Jun. 8, 2007
New in Georgia!: The Georgia Sea Turtle Center!
We are so excited about a new field trip opportunity that is opening in Georgia - along Coastal Georgia to be exact. It is the new Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island. They are promoting the preservation of this precious creature as well as providing a rehabilitation center for injured sea turtles. Check out their web site - Their grand opening is scheduled for June 16th!! The staff also has a blog detailing their activities leading up to the opening of the center as well as their efforts to rehab injured turtles.
We can hardly wait to get down there - and will share our trip when we finally get away!
Have a great weekend!
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Nov. 16, 2006
Meeting Fellow HomeschoolBlogger Friends
Can you say, "Whew!"?
Whirlwind trip that it was that began last Friday, our trip to Ohio to visit family was wonderful. A bonus of our trip was our little side-trip over to Wheeling, WV to Cabela's where we met up with the Joyce family!
What a wonderful treat to finally get to meet Eleanor; she is precious and it was as if we'd been doing this always. Her girls are just as precious and I think the kids all enjoyed getting to meet after having been blogging buddies for a while now.
Cabela's is nothing short of an amazing world for outdoorsmen of the world (....make that the elite outdoorsmen.....yikes!). It is a gorgeous store with lots to see (...& touch...). It is a stand alone field trip to peruse through all the animal displays - much like a wildlife museum. It will always hold a great memory for me being able to meet up with such a wonderful friend and her family.
I do believe Eleanor was nearly stunned and amazed that we (me, myself and I) do speak with a heavy southern accent - and she quickly learned that I "take pictures" or rather that I was, "fixin' to take a picture....." as the case was during our Kodak moments ~
She is truly a kindred spirit and I am forever thankful that our paths have intersected through various and sundry means and we were able to work out our Cabela's adventures last Monday.
Have a great weekend,
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Sep. 21, 2006
Mark Your Calendars
Mark Your Calendars Now!
If youve never been to the Biltmore Estates you definitely need to plan to go to next years annual Homeschool Festival on September 19th and 20th (thats 2007)! It is a must see-must do field trip for homeschool families.
Our family has been on many field trips and many a homeschool specific event at many attractions and venues. Ill have to say that the event hosted by the Biltmore Estates is one of the most homeschool friendly and best planned events weve attended to date. The festival rate is money well spent and they are so happy and accommodating to everyone visiting.
This was our familys first time to visit the Estate and we enjoyed every minute. The Biltmore house leaves nothing but jaw dropping amazement. I loved the basement best the kitchen and laundry areas were unbelievable. Anyone knowing me and my laundry trials can understand my fascination with laundry in the late 1800s! It is definitely a one-of-a-kind home and unlike anything you can imagine until you see it in person.
More fun was over the river and through the woods at the Historic Horse Barn in the round. All my men were enthralled with the blacksmith I on the other hand enjoyed the woman who was making homemade butter. There were also woodworking and hay demonstrations with lots of the original farm equipment on display that was actually used on the Vanderbilts farm. The barnyard was home to some gorgeous draft horses (Bert & Ernie they were very verbal, too!), heirloom hens (we were taking notes you might say) as well as sheep and more horses. I was interested in looking at the barn structure, livestock housing and fencing and so forth. They raise a sizeable flock of sheep and have mini-donkeys in with the flock to keep coyotes away.
The boys were able to put corn on the cob throught this "shelling gadget" and shell the corn from the cob; it is then poured into a grinder and corn meal is the result!
This is "Ernie" of Bert & Ernie the Estate's resident Belgian Draft horses
Then came the reality check the kitchen garden Yall, I about died. Where is my gardening staff of 30? It was definitely a Martha garden complete with some of the coolest built structures and ways for vegetable vines to grow and climb. We had to critique the compost area also and we were pretty proud of our compost bin it definitely held its own against the Biltmore compost!
By the time I put the men through the Estate's kitchen garden - they were about done. Can you tell?
It was really hard to put into perspective the progressive thought of Mr. Vanderbilt when you think about the particular time period in our Countrys history when he built his Biltmore Estates. He had electricity, he had running water, he had central heating, he had an indoor swimming pool and recreation area that included weight lifting and exercise room as well as a bowling alley
..in the late 1800s! Im not sure that progressive actually describes his accomplishment with what he built. One must remember that there was no automated transportation other than the railroad system and his Estate was built in the
Truthfully, it would be well worth planning a week long stay in
then there is the
I'd just hate that ~ wouldn't you?
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Sep. 20, 2006
Homeschool Festival at Biltmore ~ A Must See-Must Do!
I'll blog more about our trip to the Biltmore later (and resize this picture....) - we are "pooped" from the drive home tonight - but we had so much fun. It was an awesome trip!
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Sep. 12, 2006
Homeschool Festival at the Biltmore Estate - Next Week!
All HomeschoolBlogger families (plus other friends & families, too) that will be attending the Homeschool Festival at the Biltmore Estate on Tuesday of next week - we will meet at 12:30 at the covered picnic area behind the Deer Park Restaurant of the Estate grounds. Everyone can have picnic lunch together or just say "Hi" and visit - whatever works best for your family.
If you have any questions about when and where to meet on Tuesday feel free to email me. Our family is so excited and is really looking forward to this field trip!
Have a great week!
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Sep. 9, 2006
Meeting Fellow HSB's
I had the awesome privilege to meet a fellow HomeschoolBlogger today - Merry Menagerie! I've known "who" she is and have exchanged posts on a local Yahoo Homeschool loop - but today was the first time we've put faces with "emails" and posts. She and her husband had the vision for the homeschool baseball team that we are playing on this year and their family is precious ~ they have six beautiful and pretty cool kids. We are looking forward to getting to know their family over the weeks and months ahead as homeschooling and baseball have brought these families together.
