Georgia Mountain Laurel August 2018 by The Laurel of Northeast Georgia

From the Publisher...

ass the beans & taters, it’s summertime! Slice those tomatoes and pull a fresh green onion before supper. I watched my dad do just that, and pluck a hot pepper from the plant to enjoy with his meal. Sweat just running down the side of his face as he alternated a bite of pepper with cornbread sopped in ham juice from the green beans. There is nothing better than fresh food from the garden. You will find many great recipes in this issue and info on local and regional farmer’s markets, wineries, distilleries, breweries, and restaurants who make Farm to Table a priority. We appreciate our farmers and enjoy the “fruits of their labor”. It’s canning season, and soon the apples will be coming in, the baskets of tomatoes and beans have either just been “put up” or are being done now. Porches across the Southeast will have baskets of green beans, grocery sacks sitting full of bean strings and ends, and bowls of freshly snapped beans. The family porch is a topic I wanted to look into a bit, so don’t miss that article this month. You might learn something you didn’t know or enjoy a sweet memory. What a fantastic summer we are enjoying. As I write to you, it’s a nice 78 degrees with the bluest sky and a slight breeze. We do hope you are finding time to explore the mountains, having fun with family and friends and eating all those fresh veggies that have been coming in. It’s August, turn the fan on, it’s gonna be warm! Blessings to ya! Tracy

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In This Issue On Our Cover 10

Stonewall Creek Vineyards

A Taste

On Our Cover Stonewall Creek Vineyards Photo by Rennie Marie Sneed - Wingdreamer Photography

he gorgeous image of Tannat grapes on our cover was taken by Rennie Marie Sneed of Wingdreamer. Rennie Marie has been featured on our cover in the past. Her photography is artistic in nature with vivid colors and often times layers of photography that create an image story. Her website www.wingdreamer.com offers insight into her story and shares her incredible portfolio. With seven acres of Vitis vinifera grapes, Stonewall Creek Vineyards focuses on producing dry European wines in a North Georgia mountain valley off Bridge Creek Road, four miles west of Tiger. Day to day operations of the farm winery is a second career for Carla and Carl Fackler, who landed in the mountains 14 years ago after 30 years in Atlanta. Their growth is astounding having gone from 150 vines in 2005 to 5,000 vines today and from 60 cases of wine produced in 2012 to 850 cases of wine and counting! They initially grew grapes for Tiger Mountain Vineyards before officially opening Stonewall Creek Vineyards in 2011. The setting is pristine, and the award-winning wine is a favorite across the region. The farm winery has been the setting for many special events and a soon-to-be aired HGTV episode, but most recently for one of the Fackler’s sons who was married on the farm. Carl and Carla invite you to visit their tasting room at the winery or their second tasting room at InsideOut in Sautee, Georgia. This couple works hard to produce the finest quality grapes, all grown in Rabun County, and wines. “There is always work to do,” says Carl, “being farmers keeps us humble.” For additional information or to subscribe to their newsletter visit www. stonewallcreek.com or call to plan your event 706.212.0584. Stonewall Creek is located at 323 Standing Deer Lane in Tiger, Georgia 30576.

12 16 20 22 24

Dirty Toes & Fresh Maters Distillation & Fermentation Bon Appetit The Family Table Kitchen of Dana

Mountain Homes 26 30 34 38 40

Faces of Reeves Furniture Harry Norman Featured Home RE/MAX Featured Home Hiawassee Park Country Custom Table

Faith in Christ 44 46

R4G - Persimmon Baptist Church River Garden

Outdoors 48 50` 52

Adventure Out Paws 4 Life Hitt the Outdoors

Affairs to Remember 54

Mountain Happenings

Arts & Entertainment 58 60

North Georgia Arts Guild Around Back at Rocky’s Place Artist

Life & Leisure 62 64 68 70

By the Way Reeves Hardware Company Notes From A Southern Kitchen Lovin’ the Journey

Health & Wellness 74 76 77

August 2018

Live Healthy & Be Well Clearing the Confusion about Supplements Life Point Medical - Timothy Scott Beck, M.D.

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August 2018

Dirty

Toes and

Fresh Maters! by Tracy McCoy

It’s still Summertime in the South

abun County is the Farm to Table capital of Georgia, but Farm to Table is not a new concept. If you talk to most farmers, you’ll find they’ve raised their families and were raised themselves on fresh produce from the garden. The use of natural pesticides and less chemicals is a new and healthy approach to fresh food. Eating clean means unprocessed food in its most natural state and it is so healthy and good for us. I, personally, am making that my goal. Look for me on the outside edges of the grocery store, at local markets where the produce is grown in my region, and enjoying the freshest food I can find. More than ever, from the fast food restaurants to the elite gourmet eateries, food is getting fresher.

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While apples in a bag is a step up from greasy fries, it is still a far reach from a fresh cut apple. Still yet the trend is “let’s eat better food”. Local food goes beyond produce to meat. Raising your own beef or pork or purchasing it from a known source alleviates some of the concern over what the animal has been fed or what it has been subjected to as far as steroids, hormones, and antibiotics. I can tell you that Springer Mountain chicken tastes better than some of the others. Local restaurants like Fortify in downtown Clayton feature this chicken on their menu. Many restaurants in and around the area get their ground beef at Andy’s Market or other local markets where the beef is ground daily. This makes a vast difference in taste and freshness, and it’s what I want as a consumer. Fruit from u-pick blueberries to apples and peaches are grown on local farms. All are excellent additions to a fresh salad or as dessert after your meal. Again, many of our local restaurants have added these locally sourced products to their entrees and desserts. This demand for fresh ingredients in our homes and restaurants has increased farming in the region. Community gardening is another exceptional concept that has risen from the healthier food movement. For condo or apartment dwellers, or those who don’t have an ample space for growing their food, community garden space has been provided. The Old School Garden in Rabun is a perfect example. Space is provided for those who wish to plant and harvest fresh vegetables and fruit, and the requirement is that a percentage of their take is donated to feed those less fortunate. Which brings me to the Food Bank of North Georgia, serving 14 counties in the region. Founded in 1992, this not-for-profit business is dedicated to ending hunger in North Georgia. In it’s first year it distributed 350,000 pounds of food to 36 agencies who put it in the pantries of local households. Since then, the growth has been astounding. Today it distributes millions of pounds of food through more than 200 partner organizations. Feeding the masses, educating children and families on how to shop, where food is available, and how to prepare it is a formidable task that takes many volunteers and people dedicated to the end goal. Today one does not need acres to enjoy gardening. Backyard gardening, raising chickens for fresh eggs, planting in pots or hanging baskets on decks even works. There is such satisfaction in eating what you’ve grown and the health benefits of fresh whole food is bountiful. I have pink lemonade blueberries growing a dozen or so feet from the porch. As they get ripe I pluck them off the bush and eat them. This eliminates the temptation to make a cobbler which could lead to buying ice cream and cool whip, oh mercy! We are so fortunate to live in the “country” where this is a way of life. Nothing in the world is better than fresh corn on the cob, green beans, sliced tomatoes, fried okra, or squash and a piece of cornbread. This is a southern summer meal. Anticipation builds as the soil is turned in early spring and seed hits the ground or plants are tenderly placed. The harvest begins to come in during July and August. Canning and freezing fruits and veggies are underway and fresh and local is in the forefront of our minds. This season of food is the perfect time to show love to others by sharing your harvest. My family has always planted more than they could eat, allowing for others to enjoy. From potatoes to beans and beyond… eat your veggies, get some sunshine, sweat, and mix it all with dirt between your toes. It’s still summertime in the south. gmlaurel.com

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Dining Drinks

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Information and Location of Our

Distillation and Fermentation Destinations by Peter McIntosh

or many years now, northeast Georgia has been known as wine country with award winning vineyards serving up tasty reds, whites, and rose’s all across our corner of the state. (I’ll have more about our vineyards at the end of the article.) But times, and laws, are changing and now we have a couple of highly regarded local microbreweries to visit as well as a pair of award winning distilleries. Let’s start with the distilleries, both located in Rabun County, one in Clayton and one in Dillard. Clayton is the home of Moonrise Distillery, founded in 2012 by James Henry Harris, a retired chemist/ scientist who is owner, master distiller and chief tour guide. Jim, as his friends call him, will be happy to show you around and offer you a sip of his fine wares. Both the James Henry Bourbon and the James Henry Rye earned high ratings from The Tasting Panel magazine, a go-to trade publication for industry professionals. Getting The Tasting panel folks to notice them speaks volumes about the quality of Moonrise Distillery. The distillery also makes a legal version of moonshine called “Corn Squeezin’s” if you’re looking for some thing with a link to our mountain’s rich history of making untaxed liquor. Just up the road in Dillard is the R. M. Rose Distillery. Before the Civil War, R. M. Rose was a nationally recognized whiskey maker, one of the finest in the land, but when prohibition came, their doors were shuttered and once alcohol was legalized again, the family had moved on to other enterprises. The folks in Dillard have revived the name and are dedicated to producing a nice line of bourbons and

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201b Beverage

flavored whiskeys. My personal favorite is a cinnamon whiskey called “Fire on the Mountain”. Yummy! And like their neighbors at Moonrise, the R. M. Rose Distillery has also been honored with national awards. Stop by and see Melissa or Tim for a tour and tasting. Now who’s ready for a cold one? And by cold one I mean beer, hand crafted, fresh made, and delicious. Both of the microbreweries I’m describing, Currahee and Lazy Hiker, are located just across the state line in Franklin, NC. Currahee Brewing Company is located alongside Little Tennessee River, just across from the Little Tennessee Greenway hiking and biking trail. So you could take a hike and then have a beer. Not a bad plan, and maybe we’ll do that this fall in an Adventure Out Article. Back to the beer. Currahee has a few brews that are almost always available and a rotating list of specialty beers the brewmaster dreams up. On my visit, I enjoyed a Burningtown Belgian Amber, rich, full-bodied, and delicious. They have brews for every taste: heavy, light, sweet, bitter. And if you want some food with your beverages, both Currahee and Lazy Hiker have a food truck on the premises, good food trucks by the way. And both Currahee and Lazy Hiker offer tasting flights, a small sampler of five different beers selected by you, to match your palate with the perfect brew. The Lazy Hiker Brewery is on the west end of downtown Franklin and they, too, offer a wide variety of frosty delights. At the Lazy Hiker, I sipped on a Trail Mate Golden Ale, slightly hoppy with a nice aroma and a smooth finish. The Lazy Hiker also has a music stage on their lower level, offering live entertainment on weekends and special occasions. And just so you know, these vineyards, distilleries, and breweries all have a lot of cool hats, t-shirts, and other souvenir items that might make great gifts. So take a trip and have a sip, just do so responsibly please. Most all of Georgia’s wineries can be found on this website: www.georgiawine.com That’s my photo on the opening page by the way. My favorite area wineries, in no specific order, are: Twelve Spies Vineyard Tiger Mountain Vineyard

Hightower Creek Vineyard

Noble Wine Cellars

Crane Creek Vineyards

Stonewall Creek Vineyard

The other wineries are great, but these are my local favs. Continued...

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Destinations... Local Distilleries & Breweries on Peter’s Favorites List...

Moonrise Distillery:

www.moonrisedistillery.com 31 Webb Road • Clayton, GA 30525 on Hwy 441 just south of Mama G’s

R. M. Rose Distillery:

www.rmroseco.com 890 Franklin St, Dillard GA right next to the Dillard House(

Currahee Brewing Co.

www.curraheebrew.com 100 Lakeside Dr, Franklin, NC 28734

Lazy Hiker Brewery:

http://lazyhikerbrewing.com 188 W. Main St., Franklin, NC 28734

CHATTOOGA BELLE FARMS www.chattoogabellefarm.com 454 Damascus Church Rd., Long Creek, SC 29658

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August 2018

Bon Appétit Start Your Grill – Dinner is Almost Done by Scarlett Cook

s summer draws to a close, have the gang over and celebrate all the good things that summer has brought – don’t even think about all the fall to-do’s that are fast arriving! Enjoy a leisurely meal with your friends. And this menu will leave you plenty of time to enjoy the evening.

