Christmas in Georgia

The Christmas shopping is done, and mostly wrapped. We sent out the Michigan kids' gifts and exchanged gifts with Eric's bunch, so we will be staying home and out of the malls and traffic this weekend. We'll spend Christmas day with Eric and LeAnn and girls. LeAnn's parents and grandparents and others will be at their house for a wonderful southern style dinner that is prepared by LeAnn. We look forward to it every year on Christmas day.

Pictured is our tiny Christmas tree that sits on a tabletop in the motorhome. It looks much bigger in this photo, but it is actually about 18" high so Santa has to leave tiny presents around it.

The latest view from our front door.

End of the Season

The end of the '07 season has arrived with the end of the National Peanut Festival. This also may signal the end of an era that started in the summer of 1965. 42 years in the fairs and festivals is enough. We are putting the business up for sale and have opened another blog, http://tomanan-fotoguys.blogspot.com, to accomplish this end. Until this happens we will be enjoying another season of camphosting at Watson Mill Bridge and Fort Yargo.

Hey, Ed and Gail

Look -- we updated our blog!

What a busy summer

After a whirlwind summer of travels, working at the fairs, and visiting family and friends in Michigan over the summer, we are now back in Georgia. We finished up at the Georgia National Fair last weekend and came up here to Ft. Yargo for some R & R. It was great to see everyone - this is like coming home. It was wonderful to see our family, Eric, LeAnn, Kaylee and Victoria.

It is raining here tonight, much needed rain. It will take weeks of rain to bring the lakes back up to normal levels. Lake Lanier is so low that they say it would have to rain one half inch an hour non-stop for about six weeks to bring it back to normal levels. Not much chance of that happening.

We have been taking it easy here at Fort Yargo. Trying to, in between medical check-ups, taking the grandkids to a movie and visiting with friends here. We will leave on Monday, Oct. 29 and head to Dothan, AL to begin the National Peanut Festival. That will be our last show of the '07 season.

After that we'll go over to Watson Mill Bridge State Park east of Athens to camphost for six weeks.

Early Fall in Michigan's UP

If you saw the firetruck below then you know that we worked out our problems about uploading pictures to the blog. Well, OK, Nancy found the problem. We have been having this type of problem since we installed a new pop-up blocker. We just never know what it's going to block. She fixed it just in time to upload these pictures from the U P taken while we were working the fair at Kinross Mi. These pics were taken at the end of August from the front door of our photo trailer. We can not remember seeing the colors change so early up here. The dull brown shows the lack of rainfall this year in Michigan's U P. Normally the fall colors are blazing up here. We have left the northland and are now in Allegan Mi. for the Allegan Co. Fair.

BCYF

This blog will not let me post a picture today so I will have to be satisfied with a pictureless post.
That's tough to do when you make your living with a camera. We are at the Berrien County Youth Fair in Berrien Springs Mich. This is one of our favorite fairs as it has everything a fairgoer could want. Today there is a large fire truck across the street and they are demonstrating the ladders and lift bucket(aka the cherry picker). The truck has hydraulic lifts that lift the whole firetruck off the ground and makes it level so that they can send the bucket up 4 stories. I'll try again to upload the pictures.

2007 Season

At this date we are two festivals into our 07 season. The first two were new, the Rhapsody in Green at Elkhart, Indiana and the Water Festival at Three Rivers, Michigan. The two shows were good for first timers and we would definately go back to them, however the first show will need some scrutiny as to next years placement. We are in Flint, Mi. today getting ready to leave for Algonac for the Pickerel Festival. We did this fest last year and were very pleased with the outcome.

These festivals are good for trying out new procedures and equipment. There was a problem with the flash attachment which has been fixed and this week we will be installing a new cis for the Epson 1280 printer, (cis stands for continuous ink system). We are hoping this will save us $$$ that we will probably put in our gas tanks. Gas prices have forced a rise in our prices this year. So far the new prices have not been a problem, but this will be the first time we will see last year's customers.

This must be the Bush administration's remedy for the soaring national debt, (now close to 9 tril), raise the rate of inflation so that the debt doesn't look so bad. Sorry I didn't mean to get so political but I really hate to have to raise my prices just because of the stupidity that is coming out of Washington. It's going to be a long 18 months.

We will have more from Algonac with pictures.

Reflections

For the past few months we have been posting about camphosting at Georgia's Ft. Yargo State Park. We left that park after volunteering for five months and are now traveling to Michigan to work the summer fairs.

We very much enjoyed our stay in Ga. and look forword to comming back in the fall. Over the years we have returned to this place for a few weeks at a time because it is only twenty miles from Eric & LeAnn. During this time we have come to know the staff and now regard them as old friends, so much so that returning is like comming home.

So we reflect on the incredible beauty of the park and the hard working people on the staff who keep it that way. Eric Bently (not to be confused with our son Eric Doyle), Claire, Artie, Cathleen, Debbie, Kiri, Jessica, Larry, Rhonda, Eloise, Wes, Chris, Lucas, Jud and our gatekeepers, we want to say thank you for your hard work and your friendship.

You are our extended family.

Leo & Peg

Leo & Peg Murray, from Flushing, Mi. took over as camphosts after our short stint nine years ago. They have had that post all these years and have become very good friends of ours. Also it is common knowledge among several park managers that leo & Peg have set the standard for camphosting in Georgia State Parks.

The Littlest Ranger

Meet Kevin Murray. He is the grandson Of Leo & Peg Murry who have been camphosts at Ft. Yargo for the last nine years. It is well known that Kevin is one of the hardest working volunteers at the park.

