Georgia 2009

After a few days in Alabama we drove 6 hours to Georgia to see my brother and his family.  They just moved from Leavenworth, Kansas to Garfield where he is now stationed at Fort Stewart, what they hope to be their last base until retirement.

The good news with this transfer for them is it puts them at Suzy’s family farm in Garfield.  It is a 400 plus acre farm, 70 miles from Savannah, with the next biggest town being Statesboro.   The farm was left to Sue, Suzy’s mother, by her grandfather.  It has been in the family since the 1800s.  Sue and Al, Suzy’s parents, make great use of the land by raising quail & goats, harvesting pecans, using part of the land for personal vegetable growing, fishing, and rental of land to others for steer and cotton.  It is breathtaking property from the moment you turn onto their road.  Great big oak trees with Spanish moss failing, pecan trees, ponds, livestock, and charming houses for the family. 

Eric and Suzy are now living in a house that has been on the property for some time that Sue fixed up for their arrival.  In the next year or so they will be building their dream home on the farm. 

See Eric and Will at play in front of the house, and their charming living room decorated for Christmas.

 

 

 

The beauty of being on so much land is the ability to take advantage of the great outdoors.  And we had perfect weather to take advantage of that.

Top left is Will on the way to see the quail.  Al raises them in a “bird farm” for sale to hunting organizations.  They are also a staple at Cox/Heffner family meals.  My brother is one mean quail griller.

  

Above - Eric looking toward the cotton fields.

Me and the boys, my boys.  Can you tell how happy I was to be there?

 

While at the farm I had a perfect day.  Now, I don’t have to complain about in life, and many of my days are great, but I am not sure how many are perfect.  December 27th was perfect. 

We awoke with a knock at the door from Ben wondering where we were.  This got our lazy butts out of bed and over to their house to see what the day had in store.  It was a day of family time, perfect family time.  We played basketball, football, nerf darts, Sorry Sliders, went to feed the goats, chase the steer in the golf cart, go fishing, pick & crush pecans to eat them raw, have dinner as a family with Suzy’s good cooking, and have battles on the Wii of Mario Carts and Galaga.  I went to bed with a HUGE smile on my face with a day well spent.  It made me wish we were going to stay there for a week. 

The new Christmas golf cart, perfect farm transport.

Pecan tree (to right). The goats.

Ben with a freshly cracked pecan.

The start of fishing.

Will concentrating.  Big winner of day!  Will caught the most fish.

Dan and his “big ole fish”.

While we stayed with Eric and family we stayed in the cottage that has been on the property since the late 1800s. 

This cottage belonged to a family that became very special to Sue’s family.  They were like family to Sue and when her family couldn’t find her, she was down at this cottage.  The family passed on and the cottage sat vacant down the road.  As a surprise Al moved the cottage up near their house.  Sue has maintained the history of the cottage, filling it with pieces from the period and maintaining it.  Yet, it is an extremely comfortable place to stay and Dan and I enjoyed it very much! 

I can’t wait to go back to the Cox Farm to spend time with my brother and family.  I had a tear in my eye when I left, a tear of joy.