Mushroom & Swiss Burgers with Special Sauce Makes 4 servings 3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1/2 Cup mayonnaise Salt & pepper to taste 1 Tablespoon olive oil 3 Tablespoons finely chopped onion 1 & 1/3 Pounds of ground sirloin 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1 Tablespoon steak seasoning 1 Tablespoon olive oil 12 Small fresh mushrooms, sliced thinly 1 Tablespoon olive oil Salt and pepper to taste 4 Large hamburger buns 4 Slices Swiss cheese 4 Leaves lettuce Sliced tomatoes Vidalia onion sliced Combine vinegar, mayo, salt, and pepper in small dish and set aside. Heat outside grill (or grill pan to medium high heat on the stove). In a small skillet, sauté onion in olive oil for about 3 minutes. Remove onions. In same skillet, place 1 tablespoon olive oil and mushrooms and cook for 3 minutes. Remove from skillet. In medium bowl, combine meat, Worcestershire sauce, and steak seasoning. Mix in sautéed onions. Form into 4 patties and drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Grill burger until desire doneness. Just before removing burgers from grill or pan, pile mushrooms onto burgers and top with Swiss cheese. Turn off heat and allow the burgers to stand for 2 – 3 minutes for cheese to melt. To serve – place burgers on buns and serve with mayo sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, and sliced onions.

Spinach Artichoke Pasta Salad Makes 6 servings 1/3 Cup olive oil 3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar Juice of one small lemon 6 Ounces fresh baby spinach, chopped 1 Jar marinated artichokes, drained and chopped 6 Ounces Feta cheese, crumbled 1/2 Cup black olives, chopped 1/2 Medium red onion, chopped 1/2 Cup fresh parsley, chopped 1 Pound penne pasta, cooked, drained & cooled Salt & pepper Combine the olive oil, vinegar and lemon juice in the bottom of a serving bowl. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Onion Rings & Dipping Sauce Makes 4 servings 1 Cup sour cream 1/4 Cup chili sauce 1/2 Teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/2 Teaspoon ground cumin Vegetable or Canola oil 2 Large Vidalia onions – chilled (Your batter will adhere better if they are cold.) 1 Large can evaporated milk – chilled 1 Cup plain flour 1/2 Teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 Teaspoon paprika Salt to taste Combine sour cream, chili sauce, cayenne pepper, and cumin in a bowl and set aside. Heat an inch of oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat. Slice onions into 1 inch rings and separate. Pour evaporated milk into a small, deep bowl. Mix flour with seasonings in a pie plate. Dip onions in milk then coat with flour mixture. Fry in a single layer until golden brown. Place on paper towels to drain. These can be kept warm in a 200˚ oven.

Ice Cream Sandwiches Makes 4 servings 1 Cup shredded coconut 1/2 Cup chopped pecans or walnuts 1 Cup miniature chocolate chips Vanilla ice cream 8 Large (3” – 4”) chocolate chip cookies Mix coconut, nuts, and chocolate chips in shallow bowl. Scoop ice cream onto 4 cookies and top with a second cookie. Press so that sandwich stays together. Sandwiches should be about 1 1/2” – 2”. Roll ice cream edges in nut mixture.

CAKE

STEAK

SALAD

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The Family Table by Lorie Thompson t is August and it is H-O-T! This is a great month to send your husband out to the grill to cook while you stay inside in the air-conditioned house and make a beautiful salad to go along with supper. (At least, this is the way it works at my house!) If you send your husband outside with a great steak to grill, he will not mind!

on berries or alongside homemade bread. It was worth every dime! Treat yourself if you find it! The Beefsteak Florentine steak is a rich and hearty meal in itself. I enjoy serving it with a great salad, and this time of year the vegetables are so good! Garden veggies topped with a great dressing alongside this steak and some great bread add up to a fabulous meal!

I had the good fortune to travel to Italy a few years ago with a great group of folks from Rabun County. Sharing great food with great friends was a highlight of the trip. One of my favorite meals was the Bistecca Alla Florentina or Beefsteak Florentine. It is a huge Porterhouse steak, highly seasoned, grilled over wood and served off the bone. In Italy, sharing this meal represents strong ties and friendship. It is a great meal to add to your repertoire, as it is easy to prepare and delicious. Anytime I find the Porterhouse steak on sale, my family will have this treat!

I have a friend who gave me a subscription to Garden and Gun magazine. I read a recipe in it for a Green Goddess Dressing that is the best I have ever had. Of course, after making it many times, I tweaked it a bit to suit my own taste. Here is my version of the recipe: To a blender or food processor, add 1 C of Mayo, 1/2 C of sour cream, juice from one half of a lemon, 1 T of Dijon Mustard, 1 tsp of crushed red pepper, 3-4 anchovies, 5 rough chopped green onions, 2 garlic cloves, 1 tsp Kosher salt, the washed and cleaned leaves from a bundle of radishes and 10-12 basil leaves. Blend until creamy. Serve over a salad mix of your choice. This dressing is creamy, peppery, and very garlicky. Altogether yummy!

The Porterhouse steak includes two steaks in one; the tenderloin and the strip steak. You get the ultra- soft, inside tenderloin along with the very meaty and dense texture of the strip steak. Ask your butcher to cut you a 3â&#x20AC;? - 4 â&#x20AC;&#x153; Porterhouse from the large end of the loin. To prepare, remove your steak from the refrigerator 11/2 hours before cooking and season it. Give a hearty shake of garlic salt, and pepper, massaging the seasoning into the meat. Look for any natural separations or cracks in the meat and stick a whole garlic clove and a few sprigs of fresh rosemary inside. You can cut just a tiny opening along the bone area and put the garlic and rosemary in. Rub rosemary on both sides. Drizzle really good balsamic vinegar over the steak and then a drizzle of good olive oil. Do this on both sides of the meat and allow meat to come to room temperature. Grill over hot coals and a piece of hickory wood or wood chips for approximately 20 minutes. Check internal temperature with a meat thermometer when you believe it is near done. For rare to medium rare, cook to an internal temperature of 130 -135 degrees and remove from heat. Allow the steak to rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing. Your temperature will rise approximately 5 degrees after removing from the heat. There will be some slices near the edges that are more medium in temperature and toward the bone, the meat will be rarer. Serve table-side with the meat cut away from the bone and sliced allowing each person a serving from both sides of the bone. Homemade bread and a bowl of olive oil with a drop of balsamic vinegar for dipping go great alongside this meat. If you do not have good quality, aged balsamic vinegar, consider buying a balsamic glaze. It replicates the sweetness found in the aged vinegar. My souvenir from my Italy vacation was a bottle of 50-year-old aged balsamic vinegar. We ate it one drop at a time, served

A perfect finish to this meal is homemade Crunchy Pound Cake with fresh peaches. I have made this particular cake for many years and it is a favorite because of its fine texture and crunchy outside. It is very easy to make with only a few ingredients. Bring 1/2 cup of salted butter and 6 eggs to room temperature. Combine the butter and 1/2 cup of Crisco to the mixer bowl and blend. Add 2 C of sugar and blend until butter, shortening, and sugar are light and fluffy. This step is important. Keep blending. Add 3 eggs and blend. Wipe down sides and bottom of the bowl and blend some more. Add 1 Cup of plain or cake flour. Blend until flour is completely incorporated. Add 3 more eggs and blend. Wipe down sides and bottom of the bowl and blend until completely mixed. Add 1 more cup of flour and blend until completely mixed, wiping down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add flavorings of your choice. I am serving this with sliced peaches, so I added 1 tsp almond extract to this cake. Grease and flour a Bundt pan or Pound cake pan. Add cake to prepared pan and place in a cold oven. Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Check the cake for doneness at one hour by inserting a toothpick and see if the cake batter is dry. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes before turning onto a cooling rack. Serve this cake alone, with whipped cream, ice cream, sugar macerated fruit, or straight up with a glass of cold milk. Delicious! Enjoy these Summer days! Go swimming or sit on the creek bank with your toes in the water. Make a Beefsteak Florentine and enjoy strong ties and friendship with your guest! Believe me, you feed them this meal and they will be your friend for life! Enjoy these recipes with someone you love at your own family table!

Lorie Thompson is a REALTOR with RE/MAX of Rabun in Clayton, Georgia. She has spent her lifetime helping her clients find their place in the mountains. When she is not working, she enjoys cooking, camping, and spending time with her family. gmlaurel.com

August 2018

CREAMY, CHEESY, LIP-SMACKING GREATNESS by Tracy McCoy

e all know one, right? That friend, aunt, cousin, grandmother or sibling who everyone invites to the gathering in hopes she’ll bring that dish that everyone loves to much. You know the one that is gone if you aren’t at the front of the food line. Name the event and I can name the dish from childhood till now. Recently I talked with Dana Berry, she is that person, she’s always invited and her dish is openly requested. Dana always thought Macaroni & Cheese was rather bland, so she decided to spice it up a bit for her family. She took a basic homemade recipe and made it not just tasty but the tastiest! That is when she became the most invited guest and found herself perfecting her recipe. She heard again and again, “You should make this stuff and sell it!”. At that point, she just loved that people enjoyed her specialty. In 2012, Dana Berry decided to take a leap of faith and heed the advice of everyone who had eaten her macaroni and cheese and she began to put plans on paper to produce and market her product. If she was going to do this she was going to do it right! So a year of planning was followed by a year of product development and in late 2014 Kitchen of Dana produced the first small batch of their Macaroni & Cheese for the public. The operation started in the basement of Dana’s home. She began by placing her product in markets around her hometown of Cleveland, Georgia. Demand increased as did the locations who wanted to stock their freezers with this gourmet version of a traditional southern comfort food. In 2016 Kitchen of Dana moved into a larger facility that could fulfill the demand for her Macaroni & Cheese. Today, just four short years in, Dana’s signature product is available in 26 locations in 20 cities and towns in North Georgia and Western North Carolina. When I asked Dana if she loved to cook, she said, “no, I love eating really good food.” A mother of three and working wife she, ike the rest of us, wanted to serve her family exceptional food but with busy schedules that was usually a challenge. This was one of the reasons

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that she chose to start Kitchen of Dana. This is not a mass produced product, rather each batch is created by Dana and five part time employees. The wholesome ingredients are the same you’d use in your own kitchen and each pan is mixed by hand. The result is creamy, cheesy, lip-smacking greatness! The product line includes a regular Macaroni & Cheese and a newer gluten-free version. It is available in two sizes, small that feeds 5 – 8 and the large pan that feeds 12 – 15. Dana came up with another solution to a problem every mom faces and that is fundraisers. We’ve all sold wrapping paper, candy, popcorn, or candles. With catalogs full of products that are sometimes hard to sell. Dana set up a campaign that would allow non-profits, church groups or anyone else looking to raise funds to sell her product and keep a significant 43% of every product sold. She wanted to keep it simple, with one quality product that would be easy to sell. If this is something your group may be interested in a representative from Kitchen of Dana will come out and go over the fundraising packet. It is a deliciously ingenius way to raise money for great causes. So what other recipes are on the horizon for this dynamic gourmet frozen food company? Word has it that a vegetable casserole and a meat based casserole are in the testing phases. I know that Dana is certainly making a name for herself and her comfort food is becoming a favorite all across the region. To find the nearest retail location near you visit Kitchen of Dana’s Website. www. kitchenofdana.com If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to taste this cheesy goodness, watch the facebook posts for where the Mac Mobile will be setting up. You can follow their growth on their Facebook page and Instagram accounts. gmlaurel.com

August 2018

to take your house and make it home. Cozy comes natural and they just have the knack! So we thought that you might like to meet them before you even step in their door. So allow us to introduce the Ladies (and Gentlemen) of Reeves Furnitureâ&#x20AC;Ś Fran Reeves Rogers is the youngest daughter of the founder of Reeves Hardware Company. Fran received her education in Marketing and Interior Design at Gulf Park in Mississippi, and from there she went on to the University of Georgia and also trained at The New York School of Interior Design. She has extensive knowledge and education and has been in the business most of her life. Fran is classic. She is a beautiful lady with impeccable style. The foundation of the business, Fran is assuming a more relaxed role these days. She enjoys staying involved and has an abundance to offer. Reeves Furniture now encompasses three levels and has everything you need to furnish every room of your home and outdoor living space. She is so pleased and impressed with the young ladies who work with her and had only nice things to say about their professionalism and ability. Meredith Poss Thompson is the manager of Reeves Furniture. She is married to Yance Thompson and is mother to six children. She is an incredibly talented young woman who creatively balances home and work. She graduated from Victory Christian Academy in 2004, going on to Bob Jones University where she obtained her Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Degree in Health and Fitness. Meredith feels that her creative nature is something she shares with her grandmother, artist Mary George Poss. Decorating is something she has always enjoyed and been drawn to. Meredith is in charge of day to day operations in the furniture department. Much

