Fall Field Trip Outings from the SE Institute for Place-Based Education

The following programs are currently available. All of them last between three and four hours (including a break for lunch) and are limited to twelve students. Larger groups can be accommodated by offering the same program over several days if desired. Most programs can be modified for the academic and developmental needs of any student group, from K through 12. There is a requested donation of $5 per student for these outings.

All outings are led or co-led by Clifford Blizard, Ph.D. Dr. Blizard holds degrees in environmental science and geology, as well as an Elementary teaching credential from the American Montessori Society. He has taught elementary and middle school as well as courses at the community college and university levels. He has also offered adult education programs in sense of place, and has led numerous outings for students ages 5 through 85. He is versed in, and enthusiastic about, all facets of natural history, including ecology, geology, entomology, botany, etc. He is also fascinated by cultural history and prehistory, and intrigued by landscape and story.

If there is some other facet of local natural or cultural history that particularly interests you, just let Clifford know, and he will be glad to tailor a program to fit your topic interests. There will be an additional one-time requested donation of $30 for developing a specially-designed program.


Rockin’ with Lichens (K-12)

This program will meet at Hutcheson Ferry Park on Hutcheson Ferry Road, in Chattahoochee Hills (directions to be provided). We will spend three hours exploring the park and learning about lichens and viewing other cultural and natural features at the park. The park includes a rock outcrop with old cedar trees, the remains of a rock quarry, woods, fields, and a lake.


Reading the River: An Introduction to Adopt-a-Stream (grades 3 and up)

This program will meet at a trailhead into Cochran Mill Park on Cochran Mill Road in Chattahoochee Hills (directions to be provided). We will spend three hours along Bear Creek, learning about chemical and biological stream monitoring, assessing the stream’s water quality and looking for “bugs” living there. This outing is intended as an introduction to Georgia’s Adopt-a-Stream program; should there be sufficient interest, Dr. Blizard plans to form a local group that would meet monthly to collect data at one or two streams in the area.


Creative Nature Study at The Cabin Path (K-12)

This outing will introduce students to The Cabin Path, an amazing privately-owned nature center in South Fulton (directions to be provided). The center is operated by Sarah Crutchfield, an enthusiastic and creative environmental educator. She will give students a tour of her woodlands and lakes, including a stone labyrinth and original pioneer log cabin. Then we will participate in one or more creative projects with Sarah, such as building outdoor fairy homes or crafting insects out of found natural materials. This outing is intended as an introduction to The Cabin Path and opportunities for doing natural history study and creative environmental art there; should there be sufficient interest, Dr. Blizard will be collaborating with Sarah to offer a monthly (or possibly weekly) nature study program there. You can read about The Cabin Path at http://www.thecabinpath.com/.


The Natural World Close-Up: Insects and Other Small Wonders (K-12)

This outing will take place at The Cabin Path, a private nature center in South Fulton (directions to be provided). The center is operated by Sarah Crutchfield, an enthusiastic and creative environmental educator. She will give students a tour of her woodlands and lakes, including a stone labyrinth and original pioneer log cabin. On our walk, we will explore the diversity of local insects and their habitats, including dragonflies, butterflies, and beetles. Valerie Hayes, a nature photographer, will accompany us on our walk, and will share some of her close-up insect photography with the students. (Check out The Cabin Path at http://www.thecabinpath.com/, and Valerie’s artwork at http://www.flickr.com/photos/67363961@N00/.


Georgia Archaeology (grades 3 and above)

On this outing, we will hike through the woods to the ruins of a couple of 19th century agricultural buildings and an abandoned family cemetery. While there, we will learn about how an archaeologist might conduct an excavation in order to learn more about the past from the site. This outing is intended as an introduction to archaeology; should there be sufficient interest, Dr. Blizard intends to offer a hands-on archaeological excavation opportunity for interested and dedicated students. That program would meet once a week for about three months, and would involve actually conducting a small-scale excavation, most likely one investigating prehistoric remains in the region. Our goal would be to document what we find, and report it to the state of Georgia for their database (see http://shapiro.anthro.uga.edu/GASF/site_pamphlet.html).


If you are interested in arranging one or more of these outing opportunities for your students (minimum of four participants and maximum of twelve, please), contact Dr. Clifford Blizard at senseofplacese@gmail.com or feel free to call him at (770)-463-2887.

