Lightning Strike

Last fall, during a huge thunderstorm, I happened to be looking out the window from my living room into the backyard when all of a sudden I saw this bright flash of red/pink light hit the tree and it was loud! This tree was struck by lightning. Where it struck, it tore big pieces of the tree off and threw them across the yard. It also split the tree right up to the top. You can see where the lightning hit the tree, it's still splintered about halfway up and unfortunately the tree didn't survive the strike. It will eventually need to come down. We were so lucky that the lightning didn't hit the house!

Blackberry Bush

Alot of crazy little weeds and flowers and vines just pop up around our yard this time of year through the summer. If you don't trim it constantly it will become a jungle, which it was when we moved in, before we cleared it all out. Our backyard was so thick with underbrush that you couldn't even walk through it all. One thing that grows wild back there are blackberries. There was a pretty big patch of them on the edge of our yard, that is coming back this year, smaller than before since we had to clear so much out to fence, and this bush that I photographed is in my dog's yard. When the berries are ready, the kids like to go out and pick them for ice cream!

Who Let The Dawgs Out?

This morning I'm featuring Athens, GA. I'm going on a field trip this morning to Athens with Braden and Dalton's kindergarten class to see "Horton Hears a Who" and I thought that the dawgs around Athens would be a good topic.

Athens is a great college town, known for the University of Georgia and their team, the Georgia Bulldogs. Athens is about a 20-30 minute drive from Monroe.

All around the city of Athens you can find 36 of these adorable Dawg statues painted by local artists. My children always love finding each dawg as we drive or walk around Athens. This outdoor art exhibit was created by The Athens-Oconee Junior Womens Club and you can read more about it HERE

Evidence of Indians

My daughter found this Friday afternoon just laying in our backyard. I had the kids picking up rocks so that they won't hit the lawn mower and she noticed this arrowhead.
Walton County was formed from lands belonging to the Creek and Cherokee Indians. It's so exciting to find a piece of history right in your own backyard!

On The Road Again

Pulling out of our subdivision. This is the road that takes me to town. The county just repaved the road. It's a much smoother drive!

Our Town

Downtown Monroe

Marbury Creek Reservoir

Yesterday was so warm out that we decided to head to the lake for a couple of hours. The lake surrounds Fort Yargo Campground, which is actually in Winder (pronounced with a long "i" ) and is about 20 minutes from our house. Wednesday's are a "free day" at the park and you do not need to pay admittance. There were a few families out enjoying the sunshine. The water was still too cold and I only made it up to my knees but there were several children playing in the water of course! You can read a little more about Ft. Yargo Campground
here