The Faces of

Reeves Furniture by Tracy McCoy

he moment you step inside the door of Reeves Furniture in Clayton, Georgia your senses are ignited. No matter your style or what you are looking for, you will find it here. Each piece of upholstered furniture has been hand-picked and designed to perfection. The finest brands and manufacturers are on display in their showroom. You will also find every imaginable accessory, exceptional window treatments, fine art, indoor and outdoor rugs, and wall coverings. The interior designers on staff are an exceptional group of women led by Fran Reeves Rogers. They know how

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research goes into selecting each piece. American-made products are important to her and always her first choice. The store carries select pieces from local craftsmen, a mattress line manufactured in Greenville, SC, and Meredith selects brands that work within most clients’ budgets. She has a gift of making customers feel special and working to ensure they are pleased with their purchases. Meredith invites you to come by and take a look around. Rebecca McCracken began at the store the end of 2013. A 2009 graduate of Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, Rebecca went on to study Business and obtained a degree in Human Resources from Georgia State University. After college, she moved to Atlanta where she went to work for an Interior Design firm. She moved back to Rabun and was hired part time to wrap gifts for the holiday season. She has a distinct flair for creating cozy living spaces, which made Rebecca a natural fit for the furniture department at Reeves. In her element, she is great at looking over floor plans and offering insight to the home owner on what furnishings would work best. She enjoys going into the homes and helping place the pieces and accessorizing to create the look the client wants. She is very good with customers and is comfortable working with them. She puts their satisfaction first and is dedicated to making them happy. Rebecca is a foster mother to a very special little girl. Hannah Bleckley is new to the area, newly married, new to the store, but not new to interior design. Hannah is married to Dillon Bleckley. She was born and raised in Woodstock, Georgia and after graduating from high school, she attended North Georgia College and State University where she studied Business and Marketing. She has always been interested in decorating, something she and her mom shared. They loved to attend open houses and enjoyed shopping at Scott’s Antiques finding treasures for their home. Hannah loves meeting customers and making friends. She is warm and welcoming and a perfect compliment to the group. Hannah is impressed with the store and all it has to offer. Her education in marketing is also being put to use. She is assisting with the store’s marketing as well. You will just adore Hannah! The ladies of Reeves Furniture were quick to let me know that they could not possibly do what they do without the gentlemen of the furniture department. Joe Garrison and Justin McConnell are the muscle behind the operation. Joe has been with Reeves Hardware Company since 2001. He is a 1985 graduate of Rabun County High School and is married to Tammy Love Garrison. The couple has three children. Justin came on board in 2013 and is a 2005 graduate of Rabun County High School. Both of these men go above and beyond for their fellow employees and the customers. They are trained by Hunter Douglas to install their window treatments. The care with which they do their job and the measures they go to make them very special to the ladies of the furniture department. They are certainly appreciated. With the finest home furnishings, such an outstanding team of professionals to assist you in selection, ordering and, finally, delivering your products, what are you waiting for? Reeves Furniture is located at 16 South Main Street in Clayton, Georgia. They invite you to find and follow them on Facebook, check out their website www.reevesacehardware.com/furniture, and when you visit the store, you’ll know who to ask for by name.

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Professional Services

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August 2018

The Soque River Lodge:

A Destination Home by John Shivers

you’re not otherwise involved, there are nooks and crannies where you can relax with that new best seller by your favorite author, enjoy TV, or even catch a few extra Zzzzzzzz’s on a lazy afternoon. Outside you’ll find ample off-street parking very near the front porch, as well as footpaths down to the river from the spacious deck off the lower level on the back side of the house. This home is blessed with ample deck and porch space on both levels, including a private porch off the master suite.

f ever a home gave the impression that it was there first, then Mother Nature planted the forest and streams around it, the house at 427 Soque Falls Drive in Clarkesville embodies its seniority in ways both subtle and dramatic. With 17 rooms on three levels, the builder of this home crafted a perfect marriage of wood, shakes, stone, and slate to produce a family lodge that screams comfort, and bids you welcome from the very first glance. Sited on more than two acres, the home is located in the gated Soque Falls Community, and whether you’re seeking privacy, luxury, or even trophy trout, this house checks all the boxes. From its elegant but understated entrance surrounded by glass, the welcome mat is out for you to enjoy a lifestyle in this dwelling that delivers all that first appearances promise. Whether outside taking advantage of the fishing opportunities in your own 271 feet of prime Soque River trout waters, or inside in the kitchen designed with the cook in mind, life here will be one to write home about. And when

Neutral walls in a hue reminiscent of light, creamy butter, and woodwork in tones of dark honey are found throughout the house that’s finished in the earth tones found right outside the many windows that unite indoors with the nature that surrounds. Wide plank heart pine floors, rustic stone tile surfaces, some ceilings of tongue and groove finished in dark honey, and darker beams both define the rustic-chic interior, and play up the vaulted ceilings that give the space such visual excitement. In the kitchen, generous custom, furniture-style cabinetry and solidsurface countertops provide the backdrop for top-of-the-line stainless appliances including an oversize range and ovens, refrigerator, microwave, and dishwasher. The kitchen is open to the great room in the heart of the house and includes a spacious breakfast bar as well as a breakfast room tucked in around large picture frame windows that features window seating. Just outside is a covered porch, an ideal place to enjoy that first jolt of java every morning, while listening to the river waters making their music. A massive stone fireplace in the great room soars toward the ceiling, leading the eye upward to the railed stair landing on the second floor. Spacious bedrooms and generous closets are a hallmark of this home, and the baths with combination showers and tubs and solid-surface

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counters guarantee everyday living convenience and guest comfort. The rustic lodge styling and architectural elements that only enhance the design concept, create in this home a treasured haven for its owners and a destination for those fortunate enough to be invited to spend time there. With its open floor plan, master suite with soaking tub, terrace level family room with fireplace and billiards and a wet bar, and an outdoor barbecue area, this home has something for every member of the family. For additional information on MLS #8355709, contact Meghann Brackett, REALTORÂŽ, Harry Norman RealtorsÂŽ Luxury Lake and Mountain at 706-212-0228 or 70681870 and by email at meghann.brackett@harrynorman. com.

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August 2018

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August 2018

The Perfect Family Angle: In Black Rock Estates

by John Shivers

hen your address is 98 Winding View Trail in Clayton’s Black Rock Estates, your biggest dilemma may be where to spend your time. Do you enjoy the outside, with all the comforts of home and a killer view of southeastern mountain peaks and valleys? Or do you enjoy the indoors, with equal creature comforts and designer-inspired hues and elements?

What a difficult decision. But the good news here… when you hang the label “home” on this nearly-new house, it won’t matter which way the gavel of decision falls. You’ll be the winner, four seasons out of the year! Boasting more than 3,300 square feet, with four bedrooms and three full baths, this country-rustic house is ideal size for everyday living, or for hosting family and friends for holidays and special occasions. Ample closets, generous size baths, and vanities with solid-surface tops make for gracious living for two or several. Inherent to many rooms in the home are the majestic mountain views from this three-acre home site studded with hardwood trees, mountain laurel and rhododendron. What more perfect place to greet each new day on the mountain? Outside, the home is low maintenance with Hardi-plank® siding and stone and landscaped grounds near the house. Its

sage green exterior allows it to blend with the background, giving a sense of one with its surroundings. Pavers designate guest parking near the spacious front porch, and an over-sized three car garage provides protected parking for the owners’ vehicles. The porch on the back side of the house, immediately adjacent to the Great Room and the kitchen, includes a vaulted ceiling that opens up the spectacular view, a stone fireplace, and enough covered space for entertaining. You couldn’t ask for a more suitable place to relax with a cup of coffee while watching the sun rise over the distant mountains. Inside, neutral walls and stained woodwork and trim set the stage for a dramatic open living plan, anchored by hardwood floor that marries all the hues. But what catches the eye almost immediately are the many and various angles to the vaulted ceilings created by the exterior roofline. It’s almost as if the architect had a party with his protractor, but the end result is a feast of shapes and slopes and niches that are most pleasing to the eye. Tongue and groove ceilings stained in mellow wood tones complete the competition of neutral versus shape. In the gourmet kitchen, which is a part of the Great Room, distinctive custom cabinets, topped by granite and wood countertops, create a separate work space, while still allowing

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the cook to be part of the action. Appliances are stainless steel, and a tiered island with a breakfast bar on one side separates the two areas, and is adjacent to a dining area nearby. The master suite, complete with luxurious en suite bath with soaking tub and separate tiled shower, is located on the main level. Ceilings are nine-foot plus in much of the house, and along with the many picture frame windows, help contribute to the feeling that you’re one with the outdoors. Smoke and fire alarms are part of the home’s infrastructure, as is the carbon monoxide detector. A satellite dish provides TV reception. A spacious lower level family room provides still more space for living or relaxing, and is adjacent to another large deck. When you’re at home in this house, you’ll be comfortable whether you’re inside or out. This home is the best of both worlds. To learn more about this listing, contact RE/ MAX agent Gail Hopper at 706-490-2152 or her partner/husband Rodney Hopper at 706-490-0701, at the office 706-782-7133 or by email at gshopper@windstream.net and reference MLS#8415494. gmlaurel.com

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August 2018

This architect’s rendering of the lake side elevation of the independent living complex shows the apartments, each with its own view. (Renderings courtesy of Stegenga + Associates)

On the opposite side of the building, the second level is fully-accessible without climbing stairs.

Hiawassee Park Prepares to Expand by John Shivers

etirement is that special time of life when gears shift and the regimentation of many years gives way to relaxation and pursuit of different goals and joys. For many, the option of relocating to the mountains is a part of that transition. “Hiawassee Park Senior Living Community,” east of downtown Hiawassee, Georgia, nestled among the mountains, with front-door views of Brasstown Bald and Lake Chatuge, has proven to be a popular retirement destination address that’s about to get even better. Ground first broke for the current thirty-four cottage complex in 2011. It has proven so popular, a list exists of those wanting to embrace everything that mountain living delivers, within a setting of security and comfort. The grounds are landscaped, attractive, and offer quality living both outdoors and inside. Come late 2019 or early 2020, there’ll be more units available, when between sixty and eighty independent living apartments are projected to be ready for occupancy. Hiawassee Park is owned by Baptist Retirement Communities of Georgia, a division of the Georgia Baptist Convention, but it isn’t necessary to be Baptist to live in the complex. BRCG operates with a goal of providing comfortable, attractive homes and services for senior adults at an affordable price, enabling them to age in peace in these homes within a Christian environment. BRCG operates similar communities in Palmetto, southwest of Atlanta, and in Decatur. Designed to blend with its mountain setting, the newest and final phase of the build-out will be a lodge-style, two-story building. Because of its placement on the terraced site, each level will have a ground-floor entrance. With its resort-like architecture, the new addition will include both one and two bedroom fully-contained apartments. Each unit will have a full kitchen and a washer and dryer. As an added plus, thanks to the creativity of the architect, Paul W. Stegenga of Stegenga 38

+ Associates, each unit will have a view of Lake Chatuge and the mountains beyond. Depending on the unit’s location within the building, a balcony or lanai will allow for outdoor enjoyment. And while it will be possible to prepare full meals in the apartments, the new addition will also include a spacious and comfortable dining room located on the second floor of the building, featuring a glass wall overlooking the lake. Residents of the lodge, as well as residents in the cottages, can enjoy food coordinated by a national award-winning chef, while enjoying the view that changes with each of the four seasons. There are plans down the road to open the dining room to the community as well, because BRCG prides itself on the quality of the food it serves. Groundbreaking is set for October, and early in 2019, a model apartment will be ready for showing. Rental opportunities will be available to those looking to relocate to the mountains, but also current cottage residents who wish to downsize will move to the top of the waiting list. There’s a memorable retirement lifestyle available at 89 Hiawassee Park Drive, immediately off Highway 76, only about a mile away from downtown Hiawassee, the hospital and medical community, and shopping. Access to a unit at Hiawassee Park is a relatively simple process. Residents are required to be at least fifty years old, but with couples, only one must meet that requirement. They must have a sponsor within a reasonable distance and pass a credit and criminal background check. A signed physician’s statement and an entrance fee and security deposit completes the entrance procedure. Check out the web sitehttps://brcga. org/hiawassee-park/, and for leasing information, call 762500-2021 or by email at inform@brcga.org.