Come Join Us As We "Head for the Hills"!

Announcing the formation of

The Chattahoochee Hills

Nature Study Club

We will meet weekly during the 2009-10 school year,
at participants’ homes and local natural areas,
for natural history explorations, adventures, & community projects.

The Chattahoochee Hills Explorers is for homeschooled children ages 6-9,
meeting Tuesdays from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm, beginning August 25th.

The Chattahoochee Hills Adventurers is for homeschoolers ages 10-14,
meeting Fridays from 9:30 am until 2:30 pm, beginning August 28th.

Organized and led by:
Clifford Blizard, Ph.D., educator & writer with a passion for connecting children to nature

With assistance from:
Sarah Crutchfield, art educator & director of The Cabin Path (www.TheCabinPath.com) and
Valerie Hayes, box turtle ecologist & scientific illustrator

Club programs are enrolling now, with a limited number of openings.


For further information or to enroll your child(ren), please contact

Dr. Clifford Blizard

senseofplace@southeastpbe.org

(770)-463-2887

The requested donation is $30/day per child, with discounts & other arrangements available. Donations are the sole funding source; however, no child will be turned away for inability to pay.

This club is listed on the Nature Study Network, at www.childrenandnature.org.

Southeast PBE Institute's Sense of Place Programs, March through June 2009

March 22nd: Arrowhead Quest (1:00 pm – 4:30 pm)
Our 2009 series will begin with a hunt for arrowheads and other prehistoric artifacts at a plowed site along the Chattahoochee River in the Chattahoochee Hill Country. We will meet at Hill Country Montessori for a brief presentation on American Indian artifacts in the Southeast. Then, we will caravan to the quest site along the Chattahoochee River. Participants should bring water and wear comfortable shoes that can get dirty. The cost of this program will be $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and $10 for students ages 10 and above. Advance registration is strongly recommended. This event will only occur if there has been a dry spell prior to the 22nd of March. In the event of rain on the 22nd or the few days before, the rain date will be Sunday, March 29th.

March 28th: Special Chattahoochee River Canoe Trip (8:30 am – 3:00 pm)
The Environmental Institute of Georgia, in conjunction with the Institute for Placed Based Learning, is sponsoring a Canoe Trip along the southern portion of the Chattahoochee River on March 28, 2009. This easy 11-mile paddle follows the amazing Chattahoochee River, downstream from just below Capps Ferry to the Whitesburg Bridge Boat Ramp, as she continues to recover from her journey through Metro Atlanta. Along the way, we will pass feeder streams such as White Oak Creek and Snake Creek, pieces of history like the remains of the Old Carrollton Bridge, and have the chance to show our river reading skills on a few fun Class I+ shoals.
At the end of the paddle, we will caravan to Painted Rock Farms, situated along the bank of the river. There, we will share a gourmet lunch (provided) as we watch the water flow by. Over lunch, we will make plans for a river cleanup project for the summer or early autumn of 2009.
Advance registration is required. The cost of this journey is $55.00 per person, payable online at eiog.org or by check to the Environmental Institute of Georgia. Checks can be delivered or mailed to Southeast PBE (address below) by March 3, 2009.

April 19th: River Cane Flute-Making Workshop (1:00 pm – 5:00 pm)
This workshop will provide each participant with a chance to create an authentic, Native American-style river cane flute. This Southeastern-style of pentatonic (5-hole) flute is end blown, easy to play, and very satisfying to make. The sound that resonates from these traditional, handcrafted instruments is hauntingly beautiful. This workshop will include creating, decorating, and learning to play the flutes.
The workshop will be led by Hawk Hurst of Charleston, South Carolina. Hawk has offered his lively storytelling performances and musical instrument-making residencies at schools and festivals all across the country for nearly two decades. He is a long standing member of the NC Storytelling Guild, the SC Artist Roster, the Southern Artistry Roster, and the SC Native American Flute Circle.
There cost for this workshop will be $70 for adults, $65 for seniors, and $60 for students. This price includes a $50 materials fee. The workshop will be limited to 16 participants, ages 10 and above, and requires a minimum of ten registrants in order to proceed. Advance registration is required; to do so, mail or deliver a check for the full amount, payable to Hill Country Montessori School, by March 12th, 2009.

