiright?)

When he first started discussing this, there was much eyerolling from my end. Yeah, whatever, you’re not going to do that. I mean, he has too much going on already; he/we can’t fit in another project, another piece of land to tend to, etc…

Well, he’s like a dog with a bone. He got my Aunt Trisha (our realtor) involved and we went from just looking at property to looking at property where we could possibly build little VRBO rentals and let the Kid’s homestead the property in various ways, while the Coach had room to ‘play’. We’d looked at several places, all around 15-20 acres and nothing really spoke to him.

Post Thanksgiving where my family watched YouTube videos about building VRBO’s, building a lake, growing mushrooms and raising hairy cows. *sigh* My Lillie on Coach’s lap.

Finally, a piece of land, not only spoke to him, it practically shouted his name. Crazily, the mouthy property was not for sale. It was a lovely sprawling pasture across the road from a place we’d just looked at. It caught his eye and he couldn’t let it go.

About three days later…

Insert yourself in the car with my Aunt, Uncle and Coach one afternoon looking at potential properties.

Coach: Well, I emailed and called Nancy SuchandSuch, she currently owns the property at 123 perfect place road. She’s an educator at a university in Michigan. This was her Daddy and StepMom’s house; her Dad built in in 1984 so he could get away from City Folk. Her Dad passed away in 2015; she comes here one or two times a year. Yada Yada….

I looked at him sideways…what a SLEUTH!

Nancy flat out told him it wasn’t for sale.

My husband LOVES a challenge as much as I love old trees.

Fast forward six months later, he wore her down with a generous offer and we closed on the property in October. Ya’ll, it’s eighty eight acres. 88!

But wait, there’s more!

A neighbor caught wind of the sale and offered the Coach another 25 acres attached and of course my husband took him up on that.

We’re the proud owners of 113 acres in beautiful NW Georgia.

There are rolling hills, old trees, amazing views, a beautiful creek and the property backs up to State conservation land.

Let’s talk about the 1980’s house that has not seen one update. This is the side/front view.

Lolo was a fan of the shag carpet and the outdated kitchen. (can you see the Gems we found in the kitchen, but the owner would not include in the sale?)

Me: I think if we paint the brick white and paint all the trim a dark gray/black, the outside has potential.

Lolo: Don’t you dare go and Joanna Gaines’ this house!

By golly, I’ll Joanna Gaines whatever I want!

We’ve named the property Double L Ranch after our girls; signage is in the works.

I think the Coach might have had hopes of moving to this property, but that won’t work for me. I’d be too isolated and that’s not what I want in my future. We’ve lived on a large piece of property for 25 years (our Florida place) and I’m happy to now have neighbors at our GA place.

The lovely thing is that this piece of property is 12 minutes from our current POA home. The kids have all picked out areas where they will want to build a place one day and then, maybe then if they are there with their brood, I could be convinced to move to the Family Commune.

Right now part of the land is leased to a gentleman who has about 30 cows, but his lease is up this spring.

The Coach has already started plans on his Barn…which I don’t think you can even call it a Barn as it is something out of Architectural Digest. And he has dreams of raising some of these one day. (as pets, not for food)

He’s also slated to start building a large lake as well to attract even more wildlife. Right now there are a plethora of deer, bear and birds.

A few months ago, Lolo and Nathan were ready to leave Law Enforcement, move to the old 80’s house and start a new endeavor, but Lolo has just been promoted and has some new exciting things happening in her career that she’s always wanted to do, so they will wait.

Meanwhile, if you want to find me, I’ll be in my cozy POA ‘hood and my husband will be at the Ranch peeing outside.

What say you: would you prefer to live on a vast piece of land with no other humans, or in a ‘hood?

XOXO

Welcoming 2023, Getting Close And Personal With The GA Healthcare System And Learning Something That’s Probably Common Knowledge.

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz35 Comments
Peanut writing her first blog post for 2023.

The Coach and I rang in the new year at our place in GA. We’d arrived on the Wednesday prior along with my Brother In Law. We didn’t have much planned aside from relaxing for me, and *some projects for the husband.

{*My post later this week will cover what the projects pertain to–I’ve been holding out on you!}

We were supposed to fly out around 3pm, but we had some delays and finally took off shortly before sunset. This is the benefit of flying later:

A few weeks ago the Coach started having some stomach issues and was worried it might be a flare up of diverticulitis which has ailed him a few times. He ended up in major pain, but by the time he got to the emergency room it had slowed down a tad which was good because the ER was packed and it appeared he’d wait all day for care, so he came home and waited it out. The next day, he was a bit better and carried on like normal, ignoring the aches.

The 30th of December he again started not feeling great, and by Saturday the 31st, after conferring with Teledoc, he needed to visit the ER.

The Dr’s did an ultrasound to confirm either diverticulitis or a kidney stone and diverticulitis was the clear winner.

IV pain relief (fentanyl) and antibiotics were given. We arrived at the ER at 11:30 am and were back home by 5:15 pm; that included going to CVS and waiting 30 minutes for prescriptions and a forty minute drive each way.