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August 2018

Custom Country Tables Farmhouse Style,Heirloom Quality!

orking with his hands is something Jeff Holcomb has always enjoyed. He enjoys woodworking and is very talented. Jeff is a native of Rabun County and he runs Carol’s Back Porch in Dillard, Georgia. It was there that he began Custom Country Tables. Refurbishing old tables, creating new ones using old lumber from barns, and combining the two, he creates Farm Tables. No matter your space, Jeff can accommodate your request. If you want a small table fitting four chairs or a long table fitting 10 chairs, he can make it happen. His style is fitting with the Farmhouse décor that is so popular right now. He creates tables that families gather around. Family is something that Jeff takes very seriously, and treating customers like family is something he prides himself on. He works hard to create exactly what the customer is looking for. Your vision becomes his and it is a family affair. His wife Brandie and his children are involved in the process as well, sanding and smoothing surfaces for their dad to finish. These tables are heirloom quality, crafted to last lifetimes, just like your grandmother’s table. In fact, they are much the same. Recreating her table or refurbishing it is something Jeff can do and enjoys. Most all of his work is custom, meaning that each piece is one of a kind. Tables are his specialty, but he creates benches, small accent tables, and more. Give Jeff a call at 706.746.6566 and set up a time to talk with him about your project or stop in at Carol’s Back Porch 1127 Franklin, Street in Dillard, Georgia 30537.

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August 2018

Remember

Homecoming

ne of my favorite events at church is Homecoming. Most people would assume that it’s because I like to eat. While that is a true statement, for me, Homecoming means so much more. Some of my fondest memories from church are associated with Homecoming services. I recall vividly the Spirit-filled singing and preaching during the service, followed by more food than could be eaten in 5 or 6 consecutive meals. The conversations would often include, “I don’t know if it is fit to eat…” or “Oh, I just threw a little something together.” No, you didn’t Mrs. Vera, Mrs. Jo, Mrs. Gloria (or insert any church “cook” here), you have been cooking for at least 2 weeks to come up with all this food! And yes, this likely may be the equivalent of modern-day manna! Not only would the food be plentiful, but good for the tasting! Bank vaults would be opened the weeks before homecoming where secret family recipes were stored and only brought out

for this special occasion. I remember one year at Flat Creek Baptist Church, there were more tables with food than there were tables with people, and there were a lot of people! I recall several years at Boggs Mountain Baptist Church, people would stand outside during the service because there weren’t enough seats inside. The Singing Christians would be ministering in song, then the preacher would preach, or a testimony service would break out. The Holy Spirit would move, and we would have church! Sometimes, it would be late in the afternoon before everyone finished eating. I remember the fellowship of friends around the banquet tables that were set up end-to-end. The conversations were loud, friendly, and abundant. I look back on those days with admiration, as the memories flood my mind...those were the days!

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by Avery Lawrence – Pastor of Persimmon Baptist Church Churches across the South have celebrated Homecoming for hundreds of years and it has always been a time to welcome back former members and pastors, and to celebrate the heritage of the church. While many churches still have homecoming services, they may not have the same impact and significance as they once did. Nevertheless, I always look forward to Homecoming. This is my second year at Persimmon Baptist Church and I am blessed to call this congregation my family. As a pastor, Homecoming has taken on a new meaning for me. It is a time for my family and me to meet a few former members and to celebrate the new members that we have been blessed with. From my eyes, I get to see the joy in my congregation as they present their finest cooking and serve the guests that may be attending. I get to share the Word and enjoy the music and fellowship. It makes my heart happy! As I pondered on Homecoming,there were several passages from the Bible that came to mind. One is of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-24). In this passage, the younger of two sons decided that he wanted his inheritance from his father while he was still young enough to enjoy it. His father granted his wish and the young son ultimately “wasted his substance with riotous living.” It wasn’t long before he realized just what he had left behind…a father who loved him and cared for him…a place where at the very least, his basic needs were met. Not really knowing how he would be received, the young man decided to go home where he was met by a rejoicing father who was glad to have his son back home. Many of us have been in the same shoes as the prodigal. We’ve left the comforts of the Lord, our church family, and the comforts of home, to try to figure things out on our own. It is after we have gotten so far away from our Faith, that we realize how much we need Jesus Christ in our lives! And, just as the prodigal son, we find ourselves headed back to our heavenly Father. I once heard a preacher preach this sermon as “Drop the pail, jump the rail, and hit the trail!” Luke 15:10 says, “Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” As a final thought, there will be a GREAT homecoming one day for those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. 2 Corinthians 5:8 says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. For a Christian, this means that when you leave this world, you will be in Heaven with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What a homecoming! Jesus Christ came to Earth and was crucified as a payment for our sins. He was buried,then rose from the dead after three days. Just before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He declared to the disciples, “that the repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations.” (Luke 24:47) Matthew 24:27 says, “For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” Jesus Christ made a promise to return to Earth and take his children home to Heaven. Salvation through Jesus Christ is not complicated and it isn’t something that can be bought or earned. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9, that we are saved by grace through faith and that it isn’t by anything we do or deserve. Salvation is the gift of God and salvation is for everyone. Romans 10:13 says “For whosever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” My prayer is that you will be there for the greatest Homecoming ever! gmlaurel.com

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August 2018

Adventure Out

Holcomb Creek Falls and Ammons Branch Falls

by Peter McIntosh

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t can get hot in August, even here in the mountains of north Georgia, and with that in mind, on this adventure we’re heading to eastern Rabun County to visit a pair of nice cool waterfalls, Holcomb Creek Falls and Ammons Creek Falls. Both cascades are reached via the Holcomb Creek Trail on Hale Ridge Road. There’s a Carsonite marker at the trailhead reading “more difficult,” but I don’t think so. There are a couple of steep places, but the trail isn’t very long, (less than half a mile each way, unless you take the loop trail) so if you take your time, you shouldn’t have a problem. From the trailhead, the footpath descends, gently at first and then a bit more steeply. It winds around some and then follows a ravine, descending on your right. There are a couple of short switchbacks flanked by some really nice Rhododendron. Just being this deep in the forest brings the temperature down a few degrees. After about five minutes of hiking, the trail starts turning to the left and soon you’ll start to hear rushing water. I love it when rushing water comes within earshot, it gives me a feeling of anticipation. A little further on and there on your left, above a small footbridge, is Holcomb Creek Falls. Hopefully the nice rains we’ve been getting will continue because when the creek is running strong, this is one terrific waterfall. But even at low water, it’s still very pretty and you can feel the cool air flowing along with the waterfall. The trail continues onward past the Holcomb Creek Falls, almost level at first and then ascends somewhat steeply. Make note of a trail marker on the left that reads Hale Ridge Road - 1 mile. Also along this part of the trail keep an eye out for a majestic Poplar Tree on your left. It’s one of the largest I’ve seen in this area. Now it’s a up a few steps and then you’ll come to an observation platform with built in benches. Another charming cascade and a great spot to enjoy a snack and wet your whistle. Unless you’re in a hurry, I suggest you return along the other trail you passed on the way up. It joins Holcomb Creek above the falls and follows this lovely stream back out to Hale Ridge Road. Once reaching the road, turn left and it’s about ½ mile back to the original parking area. The total trail length for this hike is a little over 2 miles. Happy hiking. Without further adieu, my August poem for you: The dog days come summer nears end,

But here’s a cool adventure to share with a friend. Deep in forest, under the canopy’s green shade, Holcomb and Ammons, two lovely cascades. Getting there: From Warwoman Road and US 441 in Clayton, go 9.7 miles to Hale Ridge Road (FS 7) on the left. On Hale Ridge Road, it just over 6.5 miles to the trailhead at the intersection with Overflow Road. (FS 86) To see more of Peter’s photos or if you have a question or comment: www. mcintoshmountains.com

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August 2018

Paws 4 Life

y name is Molly Keaton-Ledford and I have been a volunteer at Rabun Paws 4 Life since December 2016. I walked into the shelter to sponsor a dog and a cat through the shelter’s Guardian Angel program, a program in which adoption fees are paid for specific animals to help them find homes quickly. I was encouraged to volunteer and work with the animals, but was afraid it would be difficult to see the cats and dogs in the shelter. I left after sponsoring a cat, Carol. I got a phone call the next day that Carol had been adopted. I was so excited! I realized then the joy that comes with seeing the shelter dogs and cats find their forever homes. I decided to immediately start volunteering. I now spend most of my time at the shelter cleaning so that the staff is free to spend more time with animals that need attention. I also enjoy socializing the cats and walking the dogs when I am able. Volunteering at Paws has made my life better in many ways. I am a pharmacist, a job that comes with daily stress. Working with the animals at the shelter has helped relieve the pressures associated with work. Little things like brushing a cat or walking a dog can make a big difference in my day. I have made many friends (two-legged and four-legged) during my time at Paws. All of the staff members working at the shelter take great care of the animals, and I have been able to meet many more animal lovers by working at local adoption events and the annual Fur Ball. I have learned things about dog and cat care that I never knew before volunteering, and it seems like I learn something new every time that I work at the shelter. Of course, the best part of volunteering is seeing the animals get adopted. It is especially gratifying when animals who have had difficult lives finally find a forever home. One of the most inspirational animals at Paws is Deuce, a 1-year old gray male cat that has been at the shelter since October 2017. He arrived with a respiratory condition that eventually led to him losing

one of his eyes. Despite this, he has completely recovered and has no disability. He loves all humans and cats and is such a sweet cat. Deuce is looking for someone to love and would make a perfect companion! I am so grateful to the staff and board members of Paws for giving me the opportunity to volunteer. I recommend it to anyone who loves animals and is looking for an opportunity to help the cats and dogs of Rabun County. It truly is a lifechanging experience!

The Paws 4 Life Shelter is located at 261 Boen Creek Road, Tiger, Georgia 30576 and is open Tuesday – Friday 10am – 4pm, Saturday 10am – 3pm, Sunday 1pm – 4pm. You can contact them at 706.782.5422, website www.rabunpaws4life. com

Sponsored by

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August 2018

A BLACK ROCK MOUNTAIN HIKE by Joel Hitt

few weeks ago, 14 persons attended Georgia ForestWatch’s outing on Black Rock Mountain just northwest of downtown Clayton. We hiked the 2.2mile Tennessee Rock Trail. I especially was looking forward to this hike. It had been awhile since I had meandered around the summit of this beautiful mountain with its fertile cove forests. But it had been even longer since I had been on any trail with Patricia Krytzi Powell! Patricia was our interpreter for this hike, by whom we were assured of hearing much about the medicinal values of our native plants. Patricia is the founder and director of BotanoLogos School of Herbal Studies in Mountain City. She is established as a leading herbalist in the southern Appalachians and has international recognition for her achievements in this field. But Patricia covers much more than “this plant is good for that infirmity.” If anything, I would say she spent at least at least as much time describing the life history of plants we saw. And more time pointing out the unique ID features of each plant. I had forgotten what an effective teacher this lady is. I mean this not only in the information she knows about plants, but in how she shares the content as a field botanist. Invariably,

when she pauses to talk about a new plant for the walk, she doesn’t stand over the plant reciting its qualities. She literally sits down with the plant (and the surrounding leaf litter)! This is no lecture! Her voice remains both soft in tone but firm in how much she covers. Further, this lady gently caresses the plant parts between thumb and forefinger, embracing each part as she describes it: stem, leaves, bracts, pedals…her eye contact shared between the plant itself and those of us gathered around. The respect I saw modeled by our interpreter was respect for the plant world itself! When the hike was completed and we parted ways, I found that this respect our leader showed was contagious for me. I’ve been looking at plants a little differently since. Maybe I’m not quite talking to them yet, but I do linger more, and notice more about them! I’ve also been thinking how our native plants have been in residence, say, a few million more years than we have! It is from the plants that animals found their point of mutation into this natural world, after all. So that means that we are related to the plant kingdom in the most literal sense of the term! This kind of thinking is often lost in the notion we somehow “own” the natural world, to use and to use up. And with that, someone may be thinking, “Well, if men and women are using plants to crush up for their medicinal value, isn’t that acting like we own the plant world?” And the same could be said with our farming industry. Well, it could be, yes. But the actual state of mind here is a difference of kind. To describe the model in terms of forestry tree management, I would say we are not talking about clearcutting as much as we are selective cutting. A plant or plants are taken only if that action does not endanger the population of the species, or if it does not interfere with the ecological services the plant provides for other sub-systems in the plant or animal world.