May 17th: Rain Gardens and Rain Barrels (1:00 pm – 4:00 pm)
This workshop at Hill Country Montessori School will focus on homeowner strategies for managing storm water runoff as well as harvesting rainwater for use around the yard. During the workshop, participants will tour the newly-planted rain/pollinator garden on the school grounds and learn about how they can construct rain gardens on their property. There will also be a presentation on constructing and installing rain barrels. The cost for this workshop will be $20 for adults, $15 for seniors, and $10 for children ages 10 and above. Advance registration is recommended but not required.

June 21st: The Treaty of Indian Springs (1:00 pm – 5:00 pm)
On this outing, we will meet at Hill Country Montessori School to carpool to Indian Springs State Park, site of the 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs, in which the Creek Indians, led by Chief William MacIntosh, signed over the remaining Creek lands in Georgia to the federal government. That treaty included the land that is now Chattahoochee Hills. During our visit to the park, we will tour the small museum there, view the springs, and walk a trail through a mature hardwood forest in search of native wildflowers. The cost for this workshop will be $20 for adults, $15 for seniors, and $10 for children ages 10 and above. Advance registration is recommended but not required; advance payment is not required.

For further information. or to register, please contact Clifford Blizard, Director, Southeast Institute for Place-Based Education, at senseofplace@southeastpbe.org, or via telephone at (770)-463-2221 (work days) or (770)-463-2887 (evenings). For those events requiring advance registration, you can do so online at our institute website (http://www.southeastpbe.org/), or by mailing a check, payable to Hill Country Montessori, to: Hill Country Montessori, 8225 Atlanta Newnan Rd., Palmetto, GA 30268.

Questing at Cochran Mill, Part Two: Against the Grain

Here is the second of our two Cochran Mill Quests, created by middle school students at Hill Country Montessori. To my knowledge, these are the first Quests to have been created in Georgia! You can read more about Questing at http://www.vitalcommunities.org/ValleyQuest/ValleyQuest.htm. Check out the list of Online Quests for other ones in the United States. Both of these quests will be submitted for inclusion in their list.

Against the Grain
Cochran Mill Park Quest #2

To complete this quest, a field guide to trees might be helpful. Park along the south side of Cochran Mill Road, about a thousand feet southwest of the entrance to Cochran Mill Nature Center, directly opposite the ruins of a brick chimney in a fenced yard. Follow the trail over a rope barrier (now lying on the ground). After walking a few feet, turn right to parallel Cochran Mill Road. You are now on the trace of the original roadway.

Follow the old road, continuing to be alongside the present-day one, until you see a dip in the trail. On your left, on the wooded hillside, are terraces that farmers used for growing cotton here. They are probably from the early 1900’s.

Come to where the road cuts through some rock. Lichens and algae cover the rock in many different colors. The brightest color is __ __ __ __ c __.

Continue down the path to a big fat tree on your right, just beside the path. It is probably over 100 years old. It is a __ __ c __ __ __ __ __.

The bridge that you come to crosses Bear Creek. Cross the bridge and take the path to the right. You are still on the original Cochran Mill Rd. route.

The road soon turns completely to gravel. On the right is a star-shaped stump, and behind the stump is a big rock. The rock has long s __ c __ __ __ h marks on it. What do you think these are from?

Continue down the former Cochran Mill Rd. On your right is the forested floodplain of Little Bear Creek. Continue straight down the path until you come to a bridge. The bridge is unusable because of its age. It is also part of the original trace of Cochran Mill Rd. Just beyond the bridge are the ruins of an old mill, from the late 1800’s. It is the oldest mill in the park. The only things left of the mill are a few stone walls. Standing where the mill used to be, if you face the falls, you will see a path to your left, going up the hill along the stream edge. It goes over a rock to start, and may be hard to see. Not far up the path is a rusted metal __ c __ __.

Continue up the hill if you want to see the mill dam, mostly destroyed by vandals in the 1970’s. When you come back down the path and back to the mill site, look to your right. Hidden by vines are a couple more mill walls.

When you are done looking at the mill, start to go back along the trace of former Cochran Mill Rd., the way you came. You will see a path going uphill to the right. At that fork, look right. There is a __ __ c __ __ __ __ c.

