It seems that in our family, if any planned activity is successful and fun, it is immediately dubbed a family tradition. I imagine that our homeschool month here with Laura and the boys will become exactly that.

A very large tree fell across the street from a friend who decided he would find someone to bring it to us for milling.

We may be retired but summer here is not at all retiring or lazy. There’s just always something to do outside to keep up.

We’ve been watching the forecast all week and hoping for it to come true and after missing the first wave day before yesterday, we were excited to sit and watch the storm come through as predicted with all the wind and rain.

For most of us travel, has not been a big part of our lives during the past couple of years.

Most of my friends and family already know that I love fall, winter and spring better than summer.

I’ve long felt that January is my favorite month of the year. Unfortunately, it always seems so short.

Sharing is one of those things you supposedly learned in Kindergarten that should be a life skill you use all your life. 

Have you ever looked back on some small event that in retrospect was really a much bigger deal than it appeared at the time?

At the end of each month, I try to remember to go back through all the photos I took during the month and remember some of the days and events which sometimes seem so long ago.

Here we are in the midst of the late summer and with it comes the hottest of the weather we will have.  The last few days have been typical of summer weather in south Georgia.

All my life I have literally rolled my eyes at the thought of summer solstice and the first day of summer in late June.  It was June 21st this year and now that I have done a little reading on the subject, just a little, I feel somewhat better about it. 

“When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound I come into the peace of wild things.

Wendell Berry

After a long time of not having any out of town visitors, our long time friends, Brenda and Al, came to see us as they were making their way back to Dahlonega from Jekyl Island.

Not only is there a new spring season gradually arriving, we are definitely in a brand new season here on the farm.  While I have been completely retired since we moved here in July of 2019, Mike has still been working.  However, he is now also retired.  Sometimes, thankfully, you come to a point where you just quickly make a decision and then in retrospect, fully realize that it was very good timing. 

“I remember longing for what I now have.” Author Unknown

I actually just saw that quote on Pinterest. It’s rare that one strikes me as deeply as that one did. It’s a good thing to remember. We waited a full four years after making the definite decision that we wanted to move here before it actually happened. There are other times of waiting over the years that I remember well. Waiting is always hard and at some point you realize that as soon as you get the thing you have wanted for so long, you start waiting for the next thing, almost immediately most of the time. I guess it’s just our nature and that will never change.

We are Mike and Marsha Riggs and we live at Branch and Vine Farm in southeast Georgia.