Patricia briefs the hikers at the outset of the day. 52

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Addendums: (1) For an excellent example of Patricia Kyristi Powell’s “walk and talk” teaching style, here is a YouTube piece: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAhtk_ vT5Ys (2) References I may make here to “taking plants” or “using plants” do not apply to private citizens. We do not have permission to go out and remove plants from properties, publicly or privately owned, without the owner’s express permission. Black Rock Mountain has not been privately owned since the early 20th century. No plants may be removed from the Tennessee Rock Trail or any other location on Black Rock Mountain. (3) References to plants having medicinal benefits for individuals are not meant to encourage persons wantonly to ingest plant parts to “see what happens,” even if you think you know it is safe to do so. The field of study known as “Herbal Medicine” is a science practiced by professionally trained individuals such as Patricia Powell. She has a practice in herbal medicine, and anyone can make an appointment with her or another herbalist for a fee, to discuss use of plants for specific symptoms.

Suzy is excited by finding a good example of prop roots.

Mountain Happenings STEPHENS COUNTY August 11th and the Second Saturday of the month through the Summer Cars & Coffee Cruise In Miles Through Time Automotive Museum, Toccoa Info: 706.886.0721 Ida Cox Music Series Downtown Toccoa Info: idacoxmusicseries.com August 4th Thunder Gypsy August 11th Shoal Creek Bluegrass Band August 18th Milkshake Mayfield August 25th Reverand Tribble and the Deacons The Ritz Theater Toccoa Info: www.ritztheatretoccoa.com August 2nd Summer Movies at the Ritz: Black Panther August 10th; September 8th Southern Gospel Music HABERSHAM COUNTY August 4 and each Saturday through September Clarkesville Farmers’ Market Downtown Clarkesville Info: 706.778.9374 August 4th Habersham Heritage Festival Cornelia Community House Cornelia Info: 706.778.4654 August 17th Friday Night Live: Music on Main Classic Car Cruise In Downtown Clarkesville Info: 706.754.2220 September 7th - 15th Chattahoochee Mountain Fair Habersham County Fairgrounds Clarkesville Info: 706.754.2220

September 29th Agri-Fest Country Market Annual Pottery Comes to Town Freedom Park, Cleveland Info: 706.965.5356

August 2nd - 5th Musical - “Sweet Charity”

Sautee Nacoochee Center Sautee Info: 706.878.3300

August 25th Movies on Main: “Grease: Sing-along”

August 2nd - 5th, 9th - 12th Cheever, the story of folk potter Cheever Meaders

WHITE COUNTY

August 4th Blacksmith Demonstration

August 4th and each Saturday Live Music at the Pavilion Habersham Winery, Helen Info: 706.878.9463

August 25th Community Contra Dance Info: 706.754.3254

August 11th Cabbage Patch Tea Party Babyland General Hospital Cleveland Info: 706.865.2171

August 26th Bean Creek Choir & Friends September 1st Folk Pottery Arts Festival The Hollar Games

August 15th Taste of Helen Helen Festhalle, Helen Info: 706.878.1908

September 9th Classical Music: Susan Ottzen & Eric Fontaine September 22nd - Fall Talent Show

August 17th Off the Wall Fundraiser and Dinner Helen Arts & Heritage Center Helen Info: 706.878.3933

September 29th DeDe Vogt Concert Unicoi State Park Helen Info: 706.878.2201

August 18 Gold Fever Smithgall Woods, Helen Info: 706.878.3087 th

September 22nd Big Red Apple Festival Downtown Cornelia Info: 706.778.8585

Habersham Community Theatre Clarkesville Info: 706.839.1315 habershamtheater.org

August 4th and each Saturday through October Concerts in the Park

August 25th Crush Fest Yonah Mountain Vineyards Cleveland Info: 706.878.5522

August 4th - 5th and weekends through Ocober Visiting Artist Series August 4th - Lantern Hike August 18th - Stream Ecology

September 5th A Day in the Park for Veterans Helen Riverside Park & Pavilion Helen Info: 706.878.3933

August 25th Brand New Boots: Beginner Day Hike September 8th Night Paddleboarding

September 6th-9th, 13th-16th, 20th-23rd September 27th - October 28th Oktoberfest Helen Info: 706.878.1908

September 15th - Night Canoeing September 22nd Outdoor Adventure Day RABUN COUNTY

September 15th 2018 Georgia’s Spirit of Appalachia Food, Wine and Art Festival Hardman Farm Sautee Nacoochee Info: 706.878.1077

August 2018

August 3rd - 4th 22nd Annual Dillard Bluegrass & Barbeque Festival Dillard City Hall, Dillard Info: www.dillardbbq.org

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August 3rd - 4th 15th Big E Festival & Elvis Tribute Artists Competition Rabun County Civic Center Clayton Info: 706.201.8232, 706.782.3731

September 8t, 9th, 15th, 16th September 22nd, 23rd, 29th, 30th October 3rd, 4th, 10th, 12th, 17th October 19th, 27th, 28th Aesthetic Water Releases

August 4th and each Saturday Bluegrass on the Square Tallulah Falls Opera House Tallulah Falls Info: www.tallulahfallsgeorgia.org

Rabun Arena Tiger Info: 706.212.0452

August 4th and each Saturday The Clayton Farmers’ Market NE GA Food Bank, Clayton Info: 706.782.0780

August 12th; September 9th, 22nd Barrel Racing Exhibition

August 4 and the first Saturday of the month Historic Gristmill Demonstration Hambidge Center, Rabun Gap Info: 706.746.7324 th

August 11th Rhapsody in Rabun Rabun County Civic Center Clayton Info: www.rhapsodyinrabun.com August 11th, 18th September 1st, 2nd, 15th Music on the Deck 12 Spies Vineyard, Rabun Gap Info: 813.335.2886 August 24th - 25th “Dealt a Deadly Hand” A Dinner Theater Murder Mystery Kingwood Resort, Clayton Info: 706.212.2500 September 22nd Harvest Stomp Stonewall Creek Vineyards Clayton Info: 706.212.0584 Rabun County Music Festival The Rearden Theatre, RGNS Rabun Gap Info: rabunmusicfestival.com August 4th The Ultimate Eagles Experience August 18th - The Drifters Tallulah Gorge Park Tallulah Falls Info: 706.754.7981 August 26th; September 23rd Full Moon Suspension Bridge Hike September 1 - 3 Gorge Floor Hike st

August 17th - 18th Tomato Daze Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds Hiawassee Info: 706.896.4191 georgiamountainfairgrounds.com September 6th - 8th Dailey and Vincent Landfest in the Mountains and on the Lake

August 11th; September 8th Junior Rodeo

September 22nd Kentucky Headhunters and Artimus Pyle

August 18th Full Speed Ahead Agilities

UNION COUNTY

August 23rd - 25th Rabun County Fair

August 2 and the first Thursday of the month Shop Late Thursday Downtown Blairsville Info: 877.745.5789 nd

September 1st - 2nd Georgia High School Rodeo September 15th - 16th M&K Quarterhouse Show

August 3rd and each Friday through October Friday Concert Series Old Courthouse, Blairsville Info: 706.745.5493

September 29th Wayne Dutton Roping TOWNS COUNTY August 4th and each Saturday through September 1st Music on the Square Hiawassee Info: 706.896.2203 August 4th and each Saturday Saturday Night Music Mountain Home Music Theatre Hiawassee Info: 706.896.3624 August 18th Concert - Doctor Paul Music Barn at Mountain View Campground, Hiawassee Info: 770.355.4912 August 4 , 17 ; September 8 Live Music The Oaks Lakeside Kitchen Young Harris Info: 706.896.4141 th

August 11th, 25th; September 29th Live Music Sand Bar, Hiawassee Info: 706.896.2440 Crane Creek Vineyards Young Harris Info: 706.379.1236 August 3rd and each Friday Friday Evening Tapas & Acoustic

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August 4th and each Tuesday and Saturday through October Union County Farmers’ Market Old Smokey Rd., Blairsville Info: 706.745.5789, 706.439.6000 August 4th and each Saturday through October 6th Cruise In to the Union County Farmers’ Market Old Smokey Rd., Blairsville Info: 678.773.5934 August 6th and each Monday (excluding holidays) Garden Tour The Georgia Mountain Research & Education Center, Blairsville Info: 706.745.2655 August 10th, 24th Historical Society’s Cherished Treasure Sale Historical Society Annex Building Blairsville Info: 706.745.5493 August 18th and the Third Saturday of the month Cruise-In on the Square Downtown Courthouse Square Blairsville Info: 863.414.5276 August 18th - 19th Mountain Sunshine Festival North Georgia Technical College Blairsville Info: 877.745.5789

August 2018

August 25th Taste of the Mountains Downtown Blairsville Info: 877.745.5789 August 25th Corner Concert - Stephen Phillips & the Midnight Express Downtown Blairsville Info: 877.745.5789 September 1st - 2nd Mountain Heritage Festival Mountain Life Museum Blairsville Info: 706.745.5493 September 8th High Heels & Hard Hats - Towns/ Union Habitat for Humanity Gala North Georgia Technical College Conference Center, Blairsville Info: www.townsunionhabitat.org September 15th Blairsville Extreme Adventure Race Meeks Park, Blairsville Info: 719.237.5109 September 22nd - 23rd Celebrate the Harvest North Georgia Technical College Blairsville Info: 877.745.5789 Vogel State Park Blairsville Info: 706.745.2628 August 4th - 5th Junior Ranger Camp August 17th Sounds of the Night Hike September 8th Mountain Music & Arts & Crafts Festival Paradise Hills Resort Blairsville Info: www.paradisehillsga.com August 4th and each Saturday & Sunday Live Music September 1st Grape Stomp Fest CLAY COUNTY, NC August 2nd and each Thursday through September 4th Hayesville Farmers’ Market Historic Courthouse Square Hayesville Info: 828.389.6305

Mountain Happenings September 15th 8th Annual Cherokee Heritage Festival Cherokee Homestead Exhibit Hayesville Info: 828.389.3045, 828.342.8878 September 22nd 7th Annual Pet Celebration Hayesville Square Hayesville Info: 828.389.3704, 706.896.1244 John C. Campbell Folk School Brasstown Info: 800.365.5724 folkschool.org August 3rd Campbell Folk SchoolCloggers & Wyatt Espaling and Friends August 7 and each Tuesday Night Beginner Contra & Square Dance th

August 10th Dulcimer Celebration Concert August 11th, 25th; September 8th Contra & Square Dance August 16th Jim Lloyd August 24th Blue Eyed Girl

September 7th Larry Unger Peacock Performing Arts Center Hayesville Info: 828.389.2787 thepeacocknc.org August 10 - 12 , 17 - 10 Live Theater - “Lend Me A Tenor” th

August 26th Live Music Lynn Trefzger and Friends September 15 Songwriter’s Showcase MACON COUNTY, NC August 3rd and each Friday through October Friday Night Live Concert Series Town Square, Highlands Info: 828.526.5841

September 22nd Contra Dance Smoky Mountain Center for Performing Arts Franklin Info: 866.273.4615; 828.524.1598 GreatMountainMusic.com

August 10th - 11th 10th Annual Mountain High BBQ Festival & Car Show Macon County Fairgrounds Franklin Info: 828.524.3267 www.MountainHighBBQFestival.com

August 3rd Slippery When Wet The Ultimate Bon Jovi Tribute

August 13th Highlands Bolivia Mission Auction Highlands United Methodist Church Highlands Info: 828.526.2112

August 11th The Swon Brothers August 17th An Evening with Jeanne Robertson

August 17th Barn Dance The Bascom, Highlands Info: 828.526.4949

August 23rd Michael Bolton August 30th The US Navy Band Country Current September 1st The Four Freshmen September 14th - 15th, 21st - 22nd “the foreigner” by Overlook Theatre Company

