Life in North Georgia, Real Estate in the Mountains

The Bent Tree Community has just announced a program to help provide Christmas Dinner for our military personnel passing through Hartsfield Jackson International Airport this Christmas.  It is great to see our community actively involved in supporting both our retired veterans as they did earlier this week and those currently protecting our freedoms as this program does.  Full details are on my Bent Tree Blog 

See you ’round the mountains,

Don

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month passed quietly in Jasper. 

Photo Courtesy Mari Livsey - Know Pickens.com

There was a parade of vintage military vehicles, motorcycles, the Pickens County High School Band, local Boy Scouts and quite a few “vintage” veterans.  A much larger crowd of veterans, spouses, friends and supportive citizens waited patiently for the parade to wind its way to a conclusion in front of the Court House.  It was a friendly, but reserved and quiet crowd that milled around the Veteran’s Monument on the front courtyard of the court house.  The monument carries the names of all the residents of Pickens County who gave their lives for our freedoms during wars from World War I to just last year in Iraq.

The original holiday, Armistice Day, marked the official end of hostilities on the Eastern Front in World War 1 on the 11th Hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.  Continue reading »

The vandals got my carved pumpkins last week; but I guess I should have seen it coming.  I grew up in the city and I should have known better.  If you carve a pumpkin, light it and leave it all alone out by the road some ne’er-do-well is almost certain to come along and smash it - it is almost like a law of nature.

Pumpkin Carving in Bent Tree

 But I guess I was just legitimately distracted.  Regina’s nieces were up from Mississippi for a short fall Continue reading »

Pickens County Home Sales Through October 31, 2008

Sales continued to plod along at a less than spectacular rate; never-the-less they are plodding along and homes are still selling, banks are still financing and, despite what you read in the newspaper and hear on the television every day, homes in this market are still selling, on average, at over 90% of their current listing price.  Continue reading »

Lucky, Lucky You - you are one of the first to know about a great free concert occurring next week right here in Jasper.  The Full Moon Trio is returning on Tuesday night, October 28th and if  you are a fan of Classic Southern Folk Music you can’t afford to be any place else on Tuesday night.  Kathleen Hartfield, vocal and guitar, Al Piper on the fiddle and L.A. Tuten on bass will will take you back to the folk music of the South just as you remember it - even if that’s not where you’re from!   For those of you who weren’t able to purchase a CD last year, they promise to have plenty available this year and will sign one for you at intermission or after the concert.  Continue reading »

Right off the top of my ever balding head, I’m thinking that title is not going to make it up there with “Gone With the Wind” or ” The Sun Also Rises,” never-the-less, you have to admit it is a unique moniker.  We first encountered Booger Holler in the Players first Dinner Theater production “The Last Laugh,”  as the place where Pickens Dickens was headed with his Mrs. Wright.  However,  that small town was reputed to be near the Tallahatchie Bridge, which puts it in one of at least 3 other possible mythical locations.   Continue reading »

Last weekend the North Georgia Marble Festival returned to Jasper for the 28th time and it was quite a show.  If you missed it this year, you need to put it on your calendar for next year.  It is normally the first weekend in October.

The Festival is centered in Lee Newton Park just west of downtown Jasper, but related events are held for days before and all over the Pickens County area.  Just prior to the official opening the annual Marble Festival Parade filled Main Street for about an hour.  This year a motorcycle ride (Rumble in the Mountains) actually began in the parade!  The week before there a beauty pageant recognizing a bevy of beauties from the cradle right up Ms Georgia Marble.   Early Saturday morning there was 10K Road Race and a 1 mile Fun Run.  The Pickens County Citizen of the Year was recognized during the parade.  Friday night there was Fine Arts reception - By Invitation Only and always a great evening.  (Make a donation to the Marble Festival Fine Arts and you too can get one of those invitations!)

During the day on Saturday and Sunday there were Tours of the Marble Mines, Plants and historical sites. This is only time you get in most of these sites; if you haven’t gone before you need to make a reservation and take the 2 hour tour next year.  (Unlike Gilligan’s3 Hour Tour, we normally get all our patrons back safely to the Festival in around 2 hours.)   There is huge Children’s Play area with special rides and activities just for the kids.  This year we over 75 arts and crafts vendors and more food vendors than any one family could visit in a week.  There was everything from fried okra to Italian ice and hundreds of options in between.  The Fine Arts display was located in the Chamber Building and is open to the public during the festival.  There were a variety of styles and media including, of course, marble.  Continue reading »

Well according to most of the talking heads this has been a long time coming and is based on decisions made years ago.  I am sure that by now you have heard explanations of how the housing downturn is at the root of all these problems.  It is intuitively obvious that a housing downturn affects the people directly involved in the process: buyers, sellers, real estate professionals, mortgage lenders, builders, construction workers, inspection companies, cabinet makers, building supply companies - the list goes on and on.  This provides impacts that you can see and feel in our local community.  We have not worked our way through this part of the problem, but there are some signs locally that we may have finally reached a level that we can work up from.

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Ball Ground, Georgia, in northern Cherokee County, is celebrating its 125th Anniversary this year and the local little theater group The Tater Patch Players is presenting Yesterday in the Hills as a part of that celebration.

Play Bill for Yesterday in the Hills

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Dateline:  Big Canoe Golf Course, September 17, 2008

Last Wednesday 144 golfers teed off in the 19th Annual Rotary Club of Jasper Charity Golf Tournament.  The weatherman had predicted clearing skies and rising temperatures, but he must have been a flat lander from down state because he missed the fact the mountains in North Georgia often capture the clouds and hold them and that is exactly what happened last week as we had a cool cloudy day and it was perfect weather for golf.  The Big Canoe course was in great shape ( as usual) and the golfers were in good spirit as they faced the challenging Big Canoe course.     Life In North Georgia blogger, Rotarian and local Realtor, Don Martin, supported the tournament by sponsoring a team and by providing the Grand Prize for the tournament give-away. 

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