The hospital staff were all so wonderful; it truly was an amazing hospital experience compared to what I’ve heard/seen from other places. The place was clean and every single person we encountered was friendly and helpful. (which is what we’ve found mostly of GA people; I’m not counting Atlanta people as GA people)

Saturday College basketball doesn’t care about your diverticulitis!

Aside from our successful visit to the ER, I’ve been enjoying myself with daily walks with Peanut, a challenging puzzle, reading, watching movies, missing Lillie and generally just enjoying the mountain views.

Oh, something fun that I learned this week. Peanut and I encountered a very large deer and she waved her tail at us like this:

When I got back to the house I told the Coach: NOW I KNOW WHY THEY CALL THEM WHITE TAILED DEER!

He looked at me like I was crazy. But really, it only took me 55 years to learn this about the white tailed deer because when the tail is down, it’s tan, not white.

Did anyone make it past midnight to ring in the new year? How about the white tailed deer…have you ever seen them waving the white flag at you?

XOXO

If This Rocker Could Talk, You’d Hear A Lot Of Cursing

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz41 Comments

My Mom has had this rocking chair since Jesus was a small child forever.

It was gifted to her when she was pregnant with my brother Mark by my paternal Grandma, the only Grandma I knew. If Mark were alive, he would have turned 59 this past September. This chair is old; Mom rocked both of us on it. In it? On it?

1966-Mark. I remember that little wooden 3 legged container/table. It held sewing supplies. 

1967- Suz enjoying a beer after a long day of being a baby. Probably not my first, thanks, Dad. Have we discussed recently what a dysfunctional childhood I had? See the rocker in the background? It looks like Mom changed the cushions from yellow to green. 

1972? My G’ma, Mark and myself and my G’ma’s dog. Goodness, Mom has the decorating bug: She added paneling to this wall and a mantle. Do you remember having the Rick Rack trim on stockings?

1976? My parents are now divorced and this is my soon-to-be stepmom and step-sister. It was Christmas Eve, and we were at my Mom’s house because my Paternal Grandparents spent Christmas with us. I distinctly remember my father giving Mary her engagement ring on this night. At my Moms house. Ya’ll, we put the FUN in dysFUNctional! I should write a book. Or at least a pamphlet. I did (and still) love Mary and my step-sister, but they had the worst freaking nine year marriage. The police were involved quite a bit, and always around the holidays. {Merry Christmas, here’s a restraining order!} See the Rocker? Looks like Mom found gold cushions this time. 

I got off-topic. This Chair Gets Around. 

My Mom held onto that rocker forever and talked about painting/refinishing it a few years before she passed away. We moved it from her place in Georgia to our home in Florida, and we held onto it; I pictured myself rocking grand-babies in it one day. 

We brought it up to Georgia when we first moved into our house in 2020. Once it was there, I said: I’d really like to paint it. 

The Coach agreed and said we should bring it back home, and we could have the Custom Cabinet Painting department (which he was just putting together in our shop) paint it for me; much better than me trying to DIY. 

So, it went back to Florida (again) and sat in our garage for two years because the Custom Painting Dept. was flooded with work, and painting the chair was put on the back burner. 

A few months ago, I decided to take matters into my own hands and inquired with a custom furniture painter in our area about the chair. His price was fair, but he wanted to charge me $400 to pick up and deliver. I was shocked at the delivery price so I vented to the Coach, and he said casually: 

Why don’t you have our shop paint it? 

My eyeballs rolled so hard into the back of my head that I almost fainted. 

DOES ANYONE ELSE WANT TO OCCASIONALLY SHANK THEIR AMAZING HUSBAND? 

I’d been in the shop a few weeks prior and noticed a beautiful cabinet job in the process; it was painted the most remarkable dark, flat color, and I was drawn to it. 

Coach took the rocker to work the next day, and I had it back in a week. Mom had talked about painting it white, but I’m more of a black girl; although I usually identify as white. Goodness, you know what I mean!

There was a large crack down the side/center of the seat, but it was still usable. Our cabinet guys repaired it for me. I recall Mom saying that chair had been airborne at some point; my father had the absolute worst temper.

Is it dark gray? Is it light black? 

It’s SW Black Magic!

Coach’s Mom made me a nice cushion, which is so comfortable. Recently, I’ve been sitting in it near the fireplace, enjoying my morning coffee while rocking a dog.

Hey, I gotta start somewhere!

Fun fact: The logo on the bottom of the chair led me to do a little research. 

“S Bent & Brothers, a furniture company established in 1867 in Gardner, Mass. They closed in 2000. S. Bent and Brothers was known for producing well-made, high-quality furniture. They specialized in the style known as “Colonial Revival.” The two most common primary kinds of wood are maple and ash, stained to look like oak. S Bent & Brothers were known for their well-made chairs, especially Windsor.”

I found several for sale on Etsy and Ebay, ranging from $100 to $599.

Generally I refrain from having antiques in the house because they are haunted; this is the exception because I’m familiar with all the spirits surrounding this chair.

This chair has a new story to be told and it has many GOOD days ahead of it!

Do you have any furniture with a family history?

XO