We had a great time today working the team's fundraiser with the other families selling barbeque ~ the bonus: INCREDIBLE barbeque!
DON'T FORGET - HomeschoolBloggers who are going to the Biltmore for the Homeschool Festival on Tuesday, September 19th - we'll be meeting at 12:30 to picnic lunch together. We are so excited about this trip up to the Biltmore and to meet more HSB's!
GO DAWGS! Sick'em!
Have a great weekend!
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Aug. 25, 2006
Field Tripping the Nation's Capital
I'm always planning ahead, planning ahead, planning ahead.......
One of my planning ahead family field trips - TRIPS - is one I am beginning to plan to Washington D.C.
If anyone has any travel tips, must see places while there, web sites to help my research and travel information they can share, I would greatly appreciate your suggestions and comments!
Have a great weekend!
p.s. Don't forget - the Homeschool Festival at the Biltmore Estate is just around the corner - September 19th & 20th. We are so looking forward to meeting some of the HSB families while there!
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Aug. 3, 2006
Field Trip Reminder
If you're planning to attend the Homeschool Festival at the Biltmore Estate in September, you will need to make your reservations and payment in full on or before August 15th.
CLICK HERE for the details. For the Festival brochure - CLICK HERE.
For the Homeschoolbloggers who are attending the Festival, I'll post where we'll plan to meet and picnic together in September just before the Festival date.
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Jul. 17, 2006
Field Trip to the Biltmore Estate
Thank you to everyone who emailed me in response to my survey post for a field trip to the Bilmore Estate.
The final date for the planned field trip will be on Tuesday, September 19, 2006. This will correlate with the Homeschool Festival already planned by the Estate. Check it out! For a Festival brochure CLICK HERE. It looks like tons of fun and we are so excited about going!
All families planning to attend the Estate's Homeschool Festival must make reservations and payment in full by August 15, 2006. They are also offering prepaid lunch options or picnic lunches may be brought as well.
I hope that there will plenty of HomeschoolBloggers there! So all you bloggers in Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina - and anywhere else for that matter - that want to meet at the Festival - check out the details and let's get together there! As the date gets closer, I will announce a time and place where we will meet to picnic together while attending the Festival. Don't hesitate to email me anytime about meeting at this field trip.
Have a great week!
Jul. 4, 2006
Happy Birthday, America & One Year of Blogging!
Happy 4th of July, Y'all! Happy Birthday, America!
Today is my one year anniversary of blogging! I can't believe it.
One year ago today, I found HSB and started South of Gnat Line. I had kinda, sorta tinkered around at Blogger or Blogspot (?) - or one of those - but I had a difficult time working with the posting and configuration. I was scared to death to write a whole lot - I have no idea why..can you? (hee hee) Me intimidated by the Internet........one year later seems very strange that I would even pause for thought about publishing my opinion.........perhaps I've morphed into a blog-a-zoid of some type........
I still have no idea how I stumbled upon Homeschoolblogger.com except to say that I must have been random blogging or web surfing and came across someone's blog here. The ad bar at the top caught my attention and I clicked here and there and, "Voila!" I've been here ever since! Both of our sons have their own blogs, too (not that either have been blogging much lately....ahem....). The community here has been something I was unprepared for and delightfully surprised by - and I have made great blog friends - some I hope to finally meet in September. I hope TOS knows how wonderful these two blog worlds are (HSB1 & HSB2) - the vision they've held and communities they've created are unsurpassed; thank you, TOS!
I hope everyone has a wonderful and SAFE 4th of July holiday and celebration. We have much to be thankful for - so, so many freedoms.
In preparation for our 4th of July family celebration, we spent all day yesterday at Tybee Island and had a blast!
"Tom and Huck" were out of the surf maybe 30 minutes for the whole day; the waves were really great for those into boogey boarding (uh, I don't do waves.....maybe about hip deep, unless I'm snorkling for shells....now that's a whole 'nother very BIG deal......). Here are the guys doing the waves:
Son #1 after being delivered to shore by the Atlantic's great day of waves
Son #2 - being all that he is! This is a view of the Atlantic from the southern/southeastern end of the island; from here - it goes on to Africa....
We all had a great time at the beach - can you tell?
But I forgot to mention - we were surrounded by pirates the whole time we were at the beach!
Blackbeard the Pirate, known mostly for his ties to North Carolina, loved the barrier islands of Georgia. Georgia's coast has Blackbeard Island - obviously named after the notorious pirate - as legend has held that he buried his treasure there! Tybee Island has an annual Pirate Festival - so the locals obviously consider themselves the current day resident pirates!
We all walked to the pier and back - which was no big deal - the entire island is only 2 miles long! Later in the afternoon, I walked to the southern end of the beach - it's more residential and less crowded. The island winds around to tidal creeks and more barrier islands south of it. I love the wildlife associated with the beach and the sea gulls always entertain me - here they are each one claiming a post along this beach front fenceline:
Nice view from the screened porch, huh?
We stopped at the Island's Welcome Center to pick up recent info on upcoming events and a good map of the area. Look who was greeting everyone who stopped by:
This is Bert the Sea Turtle ~ he is one of 10 sea turtles scattered throughout the island. Tybee has an official "Turtle Search and Tour" for families to find all the different sea turtles. Check out Georgia's Sea Turtle Project here. See the worldwide tracking of sea turtles on Google here.
No matter how often I see this, I never seem to tire of the charismatic lure of Georgia's Live Oaks draped with its ever mysterious Spanish Moss.
It was only a three hour drive home from the beach to our Farm here on the Dirt Road.
How I love the beach, love my Georgia, and love my dirt road.
Happy 4th! Happy Blogging!
.....I'm thinking we may need an end of summer - back to school homeschool picnic day at the beach.........hee hee............
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