Tag: Georgia

The Traumatic Thing That Happened, Twins Run In Our Family And The Sitter Strikes Again

Back to our recent trip to Georgia a few weeks ago…

Here is a serene video of one area of the creek that runs through our property and it was taken about twenty five minutes before the almost life altering moment that I’d hinted at last week.

We had a full tour of the property via the UTV with D’Anne, Jana, Suz, Coach, Peanut and Biscuit. (BTW, we have special harnesses and straps to keep the girls safe in the UTV, the Frenchies, not my friends.)

Just Call her The Anchor

We ended the tour at the pond which has filled up nicely. A few months ago Coach had a ton of fish (12,000) brought into the pond from Alabama. There is even a feeder on a timer; it didn’t take long for the birds and raccoons to know when noon rolls around!

Coach sitting on the spillover, still in progress

Anyhoo, to the someone almost died part. The dogs were very interested in the Canada geese, and they were walking along the water line trying to get as close as possible with no luck.

Peanut then went to the spillover poking around and just walked off into the water, as if she were Jesus. I didn’t see her fall in, but my attention was grabbed as Coach said something calmly like ‘hold on, I’m gonna get you’ and he reached down for her, he was able to grab her in one swoop, but that girl was sinking fast. She came out, coughed a bit, shook the pond water off of her and looked at us like: What the hell just happened?

Coach: her eyes were huge, her little legs were moving, but she was sinking fast; that dog would make a great anchor.

My heart just about burst out of my chest and in that same moment I didn’t see Biscuit and I started screaming for her, thinking that everyone would soon disappear into the pond; luckily Biscuit was right behind me, wondering why I was losing my mind. My heart still pounds thinking about it all.

TWINNING

One morning, my Uncle Jim came over as he and Coach were going over to the property to check on things. I giggled when Coach came out of the bedroom and the two of them were in their respective matching Double L uniforms for the day!

Two of the best men you could ever encounter.

I Could Sit On That

I’ve shared before how Biscuit loves to sit on top of her sister; it happens daily. But what you might not know, is she doesn’t just prefer to sit on other dogs, she is an equal sitting opportunist and includes Humans as her seating spot. Occasionally, she will climb in our bed and splay herself on my noggin. It’s great. No really, it’s so comfortable for me. 🫣

This past weekend, she climbed the Coach and used the Coach as her perch.

We have the weirdest, non swimming dogs. Actually Biscuit could probably swim because she has actual legs and is fairly lean. Poor Peanut is built like a legless tank.

Has anyone ever had a dog that couldn’t swim? Never in my life did I imagine a dog who couldn’t….I mean, the type of swimming I do is called a Doggie Paddle!

XOXO

Fainting Goats, Flowers Galore, Sprayed Wine, Laughter Even More Galore

My amazing friend D’Anne, along with her sister Jana and I had been trying to plan a girls’ getaway trip for quite a while, but we could not come up with anything, which seems unimaginable.

Finally I said: We have dates booked for Georgia, why don’t you come spend some time with us there? It took them no time to book a flight and I felt like I had genius status for at least a minute.

The Coach and I were there for a few days before the girls arrived, but I didn’t make big plans for their visit as we tend to just roll with ‘how we feel’ and go from there.

In the four and a half days they were there, we visited Gibbs Gardens. (We have a thing for gardens, and this one is always evolving with the seasons)

Can you believe the size of this Snowball Verbena?

We also had a windy good time at a Winery, enjoyed an afternoon in Dahlonega, filled some garden bowls on our deck with flowers, worked on a puzzle, ate many meals, drank a bit ok, a lot of wine, *sampled Georgia moonshine right from our freezer, talked a LOT about everything under the sun, enjoyed the fire pit on a very dark night, ogled the starry sky, laughed more than a human probably should and had a nice long *adventurous tour of Double L Ranch on the UTV. Oh, and of course, D’anne had little gifts for me each morning, just like last time, as only a lunatic friend would.

My innovative way to de-callus my tootsies–FIRE

Say It Don’t Spray It.