On the left after a hundred feet or so, you will see a cleared area. You are on the driveway of an old house. Can you find the concrete pad, hidden under the leaves, where the garage probably was? Can you trace any of the outlines of the now-demolished house? All that is left are some bricks and some sheets of metal. The house is from the early 1900’s. The mill owner probably lived there.

Follow the steps up the steep hill. At the top is a bench, where you can stop and rest. Follow the main path down the hill. Don’t slip. When you reach the Bear Creek again, go left. A __ __ c __ __ __-down tree makes a great bridge for squirrels to cross Little Bear Creek. When you come to a sign (in concrete, but not stuck in the ground) go left onto Loop Trail A.

When you come to another fork, go left again. Look around while you walk. After a while, on either side of the path you will see piles of rocks in a rough line crossing the trail. This is likely the remains of a stone __ __ __ c.

Down the path a little further is a clump of Christmas __ __ __ __ c. Their name is easy to remember, because they have leaflets that look like Santa’s boots. On the right are some more old farm terraces.

When you come to a sign that says “Trail,” turn right and hike up the hill, along a path lined with rocks. Continue on this path until it goes downhill. Once you pass a bench and a plank bridge, take a side trail to the left. As the trail approaches Bear Creek and starts heading back up the hill, you will see a stone wall on the left, near the stream edge. Turn left on a small path to go to the ruins of small building, constructed in 1906. Water flowed over a turbine here, making electricity for the city of Palmetto in the early 1900’s. Look for a gap in the wall that holds the box with the final clue in it. Watch out for the hairy vines and three-part leaves of poison ivy, which covers some of the walls.

Take the letters in the boxes from the answers above and rearrange them to find the answer to this question:
What was the oldest building in Cochran Mill Park used for?
It was a __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __.

When you have found the red box, answered the final clue, and stamped your Quest book, go back down the trail the way you came, all the way to the “Trail” sign. Don’t turn left! Instead, continue straight ahead along Bear Creek, until you see the footbridge across the creek. Turn right, cross the bridge, and follow the trace of former Cochran Mill Road back to your car.

Questing at Cochran Mill, Part One: A Shocking Conclusion

Hill Country Montessori Middle School students recently collaborated to create two Quests at a nearby nature center and park. (For the location of the nature center and information about its programs, visit it online at http://www.cochranmillnaturecenter.org/.) Taken together, the two Quests reveal the rich history of the Bear and Little Bear Creeks in Cochran Mill Park. The park property was the site of a couple of 19th Century grist mills, as well as an electricity generating station in the early 1900's. We based our Quest on a survey of historical structures in the Park (one that appears to exist only as a single copy in the office of the state archaeologist), along with an essay in "Early Georgia" (a periodical published by the Society for Georgia Archaeology at http://www.thesga.org/) about the technology behind Cochran Park's mills and dams.

Sadly, most of the structures in the park were severely vandalized in the 1970s and 1980s. Two mills were burned by arsonist's flames, while a more recent picnic area was utterly demolished (with one picnic table currently underwater at the base of the largest waterfall in the park). I am disappointed that such a lovely place, with such rich historical significance, can have been mistreated to such an extent. Even the trail signs have been damaged. Several are missing altogether, while others have graffiti on them or have been pulled up out of the ground. Graffiti used to cover the underside of the supports to a pedestrian bridge across Bear Creek; our school scrubbed away some of it, but ghost images of the older paint still remain. I am baffled that such a rural and rather remote location has been visited by such damage. Visiting the park, I begin to wonder about the value of place-based education. If greater awareness of local "treasures" (historical or ecological) means greater visitation, doesn't that increase the likelihood, in turn, that vandalism would occur? Are fragile landscapes best left unknown and relatively hidden, or protected by park signs that are easy to ignore?

With those thoughts in mind, here is the text of the first of our two Quests:

A Shocking Conclusion
Cochran Mill Park Quest #1

To complete this Quest, a field guide to trees might be helpful. Park in the Cochran Mill Nature Center parking lot. To get to the trailhead for this quest, walk back down the gravel entry road along the edge of the pond. Turn left and walk downhill to a trail sign. Take the wide, flat trail straight ahead of you, now known as The Waterfall Trail. This path used to be the access road to the mills along Bear Creek, whose ruins you will visit during this quest.

As you walk down the straight trail, you will notice a pile of rocks a short distance off to the right. __ __ __ __ c __ covers many of the rocks.

