Farming in Middle Georgia

I visited my friends Malcolm and his wife Cindy at their farm in middle Georgia this weekend. I’ve known Malcolm since the early 1980s, but lost touch with him when he moved to Florida and later I moved away too. Now that he’s back on his parents’ 300 Acre generational farm and I’m in Atlanta again, it was fun to have a mini reunion. I delivered an old portrait to him and spent an idyllic Saturday wandering in their woods, wondering how I could snag a few hundred acres myself. Heck, I’d be happy to just have 10.

I can’t remember whether this is a pecan or Pin Oak, but the huge tree dominates the front yard.

The house was built in 1925, with nine foot ceilings – one of the more prosperous homesteads at the time. The open farm kitchen was once a porch.

Grass fed Hereford cattle and the new baby bull.

The cows heading off to the coolness of the woods.

Just outside Dublin.

Cindy feeding the horses on Saturday evening.

Malcolm returning from ‘watering’ the cattle.

‘Boy’, the donkey. He once kicked a vicious stray dog who made the mistake of invading the Fordham territory. But not these two – Stanley and Scrub are his buddies.

A Kubota M8200, the envy of any tractor-holic. It has a front end loader with an auger kit. They also have a Yanmar 2200. I know something about driving a tractor and other big rigs, from haying a farm during the 1970s
in Nova Scotia. My next exposure to tractors wasn’t until this equipment workshop at the Charlestown Farm in PA.

Native sweet Muscadine grapes that Cindy planted just six years ago. We enjoyed spitting the seeds out in the yard.

Golden, almost ripe pears from an original tree. There is at least one more on the property, along with a Pomegranate tree that had huge fruit hanging from it.

Abandoned peanut field. This spring’s drought in the area has adversely affected many farmers.

Walking back from the woods.

The lovely addition that Malcolm and Cindy designed and had built. Three walls of windows facing the pastures, with a small Jotul woodstove that I had chosen for my own Atlanta bungalow – in the event of lost power from the winter ice storms we often get. What aren’t evident here are the incredibly healthy looking potted antique roses that frame the side windows.

Did I mention all the cats? Seven or eight snugglers and mousers. Two frisky dogs, 3 horses, one donkey and the cattle.

Malcolm and Louise. Oil on canvas, 30 x 32 inches, 1982.

I also want to add a couple of photos that Malcolm had taken of me back in the day. He’s an exceptional photographer and these rival the professional modeling shots I had from the era. That’s another lifetime…

Malcolm and Cindy are looking for a farm manager to live on their land (rent-free) and help with livestock duties, along with developing other possible uses for the acreage; there are 60 acres of open pasture. Another idea floating around is to build a cabin on the land as an artist’s residency… Contact me here and I’ll get the word back to them.