Still coming in like lion!

Welcome to March in Georgia! Saturday it was 64 degrees and the weather stations kept hinting at snow coming in on Sunday but they couldn't quite predict where or how much just that we could see a dusting up to 2 inches. I didn't quite believe them. Boy was I proven wrong! It started here about 11:00 as a very cold rain which turned to very large sleet pellets by 12pm and then the snow started and it didn't stop until a little after 11pm last night! We ended up with close to 7 inches of snow here which is really unheard of in one day (or really several for that matter!). And it was around 34 degrees most of the day so if it had been below freezing we probably would have ended up with around 2 feet of snow!

This is my barn at about 3pm yesterday.. it just kept snowing and snowing and snowing!
And here's the poor little blooms on my confused peach tree!

Golly and Madison seemed to have a blast in the snow.. of course they are wearing goose down ;)

And my Crepe Myrtle tree was getting weighed down by the weight of the heavy, wet snow. Luckily no tree casualities here!

And I couldn't resist building a snow chicken! Now tell me that isn't a piece of art?! ;)

Hope you're staying warm and dry! We're forecast to be back up in the 70's by week's end so looks like I'll be going from snow boots to flip flops in a matter of days!

Coming in like a lion..

And it's not even March yet! These photos are from the tornado that touched down last Wednesday about 9 miles from my house. There were 10 reported tornadoes that touched down in Georgia and one person died. So I don't mess around when they say "Tornado Warning for Oglethorpe County" - this also has to do with the fact that I lived through a tornado in 1994 in Floyd County (where I grew up). Debbie (my pupper) and I were in the hall closet with our bike helmets on and yes we did look ridiculous ;). Dan was at a convention in Columbus, GA which is about 3 hours away so we were on our own.

I remember growing up and my mom pulling us out of bed and making us get in the hall with a mattress over our heads and sitting in the hallway at school with our heads tucked between our legs. Tornado warnings were a regular occurrence every spring and they always terrified me. It's one of the reasons I am now obsessed with the weather.

It really just broke my heart to see these huge, old trees lying on the ground. The house above had a backyard full of downed, large pecan and oak trees. They also had a glass sun porch that was shattered to bits and were missing quite a few shingles from their roof. I'm certain they feel lucky that their house is still standing. There was also some sort of shed in their backyard that didn't fair nearly as well.

This poor tree was HUGE. If I had to guess I would have said it was well over 200 years old and sadly it didn't make it through a direct hit from an F1 twister. There was also an F5 (the strongest recording on the fujita scale with winds up to 318 mph) tornado that briefly touched down in the next county over and completely demolished a home. Luckily they had a storm shelter under ground so the entire family survived. Scary stuff!

Get your bike helmets on folks and hang on - spring is on the way!

My Neck of the Woods - Strolling around the Lake

There aren't too many days that go by that I don't just sit and admire how beautiful the surroundings are out here in Oglethorpe County. If I could get a decent photo of the night time sky with all it's millions of stars I'd love to be able to share it with you but since I haven't had much luck with those pictures I thought I'd share some of the scenery along the way of the 3 mile loop we do around Lake Oglethorpe. Dan, Debbie and I try to get out and take our walks at least a couple of times a week - weather permitting of course - but I have to admit Dan and Debbie have been more consistent than me here the last couple of months. I'm so cold natured that even though I'm moving I'm still freezing! Now during the spring and summer months we were going nearly every day. And I need to get back at it - all that holiday chocolate is starting to catch up with me! ;)

But here was our first stop on our walk yesterday. This is our neighbor's horse, Doc. At least that's what I think his name is. Although I've been introduced to him before they have several horses and I am TERRIBLE at remembering names and feel bad about asking "Now tell me his name again for the 5th time". So I'm going out on a limb here and saying this is Doc. If it isn't then the tiny little red horse in the background is. ;)
This is Lake Oglethorpe. It's a beautiful 80 acre lake that doesn't allow any boats with motors bigger than 4 horse power so it's always nice and quiet. And it's also where we stop to take a swim during the summer months when we're all equally sweating profusely from the 90 degree plus heat! Even though it was only 60 degrees yesterday Debbie was hot enough that she jumped right in and then got out right in the mud... I think she may be part pig.

You never know what you're going to see but today we ran into a flock of someone's Guineas that were running loose. On almost every trip we run into deer, bunnies and squirrels but we've also encountered beavers, a couple of otters, many turtles including an Alligator snapping turtle, foxes, coyotes, mallard ducks, Canadian geese, turkeys and the occasional groundhog.

And this is just an old abandoned shed on Mr. JB's farm that's at the end of our walk. I don't know what it is but I absolutely love old barns, sheds and houses. I always concoct these stories in my head about who lived there, what they used it for and what kind of animals they had. The older and more run down they are the more I like them. It also warms my heart to see someone restore these old buildings and bring life to them once again. I would love to own a piece of property with a big, old run down barn on it. Maybe one day. I'm pretty fond of my 6 year old barn too =).

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend!

My Neck of the Woods - Part 1 - The big city of Arnoldsville

I thought I might share with you each week little nuggets about where I live, my neighbors and any other little interesting tid bits that happen, have happened or will happen in "my neck of the woods". But before I introduce you to the neighbors I'll give you a little bit of insight about where we call home. I'm in one of the more rural (and older) counties, Oglethorpe, in the state of Georgia in a tiny little town called Arnoldsville. Population 336. I know our post master by name - Andrea, our mail carrier, Peggy, who has an affinity for my fresh eggs and takes extra special care to be sure my packages get to where they're going =), the county extension agent, Mr. Norman, is one of our neighbors and I think you get the idea.

The county itself was founded in 1793 and named after James Edward Oglethorpe, who as you may know was the founder of the colony of Georgia back in 1733. There are 5 little towns in Oglethorpe county - Arnoldsville, Crawford (our neighboring town which actually has a bank, gas stations, a Chicken Express and my favorite feed store ;), Lexington (the county seat), Maxeys and Stephens. We're about 75 miles east of Atlanta and about 15 miles east of Athens, where Dan commutes to work each day and home of the University of Georgia, where we both graduated college. We have no red lights, no gas stations, no banks. The one little restaurant we did have, Momma's Place, closed down about 8 months ago. We do have a little post office, a volunteer fire department, a few very lovely pre-civil war historic homes (one which happens to be our next door neighbor), lots of lovely scenery and that brand new water tower you see above. If I remember correctly the water tower was erected about a year and a half ago but the pipelines haven't quite made it out to where we are yet. We still use a well for our water. But don't worry - it's electric ;).

Now that you have a bit of background on my neck of the woods I look forward to introducing you to some of the goings on around here in the next few weeks ;).