September 8th 8th Annual Dahlia Festival Civic Center, Highlands Info: 828.526.2112

September 28th Squirrel Nut Zippers Highlands Performing Arts Center Highlands Info: highlandspac.net

September 12th - 15th Macon County Fair Macon County Fairgrounds Franklin Info: 828.524.3267

August 3rd, 5th, 12th Highlands Cashiers Music Festival

September 29th 2nd Annual Satulah-bration & Chili Cook-Off Kelsey-Hutchinson Park, Highlands Info: 828.526.1111

September 15th Jonathan Byrd & Pickup Cowboy

August 5th Benefit Concert for the Black Mountain Home for Children First Presbyterian Church Franklin Info: 828.524.4755

August 25th - 26th Highlands Village Square Arts & Crafts Show Kelsey Hutchinson Park Highlands Info: 828.787.2021

August 31st Billy Jackson

August 18th 14th Annual Franklin Area Folk Festival Info: 800.932.5294 www.franklinfolkfestival.com

August 4th and each Saturday Night through October Pickin on the Square Downtown Franklin Info: 828.524.2516

August 23rd - 26th August 30th - September 2nd “The Odd Couple” September 15th O Sole Trio (Broadway)

Cowee School Franklin Info: coweeschool.org

September 22nd One Night in Memphis

August 18th and the Third Saturday of the Month SEBA Jam

August 2018

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Lakemont, Georgia

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August 2018

North Georgia Arts Guild

Rennie Davant, My Mom—and Why Moms Matter By Susan Brewer

ecently, a widely publicized political image captured my imagination, and it got me to thinking about mothers. Pictured was a child from Honduras, tiny and sobbing in the black of night. She was wearing a red hooded shirt, black tights, and red shoes. Circles of soft curls surrounded her face; she was photographed looking up to her mother and at the ICE agent who had stopped them at the border. This picture and the controversy surrounding it reminds me that in spite of flowers and butterflies and pretty scenery, the world has a darker ugly side, too. That’s true. In this case, I am learning that violence and poverty are at the center of this child and her mother’s home, the world they ran away from. The one they no doubt will be returned to. I began thinking about me and my mom. I moved up here to be with her from Atlanta. This was following her two surgeries. We keep an eye on each other. Right now, she’s working on her puzzle at the window listening to news stories on the radio. We have had our own ups and downs. My son suffers from drug addiction. She has been right by me through all that. And, he is schizophrenic, as well as disabled. Struggling with these difficulties and caring for him has moved us closer together over the years. In spite of these knocking hard times, I’ve heard her say, “You know, the news makes me wonder how lucky I was to lead the life I led—how did I get so lucky?” In these quiet moments she reflects on life from this very different point of view. Fortune has never forsaken her, and she wonders why. She has had the satisfaction of good friends and a career spent working for causes she loved in different capacities doing “board” things. Even now, at eighty-eight, she works with the board of the North Georgia Arts Guild where she chairs the Hospitality Committee, and the Rabun County Library board where she takes the monthly meeting minutes and types them up. Until a few years ago, she was an artist, a painter. Water colors became her favorite medium after painting in oil. She enjoyed layering washes of color upon color juxtaposed against one another. Several are featured here, some of my favorites. 58

I am including an oil painting she did decades ago of my sister, Eva, and me. Small as I was, I remember when that was done – we were slightly older than the child mentioned in the opening. My thoughts drift to how much I wish my sister was here with us, close by. Every time she visits, I wish she would stay. Mom also created imagery that requires looking more closely at curious shapes. Mom’s “Three Vases” is brightly colored and slightly Far Eastern or Byzantine in feel. Flowers and vases are depicted. One tall vase leans over into the center. Why, I wondered. What’s that about? At the same time the panels of color are strong and vibrant, abstracted into an unknown drama. The picture nudges the viewer toward imagination as the all-important next step in a process of seeing and making sense of the image. This last week Mom played golf three, no, four times. We are two of the lucky ones by way of an accident of birth. As my mom has taught me, I wonder. Why?

August 2018

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August 2018

Bird Watching!! Kelley Bentley Ash by Robin L. Blan

irds of a feather flock together at Around Back at Rocky’s Place, often to get first dibs on the new arrivals of folk artist Kelley Bentley Ash. Kelly’s paintings are whimsy at its best. Whether you are outfitting a room for children or one for adults, her paintings are just the ticket to make you smile. They are not only ageless, but also timeless. Kelley paints with acrylics, pastels, and crayon, and uses only vintage materials, such as old Southern quilts, Grit newspapers, and recycled burlap coffee sacks, in her mixed media pieces. Rocky’s Place saw the fun and the allure of her work over three years ago when the gallery started carrying her paintings. She is a best-selling artist for the gallery, and her work has recently taken on notoriety in other venues. Camper World snatched up her painting for their corporate office, of “Queen of the Double Wide Trailer,” which features her Party Bird with a camper. Her paintings have been spotted in Paula Dean’s magazine adorning the walls in featured articles, and HGTV is currently working with the artist on ways to incorporate her work with what they do best...decorate! Also, a children’s book, chocked full of only her paintings as illustrations, is in the works; featured on the cover of the book will be her painting of a chick on a vintage bicycle with the title, “If you have ice cream and a dream, you have everything.” Is her work for the birds? Absolutely!!! Whether her pieces are party birds, birds on parade, hot chicks, wearing hats, doing the hokey-pokey, etc., they are must-haves to liven up any room or space. Although her signature is the “Party Bird,” she also paints other subjects as well. Her “Party Dogs” and “Party Horses” also have a huge following. Coupled with her animated animals and backgrounds of Seuss-like trees and sidewalks, are her words of wisdom to live by and for... “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may realize they were the big things.”

Kelley Bentley Ash is a Southern girl, through and through, and her art reflects such themes. Her church pieces carry the lyrics from gospels like “I’ll Fly Away” and “Amazing Grace.” Her “Happy Appalachia” celebrates the North Georgia mountains. Kelley, her husband, an architect, and their three children, live in a modern farmhouse, modern meaning the outside skeleton is new material, but the inside is retro and vintage just like the colors and materials used to create her art pieces. Their farm is complete with a hen house, and hence, her piece with the fox, entitled “Chicken Eater,” reflects her daily trials and tribulations of living on a farm. But the very best way to describe this artist is to share her own reflections as worded on her painting “Sweet Gravy”... “I love a Southern accent, I love an old friend, I love the smell of tea olive and the taste of peach tea, I love my smokin’ hot husband and my sweet kids, I love long hot days and early fall mornings, I love a long walk and a moon pie, I love slow talkers and quick thinkers, slow dancing and fast horses, but most of all I love God, this is my Sweet Gravy, what’s yours?”

August 2018

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August 2018

By the Way

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s something I can’t stand

By Emory Jones

verall, I think I’m a happy person. Of course, advancing years do tend to make one grumpier. Still, I try hard not to complain too much, and I firmly believe that you should never criticize someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. That way, when you do criticize them, you’re a mile away, and you have their shoes. But I’ve noticed lately that certain things are beginning to irritate me more than they used to. It’s probably all the hot weather we’re having—at least I hope that’s it. Speaking of weather, am I the only one who hates it when the radio meteorologist reports that it’s 93 degrees in Clayton, 92 in Helen and 94 in Toccoa? I mean, if it’s 93 in Clayton, isn’t a reasonable person going to assume it’s right close to that all the way from Demorest to Dahlonega? So unless it’s 95 in Tiger and they’re issuing frost warnings for Cornelia, a rough, regional estimate will do me just fine. While we’re on the subject of weather, why does that same radio person keep harping about the windshield factor every time it turns off cold? During the winter, I’m too busy trying

to direct heat to my feet to worry about how cold the windshield gets—I mean unless it’s cold enough to crack it or something. Speaking of travel, what’s with all those DUI schools you see when you drive around the state? Some of them even have an advertisement sign out front. Don’t we have enough trouble with drunk drivers without sending them to class to learn how to do it better? We’re not all digging in the same ditch here. This one may seem minor, but it happens so much I want to mention it. Why is it that when you step in dog poo, you never realize it’s happened until you’re half-way across the living room floor? I believe funding should be appropriated to study this reoccurring phenomenon. Another thing we need research on is why the tire gauge lets out half the air while you’re checking the tire because you thought it was low in the first place. OF COURSE it’s low once you’ve just let out half the air. And don’t you hate it when someone taps you on the shoulder and asks, “Can I ask you a question?” Isn’t it a little late to say no at this point? Isn’t the person who does this a few peas short of a casserole? I hope all this crossness on my part is just a passing summer phase and that I get over this when cool weather returns to the region, and it’s once again 66 in Cleveland, 65 in Blairsville and 62 in Blue Ridge.

August 2018

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Franklin, North Carolina

Gotta Love A Small Town...

he wonderful part of small towns is that across the street is never very far and you can count on others to be there for each other. Blackberry Market found themselves in need of a new location and The Guilded Willow opened their doors to help. Martha Holbrook and her staff, friends even some customers rolled up their sleeves and loaded up their wares and moved them across the street. Blackberry Market is a women’s boutique with clothing, accessories, jewelry, gifts and more. If you’ve never visited there we invite you to drop in The Guilded Willow and discover both businesses. You’ll find them at 71 E Main St, Franklin, NC 28734. Blackberry Market has a great Facebook page where news and new items are featured, so find them online and visit when you get a chance.

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August 2018

Reeves Hardware Company

The Third Generation leads to the Fourth and a Bright Future by Tracy McCoy

The Third Generation While it was not possible to talk with each member of the third generation, I did sit down with several at one time when I visited the Highlands, North Carolina location of Reeves Hardware. I was able to speak with Fran’s youngest son, Preston Rogers, who manages the building supply business serving Highlands, Cashiers, and surrounding areas. Preston has two children: Cade, who is living in Colorado and Bailey who lives in Charleston, South Carolina. Preston started at the store in 1994 after college. He, like most all of the family, remembers growing up in the store. It’s always been a part of his life. I talked with Lou and the late Joe Luke Jr.’s children. Joe Luke III, Jim Luke, and Leslie Luke Scott. All three of the Luke children and Preston shared fond memories of their grandparents. They and Preston enjoy working in the Highlands’ community and take pride in the store there. They each had memorable experiences with Lewis Sr. and Rubye. The Highlands store opened in 1953 and had two other locations before they settled at their current location in 1957. Several people were instrumental to the success of the store. George and Edna Whitmire, Paul Reeves (Lewis Sr.’s brother) and Frank Hickox Jr. were all part of the store’s history, each playing a pivotal role. In 1957, Joe Luke Jr. took over management of the store and remained in that position until 1977, at which time he moved to Reeves Building Supply in Clayton. At that time, Joe III took over as general manager of the Highlands store. Joe is married to Angela and they have two children. Joe, being the oldest of the Luke children, came to work with his Dad and they would find things for him to do. He says he started working when he was 6 years old and he’s still there. Been there his whole life. He did work at Reeves Feed Store for a little over a year, when it first opened, but returned to Highlands after that. Joe remembers when he turned 16 he wanted an 8-Track player to go in his 1970 Plymouth Duster. He was working at the Highlands store making $1.45 an hour. At the time, the minimum wage was $1.65, so he went to see his Granddaddy Lewis. He sat down with him and explained how he was making less than minimum wage and he thought he deserved to make $1.65. Lewis sat back and thoughtfully looked at his grandson and asked him why he thought he deserved it. Joe went on to tell him that he’d been driving the delivery and running the forklift and doing all the same work as the other employees. After some thought he told Joe “I’ll tell you what, you work 64

this summer for $1.45 and we’ll talk about it next year.” At the end of the summer, Joe Jr. had ordered the 8-Track player and gave it to his son, saying that it came out to the 20 cent difference in pay. Jim’s story is much the same. He began working as a boy and has been at the store most of his life. Jim is father to two great kids, Eli and Chandler Rubye (named after her great-grandmother). They have worked in the store some in the summers but have chosen other paths. Jim has some great memories of his grandmother Rubye taking them all on trips. She enjoyed the beach and would play Frisbee with the grandchildren. When they were wore out, she was still ready to go and would tell them, “Get up and come on!” She had a bit of a bucket list, and on it was riding a motorcycle, so Joe took her on a ride on his Harley. She wanted to ride a fourwheeler and Jim took her riding on his. Rubye took her family to Athens, Greece, on a trip to see the Nutcracker in Atlanta, and on numerous trips to Florida. Her grandchildren say she really loved life. Leslie said that she remembers Granddaddy Reeves was always saying riddles and rhymes and had a nickname for everybody. Grandma was sweet and kind and she loved her family. She rarely, if ever, had a bad word to say about anyone. Leslie graduated and moved to Athens were she attended The University of Georgia. She moved back to Clayton and went to work in the family business. She was sent to work in the gift department of the Clayton store. She says she is not a girlie girl, so it just wasn’t a good fit. She hoped to join her brothers in Highlands and that’s exactly what happened. Oh, it no doubt means getting up before the sun to leave for Highlands by 6:30 and getting home at 6:30 every evening. It makes for a long day and in the years that they’ve been making that trip they’ve never missed a day opening the store. Joe remembers that when Hurricane Opal continued