Continue on the path until it curves to the left. At the bend, you will see a large fallen pine tree that has been partially cut into logs. It is the same kind of pine that commonly grows in this part of Georgia, including along this trail. What kind of pine is it? __ __ __ c __ __ __ y.

Continue for about ten minutes along the trail, passing a small rock outcrop on the left. You will come to a place where the trail leads out onto bare rock. What kind of rock is it? You can take it for __ __ __ __ __ __ c.

Follow the sound of flowing water to the remains of a large dam. You will walk past an area on the right where we did some privet removal a year ago. The privet is already on its way back, though. You will see several small evergreen trees growing among the privet. What kind of tree are they? c __ d __ c s.

Stand at the stream edge, facing the broken part of the dam where the water flows over the edge of the wall. (The dam was originally constructed sometime in the 1930s; vandals broke the dam in the early 1970s.) Notice that, when viewed from downstream, the dam face has a series of steps. In side view through the gap in the dam where the water flows, you can see that the widest part of the dam is toward the bottom, and the narrowest part is toward the top. Why do you think the dam was built that way? After pondering this, turn away from the dam and face the woods. You will see a brown trash barrel. Take the narrow trail toward it. Near the barrel, along a wide path, you will see a large tree. Look around on the ground for its leaves, which have rounded lobes to them. What kind of tree is it? __ h __ c __ __ __ __.

Take the wide trail upstream until you come to a fork in the road. Look to your left, and you will see some ruins of an old house. It was built in the first decade of the 20th century, for the mill operator and later, the resident caretaker of the property.

Continue straight up the path for several hundred feet. Be watching on your left for the ruins of a small concrete structure that once had a flat wooden top to it. What do you think that it was? A __ __ c __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __. A group of bikers, the story goes, vandalized this part of the park in the 1980s.

Continue on the trail upstream until you arrive at a second large rock outcrop that the trail crosses. Look right, and you will see the ruins of a former mill, originally constructed by Barry Cochran in the late 1800s for the grinding of grain. A wood-framed building, it was destroyed by a fire set by vandals in 1972. Amid the ruins is a large wheel made of rock that was a very important part of the mill operation. What is it? A __ c __ __ __ __ __ __ __.

Between the ruins and the stream is a very weedy area; however, if you feel adventurous, walk toward the stream edge, and you will find the water wheel support foundations. Look out across the stream. Until the dam upstream was broken in the 1970s, that area was a pond. Hiram Evans, who owned the park property in the 1940’s, had the lower dam constructed to create this pond, but it was never used to power a mill. Instead, Evans had a building on stilts constructed in the middle of the pond, with a causeway accessing it that ran from the mill building out into the pond. Locally known as “the fortress”, this building had a checkered history. Hiram Evans was the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan; supposedly, he used the building for secret Klan gatherings. Later on, in the 1960s, parties were held there. The house burned down in 1972, in the same fire that destroyed the mill.

Continue on the trail upstream to another dam. Along the way, you will notice several concrete structures sticking out of the rock. The larger, low ones were foundations for utility poles; the tall, narrow ones closer to the dam were pylons for a penstock that carried water from the upper millpond down to a structure you will see later on this Quest. The dam itself dates to the mid-to-late 1800s, and is built of local stones without mortar. Sections of it were replaced by volunteers in the late 1970s. There is a pipe sticking out of the dam. How many layers of stone can you count above the pipe? __ __ __ __ c.

Turn around and start back down the wide trail downstream. You will arrive at a fork in the path, with a large pine tree straight ahead. Take the left fork. Once you reach the rock face, go slightly left, and follow a path leading down to Bear Creek, past several clumps of star moss. The trail continues along the stream edge. Look across the stream, and you will see a small rock-and-cement structure. This building was a generator house, constructed in 1906. Stand at the edge of the stream in a location directly opposite from the near corner of that structure. There should be two slender trees near the stream bank that make a “doorway” through which you can view the generator house. Turn around and walk away from the stream edge. Walk until you cross a gully/path, counting the number of steps it takes you to get there. Round that number of steps to the nearest ten, and write it here: __ __ __ __ c.

Continue to walk in the direction you were going when you reached the path/gully, taking about the same number of steps that you wrote above. Look for a box with the stamp pad and book for this Quest.