I have to write this down, really for my own posterity. One evening we were enjoying a lovey dinner at a nearby restaurant; the weather was perfect, so we were seated on a patio. Our dinner was finished and we were just drinking wine and talking. I wanted a pic of D and Jana; they obliged with their lovely smiles, then they decided to make Fish Faces. We giggled, I showed them the result of the fish pic, right at the same time as D took a big sip of Cabernet. Well, hells bells, she laughed so hard at seeing the pic that she sprayed her wine across the table onto Coach and I. Well, mostly our finished dinner plates and some of Coach’s shirt. This of course, made us ALL laugh even more! You couldn’t have planned a spray this big!

D was beside herself, but we could not stop laughing.

Me: I’ve probably been sprayed by worse people and worse things!

A gift for the hostess. 🙂

All The Goats Faint

The Fainting Goat Winery is only twenty five minutes from our house and I can’t believe it took me this long to visit. The views coming from (and going to) are breathtaking. We had to pull over to take a pic.

It was crazy windy the day we visited the winery, but still, like loons we wanted to sit outside for the views. We had a little charcuterie and our small glasses of ‘tastes’ and every once in a while a gust of wind would pick up and we would all put our arms out to hold our glasses and the food/napkins/etc. It was hilarious. We thought about going back inside, but the thought of picking up all our glasses and snacks seemed like too much work.

I was so distracted by the wind, that I didn’t get to ride see the fainting goats up close. In hindsight, had we ordered a REGULAR sized wine portion, there wouldn’t have been a worry.

The wine, even thought it was from Georgia and not New Zealand, earned my snobby seal of approval.

Did you even visit a winery if you don’t bring home a few bottles?

We had such a great visit and I hope they return again; so far D has seen Fall and Spring at our place, but she’s not seen summer or winter yet!

*We had a bit of trauma/drama while visiting the Double L. I’ll share that story next time.

So, who wants to visit and join me for a tour of the winery, the gardens or just sample some local moonshine and call it a day?

(personally, I don’t do moonshine, but I don’t judge those who partake)

XOXO

Who Planted That, The Longest Meeting And The Prettiest Barn

Hello, it’s Me.

The Coach, and I along with the Frenchies headed to Georgia for a long getaway. Lest you think our long getaways are all R&R, sadly they are not. Back when we were deciding on purchasing a vacation home I thought I might actually get a vacation there. What was I thinking?! I envisioned ALL the relaxing and it’s merely another house to maintain! It might sound like I’m complaining, but I’m really not. OK, maybe just a tiny bit.

In my opinion, the only true vacation involves room service, dinners prepared for me, and no laundry.

To Quote Gomer Pyle: SURPRISE SURPRISE SURPRISE!

I consider myself fairly observant, so I was floored when I went out to our dog yard after we arrived and noticed this gorgeous yellow Azalea blooming. I DIDN’T KNOW WE HAD AN AZALEA IN THIS SPOT.

Where did that come from? I mean, I remember a little bush being there, but I didn’t know what it was, as I had never seen it bloom before.

Add in a flurry of tiger swallowtails, and be still my heart!

I was also super excited to see all of the blooming Dogwoods and pom-pom viburnum around our yard and elsewhere.

Within a day of arriving, I had the house full of groceries and made a big trip to the nursery to fill up the window boxes and large pots that needed updating. You might recall my Big Fall while updating the window boxes a few years ago so that task is solely up to the Coach as I’ve been put on restriction.

The Meeting Of Meetings

We had a few things scheduled for this trip and one was a meeting with our house builder and our designer, to iron out some details of the new compound house. Man, just typing Our Designer makes me feel all sorts of fancy and that we should be on an HGTV show.

Our meeting ended up being seven and a half hours long; mostly at our current house, but then we made our way to the actual property as well; still finalizing the driveway layout, dock placement in the pond, making sure we were happy with the views from our bedroom and kitchen, and the layout of the laundry room, as that is where I spend most of the time, don’tcha’know.

It was an overcast day, raining off and on, so the Georgia Clay was extra mucky and I refused to let the Frenchies wander into it.

WE COULD LIVE IN THAT

Coach’s Maintenace Barn is almost finished and she sure is pretty!

This barn will house his big equipment, but honestly, you could add in a little kitchen and bed area if you felt compelled and live there. (there is indoor plumbing)

My husband doesn’t know how to do things on a small scale and couldn’t half ass a project, he’s full assing everything, which can be both a curse and a blessing.

I’ve got much to share about this visit but that will have to wait as I’ve hit my (self-imposed) limit today!

Has anyone else been surprised by a New To You Plant in your space?

Could you live in a barn? On A Ranch? With Frenchies?

