In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. For us slightly more mature sorts, thoughts of getting out and seeing how the countryside is developing. Which for me, at least, often involves a winery. We went to Three Sisters on Sunday afternoon for their celebration of St. David’s Day (Sharon and Doug Paul have some Welsh ancestry, and we won’t hold that against them). A variant on welsh cakes cooked by a local bakery using Doug’s grandmother’s recipe were on offer. On the way home, we dropped in for a chat and a glass with friends at Cavender Creek winery (and a meaningful discussion with the winemaker / vineyard master on how effective the snow and ice has been at killing off some of the pesky insects that threaten the vines). And on Saturday this week, when the weather was really beautiful, we went out to a vineyard we haven’t visited before, Sharp Mountain. Its claim to fame (apart from the fact that this is the only vineyard producing pinot noir grapes in Georgia) is the scale of production. On only 5 acres of vineyards, there are ten different grape varietals being grown, and wine production in all done in very small stainless steel vats.
Lisa continues with her Master Gardener course every Tuesday, which gives me a day to do whatever I like (such as vacuuming the house or other excitements). Actually, this week I went off to do a bit of shopping and visiting yet another winery by myself to discuss what they are up to. Yonah Mountain are on the point of releasing their prized Totem blend – it won a gold medal in the San Francisco exhibition. However, at $107 a bottle, it seems a bit overpriced for Georgia in my opinion.
On the build site
This has been a week of clear visible progress. Now that the basic framework had been completed, things could move ahead to really get the structure complete and watertight. The plywood roof was covered in waterproof stick-on rubberised sheeting, and all the packs of heavy shingles lifted onto the roof and precariously balanced along the ridges, ready to turn the roof into a finished structure. The waterproofing has already had a test, when there was a deluge overnight. Everything inside remained dry (and dusty) apart from the fireplace where the rain poured in.
With the whole building set up, the temporary internal bracing could be removed by the framers – no more risk of a wall toppling over. Suddenly the internal layout of the building becomes clearer and clearer, and the size of everything becomes apparent. The two floors combined make about five and a half thousand square feet, which seems more than generous for two people! Soaring ceiling lines of the great room, the quirky shape of my wine room and the ample kitchen room are visible. And that with the interior walls as just a framework. The whole of the exterior walls were wrapped with a waterproof covering, which will subsequently be covered in stone, brick or siding. And the windows have been installed. I could not imagine how Milan and his crew would set the large panoramic windows twelve feet up in the great room, but they miraculously were in place high up there the next time we inspected progress.
With the inside of the building now open, we spent an afternoon going round with John, the cabinet guy. He needed to measure up to ensure that all the cupboards and other built-in fitment would be correctly sized. I am happy to report that the building is pretty close to all the architect’s plans and John went away ready to finalise the designs.
So, things are really moving ahead and we are expecting lots more progress over the next few weeks. I wouldn’t like to be too specific about predictions, but we went over to the other house that Bill is building to inspect their progress. I think we are catching up fast from starting four weeks behind that one.
Robin’s Opinions of America
I have been requested to provide some more of my outsider’s opinions of USA, so here’s some more personally opinionated thought on life in USA for this week. For those of you who have missed some of the older commentaries, there is a list below.
Likes – Ziplock
You know what I am talking about. Plastic bags with a raised strip on either side of the opening. Press the strips together and the bag is sealed close, pull them apart and the bag is open, repeat ad nauseam. Great for storing food, or little bits of electronics, and no need for twisties to seal the bag.
But the problem (at least, in Britain) is that the sealing strips aren’t always very effective. Run your fingers back on forth along the fastening, and it always seems to pop open at the other end. There is always a feeling of insecurity about the seal. But in USA, no such problems. The bags seal securely without problems. To make things even more satisfactory, there are often two parallel sealing strips, so you can be really sure that your little nuts and bolts remain fresh. It may not be the most important technology in the world – but it works!
Disikes – Fragmentation
The state of Georgia has a population of 9.8 million (compare that with London, which in one urban sprawl has a similar population). Georgia has 159 counties and more than 600 cities (Athens, Canton, Dublin, Rome, all the way to Zebulon). Each county has its sheriffs, and most cities have a police force. On top of that there are a host of institutions like Universities and the state Senate. Add on Georgia state law enforcement agencies like the state patrol and GBI , and you have around 700 different bodies responsible for law and order. And that does not include the alphabet soup of federal agencies. By comparison, London has two police forces and a presence of half a dozen national forces.
It seems to me that the vast number of independent police and sheriff departments in Georgia, however well they may co-ordinate, cannot be very efficient. And things are getting worse, not better – several urban conglomerations are currently seeking city status, with all that that entails.
The problem does not stop with law enforcement – education, roads, public health – all sorts of important public services are chopped up into locally controlled fiefdoms. And that leads to all sorts of other problems. This year’s Snowjam in Atlanta in January (see my blog of 26th January) was blamed in part upon lack of co-ordination between the multiple state, county and city bodies responsible for maintaining roads.
So, why this fragmentation? I wish I could offer a rational explanation, but I cannot. Maybe having so many layers of government makes adequate opportunities for politically minded climbers to practice. Perhaps it is that having a full education department to manage the single high school in a county is not a bureaucratic overhead. Perhaps it is all due to a phobia (carefully nurtured by certain political groups) of dominance and control of freeminded citizens by the mysterious “them” that secretly manipulate events from their lairs in City Hall, Atlanta, Washington, the United Nations or the alien spaceships invisibly hovering around the planet. If you know where this imperative to chop things into the smallest possible components comes from, please do let me know.
A list of an outsider’s observations on USA
1st September Thoughts on Grey Squirrels
6th October Subdivisions
13th October Flags in America
27th October The Confederate flag
10th November Groundhogs and A relentless hunt for bargains
17th November The American Mailbox and American meat
24th November Georgia Public Television and TV scheduling
1st December Serviceable roads and Awesome
8th December Wines from Georgia and Blue laws
22nd December Licence plates and Polystyrene plates
4th January Pressure balanced valves and Knocking Copy