Finally, arrange the letters inside the boxes in each answer above, to find the answer to this question: "The generator house is the newest structure along one of the streams in Cochran Mill Park. From 1906 until 1918, it was used to produce something for the City of Palmetto. What did the generator house make?"
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __.

Canoeing the Chattahoochee

On the lovely but brisk autumn morning of Saturday, October 18th, fourteen of us set out down the Chattahoochee River, from near the South Fulton Parkway Bridge southwest down to the Whitesburg Bridge. Amongst our group was Dr. Christopher Tabit, aquatic ecologist from the University of West Georgia (http://www.westga.edu/~biology/faculty/Tabit.html), and Steve Lawrence, scientist with the US and director of the Chattahoochee River BacteriAlert program (http://ga2.er.usgs.gov/bacteria/default.cfm). Both scientists had regaled our group with background on water quality issues along the Chattahoochee in a previous evening presentation, on Thursday, October 9th.

My plans for the day had been shaped by an earlier run down the river. Ben Simms (outing leader) and I had completed a scouting run on a warmer but windier day a couple of weeks earlier. It had not rained in ages, and the river was quite low, with abundant rocks lurking in the shoals. We made it through without incident, though for a considerable portion of the trip we faced headwinds great enough to turn my canoe and almost push me back upstream through a stretch of rapids. It took us five hours to run the approximately ten miles. Ben, accomplished river runner, glimpsed all sorts of wildlife, including an otter; I contented myself with several great blue herons (or was it the same heron that we kept chasing downstream?).

Anyway, Saturday's run was different. It had rained all day the previous day, and the river had risen over a foot from our earlier trip. The wind had abated, and we raced downstream with very little effort. The few morning clouds quickly lifted, and the sun shone brilliantly in a clear blue sky.

We zipped downstream, quickly (and unknowingly) passing the spot where we had planned to pull out for lunch. We were so early in the day that it had not yet been flagged for us -- we later calculated that the flagging must have been put up within five or ten minutes of our passage. Meanwhile, I kept my canoe as close to the Fulton County bank as I could -- balancing that against my wife Valerie's requests from the front of the canoe that we keep to the sunnier middle of the river. As we glided along, we passed by a dramatic example of bank collapse, in which a huge chunk of riverbank, trees and all, had sluffed off into the river. It made me think of our current economic woes and other failing banks....

Eventually I came to the unavoidable conclusion that we had missed our lunch stop, though it was scarcely eleven in the morning at that point. I also realized that I had neglected to bring the cell phone number of the person who had generously offered to provide lunch at his own land along the river. I remembered, though, that the cell phone number was in an email; but how to access my Hotmail account midstream? I called my in-laws in Westchester, New York, figuring they would probably be inside at the computer. While my father-in-law went online and looked for the right post, my mother-in-law chatted with me, remarking that she did not think she had ever spoken on the telephone with someone in a canoe before. Finally, my father-in-law located the number and relieved, I dialed it quickly. It rang and rang. What to do?

Meanwhile, the moments raced by, and we arrived at the first bridge. The old Whitesburg bridge had been closed, and local residents had robbed the bridge of much of its material. The remaining I-beams were in various states of disrepair. Several of them dangled midair above the river, warranting the alternative name of "eye-beams". We kept to the other side of the central concrete pylon. I paused the canoe while Valerie photographed the dilapidated bridge, which evoked a massive modern art sculpture by its size and the precariousness of its dangling steel beams.

Shortly before noon, we arrived at the pull-out point alongside the Whitesburg Bridge. We took out the canoes, then drove in caravan to the access road to the spot where we were going to have lunch. In 4-wheel-drive vehicles, we travelled a series of rutted jeep trails to the stream edge, where tables draped with white tablecloths awaited us. Our host, who had recently turned his cell phone on and received my message, was elated to see our group. We had a marvelous and very filling meal of sandwiches and potato salad and chocolate-chip cookies. Afterwards, we strolled the cleared riverbank, admiring the view.

