Week starting 17th November – Wine, Windows, Wildflowers and Wetness
The seasons are certainly changing here – we have had several nights well below freezing (and light snow in Suches twenty miles North of here – though that’s a place a bit more elevated than Dahlonega). We have had heavy rains on two days, which doesn’t help with the building progress – Georgia’s famous red clay gets quite slippery and sticky when properly wet. So progress has been slow but steady.
Most of the trees have now shed their leaves. That has a benefit – we can now see the birds roosting all around us. We put up a bird feeder on the upper deck in Choctaw Ridge this week. Bird feeders are a seasonal activity here – bears LOVE birdseed, and there are reports (and photos) of them climbing 20 feet up the side of houses to feast. So, bird feeders should be put away here from Spring until it’s bedtime for bears in their winter hibernation. Once our feeder was up, it only took a day for local residents to spot it, and this morning there was a continuous stream of visitors. Chickadees and titmouses (titmice?), two sorts of warblers, a woodpecker and a juvenile cardinal all came to call. Note to self – buy field guide to local birds.
On Sunday we went out to Wolf Mountain vineyard, about 5 miles away for a great buffet lunch (it changes the menu every month) This month the cuisine is game and French with a Southern twist (unless France has taken to grits suddenly). After lunch there was a vertical tasting of Wolf Mountain ”Claret” – their blends originally based on traditional Bordeaux varietals. The first vintage was 2004, and over the years the blend has changed significantly – recent years have seen other varietals including tannat brought into the mix. Surprisingly, the bottle of 2004 we (and, I assume, another 8 or 10 people) were given was definitely corked – the wet cardboard smell and flabby taste are distinctive. We politely pointed this out to the winemaker, and we and a couple of people seated close to us had replacement (much better) samples. But it must have led some of the audience to draw some very strange conclusions on what ageing does to wine!
Before the wet weather got stuck in, the plumber completed the rough plumbing – laying the conduits for water and drainage under what will be the lower level floor. That is completed now. We had a meeting with TJ to review the floor concrete he will be pouring – it will be stained and “stamped” whilst still wet to provide a permanent surface resembling York stone paving. He will be commencing preparations for the pour next week. We also went to a building supplier with Bill to review windows for the house – a not insignificant expenditure. Fortunately (and not unsurprising with Lisa on the project), we had a pretty good idea of what we want. The windows specialist was very knowledgeable, and we rapidly homes into which company’s windows we want – now we wait to see what it will all cost.
After nearly three hours reviewing windows, we went to see another site where Bill is hard at work on another house, overlooking Lake Lanier. It’s in a very classy subdivision of huge houses, much bigger than our construction, called Harbour Pointe (un-American spelling somehow seems to equate with a classy foreign exoticism). We had seen the site four weeks back, and it was then at the stage where out site is now. The lakeside house now has the framework and walls up to the eaves of the upper floor. So, this is a good indicator of how rapidly Porter Springs View will rise once the basement pour starts.
Robin’s Opinions of America
Continuing my weekly Likes and Dislikes section, here’s my personally opinionated thoughts for this week on life in USA. Please feel free to let me know of your own feelings about America – maybe this will be a place to give you my take on them!
Likes
The American Mailbox
If you have ever seen a film set in American suburbia, you will have seen the everpresent US Postal Service approved mailbox. A metal box on a stick with a rounded top and a red lever stuck on the side. Coming from England, the US mailbox seemed a little “odd” to me, triggering a few thoughts.
– Where is the security in leaving your mail in a box without a lock that anyone could open? There is no additional security even where your mailbox is on the roadside way out on the country, where any interloper could open it with minimal risk of being detected. This seems to me a very pertinent example of a good America attitude. It is ingrained from childhood that a mailbox is sacrosanct, not to be opened by anyone except the postman or the owner. And this rule seems to be followed.
– A follow-on benefit from this sacrosanct nature of the mailbox. Hand-delivered advertising mail does not end up in your mailbox. To open it and put a flyer inside would violate the rules (and is really illegal!). So, a lot less junk mail than in England. The postman does deliver some, but nothing like the volume of unsolicited dross I have been used to.
– What does the red lever do? It has no mechanical function – it doesn’t operate a lock or anything like that. No, it is just an indicator for the postman that the owner has put an outgoing stamped letter in the mailbox. A very effective way of making letters move – rather than going to find a postbox or visiting the Post Office, you can have your mail collected from your own home. A very effective and friendly service.
– So, why have a mailbox anyway? Why not a letterbox slot in your front door, as is normal in UK? The explanation for this is, to me, very obvious. It’s traditional. American traditional!
Dislikes
Meat in America
America is a place where TV advertising, fast food and a whole cultural ethos revolves round MEAT. Thick juicy steaks and the ubiquitous hamburger. Chicken in a myriad of fast food formats. Buffalo, offering a lean healthy alternative to beef, raising memories of the Wild West and wide open plains all the way to the Rockies. Venison from wild deer hunted by stealthy camouflaged backwoodsmen. The only meat which we have difficulty finding at a price below the incomprehensible is lamb.
BUT
Most of the “meat” available is sold in supermarkets, hygienically sealed into a plastic cocoon. With long labels on the back telling you about the protein content and other vital information. What you may have to hunt for on the packaging is the little comment saying “may contain up to 15% broth”. I have even seen ham labels warning “up to 30% added water”. Yes, the “meat” has been soaked and treated to bulk up with a soup of water, recycled somethings and chemicals. The results are twofold – you get less real meat for your dollar, and the “meat” you buy is spiked with strange additives. I have commented before about the slimy plastic texture of pork. What the additives are doing to you long term, I do not like to think.
As for fast food in the outlets everywhere in America – I cannot believe that they will be focussing on real unprocessed raw materials rather than profits. Ask yourself – how many fingers does a chicken really have? Is your MacWendy made from prime rump steak or something more dubious?
Lisa and I are trying to insulate ourselves by buying meat from small local producers who try to provide an honest organic meat without additives or broth enrichment. Or at least ensuring any supermarket meat is labelled as “minimally processed”. But what is the majority of fast food munching America doing about this? Wake up, America, you are poisoning your children.
Come back next week and read about our three Thanksgiving celebrations