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August 2018

Reeves Hardware Company cont. hit they had to cut 26 trees to make it up the mountain and in 1993 when Highlands had two foot of snow they came in late and left early but the store was open. Leslie talked about how important their customers are and they all agreed they’ve made some great friends in Highlands. She spoke of how their customers and their employees have been like family. Highlands is a very special place. The town has become more year round than seasonal like it used to be. The Highlands location of Reeves Hardware is their busiest store. This last January they had more transactions than they did the entire first year they were open. Leslie is married to Bill Scott who has a history with hardware, has worked as a ferrier and horse clinician but now works for the Highlands store as well. Leslie has two step-sons, twins in fact, Mike and Jake and the Scotts now have two grandchildren. The Luke family, like the Reeves, Rogers, and Hickox families have demonstrated a work ethic and dedication to community that is as strong as that of their grandfather. He and Rubye would be so proud of their children and grandchildren. The Fourth Generation

I had a very nice visit with a couple of the great-grandchildren who work at Reeves Hardware Company. Working on her birthday and willing to talk with me was Sonya Hendricks Shook. Sonya is the daughter of Chris Reeves McCracken, Lewis Jr. and Carol’s oldest daughter. She is the one to thank for the new clothing department at Reeves. While clothing at Reeves Hardware in Clayton is not new, Sonya has worked hard to bring in some of the biggest names in quality clothing and shoes like: Patagonia, Keen, Kuwl, Hey Dude, Sanuk, Teva, Simply Southern, and Heybo, just to name a few. Sonya has three children and she and husband Kyle have a home in the Timpson Community. Sonya realizes and expressed to me what an honor it is to work in the family business, something she does not take for granted. Sonya has very fond memories made with her grandparents Lewis 66

Jr. and Carol. In fact visiting with them is something she and her family make a priority. Sonya remembers coming to the store most all of her life with her mom. When Harper’s 5 & 10 was across the street they would go over for popcorn and an Icee. After it closed, they would walk to Clayton Pharmacy for a treat from the Soda Fountain. As early as 12 or 13 years old she was helping file statements. After high school, Sonya attended Western Carolina University and had plans of doing something else besides working at Reeves Hardware. She has had other jobs, but returned to the store that has meant so much to her. She recalled a day when working at the front register that Lewis Jr. walked in and she said, “Good morning Pawpaw,” and one of the young ladies working alongside her had no idea that she was part of the family. It has been a tradition you might say that every employee is treated the same. Some might think that partiality might be shown to the family members but that has never been the case, in fact more is probably expected of them. Sonya has had the privilege of bringing her little ones to work with her and she hopes to teach them to work the same that she’s been shown. She feels great purpose in her position at the store. She goes to great lengths to bring in products the community will want, and I wasn’t aware, having never worked in retail, that winter orders are placed in the spring. This means that Sonya must keep up with what’s coming up for the next season long before we go in to shop. If you haven’t visited the clothing department that has expanded upstairs and down at Reeves Hardware, you are missing out. Lewis Sr. was a long-time member of the Masonic Lodge and several of his grandsons are as well. Rubye Reeves was a member of The Order of the Eastern Star. From their website: “The members of the Order of the Eastern Star are dedicated women and men who sincerely reflect the spirit of fraternal love and the desire to work together for good. It gives them the opportunity to give a part of their time to many projects that benefit mankind.” Rubye served as Worthy Matron in the early 1930s and Sonya’s other great-grandmother, Della Watts, was also a member, a family tradition that Sonya continues. I admire Sonya and imagine she is much like her great-grandmother. Savannah Reeves Page is the oldest daughter of the company’s current President Jeff Reeves and wife Sharon. Savannah has many fond memories of Reeves Hardware Company and her grandparents. When she was little, someone made an Ace Hardware vest for her, which she has in her office. She takes great pride in the family business and knew when she finished Rabun County High School in 2013 and left for Clemson University to study Business Administration that she would return home to work in the family business. She has spent most of her time investing her time and talents into the building supply where she works as a Millwork Specialist. Savannah is responsible for ordering building supplies. She

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August 2018

Notes from a Southern Kitchen Legends All By Kendall R. Rumsey

ecently, Rabun County High School honored their first group of “Legends.” A group of teachers who have shaped the lives of students for decades.

The Legends awards were presented in June and I was thrilled to see so many of the teachers who have helped shape my life included. This year’s list of inductees included: Clayton Croom, Pat Coleman, Janelle Thompson, Gail Crowe, Sally Wilson, Robert Mitcham, and Sharon Hickox. I never had the pleasure of being in Ms. Hickox or Mr. Mitcham’s classrooms, but the others are all giants in my life. Clayton Croom is one of the finest men I have ever known. He is a pillar of all that is right in the world. Kind, generous, loving, Mr. Croom taught Chemistry, admittedly not my best subject. While I never learned the periodic table and had more fun watching things blow up than learning in his class, Mr. Croom taught us to appreciate science, how it was interwoven in all of life and how the science of life was so important. More importantly than lessons in the classroom, Mr. Croom’s example taught how simply being a good human being could pay dividends in all that you do. Clayton Croom, a legend! I first walked into Pat Coleman’s room in Elementary School. It was her first year in the school system and she was gungho to teach. I later had Ms. Coleman as a teacher of History 68

in High School. Pat never lost her passion for education, she challenged us, made us laugh, and with her own boisterous personality, made us know we were loved. Today, I consider Pat a friend, she makes me laugh and remember times gone by. Pat Coleman, a legend! Janelle Thompson, a quiet soul that taught math, again, not one of my best subjects. I didn’t understood Algebra or why I needed to know it, but Ms. Thompson persisted and over time I got it. At her honoree luncheon, Ms. Thompson looked like she could walk back into the classroom today and teach, she hasn’t aged a day in the over 30 years since I was in her classroom. In the 9th and 10th grade, we liked to see what we could get away with in a class. Ms. Thompson may have been quiet, but she was a no-nonsense lady who expected her students’ best and wasn’t satisfied until we gave it. Janelle Thompson, a legend! Gail Crowe broke down walls when she was hired as Basketball Coach for the Rabun County Wildcats, and she continued to break down walls throughout her career. She led her teams to championships and made young ladies and gentlemen see their true potential and exceed in ways they never dreamed possible. Crowe led in quiet ways off the court as well. For many students, like myself, her simple daily walk through life was one that we could emulate. True to herself and her own values, Coach Crowe was a leader on and off the court. Gail Crowe, a legend!

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Reeves Hardware Company cont.

Sally Wilson taught my English class in High School, I loved English. Ms. Wilson flamed my passion, and while diagramming sentences wasn’t my idea of a good time, she made it all make sense. Her dry wit and love of her subject kept me enthralled. I am a better wordsmith because of Sally Wilson. Still today, Ms. Wilson teaches. When I write something I put it to the Sally Wilson red pen test, in hopes that I get it right. Anyone who follows Ms. Wilson on Facebook knows she still teaches, and her posts regarding “they’re, their and there,” as well as other grammar corrections, are classic and make me smile each time I see one. (Lord, I hope there are no errors in this paragraph!) Sally Wilson, a legend! When I saw the list of this year’s honorees, I started compiling another list in my mind, other legends who made impacts on my life at Rabun County High School. Chuck Foster, Leland Dishman, Ann Alford, Karen Ashe, Ed and Sara Singleton, Josephine Brown, Janie P. Taylor, J.L. Roach, Janice Wayne, Joan Hollifield, Ted Law, Louise Keller, and on and on. No list of honorees could ever include them all, but indeed they are all LEGENDS! As our youth go back to school this month, they will be challenged, inspired, sometimes annoyed, and always taught by some of the best, most giving people they will ever meet. These people who serve our community in and out of the classroom will shape the lives of our future, teaching them not only classroom subjects, but life lessons that will mold them into the people who will one day lead us. And one day, when the Legends Honorees are announced, and these same young people are now my age, they will look back at the list and say, yes that’s a legend! Of all the things our school system now does, the start of a Legends class is my favorite, honoring the past while inspiring the future. Congratulations Legends and Thank you! Kendall Rumsey is a resident of Clayton, Ga. He is owner of imPRESSed, a custom imprint company and publishes the blog, Notes from a Southern Kitchen. www.impressedstyle.come www.notesfromasouthernkitchen.com gmlaurel.com

August 2018

has grown up around the building industry and has familiarized herself with the process making it very easy for her to help builders, contractors, or homeowners with project planning. She spoke of the lack of women in this business making trust an issue for some, but smiling she said she is overcoming that. She expressed again how important the customers who bring their business to Reeves are to the company. These fourth gens are serving their own, meaning many of their customers are the fourth generation of families who have trusted the Reeves family for their hardware, building, farming, and home needs. There are men buying their boots at Reeves because their grandfather did. Traditions continue. Savannah married her high school sweetheart Corey Page who works in the business as well. The infusion of this tech savvy generation has brought about many changes making doing business easier than ever before. Savannah hopes to keep the company on the cutting edge of technology, as more and more people use things like Apple Pay or want to work remotely, she feels it is important to meet their needs. She takes being the fourth generation very seriously and is dedicated to ensuring that Reeves Hardware Company is still a strong icon of the community as it is now. She and Corey have just announced that there will be a little one coming early next year. This child will no doubt grow up coming to work with his/her parents and will likely wear the ACE vest that Savannah did. The future will likely bring more growth and changes to this company started 90 years ago by a business man with vision and a dream and the woman who walked alongside him. They would be so proud of their family and the business they’ve all worked to build.

Lovin’ the Journey Peaks, peril, and prayer

by Mark Holloway

y entire life didn’t flash before my eyes, but large chunks of it did.

Sitting in this hipster coffee shop munching down a powerfully good breakfast burrito early in this tourist day, watching hikers, climbers, and bearded millennials drift in, seems worlds away from last night. My good friend and biking buddy Scott Neal and I had THE conversation...the one where you tell each other how thankful you are for the full life you’ve lived and you’re ready to meet Jesus. That conversation. We were wrapping an amazing week of technical mountain biking and climbing with our other close friend, Jim Horn. Scott and I had flown west to play. Jim drove. We all met up in Springdale, Utah, the gateway hamlet to the incredible Zion National Park. We would eventually migrate south to the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, then turn back northward to hike into Bryce Canyon. I’ll tell you about how the week started, but only after I unpack the night of near terror which capped our week.