Reading the Hill Country's Agricultural Landscape, Part Two

Our Saturday outing this month was held on September 20th, two days after I spoke at The Studio at Serenbe about reading the local landscape. After pointing out remnants of past agriculture in the area in my talk, the obvious next step was to take a trip to see current-day farm projects in the Hill Country. We visited two farms: Serenbe Farms (http://www.serenbefarms.com/) and Wayne Stradling's cattle operation and orchard. We began our morning at Serenbe Farms, an organic CSA farm (to which I happen to belong, I freely and joyfully admit) managed by Paige Witherington. Paige led the five of us on a tour of her farm, sharing stories of her own background, tales of the challenge of farming the red Georgia clay, and a variety of her experiences with various vegetables. (Okra and basil are easy, eggplant is abundant no matter how few the farm has grown, and winter squash have been particularly difficult lately.) Farming is an art of balancing dozens of variables at several scales, from market demand and interest (yes to red peppers, no to gladiola bouquets) to soil chemistry parameters. At one point, she showed us a patch of fallow ground between a farm plot on one side and the Hill Country Montessori Herb Garden on the other. She explained that they will probably never grow vegetables there (unless in raised beds) because there had previously been a house on that site, and the soil was very poor. The land remembers, holding onto traces of the past that shape its present use.

After regaling us with memories of her days in the oh-so-fertile flat fields of the Hudson River Valley, and taking us past her farm machinery collection, including her pride and joy John Deere tractor, she led us into her new greenhouse (to the left in the photo above). It felt so spacious after the humble accomodations her former (and now unused) small greenhouse had afforded. Then we followed the main farm road uphill, past the HCM Herb Garden (the brick structure just right of the farm road in the photograph above), to a sequence of garden beds, each with their own stories -- pasts of failure and success, futures carefully scripted (a mix of different families of plants from year to year, with many fallow spaces in-between). The farm has bee hives, egg-laying chickens, and dozens of varieties of vegetables -- including three kinds of okra! I took the photograph below of one of the okra plants in bloom, a promise (or, after several weeks of okra, perhaps more of a veiled threat) of okra-yet-to-be. The plant is lovely -- a southern belle (bell?). But I cannot eat the pods fast enough. This week, Leonard Presberg offerd me his share of the okra harvest for the week -- a half pound. I am thankful, yes, but also looking forward to a weekend trip to Delaware, and four days without okra!

We all had a marvelous hour learning from Paige. I most appreciate her enthusiasm for learning new things, and her recognition that each year and each field and even each plant will express itself in ways that differ from others around it. We stopped, for instance, at a couple of rows of hops Paige is working on trying to grow for an Atlanta microbrewery. There, she pointed out how most of the plants are doing poorly, yet one variety of hops has overgrown its trellis and is climbing a trellis pole toward the sky.

After an hour with Paige, we took off down Hutcheson Ferry Rd. toward Palmetto, to tour Wayne Stradling's retirement estate, complete with lots and lots of cattle and old apple and peach trees. He met us with his shuttle arrangements above -- tractor pulling trailer with wooden boards for seats -- assuming that I was bringing a group of children. But the five of us were "young at heart", as the cliche goes, and we had a grand time on a sort of a hayride, up paths and through uncleared meadows. Wayne told of his farming experiences, as his tractor roared along and exhaust fumes filled the air. He talked about trying to obtain more water during the drought, and about which kinds of grass are best.

After talking with us, Wayne proudly showed us some of his cattle, including the two specimens below. He shared some groundfall Granny Smith apples with the herd, but they were rather reluctant to oblige with a show of devouring them. They sure were cute, though, particularly the young calves! At the same time, I will admit that, throughout my visit, I kept thinking of the forbidden pleasures of organic hamburgers.

At last, as we bumped along the road (of sorts), I reflected upon how the wonders of the Hill Country's rural landscape become particuarly noteworthy when one gets off the roadways. Then, for instance, I can feel renewed amazement for being able to experience such bucolic farm scenes as the one below (looking past a pasture oak and toward Wayne's farmstand off Hutcheson Ferry Rd.), yet live only a dozen miles from the City of Atlanta.

At last, the Stradling Shuttle delivered us back to where our cars were parked. Toward the end of our trip, Wayne admitted that he farms because he loves doing so (not for the money, because his operation just breaks even -- yet he keeps his hundred head of cattle on over a thousand acres, most of which are owned by neighbors). He continues to add acreage to his cattle operation, despite being currently 77 years old! I commented to him that many people his age have opted for retirement villas and golf instead of an active farm life, and he responded that he knew several friends who did that, and they are all dead now. I was very much amazed to find he was that many years old, since I had always assumed he was 65, at most. Maybe when I retire, I'll keep cattle, too....