On Camphosting

Coming to the end of our stay at Ft. Yargo and thinking of the last 5 months. There have been some interesting moments, some hectic days, and some really terrific people in our lives. One of best things about being a camp host is that our job discription is to be nice to people. Well, OK, sometimes it is difficult, like when a cubscout leader is trying to burn two ten foot logs crisscrossed over a two foot fire pit and throwing piles of pine needles into the fire sending flames high into the trees during a drought. It makes you wonder what he is trying to teach these youngsters. Then you meet campers like Nardy & Brent Hudson who are the nicest people you would ever want to know. You also get to work with some of the best people you will ever meet, fellow camphosts Leo & Peg, Bill & Darline, Ed & Gail and Ed & Avis just to name a few.

It takes a special kind of person to dedicate his or her life to working with mother nature to protect and preserve the wonders that the rest of the world take for granted. The staff and all of the volunteers at this park and all of the Georgia State Parks are these kind of people and we are proud to call them our friends.

The Real Ft. Yargo

The couple shown here are members of the local historical society. Thier clothing was made by hand, following patterns as old as Fort Yargo.

Yes there is a real Ft. Yargo. What makes this small building a fort is the presence of rifle slots on the front and rear walls about shoulder high and to the right and left doors. The pictures shown above, clockwise are, the front of the building, an interior shot of the fireplace in the single room, a rear view and workers wearing period clothing and using tools from the early 1800s who are busy building a cooking shed. An interesting note; the materials for the shed are from a 100 year old barn that was severly damaged when a tornado ripped through this park. The tornado came through here following hurricane Katrina. Inside the fort is the single room with a stairway that leads to a loft for sleeping. It is said that the ghost of Mr. Humphries, a former resident, can be heard walking around in the loft late at night.

Easter Sunday

Cherry Blossoms and a Daffodil are our Easter Greeting to you. We are going to Eric and LeAnn's for dinner today. More pics of the southern GKs for the blog.

Love to All on this beautiful, but cool Easter Day.

Our park is finding it's way into spring. These are only a few of the flowers that are blooming all over the state right now. It just seems as though it's all happening right here. Above are (clockwise) oriental non-fruit-bearing cherry trees, southeastern redbud and my favorite, dogwoods, two views. This last weekend the temps were in the 90's and that caused an explosion of color, the most dominant being a very light green in all of the treetops.

Who's the Birthday Boy?

Another birthday? Already? We enjoyed this day basking in 70+ degree weather. Nan took Tom out for lunch at a new barbeque restaurant in town. Great ribs! Later we visited with friends here in the park. Tom spent the afternoon talking to friends and family on the phone, listening to his new Dixie Chicks CD and just reveling in the fact that he has reached an age where he is past the point of lying about his age but rather brags about it. Yep, he's 73 and still buys green bananas.

Springtime

What can I say, we love sunsets. This shot was taken from campsite 47, the far point of the walk-in campsites at Marbury Lake, Ft. Yargo S.P.

Spring is slowly making it,s Presence known. Daffodils are blooming and the Southern Red Maples are dropping their tiny red blossoms all over the park. Today the temps are in the mid 70s but tomorrow we are going to get rained on. This is spring break time here so the park should be full this weekend.

Sunset

The last day of Feb was a beautiful, peaceful sunset over Ft.Yargo. March 1st came in like a lion with thunderstorms, wind and heavey rain along with several tornadoes that ravaged S. Ga. & Alabama. Today is sunny and quiet again.

Weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's

Victoria and Kaylee dropped by this weekend. They stayed here with us from Saturday till Monday afternoon when they had to go back home. They had Monday off school for President's Day. We had a great time even though it was cold and windy most of the time. They brought their bikes but didn't get much ride time because of the weather. They were very happy that they both got to drive the park Gator. We put out some corn for the deer but they didn't come up to our campsite this time. We did see some in another area of the park though. The girls are getting to be "S'mores Experts" . . . we only lost a few marshmallows in the fire this time.

Valentines Day

The day started with running errands and lunch at a favorite restaurant.

Then home to the park where dinner by candlelight was two steaks on the grill along with sauteed scallops, sweet potatoes, asparagus and baby mushrooms sauteed with onions, green and red peppers in red wine. I grilled the steaks and Nancy did all the rest.

The meal was complimented with a very nice merlot and a chocolate valentine for desert.

All in all a very pleasant February 14th.

Possum Time

Just when you think you have nothing to post you catch a possum in a cat trap. We are setting traps for wild house cats, the decendants of cats that have been dropped off in this park.

The problem is, the traps do not discriminate between wild cats and other wild animals. So we have one pissed off possum.

Nancy@60

I just had to post this. For this is how good 60 looks. The great event took place on Jan. 20 this year.

Let's try this again.

This is the view from our site at Ft. Yargo. We have been here since Jan. 1, when all hell broke loose. That was the day Tom found out he was not invincable. After Nan drove him to the hospital he was told he may have a blockage in a main artery to the heart. One more trip to the hospital, this time in Athens Ga. for a heart cath, confirmed that diagnoses. Also in Jan. Tom had cataract surgery on the left eye and that is healing well. It's Feb. now on a beautiful Sunday afternoon Nan is recovering from a nasty cold and Tom is Just happy to be able to see this computer and be able to figure out this blog.

The highest point in Ga., Brasstown Bald in NE Ga.

At Ft. Yargo since Jan. 1.

Watson Mill Bridge State Park

The view from our front door in the last days hosting at Watson Mill.

The view from our front door; Watson Mill Bridge