Georgia Grown Trail 41/341

In April, our Georgia Grown Trail 41 Association had its unveiling of the official trail signs. This project has been in the works for many years now and with the help of a wide array of folks, it came to fruition. I am really proud of working with this group. Agritourism is very special to me and to see it positively affect companies and families I personally know right in my own county is so neat!

“The Georgia Grown Trail: 41 Association is a group of agri-tourism related sites promoting tourism on the Highway 41 Trail from the intersection of U S Hwy 341 and U S Hwy 41 just south of Barnesville traveling to the intersection of both of these highways in Perry, GA and all of U S Hwy 41 from the Barnesville intersection to the Georgia Florida line just below Valdosta, GA. Farm to table restaurants, wineries, you pick farms, and other agri-tourism attractions will be featured on this trail.”

The road signs are huge (some of the largest in the State) and very cool to see traveling down the road. Since I live right off of Highway 41, I get to see at least one or two every single day!

  

Although we had the ribbon cutting for the trail and the sign unveiling, the signs didn’t actually get placed until I was on maternity leave. I was so proud to see my first trail sign “in the wild!”

April Recap

Justin and I both took off the entire week of Wyatt’s spring break. We wanted to be able to get our yard back in shape after the mess left behind from having 37 trees cut down was just too much for us to handle any more. It turns out being 8 months pregnant doesn’t lend itself very well to bending over and picking up tons of limbs and sticks. Thankfully, Jake and Ben were interested in making some extra money so they came over and helped load two trailers full of stuff to be sent to the burn pil. And burn we did. Justin lit a few of the stumps on fire and even tried to get the huge burn piles to go up in flames. Apparently the wood is still too green because it didn’t burn like he wanted it to even with the help of the blower to stoke the flames.

  

The cleanup made a huge difference. We got everything edged, grass cut, walkways blown off, and the yard was brand new. We still plan to rent a stump grinder but that will have to be later in the year when everything dries out.

 

Wyatt loved being at home with us in the yard. He managed to overcome his fear of my favorite rooster, made a coat rack for Georgia all by himself, and even helped Justin change out his brakes on his truck.

   

We took Friday and Saturday off to do fun stuff. We spent all day Friday enjoying Chehaw Park. We packed a picnic lunch and had a great time. It was their Native American Heritage Festival weekend so there were lots of activities outside of the actual zoo part.

On Saturday, we spent over 6 hours at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture at their Folk Life Festival. It was packed and I was so glad to see it so busy. We spent at least an hour watching the men operate the sawmill. I believe Justin might start to volunteer out there to learn how to run it. We got to see some turpentine distilling and even got small sample bottles.

           

Now on to two of Wyatt’s adventures. This boy is just too much!

Wyatt was in the sandbox playing and he said he was with his friend. I told him to come around to the porch and show it to me, thinking he got a chick out of the incubator. He told me he rescued his "best buddy rat" from the cat that was trying to eat him. I stayed calm enough to snap a pic and then called the cat over for his prize. Justin and I just had a ten minute phone conversation with Wyatt about the circle of life and how the cat doesn't eat bagged food but that he hunts rats, frogs, and lizards and that we can't play with rats. He is very distraught because he named this rat and it was his best buddy. I'm not prepared for this part of boy mama-hood.

  

He also packed his own lunch one day:

When your 4 year old packs his own lunch...in a Thirty-One casserole carrier. Luckily I checked before we left the house.

Our last big event in April happened without me knowing anything about it: ON PURPOSE.

I had the biggest surprise for my 30th birthday (actual birthday in two weeks).  A co-worker accidently exposed a plan for Justin to host a surprise party for me on April 16. After the "surprise" party was ruined, Justin cancelled it and went to work that morning...or so I thought. Turns out they stuck with the original plan and got me so good! I am so blessed to have been surrounded by family and friends that mean so much to me. It was a wonderful way to see how very loved I am! I should have gotten a big giant group pic of everyone but I didn't think about it.

 

      

First Fun on the Farm 2015

The Cook/Mastrario/Mathis family made our first trip of 2015 out to Calhoun Produce for their spring Fun on the Farm. We had a blast! Justin and Daddy weren’t able to make it but I think it was a wonderful way to spend the day.

 

Pax got to sit on the bouncy horse with his Aunt Sami’s help and then promptly fell asleep on the wagon ride when we were looking at the animals. The farm has lots of new babies around this time of year including a three week old llama!

 

We picked lots of fresh strawberries and I have been eating them all week! It’s still early in the season so I had to refrain from picking all of them. They don’t ripen after they’re picked. I imagine mid-April will be perfect for picking jam berries so I can restock my strawberry preserves stockpile.

Wyatt’s favorite part of visiting Calhoun Produce is by far the pig races. Baby piglets race around a small track with the promise of Oreo cookies for finishing. Wyatt’s purple pig won the race so he got a pig nose.