XOXO

Double L, A Full House, What Biscuit Wants & Could There Be A Positive Side To Not Having Morals?

You guys. Did you miss me? I’m home again, after a wonderful, people-filled Georgia visit that I want to share with you.

Wait, first hop in the Go-Back Machine to last month.

I failed to share that the we have an official name for the New Property in Georgia: Double L Ranch, after our girls. We even have an official logo, created by Lindsay’s beau Mike.

Coach went crazy just before the holidays and ordered enough merch for a lifetime. It looked like we were opening up a store in my office! What in the world? I might have had a slight fit because I was just about to start wrapping gifts on that very Merchandise Table. He quickly started sorting piles for family and friends, so I let it slide.

I could get a job at the Gap after folding all those shirts.

We spent nine days in GA with two separate sets of friends. Three were there for four days and they departed one morning at five am; at two pm, our next group arrived. I barely had the rooms turned over when Group Two entered.

Ok, I actually didn’t finish the beds, but our friends don’t care if they need to put sheets on their own bed and are missing the Mint On the Pillow. I’ve mentioned Don and Kelly a billion times on this blog; they came with their son, his future bride, their infant son, and their best friends who are also a couple; one who works as Coach’s Project Manager. The guys had plans to install cabinets in Coach’s Maintenance Barn, and put in a camera system around that barn. The girls had plans to do whatever we wanted.

I only went to the property one time, mostly because it was cold AF and it rained ALMOST the entire time. I don’t love cold and I really don’t enjoy Cold and Wet. Who knows about Georgia Red Clay? It’s messy on a good day, but a disaster in the rain.

Interior pic of Coach’s Maintenance Barn. This is where he will store his tractor, mowers, tools, etc…It’s pretty fancy if you ask me.

Speaking of COLD, on my very first morning there, Biscuit had a hair up her butt and wanted to go outside at 5:45am. It was SIX DEGREES. Not Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon, actual SIX DEGREES. This is why Dogs should know how to use indoor plumbing, for reals. But something might be happening inside Suzanne because I didn’t feel like I would die being in Six Degrees as I would have imagined. Could my skin be growing THICKER?

Anyhoo, the guys worked ALL day, everyday in the cold and rain. We went out to dinner one night, but the other nights we stayed in and ate comfort food. The kids brought all sorts of homemade stuff with them: loafs of bread, muffins, butter (literally churned their own butter) fish dip, pickled jalapeños, and jam. I kinda felt lame when I made a huge batch of white bean chicken chili and opened a box of Jiffy Cornbread mix to go with it. Are these Millennials the new homesteaders? Prolly.

Cue the photo montage:

Were the millennials & Gen Z drawn to the puzzles like a moth to a flame? You bet your sweet butt they were! They were surprised by this, but not me, I know the allure of a good puzzle on a cold, rainy day.

Sadly, our starving dogs kept getting a hold of puzzle pieces and ingesting them. I kept telling the girls to mind their shirtsleeves and boobs, because those four things can knock puzzle pieces off the table. I know this from experience.

Biscuit Needs A Child

Did I tell you guys that we realized a while ago that Biscuit is obsessed with children? She’s always loved my neighbors grandkids and will cry at the fence for them to come out and visit. While staying at the condo and taking her on walks, she would literally whine if we passed children that she didn’t get to say hello to. When the new baby visited us in GA, she would NOT leave him alone. She wanted to be on his lap, in his face, UP in his business. It was crazy. It dawned on me that I got Biscuit for Peanut, and now I’m gonna have to get a Child for Biscuit. It’s only fair, right?

Out Of The Mouths Of A Millennial & A Gen Z’er

The young girls cracked me up.

The youngest one, she’s only 23, was telling us a story about a girl she went to high school with, who is working as an Exotic Dancer. She explained that this friend was buying her first home that was valued at A Million Dollars.

She sighed and said: “I wish I had no Morals.”

I DIED! I’m gonna start using that quote.

The young Mama said to me: You’ve heard about hot girl summer? I’m gonna have “Hot Mom Summer; I’m coming in with stretch marks and snacks!”

That is perfect; embrace where you are in life!

Have you ever made your own butter or thought about doing so?

Have you ever regretted having good morals? I mean, you could pay for a whole HOUSE if you loosened up.

Should I get a toddler or an elementary aged child for Biscuit?