Zion is a must visit place. It’s deep canyons and mega high rock mountains boggle the mind. I may have taxed my phone’s memory with so many pics. The three of us had just hiked in Bryce Canyon northeast of Zion. We’d said goodbye to Jim and pointed our Nissan Altima rental southwest back to Zion on the way to Nevada for our flight home. We decided to jam in one more hike up into a canyon, overfilling an already amazing week of adventure. We weaved the car through the naked cliffs like a snake through high grass. Two different ominous storms formed. One west. One east. We cut our ramble short and took the trail back to the car. Lightning was snapping all around us. As soon as we closed the doors, the heavens dropped. We’d always heard desert storms are as rare as they are spectacular. True. When there are no trees or ground cover, rain drains off the mountain tops like water off a slick poncho. As we slowly made our decent towards Springdale, lightning exploded all around us for hours. We captured gushing ravines on video with each turn. Water rushes down at us like herds of angry bison. As the sun set we anticipated quite a show. We knew the dry creek and river beds would come alive. How little we knew. The rare storm would immediately make local and state headlines, and tourists in town the next day would be abuzz. They’d also be disappointed to learn rangers would slam the main road shut, cutting off access to the Narrows and other world alluring natural sights. Millions of gushing gallons began to submit to gravity, funneling rapidly in the same downward direction we were heading. What had been a natural marvel for us two Georgia mountain men was quickly turning serious. We were still several thousand feet above our destination town. Each pass and curve guided us nearly to cliff’s edge where each canyon

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floor far below was quickly disappearing behind the storm’s veil. By now the heaven’s rain was touching earth and invading the humble steep asphalt which tentatively held our car on edge. Mud, water, and rocks the size of ice chests were tumbling down in front and behind our frail, four door import. By now it’s dark and the few taillights ahead of us have stopped and flashers started. The lightning flashes lit up the deep valleys below us like the wide-open shark’s mouth in jaws. Scott and I stopped on a curve four feet away from the 1500 foot drop. We could see the rivers of thin mud and sea of rocks trespassing cruelly all around us, erasing any lane markers. We began to pray for those ahead and behind, asking the Lord’s protection and taking dominion over the elements. And so we waited for rescue. Two hours of darkness, tension and prayer passed. Scott’s cell phone had a single bar of coverage and so we began to enlist intercessors far and wide, waking all of them up back in the eastern time zone. Our call for help from the mountain time zone was heard in heaven and earth. Hours passed and the flashing lights of a front end loader ground it’s way upward to us, shoveling and plowing the storm’s carnage away. The brave soul cut a single path and we were the last to escape the canyons. The town below was littered with red rocks, mud, and reckless water. Even the local, trendy outdoor guides in the rental gear shops gawked at the flooding. Zion’s Angels Landing was probably going to be the signature climb, the capstone to an adrenaline-filled week. But years from now we’ll most likely first talk about the hours of confident uncertainty high atop that canyon ledge. The Grand Canyon was grand. Bryce was beautiful. Blasting Gooseberry Mesa on trail bikes was a rush and the Narrows was breathtaking. But our deliverance from imagined peril is what will mark this latest adventure. See you on the trail.

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Health Wellness

“Our bodies are our gardens – our wills are our gardeners.” ~William Shakespeare

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August 2018

Live Healthy and Be Well!

“A positive mindset is key to healing and wellness” Dr. Stephen Jarrard, MD, FACS

y neighbor and good friend, Dr. Richard Huseman (PhD), has been in Academia most of his life. He speaks to many healthcare and physician organizations, and has been interested in health and wellness topics for a long time. For a non-physician, he has an excellent outlook about the power of being positive and how that can impact your health, wellness, and personal life. He published a book called Prescription Positive, and uses it to share some “…secrets to unleashing the power of your conscious and subconscious mind to create health, wellness, and longevity.”

I would like to share with you some exciting ideas about how the power of your brain can actually have a positive effect on your personal health and well being. It does this not just as a “master computer” controlling your body, but as the place where your outlook, personality, moods, confidence, and attitude are formed and shaped. And, while we often cannot control what happens to us in life, we can use and train our brains to make good decisions, develop good habits, think positive, and manage our stress so that we can maximize quality of life. Those of us in the medical field get to see firsthand the impact of decisions, lifestyle, outlook, and attitude on the health and wellness of individuals. We have all seen old 40 year olds and young 80 year olds! A while back, we did an operation on a “young” 83-year-old who came through it like a champ and wanted to know when she could start riding her bike again! I did this case knowing she would come through it easily, because she lives strong and literally decides to be well and healthy. She exercised regularly, always ate a healthy diet, had a positive outlook, and refused to give in to being unhealthy or “old.” While some might say she just got lucky and had “good genetics,” I say that is only half the battle and there are plenty of people with good genes in bad shape because they do not choose to make their health and wellness a priority. One area we see the positive power of the mind at work is called the placebo effect. You may be familiar with this idea: An inert substance is given as medicine, and the person gets better or is literally cured of a condition by using the 74

“medicine.” I remember once seeing an episode of the Andy Griffith Show in which a new, young, “book learned” pharmacist came to town and told a lady that her “medicine” given by the town doctor was just a bottle of sugar pills, and she did not need them! This was upsetting to the lady and she immediately became ill, of course, without her “medicine.” The old wise pharmacist, just retired, had known this for years, but went along because these pills helped this lady believe and be well. The basis of the placebo effect is that if I give you something and tell you it will make you feel better, and you believe it and grasp it in your mind and expect that it will work, then it does. Example - there is no scientific or medical basis that you can get rid of warts on your hands by wearing gloves for three days, then burying them under the light of the next full moon, but I heard of this method of curing warts when I lived in East Tennessee. If the right person (authority figure such as a doctor, nurse, or “healer”) tells or gives you something – and your mind believes it will work – it can and will have a definite effect. The placebo effect is well studied and has been borne out by many well-designed experiments. In fact, for a new drug to be approved, it must be more effective compared to a placebo, because just taking a pill or getting a shot of an inert substance (sugar pill) has an effect on people. If new drugs cannot beat this test, they don’t make it to the market. So, harness the power of the placebo effect by training your mind to believe that you will be better, healthier, and able to enjoy life by living more positive. Don’t give in so easily to the years and circumstances. Stay young at heart and in your mind, believe you will be well and healthy, and don’t rely on medicines to do this for you unless it is necessary (which it sometimes is, by the way).” One of the more interesting sections of Dr. Huseman’s book provides several “prescriptions” or scripts for better health. I will not steal his thunder completely, but will pass on two I feel are very important. The first is “Self Accountability,” or the idea of you being responsible for your health and wellness, and not relying only on doctors, or even worse, the government, to keep you healthy. Do what you can in your own life to take charge of keeping yourself well. This includes safety (such wearing seat belts, helmets, and ear/ eye protection when needed), good diet choices (low fat, high protein, high fiber), healthy living choices (not smoking or drinking to excess, or at all), taking medicines you need

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what stressors you can, and leveraging others to your advantage. Develop better coping skills to deal with the stresses of life and resist the urge to run to the medicine cabinet to get something to help you. That is a trap that can lead to dependence on medicine, and even more stress down the road. Take charge of that aspect of your life, as well, and decide that your stress will not rule you or negatively affect your health and wellness.

(vaccinations and blood pressure pills, for example) and not taking risks with your health. For instance, if you are a person with diabetes who is overweight, does not eat a healthy diet, smokes, drinks too much alcohol, gets no regular exercise, and you are not good about keeping your sugar controlled, then you are accountable to your disease instead of it being accountable to you. Same thing if you know you have COPD and you still smoke. It has control of you and not vice-versa. So, I am not judging and know it is sometimes hard to do, but taking accountability for your own condition and health is the better way to go, instead of thinking that is someone elseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s responsibility.

There are a number of other ideas that can help you, but I will mention only one more that we could all benefit from in a number of ways, and something which has influence over all other aspects, and that is to have faith and develop the spiritual side of your life. No matter what your beliefs or doctrine, the knowledge and peace gained through regularly exercising your â&#x20AC;&#x153;spiritual musclesâ&#x20AC;? will pay big dividends. I would not hesitate to say that you will never attain true health and wellness if you neglect this critical aspect of life. We really do enjoy hearing from you with any questions, concerns, or ideas for future columns and/or health and wellness related issues for the Georgia Mountain Laurel. Please send an email to rabundoctor@gmail.com, or call us at 706-782-3572, and we will be sure to consider your input. This and previous articles can be found on the web at www.rabundoctor.com in an archived format. If you use Twitter, then follow us for health tips and wellness advice @rabundoctor, and on Facebook see the page rabundoctor. Until next month, live healthy and be well!

Managing your stress is another positive prescription for wellness. We all know that stressful conditions or environment (work, school, family, finances, relationships, etc.) can reduce the effectiveness of our natural immune system and increase the chances of sickness and disease. Find ways to channel your stress and manage it by reducing

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August 2018

Clearing The Confusion Over Dietary Supplements By FHF Contributing Writer: Sherrill Lewis

oday’s marketplace is literally flooded with various nutritional supplements. The days of relying on a single multivitamin to fill in the nutritional gaps in the American diet are over. Whether you are looking to simply boost your nutrition, lose pounds or inches, or help reduce inflammation and pain, there are supplements designed specifically to address your dietary challenges. Mark Villanti, certified training director at Clayton Health and Fitness, has several recommendations to help take the guesswork out of finding the right supplement for your specific need. Four supplements that he recommends are the turmeric effect, the omega support, the branch chain amino acids (BCAA’s), and the joint mender. According to Villanti, turmeric is a wonderful anti-inflammation supplement that has been around for centuries. It helps

with everyday joint pain and nagging age-related issues. Turmeric has great healing properties and supports natural blood flow to the working muscles and brain. Villanti recommends taking 2 turmeric pills in the morning with food, and again at dinner. He says it usually takes 2-3 weeks to achieve the maximum effect. Villanti recommends the omega support supplement because the Standard American Diet (SAD), is much too high in the wrong types of fats. He recommends balancing out one’s nutrition with the easy-to-take omega support supplement. This supplement can help with post-workout recovery, and can also help regulate blood pressure and cholesterol. It also has benefits for the brain. He recommends 3 grams of EPA and DHA combined, or 4-5 pills per day split into doses. Because the omega support is a fat soluble vitamin, it takes time to build up in the system. One typically notices a difference after a month. Branch chain amino acids (BCAA’s) are a critical supplement for individuals who strength train or work out regularly. The amino acids help preserve training sessions, and is especially beneficial to those who train fasted in the morning. These amino acids can reduce fatigue, accelerate recovery, reduce muscle soreness, and improve the use of fat for energy. It also aids in protein synthesis. This supplement should be taken as 3 pills 30-45 minutes before training and 3 pills post training for maximum results. One other supplement he highly recommends is the joint mender: a unique blend of joint-saving compounds that help preserve joints and connective tissue. “As we age, we lose our natural lubrication, resulting in stiff and aching muscles,” says Villanti. This blend helps restore natural joint health. It is recommended to take 3 pills with breakfast and another 3 with dinner for the first 15 days. Then they should be taken once a day in the morning. These supplements and many others are now available at Clayton Health and Fitness in Clayton, GA. A complimentary Fitness Assessment to discuss your individual needs can be arranged by emailing CHF Personal Training Director at mark@claytonhealthandfitness.com, or call 706-212-0001.

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“I

Life Point Medical – Our Mission is Life Meet Timothy Scott Beck, M.D.

could have gone anywhere to practice medicine after I completed my education at Medical College of Georgia and residency at Greenville Memorial Hospital. In fact, they had hoped I’d stay there, but I wanted to come home and care for the people in and around Rabun.” Dr. Beck told me. Timothy Scott Beck, M.D.. is a board certified Internal Medicine doctor. He is a graduate of Rabun County High School and his family has deep roots in these mountains. He is the owner of Life Point Medical, his practice in Clayton, Georgia. At Life Point Medical, the mission is life. Dr. Beck and his team of professionals strive to provide excellent health care through strong relationships with patients.

Established patients know that Life Point Medical works to ensure patients are seen the day they call. The goal is to keep them out of the hospital, ER, Urgent Care, etc. If patients are seen as soon as the need arises, these expensive visits can usually be avoided. Once patients arrive, they are met by a personal Patient Care Coordinator who accompanies them through their entire visit. The office has a patient portal to stay in touch with patients, to provide lab results, answers to their questions and concerns, and to keep the lines of communication open. Dr. Beck knows that to care for you properly he must stay informed.

8 am – 5 pm. Dr. Beck is an attentive, caring physician who takes your health and well being seriously. He is dedicated to educating his patients in preventative measures to keep them living the life they deserve. Call today to schedule your appointment 706.782.0016 or visit www.drtsbeck.com for more information.

He also provides the community with dermatological services. Currently the area lacks a dermatologist and Dr. Beck is skilled in this field. He is glad to provide dermatology for his established patients and anyone in the region who needs to be seen. Dr. Beck and his wife Allison work together at Life Point. She works part time as the couple has two sons that keep her busy. Another important member of Life Point Medical is Nurse Practitioner Mary Jane Brown, NP-C. She recently joined the practice and the patients love her. She has been a welcome addition to the practice. Life Point Medical is located at 189 Bo James Street, Suite 105 in Clayton, Georgia. They are open Monday – Friday gmlaurel.com

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