After all the fun, we finished up our time at Calhoun’s with chicken salad croissants, pimento cheese sandwiches, and strawberry bars, paired of course with strawberry slushes!

I love the Calhoun family; they’re always smiling and welcoming. This is a great way to spend time with kids. They really get the chance to run and play and see how things grow in South Georgia. I can’t wait until our next visit.

Fun in South Georgia

 

I had the opportunity to travel in South Georgia for work and came across this adorable store in Bainbridge called Maiden South. These women renovated an old hair salon and made it into the most unique boutique shop that features artisanal goods from makers all across the South. I snagged up this beautiful print for my Georgia gallery wall.

Last weekend, my mama and I took Wyatt and my nephew Liam to see the Cat in the Hat at the Tift Theater. I was a little weary of the timing—it was 2:00, which is prime Wyatt nap time. It was a short play and the boys loved it. Walls of Books, a local bookstore, was selling hardback copies of the Dr. Seuss book and all of the cast members signed the boys’ books in character. It was great fun!

 

After the play, I went back to Mama’s house and played on her Silhouette Cameo. I abide by Reese Witherspoon’s saying, “If it’s not moving, monogram it.” Mama bought the Vine monogram font that I’m partial to so I whipped up a new gold monogram for my car and a few extras for my iPad and laptop. I can’t wait to do more projects on it! I think I’m gonna be spending a fortune on vinyl and heat transfer vinyl in the future!

Loving Work

Somehow I managed to secure what I like to think of as the best job in the world. Well, at least one your get paid for of course! I get to work with great folks, cool companies, and right here in my favorite state—Georgia! Folks seem to like to hear about my job and see the things I get to see on social media. I’m glad to share how awesome Georgia agriculture is to them!

I was able to bring Wyatt with me to our Georgia Grown Farmers Market Showcase in Moultrie. I don’t know who sent me good juju or prayed really hard or what, but I tell you Wyatt was almost 100% pure angel. He had a big bag full of toys to keep him occupied, he had snacks and way too much Coke, and he was able to be entertained chasing down the bean bags for the corn hole game. He was really proud of his new red Georgia Grown t-shirt and eventually changed into it. I think it made an impact on him. Every time we see a product in the grocery store with our Georgia Grown logo on it, he says, “Mama! I helped there!” Around 2:00, it was obvious he needed a nap. The rain had come and gone and things were wrapping up quickly so we called it a day. I’m glad he can see fun events like this and associate it with my job. I sometimes think Justin has the “fun” recognizable job—what little boy DOESN’T want to be a firefighter?

 

I toured a new grass-fed cattle, sheep, and goat operation that is hoping to ramp up its agritourism efforts. This is the neatest place and only a few miles from Mama and Daddy’s house!

 

I was able to tour Meriwether County and visit with some peach farmers and other diversified ag operations. We ate at the Blackbird Café in Woodbury (the real one—a certified zombie-free zone!) that had the coolest decorations. An entire section of wall was covered with old painted doors and they had really neat glass insulator lighting fixtures.

 

Meriwether County is also home to the longest and oldest covered bridge of its style. I can just imagine Sami would love to snap some photos here!

I also visited Cane River Vineyard and helped spread the massive list of Georgia Grown products we have gathered up. They want to carry Georgia products in their store right off the interstate in Byron.

Finally, at a Georgia Grown: 41 Trail Association meeting held at the Go Fish Education Center, we got a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility. If you haven’t been, you should really check it out. It’s really cheap ($5 for adults and FREE for kids under 12!!!) but if you can’t swing the entry fee, check out passes from your local library!

 

Stone Mountain

 

A few weeks ago, the entire Mastrario/Mathis/Cook clan (minus Daddy) went up to Stone Mountain. I have been dying to see the laser show for years now. It’s been since I was probably 12 or 14 that I’ve seen it. We got family day passes (get the Adventure Pass Meal Deal- it’s worth it to have free drink refills all day long!) and rode the train, took the sky tram to the top of the mountain (despite David’s deathly fear of heights, he did pretty okay!), and rode the Ducks!

The amphibious boat/car ride was the highlight of the boys’ day. We all got quackers and were encouraged to quack as much as we wanted.

 

Wyatt and Liam even got to captain the boat in the middle of the lake for a bit. It was really neat that the captain let each and every single kid take a turn.

  

By the time we got to the top of Stone Mountain, it was quickly approaching 2:00 and Wyatt was just about spent for the day. He barely wanted to smile in any picture. We were all hot so we headed to check into our hotel rooms and rest up.

Justin only got to watch part of the Georgia game since there was a rain/lightning delay. We headed back to the park to get dinner and watch the laser show. It was great! It didn’t seem to be as long as it used to be, but then what ever seems to be as good as it was when you were a kid? I am so glad we went and we all had a great time!